ABSTRACT
Ameto had returned to his sweet thoughts, and he was content in them, with no less pleasure thus than in admiring the ladies; although at times he found their discourse brief, and he feared that it might be accomplished too soon, and that being completed they would have to depart. However, as he heard the story of the lovely nymph joined to an elderly husband, much chagrined he began to curse his destiny: “Oh gods! Oh graceless skies! Oh iniquitous Fortune! I would indeed curse you if I thought this possible without incurring harm to myself. Alas! What motive caused you to give me a birth lower than my spirit, or a spirit greater than my birth? What sin have I committed for which I had to be born under an unjust part of the sky, dominating at that moment, through whose force no pleasant adventure might ever befall me? Now what is required to realize that this maiden lives unwillingly with an aged husband, and rightly so? Where was I then, Oh Fortune, who are so cruel to me? Was I not as deserving of this maiden as the old man? What did he merit in your sight more than I have? Nothing, except that he is richer; and in place of his riches I have youth, which he could not regain for all the treasures of the earth, unless Medea returned to give it to him as she did to Aeson. 1
