Fabula vs.

Figura: Another Interpretation of the Griselda Story

Author(s): Marga Cottino-Jones
Source: Italica, Vol. 50, No. 1 (Spring, 1973), pp. 38-52
Published by: American Association of Teachers of Italian
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/478350
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 FABULA VS. FIGURA: ANOTHER
INTERPRETATION OF THE GRISELDA STORY

Boccaccio's fascination with women, their beauty and

love, is evident everywhere in the Decameron where it is
expressed each day in different fictional modes and narrative
tones. Some novellas, for instance, are harmoniously built
around remarkable female characters who influence the de-
velopment of the story towards a successful finale, such as
the Marchesana del Monferrato (I, 5), Madonna Zinevra (II, 9),
Giletta di Nerbona (III, 9), Gostanza (V, 2), and Madonna
Filippa (VI, 7). Others are developed around fascinating love
situations, as in the adventures of Paganino da Monaco (II, 10),
Pietro Boccamazza and l'Agnolella (V, 3), Nastagio degli
Onesti (V, 8), and Federigo degli Alberighi (V, 9). Sometimes
women and love become the central themes of a whole group
of novellas, as in at least six of the novellas of the Fourth
Day, centered around heroines elevated by love to become
either tragic or elegiac personifications of noble womanhood.
On the other hand, the same topics are dealt with in a
completely different narrative tone in the stories of the Seventh
Day, where the comic interplay of wit and sensual frenzy is
brilliantly effective in the sketching of merry, love-making
heroines of doubtful morality, but undoubted charm. And,
finally, many novellas which belong to the Tenth Day are
centered around idealized women and love: these are the
stories of women greatly admired and desired, like Madonna
Catilina and her near-magic resurrection from the tomb (X, 4).
Madonna Dianora and the bewitched fulfilment of her wish
(X, 5), and Sofronia, the quasi-static pivot of an incredible
intrigue of love and friendship (X, 8). The novella of Lisa, the
frail and inexperienced girl in love with the King, also belongs
to this group for its idealized magnification of love (X, 7), as
does the novella of Griselda and her martyrdom for love
(X, 10).1
Keeping in mind that in most of the novellas thematically
centered around women and love, the main incentive for action

38
 ANOTHER INTERPRETATION OF THE GRISELDA STORY 39

is the personal gratification of the protagonist's love, the

novella of Griselda presents a distinctive difference in moti-
vation. Griselda's love is no desire to be fulfilled for her own
personal benefit; it is an extension of love still in human terms,
but replacing personal gratification with unselfishness and self-
sacrifice. Griselda is not simply a woman in love; she is the
embodiment of love on a sacrificial level.
In the story of Griselda, placed-it seems purposedly-at
the very end of the Decameron, the two themes of women and
love appear to reach the maximum of their human potential
to create an idealized embodiment of perfection in the heroine
herself. The novella seems to be moving on two different levels
at the same time: (1) a purely fact-presenting level of narrative
which unfolds the story of the fortunes and misfortunes of the
patient Griselda; and (2) a figurative level which may be
discovered by a closer scrutiny of hidden symbols and mythical
patterns. In this novella especially, Boccaccio applied his own
critical principles as stated in Book XIV of the Genealogia
Deorum Gentilium, wherein poetry is described as "fervor
quidam exquisite inveniendi atque dicendi, seu scribendi,
quod inveneris " and its main effects are seen as
peregrinaset inauditasinventionesexcogitare,meditatasordine certo
componere, ornare compositum inusitato quodam verborum atque sen-
tentiarum contextu, velamento fabuloso atque decenti veritatem con-
tegere.2

