Bernabò and Ambrogiuolo
Intro
- Storyteller: Filomena
- Since Dioneo has to be allowed to go last, Filomena has to tell her tale now.
- She opens with a proverb: "A dupe will outwit his deceiver."
- Filomena hopes that this will help us be on guard against people who would deceive us.
Story
- A group of Italian merchants in Paris are having a great time at dinner, talking about the women they left behind in Italy.
- They all agree that they don't know what their wives are doing when they're out of town, but who cares? The merchants are certainly enjoying whatever pretty women come their way.
- But Bernabò disagrees with them. His wife is golden. She's even as good as a knight or a squire.
- He brags a lot about her accomplishments and then adds that she's virtuous and chaste.
- Ambrogiuolo, another merchant, laughs at all this. He gets into it with Bernabò and goes on a long tear about men having stronger moral fiber than women.
- How would it be possible for Bernabò's wife to resist what all other women cannot?
- Bernabò continues defending virtuous women and Ambrogiuolo insists that he's missing the truth that's right under his nose.
- Bernabò then puts his money where his mouth is. If Ambrogiuolo can turn his wife's head, then Bernabò will give him 1,000 florins.
- Ambrogiuolo ups the ante. He'll do it in three months' time—and wager 5,000 to his 1,000.
- He'll prove he's done the deed by bringing back her panties. Well, he'll bring back some "intimate possessions" of hers.
- Game on. Ambrogiulo makes a beeline for Genoa.
- He makes friends with a poor woman who's close to Bernabò's wife. In the end, he persuades her to have him carried into the house in a chest, which is then set at the foot of the lady's bed.
- After the lady's asleep, creepy Ambrogiuolo gets out of the chest and begins to procure those "intimate" tokens as proof.
- He also takes a peek at her naked body while she sleeps, and sees that she has a mole under her breast.
- Ambrogiuolo takes some items from her bedroom and voila! He's got enough information to "prove" that he slept with her.
- He creeps back into the chest and waits to be carried out again.
- Ambrogiuolo travels back to Paris and describes the bedroom and Zinevra's breast mole to Bernabò.
- Bernabò is crushed! Here's absolute proof that Zinevra had been naked with Ambrogiuolo.
- He pays up the wager and heads back to Genoa.
- And then the story gets all Snow White.
- Bernabò instructs his servant to fetch his wife for him and kill her when he reaches a secret enough place.
- As the servant's about to murder her, she asks why.
- Basically, he's afraid not to carry out his master's orders but Zinevra convinces him that she can get him off the hook.
- She'll disappear and he can claim that he's killed her.
- So Zinevra dresses like a man and signs on as cabin-boy on a Catalan ship. She calls herself Sicurano.
- She winds up at the court of the Sultan in Alexandria and carries out her duties so well that she becomes a trusted servant there.
- The Sultan sends her to Acre (now northern Israel) to oversee a trade fair. As she's inspecting the goods, she recognizes some items that belonged to her.
- Ambrogiuolo's there and begins to brag about his "conquest." Sicurano gets him to tell the whole story about his having sex with Zinevra.
- Sicurano has a eureka moment. Now she understands Bernabò's anger.
- And it's her turn for revenge. She lures Ambrogiuolo to Alexandria and also gets Bernabò to make the journey.
- They're both brought before the Sultan, who forces Ambrogiuolo to tell the truth.
- Bernabò is also forced to admit his wrongdoing in killing his innocent wife.
- Sicurano goes for the big reveal, ripping open her shirt and showing her breasts.
- The Sultan is surprised, but praises Zinevra for her good character.
- Bernabò grovels at her feet and Zinevra takes him back.
- But Ambrogiuolo? He's smeared with honey, tied to a pole and left in the sun to be eaten by bugs and suffocated by the heat.
- Harsh.
- The Sultan awards Zinevra all of Ambrogiuolo's money and gives her tons of precious jewels and shiny things.
- Then he sends the happy couple home with great honors.
- Ambrogiuolo's bones are left to bleach out in the sun for a long time, as a warning to deceivers.