Note 202 — Chapter III

For an instance of Masuccio's feudal feeling, take this. A knight kills a licentious friar—"alquanto pentito per avere le sue possenti braccia con la morte di un Fra Minore contaminato" (op. cit. p. 13). It emerges in his description of the Order of the Ermine (ibid. p. 240). It is curious to compare this with his strong censure of the point of honor (pp. 388, 389) in a story which has the same blunt sense as Ariosto's episode of Giocondo. The Italian here prevails over the noble.