The Decameron IV: The Fourth Day
As some of you may know, I currently live in Shanghai, which means that the setting of The Decameron has become beautifully relevant to me all of a sudden. In Boccaccio's collection of tales, seven young women and three young men have hidden themselves away behind a deserted villa's walls to sit out the Black Plague as it ravishes 14th century Italy. While the Corona virus isn't quite as horrifying as the Black Plague (at the moment at least), it has been enough for all of us to be put on extended leave. Hence, I will be spending the next ten days hidden away in my own apartment, desperate to amuse myself and to forget what's happening outside. My tiny apartment may not be a villa and I may be there on my own (+ cat), but it is the place where I will be joining Boccaccio's hideaways.
The Fourth Day
Our cast:
Ladies: Men:
Pampinea Panfilo
Fiammetta Filostrato
Filomena Dioneo
Emilia
Lauretta
Neifile
Elissa
The Preamble
It's the fourth day and Filostrato is our king. But before we get into the tales, Boccaccio sets up a defense of his work before it's even finished. Once again employing the false modesty of a brilliant writer, he lays out both the accusations and his defenses. Yes, he may be too fond of the ladies, despite his age, and perhaps they may not be worthy of all his attention. Yet they're much more real than the Muses and so he will continue to write for them. In regards to his age:
A big part of this preamble and defense is in favour of his stories which he has 'written, not only in the Florentine vernacular and in prose, but in the most homely and unassuming style it is possible to imagine'. Boccaccio wrote his Decameron in vernacular prose, which was not highly considered in literary circles. However, his prose is so refined that it ended up becoming an inspiration for countless of other writers.
The Tales
The first tale is told by Fiammetta and it's a true tragedy of forbidden love, caverns and cut out hearts. Pampinea follows up with another tale of a lusty friar getting his just deserts, with a side of angel-impersonation. The third tale told by Elissa also has thwarted lovers with a side of double death. In Filomena's fifth tale, a poor woman keeps her murdered lover's head in a pot of basil until she dies of sadness. Panfilo's tale is the sixth and involves premonitory dreams and, of course, death. The seventh tale, Emilia's, has a clandestine couple meet their end at the hands of sage leaves. Neifile's tale follows, advising against listening to one's parents when in love. Filostrato's ninth tale also features a heart as well as a case of voluntary defenestration. Dioneo once again tells the final tale, in which, despite various hilarious twists and turns, everything ends well.
Filostrato is a rather morose king, starting off the male storyteller reigns. His chosen topic, doomed love, has actively led to lowering the mood. Perhaps he did this because he was peeved at Neifile, the previous day's Queen, reprimanding him for becoming a bit too saucy outside the storytelling. In response to Fiammetta's first story h says he'd happy die for love and in response to Elissa's he says he only saw 'a modicum of merit' in it. He shows 'no trace of compassion' for the main character in Panfilo's tale either, which means he's very much become my least favourite character. I'm wondering how this will echoe through the next six days as much of his unhappiness seems to stem from getting rejected by a lady in their group. (The criticism says it's most likely to be Filomena although it's not revealed in the text itself.)
This 'Fourth Day' is the day that features, what my Penguin edition calls, the first 'working-class hero and heroine in the history of European tragic literature', Simona and Panquilo. They both work in th manufacture of wool and their relationship is the only that doesn't transcend class boundaries. As such, their demise also the only one that isn't violent, as in caused by violent bloodshed. In Emilia's tale, Panquino, after a lovely day at the park, uses a sage leaf to clean his teeth and promptly dies, poisoned. In order to prove her innocence, Simona does the same and, also, promptly, dies. The two are joined together in Heaven and so the story, in an odd way, has a happy end. Almost every tale, except for Filostrato's and Emilia's, has a couple that transcends class boundaries, usually with the woman choosing a man of lower rank. Filostrato's tale, according to some, seems to try to amend this, as all his characters are among the aristocracy.
In the first tale, told by Fiammetta, this issue of class and worth comes up as well. Ghismonda, recently discovered by her father to be having an affair with a mere groom, is offended by her father implying he would have been less outraged had she cavorted with someone of higher rank. She vents her feelings thus:
Overall I did enjoy the tales of the 'Fourth Day' but less so than the previous two. They were all very dramatic, but some of the joy was sapped out of it by Filostrato's morose reign. He does apologize for the rather morbid topic, before selecting the next monarch.
Fun Fact:
In Emilia's tale, they find the following underneath the poisoned sage bush:
Set Up for the Fifth Day:
Filostrato finally relinquishes his crown and it goes to Fiammatta, who apparently has lovely blond hair. In order to show the former the error of his ways, she selects as the topic for the next day:
Our cast:
Ladies: Men:
Pampinea Panfilo
Fiammetta Filostrato
Filomena Dioneo
Emilia
Lauretta
Neifile
Elissa
The Preamble
It's the fourth day and Filostrato is our king. But before we get into the tales, Boccaccio sets up a defense of his work before it's even finished. Once again employing the false modesty of a brilliant writer, he lays out both the accusations and his defenses. Yes, he may be too fond of the ladies, despite his age, and perhaps they may not be worthy of all his attention. Yet they're much more real than the Muses and so he will continue to write for them. In regards to his age:
'As for those who keep harping on about my age, they are clearly unaware of the fact that although the lee's head is white, it has a green tail.'Let it never he said he passed on the opportunity to pun. It is in this line of defense that he tells what is often referred to as the "101th tale of the Decameron". A man loses his much beloved wife and decides to become a hermit with his young son, keeping the latter away from all human contact. When he takes him into town as an adolescent, the boy becomes enraptured with a group of young women, the first he's ever seen. The desire to please women and to love them is instinctual, is what Boccaccio seems to be suggesting. Overall the tone of this preamble is a bit odd, more of a humble brag than anything else, but it is amusing.
