Decameron Tenth Day, Seventh Story Summary

Peter of Aragon

  • Storyteller: Pampinea
  • Bernardo Puccini is a rich Florentine apothecary living in Palermo, Sicily. He and his wife have one child, the beautiful Lisa.
  • Lisa falls hard for King Peter of Sicily after seeing him at a jousting tournament, but since she's of such a lowly social station, she knows it's futile.
  • But she can't stop loving him, so she falls ill and gradually wastes away.
  • Her poor parents do everything they can and offer her anything she wants to help her feel better.
  • Lisa's pretty sure she's going to die from all this, but she'd feel better about it if King Peter could just know that she was dying of love for him.
  • So she asks her father to bring in Minuccio, a singer who performs for King Peter.
  • Lisa tells him her secret and begs him to tell the King about her love so she can die in peace.
  • Minuccio promises to help her and goes straightaway to a composer of songs who sets Lisa's sad story to music.
  • Minuccio has the opportunity to sing it to King Peter and tell him of his mission from the beautiful dying girl.
  • The King is mighty impressed by Lisa's "nobility" and decides to visit her.
  • Like any good adolescent girl who gets to meet her idol, Lisa just about dies when King Peter shows up.
  • She's so happy about his visit that she starts to feel better right away.
  • King Peter's so moved that he speaks with his wife about what they should do for such a noble girl.
  • So he and the queen visit Lisa again at her house and make some promises.
  • first, King Peter will always be her loyal knight (which means he'll do noble deeds in her name, etc.)
  • Also, he'll only require a kiss from her for this favor. OMG—she almost blushes to death.
  • Lastly, he'll give her a perfectly wonderful husband to spend her life with.
  • Lisa tells him that she'd walk through fire for him if he wished it, so taking a husband on his request is no biggie. She's really very happy about all this.
  • In the end, King Peter gives her a lovely man for a husband (who's unfortunately called Perdicone, but whatever), a sizeable dowry and some very valuable estates. It pays to have an adolescent crush on a king.
  • He then kisses her gently on the forehead.
  • The king kept his promises to Lisa and always kept her in mind.
  • Pampinea ends her story gushing about King Peter's generosity, comparing then to the rulers of her day who are nothing but pitiless tyrants.