Show trace legend of patient griselda to immortal writers of long aso ago T patient griselda was the he be roine colne of one of the most popular medieval ie legends ends one which probably arose in italy whatever its origin the history of griselda or griseldis or grissel the paragon of feminine endur endurance anco and obedience appears in numerous old tales the marquis of saluzzo so runs the story had been prevailed upon by his subjects to take a wife tie ile selected more or less at random the poor but virtuous and comely shepherdess griselda daughter of a charcoal burner then over a ion long period of years and for no plau plausible sibil e reason he subjected her virtues to the severest tests she bore him two chill chilldres chi ildren dren and these he sent away pretending to have put thern them to death afterward declaring himself weary of griselda and saying he had taken another the playful marquis had his now grown daughter brought home as if he be had espoused her while the mother was waa sent away destitute finally convinced of the dur durability ability of her patience he brought griselda home a again aln presented the lie children she had not known from infancy and gave up his practical lical joking ever afterward loving in and honoring her as his lady it seems that boccaccio who did more than any other writer to give it a wide currency adopted the story from a french version it be became cam e t the 11 e most popular of all the stories in his petrarca Petr arch put Boccac cios clos account into latin in in 1373 chaucer borrowed the story from petrarca Petr arch and an d assigns it to the clerk cler h of Oxen forde in his canterbury tales the clerk declaring in his prologue that he heard it from petrarca Petr arch at padua in 1393 it was elaborated into a mystery play in paris ind and there are numerous other rench french F forms of it in the same period |