Stanza 23

Boccaccio:

Erano a Gualtieri buona pezza piaciuti i costumi d'una povera giovinetta che d'una villa vicina a casa sua era, e parendogli bella assai estimò che con costei dovesse potere aver vita assai consolata.

And Gualtieri, who had long noted with approval the mien of a poor girl that dwelt on a farm hard by his house, and found her fair enough, deemed that with her he might pass a tolerably happy life.


Petrarch:

sed ut pauperum quoque tuguria nonnunquam gratia celestis invisit, unica illi nata contigerat Griseldis nomine, forma corporis satis egregia, sed pulcritudine morum atque animi adeo speciosa ut nichil supra. Hec parco victu, in summa semper inopia educata, omnis inscia voluptatis, nil molle nil tenerum cogitare didicerat, sed virilis senilisque animus virgineo latebat in pectore.

But as the grace of Heaven sometimes visits the hovels of the poor, it chanced that he had an only daughter, by name Griselda, remarkable for the beauty of her body, but of so beautiful a character and spirit that no one excelled her. Reared in a frugal way of living and always in the direst poverty, unconscious of any want, she had learned to cherish no soft, no childish thoughts; but the vigor of manhood and the wisdom of age lay hidden in her maiden bosom.


Chaucer:

But for to speke of vertuous beautee,
Thanne was she oon the faireste under sonne,
For povreliche yfostred up was she,
No likerous lust was thurgh hir herte yronne.
Wel ofter of the welle than of the tonne
She drank, and for she wolde vertu plese
She knew wel labour but noon ydel ese.


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