The source of this ballad is Boccaccio's tale of Guiscardo and Ghismonda in the Decameron, iv, 1. Guiscardo has sunk to the rank of kitchen-boy. An echo of Guismonda's name is heard in Dysmal, Diamond, the name of the heroine in C, D; in A she is called Daisy; in J 3, Dayesie; in E, Dysie. Boccaccio's story belongs to a large and complicated group of popular and romantic fictions (see Child, v, 29 ff.).
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