Stanza 89

Boccaccio:

Dopo non molti dí Gualtieri, in quella medesima maniera che mandato aveva per la figliuola, mandò per lo figliuolo: e similmente dimostrato d'averlo fatto uccidere, a nutricar nel mandò a Bologna, come la fanciulla aveva mandata; della qual cosa la donna né altro viso né altre parole fece che della fanciulla fatte avesse

Not many days after, Gualtieri, in like manner as he had sent for the daughter, sent for the son, and having made a shew of putting him to death, provided for his, as for the girl's, nurture at Bologna. Whereat the lady shewed no more discomposure of countenance or speech than at the loss of her daughter:


Petrarch:

confestimque satellitem olim missum ad eam remisit, qui multum excusata necessitate parendi, multumque petita venia siquid ei molestum aut fecisset aut faceret, quasi immane scelus acturus poposcit infantem. Illa eodem quo semper vultu, qualicunque animo, filium forma corporis atque indole non matri tantum sed cuntis amabilem in manus cepit, signansque eum signo crucis et benedicens ut filiam fecerat, et diuticule oculis inherens, atque deosculans, nullo penitus signo doloris edito, petenti obtulit.

and straightway he sent to her the servant whom he had sent before. The latter, with many a plea of the necessity of obedience, and with many an entreaty for forgiveness, if he had done or was doing her a wrong, demanded her child, as one who is about to commit a monstrous crime. But she, with unchanged mien, whatever might be passing in her mind, took up in her arms the son who was so well beloved, not only by his mother but by everyone, for the beauty of his body and his disposition; and she made upon him the sign of the Cross, blessing him, as she had blessed her daughter, clinging to him just a little while with her eyes, and bending down to kiss him; but she gave absolutely no other sign of grief.


Chaucer:

This ugly sergeant, in the same wyse
That he hir doghter caughte, right so he
Or worse, if men worse kan devyse,
Hath hent hire sone, that ful was of beautee,
And evere in oon so pacient was she,
That she no chiere maade of hevynesse,
But kiste hir sone, and after gan it blesse.


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