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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/10006-0.txt b/10006-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5048dac --- /dev/null +++ b/10006-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1164 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10006 *** + +LA FIAMMETTA + +BY + +GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO + + +TRANSLATED BY JAMES C. BROGAN + +1907. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Youth, beauty, and love, wit, gayety and laughter, are the component +parts of the delightful picture conjured up by the mere name of Giovanni +Boccaccio, the prince of story-tellers for all generations of men. This +creator of a real literary epoch was born in Paris, in 1313, (in the +eleventh year of Dante's exile), of an Italian father and a French-woman +of good family. His father was a merchant of Florence, whither he +returned with his son when the child was seven years old. The boy +received some education, but was placed in a counting-house when he was +only thirteen, and at seventeen he was sent by his father to Naples to +enter another commercial establishment. But he disliked commerce, and +finally persuaded his father to allow him to study law for two years at +the University of Naples, during which period the lively and attractive +youth made brisk use of his leisure time in that gay and romantic city, +where he made his way into the highest circles of society, and +unconsciously gleaned the material for the rich harvest of song and +story that came with his later years. At this time he was present at the +coronation of the poet Petrarch in the Capitol, and was fired with +admiration for the second greatest poet of that day. He chose Petrarch +for his model and guide, and in riper manhood became his most intimate +friend. + +By the time he was twenty-five, Boccaccio had fallen in love with the +Lady Maria, a natural daughter of King Robert of Naples, who had caused +her to be adopted as a member of the family of the Count d'Aquino, and +to be married when very young to a Neapolitan nobleman. Boccaccio first +saw her in the Church of San Lorenzo on the morning of Easter eve, in +1338, and their ensuing friendship was no secret to their world. For the +entertainment of this youthful beauty he wrote his _Filicopo_, and the +fair Maria is undoubtedly the heroine of several of his stories and +poems. His father insisted upon his return to Florence in 1340, and +after he had settled in that city he occupied himself seriously with +literary work, producing, between the years 1343 and 1355, the _Teseide_ +(familiar to English readers as "The Knight's Tale" in Chaucer, +modernized by Dryden as "Palamon and Arcite"), _Ameto, Amorosa Visione, +La Fiammetta, Ninfale Fiesolona_, and his most famous work, the +_Decameron_, a collection of stories written, it is said, to amuse Queen +Joanna of Naples and her court, during the period when one of the +world's greatest plagues swept over Europe in 1348. In these years he +rose from the vivid but confused and exaggerated manner of _Filocopo_ to +the perfection of polished literary style. The _Decameron_ fully +revealed his genius, his ability to weave the tales of all lands and all +ages into one harmonious whole; from the confused mass of legends of the +Middle Ages, he evolved a world of human interest and dazzling beauty, +fixed the kaleidoscopic picture of Italian society, and set it in the +richest frame of romance. + +While he had the _Decameron_ still in hand, he paused in that great +work, with heart full of passionate longing for the lady of his love, +far away in Naples, to pour out his very soul in _La Fiammetta_, the +name by which he always called the Lady Maria. Of the real character of +this lady, so famous in literature, and her true relations with +Boccaccio, little that is certain is known. In several of his poems and +in the _Decameron_ he alludes to her as being cold as a marble statue, +which no fire can ever warm; and there is no proof, notwithstanding the +ardor of Fiammetta as portrayed by her lover--who no doubt wished her to +become the reality of his glowing picture--that he ever really received +from the charmer whose name was always on his lips anything more than +the friendship that was apparent to all the world. But she certainly +inspired him in the writing of his best works. + +The best critics agree in pronouncing _La Fiammetta_ a marvelous +performance. John Addington Symonds says: "It is the first attempt in +any literature to portray subjective emotion exterior to the writer; +since the days of Virgil and Ovid, nothing had been essayed in this +region of mental analysis. The author of this extraordinary work proved +himself a profound anatomist of feeling by the subtlety with which he +dissected a woman's heart." The story is full of exquisite passages, and +it exercised a widespread and lasting influence over all the narrative +literature that followed it. It is so rich in material that it furnished +the motives of many tales, and the novelists of the sixteenth century +availed themselves freely of its suggestions. + +After Boccaccio had taken up a permanent residence in Florence, he +showed a lively interest in her political affairs, and fulfilled all +the duties of a good citizen. In 1350 he was chosen to visit the lords +of various towns of Romagna, in order to engage their cooperation in a +league against the Visconti family, who, already lords of the great and +powerful city of Milan, desired to extend their domains beyond the +Apennines. In 1351 Boccaccio had the pleasure of bearing to the poet +Petrarch the news of the restoration of his rights of citizenship and of +his patrimony, both of which he had lost in the troubles of 1323, and +during this visit the two geniuses became friends for life. They delved +together into the literature of the ancients, and Boccaccio determined, +through the medium of translation, to make the work of the great Greek +writers a part of the liberal education of his countrymen. A knowledge +of Greek at that time was an exceedingly rare accomplishment, since the +serious study of living literatures was only just beginning, and the +Greek of Homer had been almost forgotten. Even Petrarch, whose erudition +was marvelous, could not read a copy of the _Iliad_ that he possessed. +Boccaccio asked permission of the Florentine Government to establish a +Greek professorship in the University of Florence, and persuaded a +learned Calabrian, Leonzio Pilato, who had a perfect knowledge of +ancient Greek, to leave Venice and accept the professorship at Florence, +and lodged him in his own house. Together the Calabrian and the author +of _La Fiammetta_ and the _Decameron_ made a Latin translation of the +_Iliad_, which Boccaccio transcribed with his own hand. But his literary +enthusiasm was not confined to his own work and that of the ancients. +His soul was filled with a generous ardor of admiration for Dante; +through his efforts the Florentines were awakened to a true sense of the +merits of the sublime poet, so long exiled from his native city, and the +younger genius succeeded in persuading them to establish a professorship +in the University for the sole study of the _Divine Comedy_, he himself +being the first to occupy the chair, and writing a _Life of Dante_, +besides commentaries on the _Comedy_ itself. + +Mainly through his intimacy with the spiritual mind of Petrarch, +Boccaccio's moral character gradually underwent a change from the +reckless freedom and unbridled love of pleasure into which he had easily +fallen among his associates in the court life at Naples. He admired the +delicacy and high standard of honor of his friend, and became awakened +to a sense of man's duty to the world and to himself. During the decade +following the year 1365 he occupied himself at his home in Certaldo, +near Florence, with various literary labors, often entertaining there +the great men of the world. + +Petrarch's death occurred in 1374, and Boccaccio survived him but one +year, dying on the twenty-first of December, 1375. He was buried in +Certaldo, in the Church of San Michele e Giacomo. + +That one city should have produced three such men as the great +triumvirate of the fourteenth century--Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio--and +that one half-century should have witnessed their successive triumphs, +is the greatest glory of Florence, and is one of the most notable facts +in the history of genius. + +We quote once more from Symonds: "Dante brought the universe into his +_Divine Comedy_. 'But the soul of man, too, is a universe', and of this +inner microcosm Petrarch was the poet and genius. It remained for +Boccaccio to treat of daily life with an art as distinct and dazzling as +theirs. From Dante's Beatrice, through Petrarch's Laura, to Boccaccio's +La Fiammetta--from woman as an allegory of the noblest thoughts and +purest stirrings of the soul, through woman as the symbol of all beauty +worshiped at a distance, to woman as man's lover, kindling and +reciprocating the most ardent passion; from mystic, stately periods to +Protean prose; from verse built up into cathedral-like dignity, through +lyrics light as arabesques and pointed with the steely touch of polished +style, to that free form of speech which takes all moods and lends +itself alike to low or lofty things--such was the rapid movement of +Italian genius within the brief space of fifty years. So quickly did the +Renaissance emerge from the Middle Ages; and when the voices of that +august trio were silenced in the grave, their echoes ever widened and +grew louder through the spacious time to come." + +No translation into English of _La Fiammetta_ has been made since +Shakespeare's time--when a small edition was published, which is now so +rare as to be practically unattainable--until the appearance of the +present Scholarly and poetic rendering, which places within the reach of +all one of the world's greatest masterpieces of literature. + +D.K.R. + + + + +PROLOGUE + + +_Beginneth the Book called Elegy of Madonna Fiammetta, sent by her to +Ladies in Love._ + +When the wretched perceive or feel that their woes arouse compassion, +their longing to give vent to their anguish is thereby increased. And +so, since, from long usance, the cause of my anguish, instead of growing +less, has become greater, the wish has come to me, noble ladies--in +whose hearts, mayhap, abides a love more fortunate than mine--to win +your pity, if I may, by telling the tale of my sorrows. Nor is it at all +my intent that these my words should come to the ears of men. Nay, +rather would I, so far as lies in my power, withhold my complaints from +them; for, such bitterness has the discovery of the unkindness of one +man stirred in me, that, imagining all other men to be like him, +methinks I should be a witness of their mocking laughter rather than of +their pitying tears. You alone do I entreat to peruse my story, knowing +full well that you will feel with me, and that you have a pious concern +for others' pangs. Here you will not find Grecian fables adorned with +many lies, nor Trojan battles, foul with blood and gore, but amorous +sentiments fed with torturing desires. Here will appear before your very +eyes the dolorous tears, the impetuous sighs, the heart-breaking words, +the stormy thoughts, which have harrowed me with an ever-recurring goad, +and have torn away from me sleep and appetite and the pleasant times of +old, and my much-loved beauty. When you behold these things, and behold +them with the ardent feelings which ladies are wont to have, sure I am +that the cheeks of each separately, and of all when brought together, +will be bathed in tears, because of those ills which are alone the +occasion of my never-ending misery. Do not, I beseech you, refuse me +these tears, reflecting that your estate is unstable as well as mine, +and that, should it ever come to resemble mine (the which may God +forfend!), the tears that others shed for you will be pleasing to you in +return. And that the time may pass more rapidly in speaking than in, +weeping, I will do my best to fulfil my promise briefly, beginning with +that love which was more happy than lasting, so that, by comparing that +happiness with my present case, you may learn that I am now more unhappy +than any woman ever has been. And afterward I will trace with mournful +pen, as best I can, all the agonies which are justly the source of my +lamentations. But first, if the prayers of the wretched are heard, if +there is in Heaven any Deity whose holy mind can be touched with +compassion for me, afflicted as I am, bathed in my own tears, Him I +beseech to aid my despondent memory and support my trembling hand in its +present task. So may the tortures which I have felt and still feel in my +soul become fruitful, and the memory will suggest the words for them, +and the hand, more eager than apt for such duty, will write them down. + + + + +Chapter I + + +_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! + +It was, then, while I was living in sweet content, amid every kind of +enjoyment, that Fortune, who quickly changes all things earthly, +becoming envious of the very gifts which she herself had bestowed, +withdrew her protecting hand. At first uncertain in what manner she +could succeed in poisoning my happiness, she at length managed, with +subtle craft, to make mine own very eyes traitors and so guide me into +the path that led to disaster. But the gods were still propitious to me, +nay, were even more concerned for my fate than I myself. Having seen +through her veiled malice, they wished to supply me with weapons, had I +but known how to avail me thereof, wherewith I might fend my breast, +and not go unarmed to the battle wherein I was destined to fall. Yea, on +the very night that preceded the day which was the beginning of all my +woes, they revealed to me the future in my sleep by means of a clear and +distinct vision, in such wise as follows: + +While lying on my spacious couch, with all my limbs relaxed in deepest +slumber, I seemed to be filled with greater joy than I had ever felt +before, and wherefore I knew not. And the day whereon this happened was +the brightest and loveliest of days. I was standing alone in verdant +grass, when, with the joy whereof I spoke, came the thought to me that +it might be well for me to repose in a meadow that appeared to be +shielded from the fervid rays of the sun by the shadows cast by various +trees newly garbed in their glossy foliage. But first, gathering divers +flowers, wherewith the whole sward was bejeweled, I placed them, with my +white hands, in a corner of my robe, and then, sitting down and choosing +flower after flower, I wove therefrom a fair garland, and adorned my +head with it. And, being so adorned, I arose, and, like unto Proserpine +at what time Pluto ravished her from her mother, I went along singing in +this new springtime. Then, being perchance weary, I laid me down in a +spot where the verdure was deepest and softest. But, just as the tender +foot of Eurydice was pierced by the concealed viper, so meseemed that a +hidden serpent came upon me, as I lay stretched on the grass, and +pierced me under the left breast. The bite of the sharp fang, when it +first entered, seemed to burn me. But afterward, feeling somewhat +reassured, and yet afraid of something worse ensuing, I thought I +clasped the cold serpent to my bosom, fancying that by communicating to +it the warmth of that bosom, I should thereby render it more kindly +disposed in my regard in return for such a service. But the viper, made +bolder and more obdurate by that very favor, laid his hideous mouth on +the wound he had given me, and after a long space, and after it had +drunk much of my blood, methought that, despite my resistance, it drew +forth my soul; and then, leaving my breast, departed with it. And at the +very moment of the serpent's departure the day lost its brightness, and +a thick shadow came behind me and covered me all over, and the farther +the serpent crept, the more lowering grew the heavens, and it seemed +almost as if the reptile dragged after it in its course the masses of +thick, black clouds that appeared to follow in its wake, Not long +afterward, just as a white stone flung into deep water gradually +vanishes from the eyes of the beholder, so it, too, vanished from my +sight. Then the heavens became darker and darker, and I thought that the +sun had suddenly withdrawn and night had surely returned, as it had +erstwhile returned to the _Greeks_ because of the crime of Atrcus. Next, +flashes of lightning sped swiftly along the skies, and peals of crashing +thunder appalled the earth and me likewise. And through all, the wound +made in my breast by the bite of the serpent remained with me still, and +full of viperous poison; for no medicinal help was within my reach, so +that my entire body appeared to have swollen in a most foul and +disgusting manner. Whereupon I, who before this seemed to be without +life or motion--why, I do not know--feeling that the force of the venom +was seeking to reach my heart in divers subtle ways, now tossed and +rolled upon the cool grass, expecting death at any moment. But methought +that when the hour of my doom arrived, I was struck with terror at its +approach, and the anguish of my heart was so appalling, while looking +forward to its coming, that my inert body was convulsed with horror, and +so my deep slumber was suddenly broken. No sooner was I fully awake +than, being still alarmed by the things I had seen, I felt with my right +hand for the wound in my breast, searching at the present moment for +that which was already being prepared for my future misery. Finding that +no wound was there, I began to feel quite safe and even merry, and I +made a mock of the folly of dreams and of those who believe in them, +and so I rendered the work of the gods useless. Ah, wretched me! if I +mocked them then, I had good reason to believe in them afterward, to my +bitter sorrow and with the shedding of useless tears; good reason had I +also to complain of the gods, who reveal their secrets to mortals in +such mystic guise that the things that are to happen in the future can +hardly be said to be revealed at all. Being then fully awake, I raised +my drowsy head, and, as soon as I saw the light of the new-risen sun +enter my chamber, laying aside every other thought directly, I at once +left my couch. + +That day, too, was a day of the utmost solemnity for almost everyone. +Therefore, attiring myself carefully in glittering cloth of gold, and +adorning every part of my person with deft and cunning hand, I made +ready to go to the August festival, appareled like unto the goddesses +seen by Paris in the vale of Ida. And, while I was lost in admiration of +myself, just as the peacock is of his plumage, imagining that the +delight which I took in my own appearance would surely be shared by all +who saw me, a flower from my wreath fell on the ground near the curtain +of my bed, I know not wherefore--perhaps plucked from my head by a +celestial hand by me unseen. But I, careless of the occult signs by +which the gods forewarn mortals, picked it up, replaced it on my head, +and, as if nothing portentous had happened, I passed out from my abode. +Alas! what clearer token of what was to befall me could the gods have +given me? This should have served to prefigure to me that my soul, once +free and sovereign of itself, was on that day to lay aside its +sovereignty and become a slave, as it betided. Oh, if my mind had not +been distempered, I should have surely known that to me that day would +be the blackest and direst of days, and I should have let it pass +without ever crossing the threshold of my home! But although the gods +usually hold forth signs whereby those against whom they are incensed +may be warned, they often deprive them of due understanding; and thus, +while pointing out the path they ought to follow, they at the same time +sate their own anger. My ill fortune, then, thrust me forth from my +house, vain and careless that I was; and, accompanied by several ladies, +I moved with slow step to the sacred temple, in which the solemn +function required by the day was already celebrating. Ancient custom, as +well as my noble estate, had reserved for me a prominent place among the +other ladies. When I was seated, my eyes, as was my habit of old, +quickly wandered around the temple, and I saw that it was crowded with +men and women, who were divided into separate groups. And no sooner was +it observed that I was in the temple than (even while the sacred office +was going on) that happened which had always happened at other times, +and not only did the men turn their eyes to gaze upon me, but the women +did the same, as if Venus or Minerva had newly descended from the skies, +and would never again be seen by them in that spot where I was seated. +Oh, how often I laughed within my own breast, being enraptured with +myself, and taking glory unto myself because of such things, just as if +I were a real goddess! And so, nearly all the young gentlemen left off +admiring the other ladies, and took their station around me, and +straightway encompassed me almost in the form of a complete circle; and, +while speaking in divers ways of my beauty, each finished his praises +thereof with well-nigh the same sentences. But I who, by turning my eyes +in another direction, showed that my mind was intent on other cares, +kept my ears attentive to their discourse and received therefrom much +delectable sweetness; and, as it seemed to me that I was beholden to +them for such pleasure, I sometimes let my eyes rest on them more kindly +and benignantly. And not once, but many times, did I perceive that some +of them, puffed up with vain hopes because of this, boasted foolishly of +it to their companions. + +While I, then, in this way looked at a few, and that sparingly, I was +myself looked at by many, and that exceedingly, and while I believed +that my beauty was dazzling others, it came to pass that the beauty of +another dazzled me, to my great tribulation. And now, being already +close on the dolorous moment, which was fated to be the occasion either +of a most assured death or of a life of such anguish that none before me +has ever endured the like, prompted by I know not what spirit, I raised +my eyes with decent gravity, and surveyed with penetrating look the +crowds of young men who were standing near me. And I discerned, more +plainly than I saw any of the others, a youth who stood directly in +front of me, all alone, leaning against a marble column; and, being +moved thereto by irresistible fate, I began to take thought within my +mind of his bearing and manners, the which I had never before done in +the case of anyone else. I say, then, that, according to my judgment, +which was not at that time biased by love, he was most beautiful in +form, most pleasing in deportment, and apparently of an honorable +disposition. The soft and silky locks that fell in graceful curls beside +his cheeks afforded manifest proof of his youthfulness. The look +wherewith he eyed me seemed to beg for pity, and yet it was marked by +the wariness and circumspection usual between man and man. Sure I am +that I had still strength enough to turn away my eyes from his gaze, at +least for a time; but no other occurrence had power to divert my +attention from the things already mentioned, and upon which I had deeply +pondered. And the image of his form, which was already in my mind, +remained there, and this image I dwelt upon with silent delight, +affirming within myself that those things were true which seemed to me +to be true; and, pleased that he should look at me, I raised my eyes +betimes to see whether he was still looking at me. But anon I gazed at +him more steadily, making no attempt to avoid amorous snares. And when I +had fixed my eyes on his more intently than was my wont, methought I +could read in his eyes words which might be uttered in this wise: + + "O lady, thou alone art mine only bliss!" + +Certainly, if I should say that this idea was not pleasing to me, I +should surely lie, for it drew forth a gentle sigh from my bosom, +accompanied by these words: "And thou art mine!" unless, perchance, the +words were but the echo of his, caught by my mind and remaining within +it. But what availed it whether such words were spoken or not? The heart +had good understanding within itself of that which was not expressed by +the lips, and kept, too, within itself that which, if it had escaped +outside, might, mayhap, have left me still free. And so, from that time +forward, I gave more absolute liberty to my foolish eyes than ever they +had possessed before, and they were well content withal. And surely, if +the gods, who guide all things to a definite issue, had not deprived me +of understanding, I could still have been mistress of myself. But, +postponing every consideration to the last one that swayed me, I took +delight in following my unruly passion, and having made myself meet, all +at once, for such slavery, I became its thrall. For the fire that leaped +forth from his eyes encountered the light in mine, flashing thereunto a +most subtle ray. It did not remain content therewith, but, by what +hidden ways I know not, penetrated directly into the deepest recesses of +my heart; the which, affrighted by the sudden advent of this flame, +recalled to its center its exterior forces and left me as pale as +death, and also with the chill of death upon me. But not for long did +this continue, rather it happened contrariwise; and I felt my heart not +only glow with sudden beat, but its forces speeded back swiftly to their +places, bringing with them a throbbing warmth that chased away my pallor +and flushed my cheeks deeply; and, marveling wherefore this should +betide, I sighed heavily; nor thereafter was there other thought in my +soul than how I might please him. + +In like fashion, he, without changing his place, continued to scrutinize +my features, but with the greatest caution; and, perhaps, having had +much practice in amorous warfare, and knowing by what devices the +longed-for prey might be captured, he showed himself every moment more +humble, more desperate, and more fraught with tender yearning. Alas! how +much guile did that seeming desperation hide, which, as the result has +now shown, though it may have come from the heart, never afterward +returned to the same, and made manifest later that its revealment on the +face was only a lure and a delusion! And, not to mention all his deeds, +each of which was full of most artful deception, he so wrought upon me +by his own craft, or else the fates willed it should so happen, that I +straightway found myself enmeshed in the snares of sudden and +unthought-of love, in a manner beyond all my powers of telling, and so I +remain unto this very hour. + +It was this one alone, therefore, most pitiful ladies, that my heart, in +it mad infatuation, chose, not only among so many high-born, handsome +and valiant youths then present, but even among all of the same degree +having their abode in my own Parthenope, as first and last and sole lord +of my life. It was this one alone that I loved, and loved more than any +other. It was this one alone that was destined to be the beginning and +source of my by any pleasure, although often tempted, being at last +vanquished, have burned and now burn in the fire which then first caught +me. Omitting many thoughts that came into my mind, and many things that +were told me, I will only say that, intoxicated by a new passion, I +returned with a soul enslaved to that spot whence I had gone forth in +freedom. + +When I was in my chamber, alone and unoccupied, inflamed with various +wild wishes, filled with new sensations and throbbing with many +anxieties, all of which were concentrated on the image of the youth who +pleased me, I argued within myself that if I could not banish love from +my luckless bosom, I might at least be able to keep cautious and secret +control of it therein; and how hard it is to do such a thing, no one can +discover who does not make trial of the same. Surely do I believe that +not even Love himself can cause so great anguish as such an attempt is +certain to produce. Furthermore, I was arrested in my purpose by the +fact that I had no acquaintance with him of whom I professed myself +enamored. To relate all the thoughts that were engendered in me by this +love, and of what nature they were, would take altogether too much time. +But some few I must perforce declare, as well as certain things that +were beginning to delight me more than usual. I say, then, that, +everything else being neglected, the only thing that was dear to me was +the thought of my beloved, and, when it occurred to my mind that, by +persevering in this course, I might, mayhap, give occasion to some one +to discover that which I wished to conceal, I often upbraided myself for +my folly. But what availed it all? My upbraidings had to give way to my +inordinate yearning for him, and dissolved uselessly into thin air. + +For several days I longed exceedingly to learn who was the youth I +loved, toward whom my thoughts were ever clearly leading me; and this I +craftily learned, the which filled me with great content. In like +manner, the ornaments for which I had before this in no way cared, as +having but little need thereof, began to be dear to me, thinking that +the more I was adorned the better should I please. Wherefore I prized +more than hitherto my garments, gold, pearls, and my other precious +things. Until the present moment it had been my custom to frequent +churches, gardens, festivals, and seaside resorts, without other wish +than the companionship of young friends of my own sex; now, I sought the +aforesaid places with a new desire, believing that both to see and be +seen would bring me great delectation. But, in sooth, the trust which I +was wont to place in my beauty had deserted me, and now I never left my +chamber, without first seeking the faithful counsel of my mirror: and my +hands, newly instructed thereunto by I know not what cunning master, +discovering each day some more elegant mode of adornment than the day +before, and deftly adding artificial charms to my natural loveliness, +thereby caused me to outshine all the other ladies in my surpassing +splendor. Furthermore, I began to wish for the honors usually paid to me +by ladies, because of their gracious courtesy, though, perhaps, they +were rather the guerdon of my noble birth, being due to me therefor, +thinking that if I appeared so magnificent to my beloved's eyes, he +would take the more delight in beholding me. Avarice, too, which is +inborn in women, fled from me, so that I became free and openhanded, and +regarded my own possessions almost as if they were not my own. The +sedateness that beseems a woman fell away from me somewhat, and I grew +bolder in my ways; and, in addition to all this, my eyes, which until +that day looked out on the world simply and naturally, entirely changed +their manner of looking, and became so artful in their office that it +was a marvel. And many other alterations appeared in me over and above +these, all of which I do not care to relate, for besides that the +report thereof would be too tedious, I ween full well that you, like me, +also have been, or are, in love, and know what changes take place in +those who are in such sad case. + +He was a most wary and circumspect youth, whereunto my experience was +able to bear witness frequently. Going very rarely, and always in the +most decorous manner, to the places where I happened to be, he used to +observe me, but ever with a cautious eye, so that it seemed as if he had +planned as well as I to hide the tender flames that glowed in the +breasts of both. Certainly, if I denied that love, although it had +clutched every corner of my heart and taken violent possession of every +recess of my soul, grew even more intense whenever it happened that my +eyes encountered his, I should deny the truth; he added further fuel to +the fires that consumed me, and rekindled such as might be expiring, if, +mayhap, there were any such. But the beginning of all this was by no +means so cheerful as the ending was joyless, as soon as I was deprived +of the sight of this, my beloved, inasmuch as the eyes, being thus +robbed of their delight, gave woful occasion of lamentation to the +heart, the sighs whereof grew greater in quality as well as in quantity, +and desire, as if seizing my every feeling, took me away from myself, +and, as if I were not where I was, I frequently gave him who saw me +cause for amazement by affording numberless pretexts for such +happenings, being taught by love itself. In addition to this, the quiet +of the night and the thoughts on which my fancy fed continuously, by +taking me out of myself, sometimes moved me to actions more frantic than +passionate and to the employment of unusual words. + +But it happened that while my excess of ornaments, heartfelt sighs, lost +rest, strange actions, frantic movements, and other effects of my recent +love, attracted the notice of the other domestics of the household, they +especially struck with wonder a nurse of mine, old in years and +experienced, and of sound judgment, who, though well aware of the flames +that tortured my breast, yet making show of not knowing thereof, +frequently chided me for my altered manners. One day in particular, +finding me lying disconsolate on my couch, seeing that my brow was +charged with doleful thoughts, and believing that we were not likely to +be interrupted by other company, she began to speak as follows: + +"My dearest daughter, whom I love as my very self, tell me, I pray you, +what are the sorrows that have for some time past been harassing you? +You who were wont to be so gay formerly, you whom I have never seen +before with a mournful countenance, seem to me now to be the prey of +grief and to let no moment pass without a sigh." + +Then, having at first feigned to be asleep and not to have heard her, I +heaved a deep sigh, and, my face, at one time flushing, at another +turning pale, I tossed about on the couch, seeking what answer I should +make, though, indeed, in my agitation, my tongue could hardly shape a +perfect sentence. But, at length, I answered: + +"Indeed, dear nurse, no fresh sorrows harass me; nor do I feel that I am +in any way different from what I am wont to be. Perhaps some troubles I +may have, but they are such as are incidental to all women." + +"Most certainly, you are trying to deceive me, my child," returned the +aged nurse, "and you seem not to reflect how serious a matter it is to +attempt to lead persons of experience to believe one thing because it is +couched in words and to disbelieve the opposite, although it is made +plainly evident by deeds. There is no reason why you should hide from me +a fact whereof I have had perfect knowledge since several days ago." + +Alas! when I heard her speak thus, provoked and stung by her words, I +said: + +"If, then, thou wittest of all this, wherefore dost thou question me? +All that thou hast to do now is to keep secret that which thou hast +discovered." + +"In good truth," she replied, "I will conceal all that which it is not +meet that another should know, and may the earth open and engulf me in +its bowels before I ever reveal aught that might turn to thy open shame! +Therefore, do thou live assured of this, and guard thyself carefully +from letting another know that which I, without either thyself or anyone +else telling me, have learned from observing thy looks. As for myself, +it is not now, but long ere now, that I have learned to keep hidden that +which should not be disclosed. Therefore, do thou continue to feel +secure as to this matter, and watch most carefully that thou lettest not +another know that which I, not witting it from thee or from another, +most surely have discovered from thine own face and from its changeful +seeming. But, if thou art still the victim of that folly by which I know +thou hast been enslaved, if thou art as prone now as erewhile to indulge +that feeling to which thou hast already given way, then know I right +well that I must leave thee to thy own devices, for bootless will be my +teachings and my warnings. Still, although this cruel tyrant, to whom in +thy youthful simplicity being taken by surprise thou hast yielded thy +freedom, appears to have deprived thee of understanding as well as of +liberty, I will put thee in mind of many things, and entreat thee to +fling off and banish wicked thoughts from thy chaste bosom, to quench +that unholy fire, and not to make thyself the thrall of unworthy hopes. +Now is the time to be strong in resistance; for whoso makes a stout +fight in the beginning roots out an unhallowed affection, and bears +securely the palm of victory; but whoso, with long and wishful fancies, +fosters it, will try too late to resist a yoke that has been submitted +to almost unresistingly." + +"Alas!" I replied, "how far easier it is to say such things than to +lead them to any good result." + +"Albeit they be not easy of fulfilment," she said, "yet are they +possible, and they are things that it beseems you to do. Take thou +thought whether it would be fitting that for such a thing as this thou +shouldst lose the luster of thy exalted parentage, the great fame of thy +virtue, the flower of thy beauty, the honor in which thou art now held, +and, above all, the favor of the spouse whom thou hast loved and by whom +thou art loved: certainly, thou shouldst not wish for this; nor do I +believe thou wouldst wish it, if thou didst but weigh the matter +seriously in thine own mind. Wherefore, in the name of God, forbear, and +drive from thy heart the false delights promised by a guilty hope, and, +with them, the madness that has seized thee. By this aged breast, long +harassed by many cares, from which thou didst take thy first nutriment, +I humbly beseech thee to have the courage to aid thyself, to have a +concern for thine own honor, and not to disdain my warnings. Bethink +thee that the very desire to be healed is itself often productive of +health." + +Whereto I thus made answer: + +"Only too well do I know, dear nurse, the truth of that which thou +sayest. But a furious madness constrains me to follow the worse course; +vainly does my heart, insatiable in its desires, long for strength to +enable it to adopt thy advice; what reason enjoins is rendered of no +avail by this soul-subduing passion. My mind is wholly possessed by +Love, who rules every part thereof, in virtue of his all-embracing +deity; and surely thou art aware that his power is absolute, and 'twere +useless to attempt to resist it." + +Having said these words, I became almost unconscious, and fell into her +arms. But she, now more agitated than before, in austere and rebuking +tones, said: + +"Yes, forsooth, well am I aware that you and a number of fond young +women, inflamed and instigated thereunto by vain thoughts, have +discovered Love to be a god, whereas a juster name for him would be that +of demon; and you and they call him the son of Venus, and say that his +strength has come to him from the third heaven, wishing, seemingly, to +offer necessity as an excuse for your foolishness. Oh, was ever woman so +misled as thou? Truly, thou must be bereft entirely of understanding! +What a thing thou sayest! Love a deity! Love is a madness, thrust forth +from hell by some fury. He speeds across the earth in hasty flight, and +they whom he visits soon discover that he brings no deity with him, but +frenzy rather; yet none will he visit except those abounding overmuch in +earthly felicity; for they, he knows, in their overweening conceit, are +ready to afford him lodgment and shelter. This has been proven to us by +many facts. Do we not see that Venus, the true, the heavenly Venus, +often dwells in the humblest cot, her sole concern being the +perpetuation of our race? But this god, whom some in their folly name +Love, always hankering after things unholy, ministers only to those +whose fortunes are prosperous. This one, recoiling from those whose food +and raiment suffice to meet the demands of nature, uses his best efforts +to win over the pampered and the splendidly attired, and with their food +and their habiliments he mixes his poisons, and so gains the lordship of +their wicked souls; and, for this reason, he gladly seeks a harborage in +lofty palaces, and seldom, or rather never, enters the houses of the +lowly, because this horrible plague always resorts by choice to scenes +of elegance and refinement, well knowing that such places are best +fitted for the achievement of his fell purposes. It is easy for us to +see that among the humble the affections are sane and well ordered; but +the rich, on the other hand, everywhere pluming themselves on their +riches, and being insatiable in their pursuit of other things as well as +of wealth, always show more eagerness therein than is becoming; and they +who can do much desire furthermore to have the power of doing that which +they must not do: among whom I feel that thou hast placed thyself, O +most hapless of women, seeing that thou hast already entered and +traveled far on a path that will surely lead to guilt and misery." + +After hearing which, I said: + +"Be silent, old woman, and provoke not the wrath of the gods by thy +speech. Now that thou art incapacitated from love by age and rejected by +all the gods, thou railest against this one, blaspheming him in whom +thou didst erstwhile take delight. If other ladies, far more puissant, +famous, and wise than I, have formerly called him by that name, it is +not in my power to give him a name anew. By him am I now truly enslaved; +whatever be the cause of this, and whether it be the occasion of my +happiness or misery, I am helpless. The strength wherewith I once +opposed him has been vanquished and has abandoned me. Therefore either +death or the youth for whom I languish can alone end my tortures. If +thou art, then, as wise as I hold thee to be, bestow such counsel and +help on me as may lighten my anguish, or, at least, abstain from +exasperating it by censuring that to which my soul, unable to act +differently, is inclined with all its energy." + +Thereupon, she, being angry, and not without reason, making no answer, +but muttering to herself, passed out of the chamber and left me alone. + +When my dear nurse had departed without making further discourse, and I +was again alone, I felt that I had acted ill in despising her advice. I +revolved her sayings within my restless breast; and, albeit my +understanding was blinded, I perceived that what she had said was +replete with wisdom, and, almost repenting of what I had uttered and of +the course which I had declared I purposed taking, I was wavering in my +mind. And, already beginning to have thoughts of abandoning that course +which was sure to be in every way most harmful, I was about to call her +back to give me encouragement, when a new and unforeseen event suddenly +changed my intention. For a most beautiful lady, come to my private +chamber I know not whence, presented herself before my eyes, enveloped +in such dazzling light that scarcely could my sight endure the +brightness thereof. But while she stood still and silent before me, the +effulgent radiance that had almost blinded my vision, after a time left +it unobscured, and I was able so to portray her every aspect to my mind, +as her whole beauteous figure was impressed on my memory. I saw that she +was nude, except for a thin and delicate drapery of purple, which, +albeit in some parts it covered the milk-white body, yet no more +concealed it from my ravished eyes than does the transparent glass +conceal the portrait beneath it. Her head, the hair whereof as much +surpassed gold in its luster as gold surpasses the yellowest tresses to +be found among mortals, was garlanded with a wreath of green myrtle, +beneath whose shadow I beheld two eyes of peerless splendor, so +enchanting that I could have gazed on them forever; they flashed forth +such luminous beams that it was a marvel; and all the rest of her +countenance had such transcendent loveliness that the like never was +seen here below. At first she spake no word, perchance content that I +should look upon her, or perchance seeing me so content to look upon +her. Then gradually through the translucent radiance, she revealed more +clearly every hidden grace, for she was aware that I could not believe +such beauty possible except I beheld it with my eyes, and that even then +words would fail me to picture it to mortals with my tongue. At last, +when she observed that I had sated my eyes with gazing on her, and when +she saw that her coming hither was as wondrous to me as her loveliness, +with smiling face, and in a voice sweeter than can be conceived by minds +like ours, she thus addressed me: + +"Prithee, young woman, what art thou, the most fickle of thy sex, +preparing to do