A big part of this preamble and defense is in favour of his stories which he has 'written, not only in the Florentine vernacular and in prose, but in the most homely and unassuming style it is possible to imagine'. Boccaccio wrote his Decameron in vernacular prose, which was not highly considered in literary circles. However, his prose is so refined that it ended up becoming an inspiration for countless of other writers.
The Tales
 |
| Isabella and the Pot of Basil by William Holman Hunt |
The first tale is told by Fiammetta and it's a true tragedy of forbidden love, caverns and cut out hearts. Pampinea follows up with another tale of a lusty friar getting his just deserts, with a side of angel-impersonation. The third tale told by Elissa also has thwarted lovers with a side of double death. In Filomena's fifth tale, a poor woman keeps her murdered lover's head in a pot of basil until she dies of sadness. Panfilo's tale is the sixth and involves premonitory dreams and, of course, death. The seventh tale, Emilia's, has a clandestine couple meet their end at the hands of sage leaves. Neifile's tale follows, advising against listening to one's parents when in love. Filostrato's ninth tale also features a heart as well as a case of voluntary defenestration. Dioneo once again tells the final tale, in which, despite various hilarious twists and turns, everything ends well.
Filostrato is a rather morose king, starting off the male storyteller reigns. His chosen topic, doomed love, has actively led to lowering the mood. Perhaps he did this because he was peeved at Neifile, the previous day's Queen, reprimanding him for becoming a bit too saucy outside the storytelling. In response to Fiammetta's first story h says he'd happy die for love and in response to Elissa's he says he only saw 'a modicum of merit' in it. He shows 'no trace of compassion' for the main character in Panfilo's tale either, which means he's very much become my least favourite character. I'm wondering how this will echoe through the next six days as much of his unhappiness seems to stem from getting rejected by a lady in their group. (The criticism says it's most likely to be Filomena although it's not revealed in the text itself.)
This 'Fourth Day' is the day that features, what my Penguin edition calls, the first 'working-class hero and heroine in the history of European tragic literature', Simona and Panquilo. They both work in th manufacture of wool and their relationship is the only that doesn't transcend class boundaries. As such, their demise also the only one that isn't violent, as in caused by violent bloodshed. In Emilia's tale, Panquino, after a lovely day at the park, uses a sage leaf to clean his teeth and promptly dies, poisoned. In order to prove her innocence, Simona does the same and, also, promptly, dies. The two are joined together in Heaven and so the story, in an odd way, has a happy end. Almost every tale, except for Filostrato's and Emilia's, has a couple that transcends class boundaries, usually with the woman choosing a man of lower rank. Filostrato's tale, according to some, seems to try to amend this, as all his characters are among the aristocracy.
In the first tale, told by Fiammetta, this issue of class and worth comes up as well. Ghismonda, recently discovered by her father to be having an affair with a mere groom, is offended by her father implying he would have been less outraged had she cavorted with someone of higher rank. She vents her feelings thus:
'We were all born equal, and still are, but merit first set us apart, and those who had more of it, and used it the most, acquired the name of nobles to distinguish them from the rest. Since then, this law has been obscured by a contrary practice, but nature and good manners ensure that its force still remains unimpaired; hence any man whose conduct is virtuous proclaims himself a noble, and those who call him by any other name are in error.'The Norton Critical Edition recognizes Socratic principles in her speech and it contrasts nicely with the response of the father in Panfilo's sixth tale who says he'd happily approve of any man she thought worthy of herself, regardless of rank.
Overall I did enjoy the tales of the 'Fourth Day' but less so than the previous two. They were all very dramatic, but some of the joy was sapped out of it by Filostrato's morose reign. He does apologize for the rather morbid topic, before selecting the next monarch.
Fun Fact:
 |
| Toad in 2006' Pan's Labyrinth |
In Emilia's tale, they find the following underneath the poisoned sage bush:
'Crouching beneath the clump of sage, there was an incredibly large toad, by whose venomous breath they realized that the bush must have been poisoned'.This immediately reminded me of Pan's Labyrinth, in which poor Ofelia has to defeat. I wonder if this is where Guillermo del Toro's inspiration came from.
Set Up for the Fifth Day:
Filostrato finally relinquishes his crown and it goes to Fiammatta, who apparently has lovely blond hair. In order to show the former the error of his ways, she selects as the topic for the next day:
'the adventures of lovers who survived calamities or misfortunes and attained a state of happiness'.So join me tomorrow for what will hopefully make happier reading.
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