Page 107 - THE DECAMERON: A Visionary Journey in 100 Stories and 100 Etchings by Petru Russu

When Pamfilo had finished his story, the king, showing no Stramba's accusation. They brought Simona to the palace of the
compassion for Andreuola, signaled to Emilia to continue the Podesta, where a judge questioned her. Unable to discover any
sequence of narration. Emilia began: wicked practice, the judge took her to see the corpse and the
"Dear gossips, Pamfilo's story reminds me of another, not quite place of death.
the same, but similar in that both involve lovers lost in a garden.
The lady in my story, like Andreuola, was arrested and delivered At the sage-bush, Simona recounted the events and, to demonstrate,
herself from the court, not by firmness of mind, but by a sudden plucked a leaf and rubbed her teeth with it. Stramba and the others
death. Love, though often found in noble mansions, does not mocked her, insisting on her guilt and demanding the fire as
disdain the dwellings of the poor and sometimes shows his might punishment. Stricken by grief and dread, Simona suddenly died in
there as well. My story will return us to our city, from which today's the same manner as Pasquino, to the amazement of all present.
discourse has roved far.
Oh, happy souls for whom one and the same day marked the end
Not long ago, there lived in Florence a fair and debonair maid of ardent love and earthly life! Happier still if you journeyed to
named Simona, the daughter of a poor man. Though she earned the same destination! And even happier if love exists in the other
her bread by spinning wool, she dared to harbor Love in her mind, world, and there, as here, you continue to love! But happiest of
inspired by the gracious deeds and words of a young man named all is Simona, as far as we, whom she has left behind, may judge.
Pasquino, who distributed wool for his master, a wool-monger. Fortune did not allow the witness of Stramba, Atticciato, and
Love, with Pasquino's image, entered her soul, and she yearned for Malagevole, carders or perhaps even viler fellows, to bear down
him, heaving sighs with every skein of yarn she wound. Pasquino, her innocence. Instead, Fortune found a more fitting end, giving her
in turn, became very anxious about the wool Simona spun, as if it the same fate as her lover and allowing her to clear herself from
alone would furnish the whole cloth. Their mutual affection grew, their foul accusation and follow the soul of her beloved Pasquino.
and they came to an understanding for their mutual solace.
The judge and all who witnessed the event were stupefied, not
One day, Pasquino suggested they meet in a garden for greater ease knowing what to say. Eventually, the judge recovered his wits
and security. Simona agreed and told her father she was going to and said, "It seems that this sage is poisonous, which sage is not
San Gallo for the pardoning. She went with her gossip, Lagina, to usually. Let it be cut down to the roots and burned, lest another
the garden where Pasquino awaited her with his friend, Stramba. suffer in the same way." The gardener, proceeding to do so in the
While Stramba and Lagina fell to love-making, Pasquino and Simona judge's presence, discovered the cause of the lovers' deaths: a
withdrew to another part of the garden. toad of prodigious size lay beneath the bush. Its venomous breath
had poisoned the entire bush. None dared approach the toad, so
In their part of the garden was a lovely sage-bush. They sat by it, they set a stout ring-fence of faggots around it and burned it along
made merry, and talked of a future junketing. Pasquino plucked a with the sage.
sage leaf, rubbed his teeth and gums with it, and soon after lost
sight and speech, dying shortly after. Simona wept and called Thus ended the judge's inquest on the death of hapless Pasquino,
for Stramba and Lagina, who found Pasquino dead, swollen, and who, with his Simona, swollen as they were, were buried by
covered with black spots. Stramba accused Simona of poisoning Stramba, Atticciato, Guccio Imbratta, and Malagevole in the church
him, and the commotion attracted neighbors who also believed of San Paolo, where they were parishioners.

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