pers, if not men? To men, therefore, it behoveth us submit
ourselves, honouring them supremely; and whoso departeth from this, I
hold her deserving, not only of grave reprehension, but of severe
punishment. To these considerations I was lead, though not for the
first time, by that which Pampinea told us a while ago of Talano's
froward wife, upon whom God sent that chastisement which her husband
had not known to give her; wherefore, as I have already said, all
those women who depart from being loving, compliant and amenable, as
nature, usance and law will it, are, in my judgment, worthy of stern
and severe chastisement. It pleaseth me, therefore, to recount to you
a counsel given by Solomon, as a salutary medicine for curing women
who are thus made of that malady; which counsel let none, who meriteth
not such treatment, repute to have been said for her, albeit men have
a byword which saith, 'Good horse and bad horse both the spur need
still, And women need the stick, both good and ill.' Which words, an
one seek to interpret them by way of pleasantry, all women will
lightly allow to be true; nay, but considering them morally,[438] I
say that the same must be conceded of them; for that women are all
naturally unstable and prone [to frailty,] wherefore, to correct the
iniquity of those who allow themselves too far to overpass the limits
appointed them, there needeth the stick which punisheth them, and to
support the virtue of others who suffer not themselves to transgress,
there needeth the stick which sustaineth and affeareth them. But, to
leave be preaching for the nonce and come to that which I have it in
mind to tell.

[Footnote 438: _i.e._ from a serious or moral point of view.]

You must know that, the high renown of Solomon's miraculous wisdom
being bruited abroad well nigh throughout the whole world, no less
than the liberality with which he dispensed it unto whoso would fain
be certified thereof by experience, there flocked many to him from
divers parts of the world for counsel in their straitest and most
urgent occasions. Amongst others who thus resorted to him was a young
man, Melisso by name, a gentleman of noble birth and great wealth, who
set out from the city of Lajazzo,[439] whence he was and where he
dwelt; and as he journeyed towards Jerusalem, it chanced that, coming
forth of Antioch, he rode for some distance with a young man called
Giosefo, who held the same course as himself. As the custom is of
wayf