The Decameron’s Sixth Day

The Decameron’s Sixth Day gives storytelling a clear dramatic shape: a story about a cook’s quick reply turns a master’s anger toward laughter, while the day’s closing song leaves the company with a more plaintive note. Its surviving frame emphasizes how speech can alter a situation in an instant, though the final gathering also allows an unresolved mood to linger.

Place in the storytelling sequence

The day is identified as the sixth in the company’s sequence of tales. One marked point in that sequence is its fourth story, told by Neifile after Nonna de' Pulci’s tale has been warmly commended. The queen then calls on Neifile to continue, making the passage a glimpse of the ordered relay by which one teller yields to the next.

Neifile introduces her tale by distinguishing prepared cleverness from the unexpected answer. A ready wit may supply useful words suited to the occasion, she observes, but Fortune can also place an answer suddenly in the mouth of someone frightened—an answer the speaker could not have devised beforehand. The distinction frames the day’s verbal ingenuity not simply as a personal skill but as something that may arrive through circumstance.

The fourth story and the force of a reply

Neifile’s example concerns Chichibio, the cook of Currado Gianfigliazzi. The story’s heading identifies its decisive turn: Chichibio speaks readily to save himself, changes his master’s anger into laughter, and escapes the punishment Currado has threatened. The reply matters because it changes the immediate outcome; language functions as action, not merely as commentary on the danger.

The framing proposition gives this escape a double emphasis. Chichibio’s answer is presented as an instance of quick wit, yet Neifile has already allowed for Fortune’s sudden assistance to the fearful. The tale therefore holds skill and contingency together: a timely response can redirect a conflict, while the teller’s introduction leaves open how much of that success was planned.

Song and close of the day

At the close, Elisa finishes a plaintive song. Its verses ask for release from bonds of hope and pain and imagine a return to beauty, with white and red flowers. The company marvels at the words but cannot understand what has led her to sing them, so the song introduces an emotional mystery without resolving it.

The king, in a merry mood, calls for Tindaro to bring out his bagpipes and lets the company dance. After much of the night has passed, he sends everyone to sleep. The juxtaposition is striking but concrete: Elisa’s sighing song is followed not by an explanation but by music, dancing, and a practical end to the evening. The close of the Sixth Day is then formally announced, and the Seventh Day begins immediately afterward.