Boccaccio's "Ars Moriendi" in the DecameronAuthor(s): Jonathan UsherSource: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 81, No. 3 (Jul., 1986), pp. 621-632Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3729185 .

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BOCCACCIO'S ARS MORIENDI IN THE DECAMERON

This article aims to show that death, ostensibly left behind in Florence with the plague, re-enters at once the artistically ordered world of the Decameron's storytellers, but in doing so undergoes some significant transformations.

Concern with man's last moments1 is not one of the more striking hallmarks of Boccaccio's literary output. With regard to the Decameron in particular, critics have rightly stressed the escapist function of the cornice, and the clear bias of the novelle towards the affairs of this world rather than of the next. My analysis of the Decameron aims to show that concern with death and the hereafter is never very far from the minds of the storytellers, who incorporate mortality and eschatological beliefs into many of the novelle.

Death makes its first entrance in the Decameron not with the spectacular description of the plague in the Introduction but in the 'autobiographically' embroidered Proem. Here the author indicates his intention to dedicate his work to ladies: the motive is one of transferred gratitude. The author has suffered a near-fatal exposure to burning passion. A friend's timely intervention with pleasant discourse provided the 'rif- rigerio'2 which brought down his temperature and probably saved his life. Boccaccio now repays his debt: not to his friend, who has no need of help, but to those worse off than himself, ladies stricken with 'noia'. This situation, which mixes eros and thanatos, and then proposes a regulator in the form of art (the friend's pleasant discourse), is a significant foreshadowing of the patterning of the Decameron as a whole.

The Introduction then proposes a very different kind of mortality: no longer figurative but real, no longer private but promiscuous, no longer the sequel to long- drawn-out passions and the absence of loved ones but rather the result of precipitate infection and contagious intimacy. The causes and effects of this pandemic3 clearly differ from those of the author's private agony in the Proem, but what is remarkable is that Boccaccio proposes a parallel course of treatment to remedy it: namely, the pleasant discourse of the novelle.

The passage describing the plague is justly famous, and though its rhetorical origins4 dictate caution, it is of prime importance for an understanding ofBoccaccio's attitude towards death. Just as the tale of Madonna Oretta (Decameron, vi, i) can be read as an implicit lesson on how to tell stories through its pointed criticism of typical errors,5 so the depiction of unrestrained and anarchic mortality during the plague can be read like a photographic negative to reveal the author's underlying assumptions about the role of death in society.

The passage deals almost entirely with the external manifestations of demise and last rites; the spiritual and emotional state of the moribund, and the inner grief of the survivors, are passed over in silence. The emphasis on the public aspects of death is not

1 The fundamental study on this topic is by P. Aries, L'Homme devant la mort (Paris, 1977), henceforward referred to as 'Aries'.

2 A term with clear eschatological overtones; see J. Le Goff, La Naissance du Purgatoire (Paris, 1981), pp. 70-74?

3By far the most comprehensive bibliography on this topic can be found inJ. N. Biraben, Les Hommes et la peste en France et dans les pays mediterraneens, 2 vols (Paris, I975-76), I, I86-4I 3.

4A concise bibliography of discussion of the plague description can be found in G. Boccaccio, Decameron, edited by V. Branca (Turin, 1980), pp. lxxxiii-lxxxiv. All further references to the Decameron will use, where appropriate, the day, novella number and period number from this edition.

5 See G. Almansi, 'Lettura della novella di Madonna Oretta' in Paragone-Letteratura, 23 (1972).

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Boccaccio's 'Ars Moriendi' in the 'Decameron'

some sudden and temporary reaction to the gruesome spectacle of the plague but rather the manifestation of a long-term attitude whose last traces have only recently disappeared (see Aries, pp. 26-27). Death for fourteenth-century man was a supremely social occasion, a ritual in which the dying man played a consciously central role, surrounded by family, clerics, and even strangers. The lonely agony of the plague victims is, for Boccaccio, a distressing infraction of the norm:'. . . quasi abbandonati per tutto languieno'; '. .. ma assai n'eran di quegli che di questa vita senza testimonio trapassavano';'... e molti, ancora che nelle case finissero, prima col puzzo de' lor corpi corrotti che altramenti facevano a' vicini sentire se esser morti'. Paid substitutes for the assistance of one's family and peers are unseemly and unsatisfactory: 'Li quali [servi] quasi di niuna altra cosa servieno che di porgere alcune cose dagl'infermi adomandate o di riguardare quando morieno.'

