How we cite our quotes: (Day.Story.Page)
Quote #1
So he crossed the sea to Ireland as best he could and eventually arrived at Strangford, where he entered the service of one of the feudatories of a rural baron, performing all the usual tasks of a groom or a servant. And there he remained for many years, unrecognized by anyone, and compelled to endure great hardship and discomfort. (II.8.154, Elissa's tale of Walter, the Count of Antwerp)
Walter, Count of Antwerp has been falsely accused of attempted rape by the French king's daughter-in-law and has been exiled to wander the world in search of his fate. Though innocent, Walter suffers the loss of his family and his social status. The point of the story isn't to depress you to death. In fact, it's meant to encourage hope. After a lifetime of suffering Walter gets everything back and more, a medieval Job. Fortune's Wheel at work. Still, it could've spun a little faster…
Quote #2
But because he supposed her to be of low estate, he dared not ask his parents to allow him to marry her. Moreover, since he was afraid of being reproached with falling in love with a commoner, he did all he could to keep his love a secret, and thus he was afflicted with sharper pangs than any he would have suffered had he brought it out into the open. Eventually, his suffering became so acute that he fell seriously ill. (II.8.155, Elissa's tale of Walter, Count of Antwerp)
This is a familiar theme—pining to the death for unrequited love. For Jeannette's foster brother, this bout of illness is brought on by mental torment over the hopelessness of his marriage choice. There are drama kings as well as queens, we guess. When your love ain't around, don't they know it's the End of the World?
Quote #3
[...] as you are perfectly well aware, all vices can bring enormous sorrow to those who practise them, and in many cases they also bring affliction to others. But it seems to me that the one [vice] that leads us into danger more swiftly than any other is the vice of anger. For anger is nothing more than a sudden, thoughtless impulse, which, set in motion by a feeling of resentment, expels all reason, plunges the mind's eye into darkness, and sets our hearts ablaze with raging fury. (IV.3.313, Lauretta's story of the three young men who elope to Crete with 3 sisters)
Lauretta's story of three sisters from hell and their "lucky" bridegrooms highlights problems with what we'd now call "impulse control." In Boccaccio's time (and in theological thought of our time), Anger is considered one of the seven deadly or mortal sins. Dante even creates a special level in Hell for those who practice it. The suffering here goes both ways: the person who feels anger suffers immense pain and then inflicts pain on others.
Quote #4
'This can only have been the work of an evil and treacherous knight, for if, of my own free will, I abused you by making him the master of my love, it was not he but I that should have paid the penalty for it. But God forbid that any other food should pass my lips now that I have partaken of such excellent fare as the heart of so gallant and courteous a knight as Guillaume de Cabestanh.' (IV.9.352, Filostrato's story of The Eaten Heart)
This story is straight out of a horror flick, so we can totally empathize with the lady's desire to jump out the window straightaway. Her suffering's portrayed as a sign of a noble and faithful heart, no pun intended. The story of the Eaten Heart is another tale that Boccaccio cribs from folktale, so although it seems extreme and unique in its level of misery, it's an old theme. The idea of devouring the heart as revenge for infidelity is a poetic one and symbolizes not just the seat of love, but also the organ most afflicted when good love goes wrong.
Quote #5
Bereft of every comfort now, Oh, Lord of love, to you I cry; I burn with such a torment here That for a less I'd crave to die. Come Death, then, end my life With all its cruel strife; Strike down my misery! I shall the better be. (IV.Conclusion.364, Filostrato's song)
Some things are so sad that they just have to be sung like a George Jones ballad. Again and again, Filostrato reminds us of the romantic notion that one can (and should) die from disappointed love because it shows how deeply the lover loves. Of course, he's singing this song while he's on vacation with seven smart and beautiful women, two girls for every boy, so it's a little hard to take him seriously.
Quote #6
'By suffering as you do now, then, you will possibly learn what it means to trifle with a man's affections, and to hold a man of learning up to ridicule; and if you should escape with your life, you will have good cause never to stoop to such folly again. But if you are so anxious to descend, why do you not throw yourself over the parapet? With God's help, you would break your neck, and so release yourself from the pain you seem to be suffering, at the same time making me the happiest man alive.' (VIII.7.600, Pampinea's story of The Student and the Widow)
Rinieri proves what Lauretta has said about anger: it causes suffering to the one who is angry and to the object of the anger. The longer he talks, the more worked up he seems to get. While Rinieri initially has for a good reason for his anger and vengeance, it's pretty clear that Boccaccio thinks it's all a bit extreme. Rinieri had planned to inflict two different kinds of suffering on Elena: psychological suffering through the destruction of her reputation and physical suffering by enacting the same strategy that Elena had on Rinieri in the winter. Rinieri's operating on the theory that if you make someone suffer like you did, it might make them realize how bad they've treated you. Is teaching empathy a fair reason for making someone suffer? At the end of the story, the Widow does vow never to fool anyone again. Whether this is because the experience built character or she's just scared out her wits, we can't say. We can say that we love the term "vile strumpet" that he throws at her.
