Page 22 - THE DECAMERON: 100 Days on 100 Etchings by Petru Rusu
P. 22
“The Marchioness of Montferrat and the French King“
The Marquis of Montferrat has a wife who (surprise!) is dinner. When the king meets her, he is immediately struck
beautiful and virtuous beyond every other woman in the by the arrow of love. He can’t wait to sweet-talk her into
world. The King of France hears about her and decides to doing what he wants. But as he’s eating dinner, he realizes
take a slight detour on his way to join a crusade to the Holy that all the dishes are chicken. He’s perplexed, so he asks
Land. And since the Marquis is already on his way east, the Marquess what’s up with all the hens? No cocks?
the king hopes to have his way with the Marquess. But the The Marquess explains that like the hens, the women of
Marquess is onto him. She figures out pretty quickly that her “neighborhood” may be dressed differently, but they
a king who wants to visit her in her husband’s absence is are really the same as women everywhere. Translation:
up to no good. So she consults with the few male advisors you don’t need to go fishing for a woman around here,
she has left (most are off fighting) and comes up with a king, since beautiful women are everywhere. The king’s
plan. The Marquess gathers up as many hens as she can immediately ashamed of his intentions and gets on his way
find and has them prepared in various dishes for the king’s to the Crusade as quickly as he can.
“The Marchioness of Montferrat and the French King” Retrieved from publicly source: shmoop
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