Novel VI
Novel VI
[Voice: fiammetta]
[001] Michele Scalza proves to certain young men that the Baronci are the best gentlemen in the world and the Maremma, and wins a supper.
[002] The ladies were still laughing over Giotto's ready retort, when the queen charged Fiammetta to follow suit; wherefore thus Fiammetta began:
[003] Pamfilo's mention of the Baronci, who to you, Damsels, are perchance not so well known as to him, has brought to my mind a story in which 'tis shewn how great is their nobility; and, for that it involves no deviation from our rule of discourse, I am minded to tell it you.
[004]
'Tis no long time
since there dwelt in our city a young man,
Michele Scalza by name, the
pleasantest and merriest fellow in the
world, and the best furnished with
quaint stories: for which reason
the Florentine youth set great store on
having him with them when
they forgathered in company.
[005]
Now it so befell
that one day, he
being with a party of them at Mont' Ughi, they fell a
disputing
together on this wise; to wit, who were the best gentlemen and
of
the longest descent in Florence. One said, the Uberti, another, the
Lamberti, or some other family, according to the predilection of the
speaker.
[006]
Whereat Scalza began to smile, and said:
Now out
upon you, out
upon you, blockheads that ye are: ye know not what
ye say. The best
gentlemen and of longest descent in all the world
and the Maremma (let
alone Florence) are the Baronci by the
common consent of all
phisopholers,
[007]
Whereupon the young men,
who had looked for somewhat else from
him, said derisively:
Thou dost
but jest with us; as if we did not
know the Baronci as well as thou!
[008]
Quoth Scalza:
By the Gospels
I jest not, but speak sooth; and if there
is any of you will wager a
supper to be given to the winner and six good
fellows whom he
shall choose, I will gladly do the like, and--what is
more--I will
abide by the decision of such one of you as you may
choose.
[009]
Then
said one of them whose name was Neri Mannini:
I am
ready to
adventure this supper;
and so they agreed together that Piero
di
Fiorentino, in whose house they were, should be judge, and hied them
to him followed by all the rest, eager to see Scalza lose, and triumph
in
his discomfiture, and told Piero all that had been said.
[010]
Piero, who
was a
young man of sound sense, heard what Neri had to say; and
then turning to
Scalza:
And how,
quoth he,
mayst thou make
good what thou
averrest?
[011]
I will demonstrate it,
returned
Scalza,
by
reasoning so cogent that not only you, but he that denies
it shall
acknowledge that I say sooth.
[012]
You know, and so they were
saying but now,
that the longer men's descent, the better is their
gentility, and I say
that the Baronci are of longer descent, and thus
better gentlemen than any
other men. If, then, I prove to you that
they are of longer descent than
any other men, without a doubt the
victory in this dispute will rest with
me.
[013]
Now you must know that
when God made the Baronci, He was but a novice
in His art, of
which, when He made the rest of mankind, He was already
master.
[014]
And to assure yourself that herein I say sooth, you have but to
consider
the Baronci, how they differ from the rest of mankind, who all
have faces well composed and duly proportioned, whereas of the
Baronci you
will see one with a face very long and narrow, another
with a face
inordinately broad, one with a very long nose, another
with a short one,
one with a protruding and upturned chin, and
great jaws like an ass's; and
again there will be one that has one eye
larger than its fellow, or set on
a lower plane; so that their faces
resemble those that children make when
they begin to learn to draw.
[015]
Whereby, as I said, 'tis plainly manifest
that, when God made them,
He was but novice in His art; and so they are of
longer descent
than the rest of mankind, and by consequence better
gentlemen.
[016]
By which entertaining argument Piero, the judge, and Neri
who had
wagered the supper, and all the rest, calling to mind the
Baronci's
ugliness, were so tickled, that they fell a laughing,
and averred that
Scalza was in the right, and that he had won the wager,
and that
without a doubt the Baronci were the best gentlemen, and of the
longest descent, not merely in Florence, but in the world and the
Maremma
to boot.
[017]
Wherefore 'twas not without reason that
Pamfilo, being minded to
declare Messer Forese's ill-favouredness,
said that he would have been
hideous beside a Baroncio.