Page 178 - THE DECAMERON: 100 Days on 100 Etchings by Petru Rusu
P. 178
“Calandrino and the Pig“
Calandrino has a little pig farm outside of Florence where says he’ll give the neighbors a “bread and cheese test”
he goes every year in December and has a pig slaughtered (a kind of medieval lie detector test very inaccurate, of
and preserved in salts. Usually, his wife goes with him. course). In this case, he’s going to use a kind of crystallized
But one year, she got sick and stayed behind. That was ginger. But Bruno and Buffalmacco have something up
the cue for Buffalmacco and Bruno to go and stay with a their sleeves. They buy normal ginger sweets, but they
priest-friend of theirs who lived nearby. When they show also buy a different, bitter root, which is then compounded
up, Calandrino shows off his slaughtered pig. They’re with aloe (also bitter) and rolled in sugar to look just like
impressed, but they want him to sell it so they can the normal candies. Bruno and Buffalmacco explain to
party with the money. Tell your wife it was stolen, they Calandrino that they’ll say magic spells over the sweets
say. Calandrino knows his wife will kill him. Bruno and so that they can detect the pig thief. Calandrino gathers
Buffalmacco decide they’ll go ahead and steal the pig for all the neighbors and Bruno explains to them what they’re
themselves. The priest thinks this is an excellent idea. doing. The pig thief, he says, will not be able to swallow
They decide to get Calandrino drunk so that it’ll be easier the ginger because it will taste bitter to him. He gives them
to steal the pig. The three men show up to his house and all a chance to confess before the test begins. But they all
find the door wide open. They take the pig and hide it at receive their sweets and take their chances. Calandrino, of
the priest’s house. Poor Calandrino wakes to find his pig course, gets a bitter one. Calandrino spits out his “sweet,”
gone. No one can tell him what happened to it. Bruno but they give him a second chance. He spits out the
and Buffalmacco go over to see what Calandrino thinks second. Now Buffalmacco and Bruno really lay into him.
happened to his pig. When he tells them someone stole it, He stole the pig himself! And he’s keeping a girl up there
they see an opportunity to tease. They pretend he’s taken in the country! They decide to blackmail Calandrino into
their advice and will dupe his wife about the pig. No matter giving them some capons (or they’ll rat on him to his wife).
how much Calandrino swears that the pig’s been stolen, Calandrino has no choice. He gives up the birds. The two
the two men go on like Calandrino’s really shamming. Then scoundrels make off with their pig and poultry and leave
they pretend they’ll help him find the pig. Buffalmacco poor Calandrino in despair.
“Calandrino and the Pig” retrieved from publicly source: shmoop
178 <https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/decameron/summary/eighth-day-sixth-story>