The story of Griselda discloses its own " veritatem " in the
figurative level hidden beneath the purely fact-presenting level
of the narrative which corresponds to the " velamento fabuloso
atque decenti " mentioned in the previous quotation.
The truth of the novella, however, besides being hidden
under the " velamento fabuloso," remains further removed from
the reader's immediate grasp by the introductory and closing
statements of the narrator of the novella, Dioneo, who em-
phasizes exclusively Gualtieri's " matta bestialita " in his per-
secution of Griselda. These remarks of Dioneo's tend to hinder
-as Dioneo's comments seem to do in most of the Decameron-
an immediate symbolic interpretation of the novella by treating
40 MARGA COTTINO-JONES

the whole story with scornful onesidedness, ironically stressing

the materialistic and the profane. Dioneo's caustic tone,
however, displayed at the opening and closing of the novella,
strikes the reader as being sharply in contrast with the serious
and objective tone with which the " fabula" 3 itself is pre-
sented. One seems to feel that Dioneo's joking approach is
another means by which the author is trying to turn the reader's
attention away from the real issue of the story, as Boccaccio
believes a real poet should do in order to capture more durably
the interest and admiration of his cultivated readers:

... cum inter alia poete officia sit non eviscerare fictionibus palliata,
quin imo, si in propatulo posita sint memoratu et veneratione digna,
ne vilescant familiaritate nimia, quanta possunt industria tegere et ab
oculis torpentium auferre. (GDG, XIV, xii, p. 980)

If Dioneo-in all probability Boccaccio's mouthpiece in

the Decameron-is trying to convince the readers that the
central issue of the novella is Gualtieri's stupid cruelty and
Griselda's too resigned virtuousness, the narrative texture of
the story, its special handling of the cherished themes of
women and love, and its placement at the end of the Tenth
Day and of the Decameron itself, suggest a rather more complex
interpretation of it. Furthermore, in cases like this one, when
a superficial explanation does not seem fully satisfactory,
Boccaccio himself provides a remedy to encourage the readers

volentibus intelligere et nexus ambiguos enodare legendum est, insi-

stendum vigilandumque, atque interrogandum, et omni modo premende
cerebri vires. Et si non una via potest quis pervenire quo cupit, intret
alteram, et, si obstent obices, arripiat aliam, donec, si valiture sint
vires, lucidum illi appareat quod primo videbatur obscurum. (GDG,
XIV, xii, p. 984)

Since there have been many different scholarly attempts

to find a satisfactory critical interpretation of the novella of
Griselda, I feel motivated to add my own viewpoint which is
basically inspired by Boccaccio's statement in Genealogia
Deorum: "quod poeta ' fabulam ' aut ' fictionem ' noncupat,
' figuram ' nostri vocavere "
theologi (GDG, XIV, ix, p. 960).
 ANOTHER INTERPRETATION OF THE GRISELDA STORY 41

By accepting this suggestion of Boccaccio's, whereby the poet's

" fabula" "
equals the theologian's figura," a new interpretative
dimension may be applied to the novella of Griselda. As a
" figura" Griselda stands out as a sacrificial character, a
pharmakos, a figura Christi who is called on to offer herself
as the innocent victim needed to restore her surrounding
community to the harmony and happiness emblematic of a
Golden Age condition of existence.4
One becomes even more inclined to accept the story of
Griselda in this light, if in addition to accepting Boccaccio's
own critical explanations and suggestions, one directly analyzes
the work in literary terms, and realizes the actual presence in
it of special archetypal patterns and mythical elements.
There is an underlying archetypal pattern on which the
5 which
story moves: the Hell-Paradise pattern suggests a
movement from a negative condition of life, composed of
conflicts and dissatisfaction, towards the opposite pole of a
virtuous and harmonious form of life. In addition, two central
myths are also present and identifiable with the two main
protagonists of the story, Gualtieri, the Marquis, typifying the
Divine Father archetype,6 and Griselda, symbolizing the Christ
archetype.
Boccaccio takes advantage also of the patristic predilection
for typological exegesis in the episode of the marriage between
Gualtieri and Griselda, where Gualtieri may be seen as sym-
bolizing wisdom and Griselda patience. A medieval Christian
audience, in fact, would have promptly recognized in this
scene a symbolic representation of the marriage of Isaac and
Rebecca, wherein Isaac, a prefiguration of Christ in the Old
Testament, stands for perfect inborn virtue and perfect wisdom,
and Rebecca, a prefiguration of the Church, stands for
patientia, the sovereign feminine virtue.7 After hinting at this
well-known typological representation, Boccaccio, with an
ingenious move, introduces some new implications by which
Griselda turns out to be associated with the Christ archetype,
while Gualtieri grows into a Divine King or Divine Father
figure.
42 MARGA COTTINO-JONES

