the caskets, which forms part of the plot of Orlando Innamorato, and is related by a lady his Merchant of Venice.

to Rinaldo, while he escorts her on a journey 5. Dianora, the wife of a rich man of Udina, Iroldo, a Babylonian knight, had a wife, called in the country of Friuli, in order to get rid Tisbina, who was beloved by a young man of of the importunities of her lover Ansaldo, the name of Prasildo. This lady, in order to told his emissary that she would requite his get rid of her admirer's importunities, offered affection, if he produced a garden in January, to requite his affection, provided he should which was then approaching, as fresh and gain admittance to an enchanted garden in a blooming as if it were the month of May. wood, near the confines of Barbary, and bring This condition, which the lady conceived her a slip of a tree growing there, of which impossible to be fulfilled, her lover accom- the blossoms were pearls, the fruit emeralds, plished by aid of a necromancer. The garden and the branches gold. The lover sets out on being exhibited to the lady, she went in the this expedition, and on his way meets an old utmost distress to her husband, and informed man, who gives him directions for entering him of the engagement she had come under. the magic garden with safety, and bestows on As he commanded her at all events to abide him a mirror to drive away the Medusa, by by her promise, she waited on Ansaldo, and whom it was guarded. By this means Prasildo told him she had come at her husband's desire, having accomplished the conditions, returns to fulfil the agreement. Ansaldo, touched to Babylon, and the lady is commanded by with her affliction and the generosity of her the husband to fulfil the obligations she had husband, refused this offer; and the necro- come under. Prasildo, however, declines to mancer, who happened to be in the house at take advantage of this compliance, and restores the time, declined to accept the remuneration Tisbinia to her lord. But Iroldo, determined which he had stipulated for his services. not to be outdone in courtesy, insists on reManni observes, that this novel was pro- signing his wife to Prasildo, and then leaves bably founded on a story current in the age Babylon for ever, as he cannot endure to beof Boccaccio (and subsequently mentioned by hold even the happiness of which he was Trithemus), concerning a Jew physician, who, himself the author. The tale of Boccaccio in the year 876, in the middle of winter, caused is supposed by the editor of Beaumont and by enchantment a garden, with trees and Fletcher to be also the origin of the Triumph flowers in bloom, to appear before a numerous of Honour, the first of their Four Plays in and splendid company. The story, however, One; but it is more probable that these draof Dianora, as well as the 4th of the present matists took their plot from the Frankelein's day, had formerly been told by Boccaccio Tale in Chaucer, as the impossible thing rehimself, in the 5th book of his Philocopo, quired in the Triumph of Honour, by Dorigen which is an account of the loves of Flores and from her lover Martius, is that a mass of Blancafior. There, among other questions, the rocks should be converted into a champain comparative merit of the husband and lover field." is discussed at the court of Naples, when the 8. Titus, the son of a Roman patrician, rehero of the romance lands in that country. sided during the period of his education at This story of Boccaccio is the origin of the Athens, in the house of Chremes, a friend of Frankelein's Tale of Chaucer, in which the his father. A warm and brotherly affection circumstances are precisely the same as in the arises betwixt the young Roman and Gisippus, Decameron, except that the impossible thing the son of Chremes: They prosecute their required by the lady is, that her lover should studies together, and have no happiness but remove the rocks from the coast of Britany: a in each other's society. Gisippus, on the death similar tale, however, according to Tyrwhitt, of his father, being persuaded by his friends occurs in an old Breton lay, from which he to marry, fixes on Sophronia, an Athenian conceives the incidents may have come imme- lady of exquisite beauty. Before the day diately to the English poet. Boccaccio's novel appointed for the celebration of the nuptials, is unquestionably the origin of a story which he carries Titus to visit her. The Roman is occupies the whole of the 12th canto of the smitten with an involuntary passion for the

sus, the friend who is reduced in his circumstances does not fancy himself neglected by his former companion; he sees the murder committed before he enters Rome, and avails himself of the incident to get free from a life in which he had no longer any enjoyment. As thus improved by Boccaccio, the story

The internal conflict of Titus-the subsequent contest between the friends—the harangue of Titus to the two assembled families, and the beautiful eulogy on friendship, which terminates the tale, form, in the opinion of critics, the most eloquent passages in the Decameron, or perhaps in the Italian language.

intended bride, and, after a long internal piece of property, from one friend to the struggle, reluctantly discloses his love to other, which is a convincing proof of the Gisippus. This disinterested friend resigns eastern origin of the tale. Lastly, in Alphonhis pretensions, and on the night of the marriage, Sophronia, without her knowledge, receives Titus instead of Gisippus as her husband. The lady and her family are at first greatly exasperated by the deception, but are afterwards pacified, and Sophronia proceeds with Titus to Rome, whither he was now summoned on account of the death of his ranks high among the serious Italian novels. father. Some time after this, Gisippus, being reduced to great poverty, repairs to Rome, with the view of receiving succour from his friend; but Titus, not knowing him in the miserable plight in which he appeared, passes him on the street. Gisippus, thinking he had seen and despised him, retires to a solitary part of the city, and next day in despair The story of Titus and Gisippus was tranaccuses himself of a murder which he had slated into Latin by the novelist Bandello, there seen committed. Titus, who happens and into English by Edward Lewicke, 1562, to be in court at the time, now recognises his whose version perhaps directed to this tale the friend, and, in order to save him from punish- notice of Goldsmith, who has inserted it in ment, declares that he himself was guilty of his miscellanies, though it is there said to be the crime. Both, however, are set at liberty, taken from a Byzantine historian, and the on the confession of the real murderer, who, friends are called Septimius and Alcander. being present at this singular contest, is Boccaccio's story has also evidently suggested touched with pity and remorse. The story the concluding incidents of Greene's Phicoming to the knowledge of Octavius Cæsar, who was then one of the Triumvirs, the delinquent, for the sake of the friends, is pardoned also. Titus bestows his sister in marriage on Gisippus, re-establishes his fortune, and prevails on him to settle in Rome.

lomela, and is the subject of an old French drama, by Hardy, entitled Gesippe, ou Les Deux Amis.

birth, and persuades her that he had murdered them, because his vassals would not submit to be governed by the descendants of

10. Gualtier, Marquis of Salluzzo, being solicited by his friends to marry, chooses Griselda, the daughter of a peasant, who was This tale is taken from the second story of one of his vassals. Wishing to make trial of Petrus Alphonsus; but Boccaccio has made the temper of his wife, he habitually addresses considerable alterations, if we may judge of her, soon after the marriage, in the harshest the original from the form in which it is ex- language. He then successively deprives her hibited by Le Grand (vol. iii. p. 262). There of a son and daughter, to whom she had given it is not two young men brought up together, who form this romantic attachment, but two mercantile correspondents, the one residing in Syria, and the other in Egypt; and the a peasant. Next he produces a fictitious bill renunciation of his mistress by the latter takes of divorce, by virtue of which he sends back place soon after his first interview with his partner. The change which has been made in this particular by the Italian novelist, is a manifest improvement. In the next place, in the tale of Alphonsus, it is not thought necessary to deceive the bride after the nuptials, in the manner related in the Decameron; she is transferred, without farther ceremony, as a

his wife to the cottage of her father, and lastly, he recalls her to his palace, on pretence that she may put it in order, and officiate at the celebration of his marriage with a second consort. The lady, whom Griselda at first mistakes for the bride, proves to be her own daughter. Her son is also restored to her, and she is rewarded for her long suffer

Q

ing, which she had borne with proverbial order to repeat to his friends. The tale patience, by the redoubled and no longer disguised affection of her husband.

