Boccaccio. Well, I will not be.
Petrarca. But be firm.
Boccaccio. Assuntina! what! are you come in again?
Assunta. Did you or my master call me, Riverenza?
Petrarca. No, child!
Boccaccio. Oh! get you gone! Get you gone! you little rogue you!
Francesco, I feel quite well. Your kindness to my playful creatures in the Decameron has revived me, and has put me into good humour with the greater part of them. Are you quite certain the Madonna will not expect me to keep my promise? You said you were: I need not ask you again. I will accept the whole of your assurances, and half your praises.
Petrarca. To represent so vast a variety of personages so characteristically as you have done, to give the wise all their wisdom, the witty all their wit, and (what is harder to do advantageously) the simple all their simplicity, requires a genius such as you alone possess. Those who doubt it are the least dangerous of your rivals.
FOOTNOTE:
[17] Qy. How much of Lucretius (or Petronius or Catullus, before cited) was then known?