Note 112 — FABLES.
Reading edition
In this instance Dryden has inverted the fact. Boccacio tells the story of Griselda in his "Decameron," which was written about 1160, and Petrarch did not translate it till 1173, the year of his death, when he executed a Latin version of it. Even then, he mentions it as a traditional tale, which he had often heard with pleasure. The original edition of the story is difficult to discover. Noguier, in his "Histoire de Tholouse," affirms, that this mirror of female patience actually existed about the year 1103, and Le Grand lays claim to her history as originally a French fabliau. It seems certain, at least, that it was not invented by Petrarch, although Chaucer quotes his authority, probably that he might introduce a panegyric on his departed friend:
"I wol you tell a tale, which that I Lerned at Padowe of a worthy clerk, As proved by his wordes, and his werk: He now is dede, and nailed in his cheste, I pray to God so geve his soule reste. Fraunceis Petrark, the laureate poete, Highte this clerke, whose rhetorik swete Enlumined all Itaille of poetrie." Clerke's Prologue.