Subversive Storytelling:
Passion, Parody, and Uncourtly Love in a Story from the Decameron
Review from Monday’s Lecture:
The Decameron (c. 1349-1353)
Giovanni Boccaccio
Written in vernacular Italian (rather than Latin)
Mercantile values = values of emerging “middle class”
Frame narrative: the Black Death; the lieta brigata (“merry band”
of 7 ladies & 3 men); the space of the garden retreat
Theme of the Fourth Day:
“those whose love ended unhappily”
Theme of the Fourth Day:
“those whose love ended unhappily”
BUT
“Pampinea … was more inclined to amuse [her companions] than
to satisfy the king in aught but his actual command” (p. 342-3)
subversion/subversive: seeking to undermine the authority of an
established system, or to make it weaker or less effective, by
working secretly from within the system
Frate Alberto = Friar (or
“Brother”) Alberto
What is a friar?
• A member of a religious order, somewhat
similar to a monk
• Like monks, friars take vows of poverty,
chastity, and obedience.
• Unlike monks, friars serve society by
living among the common people.
• Friars travel around and are supported by
donations.
Common negative stereotypes
about friars in medieval period:
• they are greedy and sly
• they are hypocrites who only
pretend to embrace poverty
• they travel from place to
place seducing women.
“The man applied a thick layer of honey to the Friar’s body, after which he covered
him with downy feathers from head to foot. He then tied a chain round his neck,
put a mask over his face, and placed a club in one of his hands, whilst to the Friar’s
other hand he tethered two enormous dogs” (352)
“Thus it was that this arch-villain … had the audacity to
transform himself into the Angel Gabriel. In the end, however,
having been turned from an angel into a savage, he got the
punishment he deserved, and repented in vain for the crimes
he had committed.” (p. 353)
“a story … illustrat[ing] the extraordinary and perverse
hypocrisy of the members of religious orders.” (p. 343)
Courtly Love
amour courtois, fin’ amor
The term “courtly love” refers to a system of erotic ethics; a literary
movement; and a highly conventionalized code which prescribed the
behavior of ladies and their lovers.
Some key aspects of Courtly Love:
• The ennobling force of human love
• The elevation of the beloved (woman) above the lover (man)
• The idea of love as ever-unsatisfied
Usually, such a love expressed itself
using feudal and religious metaphors.
Medieval ideas about women: Eve
Medieval ideas about women: Mary
Views on Women & Love in Medieval Europe
Religious view: Women are by nature carnal, more driven by
sexual desire than men. They are aligned with the body and
associated with the material world, sexuality, sin, and mortality.
Model: Eve the tempter.
In courtly love: Women embody the most noble qualities of
human nature. Devoting oneself to a beloved and virtuous
woman offers men a means of transcending worldly concerns.
Model (13th century onwards): the Virgin Mary.
Parody
A parody is a work created to comment on, critique, or make fun of an
original work by means of exaggerated or ironic imitation:
The story of Friar Alberto works as a parody of the courtly love genre – and
of the close relationship between courtly love and Christian mysticism.
Stages of courtly love
1. Attraction to the lady, usually via the eyes
2. Worship of the lady from afar
3. Declaration of passionate devotion
4. Virtuous rejection by the lady (who is usually married)
5. Renewed wooing with oaths of virtue and eternal fealty
6. Physical manifestations of lovesickness
7. Heroic deeds of valor which win the lady's heart
8. Consummation (sexual or emotional) of the secret love
9. Endless adventures and subterfuges avoiding detection
Uncourtly Love in the Story of Friar Alberto and Monna Lisetta
1. “Love” as deceit and lust, rather than passionate longing for an unattainable lady
2. Parody of some courtly love elements
3. The lady is tricked, not adored
4. Monna Lisetta is not worthy of devotion; Alberto has contempt for her
5. Instead of earthly love leading to divine love (as in Dante and Petrarch), here
fraudulent divine love (Alberto impersonates Gabriel) leads to sex.
“Lady Noodle said she was delighted to hear that the Angel
Gabriel was in love with her, for she herself was greatly
devoted to him and never failed to light a fourpenny candle in
his honour whenever she came across a painting in which he
was depicted. So far as she was concerned, he would be
welcome to visit her whenever he pleased, but only if he
promised not to desert her for the Virgin Mary, of whom it was
said that he was a great admirer, as seemed to be borne out by
the fact that in all the paintings she had seen of him, he was
invariably shown kneeling in front of the Virgin.” (347)
“And in the sixth month
the angel Gabriel was
sent from God unto a
city of Galilee, named
Nazareth, to a virgin
espoused to a man
whose name was Joseph
… and the virgin’s name
was Mary. And the angel
came in unto her, and
said, Hail, thou that art
highly favored, the Lord
is with thee: blessed art
thou among women.”
“And in the sixth month
the angel Gabriel was
sent from God unto a
city of Galilee, named
Nazareth, to a virgin
espoused to a man
whose name was Joseph
… and the virgin’s name
was Mary. And the angel
came in unto her, and
said, Hail, thou that art
highly favored, the Lord
is with thee: blessed art
thou among women.”
blasphemy
the offense of speaking disrespectfully about God or sacred things.
transfiguration
an exalting, glorifying, or spiritual change.
The Transfiguration of Jesus is an episode, described in the New Testament, in
which Jesus begins to shine with bright rays of light. In Christian teachings, the
Transfiguration is a pivotal moment, the point at which human nature meets
God, with Jesus himself as the connecting point, acting as the bridge between
heaven and earth.
“he transfigured himself into an angel [in agnolo si trasfigurò]
with the aid of certain gewgaws that he had brought along for the
purpose” (348)
So, what’s the point?
1. Courtly love parody  takes highly idealized and artificial
construct out of its original aristocratic literary context 
emphasizes disparity between “ideal” and “reality”
2. Inappropriate conflation of divine love and earthly love 
parody of the way courtly love conventions treat earthly love as an
image of divine love, or as a path to spiritual enrichment 
(perhaps) criticizes the idea that earthly desires can bear this much
symbolic weight
The moral of the story?
“In the end, however, having been turned from an angel into a
savage, he got the punishment he deserved, and repented in vain
for the crimes he had committed.” (p. 353)
Filostrato: “The ending of your story was not without a modicum
of merit, from which I drew a certain satisfaction. But there was
far too much matter of a humorous kind in the part that preceded
it, and this I would have preferred to do without.” (p. 353)
From the Epilogue to the Decameron:
“There will perhaps be those among you who will say that in writing
these stories … I have sometimes caused ladies to say, and very often to
hear, things which are not very suitable to be heard or said by virtuous
women. This I deny.”
“Furthermore it is perfectly clear that these stories were told neither in a
church, of whose affairs you must speak with a chaste mind and a pure
tongue (albeit you will find that many of her chronicles are far more
scandalous than any writings of mine), nor in the schools of
philosophers, in which, no less than anywhere else, a sense of decorum
is required, nor in any place where either churchmen or philosophers
were present. They were told in gardens, in a place designed for
pleasure, among people who, though young in years, were none the less
fully mature and not to be led astray by stories …”