in obedience to the late counsels of thy aged nurse? +Knowest thou not that such counsels are far harder to follow than that +very love which thou desirest to flee? Hast thou reflected on the dire +and unendurable torments which compliance with them will entail on thee? +O most insensate one! dost thou then, who only a few hours ago wert my +willing vassal, now wish to break away from my gentle rule, because, +forsooth, of the words of an old woman, who is no longer vassal of mine, +as if, like her, thou art now unwitting of what delights I am the +source? O most witless of women! forbear, and reflect whether thou +shouldst not find befitting happiness in that which makes the happiness +of Heaven and earth. All things that Phoebus beholds during the bright +day, from what time he emerges from Ganges, until he plunges with his +tired steeds into the Hesperian waves, to seek due repose after his +wearisome pilgrimage; all things that are confined between cold Arcturus +and the red-hot pole, all own the absolute and authentic lordship of my +wingéd son; and in Heaven not only is he esteemed a god, like the other +deities, but he is so much more puissant than them all that not one +remains who has not heretofore been vanquished by his darts. He, flying +on golden plumage throughout his realms, with such swiftness that his +passage can hardly be discerned, visits them all in turn, and, bending +his strong bow, to the drawn string he fits the arrows forged by me and +tempered in the fountains sacred to my divinity. And when he elects +anyone to his service, as being more worthy than others, that one he +rules as it likes him. He kindles raging fires in the hearts of the +young, fans the flames that are almost dead in the old, awakens the +fever of passion in the chaste bosoms of virgins and instils a genial +warmth into the breasts of wives and widows equally. He has even +aforetime forced the gods, wrought up to a frenzy by his blazing torch, +to forsake the heavens and dwell on earth under false appearances. +Whereof the proofs are many. Was not Phoebus, though victor over huge +Python and creator of the celestial strains that sound from the lyres of +Parnassus, by him made the thrall, now of Daphne, now of Clymene, and +again of Leucothea, and of many others withal? Certainly, this was so. +And, finally, hiding his brightness under the form of a shepherd, did +not Apollo tend the flocks of Admetus? Even Jove himself, who rules the +skies, by this god coerced, molded his greatness into forms inferior to +his own. Sometimes, in shape of a snow-white fowl, he gave voice to +sounds sweeter than those of the dying swan, and anon, changing to a +young bull and fitting horns to his brow, he bellowed along the plains, +and humbled his proud flanks to the touch of a virgin's knees, and, +compelling his tired hoofs to do the office of oars, he breasted the +waves of his brother's kingdom, yet sank not in its depths, but joyously +bore away his prize. I shall not discourse unto you of his pursuit of +Semele under his proper form, or of Alcmena, in guise of Amphitryon, or +of Callisto, under the semblance of Diana, or of Danaë for whose sake he +became a shower of gold, seeing that in the telling thereof I should +waste too much time. Nay, even the savage god of war, whose strength +appalls the giants, repressed his wrathful bluster, being forced to such +submission by this my son, and became gentle and loving. And the forger +of Jupiter, and artificer of his three-pronged thunderbolts, though +trained to handle fire, was smitten by a shaft more potent than he +himself had ever wrought. Nay I, though I be his mother, have not been +able to fend off his arrows: Witness the tears I have shed for the death +of Adonis! But why weary myself and thee with the utterance of so many +words? There is no deity in heaven who has passed unscathed from his +assaults; except, perhaps, Diana only, who may have escaped him by +fleeing to the woods; though some there be who tell that she did not +flee, but rather concealed the wound. If haply, however, thou, in the +hardness of thy unbelief, rejectest the testimony of heaven, and +searchest rather for examples of those in this nether world who have +felt his power, I affirm them to be so multitudinous that where to begin +I know not. Yet this much may I tell thee truly: all who have confessed +his sway have been men of might and valor. Consider attentively, in the +first place, that undaunted son of Alcmena, who, laying aside his arrows +and the formidable skin of the huge lion, was fain to adorn his fingers +with green emeralds, and to smooth and adjust his bristling and +rebellions hair. Nay, that hand which aforetime had wielded the terrific +club, and slain therewith Antæus, and dragged the hound of hell from the +lower world, was now content to draw the woolen threads spun from +Omphale's distaff; and the shoulders whereon had rested the pillars of +the heavens, from which he had for a time freed Atlas, were now clasped +in Omphale's arms, and afterward, to do her pleasure, covered with a +diaphanous raiment of purple. Need I relate what Paris did in obedience +to the great deity? or Helen? or Clytemnestra? or Ægisthus? These are +things that are well known to all the world. Nor do I care to speak of +Achilles, or of Scylla, of Ariadne or Leander, of Dido, or of many +others, of whom the same tale could be told, were there need to tell it. +Believe me when I affirm that this fire is holy, and most potent as +well. Thou hast heard that heaven and earth are subject to my son +because of his lordship over gods and men. But what shall I say of the +power that he exercises over irrational animals, whether celestial or +terrene? It is through him that the turtle is fain to follow her mate; +it is through him that my pigeons have learned to caress his ringdoves +with fondest endearments. And there is no creeping or living creature +that has ever at any time attempted to escape from his puissance: in the +woods the timid stag, made fierce by his touch, becomes brave for sake +of the coveted hind and by bellowing and fighting, they prove how strong +are the witcheries of Love. The ferocious boars are made by Love to +froth at the mouth and sharpen their ivory tusks; the African lions, +when Love quickens them, shake their manes in fury. But leaving the +groves and forests, I assert that even in the chilly waters the +numberless divinities of the sea and of the flowing rivers are not safe +from the bolts of my son. Neither can I for a moment believe that thou +art ignorant of the testimony thereof which has been rendered by +Neptune, Glaucus, Alpheus, and others too numerous to mention: not only +were they unable to quench the flame with their dank waters, but they +could not even moderate its fury, which, when it had made its might +felt, both on the earth and in the waters, continued its onward course, +and rested not until it had penetrated into the gloomy realms of Dis. +Therefore Heaven and Earth and Ocean and Hell itself have had experience +of the potency of his weapons. And, in order that thou mayest understand +in a few words the power of the deity, I tell thee that, while +everything succumbs to nature, and nothing can ever be emancipated from +her dominion, Nature herself is but the servant of Love. When he +commands, ancient hatreds perish, and angry moods, be they old or new, +give place to his fires; and lastly, his sway has such far-reaching +influence that even stepmothers become gracious to their stepchildren, a +thing which it is a marvel to behold. Therefore what seekest thou? Why +dost thou hesitate? Why dost thou rashly avoid him? When so many gods, +when so many men, when so many animals, have been vanquished by him, art +ashamed to be vanquished by him also? In good sooth, thou weenest not +what thou art doing. If thou fearest to be blamed for thy obedience to +him, a blame so unmerited never can be thy portion. Greater sins than +thou canst commit have been committed by thousands far greater than +thou, and these sins would plead as thy excuse, shouldst thou pursue +that course which others have pursued--others who far excel thee. Thou +wilt have sinned but a little, seeing that thou hadst far less power of +resistance than those aforementioned. But if my words move thee not, and +thou wouldst still wish to withstand the god, bethink thee that thy +power falls far short of that of Jove, and that in judgment thou canst +not equal Phoebus, nor in wealth Juno, nor me in beauty; and yet, we all +have been conquered. Thou art greatly deceived, and I fear me that thou +must perish in the end, if thou persist in thy changed purpose. Let that +which has erstwhile sufficed for the whole world, suffice for thee, nor +try to render thyself cold-hearted, by saying: 'I have a husband, and +the holy laws and the vowed faith forbid me this'; for bootless are such +reasonings against the puissance of this god. He discards the laws of +others scornfully, as thinking them of no account, and ordains his own. +Pasiphæ? had a husband, and Phædra, and I, too, even though I have +loved. And it is these same husbands who most frequently fall in love +with others, albeit they have wives of their own: witness Jason and +Theseus and valiant Hector and Ulysses. Therefore to men we do no wrong +if we apply to them the same laws that they apply to others; for to +them no privilege has been granted which is not accorded to us withal. +Banish, then, thy foolish thoughts, and, in all security, go on loving +him whom thou hadst already begun to love. In good sooth, if thou +refusest to own the power of mighty Love, it behooves thee to fly; but +whither canst thou fly? Knowest thou of any retreat where he will not +follow and overtake thee? He has in all places equal puissance. Go +wheresoever thou wilt, never canst thou pass across the borders of his +realms, and within these realms vain it is for mortals to try to hide +themselves when he would smite them. But let it comfort thee to know, +young woman, that no such odious passion shall trouble thee as erstwhile +was the scourge of Myrrha, Semiramis, Byblis, Canace, and Cleopatra. +Nothing strange or new will be wrought by my son in thy regard. He has, +as have the other gods, his own special laws, which thou art not the +first to obey, and shouldst not be the last to entertain hopes +therefrom. If haply thou believest that thou art without companions in +this, foolish is thy belief. Let us pass by the other world, which is +fraught with such happenings; but observe attentively only thine own +city! What an infinite number of ladies it can show who are in the same +case with thyself! And remember that what is done by so many cannot be +deemed unseemly. Therefore, be thou of our following, and return thanks +to our beauty, which thou hast so closely examined. But return special +thanks to our deity, which has sundered thee from the ranks of the +simple, and persuaded thee to become acquainted with the delights that +our gifts bestow." + +Alas! alas! ye tender and compassionate ladies, if Love has been +propitious to your desires, say what could I, what should I, answer to +such and so great words uttered by so great a goddess, if not: "Be it +done unto me according to thy pleasure"? And so, I affirm that as soon +as she had closed her lips, having already harvested within my +understanding all her words, and feeling that every word was charged +with ample excuse for what I might do, and knowing now how mighty she +was and how resistless, I resolved at once to submit to her guidance; +and instantly rising from my couch, and kneeling on the ground, with +humbled heart, I thus began, in abashed and tremulous accents: + +"O peerless and eternal loveliness! O divinest of deities! O sole +mistress of all my thoughts! whose power is felt to be most invincible +by those who dare to try to withstand it, forgive the ill-timed +obstinacy wherewith I, in my great folly, attempted to ward off from my +breast the weapons of thy son, who was then to me an unknown divinity. +Now, I repeat, be it done unto me according to thy pleasure, and +according to thy promises withal. Surely, my faith merits a due reward +in time and space, seeing that I, taking delight in thee more than do +all other women, wish to see the number of thy subjects increase forever +and ever." + +Hardly had I made an end of speaking these words, when she moved from +the place where she was standing, and came toward me. Then, her face +glowing with the most fervent expression of affection and sympathy, she +embraced me, and touched my forehead with her divine lips. Next, just as +the false Ascanius, when panting in the arms of Dido, breathed on her +mouth, and thereby kindled the latent flame, so did she breathe on my +mouth, and, in that wise, rendered the divine fire that slumbered in my +heart more uncontrollable than ever, and this I felt at that very +moment. Thereafter, opening a little her purple robe, she showed me, +clasped in her arms against her ravishing breast, the very counterpart +of the youth I loved, wrapped in the transparent folds of a Grecian +mantle, and revealing in the lineaments of his countenance pangs that +were not unlike those I suffered. + +"O damsel," she said, "rivet thy gaze on the youth before thee: we have +not given thee for lover a Lissa, a Geta, or a Birria, or anyone +resembling them, but a person in every way worthy of being loved by +every goddess in the heavens. Thee he loves more than himself, as we +have ordained, and thee will he ever love; therefore do thou, joyfully +and securely, abandon thyself to his love. Thy prayers have moved us to +pity, as it is meet that prayers so deserving should, and so, be of good +hope, and fear not that thou shalt be without the reward due thee in the +future." + +And thereafter she suddenly vanished from my eyes. _Oimè!_ wretched me! +I do not for a moment doubt now, after considering the things which +followed, that this one who appeared unto me was not Venus, but rather +Tisiphone, who, doffing from her head the horrid snakes that served it +for hair, and assuming for the while the splendid form of the Goddess of +Love, in this manner lured me with deceitful counsels to that disaster +which at length overwhelmed me. Thus did Juno, but in different fashion, +veiling the radiance of her deity and transforming herself for the +occasion into the exact likeness of her aged nurse, persuaded Semele to +her undoing. Woe is me! my resolve to be so advised was the cause--O +hallowed Modesty! O Chastity, most sacred of all the virtues! sole and +most precious treasure of righteous women!--was the cause, I repeat, +wherefore I drove ye from my bosom. Yet do I venture to pray unto ye for +pardon, and surely the sinner who repents and perseveres in repentance +should in due season obtain your forgiveness. + +Although the goddess had disappeared from my sight, my whole soul, +nevertheless, continued to crave her promised delights; and, albeit the +ardor of the passion that vexed my soul deprived me of every other +feeling, one piece of good fortune, for what deserving of mine I know +not, remained to me out of so many that had been lost--namely, the power +of knowing that seldom if ever has a smooth and happy ending been +granted to love, if that love be divulged and blazed abroad. And for +this reason, when influenced by my highest thoughts, I resolved, +although it was a most serious thing to do so, not to set will above +reason in carrying this my desire unto an ending. And assuredly, +although I have often been most violently constrained by divers +accidents to follow certain courses, yet so much grace was conceded to +me that, sustained by my own firmness, I passed through these agonies +without revealing the pangs that tortured me. And in sooth, I have still +resolution enough to continue to follow out this my purpose; so that, +although the things I write are most true, I have so disposed them that +no one, however keen his sagacity, can ever discover who I am, except +him who is as well acquainted with these matters as I, being, indeed, +the occasion of them all. And I implore him, should this little book +ever come into his hands, in the name of that love which he once bore +me, to conceal that which, if disclosed, would turn neither to his +profit nor honor. And, albeit he has deprived me of himself, and that +through no fault of mine, let him not take it upon himself to deprive me +of that honor which I still possess, although, perchance, undeservedly; +for should he do so, he could never again give it back to me, any more +than he can now give me back himself. + +Having, therefore, formed my plans in this wise, I showed the most +long-suffering patience in manifesting my keenest and most covetous +yearnings, and I used my best efforts, but only in secret ways and when +opportunities were afforded me, to light in this young man's soul the +same flames wherewith my own soul glowed, and to make him as +circumspect as myself withal. Nor, in truth, was this for me a task of +great difficulty; for, inasmuch as the lineaments of the face always +bear most true witness to the qualities of the heart, it was not long +before I became aware that my desire would have its full fruition. I +perceived that, not only was he throbbing with amorous enthusiasm, but +that he was also imbued with most perfect discretion, and this was +exceedingly pleasing to me. He, being at once wishful to preserve my +honor in all its luster, and, at the same time, to arrange convenient +times and places for our meetings, employed many ingenious stratagems, +which, methinks, must have cost him much toil and trouble. He used every +subtle art to win the friendship of all who were related to me, and, at +last, of my husband; and not only did he enjoy their friendship, but he +possessed it in such a supreme degree that no pleasure was agreeable to +them unless he shared it. How much all this delighted me you will +understand without its being needful to me to set it down in words. And +is there anyone so dull of wit as not to conclude that from the +aforesaid friendship arose many opportunities for him and me of holding +discourse together in public? But already had he bethought himself of +acting in more subtle ways; and now he would speak to this one, now to +that one, words whereby I, being most eager for such enlightenment, +discovered that whatever he said to these was fraught with figurative +and hidden meanings, intended to show forth his ardent affection for +myself. When he was sensible that I had a clear perception of the occult +significance of his questions and answers, he went still further, and by +gestures, and mobile changes in the expression of his features, he would +make known to me his thoughts and the various phases of his passion, +which was to me a source of much delectation; and I strove so hard to +comprehend it all and to make fitting response thereunto, that neither +could he shadow forth anything to me, nor I to him, that either of us +did not at once understand. + +Nay, not satisfied even with this, he employed other symbols and +metaphors, and labored earnestly to discipline me in such manner of +speech; and, to render me the more assured of his unalterable love, he +named me Fiammetta, and himself Panfilo. Woe is me! How often, when +warmed with love and wine, did we tell tales, in the presence of our +dearest friends, of Fiammetta and Panfilo, feigning that they were +Greeks of the days of old, I at one time, he at another; and the tales +were all of ourselves; how we were first caught in the snares of Love, +and of what tribulations we were long the victims, giving suitable names +to the places and persons connected with the story! Certainly, I +frequently laughed at it all, being made merry by the simplicity of the +bystanders, as well as by his astuteness and sagacity. Yet betimes I +dreaded that in the flush of his excitement he might thoughtlessly let +his tongue wander in directions wherein it was not befitting it should +venture. But he, being ever far wiser than I imagined, guarded himself +craftily from any such blundering awkwardness. + +_Oimè!_ most compassionate ladies, what is there that Love will not +teach to his subjects? and what is there that he is not able to render +them skilful in learning? I, who of all young women was the most +simple-minded, and ordinarily with barely power to loose my tongue, when +among my companions, concerning the most trivial and ordinary affairs, +now, because of this my affection, mastered so speedily all his modes of +speech that, in a brief space, my aptness at feigning and inventing +surpassed that of any poet! And there were few questions put to me in +response to which, after meditating on their main points, I could not +make up a pleasing tale: a thing, in my opinion, exceedingly difficult +for a young woman to begin, and still more difficult to finish and +relate afterward. But, if my actual situation required it, I might set +down numerous details which might, perhaps, seem to you of little or no +moment, as, for instance, the artful experiment whereby we tested the +fidelity of my favorite maid to whom, and to whom alone, we meditated +entrusting the secret of this hidden passion, considering that, should +another share it, our uneasiness, lest it should not be kept, would be +most grievous. Furthermore, it would weary you if I mentioned all the +plans we adopted, in order to meet divers situations, plans that I do +not believe were ever imagined by any before us; and albeit I am now +well aware that they all worked for my ultimate destruction, yet the +remembrance of them does not displease me. + +Unless, O ladies, my judgment be greatly at fault, the strength of our +minds was by no means small, if it be but taken in account how hard a +thing it is for youthful persons in love to resist long the rush of +impetuous ardor without crossing the bounds set by reason: nay, it was +so great and of such quality that the most valiant of men, by acting in +such wise, would win high and worthy laud as a result thereof. But my +pen is now about to depict the final ending to which love was guided, +and, before I do so, I would appeal to your pity and to those soft +sentiments which make their dwelling in your tender breasts, and incline +your thoughts to a like termination. + +Day succeeded day, and our wishes dragged along with them, kept alive by +torturing anxiety, the full bitterness whereof each of us experienced; +although the one manifested this to the other in disguised language, and +the other showed herself over-discreet to an excessive degree; all of +which you who know how ladies who are beloved behave in such +circumstances will easily understand. Well, then, he, putting full trust +in the veiled meaning of my words, and choosing the proper time and +place, came to an experience of that which I desired as much as he, +although I feigned the contrary. Certainly, if I were to say that this +was the cause of the love I felt for him, I should also have to confess +that every time it came back to my memory, it was the occasion to me of +a sorrow like unto none other. But, I call God to witness, nothing that +has happened between us had the slightest influence upon the love I bore +him, nor has it now. Still, I will not deny that our close intimacy was +then, and is now, most dear to me. And where is the woman so unwise as +not to wish to have the object of her affection within reach rather than +at a distance? How much more intensely does love enthrall us when it is +brought so near us that we and it are made almost inseparable! I say, +then, that after such an adventure, never afore willed or even thought +of by me, not once, but many times did fortune and our adroit stratagems +bring us good cheer and consolation, not indeed screened entirely from +danger, for which I cared less than for the passing of the fleeing wind. +But while the time was being spent in such joyous fashion--and that it +was joyous, Love, who alone may bear witness thereof, can truly say--yet +sometimes his coming inspired me with not a little natural apprehension, +inasmuch as he was beginning to be indiscreet in the manner of his +coming. But how dear to him was my own apartment, and with what gladness +did it see him enter! Yet was he filled with more reverence for it than +he ever had been for a sacred temple, and this I could at all times +easily discern. Woe is me! what burning kisses, what tender embraces, +what delicious moments we had there! + +Why do I take such pleasure in the mere words which I am now setting +down? It is, I say, because I am forced to express the gratitude I then +felt to the holy goddess who was the promiser and bestower of Love's +delights. Ah, how often did I visit her altars and offer incense, +crowned with a garland of her favorite foliage! How often did I think +scornfully of the counsels of my aged nurse! Nay, furthermore, being +elated far more than all my other companions, how often did I disparage +their loves, saying within myself: "No one is loved as I am loved, no +one loves a youth as matchless as the youth I love, no one realizes such +delights from love as I!" In short, I counted the world as nothing in +comparison with my love. It seemed to me that my head touched the skies, +and that nothing was lacking to the culmination of my ecstatic bliss. +Betimes the idea flashed on my mind that I must disclose to others the +occasion of my transports, for surely, I would reflect, it would be a +delight to others to hear of that which has brought such delight to me! +But thou, O Shame, on the one side, and thou, O Fear, on the other, did +hold me back: the one threatening me with eternal infamy; the other with +loss of that which hostile Fortune was soon afterward to tear from me. +In such wise then, did I live for some time, for it was then pleasing to +Love that I should live in this manner; and, in good sooth, so blithely +and joyously were these days spent that I had little cause to envy any +lady in the whole world, never imagining that the delight wherewith my +heart was filled to overflowing, was to nourish the root and plant of my +future misery, as I now know to my fruitless and never-ending sorrow. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of La Fiammetta, by Giovanni Boccaccio + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10006 *** diff --git a/10006-h/10006-h.htm b/10006-h/10006-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc35eb9 --- /dev/null +++ b/10006-h/10006-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1187 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content= + "text/html; charset=UTF-8"> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of LA FIAMMETTA, by JAMES C. BROGAN. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + <!-- + * { font-family: Times;} + P { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + font-size: 14pt; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; } + HR { width: 33%; } + // --> + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10006 ***</div> + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<a name="LA_FIAMMETTA"></a><h2>LA FIAMMETTA</h2> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h3>GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO</h3> +<br> + +<h3>TRANSLATED BY JAMES C. BROGAN</h3> +<br> + +<h4>1907.</h4> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<a name="INTRODUCTION"></a><h2>INTRODUCTION</h2> +<br> + +<p>Youth, beauty, and love, wit, gayety and laughter, are the component +parts of the delightful picture conjured up by the mere name of Giovanni +Boccaccio, the prince of story-tellers for all generations of men. This +creator of a real literary epoch was born in Paris, in 1313, (in the +eleventh year of Dante's exile), of an Italian father and a French-woman +of good family. His father was a merchant of Florence, whither he +returned with his son when the child was seven years old. The boy +received some education, but was placed in a counting-house when he was +only thirteen, and at seventeen he was sent by his father to Naples to +enter another commercial establishment. But he disliked commerce, and +finally persuaded his father to allow him to study law for two years at +the University of Naples, during which period the lively and attractive +youth made brisk use of his leisure time in that gay and romantic city, +where he made his way into the highest circles of society, and +unconsciously gleaned the material for the rich harvest of song and +story that came with his later years. At this time he was present at the +coronation of the poet Petrarch in the Capitol, and was fired with +admiration for the second greatest poet of that day. He chose Petrarch +for his model and guide, and in riper manhood became his most intimate +friend.</p> + +<p>By the time he was twenty-five, Boccaccio had fallen in love with the +Lady Maria, a natural daughter of King Robert of Naples, who had caused +her to be adopted as a member of the family of the Count d'Aquino, and +to be married when very young to a Neapolitan nobleman. Boccaccio first +saw her in the Church of San Lorenzo on the morning of Easter eve, in +1338, and their ensuing friendship was no secret to their world. For the +entertainment of this youthful beauty he wrote his <i>Filicopo</i>, and the +fair Maria is undoubtedly the heroine of several of his stories and +poems. His father insisted upon his return to Florence in 1340, and +after he had settled in that city he occupied himself seriously with +literary work, producing, between the years 1343 and 1355, the <i>Teseide</i> +(familiar to English readers as "The Knight's Tale" in Chaucer, +modernized by Dryden as "Palamon and Arcite"), <i>Ameto, Amorosa Visione, +La Fiammetta, Ninfale Fiesolona</i>, and his most famous work, the +<i>Decameron</i>, a collection of stories written, it is said, to amuse Queen +Joanna of Naples and her court, during the period when one of the +world's greatest plagues swept over Europe in 1348. In these years he +rose from the vivid but confused and exaggerated manner of <i>Filocopo</i> to +the perfection of polished literary style. The <i>Decameron</i> fully +revealed his genius, his ability to weave the tales of all lands and all +ages into one harmonious whole; from the confused mass of legends of the +Middle Ages, he evolved a world of human interest and dazzling beauty, +fixed the kaleidoscopic picture of Italian society, and set it in the +richest frame of romance.</p> + +<p>While he had the <i>Decameron</i> still in hand, he paused in that great +work, with heart full of passionate longing for the lady of his love, +far away in Naples, to pour out his very soul in <i>La Fiammetta</i>, the +name by which he always called the Lady Maria. Of the real character of +this lady, so famous in literature, and her true relations with +Boccaccio, little that is certain is known. In several of his poems and +in the <i>Decameron</i> he alludes to her as being cold as a marble statue, +which no fire can ever warm; and there is no proof, notwithstanding the +ardor of Fiammetta as portrayed by her lover—who no doubt wished her to +become the reality of his glowing picture—that he ever really received +from the charmer whose name was always on his lips anything more than +the friendship that was apparent to all the world. But she certainly +inspired him in the writing of his best works.</p> + +<p>The best critics agree in pronouncing <i>La Fiammetta</i> a marvelous +performance. John Addington Symonds says: "It is the first attempt in +any literature to portray subjective emotion exterior to the writer; +since the days of Virgil and Ovid, nothing had been essayed in this +region of mental analysis. The author of this extraordinary work proved +himself a profound anatomist of feeling by the subtlety with which he +dissected a woman's heart." The story is full of exquisite passages, and +it exercised a widespread and lasting influence over all the narrative +literature that followed it. It is so rich in material that it furnished +the motives of many tales, and the novelists of the sixteenth century +availed themselves freely of its suggestions.</p> + +<p>After Boccaccio had taken up a permanent residence in Florence, he +showed a lively interest in her political affairs, and fulfilled all +the duties of a good citizen. In 1350 he was chosen to visit the lords +of various towns of Romagna, in order to engage their cooperation in a +league against the Visconti family, who, already lords of the great and +powerful city of Milan, desired to extend their domains beyond the +Apennines. In 1351 Boccaccio had the pleasure of bearing to the poet +Petrarch the news of the restoration of his rights of citizenship and of +his patrimony, both of which he had lost in the troubles of 1323, and +during this visit the two geniuses became friends for life. They delved +together into the literature of the ancients, and Boccaccio determined, +through the medium of translation, to make the work of the great Greek +writers a part of the liberal education of his countrymen. A knowledge +of Greek at that time was an exceedingly rare accomplishment, since the +serious study of living literatures was only just beginning, and the +Greek of Homer had been almost forgotten. Even Petrarch, whose erudition +was marvelous, could not read a copy of the <i>Iliad</i> that he possessed. +Boccaccio asked permission of the Florentine Government to establish a +Greek professorship in the University of Florence, and persuaded a +learned Calabrian, Leonzio Pilato, who had a perfect knowledge of +ancient Greek, to leave Venice and accept the professorship at Florence, +and lodged him in his own house. Together the Calabrian and the author +of <i>La Fiammetta</i> and the <i>Decameron</i> made a Latin translation of the +<i>Iliad</i>, which Boccaccio transcribed with his own hand. But his literary +enthusiasm was not confined to his own work and that of the ancients. +His soul was filled with a generous ardor of admiration for Dante; +through his efforts the Florentines were awakened to a true sense of the +merits of the sublime poet, so long exiled from his native city, and the +younger genius succeeded in persuading them to establish a professorship +in the University for the sole study of the <i>Divine Comedy</i>, he himself +being the first to occupy the chair, and writing a <i>Life of Dante</i>, +besides commentaries on the <i>Comedy</i> itself.</p> + +<p>Mainly through his intimacy with the spiritual mind of Petrarch, +Boccaccio's moral character gradually underwent a change from the +reckless freedom and unbridled love of pleasure into which he had easily +fallen among his associates in the court life at Naples. He admired the +delicacy and high standard of honor of his friend, and became awakened +to a sense of man's duty to the world and to himself. During the decade +following the year 1365 he occupied himself at his home in Certaldo, +near Florence, with various literary labors, often entertaining there +the great men of the world.</p> + +<p>Petrarch's death occurred in 1374, and Boccaccio survived him but one +year, dying on the twenty-first of December, 1375. He was buried in +Certaldo, in the Church of San Michele e Giacomo.</p> + +<p>That one city should have produced three such men as the great +triumvirate of the fourteenth century—Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio—and +that one half-century should have witnessed their successive triumphs, +is the greatest glory of Florence, and is one of the most notable facts +in the history of genius.</p> + +<p>We quote once more from Symonds: "Dante brought the universe into his +<i>Divine Comedy</i>. 'But the soul of man, too, is a universe', and of this +inner microcosm Petrarch was the poet and genius. It remained for +Boccaccio to treat of daily life with an art as distinct and dazzling as +theirs. From Dante's Beatrice, through Petrarch's Laura, to Boccaccio's +La Fiammetta—from woman as an allegory of the noblest thoughts and +purest stirrings of the soul, through woman as the symbol of all beauty +worshiped at a distance, to woman as man's lover, kindling and +reciprocating the most ardent passion; from mystic, stately periods to +Protean prose; from verse built up into cathedral-like dignity, through +lyrics light as arabesques and pointed with the steely touch of polished +style, to that free form of speech which takes all moods and lends +itself alike to low or lofty things—such was the rapid movement of +Italian genius within the brief space of fifty years. So quickly did the +Renaissance emerge from the Middle Ages; and when the voices of that +august trio were silenced in the grave, their echoes ever widened and +grew louder through the spacious time to come."</p> + +<p>No translation into English of <i>La Fiammetta</i> has been made since +Shakespeare's time—when a small edition was published, which is now so +rare as to be practically unattainable—until the appearance of the +present Scholarly and poetic rendering, which places within the reach of +all one of the world's greatest masterpieces of literature.</p> + +<p>D.K.R.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<a name="PROLOGUE"></a><h2>PROLOGUE</h2> +<br> + +<p><i>Beginneth the Book called Elegy of Madonna Fiammetta, sent by her to +Ladies in Love.</i></p> + +<p>When the wretched perceive or feel that their woes arouse compassion, +their longing to give vent to their anguish is thereby increased. And +so, since, from long usance, the cause of my anguish, instead of growing +less, has become greater, the wish has come to me, noble ladies—in +whose hearts, mayhap, abides a love more fortunate than mine—to win +your pity, if I may, by telling the tale of my sorrows. Nor is it at all +my intent that these my words should come to the ears of men. Nay, +rather would I, so far as lies in my power, withhold my complaints from +them; for, such bitterness has the discovery of the unkindness of one +man stirred in me, that, imagining all other men to be like him, +methinks I should be a witness of their mocking laughter rather than of +their pitying tears. You alone do I entreat to peruse my story, knowing +full well that you will feel with me, and that you have a pious concern +for others' pangs. Here you will not find Grecian fables adorned with +many lies, nor Trojan battles, foul with blood and gore, but amorous +sentiments fed with torturing desires. Here will appear before your very +eyes the dolorous tears, the impetuous sighs, the heart-breaking words, +the stormy thoughts, which have harrowed me with an ever-recurring goad, +and have torn away from me sleep and appetite and the pleasant times of +old, and my much-loved beauty. When you behold these things, and behold +them with the ardent feelings which ladies are wont to have, sure I am +that the cheeks of each separately, and of all when brought together, +will be bathed in tears, because of those ills which are alone the +occasion of my never-ending misery. Do not, I beseech you, refuse me +these tears, reflecting that your estate is unstable as well as mine, +and that, should it ever come to resemble mine (the which may God +forfend!), the tears that others shed for you will be pleasing to you in +return. And that the time may pass more rapidly in speaking than in, +weeping, I will do my best to fulfil my promise briefly, beginning with +that love which was more happy than lasting, so that, by comparing that +happiness with my present case, you may learn that I am now more unhappy +than any woman ever has been. And afterward I will trace with mournful +pen, as best I can, all the agonies which are justly the source of my +lamentations. But first, if the prayers of the wretched are heard, if +there is in Heaven any Deity whose holy mind can be touched with +compassion for me, afflicted as I am, bathed in my own tears, Him I +beseech to aid my despondent memory and support my trembling hand in its +present task. So may the tortures which I have felt and still feel in my +soul become fruitful, and the memory will suggest the words for them, +and the hand, more eager than apt for such duty, will write them down.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<a name="Chapter_I"></a><h2>Chapter I</h2> +<br> + +<p><i>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.</i></p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>It was, then, while I was living in sweet content, amid every kind of +enjoyment, that Fortune, who quickly changes all things earthly, +becoming envious of the very gifts which she herself had bestowed, +withdrew her protecting hand. At first uncertain in what manner she +could succeed in poisoning my happiness, she at length managed, with +subtle craft, to make mine own very eyes traitors and so guide me into +the path that led to disaster. But the gods were still propitious to me, +nay, were even more concerned for my fate than I myself. Having seen +through her veiled malice, they wished to supply me with weapons, had I +but known how to avail me thereof, wherewith I might fend my breast, +and not go unarmed to the battle wherein I was destined to fall. Yea, on +the very night that preceded the day which was the beginning of all my +woes, they revealed to me the future in my sleep by means of a clear and +distinct vision, in such wise as follows:</p> + +<p>While lying on my spacious couch, with all my limbs relaxed in deepest +slumber, I seemed to be filled with greater joy than I had ever felt +before, and wherefore I knew not. And the day whereon this happened was +the brightest and loveliest of days. I was standing alone in verdant +grass, when, with the joy whereof I spoke, came the thought to me that +it might be well for me to repose in a meadow that appeared to be +shielded from the fervid rays of the sun by the shadows cast by various +trees newly garbed in their glossy foliage. But first, gathering divers +flowers, wherewith the whole sward was bejeweled, I placed them, with my +white hands, in a corner of my robe, and then, sitting down and choosing +flower after flower, I wove therefrom a fair garland, and adorned my +head with it. And, being so adorned, I arose, and, like unto Proserpine +at what time Pluto ravished her from her mother, I went along singing in +this new springtime. Then, being perchance weary, I laid me down in a +spot where the verdure was deepest and softest. But, just as the tender +foot of Eurydice was pierced by the concealed viper, so meseemed that a +hidden serpent came upon me, as I lay stretched on the grass, and +pierced me under the left breast. The bite of the sharp fang, when it +first entered, seemed to burn me. But afterward, feeling somewhat +reassured, and yet afraid of something worse ensuing, I thought I +clasped the cold serpent to my bosom, fancying that by communicating to +it the warmth of that bosom, I should thereby render it more kindly +disposed in my regard in return for such a service. But the viper, made +bolder and more obdurate by that very favor, laid his hideous mouth on +the wound he had given me, and after a long space, and after it had +drunk much of my blood, methought that, despite my resistance, it drew +forth my soul; and then, leaving my breast, departed with it. And at the +very moment of the serpent's departure the day lost its brightness, and +a thick shadow came behind me and covered me all over, and the farther +the serpent crept, the more lowering grew the heavens, and it seemed +almost as if the reptile dragged after it in its course the masses of +thick, black clouds that appeared to follow in its wake, Not long +afterward, just as a white stone flung into deep water gradually +vanishes from the eyes of the beholder, so it, too, vanished from my +sight. Then the heavens became darker and darker, and I thought that the +sun had suddenly withdrawn and night had surely returned, as it had +erstwhile returned to the <i>Greeks</i> because of the crime of Atrcus. Next, +flashes of lightning sped swiftly along the skies, and peals of crashing +thunder appalled the earth and me likewise. And through all, the wound +made in my breast by the bite of the serpent remained with me still, and +full of viperous poison; for no medicinal help was within my reach, so +that my entire body appeared to have swollen in a most foul and +disgusting manner. Whereupon I, who before this seemed to be without +life or motion—why, I do not know—feeling that the force of the venom +was seeking to reach my heart in divers subtle ways, now tossed and +rolled upon the cool grass, expecting death at any moment. But methought +that when the hour of my doom arrived, I was struck with terror at its +approach, and the anguish of my heart was so appalling, while looking +forward to its coming, that my inert body was convulsed with horror, and +so my deep slumber was suddenly broken. No sooner was I fully awake +than, being still alarmed by the things I had seen, I felt with my right +hand for the wound in my breast, searching at the present moment for +that which was already being prepared for my future misery. Finding that +no wound was there, I began to feel quite safe and even merry, and I +made a mock of the folly of drearns and of those who believe in them, +and so I rendered the work of the gods useless. Ah, wretched me! if I +mocked them then, I had good reason to believe in them afterward, to my +bitter sorrow and with the shedding of useless tears; good reason had I +also to complain of the gods, who reveal their secrets to mortals in +such mystic guise that the things that are to happen in the future can +hardly be said to be revealed at all. Being then fully awake, I raised +my drowsy head, and, as soon as I saw the light of the new-risen sun +enter my chamber, laying aside every other thought directly, I at once +left my couch.