ed magnanimous, thou art none of those towards whom
magnanimity should be shown; the issue of punishment, as likewise of
vengeance, in the case of wild beasts such as thou art, behoveth to be
death, whereas for human beings that should suffice whereof thou
speakest. Wherefore, albeit I am no eagle, knowing thee to be no dove,
but a venomous serpent, I mean to pursue thee, as an immemorial enemy,
with every hate and all my might, albeit this that I do to thee can
scarce properly be styled vengeance, but rather chastisement, inasmuch
as vengeance should overpass the offence and this will not attain
thereto; for that, an I sought to avenge myself, considering to what a
pass thou broughtest my soul, thy life, should I take it from thee,
would not suffice me, no, nor the lives of an hundred others such as
thou, since, slaying thee, I should but slay a vile, wicked and
worthless trull of a woman. And what a devil more account (setting
aside this thy scantling of fair favour,[388] which a few years will
mar, filling it with wrinkles,) art thou than whatsoever other sorry
serving-drab? Whereas it was no fault of thine that thou failedst of
causing the death of a man of honour, as thou styledst me but now,
whose life may yet in one day be of more service to the world than an
hundred thousand of thy like could be what while the world endureth. I
will teach thee, then, by means of this annoy that thou sufferest,
what it is to flout men of sense, and particularly scholars, and will
give thee cause never more, an thou comest off alive, to fall into
such a folly. But, an thou have so great a wish to descend, why dost
thou not cast thyself down? On this wise, with God's help, thou wilt,
by breaking thy neck, at once deliver thyself from the torment,
wherein it seemeth to thee thou art, and make me the joyfullest man in
the world. Now, I have no more to say to thee. I knew to contrive on
such wise that I caused thee go up thither; do thou now contrive to
come down thence, even as thou knewest to befool me.'

[Footnote 387: Boccaccio here misquotes himself. See p. 389, where the
lady says to her lover, "Whether seemeth to thee the greater, his wit
or the love I bear him?" This is only one of the numberless instances
of negligence and inconsistency which occur in the Decameron and which
make it evident to the student that it must have passed into the hands
of the public without the final revision and correction by the author,
that _limae