The ten days
Decameron
V. Amorous adventures with a happy ending
Having dealt with the theme of mourning, which engaged the youths of the brigade during the fourth day, it is now Fiammetta’s turn to guide the tone towards something more serene, initiating the series of stories with a happy ending. The theme imposed obliges the narrators to describe, according to the rubric, “ciò che a alcuno amante, dopo fieri o sventurati accidenti, felicemente avvenisse” or that which to lovers happy befalls after much plight. The positive epilogue, linked to the subject of eroticism, marks a return of the adventurous element, which had dominated the second day, having as the subject the fikle nature of Fortune. The reason for the journey by sea, for example, which is one of the constitutive components of the novella about the story to Alexandria, is as much a part of the story of Efigenia in Cimone’s novella (1) as it is for the desperate flight of Gostanza in search of Matuccio Comito (2). The Roman countryside, opportunely stylised into the wooded bowers typical of the courtly romance, is instead the backcloth to Pietro Boccamazza’s quête, who succeeds in wedding his beloved Agnolella, captured by brigands. The noble Roman’s adventures take place on land and not at sea, as in the previous two stories (1 e 2), but the reunification of the lovers, sealed, as in all cases in the fifth day, by marriage, is nevertheless the prize after a rocambolesque series of events, on the model of the romance of adventure.
A nostalgic echo of aristocratic values, by then in decline, is at the basis of the most famous novellas of the day, which have as their protagonists Nastagio degli Onesti (8) and Federigo degli Alberighi (9). The trait d’union of liberality unites the two noblemen in love: Nastagio futilely wastes his fortune, in the hope of gaining the love of one of the Traversari; Federigo does not hesitate in sacrificing one of his last possessions, a falcon, so as to honour his beloved Giovanna, his guest, and serve the bird’s meat for dinner. The noble gesture symbolically sanctions the transcendence of an aptitude towards liberality into true magnanimity [1].
[1]L. Surdich, Boccaccio, Bari 2001, p. 155.
