There is a neat analysis of one of Boccaccio's stories at the start of Wayne C. Booth's "The Rhetoric of Fiction" - it shows just how clever and un-obvious the way Boccaccio told the story was. (My Mad Ex-Girlfriend the literary critic persuaded me to read it - it also persuaded me that critics could have genuinely new and interesting insights).

Well worth a look for anybody constructing narratives in stories or songs.