at the end of Novel VI. which he prefers against women who put on the habit of religious houses." We might do worse than quote it:—
"……I keep silence, likewise, concerning all that might be said on the subject of the marriage of these women with friars……how they make sumptuous marriages feasts, inviting thereto from this convent and that their friends, who present themselves with equipages laden with all manner of rich goods……With the consent of the abbess and of their prelate they execute marriage contracts, duly written and sealed; and then, having supped of all manner or sumptuous meats, and performed every other ceremony pertaining to the rite of marriage, they go to bed one with another without showing any fear or shame, just as if their union had been contracted with the full sanction of their own fathers, and by the laws of marriage……"[1]
Space will not permit us, however, to deal in extenso with Masuccio's hatred of priest and woman. We can best refer the reader to his Novellino, or to such extracts as we shall make from them in subsequent volumes of Anthologica Rarissima. Our purpose, in the foregoing sketch, was to give some slight impression of the aims and mentality of the author of the stories reproduced in this particular volume.
- ↑ C.f. The New Metamorphosis, or The Golden Ass of Apuleius altered and improved to Modern Times, by Carlo Socio: London, 1822, extracts from which, exactly germane to Masuccio's denunciation, will be found in vol. 2 of Anthologica Rarissima: The Way of a Priest.
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