Gualtieri's wisdom is stressed all through the introductory

part of the novella, especially in his relations with his subjects
who are pressuring him to marry. This conflict of interests
between Gualtieri and the society over which he rules, creates
a gloomy mood which starts off the archetypal pattern of Hell-
Paradise by conveying a general condition of unhappiness and
discord. This negative condition is acknowledged in Gualtieri's
remarks on human, and especially feminine, wickedness and
dishonesty:
'E il dire che voi vi crediate a' costumi dei padri e delle madri le
figliuole conoscere, donde argomentate di darlami tal che mi piaceri,
e una sciocchezza, con cio sia cosa che io non sappia dove i padri
possiate conoscere, ne come i segreti delle madri di quelle; quantun-
que, pur conoseendoli, sieno spesse volte le figliuole a' padri e alle
madri dissimili.'8

Rather than accepting binding ties with the wicked world

of human enterprises, Gualtieri prefers to lead a free and
active life in the world of nature outside the society of the
court and persistently tries to ignore the social obligations of
his person and office regarding matrimony and the production
of an heir. However, after a long period of unyielding resis-
tance to all pressures, the awareness of his obligations to the
society he rules forces him to consent to marry. In his accept-
ance of the marriage imposition, he poses two requisites: he
will choose his future wife by himself, and his subjects will
have to accept his selection unconditionally. These two clauses
reveal the Marquis's intentions. He will set himself in search
of a special feminine being who will prove at one with his
wisdom, and thus he further reminds us of Rebecca, repre-
senting superior virtue and chosen for the same reason for
Isaac, a man born with every virtue and perfect wisdom. The
distinctive qualities of introspection, recognition of evil, and
foresight, which mark Gualtieri's personality, designate him
as a superior figure in his own society, akin to a Divine King
figure, who takes it upon himself to reenact the salvation of
his community through the creation and introduction of a
sacrificial victim with a purifying function. The objective of
 ANOTHER INTERPRETATION OF THE GRISELDA STORY 43

Gualtieri's scheme, however, just like that of Divine Provi-

dence, will be revealed to and understood by the human
society for which it is intended, only later, at the moment
of fulfilment. In this context, Gualtieri's words and actions
become endowed with a quasi-divine character, as designs and
arts carefully and purposedly planned by a superior being for
the welfare of his society.
Gualtieri's first creative act concerns the shaping of the
heroine, first by selecting a few distinctive elements related
to her physical configuration, and then by adding in the
symbolic scene of the marriage a few finishing touches which
help in creating the Christ archetype.
The heroine is at first seen as an anonymous creature
connected with the world of nature as to dwelling, esthetically
qualified by beauty, and morally identified by goodness and
by the Franciscan virtue of poverty:
Erano a Gualtieri buona pezza piaciuti i costumi di una povera gio-
vinetta che d'una villa vicina a casa sua era, e, parendogli bella assai,
estimo che con costei dovesse aver vita assai consolata. E per cio,
senza piu avanti cercare, costei propose di volere sposare ... (X, 10,
p. 646)

Gualtieri selects the physical configuration of his future

wife from the world of nature which he himself prefers, and
it seems appropriate to point out here that nature is constantly
associated not only with Christ, in his many personifications
as village-dweller, shepherd, and fisherman, but also with most
prefigurations of Christ, such as Adam, for instance, the nature-
dweller and name-giver to all animals, and Isaac, the desert-
dweller and goat-herd.9
Virginity is another important element which provides
striking connections both for Gualtieri and his creature: in
the same way as God the Father of the Old Testament created
Adam out of the " virgin earth," and Christ out of a " virgin
mother," Gualtieri chooses a virgin body for the physical
configuration of his heroine. A virgin body is indeed recognized
by the heroine herself as the only element, " la dote mia," that
she contributed to her own creation and which will provide her
44 MARGA COTTINO-JONES

with a " sola camiscia " to cover her naked body in the last
dramatic moment of her sacrificial path:

