ld be known by his
works, assembled a great multitude of artificers and let build there,
in a little space of time, one of the fairest and greatest and richest
palaces that had ever been seen, the which he caused excellently well
furnished with all that was apt unto the reception and entertainment
of gentlemen. Then, having a great and goodly household, he there
received and honourably entertained, with joyance and good cheer,
whosoever came and went; and in this praiseworthy usance he persevered
insomuch that not only the Levant, but well nigh all the Ponant, knew
him by report. He was already full of years nor was therefore grown
weary of the practice of hospitality, when it chanced that his fame
reached the ears of a young man of a country not far from his own, by
name Mithridanes, who, knowing himself no less rich than Nathan and
waxing envious of his renown and his virtues, bethought himself to
eclipse or shadow them with greater liberality. Accordingly, letting
build a palace like unto that of Nathan, he proceeded to do the most
unbounded courtesies[444] that ever any did whosoever came or went
about those parts, and in a short time he became without doubt very
famous.

[Footnote 443: _Cattajo._ This word is usually translated Cathay,
_i.e._ China; but _semble_ Boccaccio meant rather the Dalmatian
province of Cattaro, which would better answer the description in the
text, Nathan's estate being described as adjoining a highway leading
from the Ponant (or Western shores of the Mediterranean) to the Levant
(or Eastern shores), _e.g._ the road from Cattaro on the Adriatic to
Salonica on the AEgean. Cathay (China) seems, from the circumstances of
the case, out of the question, as is also the Italian town called
Cattaio, near Padua.]

[Footnote 444: _i.e._ to show the most extravagant hospitality.]

It chanced one day that, as he abode all alone in the midcourt of his
palace, there came in, by one of the gates, a poor woman, who sought
of him an alms and had it; then, coming in again to him by the second,
she had of him another alms, and so on for twelve times in succession;
but, whenas she returned for the thirteenth time, he said to her,
'Good woman, thou art very diligent in this thine asking,' and
natheless gave her an alms. The old crone, hearing these words,
exclaimed, 'O liberality of Nathan, how marvellous art thou! For that,
entering in by each of the two-and-thirty gates which his palace hath,
and asking o