e so ill accoutred and in
such scurvy case, burst out laughing and without taking any thought to
his own plight, said to him, 'How sayst thou, Giotto? An there
encountered us here a stranger who had never seen thee, thinkest thou
he would believe thee to be, as thou art, the finest painter in the
world?' 'Ay, sir,' answered Giotto forthright, 'methinketh he might
e'en believe it whenas, looking upon you, he should believe that you
knew your A B C.' Messer Forese, hearing this, was sensible of his
error and saw himself paid with money such as the wares he had
sold."[304]

[Footnote 304: Or, as we should say, "in his own coin."]

THE SIXTH STORY

[Day the Sixth]

MICHELE SCALZA PROVETH TO CERTAIN YOUNG MEN THAT THE CADGERS
OF FLORENCE ARE THE BEST GENTLEMEN OF THE WORLD OR THE
MAREMMA AND WINNETH A SUPPER

The ladies yet laughed at Giotto's prompt retort, when the queen
charged Fiammetta follow on and she proceeded to speak thus: "Young
ladies, the mention by Pamfilo of the cadgers of Florence, whom
peradventure you know not as doth he, hath brought to my mind a story,
wherein, without deviating from our appointed theme, it is
demonstrated how great is their nobility; and it pleaseth me,
therefore, to relate it.

It is no great while since there was in our city a young man called
Michele Scalza, who was the merriest and most agreeable man in the
world and he had still the rarest stories in hand, wherefore the young
Florentines were exceeding glad to have his company whenas they made a
party of pleasure amongst themselves. It chanced one day, he being
with certain folk at Monte Ughi, that the question was started among
them of who were the best and oldest gentlemen of Florence. Some said
the Uberti, others the Lamberti, and one this family and another that,
according as it occurred to his mind; which Scalza hearing, he fell
a-laughing and said, 'Go to, addlepates that you are! You know not
what you say. The best gentlemen and the oldest, not only of Florence,
but of all the world or the Maremma,[305] are the Cadgers,[306] a
matter upon which all the phisopholers and every one who knoweth them,
as I do, are of accord; and lest you should understand it of others, I
speak of the Cadgers your neighbors of Santa Maria Maggiore.'

[Footnote 305: A commentator notes that the adjunction to the world of
the Maremma (cf. Elijer Goff, "The Irish Question has for some
centuries been enjoyed by _the uni