The ten days

Decameron

IV. The appearance of tragedy

The start to the fourth day is marked by a double fracture. At a diegetic level, the choice of the theme of hapless love is a brusque change of course with respect to the need for happy endings, which had been the bonding element of the novelistic decury in the three preceding days. Within the macrotext we see the intromission of the author, who, interrupting the brigade’s narrative fiction, takes over in order to address metaliterary issues and defend the Decameron from the accusations of detractors. The expedient of the insertion of a novella (the hundredth), known as the apologue of the ducks, does the job of sedating criticism of excessive  phylogeny of the work and the ideological positions of a scripture conceived to be the expression of the positive equilibrium that can exist between nature and man. 

The appearance of the theme of tragedy is imposed by Filostrato, emblem of amorous sufferance, which transpires in the pseudo-etymology of the name, “vanquished by love”, already used as the title of the brief poem by Boccaccio. The treatment of a mournful subject could be read to be an inflation of the rule of “joyfulness”, established by the brigade amongst the rules to be followed during their retreat to the country. The contradiction can however be explained if we consider the link between the description of the plague within the framework and the tragic events of the novellas of day IV: “La peste è insomma un memento mori con la funzione di incrementare la gioia di vivere della brigata; così come la vita lieta della brigata è un tentativo di esorcizzare il ricordo della peste. [...] Possiamo pertanto dire che la nostra giornata abbia una funzione analoga a quella della descrizione della peste”[1].

---

[1]M. Picone, L’”amoroso sangue”: la quarta giornata, in Introduzione al Decameron, ed. M. Picone-M. Mesirca, Florence 2004, pp. 115-139, cit. p. 118.