became so popular in France, that the comedians of Paris represented, in 1393, a Mystery The original of this celebrated tale was at in French verse, entitled, Le Mystere de one time believed to have been an old MS., Griseldis. There is also an English drama, entitled Le Parement des Dames. This was called Patient Grissel, entered in Stationers' first asserted by Duchat in his notes on Hall, 1599. One of Goldoni's plays, in which Rabelais. It was afterwards mentioned by the tyrannical husband is king of Thessaly, Le Grand and Manni, and through them by is also formed on the subject of Griseldis. In the Abbé de Sade and Galland (Discours sur a novel by Luigi Alamanni, a count of Barcequelques anciens poetes); but Mr Tyrwhitt lona subjects his wife to a similar trial of informs us that Olivier de la Marche, the patience with that which Griselda experiauthor of the Parement des Dames, was not enced. He proceeds, however, so far as to born for many years after the composition of force her to commit dishonourable actions at the Decameron, so that some other original his command. The experiment, too is not must be sought. Noguier, in his Histoire de intended as a test of his wife's obedience, but Thoulouse, asserts, that the patient heroine as a revenge on account of her once having of the tale actually existed in 1103. In the refused him as a husband. Annales d' Aquitaine, she is said to have The story of Boccaccio seems hardly deservflourished in 1025. That there was such a ing of so much popularity and imitation. person is also positively asserted by Foresti" An English reader," says Mr Ellis in his da Bergamo, in his Chronicle, though he does notes to Way's Fabliaux, "is naturally led not fix the period at which she lived. The to compare it with our national ballad, the probability, therefore, is, that the novel of Nut-Brown Maid (the Henry and Emma of Boccaccio, as well as the Parement des Dames, Prior), because both compositions were inhas been founded on some real or traditional tended to describe a perfect female character, incident; a conjecture which is confirmed by exposed to the severest trials, submitting withthe letter of Petrarch to Boccaccio, written out a murmur to unmerited cruelty, disarming after a perusal of the Decameron, in which a tormentor by gentleness and patience; and, he says that he had heard the story of Griseldis finally, recompensed for her virtues by transrelated many years before. ports rendered more exquisite by her sufferFrom whatever source derived, Griselda ing." The author then proceeds to show, appears to have been the most popular of all that although the intention be the same, the the stories of the Decameron. In the 14th conduct of the ballad is superior to that of century, the prose translations of it in French the novel. "In the former, the cruel scrutiny were very numerous; Le Grand mentions that of the feelings is suggested by the jealousy of he had seen upwards of twenty, under the a lover, anxious to explore the whole extent different names, Miroir des Dames, Exemples of his empire over the heart of a mistress ; his de bonnes et mauvaises femmes, &c. Petrarch, doubts are perhaps natural, and he is only who had not seen the Decameron till a short culpable, because he consents to purchase the time before his death (which shows that assurance of his own happiness at the expense Boccaccio was ashamed of the work), read it of the temporary anguish and apparent degrawith much admiration, as appears from his dation of the object of his affections. But letters, and translated it into Latin in 1373. she is prepared for the exertion of her firmChaucer, who borrowed the story from Pe- ness by slow degrees; she is strengthened by trarch, assigns it to the Clerk of Oxenforde, in passion, by the consciousness of the desperate his Canterbury Tales. The clerk declares in step she had already taken, and by the conhis prologue, that he learned it from Petrarch viction that every sacrifice was tolerable which at Padua; and if we may believe Warton, insured her claim to the gratitude of her Chaucer, when in Italy, actually heard the lover, and was paid as the price of his hapstory related by Petrarch, who, before trans-piness; her trial is short, and her recompense lating it into Latin, had got it by heart, in is permanent. For his doubts and jealousy

she perhaps found an excuse in her own effects were powerful. From it Chaucer heart; and in the moment of her final exul- adopted the notion of the frame in which he tation, and triumph in the consciousness of has enclosed his tales, and the general manher own excellence, and the prospect of un-ner of his stories, while in some instances, as clouded security, she might easily forgive her we have seen, he has merely versified the lover for having evinced that the idol of his novels of the Italian. In 1566, William heart was fully deserving of his adoration. Paynter printed many of Boccaccio's stories Gautier, on the contrary, is neither blinded in English, in his work called the Palace of by love, nor tormented by jealousy: he merely Pleasure. This first translation contained wishes to gratify a childish curiosity, by dis- sixty novels, and it was soon followed by covering how far conjugal obedience can be another volume, comprehending thirty-four carried; and the recompence of unexampled additional tales. These are the pages of which patience is a mere permission to wear a cornet Shakspeare made so much use. From Burton's without farther molestation. Nor, as in the Anatomy of Melancholy, we learn that one of ballad, is security obtained by a momentary the great amusements of our ancestors was uneasiness, but by long years of suffering. It reading Boccaccio aloud, an entertainment of may be doubted, whether the emotions to which the effects were speedily visible in which the story of Boccaccio gives rise, are at the literature of the country. The first all different from those which would be ex- English translation, however, of the whole cited by an execution on the rack. The Decameron, did not appear till 1620. In merit, too, of resignation, depends much on France, Boccaccio found early and illustrious its motive; and the cause of morality is not imitators. In his own country he brought greatly promoted by bestowing, on a passive his native language to perfection, and gave submission to capricious tyranny, the com- stability to a mode of composition, which, mendation which is only due to an humble before his time, had only existed in a rude acquiescence in the just dispensations of Pro-state in Italy; he collected the current tales vidence."

of the age, which he decorated with new cir

The budget of stories being exhausted with cumstances, and delivered in a style which the tale of Griselda, the party of pleasure return to Florence and the pestilence.

has no parallel for elegance, naiveté, and grace. Hence his popularity was unbounded, and his imitators more numerous than those of any author recorded in the annals of liter

There are few works which have had an equal influence on literature with the Decameron of Boccaccio. Even in England its ature.

CHAPTER VIII.

Italian Imitators of Boccaccio-Sacchetti-Ser Giovanni-Massuccio-Sabadino-Giraldi Cinthio-Straparola-Bandello-Malespini, &c.-French Imitators.

