Reading Angela da Foligno’s steps of penance was very interesting to me. It was very different to our previous readings, as this one felt the closest to god. It was very spiritual, and felt “separated” from being human, if that’s the right way to put it. The language felt different. An example of this would be the sixth step where she talks about acknowledging her sins. She uses very spiritual language when describing her experiences. She called her knowledge of her sins as an “illuminating grace”. Another small detail that was interesting to me was when she described her love as fire, which reminds me of Dante’s inferno, full of fire representative of life, full of strong emotion.
One part of Angela da Foligno’s Memorial that interested me was on page 29, where Angela states that she wishes to die a “vile death”. This took place during the 14th step, where begins to wish that she could be “rightfully killed for faith in Him or love of Him”, as she wants to die for Jesus as he died for humanity. She then elaborates, stating that she wished to be crucified like Jesus was, but to be put in a ditch by her killer since she’s “not worthy to die as saints die”. She closes off this step by repeatedly saying how she wants her death to be horrid and long, and how it pains her that she “could not find a vile death”.
This part in particular interested me because over the course of this text, we see Angela’s self-worth completely diminish as she continues to devote herself to God. It starts off with wanting to give her things to the poor, then escalates to her not eating or drinking, then finally ending with her wishing to die and (literally) give her life to God. It seems as though over the course of cleansing her soul, Angela’s become desensitized to death. We first see this perspective in the beginning of page 27, as she informs the scribe about the deaths of her mother, husband, and children. While this would be tragic to most, she seems unphased by this as she believes “God accomplished these things for me”, which makes it clear that she puts her utmost trust in God and believes that he does everything for a reason. Her apathy towards death progresses and this is where we see Angela wish for a “vile death”, which shows that not even death cannot waver her sense of trust in God or her desire to cleanse her soul.
While reading Angela da Foligno’s Memorial, I noticed a common theme of pain being brought up throughout the thirty steps of cleansing oneself of a sin. As each step continued on, Angela seemed to deal with more and more pain; most steps being filled with shame, bitterness, and no love. As each step increased, so did the pain. For example, in step seven, she reflected alongside the cross and pondered upon the reasons Christ died, and how he died for her sins. As she kept this journey going and reached step nine, her husband, mother, and child died. She was aware of their deaths, and happened to accept it as she knew they were “a great hindrance” to her and her cleansing process. Although she felt “deep consolation following their deaths” and all of the other painful events she had to go through, she kept pushing through and completed all thirty steps of cleansing.
Lady Fortune and Her Wheel: Fortune is often depicted as a woman with a blindfold, spinning a wheel to represent the different outcomes and possibilities being chosen out of chance.
Reading through the stories of the Decameron, we see many instances in which there are “unlucky” or “unfortunate” situations, causing a bad ending; but we can also see how some people have been blessed with good fortune, resulting in a good ending. What stands out to me and interests me more would be those with “bad fortune”. We can see many cases of bad fortune in day 4, where love ends unhappily.
In day four, stories one and five, with Ghismunda and Lisabetta, they both fall in love with a man, but their family intervenes and kills those men. When I first read these stories, I believed that the family members of Ghismunda and Lisabetta were evil for doing this, but after reading “The Conception of Fortune in the Decameron” by Vincenzo Cioffari, it leads me to believe that it isn’t completely due to their corrupt morals; but that fortune played a big part in these heinous actions done by Tancredi (Ghismunda’s father) and Lisabetta’s three brothers.
To build more on this, let’s talk a little about Tancredi. “Never was daughter more tenderly beloved of father than she of the Prince, for that cause not knowing to part with her, kept her unmarried for many a year…” (Decameron, day 4, first story). Tancredi the prince, was blessed with good fortune to have a beautiful daughter that he loved with all his heart. We can see that because he loved her so much, he didn’t want her to marry. Not knowing how to part with her, he has a strong desire to “protect” her. To keep his “good fortune”. “In the Decameron the primary function of Fortune is to determine the outcome of a course of action: to help toward a successful accomplishment if Fortune is favorable…” (Ciofarri, 130). With Tancredi’s actions, we see how this is true. By keeping Ghismunda unmarried, he wanted to keep his “good fortune”. But when she fell in love, Tancredi felt threatened that his “fortune” would be taken away, causing him to murder Guiscardo, the man Ghismunda loved.