</p> + +<p>That day, too, was a day of the utmost solemnity for almost everyone. +Therefore, attiring myself carefully in glittering cloth of gold, and +adorning every part of my person with deft and cunning hand, I made +ready to go to the August festival, appareled like unto the goddesses +seen by Paris in the vale of Ida. And, while I was lost in admiration of +myself, just as the peacock is of his plumage, imagining that the +delight which I took in my own appearance would surely be shared by all +who saw me, a flower from my wreath fell on the ground near the curtain +of my bed, I know not wherefore—perhaps plucked from my head by a +celestial hand by me unseen. But I, careless of the occult signs by +which the gods forewarn mortals, picked it up, replaced it on my head, +and, as if nothing portentous had happened, I passed out from my abode. +Alas! what clearer token of what was to befall me could the gods have +given me? This should have served to prefigure to me that my soul, once +free and sovereign of itself, was on that day to lay aside its +sovereignty and become a slave, as it betided. Oh, if my mind had not +been distempered, I should have surely known that to me that day would +be the blackest and direst of days, and I should have let it pass +without ever crossing the threshold of my home! But although the gods +usually hold forth signs whereby those against whom they are incensed +may be warned, they often deprive them of due understanding; and thus, +while pointing out the path they ought to follow, they at the same time +sate their own anger. My ill fortune, then, thrust me forth from my +house, vain and careless that I was; and, accompanied by several ladies, +I moved with slow step to the sacred temple, in which the solemn +function required by the day was already celebrating. Ancient custom, as +well as my noble estate, had reserved for me a prominent place among the +other ladies. When I was seated, my eyes, as was my habit of old, +quickly wandered around the temple, and I saw that it was crowded with +men and women, who were divided into separate groups. And no sooner was +it observed that I was in the temple than (even while the sacred office +was going on) that happened which had always happened at other times, +and not only did the men turn their eyes to gaze upon me, but the women +did the same, as if Venus or Minerva had newly descended from the skies, +and would never again be seen by them in that spot where I was seated. +Oh, how often I laughed within my own breast, being enraptured with +myself, and taking glory unto myself because of such things, just as if +I were a real goddess! And so, nearly all the young gentlemen left off +admiring the other ladies, and took their station around me, and +straightway encompassed me almost in the form of a complete circle; and, +while speaking in divers ways of my beauty, each finished his praises +thereof with well-nigh the same sentences. But I who, by turning my eyes +in another direction, showed that my mind was intent on other cares, +kept my ears attentive to their discourse and received therefrom much +delectable sweetness; and, as it seemed to me that I was beholden to +them for such pleasure, I sometimes let my eyes rest on them more kindly +and benignantly. And not once, but many times, did I perceive that some +of them, puffed up with vain hopes because of this, boasted foolishly of +it to their companions.</p> + +<p>While I, then, in this way looked at a few, and that sparingly, I was +myself looked at by many, and that exceedingly, and while I believed +that my beauty was dazzling others, it came to pass that the beauty of +another dazzled me, to my great tribulation. And now, being already +close on the dolorous moment, which was fated to be the occasion either +of a most assured death or of a life of such anguish that none before me +has ever endured the like, prompted by I know not what spirit, I raised +my eyes with decent gravity, and surveyed with penetrating look the +crowds of young men who were standing near me. And I discerned, more +plainly than I saw any of the others, a youth who stood directly in +front of me, all alone, leaning against a marble column; and, being +moved thereto by irresistible fate, I began to take thought within my +mind of his bearing and manners, the which I had never before donc in +the case of anyone else. I say, then, that, according to my judgment, +which was not at that time biased by love, he was most beautiful in +form, most pleasing in deportment, and apparently of an honorable +disposition. The soft and silky locks that fell in graceful curls beside +his cheeks afforded manifest proof of his youthfulness. The look +wherewith he eyed me seemed to beg for pity, and yet it was marked by +the wariness and circumspection usual between man and man. Sure I am +that I had still strength enough to turn away my eyes from his gaze, at +least for a time; but no other occurrence had power to divert my +attention from the things already mentioned, and upon which I had deeply +pondered. And the image of his form, which was already in my mind, +remained there, and this image I dwelt upon with silent delight, +affirming within myself that those things were true which seemed to me +to be true; and, pleased that he should look at me, I raised my eyes +betimes to see whether he was still looking at me. But anon I gazed at +him more steadily, making no attempt to avoid amorous snares. And when I +had fixed my eyes on his more intently than was my wont, methought I +could read in his eyes words which might be uttered in this wise:</p> + +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">"O lady, thou alone art mine only bliss!"</span><br> + +<p>Certainly, if I should say that this idea was not pleasing to me, I +should surely lie, for it drew forth a gentle sigh from my bosom, +accompanied by these words: "And thou art mine!" unless, perchance, the +words were but the echo of his, caught by my mind and remaining within +it. But what availed it whether such words were spoken or not? The heart +had good understanding within itself of that which was not expressed by +the lips, and kept, too, within itself that which, if it had escaped +outside, might, mayhap, have left me still free. And so, from that time +forward, I gave more absolute liberty to my foolish eyes than ever they +had possessed before, and they were well content withal. And surely, if +the gods, who guide all things to a definite issue, had not deprived me +of understanding, I could still have been mistress of myself. But, +postponing every consideration to the last one that swayed me, I took +delight in following my unruly passion, and having made myself meet, all +at once, for such slavery, I became its thrall. For the fire that leaped +forth from his eyes encountered the light in mine, flashing thereunto a +most subtle ray. It did not remain content therewith, but, by what +hidden ways I know not, penetrated directly into the deepest recesses of +my heart; the which, affrighted by the sudden advent of this flame, +recalled to its center its exterior forces and left me as pale as +death, and also with the chill of death upon me. But not for long did +this continue, rather it happened contrariwise; and I felt my heart not +only glow with sudden beat, but its forces speeded back swiftly to their +places, bringing with them a throbbing warmth that chased away my pallor +and flushed my cheeks deeply; and, marveling wherefore this should +betide, I sighed heavily; nor thereafter was there other thought in my +soul than how I might please him.</p> + +<p>In like fashion, he, without changing his place, continued to scrutinize +my features, but with the greatest caution; and, perhaps, having had +much practice in amorous warfare, and knowing by what devices the +longed-for prey might be captured, he showed himself every moment more +humble, more desperate, and more fraught with tender yearning. Alas! how +much guile did that seeming desperation hide, which, as the result has +now shown, though it may have come from the heart, never afterward +returned to the same, and made manifest later that its revealment on the +face was only a lure and a delusion! And, not to mention all his deeds, +each of which was full of most artful deception, he so wrought upon me +by his own craft, or else the fates willed it should so happen, that I +straightway found myself enmeshed in the snares of sudden and +unthought-of love, in a manner beyond all my powers of telling, and so I +remain unto this very hour.</p> + +<p>It was this one alone, therefore, most pitiful ladies, that my heart, in +it mad infatuation, chose, not only among so many high-born, handsome +and valiant youths then present, but even among all of the same degree +having their abode in my own Parthenope, as first and last and sole lord +of my life. It was this one alone that I loved, and loved more than any +other. It was this one alone that was destined to be the beginning and +source of my by any pleasure, although often tempted, being at last +vanquished, have burned and now burn in the fire which then first caught +me. Omitting many thoughts that came into my mind, and many things that +were told me, I will only say that, intoxicated by a new passion, I +returned with a soul enslaved to that spot whence I had gone forth in +freedom.</p> + +<p>When I was in my chamber, alone and unoccupied, inflamed with various +wild wishes, filled with new sensations and throbbing with many +anxieties, all of which were concentrated on the image of the youth who +pleased me, I argued within myself that if I could not banish love from +my luckless bosom, I might at least be able to keep cautious and secret +control of it therein; and how hard it is to do such a thing, no one can +discover who does not make trial of the same. Surely do I believe that +not even Love himself can cause so great anguish as such an attempt is +certain to produce. Furthermore, I was arrested in my purpose by the +fact that I had no acquaintance with him of whom I professed myself +enamored. To relate all the thoughts that were engendered in me by this +love, and of what nature they were, would take altogether too much time. +But some few I must perforce declare, as well as certain things that +were beginning to delight me more than usual. I say, then, that, +everything else being neglected, the only thing that was dear to me was +the thought of my beloved, and, when it occurred to my mind that, by +persevering in this course, I might, mayhap, give occasion to some one +to discover that which I wished to conceal, I often upbraided myself for +my folly. But what availed it all? My upbraidings had to give way to my +inordinate yearning for him, and dissolved uselessly into thin air.</p> + +<p>For several days I longed exceedingly to learn who was the youth I +loved, toward whom my thoughts were ever clearly leading me; and this I +craftily learned, the which filled me with great content. In like +manner, the ornaments for which I had before this in no way cared, as +having but little need thereof, began to be dear to me, thinking that +the more I was adorned the better should I please. Wherefore I prized +more than hitherto my garments, gold, pearls, and my other precious +things. Until the present moment it had been my custom to frequent +churches, gardens, festivals, and seaside resorts, without other wish +than the companionship of young friends of my own sex; now, I sought the +aforesaid places with a new desire, believing that both to see and be +seen would bring me great delectation. But, in sooth, the trust which I +was wont to place in my beauty had deserted me, and now I never left my +chamber, without first seeking the faithful counsel of my mirror: and my +hands, newly instructed thereunto by I know not what cunning master, +discovering each day some more elegant mode of adornment than the day +before, and deftly adding artificial charms to my natural loveliness, +thereby caused me to outshine all the other ladies in my surpassing +splendor. Furthermore, I began to wish for the honors usually paid to me +by ladies, because of their gracious courtesy, though, perhaps, they +were rather the guerdon of my noble birth, being due to me therefor, +thinking that if I appeared so magnificent to my beloved's eyes, he +would take the more delight in beholding me. Avarice, too, which is +inborn in women, fled from me, so that I became free and openhanded, and +regarded my own possessions almost as if they were not my own. The +sedateness that beseems a woman fell away from me somewhat, and I grew +bolder in my ways; and, in addition to all this, my eyes, which until +that day looked out on the world simply and naturally, entirely changed +their manner of looking, and became so artful in their office that it +was a marvel. And many other alterations appeared in me over and above +these, all of which I do not care to relate, for besides that the +report thereof would be too tedious, I ween full well that you, like me, +also have been, or are, in love, and know what changes take place in +those who are in such sad case.</p> + +<p>He was a most wary and circumspect youth, whereunto my experience was +able to bear witness frequently. Going very rarely, and always in the +most decorous manner, to the places where I happened to be, he used to +observe me, but ever with a cautious eye, so that it seemed as if he had +planned as well as I to hide the tender flames that glowed in the +breasts of both. Certainly, if I denied that love, although it had +clutched every corner of my heart and taken violent possession of every +recess of my soul, grew even more intense whenever it happened that my +eyes encountered his, I should deny the truth; he added further fuel to +the fires that consumed me, and rekindled such as might be expiring, if, +mayhap, there were any such. But the beginning of all this was by no +means so cheerful as the ending was joyless, as soon as I was deprived +of the sight of this, my beloved, inasmuch as the eyes, being thus +robbed of their delight, gave woful occasion of lamentation to the +heart, the sighs whereof grew greater in quality as well as in quantity, +and desire, as if seizing my every feeling, took me away from myself, +and, as if I were not where I was, I frequently gave him who saw me +cause for amazement by affording numberless pretexts for such +happenings, being taught by love itself. In addition to this, the quiet +of the night and the thoughts on which my fancy fed continuously, by +taking me out of myself, sometimes moved me to actions more frantic than +passionate and to the employment of unusual words.</p> + +<p>But it happened that while my excess of ornaments, heartfelt sighs, lost +rest, strange actions, frantic movements, and other effects of my recent +love, attracted the notice of the other domestics of the household, they +especially struck with wonder a nurse of mine, old in years and +experienced, and of sound judgment, who, though well aware of the flames +that tortured my breast, yet making show of not knowing thereof, +frequently chided me for my altered manners. One day in particular, +finding me lying disconsolate on my couch, seeing that my brow was +charged with doleful thoughts, and believing that we were not likely to +be interrupted by other company, she began to speak as follows:</p> + +<p>"My dearest daughter, whom I love as my very self, tell me, I pray you, +what are the sorrows that have for some time past been harassing you? +You who were wont to be so gay formerly, you whom I have never seen +before with a mournful countenance, seem to me now to be the prey of +grief and to let no moment pass without a sigh."</p> + +<p>Then, having at first feigned to be asleep and not to have heard her, I +heaved a deep sigh, and, my face, at one time flushing, at another +turning pale, I tossed about on the couch, seeking what answer I should +make, though, indeed, in my agitation, my tongue could hardly shape a +perfect sentence. But, at length, I answered:</p> + +<p>"Indeed, dear nurse, no fresh sorrows harass me; nor do I feel that I am +in any way different from what I am wont to be. Perhaps some troubles I +may have, but they are such as are incidental to all women."</p> + +<p>"Most certainly, you are trying to deceive me, my child," returned the +aged nurse, "and you seem not to reflect how serious a matter it is to +attempt to lead persons of experience to believe one thing because it is +couched in words and to disbelieve the opposite, although it is made +plainly evident by deeds. There is no reason why you should hide from me +a fact whereof I have had perfect knowledge since several days ago."</p> + +<p>Alas! when I heard her speak thus, provoked and stung by her words, I +said:</p> + +<p>"If, then, thou wittest of all this, wherefore dost thou question me? +All that thou hast to do now is to keep secret that which thou hast +discovered."</p> + +<p>"In good truth," she replied, "I will conceal all that which it is not +meet that another should know, and may the earth open and engulf me in +its bowels before I ever reveal aught that might turn to thy open shame! +Therefore, do thou live assured of this, and guard thyself carefully +from letting another know that which I, without either thyself or anyone +else telling me, have learned from observing thy looks. As for myself, +it is not now, but long ere now, that I have learned to keep hidden that +which should not be disclosed. Therefore, do thou continue to feel +secure as to this matter, and watch most carefully that thou lettest not +another know that which I, not witting it from thee or from another, +most surely have discovered from thine own face and from its changeful +seeming. But, if thou art still the victim of that folly by which I know +thou hast been enslaved, if thou art as prone now as erewhile to indulge +that feeling to which thou hast already given way, then know I right +well that I must leave thee to thy own devices, for bootless will be my +teachings and my warnings. Still, although this cruel tyrant, to whom in +thy youthful simplicity being taken by surprise thou hast yielded thy +freedom, appears to have deprived thee of understanding as well as of +liberty, I will put thee in mind of many things, and entreat thee to +fling off and banish wicked thoughts from thy chaste bosom, to quench +that unholy fire, and not to make thyself the thrall of unworthy hopes. +Now is the time to be strong in resistance; for whoso makes a stout +fight in the beginning roots out an unhallowed affection, and bears +securely the palm of victory; but whoso, with long and wishful fancies, +fosters it, will try too late to resist a yoke that has been submitted +to almost unresistingly."</p> + +<p>"Alas!" I replied, "how far easier it is to say such things than to +lead them to any good result."</p> + +<p>"Albeit they be not easy of fulfilment," she said, "yet are they +possible, and they are things that it beseems you to do. Take thou +thought whether it would be fitting that for such a thing as this thou +shouldst lose the luster of thy exalted parentage, the great fame of thy +virtue, the flower of thy beauty, the honor in which thou art now held, +and, above all, the favor of the spouse whom thou hast loved and by whom +thou art loved: certainly, thou shouldst not wish for this; nor do I +believe thou wouldst wish it, if thou didst but weigh the matter +seriously in thine own mind. Wherefore, in the name of God, forbear, and +drive from thy heart the false delights promised by a guilty hope, and, +with them, the madness that has seized thee. By this aged breast, long +harassed by many cares, from which thou didst take thy first nutriment, +I humbly beseech thee to have the courage to aid thyself, to have a +concern for thine own honor, and not to disdain my warnings. Bethink +thee that the very desire to be healed is itself often productive of +health."</p> + +<p>Whereto I thus made answer:</p> + +<p>"Only too well do I know, dear nurse, the truth of that which thou +sayest. But a furious madness constrains me to follow the worse course; +vainly does my heart, insatiable in its desires, long for strength to +enable it to adopt thy advice; what reason enjoins is rendered of no +avail by this soul-subduing passion. My mind is wholly possessed by +Love, who rules every part thereof, in virtue of his all-embracing +deity; and surely thou art aware that his power is absolute, and 'twere +useless to attempt to resist it."</p> + +<p>Having said these words, I became almost unconscious, and fell into her +arms. But she, now more agitated than before, in austere and rebuking +tones, said:</p> + +<p>"Yes, forsooth, well am I aware that you and a number of fond young +women, inflamed and instigated thereunto by vain thoughts, have +discovered Love to be a god, whereas a juster name for him would be that +of demon; and you and they call him the son of Venus, and say that his +strength has come to him from the third heaven, wishing, seemingly, to +offer necessity as an excuse for your foolishness. Oh, was ever woman so +misled as thou? Truly, thou must be bereft entirely of understanding! +What a thing thou sayest! Love a deity! Love is a madness, thrust forth +from hell by some fury. He speeds across the earth in hasty flight, and +they whom he visits soon discover that he brings no deity with him, but +frenzy rather; yet none will he visit except those abounding overmuch in +earthly felicity; for they, he knows, in their overweening conceit, are +ready to afford him lodgment and shelter. This has been proven to us by +many facts. Do we not see that Venus, the true, the heavenly Venus, +often dwells in the humblest cot, her sole concern being the +perpetuation of our race? But this god, whom some in their folly name +Love, always hankering after things unholy, ministers only to those +whose fortunes are prosperous. This one, recoiling from those whose food +and raiment suffice to meet the demands of nature, uses his best efforts +to win over the pampered and the splendidly attired, and with their food +and their habiliments he mixes his poisons, and so gains the lordship of +their wicked souls; and, for this reason, he gladly seeks a harborage in +lofty palaces, and seldom, or rather never, enters the houses of the +lowly, because this horrible plague always resorts by choice to scenes +of elegance and refinement, well knowing that such places are best +fitted for the achievement of his fell purposes. It is easy for us to +see that among the humble the affections are sane and well ordered; but +the rich, on the other hand, everywhere pluming themselves on their +riches, and being insatiable in their pursuit of other things as well as +of wealth, always show more eagerness therein than is becoming; and they +who can do much desire furthermore to have the power of doing that which +they must not do: among whom I feel that thou hast placed thyself, O +most hapless of women, seeing that thou hast already entered and +traveled far on a path that will surely lead to guilt and misery."</p> + +<p>After hearing which, I said:</p> + +<p>"Be silent, old woman, and provoke not the wrath of the gods by thy +speech. Now that thou art incapacitated from love by age and rejected by +all the gods, thou railest against this one, blaspheming him in whom +thou didst erstwhile take delight. If other ladies, far more puissant, +famous, and wise than I, have formerly called him by that name, it is +not in my power to give him a name anew. By him am I now truly enslaved; +whatever be the cause of this, and whether it be the occasion of my +happiness or misery, I am helpless. The strength wherewith I once +opposed him has been vanquished and has abandoned me. Therefore either +death or the youth for whom I languish can alone end my tortures. If +thou art, then, as wise as I hold thee to be, bestow such counsel and +help on me as may lighten my anguish, or, at least, abstain from +exasperating it by censuring that to which my soul, unable to act +differently, is inclined with all its energy."</p> + +<p>Thereupon, she, being angry, and not without reason, making no answer, +but muttering to herself, passed out of the chamber and left me alone.</p> + +<p>When my dear nurse had departed without making further discourse, and I +was again alone, I felt that I had acted ill in despising her advice. I +revolved her sayings within my restless breast; and, albeit my +understanding was blinded, I perceived that what she had said was +replete with wisdom, and, almost repenting of what I had uttered and of +the course which I had declared I purposed taking, I was wavering in my +mind. And, already beginning to have thoughts of abandoning that course +which was sure to be in every way most harmful, I was about to call her +back to give me encouragement, when a new and unforeseen event suddenly +changed my intention. For a most beautiful lady, come to my private +chamber I know not whence, presented herself before my eyes, enveloped +in such dazzling light that scarcely could my sight endure the +brightness thereof. But while she stood still and silent before me, the +effulgent radiance that had almost blinded my vision, after a time left +it unobscured, and I was able so to portray her every aspect to my mind, +as her whole beauteous figure was impressed on my memory. I saw that she +was nude, except for a thin and delicate drapery of purple, which, +albeit in some parts it covered the milk-white body, yet no more +concealed it from my ravished eyes than does the transparent glass +conceal the portrait beneath it. Her head, the hair whereof as much +surpassed gold in its luster as gold surpasses the yellowest tresses to +be found among mortals, was garlanded with a wreath of green myrtle, +beneath whose shadow I beheld two eyes of peerless splendor, so +enchanting that I could have gazed on them forever; they flashed forth +such luminous beams that it was a marvel; and all the rest of her +countenance had such transcendent loveliness that the like never was +seen here below. At first she spake no word, perchance content that I +should look upon her, or perchance seeing me so content to look upon +her. Then gradually through the translucent radiance, she revealed more +clearly every hidden grace, for she was aware that I could not believe +such beauty possible except I beheld it with my eyes, and that even then +words would fail me to picture it to mortals with my tongue. At last, +when she observed that I had sated my eyes with gazing on her, and when +she saw that her coming hither was as wondrous to me as her loveliness, +with smiling face, and in a voice sweeter than can be conceived by minds +like ours, she thus addressed me:</p> + +<p>"Prithee, young woman, what art thou, the most fickle of thy sex, +preparing to do in obedience to the late counsels of thy aged nurse? +Knowest thou not that such counsels are far harder to follow than that +very love which thou desirest to flee? Hast thou reflected on the dire +and unendurable torments which compliance with them will entail on thee? +O most insensate one! dost thou then, who only a few hours ago wert my +willing vassal, now wish to break away from my gentle rule, because, +forsooth, of the words of an old woman, who is no longer vassal of mine, +as if, like her, thou art now unwitting of what delights I am the +source? O most witless of women! forbear, and reflect whether thou +shouldst not find befitting happiness in that which makes the happiness +of Heaven and earth. All things that Phoebus beholds during the bright +day, from what time he emerges from Ganges, until he plunges with his +tired steeds into the Hesperian waves, to seek due repose after his +wearisome pilgrimage; all things that are confined between cold Arcturus +and the red-hot pole, all own the absolute and authentic lordship of my +wingéd son; and in Heaven not only is he esteemed a god, like the other +deities, but he is so much more puissant than them all that not one +remains who has not heretofore been vanquished by his darts. He, flying +on golden plumage throughout his realms, with such swiftness that his +passage can hardly be discerned, visits them all in turn, and, bending +his strong bow, to the drawn string he fits the arrows forged by me and +tempered in the fountains sacred to my divinity. And when he elects +anyone to his service, as being more worthy than others, that one he +rules as it likes him. He kindles raging fires in the hearts of the +young, fans the flames that are almost dead in the old, awakens the +fever of passion in the chaste bosoms of virgins and instils a genial +warmth into the breasts of wives and widows equally. He has even +aforetime forced the gods, wrought up to a frenzy by his blazing torch, +to forsake the heavens and dwell on earth under false appearances. +Whereof the proofs are many. Was not Phoebus, though victor over huge +Python and creator of the celestial strains that sound from the lyres of +Parnassus, by him made the thrall, now of Daphne, now of Clymene, and +again of Leucothea, and of many others withal? Certainly, this was so. +And, finally, hiding his brightness under the form of a shepherd, did +not Apollo tend the flocks of Admetus? Even Jove himself, who rules the +skies, by this god coerced, molded his greatness into forms inferior to +his own. Sometimes, in shape of a snow-white fowl, he gave voice to +sounds sweeter than those of the dying swan, and anon, changing to a +young bull and fitting horns to his brow, he bellowed along the plains, +and humbled his proud flanks to the touch of a virgin's knees, and, +compelling his tired hoofs to do the office of oars, he breasted the +waves of his brother's kingdom, yet sank not in its depths, but joyously +bore away his prize. I shall not discourse unto you of his pursuit of +Semele under his proper form, or of Alcmena, in guise of Amphitryon, or +of Callisto, under the semblance of Diana, or of Danaë for whose sake he +became a shower of gold, seeing that in the telling thereof I should +waste too much time. Nay, even the savage god of war, whose strength +appals the giants, repressed his wrathful bluster, being forced to such +submission by this my son, and became gentle and loving. And the forger +of Jupiter, and artificer of his three-pronged thunderbolts, though +trained to handle fire, was smitten by a shaft more potent than he +himself had ever wrought. Nay I, though I be his mother, have not been +able to fend off his arrows: Witness the tears I have shed for the death +of Adonis! But why weary myself and thee with the utterance of so many +words? There is no deity in heaven who has passed unscathed from his +assaults; except, perhaps, Diana only, who may have escaped him by +fleeing to the woods; though some there be who tell that she did not +flee, but rather concealed the wound. If haply, however, thou, in the +hardness of thy unbelief, rejectest the testimony of heaven, and +searchest rather for examples of those in this nether world who have +felt his power, I affirm them to be so multitudinous that where to begin +I know not. Yet this much may I tell thee truly: all who have confessed +his sway have been men of might and valor. Consider attentively, in the +first place, that undaunted son of Alcmena, who, laying aside his arrows +and the formidable skin of the huge lion, was fain to adorn his fingers +with green emeralds, and to smooth and adjust his bristling and +rebellions hair. Nay, that hand which aforetime had wielded the terrific +club, and slain therewith Antæus, and dragged the hound of hell from the +lower world, was now content to draw the woolen threads spun from +Omphale's distaff; and the shoulders whereon had rested the pillars of +the heavens, from which he had for a time freed Atlas, were now clasped +in Omphale's arms, and afterward, to do her pleasure, covered with a +diaphanous raiment of purple. Need I relate what Paris did in obedience +to the great deity? or Helen? or Clytemnestra? or Ægisthus? These are +things that are well known to all the world. Nor do I care to speak of +Achilles, or of Scylla, of Ariadne or Leander, of Dido, or of many +others, of whom the same tale could be told, were there need to tell it. +Believe me when I affirm that this fire is holy, and most potent as +well. Thou hast heard that heaven and earth are subject to my son +because of his lordship over gods and men. But what shall I say of the +power that he exercises over irrational animals, whether celestial or +terrene? It is through him that the turtle is fain to follow her mate; +it is through him that my pigeons have learned to caress his ringdoves +with fondest endearments. And there is no creeping or living creature +that has ever at any time attempted to escape from his puissance: in the +woods the timid stag, made fierce by his touch, becomes brave for sake +of the coveted hind and by bellowing and fighting, they prove how strong +are the witcheries of Love. The ferocious boars are made by Love to +froth at the mouth and sharpen their ivory tusks; the African lions, +when Love quickens them, shake their manes in fury. But leaving the +groves and forests, I assert that even in the chilly waters the +numberless divinities of the sea and of the flowing rivers are not safe +from the bolts of my son. Neither can I for a moment believe that thou +art ignorant of the testimony thereof which has been rendered by +Neptune, Glaucus, Alpheus, and others too numerous to mention: not only +were they unable to quench the flame with their dank waters, but they +could not even moderate its fury, which, when it had made its might +felt, both on the earth and in the waters, continued its onward course, +and rested not until it had penetrated into the gloomy realms of Dis. +Therefore Heaven and Earth and Ocean and Hell itself have had experience +of the potency of his weapons. And, in order that thou mayest understand +in a few words the power of the deity, I tell thee that, while +everything succumbs to nature, and nothing can ever be emancipated from +her dominion, Nature herself is but the servant of Love. When he +commands, ancient hatreds perish, and angry moods, be they old or new, +give place to his fires; and lastly, his sway has such far-reaching +influence that even stepmothers become gracious to their stepchildren, a +thing which it is a marvel to behold. Therefore what seekest thou? Why +dost thou hesitate? Why dost thou rashly avoid him? When so many gods, +when so many men, when so many animals, have been vanquished by him, art +ashamed to be vanquished by him also? In good sooth, thou weenest not +what thou art doing. If thou fearest to be blamed for thy obedience to +him, a blame so unmerited never can be thy portion. Greater sins than +thou canst commit have been committed by thousands far greater than +thou, and these sins would plead as thy excuse, shouldst thou pursue +that course which others have pursued—others who far excel thee. Thou +wilt have sinned but a little, seeing that thou hadst far less power of +resistance than those aforementioned. But if my words move thee not, and +thou wouldst still wish to withstand the god, bethink thee that thy +power falls far short of that of Jove, and that in judgment thou canst +not equal Phoebus, nor in wealth Juno, nor me in beauty; and yet, we all +have been conquered. Thou art greatly deceived, and I fear me that thou +must perish in the end, if thou persist in thy changed purpose. Let that +which has erstwhile sufficed for the whole world, suffice for thee, nor +try to render thyself cold-hearted, by saying: 'I have a husband, and +the holy laws and the vowed faith forbid me this'; for bootless are such +reasonings against the puissance of this god. He discards the laws of +others scornfully, as thinking them of no account, and ordains his own. +Pasiphæ? had a husband, and Phædra, and I, too, even though I have +loved. And it is these same husbands who most frequently fall in love +with others, albeit they have wives of their own: witness Jason and +Theseus and valiant Hector and Ulysses. Therefore to men we do no wrong +if we apply to them the same laws that they apply to others; for to +them no privilege has been granted which is not accorded to us withal. +Banish, then, thy foolish thoughts, and, in all security, go on loving +him whom thou hadst already begun to love. In good sooth, if thou +refusest to own the power of mighty Love, it behooves thee to fly; but +whither canst thou fly? Knowest thou of any retreat where he will not +follow and overtake thee? He has in all places equal puissance. Go +wheresoever thou wilt, never canst thou pass across the borders of his +realms, and within these realms vain it is for mortals to try to hide +themselves when he would smite them. But let it comfort thee to know, +young woman, that no such odious passion shall trouble thee as erstwhile +was the scourge of Myrrha, Semiramis, Byblis, Canace, and Cleopatra. +Nothing strange or new will be wrought by my son in thy regard. He has, +as have the other gods, his own special laws, which thou art not the +first to obey, and shouldst not be the last to entertain hopes +therefrom. If haply thou believest that thou art without companions in +this, foolish is thy belief. Let us pass by the other world, which is +fraught with such happenings; but observe attentively only thine own +city! What an infinite number of ladies it can show who are in the same +case with thyself! And remember that what is done by so many cannot be +deemed unseemly. Therefore, be thou of our following, and return thanks +to our beauty, which thou hast so closely examined. But return special +thanks to our deity, which has sundered thee from the ranks of the +simple, and persuaded thee to become acquainted with the delights that +our gifts bestow."</p> + +<p>Alas! alas! ye tender and compassionate ladies, if Love has been +propitious to your desires, say what could I, what should I, answer to +such and so great words uttered by so great a goddess, if not: "Be it +done unto me according to thy pleasure"? And so, I affirm that as soon +as she had closed her lips, having already harvested within my +understanding all her words, and feeling that every word was charged +with ample excuse for what I might do, and knowing now how mighty she +was and how resistless, I resolved at once to submit to her guidance; +and instantly rising from my couch, and kneeling on the ground, with +humbled heart, I thus began, in abashed and tremulous accents:</p> + +<p>"O peerless and eternal loveliness! O divinest of deities! O sole +mistress of all my thoughts! whose power is felt to be most invincible +by those who dare to try to withstand it, forgive the ill-timed +obstinacy wherewith I, in my great folly, attempted to ward off from my +breast the weapons of thy son, who was then to me an unknown divinity. +Now, I repeat, be it done unto me according to thy pleasure, and +according to thy promises withal. Surely, my faith merits a due reward +in time and space, seeing that I, taking delight in thee more than do +all other women, wish to see the number of thy subjects increase forever +and ever."</p> + +<p>Hardly had I made an end of speaking these words, when she moved from +the place where she was standing, and came toward me. Then, her face +glowing with the most fervent expression of affection and sympathy, she +embraced me, and touched my forehead with her divine lips. Next, just as +the false Ascanius, when panting in the arms of Dido, breathed on her +mouth, and thereby kindled the latent flame, so did she breathe on my +mouth, and, in that wise, rendered the divine fire that slumbered in my +heart more uncontrollable than ever, and this I felt at that very +moment. Thereafter, opening a little her purple robe, she showed me, +clasped in her arms against her ravishing breast, the very counterpart +of the youth I loved, wrapped in the transparent folds of a Grecian +mantle, and revealing in the lineaments of his countenance pangs that +were not unlike those I suffered.</p> + +<p>"O damsel," she said, "rivet thy gaze on the youth before thee: we have +not given thee for lover a Lissa, a Geta, or a Birria, or anyone +resembling them, but a person in every way worthy of being loved by +every goddess in the heavens. Thee he loves more than himself, as we +have ordained, and thee will he ever love; therefore do thou, joyfully +and securely, abandon thyself to his love. Thy prayers have moved us to +pity, as it is meet that prayers so deserving should, and so, be of good +hope, and fear not that thou shalt be without the reward due thee in the +future."</p> + +<p>And thereafter she suddenly vanished from my eyes. <i>Oimè!</i> wretched me! +I do not for a moment doubt now, after considering the things which +followed, that this one who appeared unto me was not Venus, but rather +Tisiphone, who, doffing from her head the horrid snakes that served it +for hair, and assuming for the while the splendid form of the Goddess of +Love, in this manner lured me with deceitful counsels to that disaster +which at length overwhelmed me. Thus did Juno, but in different fashion, +veiling the radiance of her deity and transforming herself for the +occasion into the exact likeness of her aged nurse, persuaded Semele to +her undoing. Woe is me! my resolve to be so advised was the cause—O +hallowed Modesty! O Chastity, most sacred of all the virtues! sole and +most precious treasure of righteous women!—was the cause, I repeat, +wherefore I drove ye from my bosom. Yet do I venture to pray unto ye for +pardon, and surely the sinner who repents and perseveres in repentance +should in due season obtain your forgiveness.</p> + +<p>Although the goddess had disappeared from my sight, my whole soul, +nevertheless, continued to crave her promised delights; and, albeit the +ardor of the passion that vexed my soul deprived me of every other +feeling, one piece of good fortune, for what deserving of mine I know +not, remained to me out of so many that had been lost—namely, the power +of knowing that seldom if ever has a smooth and happy ending been +granted to love, if that love be divulged and blazed abroad. And for +this reason, when influenced by my highest thoughts, I resolved, +although it was a most serious thing to do so, not to set will above +reason in carrying this my desire unto an ending. And assuredly, +although I have often been most violently constrained by divers +accidents to follow certain courses, yet so much grace was conceded to +me that, sustained by my own firmness, I passed through these agonies +without revealing the pangs that tortured me. And in sooth, I have still +resolution enough to continue to follow out this my purpose; so that, +although the things I write are most true, I have so disposed them that +no one, however keen his sagacity, can ever discover who I am, except +him who is as well acquainted with these matters as I, being, indeed, +the occasion of them all. And I implore him, should this little book +ever come into his hands, in the name of that love which he once bore +me, to conceal that which, if disclosed, would turn neither to his +profit nor honor. And, albeit he has deprived me of himself, and that +through no fault of mine, let him not take it upon himself to deprive me +of that honor which I still possess, although, perchance, undeservedly; +for should he do so, he could never again give it back to me, any more +than he can now give me back himself.</p> + +<p>Having, therefore, formed my plans in this wise, I showed the most +long-suffering patience in manifesting my keenest and most covetous +yearnings, and I used my best efforts, but only in secret ways and when +opportunities were afforded me, to light in this young man's soul the +same flames wherewith my own soul glowed, and to make him as +circumspect as myself withal. Nor, in truth, was this for me a task of +great difficulty; for, inasmuch as the lineaments of the face always +bear most true witness to the qualities of the heart, it was not long +before I became aware that my desire would have its full fruition. I +perceived that, not only was he throbbing with amorous enthusiam, but +that he was also imbued with most perfect discretion, and this was +exceedingly pleasing to me. He, being at once wishful to preserve my +honor in all its luster, and, at the same time, to arrange convenient +times and places for our meetings, employed many ingenious stratagems, +which, methinks, must have cost him much toil and trouble. He used every +subtle art to win the friendship of all who were related to me, and, at +last, of my husband; and not only did he enjoy their friendship, but he +possessed it in such a supreme degree that no pleasure was agreeable to +them unless he shared it. How much all this delighted me you will +understand without its being needful to me to set it down in words. And +is there anyone so dull of wit as not to conclude that from the +aforesaid friendship arose many opportunites for him and me of holding +discourse together in public? But already had he bethought himself of +acting in more subtle ways; and now he would speak to this one, now to +that one, words whereby I, being most eager for such enlightenment, +discovered that whatever he said to these was fraught with figurative +and hidden meanings, intended to show forth his ardent affection for +myself. When he was sensible that I had a clear perception of the occult +significance of his questions and answers, he went still further, and by +gestures, and mobile changes in the expression of his features, he would +make known to me his thoughts and the various phases of his passion, +which was to me a source of much delectation; and I strove so hard to +comprehend it all and to make fitting response thereunto, that neither +could he shadow forth anything to me, nor I to him, that either of us +did not at once understand.</p> + +<p>Nay, not satisfied even with this, he employed other symbols and +metaphors, and labored earnestly to discipline me in such manner of +speech; and, to render me the more assured of his unalterable love, he +named me Fiammetta, and himself Panfilo. Woe is me! How often, when +warmed with love and wine, did we tell tales, in the presence of our +dearest friends, of Fiammetta and Panfilo, feigning that they were +Greeks of the days of old, I at one time, he at another; and the tales +were all of ourselves; how we were first caught in the snares of Love, +and of what tribulations we were long the victims, giving suitable names +to the places and persons connected with the story! Certainly, I +frequently laughed at it all, being made merry by the simplicity of the +bystanders, as well as by his astuteness and sagacity. Yet betimes I +dreaded that in the flush of his excitement he might thoughtlessly let +his tongue wander in directions wherein it was not befitting it should +venture. But he, being ever far wiser than I imagined, guarded himself +craftily from any such blundering awkwardness.</p> + +<p><i>Oimè!</i> most compassionate ladies, what is there that Love will not +teach to his subjects? and what is there that he is not able to render +them skilful in learning? I, who of all young women was the most +simple-minded, and ordinarily with barely power to loose my tongue, when +among my companions, concerning the most trivial and ordinary affairs, +now, because of this my affection, mastered so speedily all his modes of +speech that, in a brief space, my aptness at feigning and inventing +surpassed that of any poet! And there were few questions put to me in +response to which, after meditating on their main points, I could not +make up a pleasing tale: a thing, in my opinion, exceedingly difficult +for a young woman to begin, and still more difficult to finish and +relate afterward. But, if my actual situation required it, I might set +down numerous details which might, perhaps, seem to you of little or no +moment, as, for instance, the artful experiment whereby we tested the +fidelity of my favorite maid to whom, and to whom alone, we meditated +entrusting the secret of this hidden passion, considering that, should +another share it, our uneasiness, lest it should not be kept, would be +most grievous. Furthermore, it would weary you if I mentioned all the +plans we adopted, in order to meet divers situations, plans that I do +not believe were ever imagined by any before us; and albeit I am now +well aware that they all worked for my ultimate destruction, yet the +remembrance of them does not displease me.</p> + +<p>Unless, O ladies, my judgment be greatly at fault, the strength of our +minds was by no means small, if it be but taken in account how hard a +thing it is for youthful persons in love to resist long the rush of +impetuous ardor without crossing the bounds set by reason: nay, it was +so great and of such quality that the most valiant of men, by acting in +such wise, would win high and worthy laud as a result thereof. But my +pen is now about to depict the final ending to which love was guided, +and, before I do so, I would appeal to your pity and to those soft +sentiments which make their dwelling in your tender breasts, and incline +your thoughts to a like termination.</p> + +<p>Day succeeded day, and our wishes dragged along with them, kept alive by +torturing anxiety, the full bitterness whereof each of us experienced; +although the one manifested this to the other in disguised language, and +the other showed herself over-discreet to an excessive degree; all of +which you who know how ladies who are beloved behave in such +circumstances will easily understand. Well, then, he, putting full trust +in the veiled meaning of my words, and choosing the proper time and +place, came to an experience of that which I desired as much as he, +although I feigned the contrary. Certainly, if I were to say that this +was the cause of the love I felt for him, I should also have to confess +that every time it came back to my memory, it was the occasion to me of +a sorrow like unto none other. But, I call God to witness, nothing that +has happened between us had the slightest influence upon the love I bore +him, nor has it now. Still, I will not deny that our close intimacy was +then, and is now, most dear to me. And where is the woman so unwise as +not to wish to have the object of her affection within reach rather than +at a distance? How much more intensely does love enthrall us when it is +brought so near us that we and it are made almost inseparable! I say, +then, that after such an adventure, never afore willed or even thought +of by me, not once, but many times did fortune and our adroit stratagems +bring us good cheer and consolation, not indeed screened entirely from +danger, for which I cared less than for the passing of the fleeing wind. +But while the time was being spent in such joyous fashion—and that it +was joyous, Love, who alone may bear witness thereof, can truly say—yet +sometimes his coming inspired me with not a little natural apprehension, +inasmuch as he was beginning to be indiscreet in the manner of his +coming. But how dear to him was my own apartment, and with what gladness +did it see him enter! Yet was he filled with more reverence for it than +he ever had been for a sacred temple, and this I could at all times +easily discern. Woe is me! what burning kisses, what tender embraces, +what delicious moments we had there!</p> + +<p>Why do I take such pleasure in the mere words which I am now setting +down? It is, I say, because I am forced to express the gratitude I then +felt to the holy goddess who was the promiser and bestower of Love's +delights. Ah, how often did I visit her altars and offer incense, +crowned with a garland of her favorite foliage! How often did I think +scornfully of the counsels of my aged nurse! Nay, furthermore, being +elated far more than all my other companions, how often did I disparage +their loves, saying within myself: "No one is loved as I am loved, no +one loves a youth as matchless as the youth I love, no one realizes such +delights from love as I!" In short, I counted the world as nothing in +comparison with my love. It seemed to me that my head touched the skies, +and that nothing was lacking to the culmination of my ecstatic bliss. +Betimes the idea flashed on my mind that I must disclose to others the +occasion of my transports, for surely, I would reflect, it would be a +delight to others to hear of that which has brought such delight to me! +But thou, O Shame, on the one side, and thou, O Fear, on the other, did +hold me back: the one threatening me with eternal infamy; the other with +loss of that which hostile Fortune was soon afterward to tear from me. +In such wise then, did I live for some time, for it was then pleasing to +Love that I should live in this manner; and, in good sooth, so blithely +and joyously were these days spent that I had little cause to envy any +lady in the whole world, never imagining that the delight wherewith my +heart was filled to overflowing, was to nourish the root and plant of my +future misery, as I now know to my fruitless and never-ending sorrow.</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10006 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..55404e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #10006 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10006) diff --git a/old/10006-8.txt b/old/10006-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..546ef4b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10006-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1582 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of La Fiammetta, by Giovanni Boccaccio + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: La Fiammetta + +Author: Giovanni Boccaccio + +Release Date: November 7, 2003 [EBook #10006] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LA FIAMMETTA *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +LA FIAMMETTA + +BY + +GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO + + +TRANSLATED BY JAMES C. BROGAN + +1907. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Youth, beauty, and love, wit, gayety and laughter, are the component +parts of the delightful picture conjured up by the mere name of Giovanni +Boccaccio, the prince of story-tellers for all generations of men. This +creator of a real literary epoch was born in Paris, in 1313, (in the +eleventh year of Dante's exile), of an Italian father and a French-woman +of good family. His father was a merchant of Florence, whither he +returned with his son when the child was seven years old. The boy +received some education, but was placed in a counting-house when he was +only thirteen, and at seventeen he was sent by his father to Naples to +enter another commercial establishment. But he disliked commerce, and +finally persuaded his father to allow him to study law for two years at +the University of Naples, during which period the lively and attractive +youth made brisk use of his leisure time in that gay and romantic city, +where he made his way into the highest circles of society, and +unconsciously gleaned the material for the rich harvest of song and +story that came with his later years. At this time he was present at the +coronation of the poet Petrarch in the Capitol, and was fired with +admiration for the second greatest poet of that day. He chose Petrarch +for his model and guide, and in riper manhood became his most intimate +friend. + +By the time he was twenty-five, Boccaccio had fallen in love with the +Lady Maria, a natural daughter of King Robert of Naples, who had caused +her to be adopted as a member of the family of the Count d'Aquino, and +to be married when very young to a Neapolitan nobleman. Boccaccio first +saw her in the Church of San Lorenzo on the morning of Easter eve, in +1338, and their ensuing friendship was no secret to their world. For the +entertainment of this youthful beauty he wrote his _Filicopo_, and the +fair Maria is undoubtedly the heroine of several of his stories and +poems. His father insisted upon his return to Florence in 1340, and +after he had settled in that city he occupied himself seriously with +literary work, producing, between the years 1343 and 1355, the _Teseide_ +(familiar to English readers as "The Knight's Tale" in Chaucer, +modernized by Dryden as "Palamon and Arcite"), _Ameto, Amorosa Visione, +La Fiammetta, Ninfale Fiesolona_, and his most famous work, the +_Decameron_, a collection of stories written, it is said, to amuse Queen +Joanna of Naples and her court, during the period when one of the +world's greatest plagues swept over Europe in 1348. In these years he +rose from the vivid but confused and exaggerated manner of _Filocopo_ to +the perfection of polished literary style. The _Decameron_ fully +revealed his genius, his ability to weave the tales of all lands and all +ages into one harmonious whole; from the confused mass of legends of the +Middle Ages, he evolved a world of human interest and dazzling beauty, +fixed the kaleidoscopic picture of Italian society, and set it in the +richest frame of romance. + +While he had the _Decameron_ still in hand, he paused in that great +work, with heart full of passionate longing for the lady of his love, +far away in Naples, to pour out his very soul in _La Fiammetta_, the +name by which he always called the Lady Maria. Of the real character of +this lady, so famous in literature, and her true relations with +Boccaccio, little that is certain is known. In several of his poems and +in the _Decameron_ he alludes to her as being cold as a marble statue, +which no fire can ever warm; and there is no proof, notwithstanding the +ardor of Fiammetta as portrayed by her lover--who no doubt wished her to +become the reality of his glowing picture--that he ever really received +from the charmer whose name was always on his lips anything more than +the friendship that was apparent to all the world. But she certainly +inspired him in the writing of his best works. + +The best critics agree in pronouncing _La Fiammetta_ a marvelous +performance. John Addington Symonds says: "It is the first attempt in +any literature to portray subjective emotion exterior to the writer; +since the days of Virgil and Ovid, nothing had been essayed in this +region of mental analysis. The author of this extraordinary work proved +himself a profound anatomist of feeling by the subtlety with which he +dissected a woman's heart." The story is full of exquisite passages, and +it exercised a widespread and lasting influence over all the narrative +literature that followed it. It is so rich in material that it furnished +the motives of many tales, and the novelists of the sixteenth century +availed themselves freely of its suggestions. + +After Boccaccio had taken up a permanent residence in Florence, he +showed a lively interest in her political affairs, and fulfilled all +the duties of a good citizen. In 1350 he was chosen to visit the lords +of various towns of Romagna, in order to engage their cooperation in a +league against the Visconti family, who, already lords of the great and +powerful city of Milan, desired to extend their domains beyond the +Apennines. In 1351 Boccaccio had the pleasure of bearing to the poet +Petrarch the news of the restoration of his rights of citizenship and of +his patrimony, both of which he had lost in the troubles of 1323, and +during this visit the two geniuses became friends for life. They delved +together into the literature of the ancients, and Boccaccio determined, +through the medium of translation, to make the work of the great Greek +writers a part of the liberal education of his countrymen. A knowledge +of Greek at that time was an exceedingly rare accomplishment, since the +serious study of living literatures was only just beginning, and the +Greek of Homer had been almost forgotten. Even Petrarch, whose erudition +was marvelous, could not read a copy of the _Iliad_ that he possessed. +Boccaccio asked permission of the Florentine Government to establish a +Greek professorship in the University of Florence, and persuaded a +learned Calabrian, Leonzio Pilato, who had a perfect knowledge of +ancient Greek, to leave Venice and accept the professorship at Florence, +and lodged him in his own house. Together the Calabrian and the author +of _La Fiammetta_ and the _Decameron_ made a Latin translation of the +_Iliad_, which Boccaccio transcribed with his own hand. But his literary +enthusiasm was not confined to his own work and that of the ancients. +His soul was filled with a generous ardor of admiration for Dante; +through his efforts the Florentines were awakened to a true sense of the +merits of the sublime poet, so long exiled from his native city, and the +younger genius succeeded in persuading them to establish a professorship +in the University for the sole study of the _Divine Comedy_, he himself +being the first to occupy the chair, and writing a _Life of Dante_, +besides commentaries on the _Comedy_ itself. + +Mainly through his intimacy with the spiritual mind of Petrarch, +Boccaccio's moral character gradually underwent a change from the +reckless freedom and unbridled love of pleasure into which he had easily +fallen among his associates in the court life at Naples. He admired the +delicacy and high standard of honor of his friend, and became awakened +to a sense of man's duty to the world and to himself. During the decade +following the year 1365 he occupied himself at his home in Certaldo, +near Florence, with various literary labors, often entertaining there +the great men of the world. + +Petrarch's death occurred in 1374, and Boccaccio survived him but one +year, dying on the twenty-first of December, 1375. He was buried in +Certaldo, in the Church of San Michele e Giacomo. + +That one city should have produced three such men as the great +triumvirate of the fourteenth century--Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio--and +that one half-century should have witnessed their successive triumphs, +is the greatest glory of Florence, and is one of the most notable facts +in the history of genius. + +We quote once more from Symonds: "Dante brought the universe into his +_Divine Comedy_. 'But the soul of man, too, is a universe', and of this +inner microcosm Petrarch was the poet and genius. It remained for +Boccaccio to treat of daily life with an art as distinct and dazzling as +theirs. From Dante's Beatrice, through Petrarch's Laura, to Boccaccio's +La Fiammetta--from woman as an allegory of the noblest thoughts and +purest stirrings of the soul, through woman as the symbol of all beauty +worshiped at a distance, to woman as man's lover, kindling and +reciprocating the most ardent passion; from mystic, stately periods to +Protean prose; from verse built up into cathedral-like dignity, through +lyrics light as arabesques and pointed with the steely touch of polished +style, to that free form of speech which takes all moods and lends +itself alike to low or lofty things--such was the rapid movement of +Italian genius within the brief space of fifty years. So quickly did the +Renaissance emerge from the Middle Ages; and when the voices of that +august trio were silenced in the grave, their echoes ever widened and +grew louder through the spacious time to come." + +No translation into English of _La Fiammetta_ has been made since +Shakespeare's time--when a small edition was published, which is now so +rare as to be practically unattainable--until the appearance of the +present Scholarly and poetic rendering, which places within the reach of +all one of the world's greatest masterpieces of literature. + +D.K.R. + + + + +PROLOGUE + + +_Beginneth the Book called Elegy of Madonna Fiammetta, sent by her to +Ladies in Love._ + +When the wretched perceive or feel that their woes arouse compassion, +their longing to give vent to their anguish is thereby increased. And +so, since, from long usance, the cause of my anguish, instead of growing +less, has become greater, the wish has come to me, noble ladies--in +whose hearts, mayhap, abides a love more fortunate than mine--to win +your pity, if I may, by telling the tale of my sorrows. Nor is it at all +my intent that these my words should come to the ears of men. Nay, +rather would I, so far as lies in my power, withhold my complaints from +them; for, such bitterness has the discovery of the unkindness of one +man stirred in me, that, imagining all other men to be like him, +methinks I should be a witness of their mocking laughter rather than of +their pitying tears. You alone do I entreat to peruse my story, knowing +full well that you will feel with me, and that you have a pious concern +for others' pangs. Here you will not find Grecian fables adorned with +many lies, nor Trojan battles, foul with blood and gore, but amorous +sentiments fed with torturing desires. Here will appear before your very +eyes the dolorous tears, the impetuous sighs, the heart-breaking words, +the stormy thoughts, which have harrowed me with an ever-recurring goad, +and have torn away from me sleep and appetite and the pleasant times of +old, and my much-loved beauty. When you behold these things, and behold +them with the ardent feelings which ladies are wont to have, sure I am +that the cheeks of each separately, and of all when brought together, +will be bathed in tears, because of those ills which are alone the +occasion of my never-ending misery. Do not, I beseech you, refuse me +these tears, reflecting that your estate is unstable as well as mine, +and that, should it ever come to resemble mine (the which may God +forfend!), the tears that others shed for you will be pleasing to you in +return. And that the time may pass more rapidly in speaking than in, +weeping, I will do my best to fulfil my promise briefly, beginning with +that love which was more happy than lasting, so that, by comparing that +happiness with my present case, you may learn that I am now more unhappy +than any woman ever has been. And afterward I will trace with mournful +pen, as best I can, all the agonies which are justly the source of my +lamentations. But first, if the prayers of the wretched are heard, if +there is in Heaven any Deity whose holy mind can be touched with +compassion for me, afflicted as I am, bathed in my own tears, Him I +beseech to aid my despondent memory and support my trembling hand in its +present task. So may the tortures which I have felt and still feel in my +soul become fruitful, and the memory will suggest the words for them, +and the hand, more eager than apt for such duty, will write them down. + + + + +Chapter I + + +_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! + +It was, then, while I was living in sweet content, amid every kind of +enjoyment, that Fortune, who quickly changes all things earthly, +becoming envious of the very gifts which she herself had bestowed, +withdrew her protecting hand. At first uncertain in what manner she +could succeed in poisoning my happiness, she at length managed, with +subtle craft, to make mine own very eyes traitors and so guide me into +the path that led to disaster. But the gods were still propitious to me, +nay, were even more concerned for my fate than I myself. Having seen +through her veiled malice, they wished to supply me with weapons, had I +but known how to avail me thereof, wherewith I might fend my breast, +and not go unarmed to the battle wherein I was destined to fall. Yea, on +the very night that preceded the day which was the beginning of all my +woes, they revealed to me the future in my sleep by means of a clear and +distinct vision, in such wise as follows: + +While lying on my spacious couch, with all my limbs relaxed in deepest +slumber, I seemed to be filled with greater joy than I had ever felt +before, and wherefore I knew not. And the day whereon this happened was +the brightest and loveliest of days. I was standing alone in verdant +grass, when, with the joy whereof I spoke, came the thought to me that +it might be well for me to repose in a meadow that appeared to be +shielded from the fervid rays of the sun by the shadows cast by various +trees newly garbed in their glossy foliage. But first, gathering divers +flowers, wherewith the whole sward was bejeweled, I placed them, with my +white hands, in a corner of my robe, and then, sitting down and choosing +flower after flower, I wove therefrom a fair garland, and adorned my +head with it. And, being so adorned, I arose, and, like unto Proserpine +at what time Pluto ravished her from her mother, I went along singing in +this new springtime. Then, being perchance weary, I laid me down in a +spot where the verdure was deepest and softest. But, just as the tender +foot of Eurydice was pierced by the concealed viper, so meseemed that a +hidden serpent came upon me, as I lay stretched on the grass, and +pierced me under the left breast. The bite of the sharp fang, when it +first entered, seemed to burn me. But afterward, feeling somewhat +reassured, and yet afraid of something worse ensuing, I thought I +clasped the cold serpent to my bosom, fancying that by communicating to +it the warmth of that bosom, I should thereby render it more kindly +disposed in my regard in return for such a service. But the viper, made +bolder and more obdurate by that very favor, laid his hideous mouth on +the wound he had given me, and after a long space, and after it had +drunk much of my blood, methought that, despite my resistance, it drew +forth my soul; and then, leaving my breast, departed with it. And at the +very moment of the serpent's departure the day lost its brightness, and +a thick shadow came behind me and covered me all over, and the farther +the serpent crept, the more lowering grew the heavens, and it seemed +almost as if the reptile dragged after it in its course the masses of +thick, black clouds that appeared to follow in its wake, Not long +afterward, just as a white stone flung into deep water gradually +vanishes from the eyes of the beholder, so it, too, vanished from my +sight. Then the heavens became darker and darker, and I thought that the +sun had suddenly withdrawn and night had surely returned, as it had +erstwhile returned to the _Greeks_ because of the crime of Atrcus. Next, +flashes of lightning sped swiftly along the skies, and peals of crashing +thunder appalled the earth and me likewise. And through all, the wound +made in my breast by the bite of the serpent remained with me still, and +full of viperous poison; for no medicinal help was within my reach, so +that my entire body appeared to have swollen in a most foul and +disgusting manner. Whereupon I, who before this seemed to be without +life or motion--why, I do not know--feeling that the force of the venom +was seeking to reach my heart in divers subtle ways, now tossed and +rolled upon the cool grass, expecting death at any moment. But methought +that when the hour of my doom arrived, I was struck with terror at its +approach, and the anguish of my heart was so appalling, while looking +forward to its coming, that my inert body was convulsed with horror, and +so my deep slumber was suddenly broken. No sooner was I fully awake +than, being still alarmed by the things I had seen, I felt with my right +hand for the wound in my breast, searching at the present moment for +that which was already being prepared for my future misery. Finding that +no wound was there, I began to feel quite safe and even merry, and I +made a mock of the folly of dreams and of those who believe in them, +and so I rendered the work of the gods useless. Ah, wretched me! if I +mocked them then, I had good reason to believe in them afterward, to my +bitter sorrow and with the shedding of useless tears; good reason had I +also to complain of the gods, who reveal their secrets to mortals in +such mystic guise that the things that are to happen in the future can +hardly be said to be revealed at all. Being then fully awake, I raised +my drowsy head, and, as soon as I saw the light of the new-risen sun +enter my chamber, laying aside every other thought directly, I at once +left my couch. + +That day, too, was a day of the utmost solemnity for almost everyone. +Therefore, attiring myself carefully in glittering cloth of gold, and +adorning every part of my person with deft and cunning hand, I made +ready to go to the August festival, appareled like unto the goddesses +seen by Paris in the vale of Ida. And, while I was lost in admiration of +myself, just as the peacock is of his plumage, imagining that the +delight which I took in my own appearance would surely be shared by all +who saw me, a flower from my wreath fell on the ground near the curtain +of my bed, I know not wherefore--perhaps plucked from my head by a +celestial hand by me unseen. But I, careless of the occult signs by +which the gods forewarn mortals, picked it up, replaced it on my head, +and, as if nothing portentous had happened, I passed out from my abode. +Alas! what clearer token of what was to befall me could the gods have +given me? This should have served to prefigure to me that my soul, once +free and sovereign of itself, was on that day to lay aside its +sovereignty and become a slave, as it betided. Oh, if my mind had not +been distempered, I should have surely known that to me that day would +be the blackest and direst of days, and I should have let it pass +without ever crossing the threshold of my home! But although the gods +usually hold forth signs whereby those against whom they are incensed +may be warned, they often deprive them of due understanding; and thus, +while pointing out the path they ought to follow, they at the same time +sate their own anger. My ill fortune, then, thrust me forth from my +house, vain and careless that I was; and, accompanied by several ladies, +I moved with slow step to the sacred temple, in which the solemn +function required by the day was already celebrating. Ancient custom, as +well as my noble estate, had reserved for me a prominent place among the +other ladies. When I was seated, my eyes, as was my habit of old, +quickly wandered around the temple, and I saw that it was crowded with +men and women, who were divided into separate groups. And no sooner was +it observed that I was in the temple than (even while the sacred office +was going on) that happened which had always happened at other times, +and not only did the men turn their eyes to gaze upon me, but the women +did the same, as if Venus or Minerva had newly descended from the skies, +and would never again be seen by them in that spot where I was seated. +Oh, how often I laughed within my own breast, being enraptured with +myself, and taking glory unto myself because of such things, just as if +I were a real goddess! And so, nearly all the young gentlemen left off +admiring the other ladies, and took their station around me, and +straightway encompassed me almost in the form of a complete circle; and, +while speaking in divers ways of my beauty, each finished his praises +thereof with well-nigh the same sentences. But I who, by turning my eyes +in another direction, showed that my mind was intent on other cares, +kept my ears attentive to their discourse and received therefrom much +delectable sweetness; and, as it seemed to me that I was beholden to +them for such pleasure, I sometimes let my eyes rest on them more kindly +and benignantly. And not once, but many times, did I perceive that some +of them, puffed up with vain hopes because of this, boasted foolishly of +it to their companions. + +While I, then, in this way looked at a few, and that sparingly, I was +myself looked at by many, and that exceedingly, and while I believed +that my beauty was dazzling others, it came to pass that the beauty of +another dazzled me, to my great tribulation. And now, being already +close on the dolorous moment, which was fated to be the occasion either +of a most assured death or of a life of such anguish that none before me +has ever endured the like, prompted by I know not what spirit, I raised +my eyes with decent gravity, and surveyed with penetrating look the +crowds of young men who were standing near me. And I discerned, more +plainly than I saw any of the others, a youth who stood directly in +front of me, all alone, leaning against a marble column; and, being +moved thereto by irresistible fate, I began to take thought within my +mind of his bearing and manners, the which I had never before done in +the case of anyone else. I say, then, that, according to my judgment, +which was not at that time biased by love, he was most beautiful in +form, most pleasing in deportment, and apparently of an honorable +disposition. The soft and silky locks that fell in graceful curls beside +his cheeks afforded manifest proof of his youthfulness. The look +wherewith he eyed me seemed to beg for pity, and yet it was marked by +the wariness and circumspection usual between man and man. Sure I am +that I had still strength enough to turn away my eyes from his gaze, at +least for a time; but no other occurrence had power to divert my +attention from the things already mentioned, and upon which I had deeply +pondered. And the image of his form, which was already in my mind, +remained there, and this image I dwelt upon with silent delight, +affirming within myself that those things were true which seemed to me +to be true; and, pleased that he should look at me, I raised my eyes +betimes to see whether he was still looking at me. But anon I gazed at +him more steadily, making no attempt to avoid amorous snares. And when I +had fixed my eyes on his more intently than was my wont, methought I +could read in his eyes words which might be uttered in this wise: + + "O lady, thou alone art mine only bliss!" + +Certainly, if I should say that this idea was not pleasing to me, I +should surely lie, for it drew forth a gentle sigh from my bosom, +accompanied by these words: "And thou art mine!" unless, perchance, the +words were but the echo of his, caught by my mind and remaining within +it. But what availed it whether such words were spoken or not? The heart +had good understanding within itself of that which was not expressed by +the lips, and kept, too, within itself that which, if it had escaped +outside, might, mayhap, have left me still free. And so, from that time +forward, I gave more absolute liberty to my foolish eyes than ever they +had possessed before, and they were well content withal. And surely, if +the gods, who guide all things to a definite issue, had not deprived me +of understanding, I could still have been mistress of myself. But, +postponing every consideration to the last one that swayed me, I took +delight in following my unruly passion, and having made myself meet, all +at once, for such slavery, I became its thrall. For the fire that leaped +forth from his eyes encountered the light in mine, flashing thereunto a +most subtle ray. It did not remain content therewith, but, by what +hidden ways I know not, penetrated directly into the deepest recesses of +my heart; the which, affrighted by the sudden advent of this flame, +recalled to its center its exterior forces and left me as pale as +death, and also with the chill of death upon me. But not for long did +this continue, rather it happened contrariwise; and I felt my heart not +only glow with sudden beat, but its forces speeded back swiftly to their +places, bringing with them a throbbing warmth that chased away my pallor +and flushed my cheeks deeply; and, marveling wherefore this should +betide, I sighed heavily; nor thereafter was there other thought in my +soul than how I might please him. + +In like fashion, he, without changing his place, continued to scrutinize +my features, but with the greatest caution; and, perhaps, having had +much practice in amorous warfare, and knowing by what devices the +longed-for prey might be captured, he showed himself every moment more +humble, more desperate, and more fraught with tender yearning. Alas! how +much guile did that seeming desperation hide, which, as the result has +now shown, though it may have come from the heart, never afterward +returned to the same, and made manifest later that its revealment on the +face was only a lure and a delusion! And, not to mention all his deeds, +each of which was full of most artful deception, he so wrought upon me +by his own craft, or else the fates willed it should so happen, that I +straightway found myself enmeshed in the snares of sudden and +unthought-of love, in a manner beyond all my powers of telling, and so I +remain unto this very hour. + +It was this one alone, therefore, most pitiful ladies, that my heart, in +it mad infatuation, chose, not only among so many high-born, handsome +and valiant youths then present, but even among all of the same degree +having their abode in my own Parthenope, as first and last and sole lord +of my life. It was this one alone that I loved, and loved more than any +other. It was this one alone that was destined to be the beginning and +source of my by any pleasure, although often tempted, being at last +vanquished, have burned and now burn in the fire which then first caught +me. Omitting many thoughts that came into my mind, and many things that +were told me, I will only say that, intoxicated by a new passion, I +returned with a soul enslaved to that spot whence I had gone forth in +freedom. + +When I was in my chamber, alone and unoccupied, inflamed with various +wild wishes, filled with new sensations and throbbing with many +anxieties, all of which were concentrated on the image of the youth who +pleased me, I argued within myself that if I could not banish love from +my luckless bosom, I might at least be able to keep cautious and secret +control of it therein; and how hard it is to do such a thing, no one can +discover who does not make trial of the same. Surely do I believe that +not even Love himself can cause so great anguish as such an attempt is +certain to produce. Furthermore, I was arrested in my purpose by the +fact that I had no acquaintance with him of whom I professed myself +enamored. To relate all the thoughts that were engendered in me by this +love, and of what nature they were, would take altogether too much time. +But some few I must perforce declare, as well as certain things that +were beginning to delight me more than usual. I say, then, that, +everything else being neglected, the only thing that was dear to me was +the thought of my beloved, and, when it occurred to my mind that, by +persevering in this course, I might, mayhap, give occasion to some one +to discover that which I wished to conceal, I often upbraided myself for +my folly. But what availed it all? My upbraidings had to give way to my +inordinate yearning for him, and dissolved uselessly into thin air. + +For several days I longed exceedingly to learn who was the youth I +loved, toward whom my thoughts were ever clearly leading me; and this I +craftily learned, the which filled me with great content. In like +manner, the ornaments for which I had before this in no way cared, as +having but little need thereof, began to be dear to me, thinking that +the more I was adorned the better should I please. Wherefore I prized +more than hitherto my garments, gold, pearls, and my other precious +things. Until the present moment it had been my custom to frequent +churches, gardens, festivals, and seaside resorts, without other wish +than the companionship of young friends of my own sex; now, I sought the +aforesaid places with a new desire, believing that both to see and be +seen would bring me great delectation. But, in sooth, the trust which I +was wont to place in my beauty had deserted me, and now I never left my +chamber, without first seeking the faithful counsel of my mirror: and my +hands, newly instructed thereunto by I know not what cunning master, +discovering each day some more elegant mode of adornment than the day +before, and deftly adding artificial charms to my natural loveliness, +thereby caused me to outshine all the other ladies in my surpassing +splendor. Furthermore, I began to wish for the honors usually paid to me +by ladies, because of their gracious courtesy, though, perhaps, they +were rather the guerdon of my noble birth, being due to me therefor, +thinking that if I appeared so magnificent to my beloved's eyes, he +would take the more delight in beholding me. Avarice, too, which is +inborn in women, fled from me, so that I became free and openhanded, and +regarded my own possessions almost as if they were not my own. The +sedateness that beseems a woman fell away from me somewhat, and I grew +bolder in my ways; and, in addition to all this, my eyes, which until +that day looked out on the world simply and naturally, entirely changed +their manner of looking, and became so artful in their office that it +was a marvel. And many other alterations appeared in me over and above +these, all of which I do not care to relate, for besides that the +report thereof would be too tedious, I ween full well that you, like me, +also have been, or are, in love, and know what changes take place in +those who are in such sad case. + +He was a most wary and circumspect youth, whereunto my experience was +able to bear witness frequently. Going very rarely, and always in the +most decorous manner, to the places where I happened to be, he used to +observe me, but ever with a cautious eye, so that it seemed as if he had +planned as well as I to hide the tender flames that glowed in the +breasts of both. Certainly, if I denied that love, although it had +clutched every corner of my heart and taken violent possession of every +recess of my soul, grew even more intense whenever it happened that my +eyes encountered his, I should deny the truth; he added further fuel to +the fires that consumed me, and rekindled such as might be expiring, if, +mayhap, there were any such. But the beginning of all this was by no +means so cheerful as the ending was joyless, as soon as I was deprived +of the sight of this, my beloved, inasmuch as the eyes, being thus +robbed of their delight, gave woful occasion of lamentation to the +heart, the sighs whereof grew greater in quality as well as in quantity, +and desire, as if seizing my every feeling, took me away from myself, +and, as if I were not where I was, I frequently gave him who saw me +cause for amazement by affording numberless pretexts for such +happenings, being taught by love itself. In addition to this, the quiet +of the night and the thoughts on which my fancy fed continuously, by +taking me out of myself, sometimes moved me to actions more frantic than +passionate and to the employment of unusual words. + +But it happened that while my excess of ornaments, heartfelt sighs, lost +rest, strange actions, frantic movements, and other effects of my recent +love, attracted the notice of the other domestics of the household, they +especially struck with wonder a nurse of mine, old in years and +experienced, and of sound judgment, who, though well aware of the flames +that tortured my breast, yet making show of not knowing thereof, +frequently chided me for my altered manners. One day in particular, +finding me lying disconsolate on my couch, seeing that my brow was +charged with doleful thoughts, and believing that we were not likely to +be interrupted by other company, she began to speak as follows: + +"My dearest daughter, whom I love as my very self, tell me, I pray you, +what are the sorrows that have for some time past been harassing you? +You who were wont to be so gay formerly, you whom I have never seen +before with a mournful countenance, seem to me now to be the prey of +grief and to let no moment pass without a sigh." + +Then, having at first feigned to be asleep and not to have heard her, I +heaved a deep sigh, and, my face, at one time flushing, at another +turning pale, I tossed about on the couch, seeking what answer I should +make, though, indeed, in my agitation, my tongue could hardly shape a +perfect sentence. But, at length, I answered: + +"Indeed, dear nurse, no fresh sorrows harass me; nor do I feel that I am +in any way different from what I am wont to be. Perhaps some troubles I +may have, but they are such as are incidental to all women." + +"Most certainly, you are trying to deceive me, my child," returned the +aged nurse, "and you seem not to reflect how serious a matter it is to +attempt to lead persons of experience to believe one thing because it is +couched in words and to disbelieve the opposite, although it is made +plainly evident by deeds. There is no reason why you should hide from me +a fact whereof I have had perfect knowledge since several days ago." + +Alas! when I heard her speak thus, provoked and stung by her words, I +said: + +"If, then, thou wittest of all this, wherefore dost thou question me? +All that thou hast to do now is to keep secret that which thou hast +discovered." + +"In good truth," she replied, "I will conceal all that which it is not +meet that another should know, and may the earth open and engulf me in +its bowels before I ever reveal aught that might turn to thy open shame! +Therefore, do thou live assured of this, and guard thyself carefully +from letting another know that which I, without either thyself or anyone +else telling me, have learned from observing thy looks. As for myself, +it is not now, but long ere now, that I have learned