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In Emilia’s third story (III, 7), Tedaldo degli Elisei loves Ermellina, but leaves Florence when she suddenly spurns him. Becoming a wealthy merchant isn’t enough to make him forget her, and he returns in disguise to check on her some years later, only to discover that her husband, Aldobrandino Palermi, has been accused of Tedaldo’s murder. He demonstrates the power of love and the day’s theme—perseverance—when time and distance aren’t enough to diminish his love, and when he works assiduously to save his lover’s husband from execution. In his disguise (as a friar and pilgrim), he delivers an important diatribe against clerical hypocrisy, contributing to The Decameron’s anticlerical satire.
Tedaldo degli Elisei Quotes in The Decameron
The The Decameron quotes below are all either spoken by Tedaldo degli Elisei or refer to Tedaldo degli Elisei. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Day 3: Seventh Tale
Quotes
Tedaldo began to reflect how fatally easy it was for people to cram their heads with totally erroneous notions. His thoughts turned first of all to his brothers, who had gone into mourning and buried some stranger in his own stead, after which they had been impelled by their false suspicions to accuse this innocent man and fabricate evidence so as to have him brought under sentence of death. This in turn led him to reflect upon the blind severity of the law and its administrators, who in order to convey the impression that they are zealously seeking the truth, often have recourse to cruelty and falsehood to be accepted as proven fact, hence demonstrating, for all their proud claim to be the ministers of God’s justice, that their true allegiance is to the devil and his iniquities.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Tedaldo degli Elisei Quotes in The Decameron
The The Decameron quotes below are all either spoken by Tedaldo degli Elisei or refer to Tedaldo degli Elisei. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Day 3: Seventh Tale
Quotes
Tedaldo began to reflect how fatally easy it was for people to cram their heads with totally erroneous notions. His thoughts turned first of all to his brothers, who had gone into mourning and buried some stranger in his own stead, after which they had been impelled by their false suspicions to accuse this innocent man and fabricate evidence so as to have him brought under sentence of death. This in turn led him to reflect upon the blind severity of the law and its administrators, who in order to convey the impression that they are zealously seeking the truth, often have recourse to cruelty and falsehood to be accepted as proven fact, hence demonstrating, for all their proud claim to be the ministers of God’s justice, that their true allegiance is to the devil and his iniquities.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
