houses chose their color and conducted themselves
accordingly. But you must not suppose that the heads of the great houses
of the Donati and the Cerchi publicly avowed themselves as the leaders
of these whimsical factions, however much they might, for their own
purposes, foster and encourage their existence. At the time of which I
write Messer Guido Cavalcanti was ostensibly the chief man among the
Reds, and the chief man among the Yellows was Messer Simone dei Bardi.

Here, in consequence of this business of Reds and Yellows, was a
thickening of the imbroglio of Florentine life. For now it was not
enough to be told whether a man was Guelph or Ghibelline in order to
know how to deal with him. It was not merely prudent but even imperative
to inquire further, for a rooted Guelph might be Red or Yellow in this
other scuffle, and so might a rooted Ghibelline. Thus our poor City of
the Lilies was become a very Temple of Discord, and at any moment a
chance encounter in the street, a light word let fly--nay, even no more
than a slight glance--might be the signal for drawn swords and runnels
of blood among the cobbles. Truly, therefore, it is not to be denied
that for such poor gentlemen as, like myself, desired their ease,
together with much singing and kissing and sipping, Florence was by no
means an Arcadia. And yet there was no one of us that would willingly
have lived elsewhere, for all the quarrelling and all the feuds.

Now I do not say it because I was a Red myself, but I do think that the
Reds were of a better temper than the Yellows. Very certainly no one was
less eager to fan the flames of these quarrellings and feuds than the
man that was by my side, Messer Guido Cavalcanti. And no less certainly
of those that were hottest for quarrellings and keenest to keep old
feuds alive, and to enforce distinctions of faction, and make much of
party cries, there was no one hotter and keener than Messer Simone dei
Bardi, whose name had just come to Messer Guido's lips.

Messer Simone came of a house that was of excellent good repute in our
city. Bankers his folk were, very busy and prosperous, and bankers they
had been for many a long day before Messer Simone was begotten. Messer
Simone was not the greatest heir, but I think in his way he was the
most notable, though his way was not quite the way of the family, no
less steady-going than honorable, from which he came. For, indeed, it
was his chief delight to lavish the money whi