Or the Italian imitators of Boccaccio, the ear-to a distinguished rank in the magistracy of liest was

FRANCO SACCHETTI,

Florence; he became podestà of Faenza and other places, and at length governor of a Florentine province in the Romagna. Nota Florentine, who was born in 1335, and died withstanding his honours he lived and died about the year 1410. He was a poet in his poor, but is said to have been a good-humoured youth, and travelled to Sclavonia and other facetious man; he left an immense collection countries, to attend to some mercantile con- of sonnets and canzone, some of which have As he advanced in years he was raised been lost, and others are still in MS. Of his

cerns.

tales there were a great variety of MS. copies, At the present day I fear the tales of Sacwhich is a proof of the popularity of the au- chetti will hardly amuse, in more favourable thor, but all of them had originally been very circumstances. His work wants that draincomplete, or became so before any one matic form, which is a principal charm in thought of printing the works of this nove- the Decameron, and which can alone bestow list. At length, in 1724, about 250 of the unity or connexion on this species of compo300 stories, originally written by Sacchetti, sition. The merit of a pure and easy style is were edited by Giovanni Bottari, from two indeed allowed him by all the critics of his MSS. in the Laurentian library, which were the most ancient, and at the same time the most perfect, at that time extant. This edition was printed at Naples, though with the date of Florence, in two vols. 8vo, and was followed by two impressions, which are fac similes of the former, and can hardly be distinguished from it.

own country, and his tales are also regarded by the Italian antiquaries, who frequently avail themselves of his works, as most valuable records of some curious historical facts, and of customs that had fallen into disuse; but their intrinsic merit, merely considered as stories, is not great. There are few novels of ingenious gallantry, and none of any length, Crescimbeni places Sacchetti next to Boc- interest, or pathos, like the Griselda, or the caccio in merit as well as in time. Warton Cymon and Iphigenia of the Decameron. A affirms that his tales were composed earlier great number of them are accounts of foolish than the Decameron; but this must be a mis- tricks performed by Buffalmacco, the painter, take, as, from the historical incidents men- and played on Messer Dolcibene, and Alberto tioned, they could not have been written da Siena, who seem to have been the butts of before 1376. Indeed, the novelist himself, in that age, as Calandrino was in the time of his proœmium, says he was induced to under- Boccaccio. But by far the greatest proportake the work from the example of Boccaccio. tion of the work consists of sayings or repar"Riguardando all' excellente poeta Giovanni tees, which resemble, except in merit, the Boccaccio, il quale descrivendo il libro Cento Facetiae of Poggio. Sismondi, in the Histoire Novelle, &c., Io Franco Sacchetti mi propose de la Literature du midi de l'Europe, has prodi scrivere la presente opera." Were other nounced a very accurate judgment on the evidence necessary than the declaration of tales of Sacchetti.-" Au reste, quelque eloge Sacchetti himself, it is mentioned that he que l'on fasse de la pureté et de l' elegance de wrote at a much later period than Boccaccio, son style, Je le trouve plus curieux a conand in imitation of that author, by many of sulter sur les moeurs de son temps qu' enthe Italian commentators, and critics, espe- trainant par sa gaité lorsque il croit étre le cially Borghini, in his Origine di Firenze,' plus plaisant. Il rapporte dans ses Nouvelles Cinelli in his catalogue of Florentine writers, presque toujours des evenemens de son temps and the deputies employed for the correction et d' autour de lui: ce sont des anecdotes doof the Decameron. All these authors also mestiques de petits accidens de menage, qui, declare, that most of the incidents related by en general, me paroissent tres-peu rejouissans; Sacchetti actually occurred. The novelist, quelquefois des friponneries qui ne sont guere in his introduction, informs us that he had adroites, des plaisanteries qui ne sont gueres made a collection of all ancient and modern fines; et l'on est souvent tout etonné de voir tales; to some incidents related by him he un plaisant de profession s'avouer vaincu par had been witness, and a few had happened to un mot piquant qui lui a dit un enfant ou un himself. The work, he says, was compiled rustre, et qui ne nous cause pas beaucoup d' and written for the entertainment of his coun- admiration. Apres avoir lu ces Nouvelles, on trymen, on account of the wretched state of their capital, which was afflicted by the plague, and torn by civil dissensions.

1 F. Sacchetti scrisse intorno all' anno 1400.

Qual opera scrisse Sacchetti mosso dal esempio del Boccaccio, con stile di lui piu puro e familiare.

ne peut s' empecher de conclure que l'art de la conversation n'avait pas fait dans le quatorzieme siecle des progrès aussi rapides que les autres beaux arts, et que ces grands hommes a qui nous devons tant de chefs d'œuvre n' etaient point si bons a entendre causer que