Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The History of Fiction, Vol. 2 of 2: Being a Critical Account of the Most Celebrated Prose Works of Fiction, From the Earliest Greek Romances to the Novels of the Present Day
Having said this much of the general features, and in troduction of the Decameron, we shall now direct our attention to the tales of which it is composed; the merit of their incidents; the sources from which they have ori ginated, and their influence on the literature of subsequent ages. These tales have been variously classified by dif ferent critics. The most complete division of them has been made by Jason de Nores in his Poetica, (par. Si dimostra dalla distinzione del Decamerone che l' au tore le divide tacitamente nel proemio in Novelle, come son quelle di Calandrino;'in Parabole, come is quella di Mitridanes, e di Milesio, e di Giosepho; in Islam's come la Marchese di Saluzzo e Griselda; e in Favole come Guglielmo Rossiglione, Conte Anguersa, e Minghino, e infinite altre; intendendo per favola, nel modo che Aristo tile nella sua poetica, argomenti e azione, o tragiche eroiche o comiche This classification is extremely vague and fanciful, nor would it be easy to fix on one more satisfactory and defined. The only division to which the Decameron can properly be subjected, is the artificial one contrived by the author. In eight of the ten days into which it is distributed, a particular subject is assigned to the relaters, as stories of comical or melan choly vicissitudes of life, splendid examples of generosity, &c. Dioneo, however, is exempted from this restriction, and is allowed to indulge in whatever topic he chooses. His story is always the last, and generally the most licen tious, of the day. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
