The Decameron, vol. 2 | Page 3

of pledge, and receives from her a
mortar. He returns the mortar, and demands of her the cloak that he had
left in pledge, which the good lady returns him with a gibe.
NOVEL III. - Calandrino, Bruno and Buffalmacco go in quest of the
heliotrope beside the Mugnone. Thinking to have found it, Calandrino
gets him home laden with stones. His wife chides him: whereat he
waxes wroth, beats her, and tells his comrades what they know better
than he.
NOVEL IV. - The rector of Fiesole loves a widow lady, by whom he is
not loved, and thinking to lie with her, lies with her maid, with whom
the lady's brothers cause him to be found by his Bishop.
NOVEL V. - Three young men pull down the breeches of a judge from
the Marches, while he is administering justice on the bench.
NOVEL VI. - Bruno and Buffalmacco steal a pig from Calandrino, and

induce him to essay its recovery by means of pills of ginger and
vernaccia. Of the said pills they give him two, one after the other, made
of dog-ginger compounded with aloes; and it then appearing as if he
had had the pig himself, they constrain him to buy them off, if he
would not have them tell his wife.
NOVEL VII. - A scholar loves a widow lady, who, being enamoured of
another, causes him to spend a winter's night awaiting her in the snow.
He afterwards by a stratagem causes her to stand for a whole day in
July, naked upon a tower, exposed to the flies, the gadflies, and the sun.
NOVEL VIII. - Two men keep with one another: the one lies with the
other's wife: the other, being ware thereof, manages with the aid of his
wife to have the one locked in a chest, upon which he then lies with the
wife of him that is locked therein.
NOVEL IX. - Bruno and Buffalmacco prevail upon Master Simone, a
physician, to betake him by night to a certain place, there to be enrolled
in a company that go the course. Buffalmacco throws him into a foul
ditch, and there they leave him.
NOVEL X. - A Sicilian woman cunningly conveys from a merchant
that which he has brought to Palermo; he, making a shew of being
come back thither with far greater store of goods than before, borrows
money of her, and leaves her in lieu thereof water and tow.
- NINTH DAY -
NOVEL I. - Madonna Francesca, having two lovers, the one Rinuccio,
the other Alessandro, by name, and loving neither of them, induces the
one to simulate a corpse in a tomb, and the other to enter the tomb to
fetch him out: whereby, neither satisfying her demands, she artfully
rids herself of both.
NOVEL II. - An abbess rises in haste and in the dark, with intent to
surprise an accused nun abed with her lover: thinking to put on her veil,
she puts on instead the breeches of a priest that she has with her: the
nun, espying her headgear, and doing her to wit thereof, is acquitted,
and thenceforth finds it easier to forgather with her lover.
NOVEL III. - Master Simone, at the instance of Bruno and
Buffalmacco and Nello, makes Calandrino believe that he is with child.
Calandrino, accordingly, gives them capons and money for medicines,
and is cured without being delivered.
NOVEL IV. - Cecco, son of Messer Fortarrigo, loses his all at play at

Buonconvento, besides the money of Cecco, son of Messer Angiulieri,
whom, running after him in his shirt and crying out that he has robbed
him, he causes to be taken by peasants: he then puts on his clothes,
mounts his palfrey, and leaves him to follow in his shirt.
NOVEL V. - Calandrino being enamoured of a damsel, Bruno gives
him a scroll, averring that, if he but touch her therewith, she will go
with him: he is found with her by his wife, who subjects him to a most
severe and vexatious examination.
NOVEL VI. - Two young men lodge at an inn, of whom the one lies
with the host's daughter, his wife by inadvertence lying with the other.
He that lay with the daughter afterwards gets into her father's bed and
tells him all, taking him to be his comrade. They bandy words:
whereupon the good woman, apprehending the circumstances, gets her
to bed with her daughter, and by divers apt words re-establishes perfect
accord.
NOVEL VII. - Talano di Molese dreams that a wolf tears and rends all
the neck and face of his wife: he gives her warning thereof, which she
heeds not, and the dream comes true.
NOVEL VIII. - Biondello gulls Ciacco in the matter of a breakfast: