The Decameron of Giovanni BoccaccioBoccaccio, Giovanni
History
The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio
Boccaccio, Giovanni
Allegories; Frame stories; Plague -- Europe -- History -- Fiction; Storytelling -- Fiction
On this wise, tossed about by the sea now hither and now thither,
without eating, as one indeed who had not the wherewithal, but
drinking more than he could have wished, he abode all that day and the
ensuing night, unknowing where he was and descrying nought but sea;
but, on the following day, whether it was God's pleasure or stress of
wind that wrought it, he came, grown well nigh a sponge and clinging
fast with both hands to the marges of the chest, even as we see those
do who are like to drown, to the coast of the island of Corfu, where a
poor woman chanced to be scouring her pots and pans and making them
bright with sand and salt water. Seeing Landolfo draw near and
discerning in him no [human] shape, she drew back, affrighted and
crying out. He could not speak and scarce saw, wherefore he said
nothing; but presently, the sea carrying him landward, the woman
descried the shape of the chest and looking straitlier, perceived
first the arms outspread upon it and then the face and guessed it for
that which it was.
Accordingly, moved with compassion, she entered somedele into the sea,
which was now calm, and seizing Landolfo by the hair, dragged him
ashore, chest and all. There having with difficulty unclasped his
hands from the chest, she set the latter on the head of a young
daughter of hers, who was with her, and carried him off, as he were a
little child, to her hut, where she put him in a bagnio and so chafed
and bathed him with warm water that the strayed heat returned to him,
together with somewhat of his lost strength. Then, taking him up out
of the bath, whenas it seemed good to her, she comforted him with
somewhat of good wine and confections and tended him some days, as
best she might, till he had recovered his strength and knew where he
was, when she judged it time to restore him his chest, which she had
kept safe for him, and to tell him that he might now prosecute his
fortune.
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