to keep hidden that +which should not be disclosed. Therefore, do thou continue to feel +secure as to this matter, and watch most carefully that thou lettest not +another know that which I, not witting it from thee or from another, +most surely have discovered from thine own face and from its changeful +seeming. But, if thou art still the victim of that folly by which I know +thou hast been enslaved, if thou art as prone now as erewhile to indulge +that feeling to which thou hast already given way, then know I right +well that I must leave thee to thy own devices, for bootless will be my +teachings and my warnings. Still, although this cruel tyrant, to whom in +thy youthful simplicity being taken by surprise thou hast yielded thy +freedom, appears to have deprived thee of understanding as well as of +liberty, I will put thee in mind of many things, and entreat thee to +fling off and banish wicked thoughts from thy chaste bosom, to quench +that unholy fire, and not to make thyself the thrall of unworthy hopes. +Now is the time to be strong in resistance; for whoso makes a stout +fight in the beginning roots out an unhallowed affection, and bears +securely the palm of victory; but whoso, with long and wishful fancies, +fosters it, will try too late to resist a yoke that has been submitted +to almost unresistingly." + +"Alas!" I replied, "how far easier it is to say such things than to +lead them to any good result." + +"Albeit they be not easy of fulfilment," she said, "yet are they +possible, and they are things that it beseems you to do. Take thou +thought whether it would be fitting that for such a thing as this thou +shouldst lose the luster of thy exalted parentage, the great fame of thy +virtue, the flower of thy beauty, the honor in which thou art now held, +and, above all, the favor of the spouse whom thou hast loved and by whom +thou art loved: certainly, thou shouldst not wish for this; nor do I +believe thou wouldst wish it, if thou didst but weigh the matter +seriously in thine own mind. Wherefore, in the name of God, forbear, and +drive from thy heart the false delights promised by a guilty hope, and, +with them, the madness that has seized thee. By this aged breast, long +harassed by many cares, from which thou didst take thy first nutriment, +I humbly beseech thee to have the courage to aid thyself, to have a +concern for thine own honor, and not to disdain my warnings. Bethink +thee that the very desire to be healed is itself often productive of +health." + +Whereto I thus made answer: + +"Only too well do I know, dear nurse, the truth of that which thou +sayest. But a furious madness constrains me to follow the worse course; +vainly does my heart, insatiable in its desires, long for strength to +enable it to adopt thy advice; what reason enjoins is rendered of no +avail by this soul-subduing passion. My mind is wholly possessed by +Love, who rules every part thereof, in virtue of his all-embracing +deity; and surely thou art aware that his power is absolute, and 'twere +useless to attempt to resist it." + +Having said these words, I became almost unconscious, and fell into her +arms. But she, now more agitated than before, in austere and rebuking +tones, said: + +"Yes, forsooth, well am I aware that you and a number of fond young +women, inflamed and instigated thereunto by vain thoughts, have +discovered Love to be a god, whereas a juster name for him would be that +of demon; and you and they call him the son of Venus, and say that his +strength has come to him from the third heaven, wishing, seemingly, to +offer necessity as an excuse for your foolishness. Oh, was ever woman so +misled as thou? Truly, thou must be bereft entirely of understanding! +What a thing thou sayest! Love a deity! Love is a madness, thrust forth +from hell by some fury. He speeds across the earth in hasty flight, and +they whom he visits soon discover that he brings no deity with him, but +frenzy rather; yet none will he visit except those abounding overmuch in +earthly felicity; for they, he knows, in their overweening conceit, are +ready to afford him lodgment and shelter. This has been proven to us by +many facts. Do we not see that Venus, the true, the heavenly Venus, +often dwells in the humblest cot, her sole concern being the +perpetuation of our race? But this god, whom some in their folly name +Love, always hankering after things unholy, ministers only to those +whose fortunes are prosperous. This one, recoiling from those whose food +and raiment suffice to meet the demands of nature, uses his best efforts +to win over the pampered and the splendidly attired, and with their food +and their habiliments he mixes his poisons, and so gains the lordship of +their wicked souls; and, for this reason, he gladly seeks a harborage in +lofty palaces, and seldom, or rather never, enters the houses of the +lowly, because this horrible plague always resorts by choice to scenes +of elegance and refinement, well knowing that such places are best +fitted for the achievement of his fell purposes. It is easy for us to +see that among the humble the affections are sane and well ordered; but +the rich, on the other hand, everywhere pluming themselves on their +riches, and being insatiable in their pursuit of other things as well as +of wealth, always show more eagerness therein than is becoming; and they +who can do much desire furthermore to have the power of doing that which +they must not do: among whom I feel that thou hast placed thyself, O +most hapless of women, seeing that thou hast already entered and +traveled far on a path that will surely lead to guilt and misery." + +After hearing which, I said: + +"Be silent, old woman, and provoke not the wrath of the gods by thy +speech. Now that thou art incapacitated from love by age and rejected by +all the gods, thou railest against this one, blaspheming him in whom +thou didst erstwhile take delight. If other ladies, far more puissant, +famous, and wise than I, have formerly called him by that name, it is +not in my power to give him a name anew. By him am I now truly enslaved; +whatever be the cause of this, and whether it be the occasion of my +happiness or misery, I am helpless. The strength wherewith I once +opposed him has been vanquished and has abandoned me. Therefore either +death or the youth for whom I languish can alone end my tortures. If +thou art, then, as wise as I hold thee to be, bestow such counsel and +help on me as may lighten my anguish, or, at least, abstain from +exasperating it by censuring that to which my soul, unable to act +differently, is inclined with all its energy." + +Thereupon, she, being angry, and not without reason, making no answer, +but muttering to herself, passed out of the chamber and left me alone. + +When my dear nurse had departed without making further discourse, and I +was again alone, I felt that I had acted ill in despising her advice. I +revolved her sayings within my restless breast; and, albeit my +understanding was blinded, I perceived that what she had said was +replete with wisdom, and, almost repenting of what I had uttered and of +the course which I had declared I purposed taking, I was wavering in my +mind. And, already beginning to have thoughts of abandoning that course +which was sure to be in every way most harmful, I was about to call her +back to give me encouragement, when a new and unforeseen event suddenly +changed my intention. For a most beautiful lady, come to my private +chamber I know not whence, presented herself before my eyes, enveloped +in such dazzling light that scarcely could my sight endure the +brightness thereof. But while she stood still and silent before me, the +effulgent radiance that had almost blinded my vision, after a time left +it unobscured, and I was able so to portray her every aspect to my mind, +as her whole beauteous figure was impressed on my memory. I saw that she +was nude, except for a thin and delicate drapery of purple, which, +albeit in some parts it covered the milk-white body, yet no more +concealed it from my ravished eyes than does the transparent glass +conceal the portrait beneath it. Her head, the hair whereof as much +surpassed gold in its luster as gold surpasses the yellowest tresses to +be found among mortals, was garlanded with a wreath of green myrtle, +beneath whose shadow I beheld two eyes of peerless splendor, so +enchanting that I could have gazed on them forever; they flashed forth +such luminous beams that it was a marvel; and all the rest of her +countenance had such transcendent loveliness that the like never was +seen here below. At first she spake no word, perchance content that I +should look upon her, or perchance seeing me so content to look upon +her. Then gradually through the translucent radiance, she revealed more +clearly every hidden grace, for she was aware that I could not believe +such beauty possible except I beheld it with my eyes, and that even then +words would fail me to picture it to mortals with my tongue. At last, +when she observed that I had sated my eyes with gazing on her, and when +she saw that her coming hither was as wondrous to me as her loveliness, +with smiling face, and in a voice sweeter than can be conceived by minds +like ours, she thus addressed me: + +"Prithee, young woman, what art thou, the most fickle of thy sex, +preparing to do in obedience to the late counsels of thy aged nurse? +Knowest thou not that such counsels are far harder to follow than that +very love which thou desirest to flee? Hast thou reflected on the dire +and unendurable torments which compliance with them will entail on thee? +O most insensate one! dost thou then, who only a few hours ago wert my +willing vassal, now wish to break away from my gentle rule, because, +forsooth, of the words of an old woman, who is no longer vassal of mine, +as if, like her, thou art now unwitting of what delights I am the +source? O most witless of women! forbear, and reflect whether thou +shouldst not find befitting happiness in that which makes the happiness +of Heaven and earth. All things that Phoebus beholds during the bright +day, from what time he emerges from Ganges, until he plunges with his +tired steeds into the Hesperian waves, to seek due repose after his +wearisome pilgrimage; all things that are confined between cold Arcturus +and the red-hot pole, all own the absolute and authentic lordship of my +wingéd son; and in Heaven not only is he esteemed a god, like the other +deities, but he is so much more puissant than them all that not one +remains who has not heretofore been vanquished by his darts. He, flying +on golden plumage throughout his realms, with such swiftness that his +passage can hardly be discerned, visits them all in turn, and, bending +his strong bow, to the drawn string he fits the arrows forged by me and +tempered in the fountains sacred to my divinity. And when he elects +anyone to his service, as being more worthy than others, that one he +rules as it likes him. He kindles raging fires in the hearts of the +young, fans the flames that are almost dead in the old, awakens the +fever of passion in the chaste bosoms of virgins and instils a genial +warmth into the breasts of wives and widows equally. He has even +aforetime forced the gods, wrought up to a frenzy by his blazing torch, +to forsake the heavens and dwell on earth under false appearances. +Whereof the proofs are many. Was not Phoebus, though victor over huge +Python and creator of the celestial strains that sound from the lyres of +Parnassus, by him made the thrall, now of Daphne, now of Clymene, and +again of Leucothea, and of many others withal? Certainly, this was so. +And, finally, hiding his brightness under the form of a shepherd, did +not Apollo tend the flocks of Admetus? Even Jove himself, who rules the +skies, by this god coerced, molded his greatness into forms inferior to +his own. Sometimes, in shape of a snow-white fowl, he gave voice to +sounds sweeter than those of the dying swan, and anon, changing to a +young bull and fitting horns to his brow, he bellowed along the plains, +and humbled his proud flanks to the touch of a virgin's knees, and, +compelling his tired hoofs to do the office of oars, he breasted the +waves of his brother's kingdom, yet sank not in its depths, but joyously +bore away his prize. I shall not discourse unto you of his pursuit of +Semele under his proper form, or of Alcmena, in guise of Amphitryon, or +of Callisto, under the semblance of Diana, or of Danaë for whose sake he +became a shower of gold, seeing that in the telling thereof I should +waste too much time. Nay, even the savage god of war, whose strength +appalls the giants, repressed his wrathful bluster, being forced to such +submission by this my son, and became gentle and loving. And the forger +of Jupiter, and artificer of his three-pronged thunderbolts, though +trained to handle fire, was smitten by a shaft more potent than he +himself had ever wrought. Nay I, though I be his mother, have not been +able to fend off his arrows: Witness the tears I have shed for the death +of Adonis! But why weary myself and thee with the utterance of so many +words? There is no deity in heaven who has passed unscathed from his +assaults; except, perhaps, Diana only, who may have escaped him by +fleeing to the woods; though some there be who tell that she did not +flee, but rather concealed the wound. If haply, however, thou, in the +hardness of thy unbelief, rejectest the testimony of heaven, and +searchest rather for examples of those in this nether world who have +felt his power, I affirm them to be so multitudinous that where to begin +I know not. Yet this much may I tell thee truly: all who have confessed +his sway have been men of might and valor. Consider attentively, in the +first place, that undaunted son of Alcmena, who, laying aside his arrows +and the formidable skin of the huge lion, was fain to adorn his fingers +with green emeralds, and to smooth and adjust his bristling and +rebellions hair. Nay, that hand which aforetime had wielded the terrific +club, and slain therewith Antæus, and dragged the hound of hell from the +lower world, was now content to draw the woolen threads spun from +Omphale's distaff; and the shoulders whereon had rested the pillars of +the heavens, from which he had for a time freed Atlas, were now clasped +in Omphale's arms, and afterward, to do her pleasure, covered with a +diaphanous raiment of purple. Need I relate what Paris did in obedience +to the great deity? or Helen? or Clytemnestra? or Ægisthus? These are +things that are well known to all the world. Nor do I care to speak of +Achilles, or of Scylla, of Ariadne or Leander, of Dido, or of many +others, of whom the same tale could be told, were there need to tell it. +Believe me when I affirm that this fire is holy, and most potent as +well. Thou hast heard that heaven and earth are subject to my son +because of his lordship over gods and men. But what shall I say of the +power that he exercises over irrational animals, whether celestial or +terrene? It is through him that the turtle is fain to follow her mate; +it is through him that my pigeons have learned to caress his ringdoves +with fondest endearments. And there is no creeping or living creature +that has ever at any time attempted to escape from his puissance: in the +woods the timid stag, made fierce by his touch, becomes brave for sake +of the coveted hind and by bellowing and fighting, they prove how strong +are the witcheries of Love. The ferocious boars are made by Love to +froth at the mouth and sharpen their ivory tusks; the African lions, +when Love quickens them, shake their manes in fury. But leaving the +groves and forests, I assert that even in the chilly waters the +numberless divinities of the sea and of the flowing rivers are not safe +from the bolts of my son. Neither can I for a moment believe that thou +art ignorant of the testimony thereof which has been rendered by +Neptune, Glaucus, Alpheus, and others too numerous to mention: not only +were they unable to quench the flame with their dank waters, but they +could not even moderate its fury, which, when it had made its might +felt, both on the earth and in the waters, continued its onward course, +and rested not until it had penetrated into the gloomy realms of Dis. +Therefore Heaven and Earth and Ocean and Hell itself have had experience +of the potency of his weapons. And, in order that thou mayest understand +in a few words the power of the deity, I tell thee that, while +everything succumbs to nature, and nothing can ever be emancipated from +her dominion, Nature herself is but the servant of Love. When he +commands, ancient hatreds perish, and angry moods, be they old or new, +give place to his fires; and lastly, his sway has such far-reaching +influence that even stepmothers become gracious to their stepchildren, a +thing which it is a marvel to behold. Therefore what seekest thou? Why +dost thou hesitate? Why dost thou rashly avoid him? When so many gods, +when so many men, when so many animals, have been vanquished by him, art +ashamed to be vanquished by him also? In good sooth, thou weenest not +what thou art doing. If thou fearest to be blamed for thy obedience to +him, a blame so unmerited never can be thy portion. Greater sins than +thou canst commit have been committed by thousands far greater than +thou, and these sins would plead as thy excuse, shouldst thou pursue +that course which others have pursued--others who far excel thee. Thou +wilt have sinned but a little, seeing that thou hadst far less power of +resistance than those aforementioned. But if my words move thee not, and +thou wouldst still wish to withstand the god, bethink thee that thy +power falls far short of that of Jove, and that in judgment thou canst +not equal Phoebus, nor in wealth Juno, nor me in beauty; and yet, we all +have been conquered. Thou art greatly deceived, and I fear me that thou +must perish in the end, if thou persist in thy changed purpose. Let that +which has erstwhile sufficed for the whole world, suffice for thee, nor +try to render thyself cold-hearted, by saying: 'I have a husband, and +the holy laws and the vowed faith forbid me this'; for bootless are such +reasonings against the puissance of this god. He discards the laws of +others scornfully, as thinking them of no account, and ordains his own. +Pasiphæ? had a husband, and Phædra, and I, too, even though I have +loved. And it is these same husbands who most frequently fall in love +with others, albeit they have wives of their own: witness Jason and +Theseus and valiant Hector and Ulysses. Therefore to men we do no wrong +if we apply to them the same laws that they apply to others; for to +them no privilege has been granted which is not accorded to us withal. +Banish, then, thy foolish thoughts, and, in all security, go on loving +him whom thou hadst already begun to love. In good sooth, if thou +refusest to own the power of mighty Love, it behooves thee to fly; but +whither canst thou fly? Knowest thou of any retreat where he will not +follow and overtake thee? He has in all places equal puissance. Go +wheresoever thou wilt, never canst thou pass across the borders of his +realms, and within these realms vain it is for mortals to try to hide +themselves when he would smite them. But let it comfort thee to know, +young woman, that no such odious passion shall trouble thee as erstwhile +was the scourge of Myrrha, Semiramis, Byblis, Canace, and Cleopatra. +Nothing strange or new will be wrought by my son in thy regard. He has, +as have the other gods, his own special laws, which thou art not the +first to obey, and shouldst not be the last to entertain hopes +therefrom. If haply thou believest that thou art without companions in +this, foolish is thy belief. Let us pass by the other world, which is +fraught with such happenings; but observe attentively only thine own +city! What an infinite number of ladies it can show who are in the same +case with thyself! And remember that what is done by so many cannot be +deemed unseemly. Therefore, be thou of our following, and return thanks +to our beauty, which thou hast so closely examined. But return special +thanks to our deity, which has sundered thee from the ranks of the +simple, and persuaded thee to become acquainted with the delights that +our gifts bestow." + +Alas! alas! ye tender and compassionate ladies, if Love has been +propitious to your desires, say what could I, what should I, answer to +such and so great words uttered by so great a goddess, if not: "Be it +done unto me according to thy pleasure"? And so, I affirm that as soon +as she had closed her lips, having already harvested within my +understanding all her words, and feeling that every word was charged +with ample excuse for what I might do, and knowing now how mighty she +was and how resistless, I resolved at once to submit to her guidance; +and instantly rising from my couch, and kneeling on the ground, with +humbled heart, I thus began, in abashed and tremulous accents: + +"O peerless and eternal loveliness! O divinest of deities! O sole +mistress of all my thoughts! whose power is felt to be most invincible +by those who dare to try to withstand it, forgive the ill-timed +obstinacy wherewith I, in my great folly, attempted to ward off from my +breast the weapons of thy son, who was then to me an unknown divinity. +Now, I repeat, be it done unto me according to thy pleasure, and +according to thy promises withal. Surely, my faith merits a due reward +in time and space, seeing that I, taking delight in thee more than do +all other women, wish to see the number of thy subjects increase forever +and ever." + +Hardly had I made an end of speaking these words, when she moved from +the place where she was standing, and came toward me. Then, her face +glowing with the most fervent expression of affection and sympathy, she +embraced me, and touched my forehead with her divine lips. Next, just as +the false Ascanius, when panting in the arms of Dido, breathed on her +mouth, and thereby kindled the latent flame, so did she breathe on my +mouth, and, in that wise, rendered the divine fire that slumbered in my +heart more uncontrollable than ever, and this I felt at that very +moment. Thereafter, opening a little her purple robe, she showed me, +clasped in her arms against her ravishing breast, the very counterpart +of the youth I loved, wrapped in the transparent folds of a Grecian +mantle, and revealing in the lineaments of his countenance pangs that +were not unlike those I suffered. + +"O damsel," she said, "rivet thy gaze on the youth before thee: we have +not given thee for lover a Lissa, a Geta, or a Birria, or anyone +resembling them, but a person in every way worthy of being loved by +every goddess in the heavens. Thee he loves more than himself, as we +have ordained, and thee will he ever love; therefore do thou, joyfully +and securely, abandon thyself to his love. Thy prayers have moved us to +pity, as it is meet that prayers so deserving should, and so, be of good +hope, and fear not that thou shalt be without the reward due thee in the +future." + +And thereafter she suddenly vanished from my eyes. _Oimè!_ wretched me! +I do not for a moment doubt now, after considering the things which +followed, that this one who appeared unto me was not Venus, but rather +Tisiphone, who, doffing from her head the horrid snakes that served it +for hair, and assuming for the while the splendid form of the Goddess of +Love, in this manner lured me with deceitful counsels to that disaster +which at length overwhelmed me. Thus did Juno, but in different fashion, +veiling the radiance of her deity and transforming herself for the +occasion into the exact likeness of her aged nurse, persuaded Semele to +her undoing. Woe is me! my resolve to be so advised was the cause--O +hallowed Modesty! O Chastity, most sacred of all the virtues! sole and +most precious treasure of righteous women!--was the cause, I repeat, +wherefore I drove ye from my bosom. Yet do I venture to pray unto ye for +pardon, and surely the sinner who repents and perseveres in repentance +should in due season obtain your forgiveness. + +Although the goddess had disappeared from my sight, my whole soul, +nevertheless, continued to crave her promised delights; and, albeit the +ardor of the passion that vexed my soul deprived me of every other +feeling, one piece of good fortune, for what deserving of mine I know +not, remained to me out of so many that had been lost--namely, the power +of knowing that seldom if ever has a smooth and happy ending been +granted to love, if that love be divulged and blazed abroad. And for +this reason, when influenced by my highest thoughts, I resolved, +although it was a most serious thing to do so, not to set will above +reason in carrying this my desire unto an ending. And assuredly, +although I have often been most violently constrained by divers +accidents to follow certain courses, yet so much grace was conceded to +me that, sustained by my own firmness, I passed through these agonies +without revealing the pangs that tortured me. And in sooth, I have still +resolution enough to continue to follow out this my purpose; so that, +although the things I write are most true, I have so disposed them that +no one, however keen his sagacity, can ever discover who I am, except +him who is as well acquainted with these matters as I, being, indeed, +the occasion of them all. And I implore him, should this little book +ever come into his hands, in the name of that love which he once bore +me, to conceal that which, if disclosed, would turn neither to his +profit nor honor. And, albeit he has deprived me of himself, and that +through no fault of mine, let him not take it upon himself to deprive me +of that honor which I still possess, although, perchance, undeservedly; +for should he do so, he could never again give it back to me, any more +than he can now give me back himself. + +Having, therefore, formed my plans in this wise, I showed the most +long-suffering patience in manifesting my keenest and most covetous +yearnings, and I used my best efforts, but only in secret ways and when +opportunities were afforded me, to light in this young man's soul the +same flames wherewith my own soul glowed, and to make him as +circumspect as myself withal. Nor, in truth, was this for me a task of +great difficulty; for, inasmuch as the lineaments of the face always +bear most true witness to the qualities of the heart, it was not long +before I became aware that my desire would have its full fruition. I +perceived that, not only was he throbbing with amorous enthusiasm, but +that he was also imbued with most perfect discretion, and this was +exceedingly pleasing to me. He, being at once wishful to preserve my +honor in all its luster, and, at the same time, to arrange convenient +times and places for our meetings, employed many ingenious stratagems, +which, methinks, must have cost him much toil and trouble. He used every +subtle art to win the friendship of all who were related to me, and, at +last, of my husband; and not only did he enjoy their friendship, but he +possessed it in such a supreme degree that no pleasure was agreeable to +them unless he shared it. How much all this delighted me you will +understand without its being needful to me to set it down in words. And +is there anyone so dull of wit as not to conclude that from the +aforesaid friendship arose many opportunities for him and me of holding +discourse together in public? But already had he bethought himself of +acting in more subtle ways; and now he would speak to this one, now to +that one, words whereby I, being most eager for such enlightenment, +discovered that whatever he said to these was fraught with figurative +and hidden meanings, intended to show forth his ardent affection for +myself. When he was sensible that I had a clear perception of the occult +significance of his questions and answers, he went still further, and by +gestures, and mobile changes in the expression of his features, he would +make known to me his thoughts and the various phases of his passion, +which was to me a source of much delectation; and I strove so hard to +comprehend it all and to make fitting response thereunto, that neither +could he shadow forth anything to me, nor I to him, that either of us +did not at once understand. + +Nay, not satisfied even with this, he employed other symbols and +metaphors, and labored earnestly to discipline me in such manner of +speech; and, to render me the more assured of his unalterable love, he +named me Fiammetta, and himself Panfilo. Woe is me! How often, when +warmed with love and wine, did we tell tales, in the presence of our +dearest friends, of Fiammetta and Panfilo, feigning that they were +Greeks of the days of old, I at one time, he at another; and the tales +were all of ourselves; how we were first caught in the snares of Love, +and of what tribulations we were long the victims, giving suitable names +to the places and persons connected with the story! Certainly, I +frequently laughed at it all, being made merry by the simplicity of the +bystanders, as well as by his astuteness and sagacity. Yet betimes I +dreaded that in the flush of his excitement he might thoughtlessly let +his tongue wander in directions wherein it was not befitting it should +venture. But he, being ever far wiser than I imagined, guarded himself +craftily from any such blundering awkwardness. + +_Oimè!_ most compassionate ladies, what is there that Love will not +teach to his subjects? and what is there that he is not able to render +them skilful in learning? I, who of all young women was the most +simple-minded, and ordinarily with barely power to loose my tongue, when +among my companions, concerning the most trivial and ordinary affairs, +now, because of this my affection, mastered so speedily all his modes of +speech that, in a brief space, my aptness at feigning and inventing +surpassed that of any poet! And there were few questions put to me in +response to which, after meditating on their main points, I could not +make up a pleasing tale: a thing, in my opinion, exceedingly difficult +for a young woman to begin, and still more difficult to finish and +relate afterward. But, if my actual situation required it, I might set +down numerous details which might, perhaps, seem to you of little or no +moment, as, for instance, the artful experiment whereby we tested the +fidelity of my favorite maid to whom, and to whom alone, we meditated +entrusting the secret of this hidden passion, considering that, should +another share it, our uneasiness, lest it should not be kept, would be +most grievous. Furthermore, it would weary you if I mentioned all the +plans we adopted, in order to meet divers situations, plans that I do +not believe were ever imagined by any before us; and albeit I am now +well aware that they all worked for my ultimate destruction, yet the +remembrance of them does not displease me. + +Unless, O ladies, my judgment be greatly at fault, the strength of our +minds was by no means small, if it be but taken in account how hard a +thing it is for youthful persons in love to resist long the rush of +impetuous ardor without crossing the bounds set by reason: nay, it was +so great and of such quality that the most valiant of men, by acting in +such wise, would win high and worthy laud as a result thereof. But my +pen is now about to depict the final ending to which love was guided, +and, before I do so, I would appeal to your pity and to those soft +sentiments which make their dwelling in your tender breasts, and incline +your thoughts to a like termination. + +Day succeeded day, and our wishes dragged along with them, kept alive by +torturing anxiety, the full bitterness whereof each of us experienced; +although the one manifested this to the other in disguised language, and +the other showed herself over-discreet to an excessive degree; all of +which you who know how ladies who are beloved behave in such +circumstances will easily understand. Well, then, he, putting full trust +in the veiled meaning of my words, and choosing the proper time and +place, came to an experience of that which I desired as much as he, +although I feigned the contrary. Certainly, if I were to say that this +was the cause of the love I felt for him, I should also have to confess +that every time it came back to my memory, it was the occasion to me of +a sorrow like unto none other. But, I call God to witness, nothing that +has happened between us had the slightest influence upon the love I bore +him, nor has it now. Still, I will not deny that our close intimacy was +then, and is now, most dear to me. And where is the woman so unwise as +not to wish to have the object of her affection within reach rather than +at a distance? How much more intensely does love enthrall us when it is +brought so near us that we and it are made almost inseparable! I say, +then, that after such an adventure, never afore willed or even thought +of by me, not once, but many times did fortune and our adroit stratagems +bring us good cheer and consolation, not indeed screened entirely from +danger, for which I cared less than for the passing of the fleeing wind. +But while the time was being spent in such joyous fashion--and that it +was joyous, Love, who alone may bear witness thereof, can truly say--yet +sometimes his coming inspired me with not a little natural apprehension, +inasmuch as he was beginning to be indiscreet in the manner of his +coming. But how dear to him was my own apartment, and with what gladness +did it see him enter! Yet was he filled with more reverence for it than +he ever had been for a sacred temple, and this I could at all times +easily discern. Woe is me! what burning kisses, what tender embraces, +what delicious moments we had there! + +Why do I take such pleasure in the mere words which I am now setting +down? It is, I say, because I am forced to express the gratitude I then +felt to the holy goddess who was the promiser and bestower of Love's +delights. Ah, how often did I visit her altars and offer incense, +crowned with a garland of her favorite foliage! How often did I think +scornfully of the counsels of my aged nurse! Nay, furthermore, being +elated far more than all my other companions, how often did I disparage +their loves, saying within myself: "No one is loved as I am loved, no +one loves a youth as matchless as the youth I love, no one realizes such +delights from love as I!" In short, I counted the world as nothing in +comparison with my love. It seemed to me that my head touched the skies, +and that nothing was lacking to the culmination of my ecstatic bliss. +Betimes the idea flashed on my mind that I must disclose to others the +occasion of my transports, for surely, I would reflect, it would be a +delight to others to hear of that which has brought such delight to me! +But thou, O Shame, on the one side, and thou, O Fear, on the other, did +hold me back: the one threatening me with eternal infamy; the other with +loss of that which hostile Fortune was soon afterward to tear from me. +In such wise then, did I live for some time, for it was then pleasing to +Love that I should live in this manner; and, in good sooth, so blithely +and joyously were these days spent that I had little cause to envy any +lady in the whole world, never imagining that the delight wherewith my +heart was filled to overflowing, was to nourish the root and plant of my +future misery, as I now know to my fruitless and never-ending sorrow. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of La Fiammetta, by Giovanni Boccaccio + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LA FIAMMETTA *** + +***** This file should be named 10006-8.txt or 10006-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/0/0/10006/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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BROGAN. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + <!-- + * { font-family: Times;} + P { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + font-size: 14pt; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; } + HR { width: 33%; } + // --> + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of La Fiammetta, by Giovanni Boccaccio + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: La Fiammetta + +Author: Giovanni Boccaccio + +Release Date: November 7, 2003 [EBook #10006] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LA FIAMMETTA *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<a name="LA_FIAMMETTA"></a><h2>LA FIAMMETTA</h2> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h3>GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO</h3> +<br> + +<h3>TRANSLATED BY JAMES C. BROGAN</h3> +<br> + +<h4>1907.</h4> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<a name="INTRODUCTION"></a><h2>INTRODUCTION</h2> +<br> + +<p>Youth, beauty, and love, wit, gayety and laughter, are the component +parts of the delightful picture conjured up by the mere name of Giovanni +Boccaccio, the prince of story-tellers for all generations of men. This +creator of a real literary epoch was born in Paris, in 1313, (in the +eleventh year of Dante's exile), of an Italian father and a French-woman +of good family. His father was a merchant of Florence, whither he +returned with his son when the child was seven years old. The boy +received some education, but was placed in a counting-house when he was +only thirteen, and at seventeen he was sent by his father to Naples to +enter another commercial establishment. But he disliked commerce, and +finally persuaded his father to allow him to study law for two years at +the University of Naples, during which period the lively and attractive +youth made brisk use of his leisure time in that gay and romantic city, +where he made his way into the highest circles of society, and +unconsciously gleaned the material for the rich harvest of song and +story that came with his later years. At this time he was present at the +coronation of the poet Petrarch in the Capitol, and was fired with +admiration for the second greatest poet of that day. He chose Petrarch +for his model and guide, and in riper manhood became his most intimate +friend.</p> + +<p>By the time he was twenty-five, Boccaccio had fallen in love with the +Lady Maria, a natural daughter of King Robert of Naples, who had caused +her to be adopted as a member of the family of the Count d'Aquino, and +to be married when very young to a Neapolitan nobleman. Boccaccio first +saw her in the Church of San Lorenzo on the morning of Easter eve, in +1338, and their ensuing friendship was no secret to their world. For the +entertainment of this youthful beauty he wrote his <i>Filicopo</i>, and the +fair Maria is undoubtedly the heroine of several of his stories and +poems. His father insisted upon his return to Florence in 1340, and +after he had settled in that city he occupied himself seriously with +literary work, producing, between the years 1343 and 1355, the <i>Teseide</i> +(familiar to English readers as "The Knight's Tale" in Chaucer, +modernized by Dryden as "Palamon and Arcite"), <i>Ameto, Amorosa Visione, +La Fiammetta, Ninfale Fiesolona</i>, and his most famous work, the +<i>Decameron</i>, a collection of stories written, it is said, to amuse Queen +Joanna of Naples and her court, during the period when one of the +world's greatest plagues swept over Europe in 1348. In these years he +rose from the vivid but confused and exaggerated manner of <i>Filocopo</i> to +the perfection of polished literary style. The <i>Decameron</i> fully +revealed his genius, his ability to weave the tales of all lands and all +ages into one harmonious whole; from the confused mass of legends of the +Middle Ages, he evolved a world of human interest and dazzling beauty, +fixed the kaleidoscopic picture of Italian society, and set it in the +richest frame of romance.</p> + +<p>While he had the <i>Decameron</i> still in hand, he paused in that great +work, with heart full of passionate longing for the lady of his love, +far away in Naples, to pour out his very soul in <i>La Fiammetta</i>, the +name by which he always called the Lady Maria. Of the real character of +this lady, so famous in literature, and her true relations with +Boccaccio, little that is certain is known. In several of his poems and +in the <i>Decameron</i> he alludes to her as being cold as a marble statue, +which no fire can ever warm; and there is no proof, notwithstanding the +ardor of Fiammetta as portrayed by her lover—who no doubt wished her to +become the reality of his glowing picture—that he ever really received +from the charmer whose name was always on his lips anything more than +the friendship that was apparent to all the world. But she certainly +inspired him in the writing of his best works.</p> + +<p>The best critics agree in pronouncing <i>La Fiammetta</i> a marvelous +performance. John Addington Symonds says: "It is the first attempt in +any literature to portray subjective emotion exterior to the writer; +since the days of Virgil and Ovid, nothing had been essayed in this +region of mental analysis. The author of this extraordinary work proved +himself a profound anatomist of feeling by the subtlety with which he +dissected a woman's heart." The story is full of exquisite passages, and +it exercised a widespread and lasting influence over all the narrative +literature that followed it. It is so rich in material that it furnished +the motives of many tales, and the novelists of the sixteenth century +availed themselves freely of its suggestions.</p> + +<p>After Boccaccio had taken up a permanent residence in Florence, he +showed a lively interest in her political affairs, and fulfilled all +the duties of a good citizen. In 1350 he was chosen to visit the lords +of various towns of Romagna, in order to engage their cooperation in a +league against the Visconti family, who, already lords of the great and +powerful city of Milan, desired to extend their domains beyond the +Apennines. In 1351 Boccaccio had the pleasure of bearing to the poet +Petrarch the news of the restoration of his rights of citizenship and of +his patrimony, both of which he had lost in the troubles of 1323, and +during this visit the two geniuses became friends for life. They delved +together into the literature of the ancients, and Boccaccio determined, +through the medium of translation, to make the work of the great Greek +writers a part of the liberal education of his countrymen. A knowledge +of Greek at that time was an exceedingly rare accomplishment, since the +serious study of living literatures was only just beginning, and the +Greek of Homer had been almost forgotten. Even Petrarch, whose erudition +was marvelous, could not read a copy of the <i>Iliad</i> that he possessed. +Boccaccio asked permission of the Florentine Government to establish a +Greek professorship in the University of Florence, and persuaded a +learned Calabrian, Leonzio Pilato, who had a perfect knowledge of +ancient Greek, to leave Venice and accept the professorship at Florence, +and lodged him in his own house. Together the Calabrian and the author +of <i>La Fiammetta</i> and the <i>Decameron</i> made a Latin translation of the +<i>Iliad</i>, which Boccaccio transcribed with his own hand. But his literary +enthusiasm was not confined to his own work and that of the ancients. +His soul was filled with a generous ardor of admiration for Dante; +through his efforts the Florentines were awakened to a true sense of the +merits of the sublime poet, so long exiled from his native city, and the +younger genius succeeded in persuading them to establish a professorship +in the University for the sole study of the <i>Divine Comedy</i>, he himself +being the first to occupy the chair, and writing a <i>Life of Dante</i>, +besides commentaries on the <i>Comedy</i> itself.</p> + +<p>Mainly through his intimacy with the spiritual mind of Petrarch, +Boccaccio's moral character gradually underwent a change from the +reckless freedom and unbridled love of pleasure into which he had easily +fallen among his associates in the court life at Naples. He admired the +delicacy and high standard of honor of his friend, and became awakened +to a sense of man's duty to the world and to himself. During the decade +following the year 1365 he occupied himself at his home in Certaldo, +near Florence, with various literary labors, often entertaining there +the great men of the world.</p> + +<p>Petrarch's death occurred in 1374, and Boccaccio survived him but one +year, dying on the twenty-first of December, 1375. He was buried in +Certaldo, in the Church of San Michele e Giacomo.</p> + +<p>That one city should have produced three such men as the great +triumvirate of the fourteenth century—Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio—and +that one half-century should have witnessed their successive triumphs, +is the greatest glory of Florence, and is one of the most notable facts +in the history of genius.</p> + +<p>We quote once more from Symonds: "Dante brought the universe into his +<i>Divine Comedy</i>. 