Short stories
The Novels of Matteo Bandello
Novelle
Matteo Bandello · 1554
Opening lines
Io porto ferma openione, signori miei, che nostro Signore Dio vi abbia spirato la sua grazia a far la determinazione che conchiusa avete di non voler più attendere a la pratica di dare una de le vostre signore figliuole per moglie al signor conte di Gaiazzo.
I am firmly of the opinion, my lords, that our Lord God has inspired you with His grace to take the decision you have reached: no longer to pursue the negotiations for giving one of your daughters in marriage to the Count of Gaiazzo.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from it.wikisource.org
Synopsis
Two hundred and fourteen tales, divided into four parts and with no frame narrative around them. Each opens with a dedicatory letter addressed to a real person, in which the author says in whose company he claims to have heard the story. The tales, bold in manner, draw on the life of the courts and the intrigues of Italian Renaissance society; among them is the story of two young lovers from Verona, Romeo and Juliet.
Context
The first three parts appeared in Lucca, from Busdrago, in 1554; the fourth, posthumous, in Lyon in 1573. Adapted into French by Pierre Boaistuau and François de Belleforest, then into English, these stories supplied the subject of Shakespeare's “Romeo and Juliet”, “Much Ado About Nothing” and “Twelfth Night”, as well as John Webster's “The Duchess of Malfi”. John Payne gave an English translation in 1890; the first complete French translation appeared from Les Belles Lettres, under the direction of Adelin Charles Fiorato.
Who it is for
An immense collection, with no order or thread, which is read in pieces; the dedicatory letters are part of the book.
Prizes and reception
According to the Britannica, its English translators gave these sensual tales a severely moral tone.
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