[Day the Fourth]
SIMONA LOVETH PASQUINO AND THEY BEING TOGETHER IN A GARDEN,
THE LATTER RUBBETH A LEAF OF SAGE AGAINST HIS TEETH AND
DIETH. SHE, BEING TAKEN AND THINKING TO SHOW THE JUDGE HOW
HER LOVER DIED, RUBBETH ONE OF THE SAME LEAVES AGAINST HER
TEETH AND DIETH ON LIKE WISE
Pamfilo having delivered himself of his story, the king, showing no
compassion for Andrevuola, looked at Emilia and signed to her that it
was his pleasure she should with a story follow on those who had
already told; whereupon she, without delay, began as follows: "Dear
companions, the story told by Pamfilo putteth me in mind to tell you
one in nothing like unto his save that like as Andrevuola lost her
beloved in a garden, even so did she of whom I have to tell, and being
taken in like manner as was Andrevuola, freed herself from the court,
not by dint of fortitude nor constancy, but by an unlooked-for death.
And as hath otherwhile been said amongst us, albeit Love liefer
inhabiteth the houses of the great, yet not therefor doth he decline
the empery of those of the poor; nay, whiles in these latter he so
manifesteth his power that he maketh himself feared, as a most
puissant seignior, of the richer sort. This, if not in all, yet in
great part, will appear from my story, with which it pleaseth me to
re-enter our own city, wherefrom this day, discoursing diversely of
divers things and ranging over various parts of the world, we have so
far departed.
There was, then, no great while ago, in Florence a damsel very
handsome and agreeable, according to her condition, who was the
daughter of a poor father and was called Simona; and although it
behoved her with her own hands earn the bread she would eat and
sustain her life by spinning wool, she was not therefor of so poor a
spirit but that she dared to admit into her heart Love, which,--by
means of the pleasing words and fashions of a youth of no greater
account than herself, who went giving wool to spin for a master of
his, a wool-monger,--had long made a show of wishing to enter there.
Having, then, received Him into her bosom with the pleasing aspect of
the youth who loved her whose name was Pasquino, she heaved a thousand
sighs, hotter than fire, at every hank of yarn she wound about the
spindle, bethinking her of him who had given it her to spin and
ardently desiring, but venturing not to do more. He, on his side,
grown exceeding anxious that his master's wool should be well spun,
overlooked Simona's spinning more diligently than that of any other,
as if the yarn spun by her alone and none other were to furnish forth
the whole cloth; wherefore, the one soliciting and the other
delighting to be solicited, it befell that, he growing bolder than of
his wont and she laying aside much of the timidity and shamefastness
she was used to feel, they gave themselves up with a common accord to
mutual pleasures, which were so pleasing to both that not only did
neither wait to be bidden thereto of the other, but each forewent
other in the matter of invitation.
Ensuing this their delight from day to day and waxing ever more
enkindled for continuance, it chanced one day that Pasquino told
Simona he would fain have her find means to come to a garden, whither
he wished to carry her so they might there foregather more at their
ease and with less suspect. Simona answered that she would well and
accordingly on Sunday, after eating, giving her father to believe that
she meant to go a-pardoning to San Gallo,[250] she betook herself,
with a friend of hers, called Lagina, to the garden appointed her of
Pasquino. There she found him with a comrade of his, whose name was
Puccino, but who was commonly called Stramba,[251] and an amorous
acquaintance being quickly clapped up between the latter and Lagina,
Simona and her lover withdrew to one part of the garden, to do their
pleasure, leaving Stramba and Lagina in another.
[Footnote 250: _i.e._ to attend the ecclesiastical function called a
Pardon, with which word, used in this sense, Meyerbeer's opera of
Dinorah (properly Le Pardon de Ploërmel) has familiarized opera-goers.
A Pardon is a sort of minor jubilee of the Roman Catholic Church, held
in honour of some local saint, at which certain indulgences and
remissions of sins (hence the name) are granted to the faithful
attending the services of the occasion.]
[Footnote 251: _i.e._ Bandy-legs.]