'But the soul of man, too, is a universe', and of this +inner microcosm Petrarch was the poet and genius. It remained for +Boccaccio to treat of daily life with an art as distinct and dazzling as +theirs. From Dante's Beatrice, through Petrarch's Laura, to Boccaccio's +La Fiammetta—from woman as an allegory of the noblest thoughts and +purest stirrings of the soul, through woman as the symbol of all beauty +worshiped at a distance, to woman as man's lover, kindling and +reciprocating the most ardent passion; from mystic, stately periods to +Protean prose; from verse built up into cathedral-like dignity, through +lyrics light as arabesques and pointed with the steely touch of polished +style, to that free form of speech which takes all moods and lends +itself alike to low or lofty things—such was the rapid movement of +Italian genius within the brief space of fifty years. So quickly did the +Renaissance emerge from the Middle Ages; and when the voices of that +august trio were silenced in the grave, their echoes ever widened and +grew louder through the spacious time to come."</p> + +<p>No translation into English of <i>La Fiammetta</i> has been made since +Shakespeare's time—when a small edition was published, which is now so +rare as to be practically unattainable—until the appearance of the +present Scholarly and poetic rendering, which places within the reach of +all one of the world's greatest masterpieces of literature.</p> + +<p>D.K.R.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<a name="PROLOGUE"></a><h2>PROLOGUE</h2> +<br> + +<p><i>Beginneth the Book called Elegy of Madonna Fiammetta, sent by her to +Ladies in Love.</i></p> + +<p>When the wretched perceive or feel that their woes arouse compassion, +their longing to give vent to their anguish is thereby increased. And +so, since, from long usance, the cause of my anguish, instead of growing +less, has become greater, the wish has come to me, noble ladies—in +whose hearts, mayhap, abides a love more fortunate than mine—to win +your pity, if I may, by telling the tale of my sorrows. Nor is it at all +my intent that these my words should come to the ears of men. Nay, +rather would I, so far as lies in my power, withhold my complaints from +them; for, such bitterness has the discovery of the unkindness of one +man stirred in me, that, imagining all other men to be like him, +methinks I should be a witness of their mocking laughter rather than of +their pitying tears. You alone do I entreat to peruse my story, knowing +full well that you will feel with me, and that you have a pious concern +for others' pangs. Here you will not find Grecian fables adorned with +many lies, nor Trojan battles, foul with blood and gore, but amorous +sentiments fed with torturing desires. Here will appear before your very +eyes the dolorous tears, the impetuous sighs, the heart-breaking words, +the stormy thoughts, which have harrowed me with an ever-recurring goad, +and have torn away from me sleep and appetite and the pleasant times of +old, and my much-loved beauty. When you behold these things, and behold +them with the ardent feelings which ladies are wont to have, sure I am +that the cheeks of each separately, and of all when brought together, +will be bathed in tears, because of those ills which are alone the +occasion of my never-ending misery. Do not, I beseech you, refuse me +these tears, reflecting that your estate is unstable as well as mine, +and that, should it ever come to resemble mine (the which may God +forfend!), the tears that others shed for you will be pleasing to you in +return. And that the time may pass more rapidly in speaking than in, +weeping, I will do my best to fulfil my promise briefly, beginning with +that love which was more happy than lasting, so that, by comparing that +happiness with my present case, you may learn that I am now more unhappy +than any woman ever has been. And afterward I will trace with mournful +pen, as best I can, all the agonies which are justly the source of my +lamentations. But first, if the prayers of the wretched are heard, if +there is in Heaven any Deity whose holy mind can be touched with +compassion for me, afflicted as I am, bathed in my own tears, Him I +beseech to aid my despondent memory and support my trembling hand in its +present task. So may the tortures which I have felt and still feel in my +soul become fruitful, and the memory will suggest the words for them, +and the hand, more eager than apt for such duty, will write them down.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<a name="Chapter_I"></a><h2>Chapter I</h2> +<br> + +<p><i>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.</i></p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>It was, then, while I was living in sweet content, amid every kind of +enjoyment, that Fortune, who quickly changes all things earthly, +becoming envious of the very gifts which she herself had bestowed, +withdrew her protecting hand. At first uncertain in what manner she +could succeed in poisoning my happiness, she at length managed, with +subtle craft, to make mine own very eyes traitors and so guide me into +the path that led to disaster. But the gods were still propitious to me, +nay, were even more concerned for my fate than I myself. Having seen +through her veiled malice, they wished to supply me with weapons, had I +but known how to avail me thereof, wherewith I might fend my breast, +and not go unarmed to the battle wherein I was destined to fall. Yea, on +the very night that preceded the day which was the beginning of all my +woes, they revealed to me the future in my sleep by means of a clear and +distinct vision, in such wise as follows:</p> + +<p>While lying on my spacious couch, with all my limbs relaxed in deepest +slumber, I seemed to be filled with greater joy than I had ever felt +before, and wherefore I knew not. And the day whereon this happened was +the brightest and loveliest of days. I was standing alone in verdant +grass, when, with the joy whereof I spoke, came the thought to me that +it might be well for me to repose in a meadow that appeared to be +shielded from the fervid rays of the sun by the shadows cast by various +trees newly garbed in their glossy foliage. But first, gathering divers +flowers, wherewith the whole sward was bejeweled, I placed them, with my +white hands, in a corner of my robe, and then, sitting down and choosing +flower after flower, I wove therefrom a fair garland, and adorned my +head with it. And, being so adorned, I arose, and, like unto Proserpine +at what time Pluto ravished her from her mother, I went along singing in +this new springtime. Then, being perchance weary, I laid me down in a +spot where the verdure was deepest and softest. But, just as the tender +foot of Eurydice was pierced by the concealed viper, so meseemed that a +hidden serpent came upon me, as I lay stretched on the grass, and +pierced me under the left breast. The bite of the sharp fang, when it +first entered, seemed to burn me. But afterward, feeling somewhat +reassured, and yet afraid of something worse ensuing, I thought I +clasped the cold serpent to my bosom, fancying that by communicating to +it the warmth of that bosom, I should thereby render it more kindly +disposed in my regard in return for such a service. But the viper, made +bolder and more obdurate by that very favor, laid his hideous mouth on +the wound he had given me, and after a long space, and after it had +drunk much of my blood, methought that, despite my resistance, it drew +forth my soul; and then, leaving my breast, departed with it. And at the +very moment of the serpent's departure the day lost its brightness, and +a thick shadow came behind me and covered me all over, and the farther +the serpent crept, the more lowering grew the heavens, and it seemed +almost as if the reptile dragged after it in its course the masses of +thick, black clouds that appeared to follow in its wake, Not long +afterward, just as a white stone flung into deep water gradually +vanishes from the eyes of the beholder, so it, too, vanished from my +sight. Then the heavens became darker and darker, and I thought that the +sun had suddenly withdrawn and night had surely returned, as it had +erstwhile returned to the <i>Greeks</i> because of the crime of Atrcus. Next, +flashes of lightning sped swiftly along the skies, and peals of crashing +thunder appalled the earth and me likewise. And through all, the wound +made in my breast by the bite of the serpent remained with me still, and +full of viperous poison; for no medicinal help was within my reach, so +that my entire body appeared to have swollen in a most foul and +disgusting manner. Whereupon I, who before this seemed to be without +life or motion—why, I do not know—feeling that the force of the venom +was seeking to reach my heart in divers subtle ways, now tossed and +rolled upon the cool grass, expecting death at any moment. But methought +that when the hour of my doom arrived, I was struck with terror at its +approach, and the anguish of my heart was so appalling, while looking +forward to its coming, that my inert body was convulsed with horror, and +so my deep slumber was suddenly broken. No sooner was I fully awake +than, being still alarmed by the things I had seen, I felt with my right +hand for the wound in my breast, searching at the present moment for +that which was already being prepared for my future misery. Finding that +no wound was there, I began to feel quite safe and even merry, and I +made a mock of the folly of drearns and of those who believe in them, +and so I rendered the work of the gods useless. Ah, wretched me! if I +mocked them then, I had good reason to believe in them afterward, to my +bitter sorrow and with the shedding of useless tears; good reason had I +also to complain of the gods, who reveal their secrets to mortals in +such mystic guise that the things that are to happen in the future can +hardly be said to be revealed at all. Being then fully awake, I raised +my drowsy head, and, as soon as I saw the light of the new-risen sun +enter my chamber, laying aside every other thought directly, I at once +left my couch.</p> + +<p>That day, too, was a day of the utmost solemnity for almost everyone. +Therefore, attiring myself carefully in glittering cloth of gold, and +adorning every part of my person with deft and cunning hand, I made +ready to go to the August festival, appareled like unto the goddesses +seen by Paris in the vale of Ida. And, while I was lost in admiration of +myself, just as the peacock is of his plumage, imagining that the +delight which I took in my own appearance would surely be shared by all +who saw me, a flower from my wreath fell on the ground near the curtain +of my bed, I know not wherefore—perhaps plucked from my head by a +celestial hand by me unseen. But I, careless of the occult signs by +which the gods forewarn mortals, picked it up, replaced it on my head, +and, as if nothing portentous had happened, I passed out from my abode. +Alas! what clearer token of what was to befall me could the gods have +given me? This should have served to prefigure to me that my soul, once +free and sovereign of itself, was on that day to lay aside its +sovereignty and become a slave, as it betided. Oh, if my mind had not +been distempered, I should have surely known that to me that day would +be the blackest and direst of days, and I should have let it pass +without ever crossing the threshold of my home! But although the gods +usually hold forth signs whereby those against whom they are incensed +may be warned, they often deprive them of due understanding; and thus, +while pointing out the path they ought to follow, they at the same time +sate their own anger. My ill fortune, then, thrust me forth from my +house, vain and careless that I was; and, accompanied by several ladies, +I moved with slow step to the sacred temple, in which the solemn +function required by the day was already celebrating. Ancient custom, as +well as my noble estate, had reserved for me a prominent place among the +other ladies. When I was seated, my eyes, as was my habit of old, +quickly wandered around the temple, and I saw that it was crowded with +men and women, who were divided into separate groups. And no sooner was +it observed that I was in the temple than (even while the sacred office +was going on) that happened which had always happened at other times, +and not only did the men turn their eyes to gaze upon me, but the women +did the same, as if Venus or Minerva had newly descended from the skies, +and would never again be seen by them in that spot where I was seated. +Oh, how often I laughed within my own breast, being enraptured with +myself, and taking glory unto myself because of such things, just as if +I were a real goddess! And so, nearly all the young gentlemen left off +admiring the other ladies, and took their station around me, and +straightway encompassed me almost in the form of a complete circle; and, +while speaking in divers ways of my beauty, each finished his praises +thereof with well-nigh the same sentences. But I who, by turning my eyes +in another direction, showed that my mind was intent on other cares, +kept my ears attentive to their discourse and received therefrom much +delectable sweetness; and, as it seemed to me that I was beholden to +them for such pleasure, I sometimes let my eyes rest on them more kindly +and benignantly. And not once, but many times, did I perceive that some +of them, puffed up with vain hopes because of this, boasted foolishly of +it to their companions.</p> + +<p>While I, then, in this way looked at a few, and that sparingly, I was +myself looked at by many, and that exceedingly, and while I believed +that my beauty was dazzling others, it came to pass that the beauty of +another dazzled me, to my great tribulation. And now, being already +close on the dolorous moment, which was fated to be the occasion either +of a most assured death or of a life of such anguish that none before me +has ever endured the like, prompted by I know not what spirit, I raised +my eyes with decent gravity, and surveyed with penetrating look the +crowds of young men who were standing near me. And I discerned, more +plainly than I saw any of the others, a youth who stood directly in +front of me, all alone, leaning against a marble column; and, being +moved thereto by irresistible fate, I began to take thought within my +mind of his bearing and manners, the which I had never before donc in +the case of anyone else. I say, then, that, according to my judgment, +which was not at that time biased by love, he was most beautiful in +form, most pleasing in deportment, and apparently of an honorable +disposition. The soft and silky locks that fell in graceful curls beside +his cheeks afforded manifest proof of his youthfulness. The look +wherewith he eyed me seemed to beg for pity, and yet it was marked by +the wariness and circumspection usual between man and man. Sure I am +that I had still strength enough to turn away my eyes from his gaze, at +least for a time; but no other occurrence had power to divert my +attention from the things already mentioned, and upon which I had deeply +pondered. And the image of his form, which was already in my mind, +remained there, and this image I dwelt upon with silent delight, +affirming within myself that those things were true which seemed to me +to be true; and, pleased that he should look at me, I raised my eyes +betimes to see whether he was still looking at me. But anon I gazed at +him more steadily, making no attempt to avoid amorous snares. And when I +had fixed my eyes on his more intently than was my wont, methought I +could read in his eyes words which might be uttered in this wise:</p> + +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">"O lady, thou alone art mine only bliss!"</span><br> + +<p>Certainly, if I should say that this idea was not pleasing to me, I +should surely lie, for it drew forth a gentle sigh from my bosom, +accompanied by these words: "And thou art mine!" unless, perchance, the +words were but the echo of his, caught by my mind and remaining within +it. But what availed it whether such words were spoken or not? The heart +had good understanding within itself of that which was not expressed by +the lips, and kept, too, within itself that which, if it had escaped +outside, might, mayhap, have left me still free. And so, from that time +forward, I gave more absolute liberty to my foolish eyes than ever they +had possessed before, and they were well content withal. And surely, if +the gods, who guide all things to a definite issue, had not deprived me +of understanding, I could still have been mistress of myself. But, +postponing every consideration to the last one that swayed me, I took +delight in following my unruly passion, and having made myself meet, all +at once, for such slavery, I became its thrall. For the fire that leaped +forth from his eyes encountered the light in mine, flashing thereunto a +most subtle ray. It did not remain content therewith, but, by what +hidden ways I know not, penetrated directly into the deepest recesses of +my heart; the which, affrighted by the sudden advent of this flame, +recalled to its center its exterior forces and left me as pale as +death, and also with the chill of death upon me. But not for long did +this continue, rather it happened contrariwise; and I felt my heart not +only glow with sudden beat, but its forces speeded back swiftly to their +places, bringing with them a throbbing warmth that chased away my pallor +and flushed my cheeks deeply; and, marveling wherefore this should +betide, I sighed heavily; nor thereafter was there other thought in my +soul than how I might please him.</p> + +<p>In like fashion, he, without changing his place, continued to scrutinize +my features, but with the greatest caution; and, perhaps, having had +much practice in amorous warfare, and knowing by what devices the +longed-for prey might be captured, he showed himself every moment more +humble, more desperate, and more fraught with tender yearning. Alas! how +much guile did that seeming desperation hide, which, as the result has +now shown, though it may have come from the heart, never afterward +returned to the same, and made manifest later that its revealment on the +face was only a lure and a delusion! And, not to mention all his deeds, +each of which was full of most artful deception, he so wrought upon me +by his own craft, or else the fates willed it should so happen, that I +straightway found myself enmeshed in the snares of sudden and +unthought-of love, in a manner beyond all my powers of telling, and so I +remain unto this very hour.</p> + +<p>It was this one alone, therefore, most pitiful ladies, that my heart, in +it mad infatuation, chose, not only among so many high-born, handsome +and valiant youths then present, but even among all of the same degree +having their abode in my own Parthenope, as first and last and sole lord +of my life. It was this one alone that I loved, and loved more than any +other. It was this one alone that was destined to be the beginning and +source of my by any pleasure, although often tempted, being at last +vanquished, have burned and now burn in the fire which then first caught +me. Omitting many thoughts that came into my mind, and many things that +were told me, I will only say that, intoxicated by a new passion, I +returned with a soul enslaved to that spot whence I had gone forth in +freedom.</p> + +<p>When I was in my chamber, alone and unoccupied, inflamed with various +wild wishes, filled with new sensations and throbbing with many +anxieties, all of which were concentrated on the image of the youth who +pleased me, I argued within myself that if I could not banish love from +my luckless bosom, I might at least be able to keep cautious and secret +control of it therein; and how hard it is to do such a thing, no one can +discover who does not make trial of the same. Surely do I believe that +not even Love himself can cause so great anguish as such an attempt is +certain to produce. Furthermore, I was arrested in my purpose by the +fact that I had no acquaintance with him of whom I professed myself +enamored. To relate all the thoughts that were engendered in me by this +love, and of what nature they were, would take altogether too much time. +But some few I must perforce declare, as well as certain things that +were beginning to delight me more than usual. I say, then, that, +everything else being neglected, the only thing that was dear to me was +the thought of my beloved, and, when it occurred to my mind that, by +persevering in this course, I might, mayhap, give occasion to some one +to discover that which I wished to conceal, I often upbraided myself for +my folly. But what availed it all? My upbraidings had to give way to my +inordinate yearning for him, and dissolved uselessly into thin air.</p> + +<p>For several days I longed exceedingly to learn who was the youth I +loved, toward whom my thoughts were ever clearly leading me; and this I +craftily learned, the which filled me with great content. In like +manner, the ornaments for which I had before this in no way cared, as +having but little need thereof, began to be dear to me, thinking that +the more I was adorned the better should I please. Wherefore I prized +more than hitherto my garments, gold, pearls, and my other precious +things. Until the present moment it had been my custom to frequent +churches, gardens, festivals, and seaside resorts, without other wish +than the companionship of young friends of my own sex; now, I sought the +aforesaid places with a new desire, believing that both to see and be +seen would bring me great delectation. But, in sooth, the trust which I +was wont to place in my beauty had deserted me, and now I never left my +chamber, without first seeking the faithful counsel of my mirror: and my +hands, newly instructed thereunto by I know not what cunning master, +discovering each day some more elegant mode of adornment than the day +before, and deftly adding artificial charms to my natural loveliness, +thereby caused me to outshine all the other ladies in my surpassing +splendor. Furthermore, I began to wish for the honors usually paid to me +by ladies, because of their gracious courtesy, though, perhaps, they +were rather the guerdon of my noble birth, being due to me therefor, +thinking that if I appeared so magnificent to my beloved's eyes, he +would take the more delight in beholding me. Avarice, too, which is +inborn in women, fled from me, so that I became free and openhanded, and +regarded my own possessions almost as if they were not my own. The +sedateness that beseems a woman fell away from me somewhat, and I grew +bolder in my ways; and, in addition to all this, my eyes, which until +that day looked out on the world simply and naturally, entirely changed +their manner of looking, and became so artful in their office that it +was a marvel. And many other alterations appeared in me over and above +these, all of which I do not care to relate, for besides that the +report thereof would be too tedious, I ween full well that you, like me, +also have been, or are, in love, and know what changes take place in +those who are in such sad case.</p> + +<p>He was a most wary and circumspect youth, whereunto my experience was +able to bear witness frequently. Going very rarely, and always in the +most decorous manner, to the places where I happened to be, he used to +observe me, but ever with a cautious eye, so that it seemed as if he had +planned as well as I to hide the tender flames that glowed in the +breasts of both. Certainly, if I denied that love, although it had +clutched every corner of my heart and taken violent possession of every +recess of my soul, grew even more intense whenever it happened that my +eyes encountered his, I should deny the truth; he added further fuel to +the fires that consumed me, and rekindled such as might be expiring, if, +mayhap, there were any such. But the beginning of all this was by no +means so cheerful as the ending was joyless, as soon as I was deprived +of the sight of this, my beloved, inasmuch as the eyes, being thus +robbed of their delight, gave woful occasion of lamentation to the +heart, the sighs whereof grew greater in quality as well as in quantity, +and desire, as if seizing my every feeling, took me away from myself, +and, as if I were not where I was, I frequently gave him who saw me +cause for amazement by affording numberless pretexts for such +happenings, being taught by love itself. In addition to this, the quiet +of the night and the thoughts on which my fancy fed continuously, by +taking me out of myself, sometimes moved me to actions more frantic than +passionate and to the employment of unusual words.</p> + +<p>But it happened that while my excess of ornaments, heartfelt sighs, lost +rest, strange actions, frantic movements, and other effects of my recent +love, attracted the notice of the other domestics of the household, they +especially struck with wonder a nurse of mine, old in years and +experienced, and of sound judgment, who, though well aware of the flames +that tortured my breast, yet making show of not knowing thereof, +frequently chided me for my altered manners. One day in particular, +finding me lying disconsolate on my couch, seeing that my brow was +charged with doleful thoughts, and believing that we were not likely to +be interrupted by other company, she began to speak as follows:</p> + +<p>"My dearest daughter, whom I love as my very self, tell me, I pray you, +what are the sorrows that have for some time past been harassing you? +You who were wont to be so gay formerly, you whom I have never seen +before with a mournful countenance, seem to me now to be the prey of +grief and to let no moment pass without a sigh."</p> + +<p>Then, having at first feigned to be asleep and not to have heard her, I +heaved a deep sigh, and, my face, at one time flushing, at another +turning pale, I tossed about on the couch, seeking what answer I should +make, though, indeed, in my agitation, my tongue could hardly shape a +perfect sentence. But, at length, I answered:</p> + +<p>"Indeed, dear nurse, no fresh sorrows harass me; nor do I feel that I am +in any way different from what I am wont to be. Perhaps some troubles I +may have, but they are such as are incidental to all women."</p> + +<p>"Most certainly, you are trying to deceive me, my child," returned the +aged nurse, "and you seem not to reflect how serious a matter it is to +attempt to lead persons of experience to believe one thing because it is +couched in words and to disbelieve the opposite, although it is made +plainly evident by deeds. There is no reason why you should hide from me +a fact whereof I have had perfect knowledge since several days ago."</p> + +<p>Alas! when I heard her speak thus, provoked and stung by her words, I +said:</p> + +<p>"If, then, thou wittest of all this, wherefore dost thou question me? +All that thou hast to do now is to keep secret that which thou hast +discovered."</p> + +<p>"In good truth," she replied, "I will conceal all that which it is not +meet that another should know, and may the earth open and engulf me in +its bowels before I ever reveal aught that might turn to thy open shame! +Therefore, do thou live assured of this, and guard thyself carefully +from letting another know that which I, without either thyself or anyone +else telling me, have learned from observing thy looks. As for myself, +it is not now, but long ere now, that I have learned to keep hidden that +which should not be disclosed. Therefore, do thou continue to feel +secure as to this matter, and watch most carefully that thou lettest not +another know that which I, not witting it from thee or from another, +most surely have discovered from thine own face and from its changeful +seeming. But, if thou art still the victim of that folly by which I know +thou hast been enslaved, if thou art as prone now as erewhile to indulge +that feeling to which thou hast already given way, then know I right +well that I must leave thee to thy own devices, for bootless will be my +teachings and my warnings. Still, although this cruel tyrant, to whom in +thy youthful simplicity being taken by surprise thou hast yielded thy +freedom, appears to have deprived thee of understanding as well as of +liberty, I will put thee in mind of many things, and entreat thee to +fling off and banish wicked thoughts from thy chaste bosom, to quench +that unholy fire, and not to make thyself the thrall of unworthy hopes. +Now is the time to be strong in resistance; for whoso makes a stout +fight in the beginning roots out an unhallowed affection, and bears +securely the palm of victory; but whoso, with long and wishful fancies, +fosters it, will try too late to resist a yoke that has been submitted +to almost unresistingly."</p> + +<p>"Alas!" I replied, "how far easier it is to say such things than to +lead them to any good result."</p> + +<p>"Albeit they be not easy of fulfilment," she said, "yet are they +possible, and they are things that it beseems you to do. Take thou +thought whether it would be fitting that for such a thing as this thou +shouldst lose the luster of thy exalted parentage, the great fame of thy +virtue, the flower of thy beauty, the honor in which thou art now held, +and, above all, the favor of the spouse whom thou hast loved and by whom +thou art loved: certainly, thou shouldst not wish for this; nor do I +believe thou wouldst wish it, if thou didst but weigh the matter +seriously in thine own mind. Wherefore, in the name of God, forbear, and +drive from thy heart the false delights promised by a guilty hope, and, +with them, the madness that has seized thee. By this aged breast, long +harassed by many cares, from which thou didst take thy first nutriment, +I humbly beseech thee to have the courage to aid thyself, to have a +concern for thine own honor, and not to disdain my warnings. Bethink +thee that the very desire to be healed is itself often productive of +health."</p> + +<p>Whereto I thus made answer:</p> + +<p>"Only too well do I know, dear nurse, the truth of that which thou +sayest. But a furious madness constrains me to follow the worse course; +vainly does my heart, insatiable in its desires, long for strength to +enable it to adopt thy advice; what reason enjoins is rendered of no +avail by this soul-subduing passion. My mind is wholly possessed by +Love, who rules every part thereof, in virtue of his all-embracing +deity; and surely thou art aware that his power is absolute, and 'twere +useless to attempt to resist it."</p> + +<p>Having said these words, I became almost unconscious, and fell into her +arms. But she, now more agitated than before, in austere and rebuking +tones, said:</p> + +<p>"Yes, forsooth, well am I aware that you and a number of fond young +women, inflamed and instigated thereunto by vain thoughts, have +discovered Love to be a god, whereas a juster name for him would be that +of demon; and you and they call him the son of Venus, and say that his +strength has come to him from the third heaven, wishing, seemingly, to +offer necessity as an excuse for your foolishness. Oh, was ever woman so +misled as thou? Truly, thou must be bereft entirely of understanding! +What a thing thou sayest! Love a deity! Love is a madness, thrust forth +from hell by some fury. He speeds across the earth in hasty flight, and +they whom he visits soon discover that he brings no deity with him, but +frenzy rather; yet none will he visit except those abounding overmuch in +earthly felicity; for they, he knows, in their overweening conceit, are +ready to afford him lodgment and shelter. This has been proven to us by +many facts. Do we not see that Venus, the true, the heavenly Venus, +often dwells in the humblest cot, her sole concern being the +perpetuation of our race? But this god, whom some in their folly name +Love, always hankering after things unholy, ministers only to those +whose fortunes are prosperous. This one, recoiling from those whose food +and raiment suffice to meet the demands of nature, uses his best efforts +to win over the pampered and the splendidly attired, and with their food +and their habiliments he mixes his poisons, and so gains the lordship of +their wicked souls; and, for this reason, he gladly seeks a harborage in +lofty palaces, and seldom, or rather never, enters the houses of the +lowly, because this horrible plague always resorts by choice to scenes +of elegance and refinement, well knowing that such places are best +fitted for the achievement of his fell purposes. It is easy for us to +see that among the humble the affections are sane and well ordered; but +the rich, on the other hand, everywhere pluming themselves on their +riches, and being insatiable in their pursuit of other things as well as +of wealth, always show more eagerness therein than is becoming; and they +who can do much desire furthermore to have the power of doing that which +they must not do: among whom I feel that thou hast placed thyself, O +most hapless of women, seeing that thou hast already entered and +traveled far on a path that will surely lead to guilt and misery."</p> + +<p>After hearing which, I said:</p> + +<p>"Be silent, old woman, and provoke not the wrath of the gods by thy +speech. Now that thou art incapacitated from love by age and rejected by +all the gods, thou railest against this one, blaspheming him in whom +thou didst erstwhile take delight. If other ladies, far more puissant, +famous, and wise than I, have formerly called him by that name, it is +not in my power to give him a name anew. By him am I now truly enslaved; +whatever be the cause of this, and whether it be the occasion of my +happiness or misery, I am helpless. The strength wherewith I once +opposed him has been vanquished and has abandoned me. Therefore either +death or the youth for whom I languish can alone end my tortures. If +thou art, then, as wise as I hold thee to be, bestow such counsel and +help on me as may lighten my anguish, or, at least, abstain from +exasperating it by censuring that to which my soul, unable to act +differently, is inclined with all its energy."</p> + +<p>Thereupon, she, being angry, and not without reason, making no answer, +but muttering to herself, passed out of the chamber and left me alone.</p> + +<p>When my dear nurse had departed without making further discourse, and I +was again alone, I felt that I had acted ill in despising her advice. I +revolved her sayings within my restless breast; and, albeit my +understanding was blinded, I perceived that what she had said was +replete with wisdom, and, almost repenting of what I had uttered and of +the course which I had declared I purposed taking, I was wavering in my +mind. And, already beginning to have thoughts of abandoning that course +which was sure to be in every way most harmful, I was about to call her +back to give me encouragement, when a new and unforeseen event suddenly +changed my intention. For a most beautiful lady, come to my private +chamber I know not whence, presented herself before my eyes, enveloped +in such dazzling light that scarcely could my sight endure the +brightness thereof. But while she stood still and silent before me, the +effulgent radiance that had almost blinded my vision, after a time left +it unobscured, and I was able so to portray her every aspect to my mind, +as her whole beauteous figure was impressed on my memory. I saw that she +was nude, except for a thin and delicate drapery of purple, which, +albeit in some parts it covered the milk-white body, yet no more +concealed it from my ravished eyes than does the transparent glass +conceal the portrait beneath it. Her head, the hair whereof as much +surpassed gold in its luster as gold surpasses the yellowest tresses to +be found among mortals, was garlanded with a wreath of green myrtle, +beneath whose shadow I beheld two eyes of peerless splendor, so +enchanting that I could have gazed on them forever; they flashed forth +such luminous beams that it was a marvel; and all the rest of her +countenance had such transcendent loveliness that the like never was +seen here below. At first she spake no word, perchance content that I +should look upon her, or perchance seeing me so content to look upon +her. Then gradually through the translucent radiance, she revealed more +clearly every hidden grace, for she was aware that I could not believe +such beauty possible except I beheld it with my eyes, and that even then +words would fail me to picture it to mortals with my tongue. At last, +when she observed that I had sated my eyes with gazing on her, and when +she saw that her coming hither was as wondrous to me as her loveliness, +with smiling face, and in a voice sweeter than can be conceived by minds +like ours, she thus addressed me:</p> + +<p>"Prithee, young woman, what art thou, the most fickle of thy sex, +preparing to do in obedience to the late counsels of thy aged nurse? +Knowest thou not that such counsels are far harder to follow than that +very love which thou desirest to flee? Hast thou reflected on the dire +and unendurable torments which compliance with them will entail on thee? +O most insensate one! dost thou then, who only a few hours ago wert my +willing vassal, now wish to break away from my gentle rule, because, +forsooth, of the words of an old woman, who is no longer vassal of mine, +as if, like her, thou art now unwitting of what delights I am the +source? O most witless of women! forbear, and reflect whether thou +shouldst not find befitting happiness in that which makes the happiness +of Heaven and earth. All things that Phoebus beholds during the bright +day, from what time he emerges from Ganges, until he plunges with his +tired steeds into the Hesperian waves, to seek due repose after his +wearisome pilgrimage; all things that are confined between cold Arcturus +and the red-hot pole, all own the absolute and authentic lordship of my +wingéd son; and in Heaven not only is he esteemed a god, like the other +deities, but he is so much more puissant than them all that not one +remains who has not heretofore been vanquished by his darts. He, flying +on golden plumage throughout his realms, with such swiftness that his +passage can hardly be discerned, visits them all in turn, and, bending +his strong bow, to the drawn string he fits the arrows forged by me and +tempered in the fountains sacred to my divinity. And when he elects +anyone to his service, as being more worthy than others, that one he +rules as it likes him. He kindles raging fires in the hearts of the +young, fans the flames that are almost dead in the old, awakens the +fever of passion in the chaste bosoms of virgins and instils a genial +warmth into the breasts of wives and widows equally. He has even +aforetime forced the gods, wrought up to a frenzy by his blazing torch, +to forsake the heavens and dwell on earth under false appearances. +Whereof the proofs are many. Was not Phoebus, though victor over huge +Python and creator of the celestial strains that sound from the lyres of +Parnassus, by him made the thrall, now of Daphne, now of Clymene, and +again of Leucothea, and of many others withal? Certainly, this was so. +And, finally, hiding his brightness under the form of a shepherd, did +not Apollo tend the flocks of Admetus? Even Jove himself, who rules the +skies, by this god coerced, molded his greatness into forms inferior to +his own. Sometimes, in shape of a snow-white fowl, he gave voice to +sounds sweeter than those of the dying swan, and anon, changing to a +young bull and fitting horns to his brow, he bellowed along the plains, +and humbled his proud flanks to the touch of a virgin's knees, and, +compelling his tired hoofs to do the office of oars, he breasted the +waves of his brother's kingdom, yet sank not in its depths, but joyously +bore away his prize. I shall not discourse unto you of his pursuit of +Semele under his proper form, or of Alcmena, in guise of Amphitryon, or +of Callisto, under the semblance of Diana, or of Danaë for whose sake he +became a shower of gold, seeing that in the telling thereof I should +waste too much time. Nay, even the savage god of war, whose strength +appals the giants, repressed his wrathful bluster, being forced to such +submission by this my son, and became gentle and loving. And the forger +of Jupiter, and artificer of his three-pronged thunderbolts, though +trained to handle fire, was smitten by a shaft more potent than he +himself had ever wrought. Nay I, though I be his mother, have not been +able to fend off his arrows: Witness the tears I have shed for the death +of Adonis! But why weary myself and thee with the utterance of so many +words? There is no deity in heaven who has passed unscathed from his +assaults; except, perhaps, Diana only, who may have escaped him by +fleeing to the woods; though some there be who tell that she did not +flee, but rather concealed the wound. If haply, however, thou, in the +hardness of thy unbelief, rejectest the testimony of heaven, and +searchest rather for examples of those in this nether world who have +felt his power, I affirm them to be so multitudinous that where to begin +I know not. Yet this much may I tell thee truly: all who have confessed +his sway have been men of might and valor. Consider attentively, in the +first place, that undaunted son of Alcmena, who, laying aside his arrows +and the formidable skin of the huge lion, was fain to adorn his fingers +with green emeralds, and to smooth and adjust his bristling and +rebellions hair. Nay, that hand which aforetime had wielded the terrific +club, and slain therewith Antæus, and dragged the hound of hell from the +lower world, was now content to draw the woolen threads spun from +Omphale's distaff; and the shoulders whereon had rested the pillars of +the heavens, from which he had for a time freed Atlas, were now clasped +in Omphale's arms, and afterward, to do her pleasure, covered with a +diaphanous raiment of purple. Need I relate what Paris did in obedience +to the great deity? or Helen? or Clytemnestra? or Ægisthus? These are +things that are well known to all the world. Nor do I care to speak of +Achilles, or of Scylla, of Ariadne or Leander, of Dido, or of many +others, of whom the same tale could be told, were there need to tell it. +Believe me when I affirm that this fire is holy, and most potent as +well. Thou hast heard that heaven and earth are subject to my son +because of his lordship over gods and men. But what shall I say of the +power that he exercises over irrational animals, whether celestial or +terrene? It is through him that the turtle is fain to follow her mate; +it is through him that my pigeons have learned to caress his ringdoves +with fondest endearments. And there is no creeping or living creature +that has ever at any time attempted to escape from his puissance: in the +woods the timid stag, made fierce by his touch, becomes brave for sake +of the coveted hind and by bellowing and fighting, they prove how strong +are the witcheries of Love. The ferocious boars are made by Love to +froth at the mouth and sharpen their ivory tusks; the African lions, +when Love quickens them, shake their manes in fury. But leaving the +groves and forests, I assert that even in the chilly waters the +numberless divinities of the sea and of the flowing rivers are not safe +from the bolts of my son. Neither can I for a moment believe that thou +art ignorant of the testimony thereof which has been rendered by +Neptune, Glaucus, Alpheus, and others too numerous to mention: not only +were they unable to quench the flame with their dank waters, but they +could not even moderate its fury, which, when it had made its might +felt, both on the earth and in the waters, continued its onward course, +and rested not until it had penetrated into the gloomy realms of Dis. +Therefore Heaven and Earth and Ocean and Hell itself have had experience +of the potency of his weapons. And, in order that thou mayest understand +in a few words the power of the deity, I tell thee that, while +everything succumbs to nature, and nothing can ever be emancipated from +her dominion, Nature herself is but the servant of Love. When he +commands, ancient hatreds perish, and angry moods, be they old or new, +give place to his fires; and lastly, his sway has such far-reaching +influence that even stepmothers become gracious to their stepchildren, a +thing which it is a marvel to behold. Therefore what seekest thou? Why +dost thou hesitate? Why dost thou rashly avoid him? When so many gods, +when so many men, when so many animals, have been vanquished by him, art +ashamed to be vanquished by him also? In good sooth, thou weenest not +what thou art doing. If thou fearest to be blamed for thy obedience to +him, a blame so unmerited never can be thy portion. Greater sins than +thou canst commit have been committed by thousands far greater than +thou, and these sins would plead as thy excuse, shouldst thou pursue +that course which others have pursued—others who far excel thee. Thou +wilt have sinned but a little, seeing that thou hadst far less power of +resistance than those aforementioned. But if my words move thee not, and +thou wouldst still wish to withstand the god, bethink thee that thy +power falls far short of that of Jove, and that in judgment thou canst +not equal Phoebus, nor in wealth Juno, nor me in beauty; and yet, we all +have been conquered. Thou art greatly deceived, and I fear me that thou +must perish in the end, if thou persist in thy changed purpose. Let that +which has erstwhile sufficed for the whole world, suffice for thee, nor +try to render thyself cold-hearted, by saying: 'I have a husband, and +the holy laws and the vowed faith forbid me this'; for bootless are such +reasonings against the puissance of this god. He discards the laws of +others scornfully, as thinking them of no account, and ordains his own. +Pasiphæ? had a husband, and Phædra, and I, too, even though I have +loved. And it is these same husbands who most frequently fall in love +with others, albeit they have wives of their own: witness Jason and +Theseus and valiant Hector and Ulysses. Therefore to men we do no wrong +if we apply to them the same laws that they apply to others; for to +them no privilege has been granted which is not accorded to us withal. +Banish, then, thy foolish thoughts, and, in all security, go on loving +him whom thou hadst already begun to love. In good sooth, if thou +refusest to own the power of mighty Love, it behooves thee to fly; but +whither canst thou fly? Knowest thou of any retreat where he will not +follow and overtake thee? He has in all places equal puissance. Go +wheresoever thou wilt, never canst thou pass across the borders of his +realms, and within these realms vain it is for mortals to try to hide +themselves when he would smite them. But let it comfort thee to know, +young woman, that no such odious passion shall trouble thee as erstwhile +was the scourge of Myrrha, Semiramis, Byblis, Canace, and Cleopatra. +Nothing strange or new will be wrought by my son in thy regard. He has, +as have the other gods, his own special laws, which thou art not the +first to obey, and shouldst not be the last to entertain hopes +therefrom. If haply thou believest that thou art without companions in +this, foolish is thy belief. Let us pass by the other world, which is +fraught with such happenings; but observe attentively only thine own +city! What an infinite number of ladies it can show who are in the same +case with thyself! And remember that what is done by so many cannot be +deemed unseemly. Therefore, be thou of our following, and return thanks +to our beauty, which thou hast so closely examined. But return special +thanks to our deity, which has sundered thee from the ranks of the +simple, and persuaded thee to become acquainted with the delights that +our gifts bestow."