The privileged role of the dying man in his own drama was recognized in principle by Boccaccio, who illustrated such moments several times in the novelle of the Decameron. The theatrical solemnity of such occasions was normally enhanced by the lapse of time between the onset of fatal symptoms and the moment of expiry, which allowed for adequate spiritual and social preparation in what might be regarded as the 'stage-management' of death. In the case of the plague victims, diagnosis and demise follow so swiftly upon each other than no such preliminaries can be envisaged, even if an audience could be found for such a mise en scene. Boccaccio writes with Ciceronian wonderment of persons 'li quali non che altri, ma Galieno, Ipocrate o Esculapio avrieno giudicati sanissimi, la mattina desinarono co' lor parenti, compagni e amici, che poi la sera vegnente appresso nell'altro mondo cenaron con li lor passati' (Introduzione, 48).

Death conferred authority upon the dying man: his last wishes carried solemn weight with those who attended at his deathbed. Boccaccio, who respects this usage in his novelle, is clearly appalled at the way in which the plague has swept away the authority of agony along with all the other social sanctions. During the epidemic, the most fundamental of last wishes, election of burial place, is ignored: 'Non a quella chiesa che esso aveva anzi la morte disposto, ma alla piu vicina le piu volte il portavano.' Outward signs of respect in the form of funerary ostentation, a convention which Boccaccio punctiliously observes in his fictional obsequies, are abandoned amidst general indifference:6 the author heightens his display of indig- nation by prefacing his portrayal of the hasty disposal of plague victims with a detailed and approving inventory of former pomp: processions, candles, clerics in suitable numbers, pall-bearers of appropriate rank, the wailing of professional mourners, and so on.

Rhetoric, too, serves to emphasize the disparity between Boccaccio's ideal assumptions and the plague experience. One of the more visible literary devices used in the plague description is the so-called mundus inversus topos: the city and its contado are no longer a society of men but of animals: 'Non come uomini ma quasi come bestie morieno'; 'che non altramenti si curava degli uomini che morivano, che ora si curerebbe di capre'; 'e con tutto questo proponimento bestiale sempre gl'infermi fuggivano a lor potere'. This demotion of man is then underlined by the subsequent

6 The lack of candles may have had an economic rather than a social cause: the number of interments occasioned by the plague exhausted the supply of beeswax, hence there was rationing in some communes; see E. Carpentier, Une Ville devant la peste, Orvieto et la Peste Noire de 1348 (Paris, I962), pp. 125, 231.

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promotion of animals to quasi-human status:7 'E molti, quasi come razionali, poi che pasciuti erano bene il giorno, la notte alle lor case senza alcuno correggimento di pastore si tornavano.' Boccaccio is judging society by the collapse of its funerary standards, and the verdict he brings is severe: society has broken down. Clearly the 'threshhold of tolerance' has been crossed.8

The constitution of the 'lieta brigata' and their removal to idyllic surroundings is not, however, an escape from the plague's contagion. The author of the Introduction takes great pains to demonstrate by his rhetorically balanced city/countryside comparison that mortality was equally severe in rural areas: 'Non per cio meno d'alcuna cosa risparmio il circustante contado.' The narrators of the 'lieta brigata' are well aware of the risks, and Pampinea sets the record straight in her opening speech: rural isolation merely renders the spectacle of death less offensive to the senses: 'Quantunque quivi cosi muoiano i lavoratori come qui fanno i cittandini, v'e tanto minore il dispiacere quanto vi sono piiu che nelle citta rade le case e gli abitanti.' She then openly admits that flight may not grant personal immunity: 'E tanto dimorare in tal guisa, che noi veggiamo, seprima da morte non siam sopragiunte, che fine il cielo riserbi a queste cose.'

What, then, are the young people fleeing from, if death remains a possibility? The answer would seem to be that they wish to distance themselves from both the unseemly dying and the unseemly living which the plague has engendered in Florence. Pampinea's defence of the evacuation of the brigata from Florence inter- twines in masterly fashion the twin themes of shameful death and licentious living. The two threads remain distinct until the moment when she proposes departure, when suddenly they become fused into one phrase: 'Io giudicherei ottimamente fatto che noi ... di questa terra uscissimo, efuggendo come la morte i disonesti essempli degli altri onestamente a' nostri luoghi in contado ... ce ne andassimo a stare.' The measures which the brigata then adopt are almost entirely moral in nature, with the emphasis on reason and order on the one hand, and delight and entertainment on the other. Such ethical prophylaxis was in keeping with contemporary medical opinion: Tommaso del Garbo's Consiglio contro a pistolenza recommends 'con ordine prendere allegrezza', and various Italian communes passed exceptional statutes to limit the scope of public mourning and even to promotejollity.9 Boccaccio appears to equate the risks of death by plague with the dangers of disordered passion he has alluded to in the Proem: both perils may be lessened by ajudicious admixture of reason and pleasure. There is more than a hint of the Horatian literary precepts of utility and delight (Art of Poetry, 333) in this therapy: precepts which Boccaccio expressly refers to in the Proem.

Emphasis on the positive morale of the group is explicit: Pampinea declares: 'Festevolmente viver si vuole, ne altra cagione dalle tristizie ci ha fatte fuggire.' To preserve this delicate serenity, the servants are enjoined not to bring bad news from

7 The 'istinti belluini' were remarked upon by V. Branca in Boccaccio medievale (Florence, 1975), pp. 40-4I. Strangely, C. O'Cuilleanain, 'Man and Beast in the Decameron', MLR, 75 (1980), 86-93, does not pick up this reference. C. Muscetta, 'Giovanni Boccaccio e i novellieri' in Storia della letteratura italiana, Vol. n: II Trecento, edited by E. Cecchi and N. Sapegno (Milan, I965), p. 373, notices the humanization of the animals, but does not link this with the demotion of man.

8 F. Lebrun, Les Hommes et la mort en Anjou aux XVII' et XVIIIc siecles (Paris and The Hague, I971), pp. 334, argues that death was accepted up to a certain numerical threshhold (about 5o/Iooo), after which point social cohesion breaks down.

9 Garbo's dictum is quoted by Branca in G. Boccaccio, Decameron, p. 35, n. 7. For a review of the emergency measures promulgated by the communes, see Carpentier, pp. 132-34; also Branca, in G. Boccaccio's Decameron, p. 23, n. 5, and p. 33, n. 6.

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the outside: 'Dove che egli vada, onde che egli torni, che che egli oda o vegga, niuna novella altra che lieta ci rechi di fuori.' That psychological quarantine will be breached for two reasons: first, the outside world is able to impinge on the idyll of the brigata, not only with news of death but also with the threat of an invasion of privacy; secondly, the young storytellers themselves freely refer to lugubrious topics and fatal issues in their novelle. These two kinds of reference to death are markedly different in conception and narrative effect, and need separate examination.

The penetration of the cornice by exterior elements cannot be blamed on the servants, who obey their injunction to the letter. The real culprits are the narrators themselves, who unwittingly carry to their country retreats a hidden germ of disquiet. Unease first surfaces on the second day's storytelling, when Neifile concludes by proposing a change of venue to avoid gatecrashers: 'Se noi vogliam tor via che gente nuova non ci sopravenga, reputo oportuno di mutarci di qui e andarne altrove.' Later, at the end of the third day, Filostrato, whose amorous impasse is clearly modelled upon that of the author of the Proem, imposes his theme of love with an unhappy ending. Whilst the occasion for such a theme is purely literary (variety of content and tone), and has nothing to do with the dead and dying of the plague, the reactions of the other interlocutors to the imposition of this depressing topic are illuminating. Fiammetta, the first narrator of the fourth day, comments critically: 'Fiera materia di ragionare n'ha oggi il nostro re data, pensando che, dove per rallegrarci venuti siamo, ci convenga raccontar l'altrui lagrime.' Nevertheless, she complies with Filostrato's instructions. Not so with Pampinea, who, conscious of the possible damage to group morale, attempts to subvert the King's intentions: Pampinea, a se sentendo il comandamento venuto, piu per la sua affezione cognobbe l'animo delle compagne che quello del re per le sue parole: e per cio, piui disposta a dovere alquanto recrear loro che a dovere, fuori del comandamento solo, il re contentare, a dire una novella, senza uscir del proposto, da ridere si dispose. When the day's mournful theme has run its course, and Dioneo can change the atmosphere, his relief is self-evident: 'Le miserie degl' infelici amori raccontate, non che a voi, donne, ma a me hanno gia contristati gli occhi e'l petto, per che io sommamente disiderato ho che a capo se ne venisse. Ora, lodato sia Idio, che finite sono.' In making such ironic self-commentary, Boccaccio is trying not only to signal conscious authorial decision but also to create an enigmatic environment for the reception of his novelle, where sadness is filtered through narrators and an audience inclined to extract cheer from the story telling.

Despite the brigata's lack of stomach for grim talk, manifest in their choice of an unbroken series of optimistic themes from the fifth day onwards, the plague intrudes twice in the course of the sixth day. The first instance is when Lauretta makes an uncharacteristic slip of the tongue, and declares that the protagonist of the third novella, Nonna de' Pulci, has subsequently died of the plague: 'La quale questa pistolenzia presente ci ha tolta donna.' The second occasion is when Dioneo, freshly crowned king for the next day, wards off criticism from the other narrators that the theme he has chosen is too scabrous. He defends himself by referring to the decline in public morality during the plague and, in a repetition of Pampinea's twin-pronged tactics, mollifies his critics by suggesting that their onesta is proof not only against licentious narration but also against 'il terrore della morte.' Characteristically, this discussion with its negative associations is capped by the optimistic episode of the Valle delle donne, with its unmistakable symbols of eternal life. A paradoxical

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explanation for the vitality of the brigata's natural surroundings appears in the preface to the ninth day: wildlife abounds and is preternaturally tame because the epidemic has curbed the activities of hunters. Within this temporary game-reserve, the brigata enjoy a parnassian, semi-immortal status, which prompts the author to remark 'O costor non saranno dalla morte vinti o ella gli uccidera lieti.' The significance of this exclamation, and of the mysterious reference earlier to the 'terrore della morte', will become clear only at the end of the tenth day.

The last intrusion of unpleasant reality into the protected world of the storytellers comes at the close of the tenth day, when the King, Panfilo, recommends an end to their rural sojourn. He reiterates the reasons for their original exodus from Florence, 'A sostentamento della nostra sanita e della vita, cessando le malinconie e' dolori e l'angoscie, le quali per la nostra citta continuamente, poi che questo pistolenzioso tempo comincio, si veggono, uscimmo di Firenze.' He then explains why they must now go back. Amongst the reasons he puts forward, two stand out as particularly important: the risk of boredom and the threat that the brigata will be contaminated by latecomers.

These two points confirm the impression that the quarantine of the brigata is essentially moral, and not sanitary in the modern sense of the term. By assiduous management of their mental well-being, the narrators have gained an immunity from the plague: a definitive immunity in terms of ethical standards, and a qualified one in terms of physical survival. The proof of the prophylatic success of the cornice lies in the fact that the brigata are now ready to return, thus protected, to the rigours of the city, where the plague is still raging. The two cryptic references to immortality are now seen in a new light as early but optimistic assessments of the young people's resistance to the catastrophe destroying the rest of society.

There remains the problem of why Boccaccio allowed his locus amaonus to be sullied with such depressing references. The infractions of Pampinea's 'festevolmente vivere' seem too numerous and too structured to be explained away as inadvertence or subsequent deviation from an initially-stated principle, and may therefore be part of a deliberate strategy by the author. In fact, the intrusions of 'reality' might be dictated by the very nature of the cornice, with its limited range of participants and its isolated, idealized arena. One of the difficulties of a literary microcosm (such as the cornice of the Decameron) which purports to be radically different from the world it is being compared with is that the exception very rapidly becomes the norm, and the implied contrast between the microcosm and the macrocosm becomes blurred and ineffective. To counter any tendency towards assuefaction, the author must strive to keep both worlds within the readers' purview. In the case of the Decameron cornice, we can see that Boccaccio emphasizes the brigata's isolation and moral superiority by a series of well-timed reminders of the pestilence sweeping through Florence.

With the integrity of his microcosm paradoxically established by the brigata's infractions of their quarantine, Boccaccio is free to contemplate the range of stories his narrators will tell. The novelle of the Decameron constitute one of the major ingredients in the cure of the plague. Many are jovial antidotes to the traumatic feelings aroused by the epidemic, but if these were the only active ingredients in Boccaccio's therapy, then it would be difficult to explain the presence of a very considerable number of tragic tales. Concern for variety may well be a contributing factor in the selection of material, but such a psychologically undiscriminating

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approach would seem to be at odds with the elaborately-conceived narrational environment of the cornice. Boccaccio may have felt that the novelle with a tragic (or potentially tragic) content were able to offer something extra in the way of artistic protection for the brigata, and, by extension, solace or comfort for the idle ladies of his intended audience.

Death, both actual and potential, appears in a wide variety ofnarrative situations in the stories of the brigata. It has been remarked that writers of fiction are alone able to commit mass-murder with impunity.10 Even by these sanguinary standards, Boccac- cio must rank as exceptionally homicidal. The casualty list for the Decameron is of horrendous dimensions. Leaving aside as the work of another the 'oltre a centomilia creature umane' who perish during the plague, the author is responsible for the deaths of at least eighty identifiable persons, 1 to which must be added a large but unspecified number of 'unknown soldiers'. Cause of death ranges from benign old age to more dramatic ends, such as acute illness, grief, and violence. The world recreated by the narrators is a very dangerous place, with little chance of dying in one's own bed, but a fair risk of succumbing in somebody else's.

This high level of risk is not evenly distributed: certain days, given their theme, are understandably quieter than others. For instance, nobody dies during the course of the sixth day, and only one person during the seventh (which is not to say that death is absent from the narration, as will be seen). What is striking is not so much the distribution of death throughout the Decameron as the correlation between narrative position in a novella and cause of death. Demise in the opening sequences of a story is nearly always that of parents or spouses, and is usually free from suspicious circumstances. Death in the middle of a novella is altogether more dramatic, with an increased chance of violence or fate playing a part. A character who holds out only to die at the end of a story stands an above-average risk of suicide, execution, or nervous decline. These probabilities reflect narrative expediencies, of which more later.

Side by side with these 'certifiable' deaths, Boccaccio regales us with an equally imposing array ofpseudo-thanatological situations. Setting aside verbal cliches and so forth, we are left with a catalogue of potentially lethal situations quite as varied as that of actual deaths. These range from comas, accidents, and illnesses, threats of suicide or execution, to death by hearsay (believing, or making believe that a living person is dead). Needless to say, such references to merely potential mortality are distributed in a different way, and tend to counterbalance the lack of substantive deaths in some of the days' storytelling.

Whichever form ofdeath, real or fictive, is featured in the novelle, one thing remains constant: Boccaccio does not dwell on the physical process of dying. Though a rich lexis is employed to denote decease, the verbal treatment is extremely reticent, with scarcely any qualification being accorded to the verb. Basically, Boccaccio's victims in the Decameron just die. Death seems to be treated with the same kind of coyness as sexual activity. What Boccaccio seeks, whether describing sex or death, is narrative usefulness: an economical treatment ofthe moment of death allows the author to move on swiftly to the consequences for the survivors.

10 P. Ajame, 'Meurtres avec premeditation' in Magazine litteraire, i67 (1983), I6-I7. This issue of the magazine is devoted to essays on death in literature. 11 Given Boccaccio's penchant for widows, I have counted the implicitly deceased husbands in this total.

Among the anonymous fallen are sailors (n1, 7; IV, 4; v, 2; x, 9), guards and soldiers (Ii, 6; n1, 7; x, 9), family, servants, and miscellaneous victims of catastrophes (In, 8; II, I o).

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Bearing in mind Boccaccio's rhetorically-paired treatment of plague and pre- plague funeral customs in the Introduction, one sees that the narrators abide faithfully by the conventions current before the epidemic. Though many of the protagonists of the Decameron novelle are victims of 'mors repentina' and can therefore be regarded as unlucky (Aries, pp. 18-20), few of them suffer the fate of dying alone. Indeed, proximity to one's loved ones can be fatal, sometimes doubly so. Death from old age or illness usually gives times for spiritual and legal settlement of the moribund's affairs (for deathbed accountancy, see Ser Cepparello in I, I; Antioco in ii, 7; the Queen of France in II, 8; Guidotto da Cremona in v, 5). Funeral niceties are scrupulously respected; for reasons of narrative economy, however, funerals at the end of a novella stand a better chance of being described in detail.

If the novelle reveal a relatively unquestioning reassertion of traditional values, what then is the difference between the fictional deaths and mortal risks of the Decameron, and the business of dying in the 'real' world outside? What sets the victims of the novelle apart from their non-fictional counterparts is that in literature all deaths are functional. Nobody dies uselessly: not even the 'extras' who die anonymously. This is in strong contrast to the plague, which picks people off indiscriminately, and also to 'normal' existence, where Atropos's shears seem to cut no discernible pattern. Death in the Decameron is part of a controlled, consequential, and artistically manipulated creation, and as such has an important role to play in the elaboration of successful narrative models.

For the novelist, death, far from being a sterile end to everything, is a tempting gambit. Like love, with which it is frequently associated in literature,12 it is one of the main manifestations of the workings of destiny, and provides that essential destabili- zing function that sets in motion or arrests dramatic action. The events which surround a death are not necessarily tragic from a narrative point of view: a lover's demise may signal the most desperate of human predicaments, but the disappear- ance of an inconvenient rival, or of a rich but obstructive parent, may usher in an unprecedented period of enjoyment. Even from the admittedly biased viewpoint of the victim, death is not afortiori a scourge: at times it can offer an escape from the distress of this world, or an opportunity to be reunited with loved ones. Occasio- nally, it may offer the supreme satisfaction of providing a means for revenge.

The same narrative advantages hold, perhaps to an even greater extent, for the pseudo-thanatological situations. They offer the same frisson, the same access to primal emotions and dramatic opportunities, but they also have the unique characteristic of being reversible. Boccaccio shows that he is well aware of the fictional potential of near-death, and exploits it to the full with examples ofagnition, peripeteia, suspense, and narrowly-avoided incest and necrophilia. Death averted by a hairsbreadth is one of the ingredients which add most piquancy to those adventure-novelle which have happy endings.

Boccaccio's utilization of death as a narrative gambit falls into three broad categories: initial, catalytic, and conclusive. The initial situations, where death heralds the start of an action, or permits the unblocking of a static narrative environment, are rarely dramatic in themselves, and are given scant verbal atten- tion. Cause of death is never revealed, and no comment is made about feelings of

12 For eros and thanatos in Boccaccio, see D. Branca, 'La morte di Tristano e la morte di Arcita' in Studi sul Boccaccio, 4 (I968), 225-64.

