How we cite our quotes: (Day.Story.Page)
Quote #7
'The man is such a natural idiot that he firmly believes young girls are foolish enough to squander their opportunities whilst they are waiting for their fathers and brothers to marry them off, which in nine cases out of ten takes them three or four years longer than it should. God in Heaven, they'd be in a pretty plight if they waited all that long!' (VI.Intro.445. Licisca explaining why women don't wait till marriage to give up their virginity)
Licisca knows that women have healthy and undeniable sexual appetites. Boccaccio seems to be okay with that. Another element of this particular episode is that Licisca, one of the kitchen servants, is depicted as a coarse and opinionated blabbermouth. The lovely ladies of the brigata crack up at her little speech but send her back to the kitchen with a threat to whip her if she doesn't calm down. See our section on "Theme: Social Class."
Quote #8
'You must help yourself to whatever you can grab in this world, especially if you're a woman. It's far more important for women than for men to make the most of their opportunities, because when we're old, as you can see for yourself, neither our husbands nor any other man can bear the sight of us, and they bundle us off into the kitchen to tell stories to the cat, and count the pots and pans.' (V.10.435, Dioneo's tale of Pietro di Vinciolo)
It's important to understand the tone of any passage relating to women and to be able to identify the character that's speaking about it. In this case, it's pretty difficult to know if this is Boccaccio interjecting his own philosophy about female existence or if he's putting these words into the mouth of a medieval madame in order to be ironic. We will say that there's a kind of pathos in the last section of this passage that makes the sentiment feel genuine. The sense of neglect felt by aging persons goes beyond gender. But in this case, the character sees that old women are particularly disadvantaged because women are mostly valued for their looks. Some things never change.
Quote #9
After being cooped up for the whole week looking after the house and the family, like everyone else she yearns on Sundays for peace and comfort, and wants to enjoy herself a little, just as farm-labourers do, or the workers in the towns, or the magistrates on the bench; just as God did, in fact, when on the seventh day He rested from all his labours [...] But jealous husbands will have none of this: on the contrary, when other women are enjoying their day of rest, their own wives are more wretched and miserable than ever, for they are kept more securely under lock and key[...] (VII.5.506, Fiammetta's story of a jealous husband, his wife and her lover).
There's really one thing that all the members of the brigata agree on: jealous husbands are the worst possible creatures on the planet and deserve to be given a good reason for their jealousy. In this passage we hear the opinion that women have the right to live their lives in peace and enjoyment. It's also interesting to note that Fiammetta compares the housewife to male members of society in terms of deserving social freedom. Do we think that Boccaccio would give women the right to vote? Nope. But passages like this prove that he knew that society could be very hard on its women.