'... io vi priego, in premio della mia virginita che io ci recai e non

ne la porto che almeno una sola camiscia sopra la dote mia, vi piac-
cia che io portar ne possa.' (X, 10, p. 656)

Later on, the heroine is further described as " guardiana

di pecore," and this connection with sheep, the sacrificial
animal, and with the shepherd, a symbolic Christ figure,
intensifies the allusion to the Christ archetype. This new
creature takes her first steps therefore as a Christ-like allusive
image, through her implied associations with a virginal origin,
with the world of nature, and with the shepherding symbolism
which is an intimation of sacrificial functions.
The association with the Christ figure is further strength-
ened in the symbolic scene of the marriage:

E venuto il di che alle nozze predetto avea, Gualtieri in su la mezza

terza mont6 a cavallo, e ciascun altro che ad onorarlo era venuto;
e ... disse: ' Signori, tempo e d'andare per la novella sposa'; e mes-
sosi in via con tutta la compagnia sua pervennero alla villetta. E giunti
a casa del padre della fanciulla, e lei trovata che con acqua tornava
dalla fonte in gran fretta ... come Gualtieri vide, chiamatala per nome,
cioe Griselda, domando dove il padre fosse; al quale ella vergogno-
samente rispose: 'Signor mio, egli e in casa.' (X, 10, p. 647)

The myth of the birth of the hero is reenacted in this

scene:10 it is dawn, the time of day symbolic of the beginning
of a new life, and the heroine appears suddenly on the scene
carrying water. This appearance strikes one immediately as
suggestive, since among other things, water symbolizes the
condition of innocence and purity connected with birth 1 as
well as with Baptism. The heroine in this way makes her first
appearance on the stage of her new life in all the integrity and
virginity of the first moment of spiritual life. Her christening
promptly follows, with the specification of her name provided
for the first time in the story by Gualtieri himself, " chiamatala
per nome, cioe Griselda." The name itself seems to strengthen
and corroborate the suggestion of the presence of the Christ
 ANOTHER INTERPRETATION OF THE GRISELDA STORY 45

archetype: Griselda or " image of Christ' as I am inclined to

interpret etymologically from Z@Q6; = the anointed-as for
the name of Christ- and 'EsLog = figure, image.l2 Gualtieri
in addressing himself to her directly, calling her by such a
resounding and symbolic name, seems to bring her to life for
the first time, and her very first words " Signor mio " reveal
now, and from now on in every one of her speeches, her
recognition and acceptance of Gualtieri's significant role in her
creation.
The heroine has come to life, christened and aware of the
stigma of her birth. As for any true Christian hero, for
Griselda, too, the moment of spiritual initiation promptly
follows with her call to trial:13

Allora Gualtieri smontato e comandato ad ogn'uomo che l'aspettasse,

solo se n'entro nella povera casa, dove trovo il padre di lei che aveva
nome Giannucole, e dissegli: 'Io son venuto a sposar la Griselda, ma
prima da lei voglio sapere alcuna cosa in tua presenzia '; e doman-
dolla se ella sempre, togliendola egli per moglie, s'ingegnerebbe di
compiacergli e di niuna cosa che egli dicesse e facesse non turbarsi,
e s'ella sarebbe obbediente, e simili altre cose assai, delle quali ella
a tutte rispose di si. (X, 10, p. 648)

