The Decameron IX: 'The Ninth 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 Ninth Day

Our cast:

Ladies:                            Men:
Pampinea                        Panfilo
Fiammetta                      Filostrato
Filomena                         Dioneo
Emilia
Lauretta
Neifile
Elissa

With Emilia as our Queen, the themes of the penultimate tale are up to the storyteller to choose. And just because it was lovely, here is the opening line:

'The light whose radiance dispels the shades of night had already softened into pale celestial hues the deep azure of the eighth heaven, and the flowerets in the meadows had begun to raise their drooping heads, when Emilia arose and caused the other young ladies to be called, and likewise the three young men.'

The Tales

The Canterbury Tales, which shares themes with TD.

In our first tale, Filomena describes the way a woman got rid of two unwanted lovers by help of a tomb. Elissa follows with a tale involving an abbess and a nun, both in the midst of an affair. Filostrato's third tale brings us back to Calandrino, who is this time convinced he is pregnant. (Spoiler: he is not.) Next is Neifile, in whose tale a man finds himself tricked out of his horse and clothes by a friend. The fifth tale is told by Fiammetta, who also revisits poor Calandrino, who is tricked into pursuing a sex worker, only to be exposed to his wife. Sixth is Panfilo's tale which involved bed-hopping and a fooled husband and father. In Pampinea's seventh tale a proud wife ignores her husband's prophetic dream and is mauled to disfigurement by a wolf. Lauretta follows this with a tale of trickery involving wine and the "whetting of whistles". Emilia's ninth tale takes it back to Solomon and domestic abuse. Dioneo's tale sees a friar enjoying someone else's wife under the guise of turning her into a mare.


As I covered in 'The Eighth Day', we have had a reoccurring cast of characters, Calandrino and his horrible friends, Bruno and Buffalmacco. They pop up again twice today, to slightly more hilarious consequences. With the help of the doctor they fooled in the Eighth Day's ninth tale, B&B convince Calandrino he is pregnant so that he hands over the money he just inherited for a cure. The story is very pro-abortion, in the case of male pregnancy, which is fun. Less fun is the horrible disfigurement of the poor lady in Pampinea's tale. I've noticed that throughout the days, many of her tales have been a little stricter. Perhaps this ties in with her being the oldest and the planner of the whole getaway?

Emilia, the Ninth Day's Queen, opened up to theme of today to anything that the storytellers wished to tell. What this leads to is that we get to revisit the tales from the previous days. As mentioned above, Calandrino makes another appearance, tying in with the previous day. Filomena revisits what we do in the name of Love, as we saw in the the 'Second' up to the 'Fifth' day.  Elissa's tale is of a woman saving herself with wit, which is reminiscent of the 'Sixth Day'. Neifile's fourth tale and the eighth told by Lauretta cover the tricks we play one each other, hearkening back to the 'Eighth Day'. The sixth tale by Panfilo reminds us of the tricks women played on their husbands, as told on 'The Seventh Day'. Dioneo's bawdy tenth tale is reminiscent of the lovely filth we got on the 'Third Day'. It's a nice way to summarize what has happened in The Decameron so far. It refreshes the reader's mind on the topics covered, the jokes made, the naughty tales told.

This summary also brings us back to the double-edged sword that is gender in The Decameron. Emilia's ninth tale begins as such:

'Lovable ladies, if the order of things is impartially considered,  it quickly be apparent that the vast majority of women are through Nature and custom, as well as in law, subservient to men, by whose opinions their conduct and actions are bound to be governed. It therefore behoves any woman who seeks a calm, contented and untroubled life with her menfolk, to be humble, patient, and obedient, besides being virtuous, a quality that every judicious woman considers her especial and most valued possession.'

That's a lot. I will not deny that if you're in a position of social and lawful subservience, going along with it will spare you a lot of trouble. Don't cause a fuss and all will be fine. Since the lady in this ale does not, she ends up beaten so severely that 'there was not a bone nor a muscle nor a sinew in the good woman's back that was not rent asunder'. For days on end we've enjoyed tales about women who did cause a fuss, who did go after what they wanted and tricked whoever stood in their way. The Decameron walks a fine line of espousing the social mores of its day while also reveling in the taboo of breaking the rules. This is also shown in the response to the tale, as some of the ladies murmur but some of the men laugh. Boccaccio is trying to please a varied audience, which means that not every tale will be a hit for everyone.

Now that we've reached the almost end of The Decameron and of my extended leave, I'm almost sad to let it all go. I'm excited to reenter a somewhat normal life in which I go back to the office and work, but I've enjoyed hiding away to a certain extent as well.

Cecco Angiulieri

Fun Fact:

In Neifile's fourth tale, she describes the friendship between two real men, Cecco Angiulieri and Cecco Fortarrigo:

'And whilst they failed to see eye-to-eye with each other on several matters, there was one respect at least - namely, their hatred of their respective fathers - in which they were in sch total agreement that they became good friends and were often to be found in one another's company.'

There's a hilarious footnote to this whole tale about a sonnet written by Angiulieri in which he said: "If I were death, I'd pay a call on my father". They both seem like lovely people, even if both of them, especially Fortarrigo, come out of the tale looking rather dim.


Setting Up the Tenth Day:

Emilia relinquishes her reign and hands the laurel crown to Panfilo as the final day's King. He decides that for their last day, they should return to a theme, namely:

'those who have performed liberal or munificent deeds, whether in the cause of love or otherwise.'

On this last day, we shall focus on high achievements and morality, so that something good  may come out of their escape to the countryside. Do join me tomorrow for our last day.