Page 160 - THE DECAMERON: 100 Days on 100 Etchings by Petru Rusu
P. 160
“Arriguccio Berlinghieri“
This is the story of an upstart, rich merchant who marries and blows out the lights. She bribes her maid to bear up
an aristocratic wife and ends up regretting it. Arriguccio under the beating she’s about to receive. When Arriguccio
Berlinghieri, the merchant, marries Monna Sismonda, a gets home, he returns to his bedroom and beats his “wife”
gentlewoman who immediately falls in love with a man black and blue and cuts off her hair. Then he goes to
called Ruberto. Sismonda has a great time with her lover, fetch Sismonda’s brothers so that they can finish the job.
but eventually even a busy merchant like Arriguccio Sismonda returns to her room and takes care of her black-
figures out what’s going on. So he starts watching her and-blue maidservant, giving her enough money to make
carefully, making sure she’s in bed before he falls asleep. her feel better. When the brothers, mother and husband
But Sismonda gets an idea. Once Arriguccio drops off, return to the house, Sismonda is sitting there, calm and
she can spend some quality time with Ruberto. She ties a unharmed. Arriguccio thinks he’s lost his mind. Sismonda
string to her toe and dangles the end of it out the window. denies everything, of course, saying that he’d never even
When Ruberto arrives, he gives it a tug to let her know been home that night. And then she accuses him further:
it’s “magic time.”If all is clear, Sismonda would release he’s been hanging out with harlots. Sismonda’s mother
the string. If not, she’d haul the string up. The plan works launches into an attack on the nouveau riche merchant
beautifully. Until it doesn’t. One night, Arriguccio catches class. Sismonda’s brothers are ready to thrash Arriguccio,
his toe on the string. Long story short, he winds up chasing but they let him off with a warning. So Sismonda not only
Ruberto down the street and fighting with him. Sismonda gets off the hook, she ensures that she can do whatever
thinks fast. She puts her maid into her (Sismonda’s) bed she wants with Ruberto. Forever.
“Arriguccio Berlinghieri” retrieved from publicly source: shmoop
DECAMERON 160 <https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/decameron/summary/seventh-day-eighth-story>