The entrance of Griselda with Gualtieri into the poor hut

of Giannucole corresponds to a private initiation scene. When
a hero is called to trial, according to many interpretations of
the mythical quests of the hero,14 he must be prepared to
renounce his former way of living and to accept the new
conditions of life set before him. Griselda undergoes such a
ritual of renunciation and acceptance, enacted with Gualtieri
in the little hut in front of one single older witness, Giannucole,
her guardian father. Giannucole's little hut becomes the en-
closure or initiation chamber 15 where the ritual is performed.
A spiritually flawless creature is initiated to trials; she will
accept the role of victim with the tacit consent of a parental kin
whose name is reminiscent of Christ's haptizer. It seems cogent
to notice at this point that the heroine will return for a short
time to the hut and to her guardian father after her symbolic
death at the end of her sacrificial path, in a kind of Limbo-like,
46 MARGA COTTINO-JONES

preresurrection moment of expectancy. On the other hand,

during Griselda's initiation Giannucole and the little hut seem
also to be connected with the life which Griselda is renouncing
in order to consent to the call to trial which Gualtieri is setting
before her. All of his demands for complete obedience, hum-
bleness, and silent patience, are accepted by Griselda without
reservations. Griselda's crisma of initiation is drafted and it
has only to be sealed in the public acceptance ritual which
follows immediately.
Gualtieri takes Griselda outside into the light of full
recognition and has her undressed completely in front of all:
Allora Gualtieri, presala per mano, la meno fuori, e in presenzia di
tutta la compagnia e d'ogni altra persona la fece spogliare ignuda...
(X, 10, p. 648)

The initiation ritual is here repeated, in so far as the un-

dressing corresponds to the ritual of renunciation of her
previous condition of existence and the dressing represents her
outfitting for the new life to come. Besides, this ceremony also
suggests an enactment of the Christian ritual of Baptism,
where nakedness stands for humble recognition of one's sins
and for removal of them through the sacramental ritual. In
her public nakedness, Griselda seems to reenact the ritual of
Christ's baptism, and like him she takes it on herself to efface
the sins of all those present at the ceremony. In so doing, she
is already fulfilling the expectations of her sire who directs
the ritual of undressing to be followed by a ceremony where
new magnificent clothes are placed on her naked virginal body
and a crown is set on her dishevelled hair:

... Gualtieri ... fattisi quegli vestimenti venire che fatti aveva fare, pre-
stamente la fece vestire e calzare, e sopra i suoi capegli cosi scarmi-
gliati com'erano le fece mettere una corona ... (X, 10, p. 648)

While the new clothes stand for the new life that Griselda
has accepted in her private and public consent to her initiation,
the last token of the ritual, the undefined crown, " una corona,"
placed on her dishevelled hair, seems to suggest an even more
 ANOTHER INTERPRETATION OF THE GRISELDA STORY 47

revealing connection. In the light of the interpretation of Gri-

selda as a figura Christi, the apparently unrelated detail of her
hair being dishevelled, may offer a further parallel with Christ
and his own dishevelled hair after his initiation ritual of un-
dressing and flagellation. This last analogy between Christ's
initiation and Griselda's seems also to offer a possible clue to
the kind of crown which is here signified. Indeed, if we continue
this analysis of parallels to include the crown also, we might
suggest that it is the same crown made of thorns set by the
soldiers on Christ's head when they " clothed him with purple
and plaited a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and began
to salute him ' Hail, King of the Jews '." In this context, the
new clothing as well as the crown hint more and more poign-
antly at the Christ-like crucifixion road which Griselda is ready
to take after sealing her crisma of initiation with those three
words of final acceptance and endurance " ' Signor mio, si.'"
And Griselda is off on her Via Crucis.
Fourteen are the stations of Christ's way to Calvary, or
Via Crucis, and " tredici anni e piu " are the years that Gri-
selda spends on her road of tribulations. Three are the nails
that fastened Christ's hands and feet to the cross, and three
are the trials which deeply wound and bring Griselda to
destruction. As a feminine counterpart of Christ, Griselda
undergoes trials that are intended to hurt a woman the most,
in her vital roles of mother and wife. The first two trials wound
Griselda in her mother role: first her daughter, and then her
son are taken away from her and she is left to believe that both
have been put to death. The third trial harms Griselda in her
wife role: she is made to feel unwanted and rejected, and
eventually she is repudiated and left to believe that another
woman will take her place.
However harsh the trials are, Griselda still remains faith-
ful to her initiation promises, and the words she pronounces
at every time of tribulation are repetitions of the consent she
gave at the sealing of the crisma of her acceptance:

