Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
The narrative of the Patient Griselda is one of the mostwide-spread of the stories which have come down to us fromthe Middle Ages. It has been annexed to the highest literatureby such poets as Boccaccio, Petrarch and Chaucer, and has beenbrought within reach of the meanest capacities by the ballad-mongersand the writers of penny histories.
We cannot trace the story back farther than the middle ofthe fourteenth century, when Boccaccio incorporated it into hisDecameron (day 10, novel 10); but it must have had a previousexistence in Italy, for Petrarch says in his letter to Boccacciothat when he read it in the Decameron he remembered howpleased he had been with it when he heard it many yearsbefore. When his memory was thus revived in the story thatcharmed him so much he set to work to learn it by heart, sothat he might repeat it to his friends. He then translated itinto Latin for the benefit of those who did not know Italian.[1]iiThat he did repeat the story to his friend we learn from theClerk of Oxenford’s Prologue to his tale in the CanterburyTales, where he says:—
1. See Originals and Analogues of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, part ii. pp. 150–176(Chaucer Society).
There has been much controversy over these words. Wemust all wish to believe that Chaucer met Petrarch at Paduaand was friendly with him; but although it is highly probablethat he did so we have no actual evidence other than thispassage. Some say that Chaucer is not speaking here in hisown name but in that of a fictitious character, and thereforethe statement goes for nothing. Another objection is that hereChaucer’s in