Now in that part of the garden, whither Pasquino and Simona had
betaken themselves, was a very great and goodly bush of sage, at the
foot whereof they sat down and solaced themselves together a great
while, holding much discourse of a collation they purposed to make
there at their leisure. Presently, Pasquino turned to the great
sage-bush and plucking a leaf thereof, began to rub his teeth and gums
withal, avouching that sage cleaned them excellent well of aught that
might be left thereon after eating. After he had thus rubbed them
awhile, he returned to the subject of the collation, of which he had
already spoken, nor had he long pursued his discourse when he began
altogether to change countenance and well nigh immediately after lost
sight and speech, and in a little while he died. Simona, seeing this,
fell to weeping and crying out and called Stramba and Lagina, who ran
thither in haste and seeing Pasquino not only dead, but already grown
all swollen and full of dark spots about his face and body, Stramba
cried out of a sudden, 'Ah, wicked woman! Thou hast poisoned him.'
Making a great outcry, he was heard of many who dwelt near the garden
and who, running to the clamour, found Pasquino dead and swollen.
Hearing Stramba lamenting and accusing Simona of having poisoned him
of her malice, whilst she, for dolour of the sudden mishap that had
carried off her lover, knew not how to excuse herself, being as it
were beside herself, they all concluded that it was as he said; and
accordingly she was taken and carried off, still weeping sore, to the
Provost's palace, where, at the instance of Stramba and other two
comrades of Pasquino, by name Atticciato and Malagevole, who had come
up meanwhile, a judge addressed himself without delay to examine her
of the fact and being unable to discover that she had done malice in
the matter or was anywise guilty, he bethought himself, in her
presence, to view the dead body and the place and manner of the
mishap, as recounted to him by her, for that he apprehended it not
very well by her words.
Accordingly, he let bring her, without any stir, whereas Pasquino's
body lay yet, swollen as it were a tun, and himself following her
thither, marvelled at the dead man and asked her how it had been;
whereupon, going up to the sage-bush, she recounted to him all the
foregoing story and to give him more fully to understand how the thing
had befallen, she did even as Pasquino had done and rubbed one of the
sage-leaves against her teeth. Then,--whilst her words were, in the
judge's presence, flouted by Stramba and Atticciato and the other
friends and comrades of Pasquino as frivolous and vain and they all
denounced her wickedness with the more instance, demanding nothing
less than that the fire should be the punishment of such
perversity,--the wretched girl, who abode all confounded for dolour of
her lost lover and fear of the punishment demanded by Stramba fell,
for having rubbed the sage against her teeth, into that same
mischance, whereinto her lover had fallen [and dropped dead], to the
no small wonderment of as many as were present. O happy souls, to whom
it fell in one same day to terminate at once your fervent love and
your mortal life! Happier yet, an ye went together to one same place!
And most happy, if folk love in the other life and ye love there as
you loved here below! But happiest beyond compare,--at least in our
judgment who abide after her on life,--was Simona's soul, whose
innocence fortune suffered not to fall under the testimony of Stramba
and Atticciato and Malagevole, wool-carders belike or men of yet
meaner condition, finding her a more honourable way, with a death like
unto that of her lover, to deliver herself from their calumnies and to
follow the soul, so dearly loved of her, of her Pasquino.
The judge, in a manner astonied, as were likewise as many as were
there, at this mischance and unknowing what to say, abode long silent;
then, recollecting himself, he said, 'It seemeth this sage is
poisonous, the which is not wont to happen of sage. But, so it may not
avail to offend on this wise against any other, be it cut down even to
the roots and cast into the fire.' This the keeper of the garden
proceeded to do in the judge's presence, and no sooner had he levelled
the great bush with the ground than the cause of the death of the two
unfortunate lovers appeared; for thereunder was a toad of marvellous
bigness, by whose pestiferous breath they concluded the sage to have
become venomous. None daring approach the beast, they made a great
hedge of brushwood about it and there burnt it, together with the
sage. So ended the judge's inquest upon the death of the unfortunate
Pasquino, who, together with his Simona, all swollen as they were, was
buried by Stramba and Atticciato and Guccio Imbratta and Malagevole in
the church of St. Paul, whereof it chanced they were parishioners."