'Signor mio, fa di me quello che tu credi ... che io saro di tutto

contents ...' (X, 10. p. 650),
48 MARGA COTTINO-JONES

she says at the beginning of the first trial. When the second
trial is in sight, she reassures Gualtieri in these words:
' Signor mio, pensa di contentar te e di sodisfare al piacer tuo, e di
me non avere pensiere alcuno ...' (X, 10, p. 651)

Finally, when the time comes to face the third trial which
requires from her an act of renunciation of her married life
and the acceptance of a return to Giannucole's little hut, her
long speech begins on the same note:

'Signor mio, io conobbi sempre la mia bassa condizione ... e quello

che io stata son con voi da Dio e da voi il riconoscea, ne mai, come
donatolmi, mio il feci o tenni, ma sempre l'ebbi come prestatomi:
piacevi di rivolerlo, e a me dee piacere e piace di renderlovi ...' (X,
10, p. 653)

With these words, Griselda restates her acceptance of the stigma

of her birth and her consent to the call to trial of her initiation.
She keeps her promises up to the point of complete renun-
ciation of that very life for which she had been created by her
sire, and she disappears without complaint.
At the precise moment of Griselda's disappearance, the
ritual of undressing and dressing, which had such an important
function in the initial ceremony at the beginning of her trials,
takes place again in reverse order. Griselda disrobes herself
of her attire and receives in exchange of her virginity " una
sola camiscia " to cover her naked body:

... e la donna, in camiscia e scalza e senza alcuna cosa in capo, acco-

mandatili a Dio, gli usci di casa e al padre se ne torno con lagrime
e pianto di tutti coloro che la videro. Giannucole ... guardati l'avea
i panni che spogliati s'avea quella mattina che Gualtieri la sposo; per
che recatigliele ed ella rivestitiglisi, ai piccoli servigi della paterna
casa si diede... (X, 10, p. 653-54)

Clothed in one single " camiscia," like a dead body, Griselda

disappears and hides away in a post-death condition, remi-
niscent especially in her sackcloth attire, of the ceremony of
stripping down altars and images ond Good Friday after Christ's
death.16
 ANOTHER INTERPRETATION OF THE GRISELDA STORY 49

The time of resurrection is, however, closing in. Gualtieri

sends for Griselda and she returns to the castle still incognito
and dressed in her sackcloth garments in order to perform
some specific actions which are reminiscent of another impor-
tant ceremony of the Church liturgy. The thorough cleaning
of rooms and halls, the hanging of draperies and ornaments on
walls and windows, the laying of precious covers and clothes
on beds and tables, the whole apparatus of pre-festivity rep-
resents a symbolic ritual which parallels the Church cerimonial
preparations for the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sundays.
The ritual function by which Griselda receives and intro-
duces to Gualtieri-here more than ever representing a Divine
King figure-all the guests attending the festivity, even the
ones believed dead, points at a further analogy with the Christ
myth and precisely with the episode of Christ's return to the
Father in Heaven with the souls of all the wise and the just
rescued from Limbo. The " coltella e ferite " which Griselda
acknowledges as elements of her martyrdom accentuate the
analogy between hers and Christ's death. Even the words of
covert reproach which Griselda addresses to Gualtieri '...quel-
le punture le quali all'altra, che vostra fu, gia deste...' " (X,
10, p. 657), imply the recognition of her sufferings and con-
stitute at the same time a significant indication of human
weakness similar to the one shown by Christ on the cross in
his cry to the Father, " My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? " In both cases, the human connotation of
physical weakness admittedly revealed in the words uttered by
the sacrificial hero, increases the impact of the scene on the
reader who becomes fully aware of the cruelty and injustice of
the hero's predicament and sufferings which he has been left
alone to endure. It is a moment of high dramatic tension,
which will be relieved by Gualtieri's revelation whereby Gri-
selda's resurrection will be triumphantly achieved:

'Griselda, tempo e omai che tu senta frutto della tua lunga pazienza,
e che coloro, li quali me hanno reputato crudele e iniquo e bestiale,
conoscano che cio che io faceva, ad antiveduto fine operava, vogliendo
a te insegnar d'esser moglie e a loro di saperla torre e tenere, e a me
partorire perpetua quiete mentre teco a vivere avessi ...' (X, 10, p. 657)
50 MARGA COTTINO-JONES

Threefold was the purpose of Gualtieri, the superior being,

as it clearly results from the last part of the revelation speech
quoted above: (1) to create a perfect creature as woman and
wife through a purifying and sacrificial quest for perfection;
(2) to regenerate a whole society of men and women through
the sacrificial performance of the heroine-victim; (3) to estab-
lish himself securely within a perfected society which has
reached the quintessence of human happiness and harmony.
On this apotheosis of human excellence, further magnified
by a last vision of Griselda in shining apparel emblematic of
triumphant royalty, the narrative world of the one hundred
novellas closes. The Decameron, dedicated to women, narrated
mostly by women, centered largely around women's actions
and feelings, concludes with the apotheosis of the perfect
woman, a feminine figura Christi, who stands diametrically
opposite to the figura diaboli which had opened the book, Ser
Ciappelletto, the incarnation of a black saint in constant
hedonistic pursuit of evil.'7 The internal movement of the
narrative has developed from the negative mood of the novella
of Ser Ciappelletto (I, 1), where moral confusion prevails and
the protagonist's " ingegno" is conducive to social disinte-
gration at the lowest step of the human ladder of ethical values;
to the all positive vision of the novella of Griselda, where
moral integrity prevails, and Gualtieri's " ingegno" is con-
ducive to social harmony and to the acquisition of the highest
level of human happines and ethical values, an earthly
paradise of matrimonial and social bliss.
At the close of his Divine Comedy, Dante achieves spiritual
perfection in heavenly paradise with the enlightening guidance
of Beatrice, the angel-woman. In the canzone " Alla Vergine "
at the conclusion of his Canzoniere, Petrarch implores spiritual
elevation and moral insight from the Virgin Mary, queen of
Heaven. At the end of the Decameron, Boccaccio evokes a
vision of earthly perfection through the introduction of
Griselda, the heroine who is the creator of harmony and
happiness in the closing scene of his " human comedy." In
her earthly perfection, Griselda serves an important function
in the world of the Decameron: she represents the liaison
 ANOTHER INTERPRETATION OF THE GRISELDA STORY 51

between reality and myth, the reality of the morally frail

womanhood portrayed in most of the Decameron, and the
myth of the cherished Christian ideal of perfection in women
as signified and exalted by Dante and Petrarch.