The fifth story of the fourth day presents how bad fortune can affect one’s actions. In the fifth story of the fourth day, Lisabetta falls in love with Lorenzo, a man who works with her three brothers. Unfortunately, her brothers find out and kill him. Eventually, Lisabetta finds out and decides to preserve Lorenzo’s head. She decides to put his head in a pot and plant basil, “Fostered with such constant, unremitting care, and nourished by the richness given to the soil by the decaying head that lay therin, the basil burgeoned out in exceeding great beauty and fragrance.” (Decameron, day 4, fifth story). Here we see Lisabetta faced with bad fortune, having her love killed by her brothers. We can see how this bad fortune caused her to do crazy actions. “Human reason and will do enter into the activity of Fortune, but not to dominate the fortuitous events” (Cioffari, 130). We can see that here, where Lisabetta’s decides not to overcome what happened to Lorenzo, but instead try to stay with Lorenzo, or have him close to her.
This is why fortune in the Decameron interests me, as it can be seen as a big factor playing in the actions of the characters. It was very interesting to read other stories, seeing how the characters reacted in different ways to their fortune, good or bad.
Citations: Cioffari, Vincenzo. “The Conception of Fortune in the Decameron.” Italica, vol. 17, no. 4, American Association of Teachers of Italian, 1940, pp. 129–37, https://doi.org/10.2307/476489.
Decameron web. Decameron Web | Texts. (n.d.). https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/texts/DecShowText.php?myID=nov0101&lang=eng.
Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Paris Illustration from a French edition of The Decameron, fifteenth century
Desiderio, inganno e fortuna sono tre temi ricorrenti nel Decameron di Giovanni Boccaccio. Questi tre temi diventano sempre più evidenti quando compaiono in storie improbabili sui monaci in I-4. L’articolo di Marga Cottino-Jones, Desire and the Fantastic in the Decameron: The Third Day, pubblicato nel 1993 dall’American Association of Teachers of Italian, spiega che Boccaccio intende sfidare il modo moralmente imposto in cui vengono viste determinate figure della società. Come bussole morali, ci si aspetta che i monaci diano l’esempio di purezza; proprio per questo Boccaccio li usa come soggetti perfetti per mostrare che le persone soccomberanno alla loro natura umana quando i loro desideri saranno spinti a limiti straordinari. Il primo giorno di narrazione, Dioneo intrattiene il gruppo con la quarta storia di un monaco e un abate che vivevano in un monastero appartato. Qui Boccaccio allude ai dettagli specifici della posizione del monastero, creando una cornice per rendere possibile un evento improbabile. Un giorno un monaco, giovane e virile, nota una giovane ragazza che raccoglieva delle erbe nei loro campi, ed è subito colpito da una passione sensuale e desiderio carnale per la ragazza. Qui si può apprezzare come i suoi impulsi curiosi e naturali confrontano la castità del monaco. Dopo un po’ di conversazione, rendendosi conto che la ragazza era ben disposta alle sue avances, il monaco la porta di nascosto nella sua camera mentre gli altri dormivano. Ad un certo punto un abate si sveglia e si rende conto di ciò che sta succedendo all’interno della camera del giovane monaco. Allo stesso tempo, Il monaco è consapevole che l’abate lo aveva scoperto e lascia la ragazza nella sua stanza con la scusa che deve finire il suo lavoro e la rinchiude nella sua stanza per non essere scoperti. Poi dà la chiave all’abate che li aveva trovati. Quando l’abate entra nella stanza del monaco e vede la giovane, anche lui è tentato dalla giovane. Dopo aver preparato la sua trappola, il giovane monaco attende che l’abate cada vittima dei suoi desideri carnali. Una volta che l’abate esce dalla stanza del monaco, il monaco decide di tornare. A quel punto torna, l’abate lo affronta su ciò che ha trovato nella sua stanza. Il monaco risponde che è nel monastero da poco tempo e che non ha ancora appreso tutti gli insegnamenti. Tuttavia, ora che ha visto esattamente come l’abate gestisce una situazione del genere, sa come agirci se dovesse accadere di nuovo. Rendendosi conto che il monaco era consapevole della sua perversità con la donna, l’abate ritiene inopportuno castigare il monaco per lo stesso errore che lui stesso ha commesso. Lo perdona, e insieme scortano la giovane donna fuori dal monastero ma continuerà a visitarli. Alla fine della storia, la fortuna premia le malefatte del monaco e del suo complice (l’abate) permettendoli di continuare con i suoi impulsi naturali.