</p> + +<p>Alas! alas! ye tender and compassionate ladies, if Love has been +propitious to your desires, say what could I, what should I, answer to +such and so great words uttered by so great a goddess, if not: "Be it +done unto me according to thy pleasure"? And so, I affirm that as soon +as she had closed her lips, having already harvested within my +understanding all her words, and feeling that every word was charged +with ample excuse for what I might do, and knowing now how mighty she +was and how resistless, I resolved at once to submit to her guidance; +and instantly rising from my couch, and kneeling on the ground, with +humbled heart, I thus began, in abashed and tremulous accents:</p> + +<p>"O peerless and eternal loveliness! O divinest of deities! O sole +mistress of all my thoughts! whose power is felt to be most invincible +by those who dare to try to withstand it, forgive the ill-timed +obstinacy wherewith I, in my great folly, attempted to ward off from my +breast the weapons of thy son, who was then to me an unknown divinity. +Now, I repeat, be it done unto me according to thy pleasure, and +according to thy promises withal. Surely, my faith merits a due reward +in time and space, seeing that I, taking delight in thee more than do +all other women, wish to see the number of thy subjects increase forever +and ever."</p> + +<p>Hardly had I made an end of speaking these words, when she moved from +the place where she was standing, and came toward me. Then, her face +glowing with the most fervent expression of affection and sympathy, she +embraced me, and touched my forehead with her divine lips. Next, just as +the false Ascanius, when panting in the arms of Dido, breathed on her +mouth, and thereby kindled the latent flame, so did she breathe on my +mouth, and, in that wise, rendered the divine fire that slumbered in my +heart more uncontrollable than ever, and this I felt at that very +moment. Thereafter, opening a little her purple robe, she showed me, +clasped in her arms against her ravishing breast, the very counterpart +of the youth I loved, wrapped in the transparent folds of a Grecian +mantle, and revealing in the lineaments of his countenance pangs that +were not unlike those I suffered.</p> + +<p>"O damsel," she said, "rivet thy gaze on the youth before thee: we have +not given thee for lover a Lissa, a Geta, or a Birria, or anyone +resembling them, but a person in every way worthy of being loved by +every goddess in the heavens. Thee he loves more than himself, as we +have ordained, and thee will he ever love; therefore do thou, joyfully +and securely, abandon thyself to his love. Thy prayers have moved us to +pity, as it is meet that prayers so deserving should, and so, be of good +hope, and fear not that thou shalt be without the reward due thee in the +future."</p> + +<p>And thereafter she suddenly vanished from my eyes. <i>Oimè!</i> wretched me! +I do not for a moment doubt now, after considering the things which +followed, that this one who appeared unto me was not Venus, but rather +Tisiphone, who, doffing from her head the horrid snakes that served it +for hair, and assuming for the while the splendid form of the Goddess of +Love, in this manner lured me with deceitful counsels to that disaster +which at length overwhelmed me. Thus did Juno, but in different fashion, +veiling the radiance of her deity and transforming herself for the +occasion into the exact likeness of her aged nurse, persuaded Semele to +her undoing. Woe is me! my resolve to be so advised was the cause—O +hallowed Modesty! O Chastity, most sacred of all the virtues! sole and +most precious treasure of righteous women!—was the cause, I repeat, +wherefore I drove ye from my bosom. Yet do I venture to pray unto ye for +pardon, and surely the sinner who repents and perseveres in repentance +should in due season obtain your forgiveness.</p> + +<p>Although the goddess had disappeared from my sight, my whole soul, +nevertheless, continued to crave her promised delights; and, albeit the +ardor of the passion that vexed my soul deprived me of every other +feeling, one piece of good fortune, for what deserving of mine I know +not, remained to me out of so many that had been lost—namely, the power +of knowing that seldom if ever has a smooth and happy ending been +granted to love, if that love be divulged and blazed abroad. And for +this reason, when influenced by my highest thoughts, I resolved, +although it was a most serious thing to do so, not to set will above +reason in carrying this my desire unto an ending. And assuredly, +although I have often been most violently constrained by divers +accidents to follow certain courses, yet so much grace was conceded to +me that, sustained by my own firmness, I passed through these agonies +without revealing the pangs that tortured me. And in sooth, I have still +resolution enough to continue to follow out this my purpose; so that, +although the things I write are most true, I have so disposed them that +no one, however keen his sagacity, can ever discover who I am, except +him who is as well acquainted with these matters as I, being, indeed, +the occasion of them all. And I implore him, should this little book +ever come into his hands, in the name of that love which he once bore +me, to conceal that which, if disclosed, would turn neither to his +profit nor honor. And, albeit he has deprived me of himself, and that +through no fault of mine, let him not take it upon himself to deprive me +of that honor which I still possess, although, perchance, undeservedly; +for should he do so, he could never again give it back to me, any more +than he can now give me back himself.</p> + +<p>Having, therefore, formed my plans in this wise, I showed the most +long-suffering patience in manifesting my keenest and most covetous +yearnings, and I used my best efforts, but only in secret ways and when +opportunities were afforded me, to light in this young man's soul the +same flames wherewith my own soul glowed, and to make him as +circumspect as myself withal. Nor, in truth, was this for me a task of +great difficulty; for, inasmuch as the lineaments of the face always +bear most true witness to the qualities of the heart, it was not long +before I became aware that my desire would have its full fruition. I +perceived that, not only was he throbbing with amorous enthusiam, but +that he was also imbued with most perfect discretion, and this was +exceedingly pleasing to me. He, being at once wishful to preserve my +honor in all its luster, and, at the same time, to arrange convenient +times and places for our meetings, employed many ingenious stratagems, +which, methinks, must have cost him much toil and trouble. He used every +subtle art to win the friendship of all who were related to me, and, at +last, of my husband; and not only did he enjoy their friendship, but he +possessed it in such a supreme degree that no pleasure was agreeable to +them unless he shared it. How much all this delighted me you will +understand without its being needful to me to set it down in words. And +is there anyone so dull of wit as not to conclude that from the +aforesaid friendship arose many opportunites for him and me of holding +discourse together in public? But already had he bethought himself of +acting in more subtle ways; and now he would speak to this one, now to +that one, words whereby I, being most eager for such enlightenment, +discovered that whatever he said to these was fraught with figurative +and hidden meanings, intended to show forth his ardent affection for +myself. When he was sensible that I had a clear perception of the occult +significance of his questions and answers, he went still further, and by +gestures, and mobile changes in the expression of his features, he would +make known to me his thoughts and the various phases of his passion, +which was to me a source of much delectation; and I strove so hard to +comprehend it all and to make fitting response thereunto, that neither +could he shadow forth anything to me, nor I to him, that either of us +did not at once understand.</p> + +<p>Nay, not satisfied even with this, he employed other symbols and +metaphors, and labored earnestly to discipline me in such manner of +speech; and, to render me the more assured of his unalterable love, he +named me Fiammetta, and himself Panfilo. Woe is me! How often, when +warmed with love and wine, did we tell tales, in the presence of our +dearest friends, of Fiammetta and Panfilo, feigning that they were +Greeks of the days of old, I at one time, he at another; and the tales +were all of ourselves; how we were first caught in the snares of Love, +and of what tribulations we were long the victims, giving suitable names +to the places and persons connected with the story! Certainly, I +frequently laughed at it all, being made merry by the simplicity of the +bystanders, as well as by his astuteness and sagacity. Yet betimes I +dreaded that in the flush of his excitement he might thoughtlessly let +his tongue wander in directions wherein it was not befitting it should +venture. But he, being ever far wiser than I imagined, guarded himself +craftily from any such blundering awkwardness.</p> + +<p><i>Oimè!</i> most compassionate ladies, what is there that Love will not +teach to his subjects? and what is there that he is not able to render +them skilful in learning? I, who of all young women was the most +simple-minded, and ordinarily with barely power to loose my tongue, when +among my companions, concerning the most trivial and ordinary affairs, +now, because of this my affection, mastered so speedily all his modes of +speech that, in a brief space, my aptness at feigning and inventing +surpassed that of any poet! And there were few questions put to me in +response to which, after meditating on their main points, I could not +make up a pleasing tale: a thing, in my opinion, exceedingly difficult +for a young woman to begin, and still more difficult to finish and +relate afterward. But, if my actual situation required it, I might set +down numerous details which might, perhaps, seem to you of little or no +moment, as, for instance, the artful experiment whereby we tested the +fidelity of my favorite maid to whom, and to whom alone, we meditated +entrusting the secret of this hidden passion, considering that, should +another share it, our uneasiness, lest it should not be kept, would be +most grievous. Furthermore, it would weary you if I mentioned all the +plans we adopted, in order to meet divers situations, plans that I do +not believe were ever imagined by any before us; and albeit I am now +well aware that they all worked for my ultimate destruction, yet the +remembrance of them does not displease me.</p> + +<p>Unless, O ladies, my judgment be greatly at fault, the strength of our +minds was by no means small, if it be but taken in account how hard a +thing it is for youthful persons in love to resist long the rush of +impetuous ardor without crossing the bounds set by reason: nay, it was +so great and of such quality that the most valiant of men, by acting in +such wise, would win high and worthy laud as a result thereof. But my +pen is now about to depict the final ending to which love was guided, +and, before I do so, I would appeal to your pity and to those soft +sentiments which make their dwelling in your tender breasts, and incline +your thoughts to a like termination.</p> + +<p>Day succeeded day, and our wishes dragged along with them, kept alive by +torturing anxiety, the full bitterness whereof each of us experienced; +although the one manifested this to the other in disguised language, and +the other showed herself over-discreet to an excessive degree; all of +which you who know how ladies who are beloved behave in such +circumstances will easily understand. Well, then, he, putting full trust +in the veiled meaning of my words, and choosing the proper time and +place, came to an experience of that which I desired as much as he, +although I feigned the contrary. Certainly, if I were to say that this +was the cause of the love I felt for him, I should also have to confess +that every time it came back to my memory, it was the occasion to me of +a sorrow like unto none other. But, I call God to witness, nothing that +has happened between us had the slightest influence upon the love I bore +him, nor has it now. Still, I will not deny that our close intimacy was +then, and is now, most dear to me. And where is the woman so unwise as +not to wish to have the object of her affection within reach rather than +at a distance? How much more intensely does love enthrall us when it is +brought so near us that we and it are made almost inseparable! I say, +then, that after such an adventure, never afore willed or even thought +of by me, not once, but many times did fortune and our adroit stratagems +bring us good cheer and consolation, not indeed screened entirely from +danger, for which I cared less than for the passing of the fleeing wind. +But while the time was being spent in such joyous fashion—and that it +was joyous, Love, who alone may bear witness thereof, can truly say—yet +sometimes his coming inspired me with not a little natural apprehension, +inasmuch as he was beginning to be indiscreet in the manner of his +coming. But how dear to him was my own apartment, and with what gladness +did it see him enter! Yet was he filled with more reverence for it than +he ever had been for a sacred temple, and this I could at all times +easily discern. Woe is me! what burning kisses, what tender embraces, +what delicious moments we had there!</p> + +<p>Why do I take such pleasure in the mere words which I am now setting +down? It is, I say, because I am forced to express the gratitude I then +felt to the holy goddess who was the promiser and bestower of Love's +delights. Ah, how often did I visit her altars and offer incense, +crowned with a garland of her favorite foliage! How often did I think +scornfully of the counsels of my aged nurse! Nay, furthermore, being +elated far more than all my other companions, how often did I disparage +their loves, saying within myself: "No one is loved as I am loved, no +one loves a youth as matchless as the youth I love, no one realizes such +delights from love as I!" In short, I counted the world as nothing in +comparison with my love. It seemed to me that my head touched the skies, +and that nothing was lacking to the culmination of my ecstatic bliss. +Betimes the idea flashed on my mind that I must disclose to others the +occasion of my transports, for surely, I would reflect, it would be a +delight to others to hear of that which has brought such delight to me! +But thou, O Shame, on the one side, and thou, O Fear, on the other, did +hold me back: the one threatening me with eternal infamy; the other with +loss of that which hostile Fortune was soon afterward to tear from me. +In such wise then, did I live for some time, for it was then pleasing to +Love that I should live in this manner; and, in good sooth, so blithely +and joyously were these days spent that I had little cause to envy any +lady in the whole world, never imagining that the delight wherewith my +heart was filled to overflowing, was to nourish the root and plant of my +future misery, as I now know to my fruitless and never-ending sorrow.</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of La Fiammetta, by Giovanni Boccaccio + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LA FIAMMETTA *** + +***** This file should be named 10006-h.htm or 10006-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/0/0/10006/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: La Fiammetta + +Author: Giovanni Boccaccio + +Release Date: November 7, 2003 [EBook #10006] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LA FIAMMETTA *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +LA FIAMMETTA + +BY + +GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO + + +TRANSLATED BY JAMES C. BROGAN + +1907. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Youth, beauty, and love, wit, gayety and laughter, are the component +parts of the delightful picture conjured up by the mere name of Giovanni +Boccaccio, the prince of story-tellers for all generations of men. This +creator of a real literary epoch was born in Paris, in 1313, (in the +eleventh year of Dante's exile), of an Italian father and a French-woman +of good family. His father was a merchant of Florence, whither he +returned with his son when the child was seven years old. The boy +received some education, but was placed in a counting-house when he was +only thirteen, and at seventeen he was sent by his father to Naples to +enter another commercial establishment. But he disliked commerce, and +finally persuaded his father to allow him to study law for two years at +the University of Naples, during which period the lively and attractive +youth made brisk use of his leisure time in that gay and romantic city, +where he made his way into the highest circles of society, and +unconsciously gleaned the material for the rich harvest of song and +story that came with his later years. At this time he was present at the +coronation of the poet Petrarch in the Capitol, and was fired with +admiration for the second greatest poet of that day. He chose Petrarch +for his model and guide, and in riper manhood became his most intimate +friend. + +By the time he was twenty-five, Boccaccio had fallen in love with the +Lady Maria, a natural daughter of King Robert of Naples, who had caused +her to be adopted as a member of the family of the Count d'Aquino, and +to be married when very young to a Neapolitan nobleman. Boccaccio first +saw her in the Church of San Lorenzo on the morning of Easter eve, in +1338, and their ensuing friendship was no secret to their world. For the +entertainment of this youthful beauty he wrote his _Filicopo_, and the +fair Maria is undoubtedly the heroine of several of his stories and +poems. His father insisted upon his return to Florence in 1340, and +after he had settled in that city he occupied himself seriously with +literary work, producing, between the years 1343 and 1355, the _Teseide_ +(familiar to English readers as "The Knight's Tale" in Chaucer, +modernized by Dryden as "Palamon and Arcite"), _Ameto, Amorosa Visione, +La Fiammetta, Ninfale Fiesolona_, and his most famous work, the +_Decameron_, a collection of stories written, it is said, to amuse Queen +Joanna of Naples and her court, during the period when one of the +world's greatest plagues swept over Europe in 1348. In these years he +rose from the vivid but confused and exaggerated manner of _Filocopo_ to +the perfection of polished literary style. The _Decameron_ fully +revealed his genius, his ability to weave the tales of all lands and all +ages into one harmonious whole; from the confused mass of legends of the +Middle Ages, he evolved a world of human interest and dazzling beauty, +fixed the kaleidoscopic picture of Italian society, and set it in the +richest frame of romance. + +While he had the _Decameron_ still in hand, he paused in that great +work, with heart full of passionate longing for the lady of his love, +far away in Naples, to pour out his very soul in _La Fiammetta_, the +name by which he always called the Lady Maria. Of the real character of +this lady, so famous in literature, and her true relations with +Boccaccio, little that is certain is known. In several of his poems and +in the _Decameron_ he alludes to her as being cold as a marble statue, +which no fire can ever warm; and there is no proof, notwithstanding the +ardor of Fiammetta as portrayed by her lover--who no doubt wished her to +become the reality of his glowing picture--that he ever really received +from the charmer whose name was always on his lips anything more than +the friendship that was apparent to all the world. But she certainly +inspired him in the writing of his best works. + +The best critics agree in pronouncing _La Fiammetta_ a marvelous +performance. John Addington Symonds says: "It is the first attempt in +any literature to portray subjective emotion exterior to the writer; +since the days of Virgil and Ovid, nothing had been essayed in this +region of mental analysis. The author of this extraordinary work proved +himself a profound anatomist of feeling by the subtlety with which he +dissected a woman's heart." The story is full of exquisite passages, and +it exercised a widespread and lasting influence over all the narrative +literature that followed it. It is so rich in material that it furnished +the motives of many tales, and the novelists of the sixteenth century +availed themselves freely of its suggestions. + +After Boccaccio had taken up a permanent residence in Florence, he +showed a lively interest in her political affairs, and fulfilled all +the duties of a good citizen. In 1350 he was chosen to visit the lords +of various towns of Romagna, in order to engage their cooperation in a +league against the Visconti family, who, already lords of the great and +powerful city of Milan, desired to extend their domains beyond the +Apennines. In 1351 Boccaccio had the pleasure of bearing to the poet +Petrarch the news of the restoration of his rights of citizenship and of +his patrimony, both of which he had lost in the troubles of 1323, and +during this visit the two geniuses became friends for life. They delved +together into the literature of the ancients, and Boccaccio determined, +through the medium of translation, to make the work of the great Greek +writers a part of the liberal education of his countrymen. A knowledge +of Greek at that time was an exceedingly rare accomplishment, since the +serious study of living literatures was only just beginning, and the +Greek of Homer had been almost forgotten. Even Petrarch, whose erudition +was marvelous, could not read a copy of the _Iliad_ that he possessed. +Boccaccio asked permission of the Florentine Government to establish a +Greek professorship in the University of Florence, and persuaded a +learned Calabrian, Leonzio Pilato, who had a perfect knowledge of +ancient Greek, to leave Venice and accept the professorship at Florence, +and lodged him in his own house. Together the Calabrian and the author +of _La Fiammetta_ and the _Decameron_ made a Latin translation of the +_Iliad_, which Boccaccio transcribed with his own hand. But his literary +enthusiasm was not confined to his own work and that of the ancients. +His soul was filled with a generous ardor of admiration for Dante; +through his efforts the Florentines were awakened to a true sense of the +merits of the sublime poet, so long exiled from his native city, and the +younger genius succeeded in persuading them to establish a professorship +in the University for the sole study of the _Divine Comedy_, he himself +being the first to occupy the chair, and writing a _Life of Dante_, +besides commentaries on the _Comedy_ itself. + +Mainly through his intimacy with the spiritual mind of Petrarch, +Boccaccio's moral character gradually underwent a change from the +reckless freedom and unbridled love of pleasure into which he had easily +fallen among his associates in the court life at Naples. He admired the +delicacy and high standard of honor of his friend, and became awakened +to a sense of man's duty to the world and to himself. During the decade +following the year 1365 he occupied himself at his home in Certaldo, +near Florence, with various literary labors, often entertaining there +the great men of the world. + +Petrarch's death occurred in 1374, and Boccaccio survived him but one +year, dying on the twenty-first of December, 1375. He was buried in +Certaldo, in the Church of San Michele e Giacomo. + +That one city should have produced three such men as the great +triumvirate of the fourteenth century--Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio--and +that one half-century should have witnessed their successive triumphs, +is the greatest glory of Florence, and is one of the most notable facts +in the history of genius. + +We quote once more from Symonds: "Dante brought the universe into his +_Divine Comedy_. 'But the soul of man, too, is a universe', and of this +inner microcosm Petrarch was the poet and genius. It remained for +Boccaccio to treat of daily life with an art as distinct and dazzling as +theirs. From Dante's Beatrice, through Petrarch's Laura, to Boccaccio's +La Fiammetta--from woman as an allegory of the noblest thoughts and +purest stirrings of the soul, through woman as the symbol of all beauty +worshiped at a distance, to woman as man's lover, kindling and +reciprocating the most ardent passion; from mystic, stately periods to +Protean prose; from verse built up into cathedral-like dignity, through +lyrics light as arabesques and pointed with the steely touch of polished +style, to that free form of speech which takes all moods and lends +itself alike to low or lofty things--such was the rapid movement of +Italian genius within the brief space of fifty years. So quickly did the +Renaissance emerge from the Middle Ages; and when the voices of that +august trio were silenced in the grave, their echoes ever widened and +grew louder through the spacious time to come." + +No translation into English of _La Fiammetta_ has been made since +Shakespeare's time--when a small edition was published, which is now so +rare as to be practically unattainable--until the appearance of the +present Scholarly and poetic rendering, which places within the reach of +all one of the world's greatest masterpieces of literature. + +D.K.R. + + + + +PROLOGUE + + +_Beginneth the Book called Elegy of Madonna Fiammetta, sent by her to +Ladies in Love._ + +When the wretched perceive or feel that their woes arouse compassion, +their longing to give vent to their anguish is thereby increased. And +so, since, from long usance, the cause of my anguish, instead of growing +less, has become greater, the wish has come to me, noble ladies--in +whose hearts, mayhap, abides a love more fortunate than mine--to win +your pity, if I may, by telling the tale of my sorrows. Nor is it at all +my intent that these my words should come to the ears of men. Nay, +rather would I, so far as lies in my power, withhold my complaints from +them; for, such bitterness has the discovery of the unkindness of one +man stirred in me, that, imagining all other men to be like him, +methinks I should be a witness of their mocking laughter rather than of +their pitying tears. You alone do I entreat to peruse my story, knowing +full well that you will feel with me, and that you have a pious concern +for others' pangs. Here you will not find Grecian fables adorned with +many lies, nor Trojan battles, foul with blood and gore, but amorous +sentiments fed with torturing desires. Here will appear before your very +eyes the dolorous tears, the impetuous sighs, the heart-breaking words, +the stormy thoughts, which have harrowed me with an ever-recurring goad, +and have torn away from me sleep and appetite and the pleasant times of +old, and my much-loved beauty. When you behold these things, and behold +them with the ardent feelings which ladies are wont to have, sure I am +that the cheeks of each separately, and of all when brought together, +will be bathed in tears, because of those ills which are alone the +occasion of my never-ending misery. Do not, I beseech you, refuse me +these tears, reflecting that your estate is unstable as well as mine, +and that, should it ever come to resemble mine (the which may God +forfend!), the tears that others shed for you will be pleasing to you in +return. And that the time may pass more rapidly in speaking than in, +weeping, I will do my best to fulfil my promise briefly, beginning with +that love which was more happy than lasting, so that, by comparing that +happiness with my present case, you may learn that I am now more unhappy +than any woman ever has been. And afterward I will trace with mournful +pen, as best I can, all the agonies which are justly the source of my +lamentations. But first, if the prayers of the wretched are heard, if +there is in Heaven any Deity whose holy mind can be touched with +compassion for me, afflicted as I am, bathed in my own tears, Him I +beseech to aid my despondent memory and support my trembling hand in its +present task. So may the tortures which I have felt and still feel in my +soul become fruitful, and the memory will suggest the words for them, +and the hand, more eager than apt for such duty, will write them down. + + + + +Chapter I + + +_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! + +It was, then, while I was living in sweet content, amid every kind of +enjoyment, that Fortune, who quickly changes all things earthly, +becoming envious of the very gifts which she herself had bestowed, +withdrew her protecting hand. At first uncertain in what manner she +could succeed in poisoning my happiness, she at length managed, with +subtle craft, to make mine own very eyes traitors and so guide me into +the path that led to disaster. But the gods were still propitious to me, +nay, were even more concerned for my fate than I myself. Having seen +through her veiled malice, they wished to supply me with weapons, had I +but known how to avail me thereof, wherewith I might fend my breast, +and not go unarmed to the battle wherein I was destined to fall. Yea, on +the very night that preceded the day which was the beginning of all my +woes, they revealed to me the future in my sleep by means of a clear and +distinct vision, in such wise as follows: + +While lying on my spacious couch, with all my limbs relaxed in deepest +slumber, I seemed to be filled with greater joy than I had ever felt +before, and wherefore I knew not. And the day whereon this happened was +the brightest and loveliest of days. I was standing alone in verdant +grass, when, with the joy whereof I spoke, came the thought to me that +it might be well for me to repose in a meadow that appeared to be +shielded from the fervid rays of the sun by the shadows cast by various +trees newly garbed in their glossy foliage. But first, gathering divers +flowers, wherewith the whole sward was bejeweled, I placed them, with my +white hands, in a corner of my robe, and then, sitting down and choosing +flower after flower, I wove therefrom a fair garland, and adorned my +head with it. And, being so adorned, I arose, and, like unto Proserpine +at what time Pluto ravished her from her mother, I went along singing in +this new springtime. Then, being perchance weary, I laid me down in a +spot where the verdure was deepest and softest. But, just as the tender +foot of Eurydice was pierced by the concealed viper, so meseemed that a +hidden serpent came upon me, as I lay stretched on the grass, and +pierced me under the left breast. The bite of the sharp fang, when it +first entered, seemed to burn me. But afterward, feeling somewhat +reassured, and yet afraid of something worse ensuing, I thought I +clasped the cold serpent to my bosom, fancying that by communicating to +it the warmth of that bosom, I should thereby render it more kindly +disposed in my regard in return for such a service. But the viper, made +bolder and more obdurate by that very favor, laid his hideous mouth on +the wound he had given me, and after a long space, and after it had +drunk much of my blood, methought that, despite my resistance, it drew +forth my soul; and then, leaving my breast, departed with it. And at the +very moment of the serpent's departure the day lost its brightness, and +a thick shadow came behind me and covered me all over, and the farther +the serpent crept, the more lowering grew the heavens, and it seemed +almost as if the reptile dragged after it in its course the masses of +thick, black clouds that appeared to follow in its wake, Not long +afterward, just as a white stone flung into deep water gradually +vanishes from the eyes of the beholder, so it, too, vanished from my +sight. Then the heavens became darker and darker, and I thought that the +sun had suddenly withdrawn and night had surely returned, as it had +erstwhile returned to the _Greeks_ because of the crime of Atrcus. Next, +flashes of lightning sped swiftly along the skies, and peals of crashing +thunder appalled the earth and me likewise. And through all, the wound +made in my breast by the bite of the serpent remained with me still, and +full of viperous poison; for no medicinal help was within my reach, so +that my entire body appeared to have swollen in a most foul and +disgusting manner. Whereupon I, who before this seemed to be without +life or motion--why, I do not know--feeling that the force of the venom +was seeking to reach my heart in divers subtle ways, now tossed and +rolled upon the cool grass, expecting death at any moment. But methought +that when the hour of my doom arrived, I was struck with terror at its +approach, and the anguish of my heart was so appalling, while looking +forward to its coming, that my inert body was convulsed with horror, and +so my deep slumber was suddenly broken. No sooner was I fully awake +than, being still alarmed by the things I had seen, I felt with my right +hand for the wound in my breast, searching at the present moment for +that which was already being prepared for my future misery. Finding that +no wound was there, I began to feel quite safe and even merry, and I +made a mock of the folly of dreams and of those who believe in them, +and so I rendered the work of the gods useless. Ah, wretched me! if I +mocked them then, I had good reason to believe in them afterward, to my +bitter sorrow and with the shedding of useless tears; good reason had I +also to complain of the gods, who reveal their secrets to mortals in +such mystic guise that the things that are to happen in the future can +hardly be said to be revealed at all. Being then fully awake, I raised +my drowsy head, and, as soon as I saw the light of the new-risen sun +enter my chamber, laying aside every other thought directly, I at once +left my couch. + +That day, too, was a day of the utmost solemnity for almost everyone. +Therefore, attiring myself carefully in glittering cloth of gold, and +adorning every part of my person with deft and cunning hand, I made +ready to go to the August festival, appareled like unto the goddesses +seen by Paris in the vale of Ida. And, while I was lost in admiration of +myself, just as the peacock is of his plumage, imagining that the +delight which I took in my own appearance would surely be shared by all +who saw me, a flower from my wreath fell on the ground near the curtain +of my bed, I know not wherefore--perhaps plucked from my head by a +celestial hand by me unseen. But I, careless of the occult signs by +which the gods forewarn mortals, picked it up, replaced it on my head, +and, as if nothing portentous had happened, I passed out from my abode. +Alas! what clearer token of what was to befall me could the gods have +given me? This should have served to prefigure to me that my soul, once +free and sovereign of itself, was on that day to lay aside its +sovereignty and become a slave, as it betided. Oh, if my mind had not +been distempered, I should have surely known that to me that day would +be the blackest and direst of days, and I should have let it pass +without ever crossing the threshold of my home! But although the gods +usually hold forth signs whereby those against whom they are incensed +may be warned, they often deprive them of due understanding; and thus, +while pointing out the path they ought to follow, they at the same time +sate their own anger. My ill fortune, then, thrust me forth from my +house, vain and careless that I was; and, accompanied by several ladies, +I moved with slow step to the sacred temple, in which the solemn +function required by the day was already celebrating. Ancient custom, as +well as my noble estate, had reserved for me a prominent place among the +other ladies. When I was seated, my eyes, as was my habit of old, +quickly wandered around the temple, and I saw that it was crowded with +men and women, who were divided into separate groups. And no sooner was +it observed that I was in the temple than (even while the sacred office +was going on) that happened which had always happened at other times, +and not only did the men turn their eyes to gaze upon me, but the women +did the same, as if Venus or Minerva had newly descended from the skies, +and would never again be seen by them in that spot where I was seated. +Oh, how often I laughed within my own breast, being enraptured with +myself, and taking glory unto myself because of such things, just as if +I were a real goddess! And so, nearly all the young gentlemen left off +admiring the other ladies, and took their station around me, and +straightway encompassed me almost in the form of a complete circle; and, +while speaking in divers ways of my beauty, each finished his praises +thereof with well-nigh the same sentences. But I who, by turning my eyes +in another direction, showed that my mind was intent on other cares, +kept my ears attentive to their discourse and received therefrom much +delectable sweetness; and, as it seemed to me that I was beholden to +them for such pleasure, I sometimes let my eyes rest on them more kindly +and benignantly. And not once, but many times, did I perceive that some +of them, puffed up with vain hopes because of this, boasted foolishly of +it to their companions. + +While I, then, in this way looked at a few, and that sparingly, I was +myself looked at by many, and that exceedingly, and while I believed +that my beauty was dazzling others, it came to pass that the beauty of +another dazzled me, to my great tribulation. And now, being already +close on the dolorous moment, which was fated to be the occasion either +of a most assured death or of a life of such anguish that none before me +has ever endured the like, prompted by I know not what spirit, I raised +my eyes with decent gravity, and surveyed with penetrating look the +crowds of young men who were standing near me. And I discerned, more +plainly than I saw any of the others, a youth who stood directly in +front of me, all alone, leaning against a marble column; and, being +moved thereto by irresistible fate, I began to take thought within my +mind of his bearing and manners, the which I had never before done in +the case of anyone else. I say, then, that, according to my judgment, +which was not at that time biased by love, he was most beautiful in +form, most pleasing in deportment, and apparently of an honorable +disposition. The soft and silky locks that fell in graceful curls beside +his cheeks afforded manifest proof of his youthfulness. The look +wherewith he eyed me seemed to beg for pity, and yet it was marked by +the wariness and circumspection usual between man and man. Sure I am +that I had still strength enough to turn away my eyes from his gaze, at +least for a time; but no other occurrence had power to divert my +attention from the things already mentioned, and upon which I had deeply +pondered. And the image of his form, which was already in my mind, +remained there, and this image I dwelt upon with silent delight, +affirming within myself that those things were true which seemed to me +to be true; and, pleased that he should look at me, I raised my eyes +betimes to see whether he was still looking at me. But anon I gazed at +him more steadily, making no attempt to avoid amorous snares. And when I +had fixed my eyes on his more intently than was my wont, methought I +could read in his eyes words which might be uttered in this wise: + + "O lady, thou alone art mine only bliss!" + +Certainly, if I should say that this idea was not pleasing to me, I +should surely lie, for it drew forth a gentle sigh from my bosom, +accompanied by these words: "And thou art mine!" unless, perchance, the +words were but the echo of his, caught by my mind and remaining within +it. But what availed it whether such words were spoken or not? The heart +had good understanding within itself of that which was not expressed by +the lips, and kept, too, within itself that which, if it had escaped +outside, might, mayhap, have left me still free. And so, from that time +forward, I gave more absolute liberty to my foolish eyes than ever they +had possessed before, and they were well content withal. And surely, if +the gods, who guide all things to a definite issue, had not deprived me +of understanding, I could still have been mistress of myself. But, +postponing every consideration to the last one that swayed me, I took +delight in following my unruly passion, and having made myself meet, all +at once, for such slavery, I became its thrall. For the fire that leaped +forth from his eyes encountered the light in mine, flashing thereunto a +most subtle ray. It did not remain content therewith, but, by what +hidden ways I know not, penetrated directly into the deepest recesses of +my heart; the which, affrighted by the sudden advent of this flame, +recalled to its center its exterior forces and left me as pale as +death, and also with the chill of death upon me. But not for long did +this continue, rather it happened contrariwise; and I felt my heart not +only glow with sudden beat, but its forces speeded back swiftly to their +places, bringing with them a throbbing warmth that chased away my pallor +and flushed my cheeks deeply; and, marveling wherefore this should +betide, I sighed heavily; nor thereafter was there other thought in my +soul than how I might please him. + +In like fashion, he, without changing his place, continued to scrutinize +my features, but with the greatest caution; and, perhaps, having had +much practice in amorous warfare, and knowing by what devices the +longed-for prey might be captured, he showed himself every moment more +humble, more desperate, and more fraught with tender yearning. Alas! how +much guile did that seeming desperation hide, which, as the result has +now shown, though it may have come from the heart, never afterward +returned to the same, and made manifest later that its revealment on the +face was only a lure and a delusion! And, not