Novel I
Novel I
[Voice: panfilo]
[001] Cimon, by loving, waxes wise, wins his wife Iphigenia by capture on the high seas, and is imprisoned at Rhodes. He is delivered by Lysimachus; and the twain capture Cassandra and recapture Iphigenia in the hour of their marriage. They flee with their ladies to Crete, and having there married them, are brought back to their homes.
[002] Many stories, sweet my ladies, occur to me as meet for me to tell by way of ushering in a day so joyous as this will be: of which one does most commend itself to my mind, because not only has it one of those happy endings of which to-day we are in quest, but 'twill enable you to understand how holy, how mighty and how salutary are the forces of Love, which not a few, witting not what they say, do most unjustly reprobate and revile: which, if I err not, should to you, for that I take you to be enamoured, be indeed welcome.
[003]
Once upon a time, then, as we have read in the ancient histories
of the Cypriotes, there was in the island of Cyprus a very great
noble named Aristippus, a man rich in all worldly goods beyond all
other of his countrymen, and who might have deemed himself
incomparably blessed, but for a single sore affliction that Fortune had
allotted him.
[004]
Which was that among his sons he had one, the best
grown and handsomest of them all, that was well-nigh a hopeless
imbecile. His true name was Galesus; but, as neither his tutor's
pains, nor his father's coaxing or chastisement, nor any other method
had availed to imbue him with any tincture of letters or manners,
but
he still remained gruff and savage of voice, and in his bearing
liker to a beast than to a man, all, as in derision, were wont to call
him Cimon, which in their language signifies the same as
bestione
(brute)
Cimon, what seekest thou in this wood at
this hour?
[012]
For Cimon she knew well, as indeed did almost all the
country-side, by reason alike of his uncouth appearance as of the rank
and wealth of his father. To Iphigenia's question he answered never
a word; but as soon as her eyes were open, nought could he do but
intently regard them, for it seemed to him that a soft influence
emanated from them, which filled his soul with a delight that he had
never before known.
[013]
Which the girl marking began to misdoubt
that by so fixed a scrutiny his boorish temper might be prompted to
some act that should cause her dishonour: wherefore she roused her
women, and got up, saying:
Keep thy distance, Cimon, in God's
name.
[014]
Whereto Cimon made answer:
I will come with thee.
[015]
And, albeit the girl refused his escort, being still in fear of him, she
could not get quit of him; but he attended her home; after which
he hied him straight to his father's house, and announced that he was
minded on no account to go back to the farm: which intelligence was
far from welcome to his father and kinsmen; but nevertheless they
suffered him to stay, and waited to see what might be the reason or
his change of mind.
[016]
So Cimon, whose heart, closed to all teaching,
love's shaft, sped by the beauty of Iphigenia, had penetrated, did now
graduate in wisdom with such celerity as to astonish his father and
kinsmen, and all that knew him.
[017]
He began by requesting his father
to let him go clad in the like apparel, and with, in all respects, the
like personal equipment as his brothers: which his father very gladly
did.
[018]
Mixing thus with the gallants, and becoming familiar with the
manners proper to gentlemen, and especially to lovers, he very soon,
to the exceeding great wonder of all, not only acquired the rudiments
of
letters, but waxed most eminent among the philosophic wits.
[019]
After which (for no other cause than the love he bore to Iphigenia)
he not only modulated his gruff and boorish voice to a degree of
smoothness suitable to urbane life, but made himself accomplished in
singing and music; in riding also and in all matters belonging to
war, as well by sea as by land, he waxed most expert and hardy.
[020]
And
in sum (that I go not about to enumerate each of his virtues in
detail) he had not completed the fourth year from the day of his
first becoming enamoured before he was grown the most gallant, and
courteous, ay, and the most perfect in particular accomplishments, of
the young cavaliers that were in the island of Cyprus.
[021]
What then,
gracious ladies, are we to say of Cimon? Verily nought else but
that the high faculties, with which Heaven had endowed his noble
soul, invidious Fortune had bound with the strongest of cords, and
circumscribed within a very narrow region of his heart; all which
cords Love, more potent than Fortune, burst and brake in pieces;
[022]
and then with the might, wherewith he awakens dormant powers, he
brought them forth of the cruel obfuscation, in which they lay, into
clear light, plainly shewing thereby, whence he may draw, and
whither he may guide, by his beams the souls that are subject to
his sway.
[023]
Now, albeit by his love for Iphigenia Cimon was betrayed, as
young lovers very frequently are, into some peccadillos, yet Aristippus,
reflecting that it had turned him from a booby into a man, not
only bore patiently with him, but exhorted him with all his heart to
continue steadfast in his love
[024]
And Cimon, who still refused to be
called Galesus, because 'twas as Cimon that Iphigenia had first
addressed him, being desirous to accomplish his desire by honourable
means, did many a time urge his suit upon her father, Cipseus, that
he would give her him to wife: whereto Cipseus always made the
same answer, to wit, that he had promised her to Pasimondas, a
young Rhodian noble, and was not minded to break faith with him.
