Page 154 - THE DECAMERON: 100 Days on 100 Etchings by Petru Rusu
P. 154

“A Jealous Husband, His Wife and Her Lover“



              In Rimini, there was a man who was so jealous of his wife                   her that her soul will be lost if she doesn’t desist. He’ll

              that he didn’t even allow her to stand at the window or                     send her someone to give her spiritual guidance and pray
              look out the door. Although she’d done nothing to provoke                   for her. She protests that her husband is wicked jealous
              jealousy, she now decided to give him a good reason for                     and would suspect something if he did so, but the “priest”
              jealousy. But it’s not like she could go to a bar and pick up               promises to be discreet. The jealous husband is now fit to
              a guy, so she has to look a little closer to home. She knows                be tied. He decides to wait at the front door all night if he

              that there’s a handsome young man, Filippo, who lives                       has to in order to catch this sneaky priest. Of course, this
              next door. She sets out to find a little crack in the walls                 gives his wife the opening she’s been looking for. She tells
              between their houses so she can talk to him. Pretty soon,                   Filippo the whole story and says they can now spend the

              she finds a crack conveniently leading to Filippo’s bedroom.                night together if he comes in through the window. In the
             They manage to carry on pretty nicely for some time, but                     morning, the jealous husband feels awful from staying up
              all they can do is touch hands through the opening in the                   all night. He sends a servant dressed up like a confessor
              wall. At Christmas, the wife asks her husband’s permission                  to his wife. She tells him that the priest lover didn’t show
              to go to the local church to confess her sins, like every                   up last night and that she’ll forget about him if this keeps

              other Christian. He immediately becomes suspicious: what                    up. The husband feels triumphant and determined to keep
              sins could she have? He only allows her to go to their little               watch until his wife forgets about her lover. This, of course,
              chapel and then she has to come straight back home, so                      leads to many nights of fun for his wife and Filippo. When

              what trouble could she possibly get into? The wife realizes                 the husband can’t take it anymore, he blows up and reveals
              that this is a trap, but she’s going to work it into her plans.             his deception to his wife. She calls him on his stupidity
              Her husband gets to the chapel before her and convinces                     and tells him that she always knew he was the priest who
              the chaplain to let him play priest for a morning. When she                 confessed her on Christmas day. Didn’t she say she was in
              arrives, the usual chaplain sends in her disguised husband                  love with a priest (which he was pretending to be)? Didn’t

              to hear her confession. She pretends not to recognize                       she say that all doors opened to him and that she slept
              him and then hits him with his worst nightmare. She tells                   with him every night (both true for him)? And when he was
              him she’s in love with a priest who sleeps with her every                   keeping watch at the door, didn’t she tell the “confessor”

              night. This priest, she claims, has magical powers to                       that the priest hadn’t been with her? Busted. The husband
              open all the locks in the house and cast a sleeping spell                   feels like a complete ass and decides that his wife is both
              on her husband. Her disguised husband is appalled and                       wise and virtuous, but it’s too late. Now that she’s given
              tells her she must stop having sex with this priest. The                    free rein, she lets Filippo in through the front door so that
              wife objects: she loves him too much! The “priest” tells                    they can spend more time together.


                                                                                                                    “A Jealous Husband, His Wife and Her Lover” retrieved from publicly source: shmoop
     DECAMERON      154                                                                                     <https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/decameron/summary/seventh-day-fifth-story>
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