Page 109 - THE DECAMERON: A Visionary Journey in 100 Stories and 100 Etchings by Petru Russu

what he would do if such a thing happened to her. He suggested The Fourth Day | The Ninth Novell
taking the dead man home and leaving him there. Salvestra agreed, Storyteller: Filostrato
and her husband, confident in his innocence, dressed Girolamo
and carried him to his house, where he left him at the door. Messer Guiglielmo of Rossiglione, believing Messer Guiglielmo
Guardastagno loved his wife, killed him and gave her his heart to eat.
Day came, and the dead man was found before his own door, When she learned of this, she threw herself from a high window to
causing a great stir, especially among his mother and other ladies, the ground. After her death, she was buried with her friend.
who began to wail and mourn over him without restraint. The
body was examined carefully, and finding no wound or trace of
violence, the doctors concluded that he had died of grief. The
body was taken to a church, where the mourning continued.

The good man, in whose house the death occurred, instructed Salvestra
to wrap a mantle around her head and go to the church to listen to
what the women said about the matter, while he did the same among
the men. Salvestra, now yearning to see Girolamo dead, whom she
had not comforted in life, went to the church. There, seeing his dead
face, her heart, which had remained closed to him while he lived,
opened anew with compassion. She made her way through the crowd
of women, threw herself upon the dead youth, and, before she could
drench his face with her tears, grief took her life as it had taken his.

The women, trying to comfort her, found her stiff and stark,
realizing she was dead. They saw her to be Salvestra, and their
wailing grew louder. The news spread among the men, reaching
Salvestra's husband, who wept for a long time. He then told
others what had happened between the youth and his wife, and it
became known how they came to die, causing common sorrow.

The dead girl was dressed as they dress the dead and laid beside the
youth. They were mourned for a long time and then buried in the same
tomb, united by death in an unbreakable union that love had not been
able to achieve in life.

1985 HAND COLORED AQUA TINTA / AQUA FORTE
29,5X19,5 CM. | 11¾X7½ IN. (IMAGE SIZE).
105
The Decameron