[025]
However, the time appointed for Iphigenia's wedding being come,
and the bridegroom having sent for her, Cimon said to himself:
'Tis now for me to shew thee, O Iphigenia, how great is my love
for thee: 'tis by thee that I am grown a man, nor doubt I, if I
shall have thee, that I shall wax more glorious than a god, and verily
thee will I have, or die.
[026]
Having so said, he privily enlisted in his
cause
certain young nobles that were his friends, and secretly fitted
out a ship with all equipment meet for combat, and put to sea on the
look-out for the ship that was to bear Iphigenia to Rhodes and her
husband. And at length, when her father had done lavishing
honours upon her husband's friends, Iphigenia embarked, and, the
mariners shaping their course for Rhodes, put to sea.
[027]
Cimon was on
the alert, and overhauled them the very next day, and standing on
his ship's prow shouted amain to those that were aboard Iphigenia's
ship:
Bring to; strike sails, or look to be conquered and sunk in
the sea.
[028]
Then, seeing that the enemy had gotten their arms above
deck, and were making ready to make a fight of it, he followed up his
words by casting a grapnel upon the poop of the Rhodians, who were
making great way; and having thus made their poop fast to his prow,
he sprang, fierce as a lion, reckless whether he were followed or no,
on to the Rhodians' ship, making, as it were, no account of them,
and animated by love, hurled himself, sword in hand, with prodigious
force among the enemy, and cutting and thrusting right and left,
slaughtered them like sheep;
[029]
insomuch that the Rhodians, marking
the fury of his onset, threw down their arms, and as with one voice
did all acknowledge themselves his prisoners.
[030]
To whom Cimon:
Gallants,
quoth he,
'twas neither lust of booty nor enmity to
you that caused me to put out from Cyprus to attack you here with
force of arms on the high seas.
[031]
Moved was I thereto by that which
to gain is to me a matter great indeed, which peaceably to yield me
is to you but a slight matter; for 'tis even Iphigenia, whom more
than aught else I love; whom, as I might not have her of her father
in peaceable and friendly sort, Love has constrained me to take from
you in this high-handed fashion and by force of arms;
[032]
to whom I
mean to be even such as would have been your Pasimondas: wherefore
give her to me, and go your way, and God's grace go with
you.
[033]
Yielding rather to force than prompted by generosity, the Rhodians
surrendered Iphigenia, all tears, to Cimon; who, marking her tears,
said to her:
Grieve not, noble lady; thy Cimon am I, who, by my
long love, have established a far better right to thee than Pasimondas
by the faith that was plighted to him.
[034]
So saying, he sent her aboard
his ship, whither he followed her, touching nought that belonged to
the Rhodians, and suffering them to go their way.
[035]
To have gotten
so
dear a prize made him the happiest man in the world, but for a
time 'twas all he could do to assuage her grief: then, after taking
counsel with his comrades, he deemed it best not to return to Cyprus
for the present: and so, by common consent they shaped their course
for Crete, where most of them, and especially Cimon, had alliances
of old or recent date, and friends not a few, whereby they deemed
that there they might tarry with Iphigenia in security.
[036]
But Fortune,
that had accorded Cimon so gladsome a capture of the lady, suddenly
proved fickle, and converted the boundless joy of the enamoured
gallant into woeful and bitter lamentation.
[037]
'Twas not yet full four
hours since Cimon had parted from the Rhodians, when with the
approach of night, that night from which Cimon hoped such joyance
as he had never known, came weather most turbulent and tempestuous,
which wrapped the heavens in cloud, and swept the sea with scathing
blasts; whereby 'twas not possible for any to see how the ship was
to be worked or steered, or to steady himself so as to do any duty upon
her deck.
[038]
Whereat what grief was Cimon's, it boots not to ask.
Indeed it seemed to him that the gods had granted his heart's desire
only that it might be harder for him to die, which had else been to
him but a light matter.
[039]
Not less downcast were his comrades; but
most of all Iphigenia, who, weeping bitterly and shuddering at every
wave that struck the ship, did cruelly curse Cimon's love and censure
his rashness, averring that this tempest was come upon them for no
other cause than that the gods had decreed, that, as 'twas in despite
of their will that he purposed to espouse her, he should be frustrate of
his presumptuous intent, and having lived to see her expire, should
then himself meet a woeful death.
