(1) I.e. bolts of clay for the cross-bow.
(2) I.e. great ape: with a play on Simone.
— Cecco, son of Messer Fortarrigo, loses
his all at play at Buonconvento, besides the money
of Cecco, son of Messer Angiulieri; whom, running after
him in his shirt and crying out that he has robbed
him, he causes to be taken by peasants: he then
puts on his clothes, mounts his palfrey, and leaves
him to follow in his shirt. —
All the company laughed beyond measure to hear what
Calandrino said touching his wife: but, when
Filostrato had done, Neifile, being bidden by the
queen, thus began:—Noble ladies, were it
not more difficult for men to evince their good sense
and virtue than their folly and their vice, many would
labour in vain to set bounds to their flow of words:
whereof you have had a most conspicuous example in
poor blundering Calandrino, who, for the better cure
of that with which in his simplicity he supposed himself
to be afflicted, had no sort of need to discover in
public his wife’s secret pleasures. Which
affair has brought to my mind one that fell out contrariwise,
inasmuch as the guile of one discomfited the good
sense of another to the grievous loss and shame of
the discomfited: the manner whereof I am minded
to relate to you.
’Tis not many years since there were in Siena
two young men, both of age, and both alike named Cecco,
the one being son of Messer Angiulieri, the other
of Messer Fortarrigo. Who, albeit in many other
respects their dispositions accorded ill, agreed so
well in one, to wit, that they both hated their fathers,
that they became friends, and kept much together.
Now Angiulieri, being a pretty fellow, and well-mannered,
could not brook to live at Siena on the allowance
made him by his father, and learning that there was
come into the March of Ancona, as legate of the Pope,
a cardinal, to whom he was much bounden, resolved
to resort to him there, thinking thereby to improve
his circumstances. So, having acquainted his
father with his purpose, he prevailed upon him to give
him there and then all that he would have given him
during the next six months, that he might have the
wherewith to furnish himself with apparel and a good
mount, so as to travel in a becoming manner. And
as he was looking out for some one to attend him as
his servant, Fortarrigo, hearing of it, came presently
to him and besought him with all earnestness to take
him with him as his groom, or servant, or what he
would, and he would be satisfied with his keep, without
any salary whatsoever. Whereto Angiulieri made
answer that he was not disposed to take him, not but
that he well knew that he was competent for any service
that might be required of him, but because he was
given to play, and therewithal would at times get
drunk. Fortarrigo assured him with many an oath
that he would be on his guard to commit neither fault,
