THE SCENE: When it is revealed that his daughter secretly married a man beneath her station – and that the man later died – one expects this renaissance don to be furious. Instead he exhibits behavior that may defy our expectations for a medieval magnate: concern for the happiness and wellbeing of his daughter.
THE TEXT: “Father”, she cried, “I suppose it is quite unnecessary for me to tell you about my reckless behavior and about the tragedy that has befallen me, for I am sure you will already have been informed about these things. My sole request – and it is one that I make in all humility – is that you should pardon my transgression in taking as my husband, and without your knowledge, the man who was more pleasing to me than any other. Nor do I crave this forgiveness in order that my life shall be spared, but so that I may die as your daughter and not your enemy.”
She thereupon collapsed in tears at his feet, and Messer Negro too began to cry, for he was by nature generous and affectionate, and he was getting on in years. And so, with tears in his eyes, he helped her tenderly to her feet, saying:
“My daughter, it was always my dearest wish that you should marry a man whom I considered worthy of you; and if you did indeed choose such a man, and he was pleasing to you, then I could have wished for nothing better. All the same, I am saddened to think that you did not trust me sufficiently to tell me about him, the more so on discovering that you have lost him even before I had any inkling of the matter. But still, since this is the way of things, I intend that he should be paid the same respect, now that he is dead, that I would willingly have paid to him for your sake if he were still alive; in other words, I intend to honor him as my son-in-law.” And, turning to his sons and kinsfolk, he instructed them to see that suitably splendid and honorable arrangements were put in hand for the funeral.
– Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron, 14th Century AD