Desire and the Fantastic in the Decameron: The Third Day
Throughout the Decameron, Giovanni Boccacio shares a number of tales that each hold a hidden message. There are a total of 100 stories excluding the prologue, ten stories for ten days. One theme that I found to show up a few times throughout the stories is men deceiving women.
On the tenth day and tenth story, we were introduced to a man named Gualtiero. Gualtiero was the Marquess of Saluzzo, and with such a title came responsibility. His people were worried about the future of the estate is that he still wasn’t married, so he made a pact to them that he would get married to the woman of his choosing. He chose to marry a village girl named Griselda. They were happy for the first few years of their marriage, Gualtiero’s people loved her and thought of her to be compassionate and kind. It wasn’t until Griselda and Gualtiero started having children that Gualtiero began his tests/tricks. Once their daughter was born Gualtiero’s entire demeanor change, he began to treat Griselda poorly and claimed that his vassals disliked the fact that the next of kin was a child of one of a lower class. He convinced Griselda that the soldiers took the baby and murdered her when in reality he sent her to Bologna. Griselda was compliant the entire time, for all that women in those times knew about being a wife is being submissive and compliant to everything the husband wishes. He continues his tricks and tests when Griselda gave birth to there son. Although pleased by Griselda’s submissiveness he decided to further deceive her. He sent the boy to bologna and told griselda that he was murdered and that his subjects resented being ruled by a child whose grandfather is a farmer. Not only this but he starts to tell her that the pope allowed for them to divorce. Gualtiero asks to tell Griselda about the divorce in front of all his people and that he wishes for her to be of assistance with the wedding, of course, she obeys and does as he asks. Gualtiero tricks Griselda once more by bringing his daughter back from Bologna and telling Griselda that she was his next wife. He expected her to be jealous and rude towards the girl but in reality, Griselda was nice, welcoming and even advised Gualtiero to “spare her those tribulations” and treat her differently than how she was treated. This is when Gualtiero took the opportunity to reveal his schemes and tricks. Griselda was pleased to know that it was all a trick and that her kids were in fact not dead, she stayed with Gualtiero.
Mary Eliza Haweis (1848-1898), Griselda’s Sorrow (1882), illustration in ‘Chaucer for Children’, further details not known. Wikimedia Commons.
Griselda’s story wasn’t the only one that housed men deceiving women. On the Third Day Sixth story, we are introduced to the story of Ricciardo and how he tricked a woman named Catella to be with him. Catella was found to be the most beautiful in the town and when Ricciardo tried to pursue Catella he was unsuccessful because she is deeply in love with her husband, Filleppo. It has been made a known fact that Catella was extremely jealous when it came to her husband which allowed for Ricciardo’s tricks to conjure themselves. Ricciardo told Catella that her husband was having an affair with his wife (Ricciardo’s wife) and that they were going to meet up at a restaurant. Being the jealous wife she is, she believed every word. Later that day she went to the restaurant to pretend to be Ricciardo’s wife in hopes of tricking her husband and getting the opportunity to call him out. What she didn’t know was that Ricciardo set the whole thing up so that they were in a dark room and she would believe he was Filleppo. It wasn’t until they slept together that she tried to expose “her husband” of cheating when he revealed himself. He held her so tight she couldn’t get loose and convinced her to be with him “Sweet my soul, be not wroth: that which, while artlessly I loved, I might not have, Love has taught me to compass by guile: know that I am thy Ricciardo. ” instead of her husband Filleppo.
