So charming is the manner, that the "Decameron," so rendered into
English, would acquire a new renown, and the public of to-day would
understand the fame of Boccaccio.
But the theologian hears with other ears, and declares that the old
Italian tales
"Are either trifling, dull, or lewd."
The student will not argue. He says only,--
"Nor were it grateful to forget
That from these reservoirs and tanks
Even imperial Shakespeare drew
His Moor of Venice and the Jew,
And Romeo and Juliet,
And many a famous comedy."
After a longer pause, the Spanish Jew from Alieant begins "a story in
the Talmud old," "The Legend of Rabbi Ben Levi." This is followed after
the interlude by the Sicilian's tale, "King Robert of Sicily," a noble
legend of the Church, whose moral is humility. It is told in a broad,
stately measure, and with consummate simplicity and skill. The attention
is not distracted for a moment from the story, which monks might tell in
the still cloisters of a Sicilian convent, and every American child hear
with interest and delight.
"And then the blue-eyed Norseman told.
A Saga of the days of old.
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