NOVEL IX.
Lydia, the wife of Nicostratus, being in love with Pyrrhus, did three things which he had enjoined her, to convince him of her affection. She afterwards used some familiarities with him before her husband's face, making him believe that what he had seen was not real.
Neifile's novel had pleased them all to that degree, that they could not keep from laughing and talking about it, although the king had several times called out silence, in order that Pamfilo should speak; who at length began in this manner: - There is nothing, I am persuaded, so dangerous and difficult, that a person who is thoroughly in love will not attempt; and this, though it has been shown by various instances already given, yet I think will be still more apparent from a story which I am going to tell you of a lady much more fortunate than discreet. Therefore I would advise no one to run the risk of following her course; because neither is fortune always disposed, nor are all men to be blinded, in the same manner.
In Argos, an ancient city of Achaia, more famous formerly for its kings than great, lived a certain nobleman called Nicostratus, to whom fortune, in the decline of his life, had given a young lady for his wife, of as great spirit as she was beautiful, named Lydia. Now he, being a lord of large estate, kept a great number of slaves, dogs, and hawks, and was very fond of country diversions. Amongst his other servants, was a genteel young man named Pyrrhus, whom he valued and trusted above all the rest. With this person Lydia was so much in love, that she could never be happy but in his company; whilst he (whether he did not, or would not, perceive her regard for him) seemed not at all affected by it. This she laid much to heart, and, resolving to make him understand her, she called one of her favourite maids, whose name was Lusca, and said to her, "Lusca, the favours you have received from me should make you both obedient and faithful; take care, therefore, that you reveal what I am going to speak to no one, save to the person concerned. You see what a great disproportion there is between my husband's age and mine, and may suppose I can have but little comfort with such a one; for that reason I have made choice of our Pyrrhus. If you have any regard for me, then, let him know my love for him in the best manner you are able; and entrext him, on my part, that he would please to come hither to me." The girl promised to do so; and on the very first opportunity, she took Pyrrhus aside, and delivered her message. This surprised him very much, for he never had the least notion of such a thing; and being apprehensive that it might be done to try him, he answered roughly, "Lusca, I can never think this comes from my lady; take care, therefore, what you say: or, if she did say so, you could never have her orders to disclose it; or, even admitting that, still I have that regard for my lord, that I could never offer to do him such an injury: I charge you, then, let me hear no more about it." Lusca, not at all abashed at his stern way of speaking, replied, "Pyrrhus, I shall speak at all times what I am ordered by my lady to say, whether it offends you or not; but, as for you, you are no better than a brute."
She returned full of wrath to her mistress, who was like to die on hearing her report. In a few days, she said again, "You know, Lusca, that one stroke never fells an oak: then go once more, and tell Pyrrhus that his fidelity is at my expense, and represent the passion I have for him in such a manner that he may be affected with it; for if he continues so indifferent, it will go near to cost me my life." The girl desired her to take courage; and going again to Pyrrhus, and finding him in a good humour, she said, " I told you, a few days since, of the great regard my lady had for you; and I now assure you, that, if you continue in the same resolution, she will never survive it: then be persuaded, or I shall think you the greatest fool in the world. What an honour it will be to have the love of such a lady. Consider how greatly you are obliged to fortune: she offers you a most beautiful woman, and a refuge from your necessities. Who will be happier than yourself, if you be wise? Do but represent to yourself whatever an ambitious heart can desire; all will be yours. Open then your understanding to my words, and remember, that fortune is wont to come once in our lives to us with cheerful looks, and her lap full of favours: if we turn our backs on her at that time, we may thank ourselves should we be poor and miserable all the rest of our days. You talk of honour and fidelity; there is something indeed in that plea among friends: but, with regard to slaves, in such a case, they may do just as their masters would behave to them. Can you imagine, had you a wife, daughter, or sister, that our master fancied, that he would stand on such nice terms of duty, and all that, as you now do to his wife? You can never be so foolish, but you must believe that, if persuasion was ineffectual, he would use force. Let us serve him, therefore, as he would serve us; take advantage of fortune's kind offer in your favour; for, depend upon it, setting aside the consideration of what may happen through your refusal to the lady, if you do not, you will repent the longest day you have to live."
Pyrrhus, who had made several reflections on what she had said before to him, and had resolved to make a different reply if ever she came again, being now not averse to the thing, provided he could be assured she was in earnest, made answer, "Lusca, that is all true, I confess; but yet, as my lord is a very wise and provident person, and, as I am intrusted with the management of all his affairs, I am afraid that my lady, only does this to try me: three things then there are that I require of her for my own conviction, after which I will obey all her commands. The first is, that she kill my lord's favorite hawk before his face; the second, that she send me a lock of his beard; and the third, one of his soundest and best teeth." These seemed very hard conditions to the maid, and more so to the mistress; but love, who is a good comforter as well as counsellor, soon made her resolve. Accordingly, she sent him word, by the same person, that all three should be done. And farther, that, as he had such an opinion of his lord's wisdom, she would also undertake to make him not believe his own eyes.