Gualtiero used tricks and deceived Griselda to put her loyalty to the test. He wanted to see whether or not Griselda would remain submissive and compliant to his every wish; he was happy to find that she passed. As a woman all Griselda knew about being a wife was that they were supposed to do and follow everything told by the husband. This is why she never put up a fight or disagreed/disobeyed his orders. I also believe that she stayed with him not only because she was taught to stand by her husband no matter what but because she was no longer a virgin. Back in the day, it was known that if a woman wasn’t a virgin she was found undesirable, it was found that if you weren’t a virgin and were older in age it would be a struggle to remarry. I think that played a small role in her taking Gualtiero back in the end. Ricciardo used tricks to ultimately use Catella’s emotions and love towards her husband against her. He was so fixated on wanting her that he had to trick her into believing that her husband Fileppo was cheating on her. “However you may say that I lured you hither by guile, I shall deny it, and affirm, on the contrary, that I induced you to come hither by promises of money and gifts, and that ’tis but because you are vexed that what I gave you did not altogether come up to your expectations, that you make such a cry and clamour; and you know that folk are more prone to believe evil than good, and therefore I am no less likely to be believed than you.” Once she recognized Ricciardo’s voice, he gaslighted her and threatened the fact that no one was going to believe that, he tricked her into bed with her, to be with him. When she asked him to “let her go” he refrained at first but then allowed for a kiss. That kiss is what changed it all for her, “Indeed the lady, finding her lover’s kisses smack much better than those of her husband, converted her asperity into sweetness, and from that day forth cherished a most tender love for Ricciardo.” His tricks and deceit ultimately worked in his favor, the same as Gualtiero.
‘The Story of Griselda, Part 1: Marriage” commission by the noble Spannocchi family in 1494 (The story of Griselda, part I: Marriage. The National Gallery. (n.d.). Retrieved November 14, 2021, from https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/master-of-the-story-of-griselda-the-story-of-griselda-part-i-marriage.)
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio is a collection of stories told by 10 young people, comprised of 7 women and 3 men, told over the course of 10 days after fleeing to the Italian countryside to escape the Black Plague. While it might not seem like it on the surface, each story has a greater message and is often a commentary of issues that plagued Italy at the time, such as corruption in the church and social hierarchy. What makes The Decameron so unique is the fact that many of it’s stories focus on the theme of women, particularly the role of women in society, which is something that not many writers of Boccaccio’s era were daring enough to cover.
In Day 6, story 7, Filostrato tells the story of a woman speaking out against the strict laws that often targeted women more strictly than men. In the city of Prato, the law states that a woman will be put to death and burned if she’s caught committing adultery whether it’s with someone she loves or a complete stranger. This story focuses on Madonna Filippa, who is caught cheating on her husband, Rinaldo de’ Pugliesi, with Lazzarino de’ Guazzagliotri. Instead of “falling upon them and killing them on the spot”, Rinaldo resorted to charging Filippa with adultery to have her killed. In an act of courage, Filippa showed up on the day she was summoned despite her family and friends’ attempts to dissuade her, as she would rather speak the truth and face the possible consequences than flee and live in exile. When questioned about whether or not she’s guilty of her crime, she simply responds with “True it is, Sir, that Rinaldo is my husband, and that last night he found me in the arms of Lazzarino, in whose arms for the whole-hearted love that I bear him I have ofttimes lain; nor shall I ever deny it…” She then elaborates on her admission, stating that this law is unjust as it was put in place without the consent of women, despite the fact that it only impacts women who cheat and not men. In her closing statement, she defends her actions by stating that she has “surplus” love to give, and that she deemed it better to show that love to a man who loves her as well than to “cast it to the dogs”. The crowd which has gathered around to see the trial ends up siding with Filippa, and doesn’t leave until the Podesta amends the law so that women who love the person they’re cheating with aren’t punished. In this story, Boccaccio essentially shows that women should be allowed to love whoever they please, even if it involves adultery. In my opinion, Boccaccio also shows how powerful just one woman can be, as Filippa was able to single handedly avoid persecution through her testimony, but was also able to get the law changed by getting the townspeople on her side.
