Stanza 27

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. E per ciò, senza piú avanti cercare, costei propose di volere sposare;

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. Wherefore he sought no further, but forthwith resolved to marry her;


Petrarch:

et virtutem eximiam supra sexum supraque etatem, quam vulgi oculis conditionis obscuritas abscondebat, acri penetrarat intuitu. Unde effectum ut et uxorem habere, quod nunquam ante voluerat, et simul hanc unam nullamque aliam habere disponeret.

and his swift intuition had perceived in her a virtue, beyond her sex and age, which the obscurity of her condition concealed from the eyes of the common throng. Hence it came about that he decided, at one and the same time, to take a wife – which he had never before wished to do – and to have this woman and no other.


Chaucer:

Commendynge in his herte hir wommanhede
And eek hir vertu, passynge any wight
Of so yong age, as wel in chiere as dede.
For thogh the peple hadde no greet insight
In vertu, he considered ful right
Hir bountee, and disposed that he wolde
Wedde hir oonly, if evere he wedde sholde.


(close this window to return to the Clerk's Tale.)