MARGA COTTINO-JONES

University of California, Los Angeles

1 For an ample treatment of the origin of the Griselda story, see

especially Dudley D. Griffith, The Origin of the Griselda Story, Seattle,
" The Problem
University of Washington Press, 1931; and Wit A. Cate,
of the Origin of the Griselda Story," Studies in Philology, XXIX (1932),
389-405.
2 Giovanni Boccaccio, " Genealogia Deorum Gentilium," in Opere in
versi, Corbaccio, Trattatello in laude di Dante, Prose latine, Epistole,
a cura di Pier Giorgio Ricci, Milano, Classici Ricciardi, 1965, pp. 894-1061;
Lib. XIV, vii, pp. 940-942. The italics are mine. (From now on referred
to as GDG).
3 Boccaccio gives the following definition of " fabula ": "Fabula est
exemplaris seu demonstrativa sub figmento locutio, cuius amoto cortice,
"
patet intentio fabulantis (GDG, XIV, ix, p. 958).
4 Several references to a Golden Age condition of existence and to
nostalgia derived from the loss of it may be found in works of Boccac-
cio, as amply demonstrated by Attilio Hortis in Studii sulle opere latine
del Boccaccio ... Trieste, Julius Dase ed., 1879, pp. 323-327, 357-361. The
works where most references occur are Filocolo, Elegia di Madonna Fiam-
metta, Ameto, Genealogia Deorum Gentilium, Egloghe VI and XI, and
especially an interesting allegorical-mythological work which appears in
a codex by Boccaccio's hand, the so-called Zibaldone Laurenziano. This
composition is supposed to be Boccaccio's first work in Latin prose, a
sort of paraphrase of the first two books of Ovid's Metamorphoses, as
Vittore Branca suggests in Tradizione delle Opere di Giovanni Boccaccio,
Roma, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1958, pp. 203, 209, 223, 228.
5 See Maud Bodkin's Archetypal Patterns in Poetry: Psychological
Studies of the Imagination, London, Oxford University Press, 1963,
" The
especially Chapter III, Archetype of Paradise-Hades, or of Heaven
and Hell," pp. 90-152.
6 For a thorough discussion of the Divine King archetype, see John
Weir Perry's Lord of the Four Quartets: Myths of the Royal Father,
New York, George Braziller, 1966; and Geza Roheim's Animism, Magic,
and the Divine King, London, Kegan Paul-Trench-Trubner & Co., 1930.
7 See Jean Danielou's From Shadows to Reality: Studies in the
Biblical Typology of the Fathers, London, Burns and Oates, 1960,
especially Chapter III, " The Allegory of the Marriage of Isaac," pp. 131-
149. (From now on referred to as Danielou).
8 Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron, ed. by Vittore Branca, Firenze,
Le Monnier, 1960, 2 vols.; II, pp. 643-659, p. 645.
52 MARGA COTTINO-JONES

9 For an exhaustive discussion of the symbolic associations between

Nature, Christ, and his prefigurations, see F. W. Dillistone's Christianity
and Symbolism, Philadelphia, The Westminster Press, 1955. See also Da-
nimlou.
10 See Otto Rank's The Myth of the Birth of the Hero and Other
Writings, New York, Vintage Books, 1964.
11 Mircea Eliade has dealt with this topic in Images and Symbols:
Studies in Religious Symbolism, New York, Sheed & Ward, 1961,
especially in Chapter V, " Baptism, the Deluge, and Aquatic Symbolism,"
pp. 151-160. Another work of his discusses the same subject, Patterns of
Comparative Religion, Cleveland, Meridian Books, 1967, Chapter V,
"Waters and Water Symbolism," pp. 188-215.
12 For further information on Greek etymology for the purpose of
Christian exegesis, consult Theological Dictionary of the New Testament,
ed. by Gerhard Kitted, trans. by Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Grand Rapids,
Michigan, Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1964-65, 3 vols; Edward Robinson, Greek
and English Lexicon of the New Testament, New York, Harper & Brothers,
1855; John Parkhurst, A Greek and English Lexicon of the New Testa-
ment, London, Th. Davidson, 1829. An interesting study of the method
used by Boccaccio in his manipulations of Greek words is offered by
Agostino Pertusi in " Le etimologie greche nel Boccaccio," in Studi sul
Boccaccio, I (1963), pp. 363-385.
13 A fascinating study of the myth of the quest in four Medieval
romances is offered by Heinrich Zimmer, in The King and the Corpse:
Tales of the Soul's Conquest of Evil, Bollingen Series XI, Pantheon
Books, 1948.
14 See Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Cleveland,
Meridian Books, 1966.
15 For an exhaustive discussion of the myths of initiation, consult
Mircea Eliade's Birth and Rebirth: The Religious Meanings of Initiation
in Human Culture, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1958.
16 On the topic of Church Liturgy, see the enlightening work by
Alan W. Watts, Myth and Ritual in Christianity, London-New York,
Thames & Hudson, 1954, especially Chapters V and VI, " The Passion,"
and " From Easter to Pentecost," pp. 138-205. Consult also Gilbert Cope,
Symbolism in the Bible and in the Church, London, SCM Press LTD,
1959.
17 This topic has been discussed in my monograph on Boccaccio,
An Anatomy of Boccaccio's Style, Napoli, Cymba, 1968, Chapter H, " Ser
Ciappelletto or ' Le Saint Noir ': A Comic Paradox," pp. 23-51.