Page 200 - THE DECAMERON: 100 Days on 100 Etchings by Petru Rusu
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“Pinuccio and Adriano“
First, another literary shout-out: this tale is a source for bumps up against the cradle and moves it beside his own
Chaucer’s “Reeve’s Tale”. There was a poor man who bed to get it out of the way. The wife returns to her own
made his living by offering food and drink to travelers. bed, but doesn’t feel the cradle. She’s mortified that she
Sometimes he offered lodging, but as his house was tiny, nearly got into bed with one of her guests! So she gropes
he only took in people he knew well. Amazingly, he also around until she finds the cradle and climbs into bed.
has a beautiful wife and a 15-year-old daughter, named Adriano can’t believe his luck and takes advantage of the
Niccolosa. A young gentleman named Pinuccio (not to be situation. The wife thinks she’s is in bed with her husband,
confused with Pinocchio) falls in love with Niccolosa. She so she goes along with it. Pinuccio realizes he now has to
falls in love back. Pinuccio gets his friend Adriano to help get back to bed with Adriano before he drifts off to sleep
him hook up with the girl. The two pretend to be coming next to his girlfriend and gets killed in the morning. So he
home late to Florence one evening and to be in need of a finds the bed without the cradle and hops in. Thinking the
place to sleep (the city gates are locked at a certain point, bedmate is his buddy Adriano, Pinuccio talks about how
so no one can get in or go out). In the tiny house, the exquisite young Niccolosa was in bed. The host freaks out
sleeping arrangements were like this: two beds against one and then the game is up. The wife realizes she’s in the
wall, one bed against the opposite wall. The host placed wrong bed with the wrong man. But she’s a quick thinker,
the two men in one bed, his daughter in the second and so she hops in bed with her daughter. She convinces her
he and his wife in the third. The wife placed a cradle with husband that Pinuccio’s lying, because she’s been in bed
a baby at the foot of her bed. After lights out, Pinuccio beside her daughter the entire night. So she manages to
finds his way to Niccolosa’s bed. After everyone is asleep, save both their skins. Adriano helps by teasing Pinuccio
they, uh, entertain each other. But then the darn house for his stupid sleepwalking habit. It works. Because of their
cat knocks something over in the other room and wakes quick thinking, the men make it out of the house alive in
up the wife. Naked as she is, of course, she gets up to see the morning. Pinuccio and Niccolosa figure out other ways
what’s going on. Adriano also gets up (call of nature). He to continue “meeting.”
“Pinuccio and Adriano” retrieved from publicly source: shmoop
<https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/decameron/summary/ninth-day-sixth-story>
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