Page 216 - THE DECAMERON: 100 Days on 100 Etchings by Petru Rusu

“Nathan and Mithridanes“
For this tale, we’re going all the way to Cathay (that’s
modern China to us) to hear a story about the wealthy
and generous noble man called Nathan. Nathan has an
exquisite palace built on the route between the East and
West just so he can provide hospitality to any travelers
that might need assistance on the road. Because of his
legendary generosity to travelers, Nathan’s reputation
spread near and far. A young man called Mithridanes
hears about it and wants to be just like Nathan. But
Mithridanes is no Nathan: he thinks of generosity as a
type of competitive sport and is extremely jealous of
Nathan’s status in the game. Then one day, an old beggar
woman calls him out when he chides her for taking more
alms than she should have. She tells him that Nathan
would never have counted how many times she came
to him in one day for money or food. He’d just give and
give. Mithridanes realizes that if he wants to be the
most generous person on the face of the earth, Nathan
will simply have to be eliminated. So he sets off toward
Nathan’s palace with a plan to murder the old man. When
he approaches the palace, he meets Nathan walking
around the grounds, but Mithridanes doesn’t recognize
him. Nathan hides his identity from the young man and
tells him that he’ll bring Mithridanes to the palace. Once
Mithridanes is lodged in one of the beautiful rooms of
the palace king bed, flat-screen TV, free Wi-Fi, minibar
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the two men begin talking. Mithridanes likes Nathan,
so he reveals his intentions. Nathan promises to help
Mithridanes to kill, well, himself. He tells Mithridanes that
Nathan was in the habit of strolling in a particular grove
in the evening and the job could easily be done there.
He even tells his potential murderer the best route for
escaping without being seen. So Mithridanes heads out to
the grove to murder the most generous man in the world.
He sees the man he assumes to be Nathan. But before he
gets a chance to strike him dead, Mithridanes recognizes
his friend from the castle. He realizes what’s happened
and he’s completely ashamed of himself. Nathan forgives
him immediately, since Mithridanes is not motivated
by evil but by the desire for a good name.Nathan even
suggests that Mithridanes take his life anyway. After all,
Nathan’s really old and he feels that Mithridanes really is
an okay guy. And Nathan’s goal in life is never to refuse
anything that someone really wants from him.Then the
two men have a generosity battle: Mithridanes would
gladly give some years from his life to extend Nathan’s.
But no, says Nathan, I’m a giver I could never accept.
They end by swapping identities, palaces and reputations.
Mithridanes remains at the palace and becomes Nathan,
and Nathan goes to Mithridanes’ place and assumes his
identity. And so we’re to assume that both men got what
they wanted out of life in the end.
“Nathan and Mithridanes” retrieved from publicly source: shmoop
<https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/decameron/summary/tenth-day-third-story>