Novel III
[Voice: lauretta]
[001]
Monna Nonna de' Pulci by a ready retort silences the
scarce seemly jesting of the Bishop of Florence.
[Voice: author]
[002]
Pampinea's story ended, and praise not a little
bestowed on Cisti alike for his apt speech and for his handsome present, the queen was
pleased to call forthwith for a story from Lauretta, who blithely thus began:
[Voice: lauretta]
[003]
Debonair my ladies, the excellency of wit, and our lack thereof, have
been noted with no small truth first by Pampinea and after her by Filomena. To which topic
'twere bootless to return: wherefore to that which has been said touching the nature of
wit I purpose but to add one word, to remind you that its bite should be as a sheep's bite
and not as a dog's; for if it bite like a dog, 'tis no longer wit but discourtesy.
[004]
With which maxim the words of Madonna Oretta, and the apt reply
of Cisti, accorded excellently. True indeed it is that if 'tis by way of retort, and one
that has received a dog's bite gives the biter a like bite in return, it does not seem to
be reprehensible, as otherwise it would have been. Wherefore one must consider how and
when and on whom and likewise where one exercises one's wit. [005]
By
ill observing which matters one of our prelates did once upon a time receive no less
shrewd a bite than he gave; as I will shew you in a short story.
[Voice: lauretta]
[006]
While Messer Antonio d'Orso, a
prelate both worthy and wise,
was Bishop of Florence, there came thither a
Catalan gentleman,
Messer Dego della Ratta by name, being King Ruberto's
marshal.
Now Dego being very goodly of person, and inordinately fond of women, it so befell that
of the ladies of Florence she that he regarded
with especial favour was the very beautiful niece of a brother of the
said
bishop. [007]
And having learned that her husband, though of good
family, was but a caitiff, and avaricious in the last degree, he
struck
a bargain with him that he should lie one night with the lady for
five hundred florins of gold: whereupon he had the same number of
popolins of silver, which were then current, gilded,
and having
lain
with the lady, albeit against her will, gave them to her
husband.
Which coming to be generally known, the caitiff husband was left
with the loss and the laugh against him; and the bishop, like a wise
man,
feigned to know nought of the affair. [008]
And so the bishop and
the marshal
being much together, it befell that on St. John's day, as
they rode side
by side down the street whence they start to run the
palio, and took
note of the ladies,
the bishop espied a young gentle-woman,
whom this present pestilence has
reft from us, Monna Nonna
de' Pulci by name, a cousin of Messer Alesso
Rinucci, whom you all
must know; [009]
whom, for that she was lusty and fair,
and of excellent
discourse and a good courage, and but just settled with
her husband
in Porta San Piero, the bishop presented to the marshal; and
then,
being close beside her, he laid his hand on the marshal's shoulder
and
said to her: "Nonna, what thinkest thou of this gentleman? That
thou mightst make a conquest of him?"[010]
Which words the lady
resented as
a jibe at her honour, and like to tarnish it in the eyes
of those, who
were not a few, in whose hearing they were spoken
Wherefore without
bestowing a thought upon the vindication of her
honour, but being minded
to return blow for blow, she retorted
hastily: "Perchance, Sir, he might
not make a conquest of me;
but if he did so, I should want good money."[011]
The answer stung
both the marshal and the bishop to the quick, the one as
contriver
of the scurvy trick played upon the bishop's brother in regard
of his
niece, the other as thereby outraged in the person of his
brother's
niece; insomuch that they dared not look one another in the
face,
but took themselves off in shame and silence, and said never a word
more to her that day.
[Voice: lauretta]
[012]
In such a case, then, the lady having received
a bite, 'twas allowable
in her wittily to return it.
