CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION / 1

PROEM / 1

- THE FIRST DAY -

NOVEL 1. — Ser Ciappelletto cheats a holy friar by a false confession, and dies; and, having lived as a very bad man, is, on his death, reputed a saint, and called San Ciappelletto. — / 27

NOVEL 2. — Abraham, a Jew, at the instance of Jehannot de Chevigny, goes to the court of Rome, and having marked the evil life of the clergy, returns to Paris, and becomes a Christian. — / 41

NOVEL 3. — Melchisedech, a Jew, by a story of three rings averts a great danger with which he was menaced by Saladin. — / 46

NOVEL 4. — A monk lapses into a sin meriting the most severe punishment, justly censures the same fault in his abbot, and thus evades the penalty. — / 50

NOVEL 5. — The Marchioness of Monferrato by a banquet of hens seasoned with wit checks the mad passion of the King of France. — / 55

NOVEL 6. — A worthy man by an apt saying puts to shame the wicked hypocrisy of the religious. — / 59

NOVEL 7. — Bergamino, with a story of Primasso and the Abbot of Cluny, finely censures a sudden access of avarice in Messer Cane della Scala. — / 63 NOVEL 8. — Guglielmo Borsiere by a neat retort sharply censures avarice in Messer Ermino de'Grimaldi. — / 69

NOVEL 9. — The censure of a Gascon lady converts the King of Cyprus from a churlish to an honourable temper. — / 72

NOVEL 10. — Master Alberto da Bologna honourably puts to shame a lady who sought occasion to put him to shame in that he was in love with her. — / 74

- THE SECOND DAY -

NOVEL 1. — Martellino pretends to be a paralytic,and makes it appear as if he were cured by being placed upon the body of St. Arrigo. His trick is detected; he is beaten and arrested, and is in peril of hanging, but finally escapes. / 84

NOVEL 2. — Rinaldo d'Asti is robbed, arrives at Castel Guglielmo, and is entertained by a widow lady;his property is restored to him, and he returns home safe and sound. — / 90

NOVEL 3. — Three young men squander their substance and are reduced to poverty. Their nephew,returning home a desperate man, falls in with an abbot,in whom he discovers the daughter of the King of England. She marries him, and he retrieves the losses and reestablishes the fortune of his uncles. — / 98

NOVEL 4. — Landolfo Ruffolo is reduced to poverty,turns corsair, is captured by Genoese, is shipwrecked,escapes on a chest full of jewels, and, being cast ashore at Corfu, is hospitably entertained by a woman,and returns home wealthy. — / 108

NOVEL 5. — Andreuccio da Perugia comes to Naples to buy horses, meets with three serious adventures in one night, comes safe out of them all, and returns home with a ruby. — / 114

NOVEL 6. — Madam Beritola loses two sons, is found with two kids on an island, goes thence to Lunigiana, where one of her sons takes service with her master, and lies with his daughter, for which he is put in prison. Sicily rebels against King Charles,the son is recognised by the mother, marries the master's daughter, and, his brother being discovered, is reinstated in great honour. — / 129

NOVEL 7. — The Soldan of Babylon sends one of his daughters overseas, designing to marry her to the King of Algarve. By divers adventures she comes in the space of four years into the hands of nine men in divers places. At last she is restored to her father,whom she quits again in the guise of a virgin, and,as was at first intended, is married to the King of Algarve. — / 145

NOVEL 8. — The Count of Antwerp, labouring under a false accusation goes into exile. He leaves his two children in different places in England, and takes service in Ireland. Returning to England an unknown man, he finds his sons prosperous. He serves as a groom in the army of the King of France;his innocence is established and he is restored to his former honours. — / 170

NOVEL 9. — Bernabo of Genoa, deceived by Ambrogiuolo, loses his money and commands his innocent wife to be put to death. She escapes, habits herself as a man, and serves the Soldan. She discovers the deceiver, and brings Bernabo to Alexandria, where the deceiver is punished. She then resumes the garb of a woman, and with her husband returns wealthy to Genoa. — / 188

NOVEL 10. — Paganino da Monaco carries off the wife of Messer Ricciardo di Chinzica, who, having learned where she is, goes to Paganino and in a friendly manner asks him to restore her. He consents,provided she be willing. She refuses to go back with her husband. Messer Ricciardo dies, and she marries Paganino. — / 203

- THE THIRD DAY -

NOVEL 1. — Masetto da Lamporecchio feigns to be dumb, and obtains a gardener's place at a convent of women, who with one accord make haste to lie with him. — / 219