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628 Boccaccio's 'Ars Moriendi' in the 'Decameron'

grief or loss: these characters are pen-fodder destined for an early martyrdom, and Boccaccio has no time for tenderness. He is busy launching the survivors into a new phase of existence. In keeping with this utilitarian, expeditive role, the majority of such initial deaths occur between the fourth and the ninth sentences (the variation is primarily due to the differing length of bridge passages between the novella and its predecessor).

Catalytic deaths are another matter. These are the events which constitute the dramatic core of many of the stories. Occurring at moments of narrative climax, they cause abrupt, emotionally-demanding changes in the lives and outlook of the survivors. As a result, Boccaccio is obliged to treat the circumstances and manner of these deaths with much more care and detail. Cause of decease is now indicated with great precision: since dramatic requirements, especially in the cramped environ- ment of the short story form, prefer the convenience of sudden and unexpected expiry, violence and acute physiological failure are exceptionally well represented. Such 'mors repentina' does not, however, imply a solitary, unwitnessed death of the kind Boccaccio found so shocking during the plague. One of the consequences of the dramatic importance of these catalytic events is that death must be seen to have a direct bearing on the subsequent behaviour of the other protagonists. This means that in practice the last moments of such victims are almost invariably shared, sometimes in the company of loved ones, sometimes in the unwelcome presence of the assassin. Here too, as in the case of the initial deaths, the moment of passing is rarely given much emphasis, and Boccaccio switches attention abruptly from the deceased to the survivors or witnesses: Lei gridante merce e aiuto svenarono, e in mar gittandola disson: 'Togli, noi la ti diamo qual noi possiamo e chente la tua fede l'ha meritata.' Gerbino, veggendo la crudelta di costoro, quasi di morir vago, non curando di saetta ne di pietra, alla nave si fece accostare.

(Iv, 4, 23-24)

As can be seen from this example, such forms of demise provoke highly-coloured and dramatically creative responses from the survivors. Boccaccio, in contrast to his treatment of the initial deaths, now allows for signs of grief on the part of the living. Curiously, these expressions of emotional abandon are often conveyed by means of a formula of authorial reticence, a device already used to describe erotic climaxes: 'Quanto fosse grave e noioso alla giovane che piu che se l'amava, ciascuna sel dee poter pensare' (iv, 6, 22). Even more curious, though understandable in terms of plot expediency, is the way in which grief can quickly be replaced by businesslike action. This is especially noticeable in the cases of bereaved heroines, whose arrangements for the interment of their menfolk show hard-headed resourcefulness: Lisabetta's attempt at dissection (iv, 5 16) is perhaps the most famous, but other examples of female willpower are not lacking.13

The long-term effects of these dramatically important deaths are very different from those of the initial group. The disappearance of a protagonist is no longer an opportunity but a problem: a problem soluble only by proposing another death. Paired deaths of lovers are the very quintessence of the fourth day's storytelling, but other patterns of lethal chain-reaction can be seen elsewhere in the Decameron.

13 Tancredi's daughter with her goblet grave (iv, I); Andriuola's improvised bier (iv, 6); Salvestra's invitation to her husband to act as bearer (iv, 8); the doctor's wife's disposal of Ruggieri's 'cadaver' (Iv, I ).

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JONATHAN USHER

Perhaps the most spectacular example is the novella of Alatiel (II, 7), where each death leads to another, making a bloody total of seven confirmed victims (eight if we knew the fate of Costanzio), plus a motley crew composed of Alatiel's sailors, Osbech's soldiers, and Costanzio's retainers. Fatal sequences need not necessarily be composed of two or more real deaths: Boccaccio takes great pleasure in juxta- posing fictive and true mortality in a variety of combinations. Bernabo 'executes' his wife, which leads to genuine execution for Ambrogiuolo (II, 9); the scholar's near fatal exposure is followed by the widow's similar treatment (viii, 7); Amerigo's threat to hang Teodoro is coupled with the order that Violante and her baby be 'suicided' (vi, 7); Martuccio's presumed drowning is followed by Gostanza's unsuc- cessful attempt to drown herself (v, 2); Nastagio's narrowly-averted suicide is given a supernatural dimension by the vision of Guido degli Anastagi's punishment for the same crime (v, 8).