to mention all his deeds, +each of which was full of most artful deception, he so wrought upon me +by his own craft, or else the fates willed it should so happen, that I +straightway found myself enmeshed in the snares of sudden and +unthought-of love, in a manner beyond all my powers of telling, and so I +remain unto this very hour. + +It was this one alone, therefore, most pitiful ladies, that my heart, in +it mad infatuation, chose, not only among so many high-born, handsome +and valiant youths then present, but even among all of the same degree +having their abode in my own Parthenope, as first and last and sole lord +of my life. It was this one alone that I loved, and loved more than any +other. It was this one alone that was destined to be the beginning and +source of my by any pleasure, although often tempted, being at last +vanquished, have burned and now burn in the fire which then first caught +me. Omitting many thoughts that came into my mind, and many things that +were told me, I will only say that, intoxicated by a new passion, I +returned with a soul enslaved to that spot whence I had gone forth in +freedom. + +When I was in my chamber, alone and unoccupied, inflamed with various +wild wishes, filled with new sensations and throbbing with many +anxieties, all of which were concentrated on the image of the youth who +pleased me, I argued within myself that if I could not banish love from +my luckless bosom, I might at least be able to keep cautious and secret +control of it therein; and how hard it is to do such a thing, no one can +discover who does not make trial of the same. Surely do I believe that +not even Love himself can cause so great anguish as such an attempt is +certain to produce. Furthermore, I was arrested in my purpose by the +fact that I had no acquaintance with him of whom I professed myself +enamored. To relate all the thoughts that were engendered in me by this +love, and of what nature they were, would take altogether too much time. +But some few I must perforce declare, as well as certain things that +were beginning to delight me more than usual. I say, then, that, +everything else being neglected, the only thing that was dear to me was +the thought of my beloved, and, when it occurred to my mind that, by +persevering in this course, I might, mayhap, give occasion to some one +to discover that which I wished to conceal, I often upbraided myself for +my folly. But what availed it all? My upbraidings had to give way to my +inordinate yearning for him, and dissolved uselessly into thin air. + +For several days I longed exceedingly to learn who was the youth I +loved, toward whom my thoughts were ever clearly leading me; and this I +craftily learned, the which filled me with great content. In like +manner, the ornaments for which I had before this in no way cared, as +having but little need thereof, began to be dear to me, thinking that +the more I was adorned the better should I please. Wherefore I prized +more than hitherto my garments, gold, pearls, and my other precious +things. Until the present moment it had been my custom to frequent +churches, gardens, festivals, and seaside resorts, without other wish +than the companionship of young friends of my own sex; now, I sought the +aforesaid places with a new desire, believing that both to see and be +seen would bring me great delectation. But, in sooth, the trust which I +was wont to place in my beauty had deserted me, and now I never left my +chamber, without first seeking the faithful counsel of my mirror: and my +hands, newly instructed thereunto by I know not what cunning master, +discovering each day some more elegant mode of adornment than the day +before, and deftly adding artificial charms to my natural loveliness, +thereby caused me to outshine all the other ladies in my surpassing +splendor. Furthermore, I began to wish for the honors usually paid to me +by ladies, because of their gracious courtesy, though, perhaps, they +were rather the guerdon of my noble birth, being due to me therefor, +thinking that if I appeared so magnificent to my beloved's eyes, he +would take the more delight in beholding me. Avarice, too, which is +inborn in women, fled from me, so that I became free and openhanded, and +regarded my own possessions almost as if they were not my own. The +sedateness that beseems a woman fell away from me somewhat, and I grew +bolder in my ways; and, in addition to all this, my eyes, which until +that day looked out on the world simply and naturally, entirely changed +their manner of looking, and became so artful in their office that it +was a marvel. And many other alterations appeared in me over and above +these, all of which I do not care to relate, for besides that the +report thereof would be too tedious, I ween full well that you, like me, +also have been, or are, in love, and know what changes take place in +those who are in such sad case. + +He was a most wary and circumspect youth, whereunto my experience was +able to bear witness frequently. Going very rarely, and always in the +most decorous manner, to the places where I happened to be, he used to +observe me, but ever with a cautious eye, so that it seemed as if he had +planned as well as I to hide the tender flames that glowed in the +breasts of both. Certainly, if I denied that love, although it had +clutched every corner of my heart and taken violent possession of every +recess of my soul, grew even more intense whenever it happened that my +eyes encountered his, I should deny the truth; he added further fuel to +the fires that consumed me, and rekindled such as might be expiring, if, +mayhap, there were any such. But the beginning of all this was by no +means so cheerful as the ending was joyless, as soon as I was deprived +of the sight of this, my beloved, inasmuch as the eyes, being thus +robbed of their delight, gave woful occasion of lamentation to the +heart, the sighs whereof grew greater in quality as well as in quantity, +and desire, as if seizing my every feeling, took me away from myself, +and, as if I were not where I was, I frequently gave him who saw me +cause for amazement by affording numberless pretexts for such +happenings, being taught by love itself. In addition to this, the quiet +of the night and the thoughts on which my fancy fed continuously, by +taking me out of myself, sometimes moved me to actions more frantic than +passionate and to the employment of unusual words. + +But it happened that while my excess of ornaments, heartfelt sighs, lost +rest, strange actions, frantic movements, and other effects of my recent +love, attracted the notice of the other domestics of the household, they +especially struck with wonder a nurse of mine, old in years and +experienced, and of sound judgment, who, though well aware of the flames +that tortured my breast, yet making show of not knowing thereof, +frequently chided me for my altered manners. One day in particular, +finding me lying disconsolate on my couch, seeing that my brow was +charged with doleful thoughts, and believing that we were not likely to +be interrupted by other company, she began to speak as follows: + +"My dearest daughter, whom I love as my very self, tell me, I pray you, +what are the sorrows that have for some time past been harassing you? +You who were wont to be so gay formerly, you whom I have never seen +before with a mournful countenance, seem to me now to be the prey of +grief and to let no moment pass without a sigh." + +Then, having at first feigned to be asleep and not to have heard her, I +heaved a deep sigh, and, my face, at one time flushing, at another +turning pale, I tossed about on the couch, seeking what answer I should +make, though, indeed, in my agitation, my tongue could hardly shape a +perfect sentence. But, at length, I answered: + +"Indeed, dear nurse, no fresh sorrows harass me; nor do I feel that I am +in any way different from what I am wont to be. Perhaps some troubles I +may have, but they are such as are incidental to all women." + +"Most certainly, you are trying to deceive me, my child," returned the +aged nurse, "and you seem not to reflect how serious a matter it is to +attempt to lead persons of experience to believe one thing because it is +couched in words and to disbelieve the opposite, although it is made +plainly evident by deeds. There is no reason why you should hide from me +a fact whereof I have had perfect knowledge since several days ago." + +Alas! when I heard her speak thus, provoked and stung by her words, I +said: + +"If, then, thou wittest of all this, wherefore dost thou question me? +All that thou hast to do now is to keep secret that which thou hast +discovered." + +"In good truth," she replied, "I will conceal all that which it is not +meet that another should know, and may the earth open and engulf me in +its bowels before I ever reveal aught that might turn to thy open shame! +Therefore, do thou live assured of this, and guard thyself carefully +from letting another know that which I, without either thyself or anyone +else telling me, have learned from observing thy looks. As for myself, +it is not now, but long ere now, that I have learned to keep hidden that +which should not be disclosed. Therefore, do thou continue to feel +secure as to this matter, and watch most carefully that thou lettest not +another know that which I, not witting it from thee or from another, +most surely have discovered from thine own face and from its changeful +seeming. But, if thou art still the victim of that folly by which I know +thou hast been enslaved, if thou art as prone now as erewhile to indulge +that feeling to which thou hast already given way, then know I right +well that I must leave thee to thy own devices, for bootless will be my +teachings and my warnings. Still, although this cruel tyrant, to whom in +thy youthful simplicity being taken by surprise thou hast yielded thy +freedom, appears to have deprived thee of understanding as well as of +liberty, I will put thee in mind of many things, and entreat thee to +fling off and banish wicked thoughts from thy chaste bosom, to quench +that unholy fire, and not to make thyself the thrall of unworthy hopes. +Now is the time to be strong in resistance; for whoso makes a stout +fight in the beginning roots out an unhallowed affection, and bears +securely the palm of victory; but whoso, with long and wishful fancies, +fosters it, will try too late to resist a yoke that has been submitted +to almost unresistingly." + +"Alas!" I replied, "how far easier it is to say such things than to +lead them to any good result." + +"Albeit they be not easy of fulfilment," she said, "yet are they +possible, and they are things that it beseems you to do. Take thou +thought whether it would be fitting that for such a thing as this thou +shouldst lose the luster of thy exalted parentage, the great fame of thy +virtue, the flower of thy beauty, the honor in which thou art now held, +and, above all, the favor of the spouse whom thou hast loved and by whom +thou art loved: certainly, thou shouldst not wish for this; nor do I +believe thou wouldst wish it, if thou didst but weigh the matter +seriously in thine own mind. Wherefore, in the name of God, forbear, and +drive from thy heart the false delights promised by a guilty hope, and, +with them, the madness that has seized thee. By this aged breast, long +harassed by many cares, from which thou didst take thy first nutriment, +I humbly beseech thee to have the courage to aid thyself, to have a +concern for thine own honor, and not to disdain my warnings. Bethink +thee that the very desire to be healed is itself often productive of +health." + +Whereto I thus made answer: + +"Only too well do I know, dear nurse, the truth of that which thou +sayest. But a furious madness constrains me to follow the worse course; +vainly does my heart, insatiable in its desires, long for strength to +enable it to adopt thy advice; what reason enjoins is rendered of no +avail by this soul-subduing passion. My mind is wholly possessed by +Love, who rules every part thereof, in virtue of his all-embracing +deity; and surely thou art aware that his power is absolute, and 'twere +useless to attempt to resist it." + +Having said these words, I became almost unconscious, and fell into her +arms. But she, now more agitated than before, in austere and rebuking +tones, said: + +"Yes, forsooth, well am I aware that you and a number of fond young +women, inflamed and instigated thereunto by vain thoughts, have +discovered Love to be a god, whereas a juster name for him would be that +of demon; and you and they call him the son of Venus, and say that his +strength has come to him from the third heaven, wishing, seemingly, to +offer necessity as an excuse for your foolishness. Oh, was ever woman so +misled as thou? Truly, thou must be bereft entirely of understanding! +What a thing thou sayest! Love a deity! Love is a madness, thrust forth +from hell by some fury. He speeds across the earth in hasty flight, and +they whom he visits soon discover that he brings no deity with him, but +frenzy rather; yet none will he visit except those abounding overmuch in +earthly felicity; for they, he knows, in their overweening conceit, are +ready to afford him lodgment and shelter. This has been proven to us by +many facts. Do we not see that Venus, the true, the heavenly Venus, +often dwells in the humblest cot, her sole concern being the +perpetuation of our race? But this god, whom some in their folly name +Love, always hankering after things unholy, ministers only to those +whose fortunes are prosperous. This one, recoiling from those whose food +and raiment suffice to meet the demands of nature, uses his best efforts +to win over the pampered and the splendidly attired, and with their food +and their habiliments he mixes his poisons, and so gains the lordship of +their wicked souls; and, for this reason, he gladly seeks a harborage in +lofty palaces, and seldom, or rather never, enters the houses of the +lowly, because this horrible plague always resorts by choice to scenes +of elegance and refinement, well knowing that such places are best +fitted for the achievement of his fell purposes. It is easy for us to +see that among the humble the affections are sane and well ordered; but +the rich, on the other hand, everywhere pluming themselves on their +riches, and being insatiable in their pursuit of other things as well as +of wealth, always show more eagerness therein than is becoming; and they +who can do much desire furthermore to have the power of doing that which +they must not do: among whom I feel that thou hast placed thyself, O +most hapless of women, seeing that thou hast already entered and +traveled far on a path that will surely lead to guilt and misery." + +After hearing which, I said: + +"Be silent, old woman, and provoke not the wrath of the gods by thy +speech. Now that thou art incapacitated from love by age and rejected by +all the gods, thou railest against this one, blaspheming him in whom +thou didst erstwhile take delight. If other ladies, far more puissant, +famous, and wise than I, have formerly called him by that name, it is +not in my power to give him a name anew. By him am I now truly enslaved; +whatever be the cause of this, and whether it be the occasion of my +happiness or misery, I am helpless. The strength wherewith I once +opposed him has been vanquished and has abandoned me. Therefore either +death or the youth for whom I languish can alone end my tortures. If +thou art, then, as wise as I hold thee to be, bestow such counsel and +help on me as may lighten my anguish, or, at least, abstain from +exasperating it by censuring that to which my soul, unable to act +differently, is inclined with all its energy." + +Thereupon, she, being angry, and not without reason, making no answer, +but muttering to herself, passed out of the chamber and left me alone. + +When my dear nurse had departed without making further discourse, and I +was again alone, I felt that I had acted ill in despising her advice. I +revolved her sayings within my restless breast; and, albeit my +understanding was blinded, I perceived that what she had said was +replete with wisdom, and, almost repenting of what I had uttered and of +the course which I had declared I purposed taking, I was wavering in my +mind. And, already beginning to have thoughts of abandoning that course +which was sure to be in every way most harmful, I was about to call her +back to give me encouragement, when a new and unforeseen event suddenly +changed my intention. For a most beautiful lady, come to my private +chamber I know not whence, presented herself before my eyes, enveloped +in such dazzling light that scarcely could my sight endure the +brightness thereof. But while she stood still and silent before me, the +effulgent radiance that had almost blinded my vision, after a time left +it unobscured, and I was able so to portray her every aspect to my mind, +as her whole beauteous figure was impressed on my memory. I saw that she +was nude, except for a thin and delicate drapery of purple, which, +albeit in some parts it covered the milk-white body, yet no more +concealed it from my ravished eyes than does the transparent glass +conceal the portrait beneath it. Her head, the hair whereof as much +surpassed gold in its luster as gold surpasses the yellowest tresses to +be found among mortals, was garlanded with a wreath of green myrtle, +beneath whose shadow I beheld two eyes of peerless splendor, so +enchanting that I could have gazed on them forever; they flashed forth +such luminous beams that it was a marvel; and all the rest of her +countenance had such transcendent loveliness that the like never was +seen here below. At first she spake no word, perchance content that I +should look upon her, or perchance seeing me so content to look upon +her. Then gradually through the translucent radiance, she revealed more +clearly every hidden grace, for she was aware that I could not believe +such beauty possible except I beheld it with my eyes, and that even then +words would fail me to picture it to mortals with my tongue. At last, +when she observed that I had sated my eyes with gazing on her, and when +she saw that her coming hither was as wondrous to me as her loveliness, +with smiling face, and in a voice sweeter than can be conceived by minds +like ours, she thus addressed me: + +"Prithee, young woman, what art thou, the most fickle of thy sex, +preparing to do in obedience to the late counsels of thy aged nurse? +Knowest thou not that such counsels are far harder to follow than that +very love which thou desirest to flee? Hast thou reflected on the dire +and unendurable torments which compliance with them will entail on thee? +O most insensate one! dost thou then, who only a few hours ago wert my +willing vassal, now wish to break away from my gentle rule, because, +forsooth, of the words of an old woman, who is no longer vassal of mine, +as if, like her, thou art now unwitting of what delights I am the +source? O most witless of women! forbear, and reflect whether thou +shouldst not find befitting happiness in that which makes the happiness +of Heaven and earth. All things that Phoebus beholds during the bright +day, from what time he emerges from Ganges, until he plunges with his +tired steeds into the Hesperian waves, to seek due repose after his +wearisome pilgrimage; all things that are confined between cold Arcturus +and the red-hot pole, all own the absolute and authentic lordship of my +winged son; and in Heaven not only is he esteemed a god, like the other +deities, but he is so much more puissant than them all that not one +remains who has not heretofore been vanquished by his darts. He, flying +on golden plumage throughout his realms, with such swiftness that his +passage can hardly be discerned, visits them all in turn, and, bending +his strong bow, to the drawn string he fits the arrows forged by me and +tempered in the fountains sacred to my divinity. And when he elects +anyone to his service, as being more worthy than others, that one he +rules as it likes him. He kindles raging fires in the hearts of the +young, fans the flames that are almost dead in the old, awakens the +fever of passion in the chaste bosoms of virgins and instils a genial +warmth into the breasts of wives and widows equally. He has even +aforetime forced the gods, wrought up to a frenzy by his blazing torch, +to forsake the heavens and dwell on earth under false appearances. +Whereof the proofs are many. Was not Phoebus, though victor over huge +Python and creator of the celestial strains that sound from the lyres of +Parnassus, by him made the thrall, now of Daphne, now of Clymene, and +again of Leucothea, and of many others withal? Certainly, this was so. +And, finally, hiding his brightness under the form of a shepherd, did +not Apollo tend the flocks of Admetus? Even Jove himself, who rules the +skies, by this god coerced, molded his greatness into forms inferior to +his own. Sometimes, in shape of a snow-white fowl, he gave voice to +sounds sweeter than those of the dying swan, and anon, changing to a +young bull and fitting horns to his brow, he bellowed along the plains, +and humbled his proud flanks to the touch of a virgin's knees, and, +compelling his tired hoofs to do the office of oars, he breasted the +waves of his brother's kingdom, yet sank not in its depths, but joyously +bore away his prize. I shall not discourse unto you of his pursuit of +Semele under his proper form, or of Alcmena, in guise of Amphitryon, or +of Callisto, under the semblance of Diana, or of Danae for whose sake he +became a shower of gold, seeing that in the telling thereof I should +waste too much time. Nay, even the savage god of war, whose strength +appalls the giants, repressed his wrathful bluster, being forced to such +submission by this my son, and became gentle and loving. And the forger +of Jupiter, and artificer of his three-pronged thunderbolts, though +trained to handle fire, was smitten by a shaft more potent than he +himself had ever wrought. Nay I, though I be his mother, have not been +able to fend off his arrows: Witness the tears I have shed for the death +of Adonis! But why weary myself and thee with the utterance of so many +words? There is no deity in heaven who has passed unscathed from his +assaults; except, perhaps, Diana only, who may have escaped him by +fleeing to the woods; though some there be who tell that she did not +flee, but rather concealed the wound. If haply, however, thou, in the +hardness of thy unbelief, rejectest the testimony of heaven, and +searchest rather for examples of those in this nether world who have +felt his power, I affirm them to be so multitudinous that where to begin +I know not. Yet this much may I tell thee truly: all who have confessed +his sway have been men of might and valor. Consider attentively, in the +first place, that undaunted son of Alcmena, who, laying aside his arrows +and the formidable skin of the huge lion, was fain to adorn his fingers +with green emeralds, and to smooth and adjust his bristling and +rebellions hair. Nay, that hand which aforetime had wielded the terrific +club, and slain therewith Antaeus, and dragged the hound of hell from the +lower world, was now content to draw the woolen threads spun from +Omphale's distaff; and the shoulders whereon had rested the pillars of +the heavens, from which he had for a time freed Atlas, were now clasped +in Omphale's arms, and afterward, to do her pleasure, covered with a +diaphanous raiment of purple. Need I relate what Paris did in obedience +to the great deity? or Helen? or Clytemnestra? or AEgisthus? These are +things that are well known to all the world. Nor do I care to speak of +Achilles, or of Scylla, of Ariadne or Leander, of Dido, or of many +others, of whom the same tale could be told, were there need to tell it. +Believe me when I affirm that this fire is holy, and most potent as +well. Thou hast heard that heaven and earth are subject to my son +because of his lordship over gods and men. But what shall I say of the +power that he exercises over irrational animals, whether celestial or +terrene? It is through him that the turtle is fain to follow her mate; +it is through him that my pigeons have learned to caress his ringdoves +with fondest endearments. And there is no creeping or living creature +that has ever at any time attempted to escape from his puissance: in the +woods the timid stag, made fierce by his touch, becomes brave for sake +of the coveted hind and by bellowing and fighting, they prove how strong +are the witcheries of Love. The ferocious boars are made by Love to +froth at the mouth and sharpen their ivory tusks; the African lions, +when Love quickens them, shake their manes in fury. But leaving the +groves and forests, I assert that even in the chilly waters the +numberless divinities of the sea and of the flowing rivers are not safe +from the bolts of my son. Neither can I for a moment believe that thou +art ignorant of the testimony thereof which has been rendered by +Neptune, Glaucus, Alpheus, and others too numerous to mention: not only +were they unable to quench the flame with their dank waters, but they +could not even moderate its fury, which, when it had made its might +felt, both on the earth and in the waters, continued its onward course, +and rested not until it had penetrated into the gloomy realms of Dis. +Therefore Heaven and Earth and Ocean and Hell itself have had experience +of the potency of his weapons. And, in order that thou mayest understand +in a few words the power of the deity, I tell thee that, while +everything succumbs to nature, and nothing can ever be emancipated from +her dominion, Nature herself is but the servant of Love. When he +commands, ancient hatreds perish, and angry moods, be they old or new, +give place to his fires; and lastly, his sway has such far-reaching +influence that even stepmothers become gracious to their stepchildren, a +thing which it is a marvel to behold. Therefore what seekest thou? Why +dost thou hesitate? Why dost thou rashly avoid him? When so many gods, +when so many men, when so many animals, have been vanquished by him, art +ashamed to be vanquished by him also? In good sooth, thou weenest not +what thou art doing. If thou fearest to be blamed for thy obedience to +him, a blame so unmerited never can be thy portion. Greater sins than +thou canst commit have been committed by thousands far greater than +thou, and these sins would plead as thy excuse, shouldst thou pursue +that course which others have pursued--others who far excel thee. Thou +wilt have sinned but a little, seeing that thou hadst far less power of +resistance than those aforementioned. But if my words move thee not, and +thou wouldst still wish to withstand the god, bethink thee that thy +power falls far short of that of Jove, and that in judgment thou canst +not equal Phoebus, nor in wealth Juno, nor me in beauty; and yet, we all +have been conquered. Thou art greatly deceived, and I fear me that thou +must perish in the end, if thou persist in thy changed purpose. Let that +which has erstwhile sufficed for the whole world, suffice for thee, nor +try to render thyself cold-hearted, by saying: 'I have a husband, and +the holy laws and the vowed faith forbid me this'; for bootless are such +reasonings against the puissance of this god. He discards the laws of +others scornfully, as thinking them of no account, and ordains his own. +Pasiphae? had a husband, and Phaedra, and I, too, even though I have +loved. And it is these same husbands who most frequently fall in love +with others, albeit they have wives of their own: witness Jason and +Theseus and valiant Hector and Ulysses. Therefore to men we do no wrong +if we apply to them the same laws that they apply to others; for to +them no privilege has been granted which is not accorded to us withal. +Banish, then, thy foolish thoughts, and, in all security, go on loving +him whom thou hadst already begun to love. In good sooth, if thou +refusest to own the power of mighty Love, it behooves thee to fly; but +whither canst thou fly? Knowest thou of any retreat where he will not +follow and overtake thee? He has in all places equal puissance. Go +wheresoever thou wilt, never canst thou pass across the borders of his +realms, and within these realms vain it is for mortals to try to hide +themselves when he would smite them. But let it comfort thee to know, +young woman, that no such odious passion shall trouble thee as erstwhile +was the scourge of Myrrha, Semiramis, Byblis, Canace, and Cleopatra. +Nothing strange or new will be wrought by my son in thy regard. He has, +as have the other gods, his own special laws, which thou art not the +first to obey, and shouldst not be the last to entertain hopes +therefrom. If haply thou believest that thou art without companions in +this, foolish is thy belief. Let us pass by the other world, which is +fraught with such happenings; but observe attentively only thine own +city! What an infinite number of ladies it can show who are in the same +case with thyself! And remember that what is done by so many cannot be +deemed unseemly. Therefore, be thou of our following, and return thanks +to our beauty, which thou hast so closely examined. But return special +thanks to our deity, which has sundered thee from the ranks of the +simple, and persuaded thee to become acquainted with the delights that +our gifts bestow." + +Alas! alas! ye tender and compassionate ladies, if Love has been +propitious to your desires, say what could I, what should I, answer to +such and so great words uttered by so great a goddess, if not: "Be it +done unto me according to thy pleasure"? And so, I affirm that as soon +as she had closed her lips, having already harvested within my +understanding all her words, and feeling that every word was charged +with ample excuse for what I might do, and knowing now how mighty she +was and how resistless, I resolved at once to submit to her guidance; +and instantly rising from my couch, and kneeling on the ground, with +humbled heart, I thus began, in abashed and tremulous accents: + +"O peerless and eternal loveliness! O divinest of deities! O sole +mistress of all my thoughts! whose power is felt to be most invincible +by those who dare to try to withstand it, forgive the ill-timed +obstinacy wherewith I, in my great folly, attempted to ward off from my +breast the weapons of thy son, who was then to me an unknown divinity. +Now, I repeat, be it done unto me according to thy pleasure, and +according to thy promises withal. Surely, my faith merits a due reward +in time and space, seeing that I, taking delight in thee more than do +all other women, wish to see the number of thy subjects increase forever +and ever." + +Hardly had I made an end of speaking these words, when she moved from +the place where she was standing, and came toward me. Then, her face +glowing with the most fervent expression of affection and sympathy, she +embraced me, and touched my forehead with her divine lips. Next, just as +the false Ascanius, when panting in the arms of Dido, breathed on her +mouth, and thereby kindled the latent flame, so did she breathe on my +mouth, and, in that wise, rendered the divine fire that slumbered in my +heart more uncontrollable than ever, and this I felt at that very +moment. Thereafter, opening a little her purple robe, she showed me, +clasped in her arms against her ravishing breast, the very counterpart +of the youth I loved, wrapped in the transparent folds of a Grecian +mantle, and revealing in the lineaments of his countenance pangs that +were not unlike those I suffered. + +"O damsel," she said, "rivet thy gaze on the youth before thee: we have +not given thee for lover a Lissa, a Geta, or a Birria, or anyone +resembling them, but a person in every way worthy of being loved by +every goddess in the heavens. Thee he loves more than himself, as we +have ordained, and thee will he ever love; therefore do thou, joyfully +and securely, abandon thyself to his love. Thy prayers have moved us to +pity, as it is meet that prayers so deserving should, and so, be of good +hope, and fear not that thou shalt be without the reward due thee in the +future." + +And thereafter she suddenly vanished from my eyes. _Oime!_ wretched me! +I do not for a moment doubt now, after considering the things which +followed, that this one who appeared unto me was not Venus, but rather +Tisiphone, who, doffing from her head the horrid snakes that served it +for hair, and assuming for the while the splendid form of the Goddess of +Love, in this manner lured me with deceitful counsels to that disaster +which at length overwhelmed me. Thus did Juno, but in different fashion, +veiling the radiance of her deity and transforming herself for the +occasion into the exact likeness of her aged nurse, persuaded Semele to +her undoing. Woe is me! my resolve to be so advised was the cause--O +hallowed Modesty! O Chastity, most sacred of all the virtues! sole and +most precious treasure of righteous women!--was the cause, I repeat, +wherefore I drove ye from my bosom. Yet do I venture to pray unto ye for +pardon, and surely the sinner who repents and perseveres in repentance +should in due season obtain your forgiveness. + +Although the goddess had disappeared from my sight, my whole soul, +nevertheless, continued to crave her promised delights; and, albeit the +ardor of the passion that vexed my soul deprived me of every other +feeling, one piece of good fortune, for what deserving of mine I know +not, remained to me out of so many that had been lost--namely, the power +of knowing that seldom if ever has a smooth and happy ending been +granted to love, if that love be divulged and blazed abroad. And for +this reason, when influenced by my highest thoughts, I resolved, +although it was a most serious thing to do so, not to set will above +reason in carrying this my desire unto an ending. And assuredly, +although I have often been most violently constrained by divers +accidents to follow certain courses, yet so much grace was conceded to +me that, sustained by my own firmness, I passed through these agonies +without revealing the pangs that tortured me. And in sooth, I have still +resolution enough to continue to follow out this my purpose; so that, +although the things I write are most true, I have so disposed them that +no one, however keen his sagacity, can ever discover who I am, except +him who is as well acquainted with these matters as I, being, indeed, +the occasion of them all. And I implore him, should this little book +ever come into his hands, in the name of that love which he once bore +me, to conceal that which, if disclosed, would turn neither to his +profit nor honor. And, albeit he has deprived me of himself, and that +through no fault of mine, let him not take it upon himself to deprive me +of that honor which I still possess, although, perchance, undeservedly; +for should he do so, he could never again give it back to me, any more +than he can now give me back himself. + +Having, therefore, formed my plans in this wise, I showed the most +long-suffering patience in manifesting my keenest and most covetous +yearnings, and I used my best efforts, but only in secret ways and when +opportunities were afforded me, to light in this young man's soul the +same flames wherewith my own soul glowed, and to make him as +circumspect as myself withal. Nor, in truth, was this for me a task of +great difficulty; for, inasmuch as the lineaments of the face always +bear most true witness to the qualities of the heart, it was not long +before I became aware that my desire would have its full fruition. I +perceived that, not only was he throbbing with amorous enthusiasm, but +that he was also imbued with most perfect discretion, and this was +exceedingly pleasing to me. He, being at once wishful to preserve my +honor in all its luster, and, at the same time, to arrange convenient +times and places for our meetings, employed many ingenious stratagems, +which, methinks, must have cost him much toil and trouble. He used every +subtle art to win the friendship of all who were related to me, and, at +last, of my husband; and not only did he enjoy their friendship, but he +possessed it in such a supreme degree that no pleasure was agreeable to +them unless he shared it. How much all this delighted me you will +understand without its being needful to me to set it down in words. And +is there anyone so dull of wit as not to conclude that from the +aforesaid friendship arose many opportunities for him and me of holding +discourse together in public? But already had he bethought himself of +acting in more subtle ways; and now he would speak to this one, now to +that one, words whereby I, being most eager for such enlightenment, +discovered that whatever he said to these was fraught with figurative +and hidden meanings, intended to show forth his ardent affection for +myself. When he was sensible that I had a clear perception of the occult +significance of his questions and answers, he went still further, and by +gestures, and mobile changes in the expression of his features, he would +make known to me his thoughts and the various phases of his passion, +which was to me a source of much delectation; and I strove so hard to +comprehend it all and to make fitting response thereunto, that neither +could he shadow forth anything to me, nor I to him, that either of us +did not at once understand. + +Nay, not satisfied even with this, he employed other symbols and +metaphors, and labored earnestly to discipline me in such manner of +speech; and, to render me the more assured of his unalterable love, he +named me Fiammetta, and himself Panfilo. Woe is me! How often, when +warmed with love and wine, did we tell tales, in the presence of our +dearest friends, of Fiammetta and Panfilo, feigning that they were +Greeks of the days of old, I at one time, he at another; and the tales +were all of ourselves; how we were first caught in the snares of Love, +and of what tribulations we were long the victims, giving suitable names +to the places and persons connected with the story! Certainly, I +frequently laughed at it all, being made merry by the simplicity of the +bystanders, as well as by his astuteness and sagacity. Yet betimes I +dreaded that in the flush of his excitement he might thoughtlessly let +his tongue wander in directions wherein it was not befitting it should +venture. But he, being ever far wiser than I imagined, guarded himself +craftily from any such blundering awkwardness. + +_Oime!_ most compassionate ladies, what is there that Love will not +teach to his subjects? and what is there that he is not able to render +them skilful in learning? I, who of all young women was the most +simple-minded, and ordinarily with barely power to loose my tongue, when +among my companions, concerning the most trivial and ordinary affairs, +now, because of this my affection, mastered so speedily all his modes of +speech that, in a brief space, my aptness at feigning and inventing +surpassed that of any poet! And there were few questions put to me in +response to which, after meditating on their main points, I could not +make up a pleasing tale: a thing, in my opinion, exceedingly difficult +for a young woman to begin, and still more difficult to finish and +relate afterward. But, if my actual situation required it, I might set +down numerous details which might, perhaps, seem to you of little or no +moment, as, for instance, the artful experiment whereby we tested the +fidelity of my favorite maid to whom, and to whom alone, we meditated +entrusting the secret of this hidden passion, considering that, should +another share it, our uneasiness, lest it should not be kept, would be +most grievous. Furthermore, it would weary you if I mentioned all the +plans we adopted, in order to meet divers situations, plans that I do +not believe were ever imagined by any before us; and albeit I am now +well aware that they all worked for my ultimate destruction, yet the +remembrance of them does not displease me. + +Unless, O ladies, my judgment be greatly at fault, the strength of our +minds was by no means small, if it be but taken in account how hard a +thing it is for youthful persons in love to resist long the rush of +impetuous ardor without crossing the bounds set by reason: nay, it was +so great and of such quality that the most valiant of men, by acting in +such wise, would win high and worthy laud as a result thereof. But my +pen is now about to depict the final ending to which love was guided, +and, before I do so, I would appeal to your pity and to those soft +sentiments which make their dwelling in your tender breasts, and incline +your thoughts to a like termination. + +Day succeeded day, and our wishes dragged along with them, kept alive by +torturing anxiety, the full bitterness whereof each of us experienced; +although the one manifested this to the other in disguised language, and +the other showed herself over-discreet to an excessive degree; all of +which you who know how ladies who are beloved behave in such +circumstances will easily understand. Well, then, he, putting full trust +in the veiled meaning of my words, and choosing the proper time and +place, came to an experience of that which I desired as much as he, +although I feigned the contrary. Certainly, if I were to say that this +was the cause of the love I felt for him, I should also have to confess +that every time it came back to my memory, it was the occasion to me of +a sorrow like unto none other. But, I call God to witness, nothing that +has happened between us had the slightest influence upon the love I bore +him, nor has it now. Still, I will not deny that our close intimacy was +then, and is now, most dear to me. And where is the woman so unwise as +not to wish to have the object of her affection within reach rather than +at a distance? How much more intensely does love enthrall us when it is +brought so near us that we and it are made almost inseparable! I say, +then, that after such an adventure, never afore willed or even thought +of by me, not once, but many times did fortune and our adroit stratagems +bring us good cheer and consolation, not indeed screened entirely from +danger, for which I cared less than for the passing of the fleeing wind. +But while the time was being spent in such joyous fashion--and that it +was joyous, Love, who alone may bear witness thereof, can truly say--yet +sometimes his coming inspired me with not a little natural apprehension, +inasmuch as he was beginning to be indiscreet in the manner of his +coming. But how dear to him was my own apartment, and with what gladness +did it see him enter! Yet was he filled with more reverence for it than +he ever had been for a sacred temple, and this I could at all times +easily discern. Woe is me! what burning kisses, what tender embraces, +what delicious moments we had there! + +Why do I take such pleasure in the mere words which I am now setting +down? It is, I say, because I am forced to express the gratitude I then +felt to the holy goddess who was the promiser and bestower of Love's +delights. Ah, how often did I visit her altars and offer incense, +crowned with a garland of her favorite foliage! How often did I think +scornfully of the counsels of my aged nurse! Nay, furthermore, being +elated far more than all my other companions, how often did I disparage +their loves, saying within myself: "No one is loved as I am loved, no +one loves a youth as matchless as the youth I love, no one realizes such +delights from love as I!" In short, I counted the world as nothing in +comparison with my love. It seemed to me that my head touched the skies, +and that nothing was lacking to the culmination of my ecstatic bliss. +Betimes the idea flashed on my mind that I must disclose to others the +occasion of my transports, for surely, I would reflect, it would be a +delight to others to hear of that which has brought such delight to me! +But thou, O Shame, on the one side, and thou, O Fear, on the other, did +hold me back: the one threatening me with eternal infamy; the other with +loss of that which hostile Fortune was soon afterward to tear from me. +In such wise then, did I live for some time, for it was then pleasing to +Love that I should live in this manner; and, in good sooth, so blithely +and joyously were these days spent that I had little cause to envy any +lady in the whole world, never imagining that the delight wherewith my +heart was filled to overflowing, was to nourish the root and plant of my +future misery, as I now know to my fruitless and never-ending sorrow. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of La Fiammetta, by Giovanni Boccaccio + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LA FIAMMETTA *** + +***** This file should be named 10006.txt or 10006.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/0/0/10006/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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