Pyrrhus then waited to see what course she meant to take. In a few days, therefore, Nicostratus having made a great entertainment, as he used frequently to do, just as the first service was taken away, she came into the hall, richly dressed, and there, in the presence of Pyrrhus and the whole company, went to the perch where this hawk was, and loosed him, as if she had a mind to take him upon her hand, when, taking him by the jesses, she dashed his brains out against the wall. And while Nicostratus was crying out, "Alas! my dear, what have you done?" She took no notice, but turned to the company, and said, "I should scarcely revenge myself on a king that was to do me an injury, if I wanted courage to wreak my vengeance on a paltry hawk. You must know, that this bird has deprived me of all the pleasure I should have from my husband; for, by break of day he is up, and on horseback, after his favourite diversion, whilst I am left all alone, and neglected: for which reason, I have long taken a resolution to do this thing, and only waited for an opportunity to have so many equitable judges present, as I take you to be." The gentlemen, supposing her affection to Nicostratus to be as fervent as her words seemed to declare, laughed heartily; and, turning to Nicostratus, who seemed a good deal disturbed, they said, "She has done very well in taking her revenge upon the hawk;" and, after a little raillery, they changed his resentment into a fit of laughter. Pyrrhus, upon seeing this, said to himself, " She has made a noble beginning; heaven grant that she may persevere!"
The hawk being thus despatched, it was not long before she happened to be toying with her husband in the chamber, whilst he, pulling her gently by the hair, gave occasion for her to put Pyrrhus's second command in execution: so, taking hold of a little lock of his beard and laughing heartily at the same time, she pulled so hard, that she brought the skin and all away together. He grew very peevish at this, and was going to quarrel with her; when she said, "You make an angry face, truly, because I plucked a hair or two off your beard; you were not sensible what I suffered, when you pulled me by the hair just now.” So, continuing their play from one word to another, she took care of the tuft of his beard, and sent it that very day to her lover.
She was more perplexed about the last thing; but having an enterprising genius, which was rendered more so by love, she soon resolved on what means to use to bring that about. Nicostratus had two youths in his house, given him by their fathers, who were gentlemen, in order to learn good breeding, one of whom carved his victuals, whilst the other filled out the wine. Now she told both the youths one day, that their breath was very offensive, and she instructed them, when they waited upon Nicostratus, to turn their heads on one side always, but never to speak of it to any person. They believed what she had told them, and did as they were directed. After this she said one day to her husband, "Did you ever take notice of your pages" behaviour when they wait upon you?" - "Yes," said he, "I have, and have been often going to ask them the reason." - "Then," she replied, "you may spare yourself that trouble, for I can tell you. I have kept
it some time from you, for fear of annoying you; but as I see other people take notice of it, I can conceal it no longer. It is then because you have a very foul breath; I know not what the cause may be, for it did not use to be so; but it is a most grievous thing, as you keep a great deal of company: therefore, I would have you take some method or other to get rid of it." - "What," said Nicostratus, "can it be owing to Ì Have I a "bad tooth in my head?" "Perhaps you have," she replied; and taking him to the window, she made him open his mouth, and after looking carefully in every part, she said, "Oh, my dear! How could you bear with it so long? Here is a tooth which seems not only rotten, but entirely consumed, and, if you keep it any longer in your mouth, it will certainly decay all the rest on the same side: I advise you then to have it out before it goes any farther." - "As you think so," quoth he, "send instantly for an operator, to draw it out." - "Tell me of no operator," said she; "I will never agree to that; it seems to stand in such a manner, that I think I could do it myself: besides, those fellows are so very barbarous upon such occasions, that my heart could never bear to have you under their hands. Therefore, I will try to do it myself; and, if it gives you too much pain, I will let you go again, which those people never will do." Getting now an instrument for that purpose, and sending every one out of the room, excepting her favourite maid, she seated him upon a stool, and laying hold of a tooth, whilst the other kept him fast down, she put him to most intolerable pain, and at length drew it out by main force; then keeping the tooth, and producing a rotten one, which she had ready in her hand, she said to the poor man, who was almost dead, “see here, what it was you had in your mouth." He believing her, and though he had felt the most exquisite torture, and complained much of her harsh way of doing it, yet now it was out, he thought himself cured; and having taken some good comfortable things, the pain abated, and he went out of the chamber. The tooth she immediately sent to her lover, who being now convinced of her love, held himself in readiness to obey her commands.
