The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio (best classic books of all time txt) 📕

way of saying that he was fast asleep. ↩

I.e. about half-past seven a.m. ↩

Or “having risen from the grinding” (levatasi dal macinio). ↩

I.e. the theme proposed by her. ↩

I.e. on my heart. ↩

I.e. death. ↩

Or farm (villa). ↩

I.e. of music, vocal and instrumental. ↩

Per fortuna. This may also be rendered “by tempest,” fortuna being a name for a squall or hurricane, which Boccaccio uses elsewhere in the same sense. ↩

I.e. thy spirit. ↩

Syn. inclinations (affezioni). This is a somewhat obscure passage, owing to the vagueness of the word affezioni (Syn. affetti) in this position, and may be rendered, with about equal probability, in more than one way. ↩

Or “eminent” (valoroso), i.e. in modern parlance, “a man of merit and talent.” ↩

Valoroso nel suo mestiere. It does not appear that Martuccio was a craftsman and it is possible, therefore, that Boccaccio intended the word mestiere to be taken in the sense (to me unknown) of “condition” or “estate,” in which case the passage would read, “a man of worth for (i.e. as far as comported with) his [mean] estate”; and this seems a probable reading. ↩

Lit. necessity (necessità). ↩

I.e. to use a new (or strange) fashion of exposing herself to an inevitable death (nuova necessità dare alla sua morte). ↩

I.e. knew not whether she was ashore or afloat, so absorbed was she in her despair. ↩

Or “augured well from the hearing of the name.” Carapresa signifies “a dear or precious prize, gain or capture.” ↩

This name is apparently a distortion of the Arabic Amir Abdullah. ↩

Clement V early in the fourteenth century removed the Papal See to Avignon, where it continued to be during the reigns of the five succeeding Popes, Rome being in the meantime abandoned by the Papal Court, till Gregory XI, in the year 1376 again took up his residence at the latter city. It is apparently to this circumstance that Boccaccio alludes in the text. ↩

Lit. stand (stare), i.e. abide undone. ↩

I.e. a native of Faenza (Faentina). ↩

A questo fatto, i.e. at the storm of Faenza. ↩

I.e. the owner of the plundered house. ↩

Ironic, meaning “with how little discretion.” ↩

Gianni (Giovanni) di Procida was a Sicilian noble, to whose efforts in stirring up the island to revolt against Charles of Anjou was mainly due the popular rising known as the Sicilian Vespers (AD 1283) which expelled the French usurper from Sicily and transferred the crown to the house of Arragon. The Frederick (AD 1296⁠–⁠1337) named in the text was the fourth prince of the latter dynasty. ↩

William II (AD 1166⁠–⁠1189), the last (legitimate) king of the Norman dynasty in Sicily, called the Good, to distinguish him from his father, William the Bad. ↩

Apparently a pleasure-garden, without a house attached in which they might have taken shelter from the rain. ↩

I.e. of her sin. ↩

Syn. your charms (la vostra vaghezza). ↩

I.e. she was grown so repulsively ugly in her old age, that no one cared to do her even so trifling a service as giving her a spark in tinder to light her fire withal. ↩

Or chokebits (stranguglioni). ↩

I.e. that they may serve to purchase remission from purgatory for the souls of her dead relatives, instead of the burning of candles and tapers, which is held by the Roman Catholic Church to have that effect. ↩

I.e. a hypocritical sham devotee, covering a lewd life with an appearance of sanctity. ↩

Lit. a due or deserved bite (debito morso). I mention this to show the connection with teeth. ↩

An ellipsis of a kind common in Boccaccio and indeed in all the old Italian writers, meaning “it may be useful to enlarge upon the subject in question.” ↩

The songs proposed by Dioneo are all apparently of a light, if not a wanton, character and “not fit to be sung before ladies.” ↩

This singularly naive give-and-take fashion of asking a favour of a God recalls the old Scotch epitaph cited by Mr. George Macdonald:

Here lie I Martin Elginbrodde:
Hae mercy o’ my soul, Lord God;
As I wad do, were I Lord God
And ye were Martin Elginbrodde.

↩

Lit. for their returning to consistory (del dovere a concistoro tornare). ↩

Messer Mazza, i.e. veretrum. ↩

Monte Nero, i.e. vas muliebre. ↩

I.e. who are yet a child, in modern parlance, “Thou whose lips are yet wet with thy mother’s milk.” ↩

I.e. women’s. ↩

See here, Introduction to the last story of the First Day. ↩

Lit. family wine (vin da famiglia), i.e. no wine for servants’ or general drinking, but a choice vintage, to be reserved for special occasions.