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Maso del Saggio
Monna Piccarda is a widow and the love interest of the Provost in Emilia’s eighth tale (VIII, 4). She is young, lovely, and clever. When the Provost won’t accept her gentle “no” for an answer, she and her brothers trick him into sleeping with her servant, Cuitazza. She demonstrates how an intelligent and shrewd person (even a woman) can treat people according to their just desserts without engaging in dishonorable conduct. Like Francesca de’ Lazzari (IX, 1) she demonstrates how a clever woman can rid herself of an unwanted lover; examples of the wrong way to do this include Elena (VIII, 7) and Dianora (X, 5).
Piccarda Quotes in The Decameron
The The Decameron quotes below are all either spoken by Piccarda or refer to Piccarda. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Day 8: Fourth Tale Quotes
“Heaven be praised!” said the Provost, who could scarce contain his joy. “To tell you the truth, madam, I am amazed that you should have held out for so long, seeing that this has never happened to me with any woman before. And in fact, I have sometimes had occasion to reflect, that if women were made of silver you couldn’t turn them into coins, as they bend too easily. But no more of this, when and where can we be together?”
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Explanation and Analysis:
In this tale, the Provost (the head priest of the cathedral) of a small town has fallen in love with a young widow named Monna Piccarda. Although she has refused him several times, he hasn’t accepted her answer, so she comes up with a plan to humiliate him by tricking him into sleeping with her ugly maid. She sets the trap by pretending to have changed her mind, and this passage contains part of his response. It paints a portrait of a man without morals, decency, or humility. Although as a priest he has taken a vow of chastity, he’s Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum
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Piccarda Character Timeline in The Decameron
The timeline below shows where the character Piccarda appears in The Decameron. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Day 8: Fourth Tale
Emilia’s story, like Panfilo’s, describes a lustful cleric. Monna Piccarda, a young widow of noble birth, lives near Fiesole’s main church with her two brothers....
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Monna Piccarda very politely tries to appeal to his sense of virtue rather than reject his advances...
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Monna Piccarda has an old, unattractive maid called Cuitazza. Offering to give her the gift of a...
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...wine, the brothers say they want to show him something. They take him to Monna Piccarda’s room, where the light from their torches reveals the Provost, so spent from his furious...
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