[040] While thus and yet more bitterly they bewailed them, and the mariners were at their wits' end, as the gale grew hourly more violent, nor knew they, nor might conjecture, whither they went, they drew nigh the island of Rhodes, albeit that Rhodes it was they wist not, and set themselves, as best and most skilfully they might, to run the ship aground. [041] In which enterprise Fortune favoured them, bringing them into a little bay, where, shortly before them, was arrived the Rhodian ship that Cimon had let go. Nor were they sooner ware that 'twas Rhodes they had made, than day broke, and, the sky thus brightening a little, they saw that they were about a bow-shot from the ship that they had released on the preceding day. [042] Whereupon Cimon, vexed beyond measure, being apprehensive of that which in fact befell them, bade make every effort to win out of the bay, and let Fortune carry them whither she would, for nowhere might they be in worse plight than there. [043] So might and main they strove to bring the ship out, but all in vain: the violence of the gale thwarted them to such purpose as not only to preclude their passage out of the bay but to drive them, willing nilling, ashore. [044] Whither no sooner were they come, than they were recognized by the Rhodian mariners, who were already landed. Of whom one ran with all speed to a farm hard by, whither the Rhodian gallants were gone, and told them that Fortune had brought Cimon and Iphigenia aboard their ship into the same bay to which she had guided them. [045] Whereat the gallants were overjoyed, and taking with them not a few of the farm-servants, hied them in hot haste to the shore, where, Cimon and his men being already landed with intent to take refuge in a neighbouring wood, they took them all (with Iphigenia) and brought them to the farm. Whence, pursuant to an order of the Senate of Rhodes, to which, so soon as he received the news, Pasimondas made his complaint, Cimon and his men were all marched off to prison by Lysimachus, chief magistrate of the Rhodians for that year, who came down from the city for the purpose with an exceeding great company of men at arms. [046] On such wise did our hapless and enamoured Cimon lose his so lately won Iphigenia before he had had of her more than a kiss or two. [047] Iphigenia was entertained and comforted of the annoy, occasioned as well by her recent capture as by the fury of the sea, by not a few noble ladies of Rhodes, with whom she tarried until the day appointed for her marriage. [048] In recompense of the release of the Rhodian gallants on the preceding day the lives of Cimon and his men were spared, notwithstanding that Pasimondas pressed might and main for their execution; and instead they were condemned to perpetual imprisonment: wherein, as may be supposed, they abode in dolorous plight, and despaired of ever again knowing happiness.
However, it so befell that, Pasimondas accelerating his nuptials to
the best of his power,
[049]
Fortune, as if repenting her that in her haste
she had done Cimon so evil a turn, did now by a fresh disposition of
events compass his deliverance. Pasimondas had a brother, by name
Hormisdas, his equal in all respects save in years, who had long
been contract to marry Cassandra, a fair and noble damsel of
Rhodes,
of whom Lysimachus was in the last degree enamoured;
but owing to divers accidents the marriage had been from time to
time put off.
[050]
Now Pasimondas, being about to celebrate his nuptials
with exceeding great pomp, bethought him that he could not do
better than, to avoid a repetition of the pomp and expense, arrange, if
so he might, that his brother should be wedded on the same day
with himself. So, having consulted anew with Cassandra's kinsfolk,
and come to an understanding with them, he and his brother and
they conferred together, and agreed that on the same day that
Pasimondas married Iphigenia, Hormisdas should marry Cassandra.
[051]
Lysimachus, getting wind of this arrangement, was mortified beyond
measure, seeing himself thereby deprived of the hope which he cherished
of marrying Cassandra himself, if Hormisdas should not forestall
him.
[052]
But like a wise man he concealed his chagrin, and cast about
how he might frustrate the arrangement: to which end he saw no
other possible means but to carry Cassandra off.
[053]
It did not escape
him that the office which he held would render this easily feasible,
but he deemed it all the more dishonourable than if he had not held
the office; but, in short, after much pondering, honour yielded place
to love, and he made up his mind that, come what might, he would
carry Cassandra off.
[054]
Then, as he took thought what company he
should take with him, and how he should go about the affair, he
remembered Cimon, whom he had in prison with his men, and it
occurred to him that he could not possibly have a better or more trusty
associate in such an enterprise than Cimon.
[055]
Wherefore the same night
he caused Cimon to be brought privily to him in his own room, and
thus addressed him:
Cimon, as the gods are most generous and
liberal to bestow their gifts on men, so are they also most sagacious
to try their virtue; and those whom they find to be firm and steadfast
in all circumstances they honour, as the most worthy, with the
highest rewards.
[056]
They have been minded to be certified of thy
worth by better proofs than thou couldst afford them, as long as thy
life was bounded by thy father's house amid the superabundant wealth
which I know him to possess: wherefore in the first place they so
wrought upon thee with the shrewd incitements of Love that from an
insensate brute, as I have heard, thou grewest to be a man; since
when, it has been and is their intent to try whether evil fortune and
harsh imprisonment may avail to change thee from the temper that
was
thine when for a short while thou hadst joyance of the prize
thou hadst won.
