be round with thee, this spell has cost us some trouble:
wherefore we mean that thou shalt give us two pair
of capons, or we will let Monna Tessa know all.”
Seeing that he was not believed, and deeming his mortification
ample without the addition of his wife’s resentment,
Calandrino gave them the two pair of capons, with
which, when the pig was salted, they returned to Florence,
leaving Calandrino with the loss and the laugh against
him.
— A scholar loves a widow lady, who, being
enamoured of another, causes him to spend a winter’s
night awaiting her in the snow. He afterwards
by a stratagem causes her to stand for a whole day
in July, naked upon a tower, exposed to the flies,
the gadflies, and the sun. —
Over the woes of poor Calandrino the ladies laughed
not a little, and had laughed yet more, but that it
irked them that those that had robbed him of the pig
should also take from him the capons. However,
the story being ended, the queen bade Pampinea give
them hers: and thus forthwith Pampinea began:—Dearest
ladies, it happens oftentimes that the artful scorner
meets his match; wherefore ’tis only little wits
that delight to scorn. In a series of stories
we have heard tell of tricks played without aught
in the way of reprisals following: by mine I purpose
in some degree to excite your compassion for a gentlewoman
of our city (albeit the retribution that came upon
her was but just) whose flout was returned in the
like sort, and to such effect that she well-nigh died
thereof. The which to hear will not be unprofitable
to you, for thereby you will learn to be more careful
how you flout others, and therein you will do very
wisely.
’Tis not many years since there dwelt at Florence
a lady young and fair, and of a high spirit, as also
of right gentle lineage, and tolerably well endowed
with temporal goods. Now Elena—such
was the lady’s name—being left a
widow, was minded never to marry again, being enamoured
of a handsome young gallant of her own choosing, with
whom she, recking nought of any other lover, did,
by the help of a maid in whom she placed much trust,
not seldom speed the time gaily and with marvellous
delight. Meanwhile it so befell that a young
nobleman of our city, Rinieri by name, who had spent
much time in study at Paris, not that he might thereafter
sell his knowledge by retail, but that he might learn
the reasons and causes of things, which accomplishment
shews to most excellent advantage in a gentleman,
returned to Florence, and there lived as a citizen
in no small honour with his fellows, both by reason
of his rank and of his learning. But as it is
often the case that those who are most versed in deep
matters are the soonest mastered by Love, so was it
with Rinieri. For at a festal gathering, to which
one day he went, there appeared before his eyes this
Elena, of whom we spoke, clad in black, as is the
wont of our Florentine widows, and shewing to his mind
