[004]
In the very ancient city of Naples, which for loveliness has not
its superior or perhaps its equal in Italy, there once lived a young
man, renowned alike for noble blood and the splendour of his vast
wealth, his name Ricciardo Minutolo. He was mated with a very
fair and loving wife; but nevertheless he became enamoured of a
lady who in the general opinion vastly surpassed in beauty every other
lady in Naples. Catella--such was the lady's name--was married to
a young man, likewise of gentle blood, Filippello Fighinolfi by name,
whom she, most virtuous of ladies, loved and held dear above all else
in the world.
[005]
Being thus enamoured of Catella, Ricciardo Minutolo
left none of those means untried whereby a lady's favour and love
are wont to be gained, but for all that he made no way towards the
attainment of his heart's desire: whereby he fell into a sort of despair,
and witless and powerless to loose himself from his love, found life
scarce tolerable, and yet knew not how to die.
[006]
While in this frame
he languished, it befell one day that some ladies that were of kin to
him counselled him earnestly to be quit of such a love, whereby he
could but fret himself to no purpose, seeing that Catella cared for
nought in the world save Filippello, and lived in such a state of
jealousy on his account that never a bird flew but she feared lest it
should snatch him from her.
[007]
So soon as Ricciardo heard of Catella's
jealousy, he forthwith began to ponder how he might make it
subserve his end. He feigned to have given up his love for Catella
as hopeless, and to have transferred it to another lady, in whose
honour he accordingly began to tilt and joust and do all that he
had been wont to do in honour of Catella.
[008]
Nor was it long before
well-nigh all the Neapolitans, including Catella herself, began to
think that he had forgotten Catella, and was to the last degree
enamoured of the other lady. In this course he persisted, until the
opinion was so firmly rooted in the minds of all that even Catella
laid aside a certain reserve which she had used towards him while
she deemed him her lover, and, coming and going, greeted him in
friendly, neighbourly fashion, like the rest.
[009]
Now it so befell that
during the hot season, when, according to the custom of the
Neapolitans, many companies of ladies and gentlemen went down to
the sea-coast to recreate themselves and breakfast and sup, Ricciardo,
knowing that Catella was gone thither with her company, went
likewise with his, but, making as if he were not minded to stay
there, he received several invitations from the ladies of Catella's
company before he accepted any.
[010]
When the ladies received him,
they all with one accord, including Catella, began to rally him on
his new love, and he furnished them with more matter for talk
by feigning a most ardent passion. At length most of the ladies
being gone off, one hither, another thither, as they do in such places,
leaving Catella and a few others with Ricciardo, he tossed at Catella
a light allusion to a certain love of her husband Filippello, which
threw her at once into such a fit of jealousy, that she inly burned
with a vehement desire to know what Ricciardo meant.
[011]
For a
while she kept her own counsel; then, brooking no more suspense,
she adjured Ricciardo, by the love he bore the lady whom most he
loved, to expound to her what he had said touching Filippello. [012]He
answered thus: "You have adjured me by her to whom I dare
not deny aught that you may ask of me; my riddle therefore I will
presently read you, provided you promise me that neither to him nor
to any one else will you impart aught of what I shall relate to you,
until you shall have ocular evidence of its truth; which, so you desire
it, I will teach you how you may obtain."
[013]
The lady accepted his
terms, which rather confirmed her belief in his veracity, and swore
that she would not tell a soul. They then drew a little apart, that
they might not be overheard by the rest, and Ricciardo thus began:
"Madam, did I love you, as I once did, I should not dare to tell
you aught that I thought might cause you pain; but, now that that
love is past, I shall have the less hesitation in telling you the truth.
[014]
Whether Filippello ever resented the love which I bore you, or
deemed that it was returned by you, I know not: whether it were
so or no, he certainly never shewed any such feeling to me;
[015]
but
so it is that now, having waited, perhaps, until, as he supposes, I am
less likely to be on my guard, he shews a disposition to serve me
as I doubt he suspects that I served him; that is to say, he would
fain have his pleasure of my wife, whom for some time past he has,
as I discover, plied with messages through most secret channels. She
has told me all, and has answered him according to my instructions:
[016]
but only this morning, just before I came hither, I found a woman
in close parley with her in the house, whose true character and
purpose I forthwith divined; so I called my wife, and asked what the
woman wanted.
[017]
Whereto she answered: ''Tis this persecution
by Filippello which thou hast brought upon me by the encouraging
answers that thou wouldst have me give him: he now tells me that
he is most earnestly desirous to know my intentions, and that, should
I be so minded, he would contrive that I should have secret access
to a bagnio in this city, and he is most urgent and instant that I
should consent. And hadst thou not, wherefore I know not, bidden
me keep the affair afoot, I would have dismissed him in such a
sort that my movements would have been exempt from his prying
observation for ever.
[018]
Upon this I saw that the affair was going
too far; I determined to have no more of it, and to let you know
it, that you may understand how he requites your whole-hearted
faith, which brought me of late to the verge of death.
[019]
And that
you may not suppose that these are but empty words and idle tales,
but may be able, should you so desire, to verify them by sight and
touch, I caused my wife to tell the woman who still waited her
answer, that she would be at the bagnio to-morrow about none,
during the siesta: with which answer the woman went away well
content.
[020]
Now you do not, I suppose, imagine that I would send
her thither; but if I were in your place, he should find me there
instead of her whom he thinks to find there; and when I had been
some little time with him, I would give him to understand with
whom he had been, and he should have of me such honour as he
deserved. Whereby, I doubt not, he would be put to such shame
as would at one and the same time avenge both the wrong which
he has done to you and that which he plots against me."