The last category of deaths, those which have a conclusive function, receive a narrative treatment which varies from the perfunctory extinction of the initial group to the momentous agonies of the dramatically important characters. The role of death in this instance is to tie up the loose ends, to tidy up the stage at the end of a performance. Boccaccio's concern for the niceties of dying depends very much on whose last moments are being reported. As I have indicated, social distinction and hierarchical privilege remained very strongly entrenched in funerary custom, despite the Church's insistence that death was the great equalizer (see Aries, pp. 192-95). However, Boccaccio's criteria for granting a decent burial appear to be based at least partly on moral issues. Bereaved lovers who become narratively redundant at the end of a tale are disposed of with dignity, or at least with a rhetorical flourish, provided that they have acted purely and selflessly out of love. Boccaccio's valediction for Simona (iv, 7) is a memorable instance, but the fourth day offers other examples such as Ghismunda (iv, I), Salvestra (Iv,8), and Guiglielmo Rossiglione's wife (Iv, 9). A comparison of these redemptive deaths with other conclusive expirations in the fourth day is instructive. Out-and-out villains like Frate Alberto (IV, 2), or the furtive couples Folco and Ninetta, and Ughetto and Bertella (IV, 3), who have allowed their love to be tainted by greed or malice, come to an undignified end, with no recorded funeral arrangements. There is an echo of the moralizing conclusion of the exemplum in this pattern. In the case of Gerbino (iv, 4), his execution is not a punishment for his love of a Tunisian princess, but rather a harsh sanction for his breach of the ruler's faith. In novella iv, 0o, the apparent pollution of the amorous adventure by Ruggieri's 'death' is punished by the narrowly-avoided execution of the reckless lover.

After the bodies of the principal actors have been removed, Boccaccio uncere- moniously sweeps away the remains of all the minor characters who have outlived their usefulness. Some clearly fall into the same moral categories as the major protagonists: Rinaldo's assailants meet their end on the gallows (I, 2, 42); Faziuolo da Pontremoli's murderers also have their appointment withjustice, this time at the headsman's block (III, 7, 8i).

Others die simply because they get in the way: this is the fate of Riccardo di Chinzica (Ii, Io), who conveniently dies of grief. Cimone's rivals likewise come to a bloody end (v, i), and the falcomanic son of Federigo's lady-love clearly cannot be allowed to intrude on the new romance (v, 9). There are even some unfortunates who have to die simply because the author needs to find an expeditious close to the

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Boccaccio's 'Ars Moriendi' in the 'Decameron'

novella. The death of the Mother Superior allows Masetto to go home honourably (iII, I); the incineration of Alibech's entire family is merely a device to put the bounty-hunter Neerbale on her trail (II, I o).

From the examples of the three kinds of death it is clear that Boccaccio sacrifices lives for narrative advantage. The author's willingness to incur losses is not, however, devoid of all sentiment. Indeed, by introducing death so often, Boccaccio unconsciously betrays deep-seated attitudes, both moral and social. In order to understand his conception of death, we must now look at his portrayal of the phenomenon divorced from its narrative function and context.

For Boccaccio, as indeed for his contemporaries, the boundary between life and death was not clear-cut.14 Diagnostic problems could be considerable: both Salvestra (iv, 8, 24-25) and Andriuola (iv, 6, 22) have to make distressing and repeated tactile examinations before slowly coming to the conclusion that their companions are dead. Even medical practitioners were ill-equipped: Catalina's collapse during pregnancy is wrongly interpreted, and premature burial ensues (x, 4, 6-7). Luckily for her, Gentile decides to open her tomb, and his manual exploration which establishes Catalina's heartbeat is exactly analogous to Salves- tra's less-fortunate diagnostic attempt(x, 4, 9-I2). In each of the above cases, the indistinct physiological boundary between life and death allows Boccaccio to indulge in one of his more persistent fantasies: erotic experiences with totally passive partners. Cimone's intent perusal of the sleeping Efigenia is another variant on the same theme (v, I, 7- IO).

The combination of eros and thanatos appears in a less edifying guise in the novella of Ruggieri d'Aieroli and the doctor's wife (Iv, Io, I5-I6). The opiate which Ruggieri inadvertently drinks produces death-like symptoms. The doctor's wife, relying unwisely on familiarity with her husband's professional expertise, makes a thorough but mistaken diagnosis, painfully pinching and burning Ruggieri's flesh. In the same adulterous context, over-readiness to accept fallible signs of death is put to good use by the abbot in the novella ofFerondo (III, 8).

If the physiological boundary between life and death remains indistinct in Boccaccio's fiction, the same must also be said for his iconography of death.15 The word 'morte' and its synonyms normally denote the act of dying.Just once, however, Boccaccio indulges in his figurative fantasy and promotes death to an active entity. The presentation occurs in the novella of Andriuola and Gabriotto (iv, 6): each of the lovers has a premonitory dream, and ultimately Gabriotto dies. The girl's dream comes first: whilst she is locked in an embrace with Gabriotto, 'una cosa oscura e terribile, la forma della quale non poteva conoscere' issues from his body, wrenches him from Andriuola, and drags him underground. Death has not yet acquired a distinctive physiognomy: all that can be said is that it has terrifying powers and that it is dark in colour. A more coherent outline begins to emerge in the vision of Gabriotto, for whom 'uscisse non so di che parte una veltra nera come carbone, affamata e spaventevole molto nell'apparenza'. The animal tears out his heart and carries it away. The reference to the black bitch is clearly Dantesque in inspiration: both the episodes of the suicides (Inferno, XIII, I25) and ofUgolino (Inferno, xxx, 31)

