Feast of the Nativity

The Feast of the Nativity is the fixed occasion for a carefully staged encounter in the story of Elena and Rinieri. Its evening promise draws Rinieri to her house, but the snow-covered night turns the expected tryst into a cold vigil and gives Elena and her lover a view of the scholar’s humiliation.

The Feast as a Narrative Occasion

The story identifies the Feast of the Nativity as the evening on which Elena says she hopes to meet Rinieri. Through her maid, she tells him to come by night to the courtyard, where she will join him as soon as she can. The feast supplies a specific appointed time for the meeting; the passage does not describe religious ceremonies or other observances associated with it.

The Night in the Courtyard

Elena has already told her lover what she intends to do, presenting the arrangement as proof that Rinieri need not be an object of jealousy. After supper, he accompanies her to a lattice, from which they can see without being seen. Below, the maid gives Rinieri a false explanation for Elena’s absence, claiming that her brother is still with her and will soon leave. Rinieri believes the message and agrees to wait.

Snow and Reversal

It had snowed heavily during the day, and the courtyard is covered in snow. Rinieri soon grows colder than he can bear, but continues waiting in the hope that Elena will come. From the lattice, Elena’s lover can see the very evidence that contradicts his suspicion: rather than welcoming Rinieri, Elena has left him outside in the cold. She then goes to bed with her lover, and the two spend the night in amusement while Rinieri paces the courtyard, unable to find shelter or a place to sit.

Narrative Significance

The feast’s importance here is temporal rather than ceremonial. A promised meeting on a festive night raises Rinieri’s expectation of intimacy; the snow and the delay instead make the appointed occasion an instrument of mockery. The contrast between the couple watching comfortably from indoors and the scholar waiting outdoors gives the scene its reversal: the holiday appointment becomes a trap, and the promised welcome ends in exposure and cold.