Stanza 68

Boccaccio:

il quale con assai dolente viso le disse: "Madonna, se io non voglio morire, a me conviene far quello che il mio signor mi comanda. Egli m'ha comandato che io prenda questa vostra figliuola e ch'io..."e non disse piú. La donna, udendo le parole e vedendo il viso del famigliare e delle parole dette ricordandosi, comprese che a costui fosse imposto che egli l'uccidesse: per che prestamente presala della culla e baciatala e benedetola, come che gran noia nel cuor sentisse,


So the servant came, and: "Madam," quoth he with a most dolorous mien, "so I value my life, I must needs do my lord's bidding. He has bidden me take your daughter and . . ." He said no more, but the lady by what she heard, and read in his face, and remembered of her husband's words, understood that he was bidden to put the child to death.


Petrarch:

«Parce» inquit «o domina, neque michi imputes quod coactus facio. Scis, sapientissima, quid est esse sub dominis, neque tali ingenio predite quamvis inexperte dura parendi necessitas est ignota. Iussus sum hanc infantulam accipere, atque eam».

said to her, "Spare me, my lady, and do not lay to my blame what I am forced to do. You are right knowing, and you understand what it is to be subject to a master; nor is the harsh necessity of obedience unknown to one endowed with so much sense, though inexperienced.


Chaucer:

"Madame," he seyde, "ye moote foryeve it me,
Though I do thyng to which I am constreyned,
Ye been so wys, that ful wel knowe ye
That lordes heestes mowe nat been yfeyned,
They mowe wel been biwailled and compleyned,
But men moote nede unto hir lust obeye;
And so wol I, ther is namoore to seye.


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