hus to show us that we and other foolish and unlettered men
are, compared with him and other men of learning, worse than dead
folk; wherefore, being here, we are in our own house.' Thereupon each
understood what Guido had meant to say and was abashed nor ever
plagued him more, but held Messer Betto thenceforward a gentleman of a
subtle wit and an understanding."

THE TENTH STORY

[Day the Sixth]

FRA CIPOLLA PROMISETH CERTAIN COUNTRY FOLK TO SHOW THEM ONE
OF THE ANGEL GABRIEL'S FEATHERS AND FINDING COALS IN PLACE
THEREOF, AVOUCHETH THESE LATTER TO BE OF THOSE WHICH ROASTED
ST. LAWRENCE

Each of the company being now quit of his[309] story, Dioneo perceived
that it rested with him to tell; whereupon, without awaiting more
formal commandment, he began on this wise, silence having first been
imposed on those who commended Guido's pregnant retort: "Charming
ladies, albeit I am privileged to speak of that which most liketh me,
I purpose not to-day to depart from the matter whereof you have all
very aptly spoken; but, ensuing in your footsteps, I mean to show you
how cunningly a friar of the order of St. Anthony, by name Fra
Cipolla, contrived with a sudden shift to extricate himself from a
snare[310] which had been set for him by two young men; nor should it
irk you if, for the complete telling of the story, I enlarge somewhat
in speaking, an you consider the sun, which is yet amiddleward in the
sky.

[Footnote 309: "Or her."]

[Footnote 310: Lit. to avoid or elude a scorn (_fuggire uno scorno_).]

Certaldo, as you may have heard, is a burgh of Val d' Elsa situate in
our country, which, small though it be, was once inhabited by
gentlemen and men of substance; and thither, for that he found good
pasture there, one of the friars of the order of St. Anthony was long
used to resort once a year, to get in the alms bestowed by simpletons
upon him and his brethren. His name was Fra Cipolla and he was gladly
seen there, no less belike, for his name's sake[311] than for other
reasons, seeing that these parts produce onions that are famous
throughout all Tuscany. This Fra Cipolla was little of person,
red-haired and merry of countenance, the jolliest rascal in the world,
and to boot, for all he was no scholar, he was so fine a talker and so
ready of wit that those who knew him not would not only have esteemed
him a great rhetorician, but had avouched him to be Tully himself or
may be Quintilian; a