On the other hand, we have the story of Griselda on day 10, the 10th story. This story focuses on the relationship between Griselda, a woman of low nobility, and Gualtieri, the Marquis of Saluzzo. Gualtieri takes Griselda as his wife despite the fact that she’s not royalty or rich, and they have an extravagant wedding. However, Gualtieri suddenly wants to test his wife’s loyalty and puts her through multiple trials. He sends away Griselda’s children (a daughter and a son), making her believe the children are dead when they’re actually in the care of someone else. He also tells her that he’s taking another woman as his wife, and again, she puts up with this behavior and encourages him to be happy with his new wife. Gualtieri then reveals that he was testing Griselda’s loyalty all along, and the story ends with them remaining happily married together. The story closes with the line “Who but Griselda had been able, with a countenance not only tearless, but cheerful, to endure the hard and unheard-of trials to which Gualtieri subjected her?”, which many interpret to mean that women are able to deal with hardship better than men.
While many commend Boccaccio for his inclusion of women, some believe that his representation of women is actually harmful. In Gender, Power, and the Female Reader, Mihoko Suzuki argues that Griselda’s story doesn’t have the message of how strong women can be, but is actually about Gualtieri’s dominance over his wife. Suzuki contrasts Griselda with other women that we’ve seen in The Decameron; while women in previous stories have been shown to disobey men (either through adultery or by outwitting them), Griselda is the complete opposite. As Suzuki puts it “And that is precisely the point: Dineo all but erases her sexuality and makes her an embodied fantasy of a constant and obedient wife…” (page 234). She then elaborates by stating that because Griselda’s personality has been watered down to that of an obedient wife and nothing else, Boccaccio is playing into the fantasy that men should have “total control and power” over their wives.
Sources:
The story of Griselda, part I: Marriage. The National Gallery. (n.d.). Retrieved November 14, 2021, from https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/master-of-the-story-of-griselda-the-story-of-griselda-part-i-marriage.
Decameron web. Decameron Web | Texts. (n.d.). Day 6, story 7. Retrieved November 14, 2021, from https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/texts/DecShowText.php?myID=nov0607&lang=eng.
Decameron web. Decameron Web | Texts. (n.d.). Day 10, Story 10. Retrieved November 14, 2021, from https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/texts/DecShowText.php?myID=nov1010&lang=eng.
Suzuki, M. (1993). Gender, Power, and the Female Reader: Boccaccio’s “Decameron” and Marguerite de Navarre’s “Heptameron”. Jstor. Retrieved November 14, 2021, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/40246888.
Throughout Il Canzoniere 134 Petrarca uses tone and oxymorons, which makes his overwhelming sentiments caused by Laura evident. With the use of different figures of speech he creates a sense of sadness incorporated with hurt. In the first stanza, Petrarca makes two statements that seem to oppose each other but are more focused on himself and his current state. “I find no peace, and I am not at war, I fear and hope, and burn and I am ice;” he is beginning to set the tone to the poem by expressing the turmoil within himself. He begins by stating how he isn’t happy and at peace with himself yet he isn’t at war either to create a dramatic sense of his emotions.
Petrarca then transitions to mentioning Laura and how not having his feelings matched by her affects him. “One keeps me jailed who neither locks nor opens, nor keeps me for her own nor frees the noose;”He begins to use words that mention another individual (Laura) and her actions that seem to contribute to his mood. By capitalizing in the sudden pauses he brings the readers along with him through his emotional journey. In the first stanza we felt his sense of feeling absent within himself while he is trying to figure out what he feels to a now a messy disheveled and desperate state of thoughts. The sudden pauses in the second stanza makes his disheveled state clear as it seems as though he is trying to figure out and pinpoint the feeling her rejection has caused “ Love does not kill, nor does he loose my chains;” He feels like his pain is being inflicted on him and is trying to make sense of it, for he loves Laura but not having his feelings reciprocated by her is causing his suffer.
In the midst of trying to make sense of his emotions he begins to put the blame towards Laura, his “lady”, by stating that it’s her fault that he is in such anguish and torment. “I dislike death as much as I do life: because of you, lady, I am this way.” The shift in phrasing here suggests a profoundly dramatic tone while also emphasizing “I,” implying a scratch to the poet’s ego.
Francesca Petrarca by Justus van Gent
Petrarca’s emotions of hurt and anguish is conveyed through the way the poem is written with the sudden pauses to create a sense of confusion, to the oppositions paired together. Overall illustrating a roller coaster of feelings Petrarca takes the readers along as he tries to clear his emotions and pinpoint the cause.
