Ciesca

Ciesca is the self-satisfied niece of Fresco da Celatico whose vanity turns an ordinary complaint into the occasion for her uncle’s sharpest joke. Though she considers herself discerning and superior, she cannot recognize that the people she finds disagreeable include herself; the mirror she chooses to use becomes the image she fails to read.

Identity and Character

Ciesca, familiarly called by that name, is identified in a note as Francesca. She has a comely face and figure, though the narrator pointedly distinguishes her from the exceptional beauties praised elsewhere. Her appearance does not restrain her self-regard: she considers herself noble, criticizes both men and women, and finds nothing to her liking.

Her vanity governs not only her judgments but her public manner. When she goes out, she makes faces as if the people she sees give off an unpleasant smell. The tale presents her as froward and difficult to please, with a pride so excessive that even royal birth, the narrator remarks, would not justify it.

The Mirror Retort

One holiday, Ciesca returns home earlier than usual and sits beside Fresco, puffing and grimacing. Asked why she has come back so soon, she complains that the city is full of disagreeable and tiresome people. She says that seeing them is especially irksome to her and explains that she returned early to avoid them.

Fresco answers with a joke: if disagreeable people trouble her so much, she should avoid looking at herself in a mirror if she wishes to remain cheerful. The retort turns Ciesca’s complaint back upon her, making her own behavior the unspoken example of the very company she condemns.

Misunderstanding and Narrative Role

Ciesca does not understand the rebuke. She takes Fresco’s advice literally and replies that she wants to look at herself in the mirror like other women. The exchange therefore ends not in correction but in comic failure: she remains convinced of her own wit, while the reader can see that she has missed the point.

Emilia introduces the incident as a slight tale about a foolish fault checked by an uncle’s jest. Its force rests on the gap between what Fresco means and what Ciesca hears. The mirror is both the practical object in her answer and the measure of her self-knowledge: she is willing to look at her reflection, but cannot recognize the likeness between her own disagreeable conduct and the people she scorns. The narrator closes by saying that she remained in her folly, leaving the joke’s correction clear to the audience but ineffective for its target.