_Day the Third_
HERE BEGINNETH THE THIRD DAY OF THE DECAMERON WHEREIN UNDER THE GOVERNANCE OF NEIFILE IS DISCOURSED OF SUCH AS HAVE BY DINT OF DILIGENCE ACQUIRED SOME MUCH DESIRED THING OR RECOVERED SOME LOST GOOD
The dawn from vermeil began to grow orange-tawny, at the approach ofthe sun, when on the Sunday the queen arose and caused all her companyrise also. The seneschal had a great while before despatched to theplace whither they were to go store of things needful and folk whoshould there make ready that which behoved, and seeing the queen nowon the way, straightway let load everything else, as if the camp wereraised thence, and with the household stuff and such of the servantsas remained set out in rear of the ladies and gentlemen. The queen,then, with slow step, accompanied and followed by her ladies and thethree young men and guided by the song of some score nightingales andother birds, took her way westward, by a little-used footpath, full ofgreen herbs and flowers, which latter now all began to open for thecoming sun, and chatting, jesting and laughing with her company,brought them a while before half tierce,[149] without having gone overtwo thousand paces, to a very fair and rich palace, somewhat upraisedabove the plain upon a little knoll. Here they entered and having goneall about and viewed the great saloons and the quaint and elegantchambers all throughly furnished with that which pertaineth thereunto,they mightily commended the place and accounted its lord magnificent.Then, going below and seeing the very spacious and cheerful courtthereof, the cellars full of choicest wines and the very cool waterthat welled there in great abundance, they praised it yet more.Thence, as if desirous of repose, they betook themselves to sit in agallery which commanded all the courtyard and was all full of flowers,such as the season afforded, and leafage, whereupon there came thecareful seneschal and entertained and refreshed them with costliestconfections and wines of choice. Thereafter, letting open to them agarden, all walled about, which coasted the palace, they enteredtherein and it seeming to them, at their entering, altogether[150]wonder-goodly, they addressed themselves more intently to view theparticulars thereof. It had about it and athwart the middle veryspacious alleys, all straight as arrows and embowered with trellisesof vines, which made great show of bearing abundance of grapes thatyear and being then all in blossom, yielded so rare a savour about thegarden, that, as it blent with the fragrance of many anothersweet-smelling plant that there gave scent, themseemed they were amongall the spiceries that ever grew in the Orient. The sides of thesealleys were all in a manner walled about with roses, red and white,and jessamine, wherefore not only of a morning, but what while the sunwas highest, one might go all about, untouched thereby, neathodoriferous and delightsome shade. What and how many and how orderlydisposed were the plants that grew in that place, it were tedious torecount; suffice it that there is none goodly of those which may brookour air but was there in abundance. Amiddleward the garden (what wasnot less, but yet more commendable than aught else there) was a platof very fine grass, so green that it seemed well nigh black, enamelledall with belike a thousand kinds of flowers and closed about with thegreenest and lustiest of orange and citron trees, the which, bearingat once old fruits and new and flowers, not only afforded the eyes apleasant shade, but were no less grateful to the smell. Midmost thegrass-plat was a fountain of the whitest marble, enchased withwonder-goodly sculptures, and thence,--whether I know not from anatural or an artificial source,--there sprang, by a figure that stoodon a column in its midst, so great a jet of water and so high towardsthe sky, whence not without a delectable sound it fell back into thewonder-limpid fount, that a mill might have wrought with less; thewhich after (I mean the water which overflowed the full basin) issuedforth of the lawn by a hidden way, and coming to light therewithout,encompassed it all about by very goodly and curiously wroughtenchannels. Thence by like channels it ran through well nigh every partof the pleasance and was gathered again at the last in a place wherebyit had issue from the fair garden and whence it descended, in theclearest of streams, towards the plain; but, ere it won thither, itturned two mills with exceeding power and to the no small vantage ofthe lord. The sight of this garden and its fair ordinance and theplants and the fountain, with the rivulets proceeding therefrom, sopleased the ladies and the three young men that they all of one accordavouched that, an Paradise might be created upon earth, they could notavail to conceive what form, other than that of this garden, might begiven it nor what farther beauty might possibly be added thereunto.However, as they went most gladsomely thereabout, weaving them thegoodliest garlands of the various leafage of the trees and hearkeningthe while to the carols of belike a score of different kinds of birds,that sang as if in rivalry one of other, they became aware of adelectable beauty, which, wonderstricken as they were with the othercharms of the place, they had not yet noted; to wit, they found thegarden full of maybe an hundred kinds of goodly creatures, and oneshowing them to other, they saw on one side rabbits issue, on anotherhares run; here lay kids and there fawns went grazing, and there wasmany another kind of harmless animal, each going about his pastime athis pleasure, as if tame; the which added unto them a yet greaterpleasure than the others. After they had gone about their fill,viewing now this thing and now that, the queen let set the tablesaround the fair fountain and at her commandment, having first sunghalf a dozen canzonets and danced sundry dances, they sat down tomeat. There, being right well and orderly served, after a very fairand sumptuous and tranquil fashion, with goodly and delicate viands,they waxed yet blither and arising thence, gave themselves anew tomusic-making and singing and dancing till it seemed good to the queenthat those whom it pleased should betake themselves to sleep.Accordingly some went thither, whilst others, overcome with the beautyof the place, willed not to leave it, but, abiding there, addressedthemselves, some to reading romances and some to playing chess ortables, whilst the others slept. But presently, the hour of none beingpast and the sleepers having arisen and refreshed their faces withcold water, they came all, at the queen's commandment, to the lawnhard by the fountain and there seating themselves, after the wontedfashion, waited to fall to story-telling upon the subject proposed byher. The first upon whom she laid this charge was Filostrato, whobegan on this wise:
[Footnote 149: _i.e._ half _before_ (not half _after_) tierce or 7.30a.m. _Cf._ the equivalent German idiom, _halb acht_, 7.30 (not 8.30)a.m.]
[Footnote 150: _i.e._ as a whole (_tutto insieme_).]
The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio Page 25