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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Boccaccio's first work of importance is the Filocolo, a long rambling romance in prose, built around the well-known medieval legend of Florio and Biancofiore which it grieved the author to see relegated to the “fabulosi parlari degli ignoranti.” Boccaccio, that is, wished to ennoble the popular legend by giving it a literary and artistic dignity that it lacked in the oral tradition and in the French and Italian sources available to him. The very choice of the story is significant, for in its basic design it represents a theme that Boccaccio was to treat with predilection and consummate art in later works such as the Ninfale Fiesolano and several tales of the Decameron: the natural or instinctive love that attracts two young people of the opposite sex and the persistence of their love against the obstacles erected by an unsympathetic law or by class-conscious relatives concerned with preserving the distinctions created by social and economic position. In the Filocolo, however, this simple outline serves only as the nucleus or skeleton of a story of epic dimensions, for Boccaccio creates such Odyssean adventures for his separated lovers as to make for a seemingly endless and chaotic unfolding in which Virgil, Ovid, and Dante are only the most obvious and persistent influences.
Note 1 in page 330 The Filocolo has not received anywhere near the critical attention it so richly deserves. I have profited from the following works which make up the best criticism that has appeared on this early Boccaccian novel: S. Battaglia, “Schemi lirici nell'arte del Boccaccio,” Archivum Romani-cum, xix, Jan.-March 1935, and the same author's Nota to his edition of the Filocolo (Bari, 1938), esp. pp. 582–589; E. De Ferri, Introduction to 11 Filocolo (Torino, 1927), I, v-xlix (the text of De Ferri's edition of the Filocolo is very poor and uncritical); C. Grabher, Boccaccio (Torino, 1945), pp. 51–63; J. Luchaire, Boccace (Paris, 1951), pp. 37–47; L. Malagoli, “Timbro della prosa e motivi dell'arte del Boccaccio nel Filocolo,” Studi mediolatini e volgari, vi-vii (Bologna, 1959), 97–111; N. Sapegno, 11 Trecento (Milano, 1948), pp. 296–304.
Note 2 in page 331 Quotations from the Filocolo are from the edition of Salvatore Battaglia: G. Boccaccio, 11 Filocolo (Laterza, 1938). The page number appears at the end of each quote.
Note 3 in page 332 For a discussion of fortune in the Decameron, see V. Cioffari, “The Conception of Fortune in the Decameron,” Italica, xvii (Dec. 1940), 129–137.
Note 4 in page 332 Similarly, following King Felice's long lachrymose tirade in which he blames the gods and Fortune (here accused of “plotting”) for engineering the enamourment of Florio and Biancofiore, the queen lucidly gives the natural and true reason: “Caro signore, non è per questo accidente da dis-perarsi, né degl'iddii né délia fortuna, perciô che non è mirabile cosa se Florio délia bellezza délia vaga giovane è inamorato, con ciô sia cosa che egli sia giovanissimo, e continuamente con lei dimori, ed ella sia bellissima giovane e piacevole” (p. 68).
Note 5 in page 333 Malagoli acutely observes : “il Caso, si noti, e I'osser-vazione è d'importanza fondamentale, è momento essenziale nella concezione boccaccesca del mondo ed è l'anima délia struttura délia sua arte narrativa. Ove si prescinda dal Caso nell'intelaiatura della sua novella non s'intende più il moto narrativo, nè il legame su cui fioriscono le situazioni o le figure della sua arte. Il Caso è il dio che dà significato e vita al movimento delle vicende o al gioco delle mirabili coinci-denze, su cui riposano la connessione e l'intreccio esteriore delle cose, che son le humus féconda della sua visione del mondo.” L. Malagoli, “Timbro della prosa…” p. 110.1 do not agree, however, with Malagoli's insistence on Fortune in the Filocolo as lieto fine and the suggestion that we have here already a Renaissance concept of Fortune: “dove si affaccia in modo distinto non già il concetto dantesco, ma quello rinascimentale (la fortuna è dominata dall'uomo)” (p. 111). In the Filocolo man has no conquering virtu over Fortune. The lieto fine could just as easily have been a triste fine, and in any case the emphasis in the Filocolo is on the adverse effects of Fortune for the reasons I have explained in the text of the present article.