She had a mind, however, to give him some further assurance, and though thinking every hour an age till she could be with him, she feigned to be very ill; and her husband coming one day after dinner to see her, and nobody with him but Pyrrhus, she desired, that, by way of ease to her malady, they would take her into the garden. Accordingly, Nicostratus took hold of one arm, and Pyrrhus, of the other, and leading her thither, laid her on a grass plot, under a pear-tree. Nicostratus then sat down by her, and she, who had before instructed Pyrrhus what to do, said to him, "I have a great desire to have some of those pears; climb up into the tree, and get me a few." Pyrrhus immediately went up, and, as he was throwing down some of the pears, he began to call out, "Hallo, master! What are you doing? And you, madam, are you not ashamed to suffer it in my presence? Do you think I am blind? You seem to me to have soon recovered from your fit of sickness. If you want to do the like, surely you have plenty of fine rooms that might serve the turn more decently." The lady turned to her husband, and said, "What is Pyrrhus talking of? He is in a dream, surely." - "No, madam," quoth he, "I am in no dream. What! did you think I could not see you?" Nicostratus wondered, and said, “surely, Pyrrhus, you are raving." - "No, sir," he replied, "I am very confident I saw you so and so together." "What can be the meaning of this?" quoth the lady, "can it be possible that he appeared to himself to see what he says? Were I well enough I would actually go into the tree myself, to behold the strange things that he talks of seeing thence." Pyrrhus still continuing in the same story, Nicostratus desired him to come down, and asked him what it was he really saw? Pyrrhus replied, "I saw you tumbling my lady on the grass, saving your favour; and then I saw you get up from her and place yourself where you are." "The man is out of his wits," quoth Nicostratus; "we neither of us so much as stirred from the place where we are sitting." - "What is the use of arguing," said Pyrrhus, "I tell you I saw it."
Nicostratus was now more and more surprised, and said, "I will see whether this tree be enchanted or not: "and as he was mounting up into the tree, Pyrrhus and the lady became very loving. Nicostratus seeing this, began to roar out, "Oh! thou vile woman! what art thou doing there? and that rascal Pyrrhus, in whom I put all my confidence!"
And, with these words, he made all possible haste down, when the lady and Pyrrhus both said, "We were sitting here all the time just as you left us." - However, he seemed to be in a violent passion, whilst Pyrrhus said to him, "Now, sir, I am convinced that I saw falsely myself, as yours is the same case; for I can be positive that you were mistaken. Do but reason with yourself: can it be supposed that your lady, who is the most virtuous and prudent of all her sex, should ever attempt to do such a thing before your very face? And for my own part, I would be cut limb from limb before I would ever entertain such a thought, much less do so in your presence. The fault, then, in this mistaken appearance must proceed from the tree; for all the world could never have convinced me, but that I saw you and my lady together in the same manner, if I had not heard from yourself that we appeared so to you." On this, she said, with a good deal of warmth, "Do you think, were I so loosely given, that I should be such a fool as to do these things before your eyes? No, there are opportunities enough, without your ever being the wiser."
Nicostratus, believing at last what they both had said, came into a little better temper, and began to talk of the novelty, and wonder at the thing; whilst the lady, who seemed concerned for the ill opinion he had received concerning her, added, "Most certainly, this tree shall never occasion any more scandal either to me or any other woman, if I can help it: run, therefore, Pyrrhus, for an axe, and cut it down, in regard to us both; though the axe might be as well employed upon my husband's weak noddle, for believing his own eyes in a case so repugnant both to common sense and reason."
The axe was then brought, and the tree cut down; upon which she said to Nicostratus, "My wrath is over, now I see my honour's adversary thus demolished." And he having begged her pardon, she freely forgave him, charging him, for the future, never to presume such a thing of her, who loved him dearer than her own life. - So the poor deluded husband returned with his wife and Pyrrhus into the house, where nothing now prevented the latter from accomplishing all their wishes.
[All that relates to the pear-tree in this tale, corresponds precisely with the fourth lesson in chapter 12 of the collection known by the name of “Bahar Danush, or Garden of Knowledge" (Scott's translation, vol. ii). It is true that "Bahar Danush" was not written till long after the age of Boccaccio, but the author of "Inatulla" professes to have borrowed it from the traditions of the Brahmins, from whom it may have been translated into the languages of Persia or Arabia, and imported from these regions to Europe by some crusader, like other Asiatic romances which have served as the groundwork of so many of our stories and poems. "Indeed," says Dunlop, "I have been informed by an eminent oriental scholar that the above story of the "Bahar Danush" exists in a Hindu work, which he believes prior to the age of Boccaccio." The fact of the tale in the "Decameron" which relates to the stratagem by which the lady obtains a tooth from her husband, seems to have been suggested by the "Conte Devot d'un Roi qui voulut faire bruler le fils de son Seneschal," or the sixty-eighth story of the "Cento Novelle Antiche," which is copied from the French tale. The incidents concerning the pear-tree form the second story in La Fontaine's "La Gageure des trois Commères." They have also some resemblance to the "Merchant's Tale," in Chaucer, and, by consequence to Pope's "January and May." ]
