Wherein the lady describes who she was, and by
what signs her misfortunes were foreshadowed, and
at what time, and where, and in what manner, and of
whom she became enamored, with the description of the
ensuing delight.
In the time when the newly-vestured earth appears
more lovely than during all the rest of the year came
I into the world, begotten of noble parents and born
amid the unstinted gifts of benignant fortune.
Accursed be the day, to me more hateful than any other,
on which I was born! Oh, how far more befitting
would it have been had I never been born, or had I
been carried from that luckless womb to my grave, or
had I possessed a life not longer than that of the
teeth sown by Cadmus, or had Atropos cut the thread
of my existence at the very hour when it had begun!
Then, in earliest childhood would have been entombed
the limitless woes that are the melancholy occasion
of that which I am writing. But what boots it
to complain of this now? I am here, beyond doubt;
and it has pleased and even now pleases God that I
should be here. Born and reared, then, amid boundless
affluence, I learned under a venerable mistress whatever
manners and refinements it beseems a demoiselle of
high rank to know. And as my person grew and
developed with my increasing years, so also grew and
developed my beauty. Alas! even while a child,
on hearing that beauty acclaimed of many, I gloried
therein, and cultivated it by ingenious care and art.
And when I had bidden farewell to childhood, and had
attained a riper age, I soon discovered that this,
my beauty —ill-fated gift for one who desires
to live virtuously!—had power to kindle
amorous sparks in youths of my own age, and other noble
persons as well, being instructed thereupon by nature,
and feeling that love can be quickened in young men
by beauteous ladies. And by divers looks and
actions, the sense of which I did but dimly discern
at the time, did these youths endeavor in numberless
ways to kindle in my heart the fire wherewith their
own hearts glowed—fire that was destined,
not to warm, but rather to consume me also in the
future more than it ever has burned another woman;
and by many of these young men was I sought in marriage
with most fervid and passionate entreaty. But
after I had chosen among them one who was in every
respect congenial to me, this importunate crowd of
suitors, being now almost hopeless, ceased to trouble
me with their looks and attentions. I, therefore,
being satisfied, as was meet, with such a husband,
lived most happily, so long as fervid love, lighted
by flames hitherto unfelt, found no entrance into my
young soul. Alas! I had no wish unsatisfied;
nothing that could please me or any other lady ever
was denied me, even for a moment. I was the sole
delight, the peculiar felicity of a youthful spouse,
and, just as he loved me, so did I equally love him.
Oh, how much happier should I have been than all other
women, if the love for him that was then in my heart
had endured!
Copyrights
La Fiammetta from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
