[Day the Sixth]
MADAM NONNA DE' PULCI, WITH A READY RETORT TO A NOT
ALTOGETHER SEEMLY PLEASANTRY, IMPOSETH SILENCE ON THE BISHOP
OF FLORENCE
Pampinea having made an end of her story and both Cisti's reply and
his liberality having been much commended of all, it pleased the queen
that the next story should be told by Lauretta, who blithely began as
follows, "Jocund ladies, first Pampinea and now Filomena have spoken
truly enough touching our little worth and the excellence of pithy
sayings, whereto that there may be no need now to return, I would
fain remind you, over and above that which hath been said on the
subject, that the nature of smart sayings is such that they should
bite upon the hearer, not as the dog, but as the sheep biteth; for
that, an a trait bit like a dog, it were not a trait, but an affront.
The right mean in this was excellently well hit both by Madam Oretta's
speech and Cisti's reply. It is true that, if a smart thing be said by
way of retort, and the answerer biteth like a dog, having been bitten
on like wise, meseemeth he is not to be blamed as he would have been,
had this not been the case; wherefore it behoveth us look how and with
whom, no less than when and where, we bandy jests; to which
considerations, a prelate of ours, taking too little heed, received at
least as sharp a bite as he thought to give, as I shall show you in a
little story.
Messer Antonio d'Orso, a learned and worthy prelate, being Bishop of
Florence, there came thither a Catalan gentleman, called Messer Dego
della Ratta, marshal for King Robert, who, being a man of a very fine
person and a great amorist, took a liking to one among other
Florentine ladies, a very fair lady and granddaughter to a brother of
the said bishop, and hearing that her husband, albeit a man of good
family, was very sordid and miserly, agreed with him to give him five
hundred gold florins, so he would suffer him lie a night with his
wife. Accordingly, he let gild so many silver poplins,[301] a coin
which was then current, and having lain with the lady, though against
her will, gave them to the husband. The thing after coming to be known
everywhere, the sordid wretch of a husband reaped both loss and scorn,
but the bishop, like a discreet man as he was, affected to know
nothing of the matter. Wherefore, he and the marshal consorting much
together, it chanced, as they rode side by side with each other, one
St. John's Day, viewing the ladies on either side of the way where the
mantle is run for,[302] the prelate espied a young lady,--of whom this
present pestilence hath bereft us and whom all you ladies must have
known, Madam Nonna de' Pulci by name, cousin to Messer Alessio
Rinucci, a fresh and fair young woman, both well-spoken and
high-spirited, then not long before married in Porta San Piero,--and
pointed her out to the marshal; then, being near her, he laid his hand
on the latter's shoulder and said to her, 'Nonna, how deemest thou of
this gallant? Thinkest thou thou couldst make a conquest of him?' It
seemed to the lady that those words somewhat trenched upon her honour
and were like to sully it in the eyes of those (and there were many
there) who heard them; wherefore, not thinking to purge away the soil,
but to return blow for blow, she promptly answered, 'Maybe, sir, he
would not make a conquest of me; but, in any case, I should want good
money.' The marshal and the bishop, hearing this, felt themselves
alike touched to the quick by her speech, the one as the author of
the cheat put upon the bishop's brother's granddaughter and the other
as having suffered the affront in the person of his kinswoman, and
made off, shamefast and silent, without looking at one another or
saying aught more to her that day. Thus, then, the young lady having
been bitten, it was not forbidden her to bite her biter with a
retort."
[Footnote 301: A silver coin of about the size and value of our silver
penny, which, when gilded, would pass muster well enough for a gold
florin, unless closely examined.]
[Footnote 302: _Il palio_, a race anciently run at Florence on St.
John's Day, as that of the Barberi at Rome during the Carnival.]