The Decameron, vol. 2 | Page 2

a ready retort silences the
scarce seemly jesting of the Bishop of Florence.
NOVEL IV. - Chichibio, cook to Currado Gianfigliazzi, owes his
safety to a ready answer, whereby he converts Currado's wrath into
laughter, and evades the evil fate with which Currado had threatened
him.
NOVEL V. - Messer Forese da Rabatta and Master Giotto, the painter,
journeying together from Mugello, deride one another's scurvy
appearance.
NOVEL VI. - Michele Scalza proves to certain young men that the
Baronci are the best gentlemen in the world and the Maremma, and
wins a supper.

NOVEL VII. - Madonna Filippa, being found by her husband with her
lover, is cited before the court, and by a ready and jocund answer
acquits herself, and brings about an alteration of the statute.
NOVEL VIII. - Fresco admonishes his niece not to look at herself in
the glass, if 'tis, as she says, grievous to her to see nasty folk.
NOVEL IX. - Guido Cavalcanti by a quip meetly rebukes certain
Florentine gentlemen who had taken him at a disadvantage.
NOVEL X. - Fra Cipolla promises to shew certain country-folk a
feather of the Angel Gabriel, in lieu of which he finds coals, which he
avers to be of those with which St. Lawrence was roasted.
- SEVENTH DAY -
NOVEL I. - Gianni Lotteringhi hears a knocking at his door at night: he
awakens his wife, who persuades him that 'tis the bogey, which they
fall to exorcising with a prayer; whereupon the knocking ceases.
NOVEL II. - Her husband returning home, Peronella bestows her lover
in a tun; which, being sold by her husband, she avers to have been
already sold by herself to one that is inside examining it to set if it be
sound. Whereupon the lover jumps out, and causes the husband to
scour the tun for him, and afterwards to carry it to his house.
NOVEL III. - Fra Rinaldo lies with his gossip: her husband finds him
in the room with her; and they make him believe that he was curing his
godson of worms by a charm.
NOVEL IV. - Tofano one night locks his wife out of the house: she,
finding that by no entreaties may she prevail upon him to let her in,
feigns to throw herself into a well, throwing therein a great stone.
Tofano hies him forth of the house, and runs to the spot: she goes into
the house, and locks him out, and hurls abuse at him from within.
NOVEL V. - A jealous husband disguises himself as a priest, and hears
his own wife's confession: she tells him that she loves a priest, who
comes to her every night. The husband posts himself at the door to
watch for the priest, and meanwhile the lady brings her lover in by the
roof, and tarries with him.
NOVEL VI. - Madonna Isabella has with her Leonetto, her accepted
lover, when she is surprised by one Messer Lambertuccio, by whom
she is beloved: her husband coming home about the same time, she
sends Messer Lambertuccio forth of the house drawn sword in hand,
and the husband afterwards escorts Leonetto home.

NOVEL VII. - Lodovico discovers to Madonna Beatrice the love that
he bears her: she sends Egano, her husband, into a garden disguised as
herself, and lies with Lodovico; who thereafter, being risen, hies him to
the garden and cudgels Egano.
NOVEL VIII. - A husband grows jealous of his wife, and discovers that
she has warning of her lover's approach by a piece of pack-thread,
which she ties to her great toe a nights. While he is pursuing her lover,
she puts another woman in bed in her place. The husband, finding her
there, beats her, and cuts off her hair. He then goes and calls his wife's
brothers, who, holding his accusation to be false, give him a rating.
NOVEL IX. - Lydia, wife of Nicostratus, loves Pyrrhus, who to assure
himself thereof, asks three things of her, all of which she does, and
therewithal enjoys him in presence of Nicostratus, and makes
Nicostratus believe that what he saw was not real.
NOVEL X. - Two Sienese love a lady, one of them being her gossip:
the gossip dies, having promised his comrade to return to him from the
other world; which he does, and tells him what sort of life is led there.
- EIGHTH DAY -
NOVEL I. - Gulfardo borrows moneys of Guasparruolo, which he has
agreed to give Guasparruolo's wife, that he may lie with her. He gives
them to her, and in her presence tells Guasparruolo that he has done so,
and she acknowledges that 'tis true.
NOVEL II. - The priest of Varlungo lies with Monna Belcolore: he
leaves with her his cloak by way