Neifile, queen at the start of Day Three

Neifile, queen at the start of Day Three, takes the crown at a moment of transition and gives the company a clear rhythm for continuing its life together. Her brief reign pauses storytelling for religious observance and customary rest, then resumes it with a theme about diligence and the recovery of what has been lost. In this way, she governs not only the company’s schedule but also the shape of its next day of stories.

Identity and Place in the Company

Neifile belongs to the company of seven women and three young men who have left plague-stricken Florence. She becomes queen after the day’s storytelling has ended: the company has just laughed at Dioneo, teller of the Day Two story, and agreed that his tale’s deceived husband had behaved foolishly. The outgoing queen then removes her wreath and places it on Neifile’s head, formally transferring authority.

The narration makes her response visible before she speaks. She blushes at the honor, her gaze lowered and bright, and is compared to a newly opened rose at dawn and to the morning star. After the company’s courteous approval, she takes heart, sits somewhat higher than before, and addresses them as their queen. The movement from blush to raised seat gives the succession a small but definite dramatic turn: an honor first received with modesty becomes an office she is ready to exercise.

Her Program of Rest and Observance

Neifile says she intends to follow the manner of those who governed before her, whose rule the company has accepted through its obedience. She proposes that the company refrain from storytelling on Friday as a day of Passion remembrance and fasting. In her account, that day calls for prayer in honor of the Divine rather than tales.

She extends the rest to Saturday in fasting and rest customs. She cites the practice of women washing their hair and removing the week’s dust, as well as the custom of fasting and ceasing work in reverence for the Virgin Mother and the approaching Sunday. These reasons make the pause part of the company’s shared observances, rather than an interruption imposed without explanation. The schedule is to resume on Sunday, after the company has slept.

Relocation and Practical Governance

Neifile also proposes that the company leave its current lodging after four days, both to avoid giving newcomers an occasion to join them and because she has already considered another place and made provision for the move. Her decision links privacy and hospitality to practical planning: the company is to remain together, but not indefinitely in one place.

On Sunday morning she rises and has the others rise with her. The seneschal has already sent supplies and people ahead to prepare the destination; as the company sets out, the remaining household goods and servants follow behind. Neifile travels west with the ladies and young men along a little-used footpath bordered by herbs and flowers, accompanied by the songs of nightingales and other birds. Before half-tierce, after a journey of no more than two thousand paces, they reach a palace raised on a small knoll above the plain. Its spacious court, ample cellars, cool water, flower-filled gallery, and walled garden confirm that the new lodging has been prepared for the company’s comfort. Her governance thus has a material side: a proposed change of place becomes an orderly move to a provisioned retreat.

The New Storytelling Theme

For the company’s return to storytelling, Neifile proposes tales of people who, through diligence, have obtained something greatly desired or recovered a lost good. She presents the subject as one among many possible forms of Fortune, giving the next day a shared focus while leaving the company room to choose different examples. The theme’s emphasis on effort and recovery also gives the stories a shape distinct from mere chance: the desired outcome is connected to what people do to secure it or regain it.

The rule is not absolute. Neifile expressly preserves Dioneo’s privilege, maintaining an exception within the common plan. The company approves her speech and arrangement, and she then instructs the seneschal where to set the evening tables and what to do throughout her reign. Her authority is therefore both procedural and social: she sets limits, supplies a reason for them, establishes the next subject, and attends to the practical arrangements that make the shared routine possible.