Note 899 — Chapter VI · THE POSITION OF WOMEN.

And rightly so, sometimes. How ladies should behave while such tales are telling, we learn from Cortigiano, l. iii. fol. 107. That the ladies who were present at his dialogues must have known how to conduct themselves in case of need, is shown by the strong passage, l. ii. fol. 100. What is said of the ‘Donna di Palazzo’—the counterpart of the Cortigiano—that she should neither avoid frivolous company nor use unbecoming language, is not decisive, since she was far more the servant of the princess than the Cortigiano of the prince. See Bandello, i. nov. 44. Bianca d’Este tells the terrible love-story of her ancestor, Niccolò of Ferrara, and Parisina. The tales put into the mouths of the women in the Decameron may also serve as instances of this indelicacy. For Bandello, see above, p. 145; and Landau, Beitr. z. Gesch. der Ital. Nov. Vienna, 1875, p. 102. note 32.