THE EIGHTH STORY
[Day the Sixth]
FRESCO EXHORTETH HIS NIECE NOT TO MIRROR HERSELF IN THE GLASS, IF, AS SHE SAITH, IT IRKETH HER TO SEE DISAGREEABLE FOLK
The story told by Filostrato at first touched the hearts of thelistening ladies with some little shamefastness and they gave tokenthereof by a modest redness that appeared upon their faces; but, afterlooking one at another, they hearkened thereto, tittering the whileand scarce able to abstain from laughing. As soon as he was come tothe end thereof, the queen turned to Emilia and bade her follow on,whereupon, sighing no otherwise than as she had been aroused from adream, she began, "Lovesome lasses, for that long thought hath held mefar from here, I shall, to obey our queen content myself with[relating] a story belike much slighter than that which I might havebethought myself to tell, had my mind been present here, recounting toyou the silly default of a damsel, corrected by an uncle of hers witha jocular retort, had she been woman enough to have apprehended it.
A certain Fresco da Celatico, then, had a niece familiarly calledCiesca,[308] who, having a comely face and person (though none ofthose angelical beauties that we have often seen aforetime), set somuch store by herself and accounted herself so noble that she hadgotten a habit of carping at both men and women and everything shesaw, without anywise taking thought to herself, who was so much morefashous, froward and humoursome than any other of her sex that nothingcould be done to her liking. Beside all this, she was so pridefulthat, had she been of the blood royal of France, it had beenoverweening; and when she went abroad, she gave herself so many airsthat she did nought but make wry faces, as if there came to her astench from whomsoever she saw or met. But, letting be many othervexatious and tiresome fashions of hers, it chanced one day that shecame back to the house, where Fresco was, and seating herself nearhim, all full of airs and grimaces, did nothing but puff and blow;whereupon quoth he, 'What meaneth this, Ciesca, that, to-day being aholiday, thou comest home so early?' To which she answered, all liketo die away with affectation, 'It is true I have come back soon, forthat I believe there were never in this city so many disagreeable andtiresome people, both men and women, as there are to-day; therepasseth none about the streets but is hateful to me as ill-chance, andI do not believe there is a woman in the world to whom it is moreirksome to see disagreeable folk than it is to me; wherefore I havereturned thus early, not to see them.' 'My lass,' rejoined Fresco, towhom his niece's airs and graces were mighty displeasing, 'ifdisagreeable folk be so distasteful to thee as thou sayest, nevermirror thyself in the glass, so thou wouldst live merry.' But she,emptier than a reed, albeit herseemed she was a match for Solomon inwit, apprehended Fresco's true speech no better than a block; nay, shesaid that she chose to mirror herself in the glass like other women;and so she abode in her folly and therein abideth yet."
[Footnote 308: An abbreviation of Francesca.]
The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio Page 66