The Decameron

The Decameron

by

Giovanni Boccaccio

Walter, Count of Antwerp, appears in Elissa’s second tale (II, 8). He is handsome, generous, noble, and recently widowed. The French Princess falls in love with him, then accuses him of rape when he refuses her advances, forcing him to flee France with his children Violante (Jeannette) and Louis (Perrot). His noble character helps him to accept his bad fortune with patience, and he spends many years working as a servant and groom in Ireland and England. He maintains his pride and his character no matter what he’s lost and is ultimately restored and elevated.

Walter Quotes in The Decameron

The The Decameron quotes below are all either spoken by Walter or refer to Walter. 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:
Love and Sex Theme Icon
).
Day 2: Eighth Tale Quotes

Sweet friend and master, dearest one of all, since you are wise you will readily acknowledge that men and women are remarkably frail, and that, for a variety of reasons, some are frailer than others. It is therefore right and proper that before an impartial judge, people of different social rank should not be punished equally for committing an identical sin. For nobody would, I think, deny that if a member of the poorer classes, obliged to earn a living through manual toil, were to surrender blindly to the promptings of love, he or she would be far more culpable than a rich and leisured lady who lacked none of the necessary means to gratify her tiniest whim.

Related Characters: French Princess (speaker), Elissa, Walter
Page Number: 150
Explanation and Analysis:

But knowing her to be a woman of gentle birth, doing penance for another’s sin through no fault of her own, the Lord above, who rewards all according to their deserts, arranged matters otherwise. One must in fact conclude that He alone, out of His loving kindness, made possible the train of events which followed, in order to prevent this nobly-born maiden from falling into the hands of a commoner.

Related Characters: Elissa (speaker), Walter, French Princess, Jeannette (Violante), Jacques Lamiens
Related Symbols: Fortune
Page Number: 154
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Decameron PDF

Walter Quotes in The Decameron

The The Decameron quotes below are all either spoken by Walter or refer to Walter. 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:
Love and Sex Theme Icon
).
Day 2: Eighth Tale Quotes

Sweet friend and master, dearest one of all, since you are wise you will readily acknowledge that men and women are remarkably frail, and that, for a variety of reasons, some are frailer than others. It is therefore right and proper that before an impartial judge, people of different social rank should not be punished equally for committing an identical sin. For nobody would, I think, deny that if a member of the poorer classes, obliged to earn a living through manual toil, were to surrender blindly to the promptings of love, he or she would be far more culpable than a rich and leisured lady who lacked none of the necessary means to gratify her tiniest whim.

Related Characters: French Princess (speaker), Elissa, Walter
Page Number: 150
Explanation and Analysis:

But knowing her to be a woman of gentle birth, doing penance for another’s sin through no fault of her own, the Lord above, who rewards all according to their deserts, arranged matters otherwise. One must in fact conclude that He alone, out of His loving kindness, made possible the train of events which followed, in order to prevent this nobly-born maiden from falling into the hands of a commoner.

Related Characters: Elissa (speaker), Walter, French Princess, Jeannette (Violante), Jacques Lamiens
Related Symbols: Fortune
Page Number: 154
Explanation and Analysis: