The Decameron, vol. 2 | Page 5

(tenth day, eighth story)
-- Endeth here the fourth day of the Decameron, beginneth the fifth, in
which under the rule of Fiammetta discourse is had of good fortune
befalling lovers after divers direful or disastrous adventures. --
All the east was white, nor any part of our hemisphere unillumined by
the rising beams, when the carolling of the birds that in gay chorus
saluted the dawn among the boughs induced Fiammetta to rise and
rouse the other ladies and the three gallants; with whom adown the hill
and about the dewy meads of the broad champaign she sauntered,
talking gaily of divers matters, until the sun had attained some height.
Then, feeling his rays grow somewhat scorching, they retraced their
steps, and returned to the villa; where, having repaired their slight
fatigue with excellent wines and comfits, they took their pastime in the
pleasant garden until the breakfast hour; when, all things being made
ready by the discreet seneschal, they, after singing a stampita,(1) and a
balladette or two, gaily, at the queen's behest, sat them down to eat.
Meetly ordered and gladsome was the meal, which done, heedful of
their rule of dancing, they trod a few short measures with

accompaniment of music and song. Thereupon, being all dismissed by
the queen until after the siesta, some hied them to rest, while others
tarried taking their pleasure in the fair garden. But shortly after none,
all, at the queen's behest, reassembled, according to their wont, by the
fountain; and the queen, having seated herself on her throne, glanced
towards Pamfilo, and bade him with a smile lead off with the stories of
good fortune. Whereto Pamfilo gladly addressed himself, and thus
began.
(1) A song accompanied by music, but without dancing.
NOVEL I.
-- Cimon, by loving, waxes wise, wins his wife Iphigenia by capture on
the high seas, and is imprisoned at Rhodes. He is delivered by
Lysimachus; and the twain capture Cassandra and recapture Iphigenia
in the hour of their marriage. They flee with their ladies to Crete, and
having there married them, are brought back to their homes. --
Many stories, sweet my ladies, occur to me as meet for me to tell by
way of ushering in a day so joyous as this will be: of which one does
most commend itself to my mind, because not only has it, one of those
happy endings of which to-day we are in quest, but 'twill enable you to
understand how holy, how mighty and how salutary are the forces of
Love, which not a few, witting not what they say, do most unjustly
reprobate and revile: which, if I err not, should to you, for that I take
you to be enamoured, be indeed welcome.
Once upon a time, then, as we have read in the ancient histories of the
Cypriotes, there was in the island of Cyprus a very great noble named
Aristippus, a man rich in all worldly goods beyond all other of his
countrymen, and who might have deemed himself incomparably
blessed, but for a single sore affliction that Fortune had allotted him.
Which was that among his sons he had one, the best grown and
handsomest of them all, that was well-nigh a hopeless imbecile. His
true name was Galesus; but, as neither his tutor's pains, nor his father's
coaxing or chastisement, nor any other method had availed to imbue
him with any tincture of letters or manners, but he still remained gruff
and savage of voice, and in his bearing liker to a beast than to a man,
all, as in derision, were wont to call him Cimon, which in their
language signifies the same as "bestione" (brute)(1) in ours. The father,
grieved beyond measure to see his son's life thus blighted, and having

abandoned all hope of his recovery, nor caring to have the cause of his
mortification ever before his eyes, bade him betake him to the farm,
and there keep with his husbandmen. To Cimon the change was very
welcome, because the manners and habits of the uncouth hinds were
more to his taste than those of the citizens. So to the farm Cimon hied
him, and addressed himself to the work thereof; and being thus
employed, he chanced one afternoon as he passed, staff on shoulder,
from one domain to another, to enter a plantation, the like of which for
beauty there was not in those parts, and which was then--for 'twas the
month of May--a mass of greenery; and, as he traversed it, he came, as
Fortune was pleased to guide him, to a meadow girt in with trees
exceeding tall, and having in one of its corners a fountain most fair and
cool, beside which he espied a most beautiful girl lying asleep on the
green