Pampinea, singer at the end of Day Two

Pampinea, singer at the end of Day Two, gives voice to a lyric of fulfilled love during the company’s evening festivities. Its speaker celebrates a beloved whose affection is returned and trusts that faithful love may find peace beyond this world, joining courtly devotion to the gathering’s pleasures of song, dance, and communal storytelling.

Place in the Gathering

After the queen sets out plans for the company’s next storytelling day, the members take supper in good spirits. When the meal ends, they rise, and Emilia, guide to the new lodging, leads the round. Pampinea sings while the other ladies respond, making her performance part of a collective occasion rather than a solitary recital.

The song belongs to the company’s interval between formal storytelling days. The group continues with other songs, dances, and instrumental music; when the queen judges it time to retire, its members go to their chambers by torchlight. They spend the next two days attending to the activities already arranged and eagerly awaiting Sunday. Pampinea’s performance thus helps give shape to the convivial pause before the stories resume.

The Song’s Speaker and Its Claims

The lyric opens by asking what lady should sing if not one who possesses the things a maiden might wish for. Its speaker turns to Love as the source of her good fortune and describes former sighs and pains as having become sweet through present delight. The song’s movement is from past longing to happiness enjoyed in the present.

The beloved is praised for valor, worth, and beauty, and the speaker says that no better match could be found. The crucial fulfillment is mutual: she pleases him as he pleases her. The lyric presents love not as an unanswered yearning but as a desired union already attained, giving its praise of Love a personal and assured tone.

Faith and the Lyric’s Conclusion

The song carries its confidence beyond earthly happiness. The speaker hopes for peace in the next life because of the steadfast faith she bears toward her beloved, and trusts that God, who sees this devotion, will not deny them the kingdom of bliss. Human affection and religious hope are therefore joined in the lyric’s conclusion: reciprocal love is both present joy and the ground of its speaker’s expectation of future peace.

The text presents these sentiments as the song’s lyric voice, not as a separate account of Pampinea’s private life. What the scene establishes is her role as its singer and the song’s place within the company’s shared celebration. The other ladies answer her, while the evening’s sequence of singing, dancing, and music carries the gathering from the day’s formal business toward rest and anticipation of Sunday.