14 See P. Chaunu, La Mort a Paris (Paris, 1978), pp. 39-4I; also Aries, pp. 30-32, 389. 15 For the general evolution of images of death, see Aries, pp. 112-I25; Aries's conclusions owe a great

deal to two studies by A. Tenenti: La Vie et la mort a travers I'art du XV siecle (Paris, 1952), and II senso della morte e l'amore della vita nel Rinascimento (Turin, 1957).

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JONATHAN USHER

have death as their theme, but Boccaccio has creatively reinterpreted the imagery of the dogs, originally an allegory of penury,16 to produce a personification of death.

Andriuola's and Gabriotto's visions both stressed the element of fear which the prospect of death induces. The 'terrore della morte' alluded to in Dioneo's speech is very real, and Boccaccio highlights the natural panic felt gnawingly by those faced with the threat of judicial execution: Aldobrandino languishes in prison 'piu della soprastante morte pensoso che di speranza di futura salute' (iII, 7, 69); after his timely liberation, Martellino's terror takes a long time to subside: 'Per cio che infino che in Firenze non fosse sempre gli parrebbe il capestro aver in gola' (II, 32). Similar panic is generated by storms at sea: Efigenia weeps uncontrollably as every wave batters her ship (v, 7, 39), and Alatiel and her companions are half dead with fright as their craft is driven crewless before the storm (n1, 7, I3). On occasion, those of a stouter temperament, who had previously contemplated death with equanimity, show signs of acute alarm once it stares them in the face: 'I1 misero Landolfo, ancora che molte volte il di davanti la morte chiamata avesse . . . vedendola presta n'ebbe paura' (II, 4, I8). Such manifestations of fear, when death is a threat but still avoidable, are to be contrasted with the calm resignation of those whose hour has ineluctibly come. Nobody rebels in his last moments (see Aries, pp. 34-36).

What distinguishes Boccaccio's ars moriendi from its sterner counterparts is not its gentler portrayal of death (the Decameron can claim its fair share of morbid imagery!), or its attitude towards contemporary opinion (Boccaccio is highly conventional), but rather the motivation for dealing with death in the first place. Emilia's comment in the preamble to the novella of Madama Beritola is an important clue: Gravi cose e noiose sono i movimenti varii della fortuna, de' quali per6 che quante volte alcuna cosa si parla, tante e un destare delle nostre menti, le quali leggiermente s'adormen- tano nelle sue lusinghe, giudico mai rincrescer non dover l'ascoltare e a' felici e agli sventurati, in quanto li primi rende avvisati e i secondi consola. (in, 6, 3)

Taken in conjunction with Boccaccio's biblical aphorism, 'E si come la estremita della allegrezza il dolore occupa' (Proverbs 14, I3), it is evident that tragic material can be considered a legitimate source of pleasure. This pleasure is useful in itself, as an antidote to 'noia', but it is also an encouragement to profit from the lessons contained in the novelle. The 'aspri casi d'amore' and 'fortunati avvenimenti', whilst they may not provide norms for future behaviour, do at least provide examples of how to accept or react to destiny. Boccaccio offers the brigata (and, by extension, the reader) a rich diet of vicarious but artistically sifted experience, which allows them to compare their own predicament with that of a chosen sample of humanity.

The brigata's reactions to this literary representation of experience vary but, for all the eclecticism of their responses, one emotion in particular characterizes the narrators' attitude, and that is compassion, alluded to in seventeen cases. It is, after all, the key word in the opening sentence of the Proem, 'Umana cosa e aver compassione degli afflitti'. Along with other human bonds, it has been weakened during the plague, and the novelle with a tragic theme would seem to be Boccaccio's way of exercising and reaffirming this forgotten virtue.

16 Boccaccio himself had interpreted the dogs as penury in his Esposizioni sopra la Comedia di Dante, in Tutte le opere (general editor V. Branca), vi, edited by G. Padoan (Milan, i965), 633, 955 (n. 22).

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632 Boccaccio's 'Ars Moriendi' in the 'Decameron'

Death as a literary topic can therefore be seen to have not only narrative advantages but also ethical advantages for Boccaccio. In taking up the challenge of a sensitive and topical issue, he reveals not only a great deal about contemporary medieval attitudes towards death but also a lot about himself. The achievement of the Decameron is to have refined the gross image of death brought about by the plague, and to have reintegrated it through art into human society.

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH JONATHAN USHER

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