[108] See _Op. Volg._ vii. 6-11. Compare with these phrases those selected from the humanistic writings of a later date, _Revival of Learning_, p. 397.
[109] This is the climax (Parte Terza, stanza xxxii.):
A cui Troilo disse; anima mia, I' te ne prego, sì ch'io t'abbia in braccio Ignuda sì come il mio cor disia. Ed ella allora: ve' che me ne spaccio; E la camicia sua gittata via, Nelle sue braccia si raccolse avvaccio; E stringnendo l'un l'altro con fervore, D'amor sentiron l'ultimo valore.
[110] The _Amorosa Visione_ ends with these words, _Sir di tutta pace_; their meaning is explained in previous passages of the same poem. At the end of cap. xlvi. the lady says:
Io volli ora al presente far quieto Il tuo disio con amorosa pace, Dandoti l'arra che finirà il fleto.
E quel disio che or più ti tormenta Porrò in pace, con quella bellezza Che l'alma al cor tuttora ti presenta.
The context reveals the nature of the peace to be attained. It is the satisfaction of an orgasm. We may compare the invocation to Venus and her promise at the end of the _Caccia di Diana_, canto xvii. (_Op. Volg._ xiv.). The time-honored language about "expelling all base thoughts" is here combined with the anticipation of sensual possession.
[112] Bonucci in his edition of Alberti's works, conscious of that author's debt to Boccaccio, advances the wild theory that he wrote the _Fiammetta_. See _Opere Volgari di L.B. Alberti_, vol. iii. p. 353.
[113] _Laberinto d'Amore_ (Firenze, Caselli), p. 153, and p. 127.
[115] See _Age of the Despots_, p. 186, note.
[116] See Sonnets vii. and viii. of the _Rime_.
[117] The same motive occurs in the _Ameto_, where the power of love to refine a rustic nature is treated both in the prose romance and in the interpolated _terza rima_ poems. See especially the song of Teogapen (_Op. Volg._ xv. 34).
[118] Boccaccio breaks the style and becomes obscenely vulgar at times. See Parte Quarta, xxxvi. xxxvii., Parte Quinta, xlv. xlvi. The innuendoes of the _Ugellino_ and the _Nicchio_ are here repeated in figures which anticipate the novels and _capitoli_ of the _cinque cento_.
[119] Students may consult the valuable work of Vincenzo Nannucci, _Manuale della Letteratura del primo secolo della Lingua Italiana_, Firenze, Barbèra, 1874. The second volume contains copious specimens of thirteenth-century prose.