Note 6 in page 333 When King Felice says to his son Florio, who is about to leave on his adventurous quest for Biancofiore, “… in ogni parte ove la fortuna ti conduce,” he is only saying, “wherever your search chances to lead you.”
Note 7 in page 334 Another unforgettable page on this theme is the scene of the consummation of the protagonists' love in Biancofiore's room at the top of the tower of Alexandria. See Il Filocolo, pp. 411 ff.
Note 8 in page 334 “Egli aveva la testa dell'una in grembo, e dell'altra il dilicato braccio sopra il candido collo; e sovente con sottile sguardo metteva l'occhio tra '1 bianco vestimento e le colorite carni, per vedere piu apertamente quel che i sottili drappi non perfettamente coprivano. Egli toccava loro alcuna volta la Candida gola con la débile mano, e altra volta s'ingegnava di mettere le dita tra la scollatura del vestimento e le mammelle; e ciascuna parte del corpo con festevole atto andava tentando” (p. 180).
Note 9 in page 334 In the Filocolo, woman is contemplated in a variety of attitudes and moods. It is characteristic of the heroines of most of Boccaccio's minor works that although they may have a clearly defined character with a dominant trait or traits, they nonetheless tend to acquire the features of the women of the widely differing literary traditions upon which the author was drawing. Thus they appear now as nymphal, now as regal and courtly, at times as innocent children of nature, at time as stilnovistic angelic creatures or as worldly-wise matrons. The danger, of course (and it is one that Boccaccio does not always avoid), is that the psychological and artistic coherence of the characters will be sacrificed to this desire for completeness. Biancofiore does not lose her air of charming innocence even in sexual embrace, thanks to Boccaccio's delicacy and tenderness. But it is difficult to reconcile that youthful charm and ingenuousness with the stilnovistic and courtly regal bearing that is occasionally lent her, or with Florio's opinion that she is the equal of Cicero in eloquence.
Note 10 in page 335 FIorio's tirade is thus an early and important anticipation of the more famous declaration of the same principles by Ghismunda in the Decameron, rv, 1. There, too, the right to love and choice and the insistence on nobility of character are proclaimed in a tirade against a caste-conscious father.
Note 11 in page 335 In no other work was Boccaccio to insist so greatly on the role of beauty although the theme remained with him throughout his career. It may be said to be the underlying motif of the Ameto and of the novella of Cimone (Decameron, v, 1), where the bestial-like male is awed by the sight of feminine beauty and is thereupon moved to good.
Note 12 in page 335 One thinks of a much later Italian poet in whom the cult of feminine beauty as a consoling force for man's weary spirit was so important: Foscolo too celebrated in woman that “aurea beltate ond'ebbero/ristoro unico a' mali/le nate a vaneggiar menti mortali.” All'amica risanata, vv. 10–12.
Note 13 in page 336 It will be remembered that the enamourment of Bianco-fiore and Florio is signalled by their awakening to a “nova bellezza” each finds in the other. And when the queen refers to Florio's love for Biancofiore, she says, “non è mirabile cosa se Florio della bellezza della vaga giovane è innamo-rato.”
Note 14 in page 336 Hardly a page goes by in which the expression of love of the desired object above everything else is not mentioned : “colei cui amo sopra tutte le cose del mondo… colei che me piu che sé ama” (p. 420); “dalla mia puerizia fu Biancofiore piu che ogni altra cosa amata da me” (p. 276); “è mio intendimento di giâ mai posare, infino a tanto che colei cui io piu che altra cosa amo, ritrovata avrô” (p. 268); “Tu, secondo il tuo dire,” says the Duke to Florio, “ami piu ch'altra cosa Biancofiore, e similmente di che piu ch'altra cosa ella te ama” (p. 171). And Biancofiore asserts her obligation to love Florio because of his supreme love for her : “n'è una [cosa] in lui, per la quale mai per alcun altro cambiare nol dovrei: che esso ama me sopra tutte le cose del mondo” (p. 253). In this latter statement there is perhaps an echo of Dante's Francesca “amor ch'a nullo amato amar perdona.” The “formula” of supreme love is very frequent in the Decameron, where it again is used to express the validity or perfectness of the love relationship even in adulterous relationships: “Per che, amandolo sopra ogni altra cosa come facea” (iv, 10); “Restitua… la quale un giovanetto… amava sopra la vita sua, ed ella lui” (v, 6); “sopra ogni sua félicita e piu che la propria vita l'amava” (x, 8); “la donna… cominciô a porre amore a lui, in tanto che niuna cosa più che lui disiderava o amava” (iv, 9). The examples could be multiplied almost indefinitely.