Philippe Jacques van Bree: Laura and Petrarch at the Fountain of Vaucluse
Similar to the rest of the poems in Il Canzoniere, the general theme in poem 132 is love. However, in this poem, Petrarca seems to question love and shows a sense of confusion regarding this feeling.
In Stanza I, Petrarca writes “If it’s not love, then what is it I feel?/But if it’s love, by God, what is this thing?” He is trying to make sense of this feeling, which seems difficult because he himself is uncertain of the answer. Being that love is such a complex matter, one is bound to feel every feeling every aspect of it, just like Petrarca. He then continues by making two metaphors. The first is love being good, but feeling pain from it. The second is love being bad, but enjoying the pain that it gives you. Here he is expressing his bitter-sweet love for Laura. Though it may bring him unruly pain and confusion, this pain and confusion is giving him the strength to continue loving her.
In Stanza II, Petrarca realizes that he is only bringing himself pain by continuing this love for Laura. He states “And if against my will, what good lamenting?” Here it’s as though he understands that there is no point in crying and feeling sad because there is nothing that he can do about it. Since she was married and had children, his overall love for her was forbidden. After, he acknowledges that he does not give heart “consent” to feel the way he feels. I, however, disagree with this statement because it seems to be contradicting. He has an obsessive love for a woman that he cannot have, yet does not give his heart consent to feel this way.
In Stanza III, Petrarca uses imagery to describe that he is conflicted in this matter. In other words, he is stuck on a small boat in the middle of the ocean without something to steer him. The “contrasting winds” are his emotions. It seems like he is playing tug-of-war with himself because he knows that he is madly in love with Laura, but he also knows that this love is not right. He knows that continuing to love her pains him, but it’s utterly impossible for him not to feel love for her.
In Stanza IV, Petrarca feels as though his world has turned upside-down. Since he has no idea what he is doing or feeling (“so light of wisdom”) and accepts that he is making a big mistake (“so laden of error”), he “shiver in midsummer, burn in winter.” In other words, he is confused and uses irony to describe this confusion. Petrarca also makes a double entendre by using the word laden. In this context, he used this word to explain that is making many errors, but it can also mean to load a ship. This “ship” relates to him being stuck on the boat in Stanza III and the boat being “loaded” with more feelings, errors, and baggage for being in love with Laura. The boat is coming heavier over time making it heavier for it, or Petrarca, to go in the right direction.
In the canzoniere, we get to see the state of Petrarch’s mind many times, but there’s one metaphor for his state of mind that stands out to me. Canzone 189 portrays Petrarch’s state of mind as a ship at sea. The ship can be seen as his mind, with the sea and weather representing thoughts, or emotions. As we go on in the canzone, we can see that Petrarch feels a mix of negative emotions, placing the image of a sea in the middle of a storm with the rough waves of the sea. “My ship full of forgetful cargo sails, though rough seas at the midnight of a winter…”.
As the poem goes on, Petrarch portrays his emotions by describing the weather in greater detail. “… the sail, by wet eternal winds of sighs, of hopes and of desires blowing breaks;”. Here we see that he feels lost and stuck with the sail breaking, as the sails are what help move the ship (Petrarch’s mind). At the end, he confirms this feeling of being lost, describing his lack of reasoning, and skill to move the ship. “… and I despair of ever reaching port.”. He feels he can’t overcome these negative emotions, and is doomed to be stuck in this storm.
Why does this stand out to me? To start, I love the imagery that Petrarch uses to describe his mind. I could easily imagine the rough seas, and cruel weather reading the poem, and relate to this negative blend of emotions creating a storm. Along with this, it stands out to me because it makes me think of Dante entering purgatory. Comparing the two, it creates an interesting juxtaposition. While in this canzone there’s a rough storm representing Petrarch’s unstable state of mind; Dante uses imagery of a ship in clear skies, with “The sweet color of eastern sapphire…” (Canto 1, line 13) of the ocean, showing a state of clarity after the inferno. This was something that stood to me and was interested in, as these were both very different states of mind, and the complete opposite of one another.
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