Classics and the Western Canon discussion

After Day 7 in which we had tales about the tricks women play on their husbands, Lauretta levels the playing field and calls for tales about the tricks people play on each other, irrespective of gender, The first and second story involve men cheating women out of money for sex. The stories suggest that women who take money for sex are justly treated this way.

Stories 3 and 6 are about a naive fellow named Calandrino and the tricks that Bruno and Buffalmaco play on him. Calling Calandrino naive might be an understatement. Calandrino hopes to find a magical stone, achieve invisibility, and steal as much money as he possibly can. Bruno and Buffalmaco take advantage of Calandrino's avarice and his stupidity for their amusement. In the second story they take advantage of his stinginess to get him drunk and steal his pig. Again there is the suggestion that Calandrino is justly treated for his character flaws.

Stories 4 and 5 are relatively simple stories that deal with flawed men in respected positions who get pranked.

Story 7 is a revenge story which rises above the others in the book. It almost belongs in Book 4 with the tragedies for its cruelty. Is it significant that it is Pampinea who tells this one?

Story 8 seems strangely familiar. Instead of a barrel this time, it's a chest. In Story 9 Bruno and Bufalmacco find a new victim, a physician almost as stupid as Calandrino. Dioneo's cap on the day is another swindle story that combines many elements of the previous tales and is curiously balanced.

And then there's Panfilo's song at the end with the mysterious chorus:

My luck would never be
Believed by anyone; that's why I burn
For I conceal what brings me joy and bliss.

...Panfilo's song came to an end, and while all of them had joined fully in singing the refrain, there was no one who did not give the words more than the usual amount of attention, striving to guess what it was that he felt himself obliged to conceal. Although various members of the company came up with their own individual interpretations, for all that, they never managed to hit on the truth of the matter.

I found the stories for this day somehow less inspired. I think this has to do with the fact that 3 stories tell of the same people. Moreover in previous days the geography of the stories was more scattered, from various cities in Italy to France to even the Islamic world.

Does Bocaccio mean to give the impression of the party being a little bit out of stories to tell? They have been telling stories for 8 days now. Or does he want to focus more on Florence and its people? Would the actors in the stories of day 8 have been familiar to Bocaccio's first readers?

Marieke wrote: "Does Bocaccio mean to give the impression of the party being a little bit out of stories to tell? They have been telling stories for 8 days now. ..."

I think so, maybe that's why at the end of the day Emilia is not setting any theme for the next day...

I believe Neiphile's and Pamphilo's stories (#1 and #2) are the first we have heard of people actually paying for sex. And in Emilia's story (#4), the pretty young widow pays her ugly maidservant with a chemise to have sex with with the importunate priest.

Roger wrote: "I believe Neiphile's and Pamphilo's stories (#1 and #2) are the first we have heard of people actually paying for sex. And in Emilia's story (#4), the pretty young widow pays her ugly maidservant w..."

The 7th story on day 6 reminds us that adultery for the sake of love was considered less dishonorable than adultery for the sake of money. Selling one's sex as well as one's well-being or integrity (as in the case of the 8th story on day 7 where the maid is rewarded for being beaten up instead of the lady) must have been rampant in the mercantile city of Florence even before the plague but due to the epidemic and the countless deaths many people must have took advantage of the desperate times to swindle others.

Thomas wrote: "Story 7 is a revenge story which rises above the others in the book. It almost belongs in Book 4 with the tragedies for its cruelty. Is it significant that it is Pampinea who tells this one? ..."
Yes, Pampinea usually seems to lead the ladies with a moral or enlightening purpose, or seems to seek for a balance of some sort (as on day 4 where she goes against Filostrato's theme of tragic love by telling an amusing story about the man who pretends he's the angel Gabriel.) This makes me wonder if she's older or more mature than the rest of the girls?

Borum wrote: "This makes me wonder if she's older or more mature than the rest of the girls?
"

She is the oldest (28, if I recall correctly) and as the one who first suggested that they leave the city and find refuge in one of their comfy palaces she is the de facto leader of the group. Her stories seem a little less outrageous than others (she tells the one about the "Angel" Gabriel) but I'm finding it hard to find any moral consistency in the tales of any particular storyteller.

