Character Analysis
Unhappy Love
It seems that Elissa's doomed from the beginning. She's named for Dido, Queen of Carthage ("Elissa" is a variant name for Dido), who was abandoned by her lover Aeneas, and threw herself on the sword that he'd given her. It isn't until the end of her reign on the Sixth Day, when Elissa performs her ballad "Love, if ever from thy claws I break free" that the members of the brigata realize the depths of her despair. She's been crushed by disappointment in love. Filostrata could be her middle name.
Unlike Filostrato, though, she's able to forget her troubles at times and even banter with Dioneo when he proposes some rather filthy song titles to sing at the end of the Fifth Day. Her comrades greet the conclusion of her ballad, which speaks of a cruel lover and a wish for an end to her suffering, with stunned silence. They had no idea. Her stories never approached the tragic proportions of some of Filostrato's or Filomena's tales.
There's reason to feel optimistic about Elissa's prospects for recovery. In addition to her willing participation in the spirit of the storytelling game (she tells some of the best stories in The Decameron), she gives some hints that she hopes to move on from her disappointment:
'I pray thee, Lord, at least to grant me this,
For if thou dost, my faith is at last
I may regain that beauty
That once I had by right
And, sorrow banished, deck me
With flowers of red and white.' (VI.Conclusion.483)
Elissa's not going to be one of those ladies who pine to the death for lost love. She's looking forward to a return of her health and the improvement of her complexion (the lilies and roses of fair white skin and blushing cheeks). It might also help her that she's got a bit of an attitude. She has a moment of serious snarkiness before she tells her third day's story. Boccaccio describes her as speaking haughtily "by habit" before she begins the story. She introduces the story with a pointed comment about people who think they know it all. She thinks it's "insane" to question someone else's intelligence, but she knows that there are people who would disagree. Makes you wonder who in the group she's really addressing.
Elissa's Stories
Elissa tells the following stories:
The King of Cyprus and the Woman of Gascony (I.9)
Walter, the Count of Antwerp (II.8)
Zima and Francesco (III.5)
Gerbino (IV.4)
Pietro Boccamazzo (V.3)
Guido Cavalcanti (VI.9)
Brother Rinaldo and the Gossip (VII.3)
Calandrino and the Heliotrope (VIII.3)
The Abbess and the Breeches (IX.2)
Ghino di Tacco and the Abbot of Cluny (X.2)