Character Analysis
Mystery Woman
Lauretta is named in homage to Petrarch, whose beloved Laura was the subject of many beautiful canzoniere. We don't get much more insight into Lauretta's personality, since she speaks very little other than to banter a bit with Filostrato and to retaliate playfully against Dioneo by choosing a theme that "corrects" the naughtiness of his theme. It's probable that Boccaccio deliberately created Lauretta to be more of a type than a character with a complex inner life.
Lauretta has a pretty hilarious moment of cutting loose in her first day's tale of a miser who gets his comeuppance. She gets carried away with her disgust for the nobility of the present day, who unlike nobles in the good old days, are
'[…] better described as asses, brought up, not in any court, but on the dungheap of all the scum of the earth's iniquities. […they] spend the whole of their time in exchanging scandal with one another, sowing discord, describing acts of lewdness and ribaldry, […] left to wallow abjectly in a cesspit of vices.' (I.8.60)
Dungheaps, scum, cesspits. Is it just us, or does she seem a bit disillusioned with the available men?
She has another quirky moment when Filostrato asks her to sing a song at the end of the Third Day. Lauretta replies that she only knows songs of her own composition. Filostrato replies graciously that any song of her making must be charming, and she's persuaded to sing the sorrowful "None has need for lamentation more than have I."
The song itself is perfectly fine. However, Boccaccio's used the songs to help define a dramatic situation for his characters and give some insight into who they are. Lauretta, however, sings a song about a widow who rues the day she came out of mourning to marry a jealous man. The members of the brigata are fascinated, but they disagree about what it means.
Lauretta's Stories
Laurette tells the following stories:
Guglielmo Borsiere (I.8)
Landolfo Rufolo (II.4)
Ferondo and the Abbot (III.8)
Misfortune Among Three Couples on Crete (IV.3)
Teodoro and Violante (V.7)
Nonna de'Pulci (VI.3)
Tofano and Ghita (VII.4)
Maestro Simone (VIII.9)
Biondello and Ciacco (IX.8)
Messer Gentile's Return of Wife and Child (X.4)