Moving Briskly Along

Day 6 begins with an argument between servants about whether or not a woman they know came to her wedding bed a virgin. After arbitration by the queen of the day (with advice from Dioneo), our storytellers share several brief tales about witty comebacks. In the first (6.1), a woman gently advises a very poor storyteller to stop trying; in the second (6.2), a baker with very fine wines censures a servant trying to fetch some in too large a keg; in the third (6.4 - having skipped 6.3), a hapless cook makes excuses for the roast crane he served having only one leg; and in the fourth (6.5), two friends caught in bad weather tease each other about their disreputable appearances.

CONTENT WARNINGS: Ableism/insulting descriptions of 'ugly' characters in the final story (one is specifically compared to a dwarf). They are both respected in their fields and treated well by the narrative, but the joke of the story is that their appearance makes it surprising that they are so skilled and knowledgeable.