Note 15 in page 337 In one case, a friend counsels Florio that in order to win the aid of the châtelain of the tower in which Bianco-fiore is enclosed, the young lover should seek to engage the châtelain in a game of chess and deliberately allow his opponent to win. This is the same thing the Amant is told to do with Bel Accueil in the Roman de la Rose.
Note 16 in page 337 Speaking of the Roman de la Rose, Huizinga writes that “leisure, pleasure, gaiety, love, beauty, wealth, liberality, frankness and courteousness… are no longer so many perfections brought about by the sacredness of love, but simply the proper means to conquer the object desired.” J. Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1954), p. 115.
Note 17 in page 337 Thus his selfish satisfaction at the sight of Florio's gifts gives way to a gentler and nobler feeling: “con cupido occhio rimirô… nelcore lieto di tal présente. Nondimeno, della magnanimitâ e cortesia di Filocolo maravigliandosi molto, e rivolto dove Filocolo sedeva, con benigrio aspetto il riguardô” (p. 394).
Note 18 in page 337 Such are the thoughts Biancofiore addresses to her separated lover: “Oimè, se quello amore che tu m'hai piü volte con piacevole viso mostrato è vero, perché nel cospetto del crudel tuo padre non piangevi tu, veggendo che i prieghi non ti valeano? E non ti si disdiceva, ché ciascuno sa che niuno puô dar legge agli amorevoli atti, perô che la forza d'amore tiene l'uomo, piú che alcun altro vincolo, stretto. Io credo che, se le tue lagrime fossero state con soavi prieghi mescolate, egli avrebbe conceduto che tu fossi prima qui rimaso che vedutoti piü lagrimare, perciò che la pietá, che sarebbe stata da avère di te, avrebbe vinto e rimutato il suo nuovo proponimento” (p. 80).
Note 19 in page 338 In this respect, the episode is a forerunner of the lieta brigata and of the framework of the Decameron. The questions themselves are in some cases developed as stories, two of which (4 and 13) were to reappear, much improved, in the Decameron (x, 5 and 4). For a discussion of Boccaccio's questioni d'amore in relation to the tradition of the courts of love and the Provençal tenso and partimen, see P. Rajna, “L'episodio delle Questioni d'amore nel Filocolo del Boccaccio,” Romania, XXXI (1902), pp. 28 ff. Excellent observations on the episode are to be found in S. Battaglia's “Schemi lirici nell'arte del Boccaccio,” Archi-vum Romanicum, xix, gen.-marzo 1935.
Note 20 in page 339 G. Boccaccio, Decameron… Ameto… a cura di E. Bianchi, C. Salinari, N. Sapegno (Milano, 19S2), p. 1055.
Note 21 in page 339 That the Decameron, as we know it, was written is a tribute not only to Boccaccio's artistic maturing; there was also needed a maturing vision of life which was never totally absent in him but which had never been able to free itself completely from aristocratic and humanistic aspirations and prejudices. The qualities determining that vision were: an ingrained zest for life, an admiration for the quick intelligence of man, a sympathetic insight and love for popular modes of expression, and an inveterate realism. These things did not cause Boccaccio to renounce his dream of the beautiful secular life. The values he had championed in the Filocolo remained more or less constant, but the strong aristocratic bias has given way. The Decameron reveals to us an author who is no longer catering to a courtly or literary élite but one who has finally come completely into his own as the interpreter of the Italian middle-class world of the fourteenth century with its exploding energy and eagerness for material well-being and secular pleasures. Into this world Boccaccio transplants his ideals of cortesia and courtly love, ideals which even in the Decameron, where they are made to dwell in an atmosphere hitherto foreign to them, remain at the top of the scale of life's values.