NOVEL 2. — A groom lies with the wife of King Agilulf, who learns the fact, keeps his own counsel,finds out the groom and shears him. The shorn shears all his fellows, and so comes safe out of the scrape. — / 227 NOVEL 3. — Under cloak of confession and a most spotless conscience, a lady, enamoured of a young man,induces a booby friar unwittingly to provide a means to the entire gratification of her passion. / 233

NOVEL 4. — Dom Felice instructs Fra Puccio how to attain blessedness by doing a penance. Fra Puccio does the penance, and meanwhile Dom Felice has a good time with Fra Puccio's wife. — / 244

NOVEL 5. — Zima gives a palfrey to Messer Francesco Vergellesi, who in return suffers him to speak with his wife. She keeping silence, he answers in her stead, and the sequel is in accordance with his answer. — / 250

NOVEL 6. — Ricciardo Minutolo loves the wife of Filippello Fighinolfi, and knowing her to be jealous,makes her believe that his own wife is to meet Filippello at a bagnio on the ensuing day; whereby she is induced to go thither, where, thinking to have been with her husband, she discovers that she has tarried with Ricciardo. — / 257

NOVEL 7. — Tedaldo, being in disfavour with his lady, departs from Florence. He returns thither after a while in the guise of a pilgrim, has speech of his lady,and makes her sensible of her fault. Her husband, convicted of slaying him, he delivers from peril of death, reconciles him with his brothers, and thereafter discreetly enjoys his lady. — / 267

NOVEL 8. — Ferondo, having taken a certain powder, is interred for dead; is disinterred by the abbot, who enjoys his wife; is put in prison and taught to believe that he is in purgatory; is then resuscitated,and rears as his own a boy begotten by the abbot upon his wife. — / 286

NOVEL 9. — Gillette of Narbonne cures the King of France of a fistula, craves for spouse Bertrand de Roussillon, who marries her against his will, and hies him in despite to Florence, where, as he courts a young woman, Gillette lies with him in her stead, and has two sons by him; for which cause he afterwards takes her into favour and entreats her as his wife. — / 297

NOVEL 10. — Alibech turns hermit, and is taught by Rustico, a monk, how the Devil is put in hell. She is afterwards conveyed thence, and becomes the wife of Neerbale. — / 308

- THE FOURTH DAY -

NOVEL 1. — Tancred, Prince of Salerno, slays his daughter's lover, and sends her his heart in a golden cup: she pours upon it a poisonous distillation, which she drinks and dies. — / 326

NOVEL 2. — Fra Alberto gives a lady to understand that she is beloved of the Angel Gabriel, in whose shape he lies with her sundry times; afterward, for fear of her kinsmen, he flings himself forth of her house,and finds shelter in the house of a poor man, who on the morrow leads him in the guise of a wild man into the piazza, where, being recognized, he is apprehended by his brethren and imprisoned. — / 338

NOVEL 3. — Three young men love three sisters, and flee with them to Crete. The eldest of the sisters slays her lover for jealousy. The second saves the life of the first by yielding herself to the Duke of Crete. Her lover slays her, and makes off with the first: the third sister and her lover are charged with the murder, are arrested and confess the crime. They escape death by bribing the guards, flee destitute to Rhodes, and there in destitution die. — / 350

NOVEL 4. — Gerbino, in breach of the plighted faith of his grandfather, King Guglielmo, attacks a ship of the King of Tunis to rescue thence his daughter. She being slain by those aboard the ship, he slays them,and afterwards he is beheaded. — / 358

NOVEL 5. — Lisabetta's brothers slay her lover: he appears to her in a dream, and shews her where he is buried: she privily disinters the head, and sets it in a pot of basil, whereon she daily weeps a great while.The pot being taken from her by her brothers, she dies,not long after. — / 364

NOVEL 6. — Andreuola loves Gabriotto: she tells him a dream that she has had; he tells her a dream of his own, and dies suddenly in her arms. While she and her maid are carrying his corpse to his house, they are taken by the Signory. She tells how the matter stands,is threatened with violence by the Podesta, but will not brook it. Her father hears how she is bested; and,her innocence being established, causes her to be set at large; but she, being minded to tarry no longer in the world, becomes a nun. — / 371

NOVEL 7. — Simona loves Pasquino; they are together in a garden; Pasquino rubs a leaf of sage against his teeth, and dies; Simona is arrested, and,with intent to shew the judge how Pasquino died, rubs one of the leaves of the same plant against her teeth, and likewise dies. — / 380

