Gostanza and Martuccio Gomito
Intro
- Storyteller: Emilia
- Like everyone else, Emilia's really glad that Filostrato's no longer the king. She believes that true love should be rewarded with happiness rather than suffering, at least in the long-run.
Story
- Here's another story of two lovers from opposite social classes: Gostanza (noble and beautiful) and Martuccio Gomito (handsome and skilled, but poor).
- Martuccio does the right thing and asks Gostanza's father if he can marry her, but no deal (he's poor, remember?).
- So he fits out a ship and leaves the island, vowing to return only when he's rich. Sounds like a plan.
- And it is, until Martuccio gets a bit too ambitious. See, he doesn't want to have just a little nest egg; he wants a Bill Gates-type fortune.
- He plays pirate with exactly the wrong people (a whole fleet of Saracen ships) and winds up in a jail cell in Tunis.
- Back at home, word comes round that not only have all of Martuccio's men perished (true), but that Martuccio himself is a goner (false).
- Gostanza hears this rumor and is ready to kill herself. But she wants to go out in style, so she casts herself out to sea in a rudderless, oarless boat.
- No luck, she doesn't die. Instead, she lands a hundred miles beyond Tunis and now she really has a problem.
- But a good Italian woman called Carapresa finds her, takes her in and gets her employment with a kindly Saracen woman. So Gostanza stays put and waits for her fortune to change.
- Meanwhile, Martuccio finds out that the King of Tunis is being challenged for his throne and Martuccio lets it slip to his jailer that he knows how the King can win the war.
- The king gets wind of Martuccio's boast and sends for him to hear his plan, which is actually pretty ingenious.
- Martuccio had observed that the Saracens prefer to fight with archers, so if the King of Tunis could simply have more usable arrows than his opponent, he could easily win the day.
- To do this, Martuccio orders that the king's archers be given bows with a finer string to them—and then make arrows with notches that will only fit the narrow string.
- Smart guy. When the enemy has used up all their own arrows, they won't be able to re-use the King of Tunis' arrows and fire them back.
- Using this trick, the king wins the war and Martuccio is elevated in importance.
- The report of his good work reaches Gostanza, who begs her lady to take her to Tunis.
- Which she does, and the two lovers are reunited. There's rejoicing, then a wedding, then more rejoicing.
- The happy couple takes Carapresa back with them to Italy, where everyone's astonished and joyful to find the two of them still alive.
- And, of course, they live happily ever after.