Giovanni BoccaccioSelections fromThe Decameron The Decameron is one of the greatest literary works of thelate Middle Ages, and perhaps of all time. Its influence, even withinBoccaccio’s own lifetime was immense, extending (for example) as far as Chaucerin England, and it was not long before his reputation rivaled that of hissublime predecessor in Italian vernacular writing, Dante himself: indeed, it isa critical commonplace to regard The Decameron as a kind of prose secularequivalent of the Divina Commedia — where Dante chose to set human life in thecontext of eternity, Boccaccio sought to celebrate the pleasures of this world. The Decameron, as its name suggests, is a collection of onehundred prose tales, many of them only a few pages long but including a smallnumber of more substantial and sometimes serious narratives. Boccaccio providesa framework for the telling of these tales by imagining a situation in whichten young people find themselves together for a period of ten days, and agreeto pass the time by each recounting one story on each day. What lends thissimple framing device such extraordinary power, however, is the context out ofwhich this situation arises: Boccaccio had himself witnessed the terrifyingeffects of the Black Death on Florence, which it visited in 1348, and he beginsThe Decameron with a justly famous description of his city withering under theonslaught of the disease. The details are spelt out with a masterly blend ofobjective reportage and restrained compassion, and at the end of thisintroduction he brings in his seven young ladies. They meet in the church ofSanta Maria Novella and agree to leave Florence for a stay in the countryside —itself not spared by the plague, but at least offering a change of air and arespite from the claustrophobic terrors of the city. By chance, three young menwith whom the women are acquainted enter the church, and the women propose tothem that they should join them on their rural sojourn. The plan meets withgeneral approval, and so the mechanism of the narrative(s) is set in motion…One might note at this juncture the scrupulous care with which Boccaccioinsists on the propriety of relations between the young people: this isparticularly amusing when one considers the extreme, even obscene, directnessof many of the tales told by these impeccably brought up young people. Thistension between seemliness and bawdiness creates a delightful frisson as thework unfolds. When the young people arrive at the first of the idyllicplaces in which they stay — they move their residence twice more during the tendays — they agree to the story-telling scheme, and appoint a Queen or King todirect them on each day. Each day, too, will have a theme to which the tellersmust adhere — the theme for Day Three, for example, concerns ‘people who, by virtueof their own efforts, have achieved an object they greatly desired, or haverecovered a thing previously lost.’ Listeners will probably discover here tales that they arealready familiar with in another form — lovers of Keats’ work, for instance,will know the story of Isabella, or the Pot of Basil, and will find it here asthe Fifth Tale of the Fourth Day. Chaucer uses in The Canterbury Tales the laststory of The Decameron as The Clerk’s Tale, while The Reeve’s Tale is verysimilar to the Sixth Tale of the Ninth Day. We should not be surprised by this:throughout the Middle Ages and well into the Renaissance, writers wereaccustomed to reshaping other writers’ material, or borrowing from the richtradition of folk tales. What Boccaccio’s stories have in common is an extraordinaryzest for life as it is lived on the physical level: morality is not exactlyabsent, but it almost always plays second fiddle to a joyous acceptance of lifeand appetite. Life is transitory and fragile, and had best be seized upon withgusto, ingenuity and humor. Boccaccio is also splendidly on the side ofinherent quality rather than snobbish regard for class and ‘breeding’: one hasonly to listen to the First Tale of the Fourth Day, in which an incestuouslyjealous father has his daughter’s supposedly ‘inferior’ lover put to death, torealize the energy with which Boccaccio exposes the cruel folly of judging ourfellows by caste. Feminists will also be delighted by the feisty MadonnaFilippa’s brilliant and successful defense of a woman’s sexual rights in theSeventh Tale of the Sixth Day. There is, then, something startlingly modernabout The Decameron, even as it also paints a brilliantly vivid picture of latemedieval life in Italy. Giovanni Boccaccio was born in Florence in 1313. Welleducated, he worked for a time for his father, a successful merchant, but hisreal love was literature. This he developed during his time in Naples. Hereturned to Florence in 1340, where he witnessed the horrors of the Black Deathin 1348. He first met Petrarch in 1350, and became both his friend and, by hisown admission, his disciple. Among his works other than The Decameron are:Filostrato, a treatment of the story of Troilus and Cressida; Teseida, a poemon the story of Theseus, Palamon and Arcite (see Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale); andthe Amorosa Visione, an unfinished allegory. Boccaccio died in 1375. About the Readers STEPHEN THORNE has made over 2,000 broadcasts for BBC Radioas well as theater and television appearances. He has recorded over 100 audiobooks, including The Sheep Pig and all the BrotherCadfael novels and works by Dickens and Hardy. Teresa Gallagher has performed in many leading roles in bothplays and musicals across the UK, London’s West End, and Off Broadway. Inaddition, she is a well-known voice to listeners of BBC Radio Drama. Her workon film includes The Misadventures of Margaret and Mike Leigh’s Topsy-Turvy.JAMES GOODE’s theater credits include The Wind in theWillows and The White Devil (Royal National Theatre), several world tours ofcelebrated productions of Shakespeare and Chekhov as well as numerous plays attheaters throughout Britain. Television credits include Shelley, South of theBorder and a spell as a presenter on the successful children’s program Watch. Hehas also appeared in countless radio plays and voice-overs. POLLY HAYES trained at LAMDA, the Eugene O’Neill TheatreCenter in Connecticut, and York University. She has appeared in regionaltheaters, and on national tours in a variety of plays. She played Eveline inKen Campbell’s revival of The Warp. She tours and performs a one-woman children’sshow of Barbar the Elephant. On television, she has appeared in Big Women, ForAmusement Only and in many commercials. JONATHAN KEEBLE trained at the Central School of Speech andDrama, and has appeared at many leading repertory theaters including Coventry,Liverpool, and a season at Manchester’s Royal Exchange. Now an establishedvoice actor, he has narrated several audiobook and performed over 150 radioplays for the BBC. SIRI O’NEAL has appeared on stage across Great Britain invarious roles including Jean in The Entertainer, Hilde in The Master Builder,and Tess in Tess of the d’Urbervilles. She has been seen on television in Sharpe’s Battle, The Cloning ofJoanna May and Masterclass and her film credits include Waterland and TheRachel Papers. ALISON PETTIT has been a member of the BBC Radio Dramatwice. Her work there included Sonya in War and Peace, Lorna in Lorna Doone andCecile in Les Liasons Dangereuses. Her theater work has included the Sugar PlumFairy. DANIEL PHILPOTT trained at LAMDA and following success inthe BBC’s prestigious Carleton Hobbs Award for Radio Drama, recordedfor BBC Radio 4, independent radio drama and other broadcast work. He has mademany recordings for Naxos AudioBooks, RNIB and other companies. His theaterwork includes various productions on the London fringe. NICKIE RAINSFORD’s stage work has centered mainly on newwriting from experimental theater touring the UK and South America to TomStoppard’s Indian Ink in London’s West End. She has also appeared in many radioplays for BBC Radio. Television appearances include Kate in Tiger Bay (BBC) andEdeka, Queen of the Huns in Attila (American TV networks).