incomes. The former of these were soon offered to him, from
among whom Roderigo chose a very beautiful girl of the name of Onesta,
a daughter of Amerigo Donati, who had also three sons, all grown up,
and three more daughters, also nearly marriageable. Though of a noble
family and enjoying a good reputation in Florence, his father-in-law
was extremely poor, and maintained as poor an establishment.
Roderigo, therefore, made very splendid nuptials, and omitted nothing
that might tend to confer honour upon such a festival, being liable,
under the law which he received on leaving his infernal abode, to feel
all kinds of vain and earthly passions. He therefore soon began to
enter into all the pomps and vanities of the world, and to aim at
reputation and consideration among mankind, which put him to no little
expense. But more than this, he had not long enjoyed the society of
his beloved Onesta, before he became tenderly attached to her, and was
unable to behold her suffer the slightest inquietude or vexation. Now,
along with her other gifts of beauty and nobility, the lady had
brought into the house of Roderigo such an insufferable portion of
pride, that in this respect Lucifer himself could not equal her; for
her husband, who had experienced the effects of both, was at no loss
to decide which was the most intolerable of the two. Yet it became
infinitely worse when she discovered the extent of Roderigo's
attachment to her, of which she availed herself to obtain an
ascendancy over him and rule him with a rod of iron. Not content with
this, when she found he would bear it, she continued to annoy him with
all kinds of insults and taunts, in such a way as to give him the most
indescribable pain and uneasiness. For what with the influence of her
father, her brothers, her friends, and relatives, the duty of the
matrimonial yoke, and the love he bore her, he suffered all for some
time with the patience of a saint. It would be useless to recount the
follies and extravagancies into which he ran in order to gratify her
taste for dress, and every article of the newest fashion, in which
our city, ever so variable in its nature, according to its usual
habits, so much abounds. Yet, to live upon easy terms with her, he was
obliged to do more than this; he had to assist his father-in-law in
portioning off his other daughters; and she next asked him to furnish
one of her brothers with goods to sail for the Levant, another with
silks for the We