Thomas wrote: "...but I'm finding it hard to find any moral consistency in the tales of any particular storyteller."

I agree, hardly any character could be guessed by her (or his) stories; there is, perhaps, an exception - Dioneo.

Neiphile's story (#1) seems to be an antecedent of a joke told (if I remember correctly) by Garrison Keillor on A Prairie Home Companion a decade or two ago. It went like this:

A woman went to the front door wrapped only in a bath towel, expecting to see her husband. Instead it was a strange man. He recovered from the surprise first, and said, "Madam, I will give you a hundred dollars if you will only drop the towel." She thought that was a pretty good price for just a look, so she complied. The man handed her a hundred dollars and said, "I will give you another hundred dollars if you will just turn around." Again she complied. He gave her another hundred, thanked her, and left. That evening at dinner her husband said, "My buddy Joe said he dropped by today and gave you the two hundred dollars he owes me. Can I have it?"

Another theme I see coming up constantly is the golden rule: do unto others as they would to you - tit for tat. I've seen the 'ass bumping into the wall, you'll give as good as you get', or 'he had gotten as good as he gave' and 'some people know their way around just as well as others do.' The revenge story 7 deals with the difference between excessive revenge and just retribution and we are put to the question of how adequate the doctor's revenge is. We see many references to Dante's Divine Comedy in which the sinners are punished to the extreme as God's revenge. Is Boccaccio questioning this or is he saying that human beings are not fit to judge on whether he's being fair or moderate in punishing the sinners? Or is he showing a more personal vengeance in his most skilled area of words? " should all of my tricks have failed, I would still have had my pen, and with it I would have written such things about you in such profusion and such a style... " This story seems to be more profuse than other stories and show lots of inner workings such as the doctor's moment of dilemma between his humanity and carnal desire and wrath. I've heard that Boccaccio himself has been jilted by a lady and I'm beginning to wonder at the motive behind this book.

Then this cruel narrative is responded by a much more brief and moderate revenge in story 8, where he gives 'just as good as he gets without seeking to inflict harm that exceeds any appropriate measure of vengeance.'

This day as well as the day before shows many stories where both men and women give as they were given, and also shows us the alternative with giving back the wrong done in excess or like the queen herself, 'let things go' as to not be thought of as 'snapping little curs who immediately want to retaliate for everything'.

Borum wrote: "Another theme I see coming up constantly is the golden rule: do unto others as they would to you - tit for tat...."

The golden rule?

Lily wrote: "Borum wrote: "Another theme I see coming up constantly is the golden rule: do unto others as they would to you - tit for tat...."

The golden rule?"

Yup, the principle of treating others as you would want to be treated by others. "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets" Matthew 7:12.

Borum wrote: "Yup, the principle of treating others as you would want to be treated by others. "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets" Matthew 7:12..."

A bit of a twist to interpret as "tit for tat"? .

Borum wrote: "I've heard that Boccaccio himself has been jilted by a lady and I'm beginning to wonder at the motive behind this book.."

The length of the story, the cruelty and the moral that you shouldn't mess with a scholar, made me think there was more of the author in that particular tale of punishment, but I don't know any autobiographical details.

As a whole the stories on this day struck me as mostly cruel rather than a sense of villains getting meted out some form of comeuppance. This one had that element as the lady and her lover laughed at the scholar as he is near freezing to death, but the punishment still seemed overlong and made me think that everyone gets tainted and becomes unsympathetic in that sort of revenge scenario.

Clarissa wrote: "This one had that element as the lady and her lover laughed at the scholar as he is near freezing to death, but the punishment still seemed overlong and made me think that everyone gets tainted and becomes unsympathetic in that sort of revenge scenario. ."

It's a disturbing story but brilliant in terms of narrative art. The scholar is a victim to start with, someone we pity, and by the end he's the villain, someone we fear or despise. It is a bit overworked, but I wonder if that's necessary to achieve the desired emotional effect. Are there other stories that feature characters with such a stark turnaround?