Quote #7
On finding that she was being burnt, she attempted to move, whereupon she felt as if the whole of her scorched skin was being rent asunder like a piece of flaming parchment being stretched from both ends [...]. The floor of the tower-roof was so hot that she could find nowhere to stand or sit down, and so she kept shifting her position the whole time, weeping incessantly. But apart from all this, there not being a breath of wind, the air was literally teeming with flies and gadflies, which, settling in the fissures of her flesh, stung her so ferociously that every sting was like a spear being thrust into her body. (VIII.7.604-605, Pampinea's story of The Student and the Widow)
Yikes. We're not sure if Rinieri planned this, but the burning of Elena's skin is reminiscent of burning at the stake or in Hell (the penalty for fornication) and allows punishment to be inflicted directly on the parts of her body that made her beautiful (i.e. her fair skin). Rinieri reminds her that if she survives, her skin will heal up just fine. It's the psychological scars that he relishes inflicting on her. This language is pretty intense, like the language of the Prologue describing the suffering of the plague victims.
Quote #8
'If only the gods had so willed it, Gisippus, I would much rather have died than continued to live, when I think how Fortune has driven me to the point where my virtue had to be put to the test, and where, to my very great shame, you have found it wanting. But I confidently expect to receive, before long, my just reward in the form of my death, and this will be dearer to me than to go on living with the memory of my baseness, which, since there is nothing I either could or should conceal from you, I shall tell you about, though I burn with shame to speak of it.' (X.8. 749, Filomena's tale of Titus and Gisippus)
Perhaps Titus is being a tad dramatic here—he's about to confess to his best friend that he's in love with said be-fri's girl. But remember that at this time, best male friends have a unique, ideal relationship that exceeds all others. Titus would rather suffer death than live in the misery of knowing that he would have damaged a relationship far more worthy than any sexual one. Here's another example of how depth suffering illustrates nobility of character.
Quote #9
The King neither noticed nor cared about any of this, which made her affliction all the more difficult to bear. As her love continued to increase, so also did her melancholy, till eventually, being unable to endure it any longer, the beautiful Lisa fell ill and began to waste visibly away from one day to the next, like snow in the rays of the sun. (X.7.738)
There were a lot of causes for suffering in the 13th-century—illness, poverty, death—but in The Decameron, the hands-down biggest cause for suffering is Love, particularly unexpressed or unattainable love. Pining, wasting, weeping, dying—it's all part of a serious romance. In the case of Lisa and King Peter, as soon as the king visits her and hears her professions of love, she begins to feel better. She's restored to health once she's suitably married off to a man the king finds for her. The Young Rascals were right. She's got the fever. He's got the cure.
Quote #10
On learning of her husband's intentions [to divorce her], from which it appeared she would have to return to her father's house, in order perhaps to look after the sheep as she had in the past, meanwhile seeing the man she adored being cherished by some other woman, Griselda was secretly filled with despair. But she prepared herself to endure this final blow as stoically as she had borne Fortune's earlier assaults. (X.10.790, Dioneo's tale of Griselda)
This is the first time that Dioneo speaks of Griselda experiencing actual despair at the ruthless actions of her husband. Even when her children are purportedly taken away to be slaughtered, Griselda doesn't show her despair. But at the loss of a sadistic husband and the thought of returning to a job she hated, we see suffering. Could this be the result of a male voice telling a woman's story? Or is this simply a more complex insight into female suffering? Is stoicism in the face of suffering a virtue?
Quote #11
'But with all my heart I beg you not to inflict those same wounds upon her that you imposed upon her predecessor, for I doubt whether she could withstand them, not only because she is younger, but also because she has had a refined upbringing, whereas the other had to face continual hardship from infancy.' (X.10.793, Dioneo's tale of Griselda. Griselda warns Gualtieri not to push his new bride as hard as he did her).
Here's an interesting idea: only the elite can truly suffer, because they're not used to it. The suffering of the common person can't possibly be as great since they've grown up expecting it. Griselda, with all she's been through, graciously devalues her own suffering for this reason.