[057]
And so thou prove the same that thou wast then,
they have in store for thee a boon incomparably greater than aught
that they vouchsafed thee before: what that boon is, to the end thou
mayst recover heart and thy wonted energies, I will now explain to
thee.
[058]
Pasimondas, exultant in thy misfortune and eager to compass thy
death, hastens to the best of his power his nuptials with thy Iphigenia;
that so he may enjoy the prize that Fortune, erstwhile smiling, gave
thee, and forthwith, frowning, reft from thee. Whereat how sore
must be thy grief, if rightly I gauge thy love, I know by my own
case, seeing that his brother Hormisdas addresses himself to do me on
the same day a like wrong in regard of Cassandra, whom I love more
than aught else in the world.
[059]
Nor see I that Fortune has left us
any way of escape from this her unjust and cruel spite, save what we
may make for ourselves by a resolved spirit and the might of our
right hands: take we then the sword, and therewith make we, each,
prize of his lady, thou for the second, I for the first time: for so thou
value the recovery, I say not of thy liberty, for without thy lady I doubt
thou wouldst hold it cheap, but of thy lady, the gods have placed it in
thine own hands, if thou art but minded to join me in my enterprise.
[060]
These words restored to Cimon all that he had lost of heart and
hope, nor pondered he long, before he replied:
Lysimachus, comrade
stouter or more staunch than I thou mightst not have in such
an enterprise, if such indeed it be as thou sayst: wherefore lay upon
me such behest as thou shalt deem meet, and thou shalt marvel to
witness the vigour of my performance.
[061]
Whereupon Lysimachus:
On the third day from now,
quoth he,
their husbands' houses
will be newly entered by the brides, and on the same day at even we
too will enter them in arms, thou with thy men, and I with some of
mine, in whom I place great trust, and forcing our way among the
guests and slaughtering all that dare to oppose us, will bear the ladies
off to a ship which I have had privily got ready.
[062]
Cimon approved
the plan, and kept quiet in prison until the appointed time;
[063]
which being come, the nuptials were celebrated with great pomp and
magnificence, that filled the houses of the two brothers with festal
cheer.
[064]
Then Lysimachus having made ready all things meet, and fired
Cimon and his men and his own friends for the enterprise by a long
harangue, disposed them in due time, all bearing arms under their
cloaks,
in three companies; and having privily despatched one company
to the port, that, when the time should come to embark, he might
meet with no let, he marched with the other two companies to the
house of Pasimondas, posted the one company at the gate, that, being
entered, they might not be shut in or debarred their egress, and, with
the other company and Cimon, ascended the stairs,
[065]
and gained the
saloon, where the brides and not a few other ladies were set at several
tables to sup in meet order: whereupon in they rushed, and overthrew
the tables and seized each his own lady, and placed them in
charge of their men, whom they bade bear them off forthwith to the
ship that lay ready to receive them.
[066]
Whereupon the brides and the
other ladies and the servants with one accord fell a sobbing and
shrieking, insomuch that a confused din and lamentation filled the
whole place.
[067]
Cimon, Lysimachus and their band, none withstanding,
but all giving way before them, gained the stairs, which they were
already descending when they encountered Pasimondas, who, carrying
a great staff in his hand, was making in the direction of the noise;
but one doughty stroke of Cimon's sword sufficed to cleave his skull
in twain, and lay him dead at Cimon's feet,
[068]
and another stroke
disposed of hapless Hormisdas, as he came running to his brother's
aid. Some others who ventured to approach them were wounded
and beaten off by the retinue.
[069]
So forth of the house, that reeked
with blood and resounded with tumult and lamentation and woe,
sped Simon and Lysimachus with all their company, and without any
let, in close order, with their fair booty in their midst, made good
their retreat to the ship; whereon with the ladies they one and all
embarked, for the shore was now full of armed men come to rescue
the ladies, and, the oarsmen giving way, put to sea elate.
[070]
Arrived at
Crete, they met with a hearty welcome on the part of their many
friends and kinsfolk; and, having married their ladies, they made
greatly merry, and had gladsome joyance of their fair booty. Their
doings occasioned, both in Cyprus and in Rhodes, no small stir and
commotion, which lasted for a long while: but in the end, by the
good offices of their friends and kinsfolk in both islands, 'twas so
ordered as that after a certain term of exile Cimon returned with
Iphigenia to Cyprus, and in like manner Lysimachus returned with
Cassandra to Rhodes; and long and blithely thereafter lived they,
each well contented with his own wife in his own land.