The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio & Wayne A. Rebhorn

Author:Giovanni Boccaccio & Wayne A. Rebhorn [Boccaccio, Giovanni & Rebhorn, Wayne A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780393241280
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2013-09-16T00:00:00+00:00

Day 5, Story 10

After Pietro di Vinciolo goes out to have supper, his wife invites a young man to come to her house, but hides him underneath a chicken coop when her husband returns. Pietro tells her that while he was eating at Ercolano’s place, they discovered a young man who had been brought there by his wife. Pietro’s wife criticizes her severely, but then an ass unfortunately steps on the fingers of the young man underneath the coop, and when he screams, Pietro runs out and sees him, thus discovering his wife’s deception. In the end, however, because of his own perversion, he reaches an understanding with her.1

When the Queen’s story had come to its conclusion, and everyone had praised God for having given Federigo the reward he deserved, Dioneo, who never waited around to be asked, began speaking:

I do not know whether to term it an accidental failing stemming from our bad habits, or a defect in our nature as human beings, but the fact is that we are more inclined to laugh about bad behavior than about good deeds, and especially when we ourselves are not involved. And since the sole purpose of the task I am about to undertake, as I have undertaken it on previous occasions, is to dispel your melancholy, loving ladies, and to provide you with laughter and merriment, I am going to tell you the following story, for even though the subject matter is a little unseemly, it may well give you pleasure. As you listen to it, you should do what you would normally do when you go out into your gardens, where you stretch out your delicate hands to pluck the roses, but leave the thorns alone. This you will do if you leave the wicked husband to his ill-fated, degenerate behavior, while laughing merrily at the amorous tricks of his wife, and feeling compassion, as need be, for the misfortunes of others.

There once lived in Perugia, not so very long ago, a rich man named Pietro di Vinciolo who got married, perhaps to deceive his fellow citizens and to improve the low opinion they all had of him, more than because of any desire he had to take a wife.2 And Fortune showed herself to be in such conformity with his proclivities that the wife he chose for himself was a buxom young woman with red hair and a fiery complexion who would have preferred to have two husbands rather than one, and who now found herself with a man whose inclinations led him elsewhere rather than in her direction.

In the course of time the wife came to understand the way things stood, and since she was well aware of just how fresh and lovely she was, and how lusty and lively she felt, she got so upset about it that every once in a while, she would quarrel with her husband and call him filthy names. She was miserable practically every moment until it finally dawned on her

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