NOVEL VII.
Pasquino is in love with Simona; and being in a garden with her, he happens to rub his teeth with a leaf of sage, and immediately dies. She is brought before the judge, when, being desirous of showing him the cause of Pasquino’s death, she rubs her teeth with the same herb, and meets with a similar fate.
Pamfilo had finished his novel, when the king, seeming to be under no concern for Andrevuola, turned to Emilia, and desired her to begin, which she did accordingly in this manner: – Pamfilo’s story puts me in mind of another, which is only like it in this respect, that, as Andrevuola lost her lover in a garden, so she of whom I am going to speak, was taken up in the same manner, as Andrevuola was, and delivered from the hands of justice, neither by force nor virtue, but by unexpected death. And though we have said before, that love makes his habitation in the houses of great people, yet does he not disown all influence over the poorer sort. On the contrary, all powerful as he is, he shows his power over them, as well as over the rich, as will appear in a great measure from my novel, which brings me back again to our city, whence we have so far strayed to talk of other subjects that have happened in different parts of the world.
There lived not long since at Florence, a young woman, agreeable enough, for her rank in life, but descended of mean parents, whose name was Simona; and though she earned her bread by spinning, yet she was not beneath the passion of love, with which she was inspired by the pleasing conversation and behaviour of a young man of the same condition as herself, who used to bring her wool to spin for his master, a clothier. From this youth, whose name was Pasquino, she received the amorous flame, ever wishing, but not expecting anything farther; whilst still, as her wheel went round, she sent forth a thousand sighs, calling him then to mind who had brought her the wool. He, on the other hand, being desirous that his master’s work should be well done, used to call oftener upon Simona than upon any one else, as if her spinning was to make up the whole piece; whence the one continuing to solicit, and the other desiring to be solicited, it happened, that the first began to assume more courage than he used to have, and the second lost a good deal of her fear and bashfulness, so that they seemed at last to have come to a tolerable understanding.
This mutual good will of theirs continuing for some lime, and every day increasing, he said to her one day, that he desired of all things to meet her in a certain garden, where
they might talk together with greater freedom and less suspicion. She assured him that she was willing; and telling her father, one Sunday after dinner, that she was going for a pardon to St. Gallo, she went along with a companion of hers, called Lagina, to the place appointed. There she found Pasquino with a friend of his, named Puccino, though-more usually called Stramba. Stramba and Lagina soon became acquainted, and each drew to one end of the garden, whilst Pasquino and Simona were at the other. In that part where this couple was, grew a large bush of sage, near which they seated themselves, and having talked about a feast, which they intended to have some holiday in that garden, he plucked a leaf of the sage, and began to rub his teeth and gums with it, saying, that nothing cleansed the teeth better after eating than sage; and when he had done, he returned to his former subject of the feast, when immediately he began to change countenance, his sight and speech both failed him, and he suddenly expired.
When Simona saw this she began to lament, and scream for help to the other two, who instantly ran up, and seeing him not only swollen, but full of black spots, Stramba immediately cried out, “Oh! thou vile woman, thou hast poisoned him.” He made such an uproar, that he was heard by many of the neighbours, who flocked thither, and finding the man dead and swollen, and hearing Stramba lament and accuse Simona of
his death, whilst grief for the loss of her lover, and astonishment together, had so confounded her, that she scarcely made any defence, they supposed it was as he said. Upon this the poor creature was carried before a magistrate; when Stramba, and two other friends of Pasquino, being her accusers, the judge took immediate cognizance of the case, and not being able to see any malicious intent in Simona, or that she was in the least guilty, he wished to view the dead body, as well as the place and manner of the occurrence, because there were some things which he could not well understand from her account. Coming, then, without any great bustle to the garden, where Pasquino’s body lay puffed up like a tun, the judge was surprised, and inquired particularly how it happened. Simona went to the bush of sage, and having related the whole affair, that he might have a perfect account, rubbed her teeth with a leaf, as Pasquino had done. Stramba and the rest looked upon this as a frivolous and vain pretence, and called out violently to the judge to have her burnt for her wickedness; whilst she (miserable wretch!) grieved for the loss of her lover, and terrified to death with their threats, having rubbed her teeth with the same sage that he had used, dropped down dead in a similar manner, to the wonder of them all.
Happy souls! to end both their loves and their lives on the same day. More happy still, if they went together to the same place! Happiest, if they love one another as much in the other world as here! But happiest of all, at least in our judgment, is the soul of Simona, whose innocence fortune would not leave at the mercy of such witnesses, and therefore found a way, by her dying the same death with her lover, for her to escape their slander, and to follow the soul of her beloved Pasquino. The judge was lost in amazement at this accident, as well as the rest of the company; and upon recollecting himself at last, he said, “This sage is plainly venomous; therefore, that nobody else may suffer by it, let it be cut up by the roots, and burnt.” This was done by the gardener in his presence, when the cause of the lovers’ deaths plainly appeared. Under the sage was a monstrous overgrown toad, with whose breath it was judged to be infected. And none being hardy enough to go near it, they made a circle of stubble round it, and burnt it along with the sage. So ended the process upon the death of poor Pasquino, whose body, as well as that of Simona, was interred by Stramba and the rest of the people present, in St. Paul’s church, to which parish they were said to belong.