NOVEL 8. — Girolamo loves Salvestra: yielding to his mother's prayers he goes to Paris; he returns to find Salvestra married; he enters her house by stealth,lays himself by her side, and dies; he is borne to the church, where Salvestra lays herself by his side, and dies. — / 385

NOVEL 9. — Sieur Guillaume de Roussillon slays his wife's paramour, Sieur Guillaume de Cabestaing, and gives her his heart to eat. She, coming to wit thereof,throws herself from a high window to the ground, and dies, and is buried with her lover. — / 392

NOVEL 10. — The wife of a leech, deeming her lover,who has taken an opiate, to be dead, puts him in a chest,which, with him therein, two usurers carry off to their house. He comes to himself, and is taken for a thief; but,the lady's maid giving the Signory to understand that she had put him in the chest which the usurers stole,he escapes the gallows, and the usurers are mulcted in moneys for the theft of the chest. — / 396

- THE FIFTH DAY -

NOVEL 1. — Cimon, by loving, waxes wise, wins his wife Iphigenia by capture on the high seas, and is imprisoned at Rhodes. He is delivered by Lysimachus;and the twain capture Cassandra and recapture Iphigenia in the hour of their marriage. They flee with their ladies to Crete, and having there married them,are brought back to their homes. — / 413

NOVEL 2. — Gostanza loves Martuccio Gomito, and hearing that he is dead, gives way to despair, and hies her alone aboard a boat, which is wafted by the wind to Susa. She finds him alive in Tunis, and makes herself known to him, who, having by his counsel gained high place in the king's favour, marries her, and returns with her wealthy to Lipari. — / 426

NOVEL 3. — Pietro Boccamazza runs away with Agnolella, and encounters a gang of robbers: the girl takes refuge in a wood, and is guided to a castle.Pietro is taken, but escapes out of the hands of the robbers, and after some adventures arrives at the castle where Agnolella is, marries her, and returns with her to Rome. — / 433

NOVEL 4. — Ricciardo Manardi is found by Messer Lizio da Valbona with his daughter, whom he marries,and remains at peace with her father. — / 442

NOVEL 5. — Guidotto da Cremona dies leaving a girl to Giacomino da Pavia. She has two lovers in Faenza,to wit, Giannole di Severino and Minghino di Mingole,who fight about her. She is discovered to be Giannole's sister, and is given to Minghino to wife. — / 448

NOVEL 6. — Gianni di Procida, being found with a damsel that he loves, and who had been given to King Frederic, is bound with her to a stake, so to be burned.He is recognized by Ruggieri dell' Oria, is delivered,and marries her. — / 455

NOVEL 7. — Teodoro, being enamoured of Violante,daughter of Messer Amerigo, his lord, gets her with child, and is sentenced to the gallows; but while he is being scourged thither, he is recognized by his father,and being set at large, takes Violante to wife. — / 462 NOVEL 8. — Nastagio degli Onesti, loving a damsel of the Traversari family, by lavish expenditure gains not her love. At the instance of his kinsfolk he hies him to Chiassi, where he sees a knight hunt a damsel and slay her and cause her to be devoured by two dogs. He bids his kinsfolk and the lady that he loves to breakfast. During the meal the said damsel is torn in pieces before the eyes of the lady, who, fearing a like fate, takes Nastagio to husband. — / 470

NOVEL 9. — Federigo degli Alberighi loves and is not loved in return: he wastes his substance by lavishness until nought is left but a single falcon, which, his lady being come to see him at his house, he gives her to eat:she, knowing his case, changes her mind, takes him to husband and makes him rich. — / 477

NOVEL 10. — Pietro di Vinciolo goes from home to sup: his wife brings a boy into the house to bear her company: Pietro returns, and she hides her gallant under a hen-coop: Pietro explains that in the house of Ercolano, with whom he was to have supped,there was discovered a young man bestowed there by Ercolano's wife: the lady thereupon censures Ercolano's wife: but unluckily an ass treads on the fingers of the boy that is hidden under the hen-coop,so that he cries for pain: Pietro runs to the place, sees him, and apprehends the trick played on him by his wife, which nevertheless he finally condones, for that he is not himself free from blame. — / 485 Nly0RlCkCd987uCwtHB+I3HHkgG/qaasy52GTdIN4ITJLC/fpJQUueWgB96AQuQ3