Page 58 - THE DECAMERON: 100 Days on 100 Etchings by Petru Rusu
P. 58
“Masetto da Lamporecchio“
A man called Nuto once tended the gardens and did odd be able to tell anyone. They decide to take him into the
jobs around a local nunnery. But he earned a poor wage hut and have their way with him. Of course, Masetto hears
and wanted out, so he collected his money and returned the whole plan and very willingly goes along with it. Pretty
to his home village of Lamporecchio. When he got there, a soon, the other nuns catch on to the pleasures enjoyed by
young laborer called Masetto asked him what kind of work their sisters. They want their share, too. Now Masetto finds
he’d done and why he’d left. So Nuto explained that the himself the stud of the nunnery. Only the Abbess hasn’t
nuns, though young, were kind of evil and hard to please. taken part in the enterprise. Until one day when she finds
Plus, they paid him badly. Masetto thought, “Eight young Masetto truly asleep in the garden (he’s pretty exhausted
nuns? Sounds like my kind of place!” So he sets off for the by his night shift duties). The Abbess takes him back to
convent to see if he can pick up Nuto’s old job. But he her room and monopolizes him for days. The other nuns
knows that it’ll be hard to convince a religious order to hire complain. In the end, Masetto can’t take it anymore. Eight
a handsome and strong young man, so Masetto pretends nuns and one Abbess are too much for one man, so he
he’s deaf and mute. After he shows the steward of the decides to reveal his secret. The Abbess is shocked by
place how well he can work, the steward refers the matter his ability to speak -which he tells her he’s just recovered-
to the Abbess, who thinks they can keep Masetto on if he and even more shocked by the fact that he’s servicing the
knows about gardening. Which he does. Pretty soon, the whole abbey. Masetto gives her an ultimatum: either work
nuns begin to tease him, thinking he can’t hear. One day, out some kind of schedule with the nuns or I’m outta here.
two of the nuns see him “sleeping” in the garden and make The Abbess decides to keep him at the abbey so that he
some plans to learn more about the pleasures of the flesh. won’t talk and destroy their reputations. She makes him
It’s a perfect set up, says one of the nuns. Masetto can’t steward and he stays until he’s an old man, fathering many
speak and is probably intellectually deficient, so he’ll never “nunlets and monklets” in the process.
“Masetto da Lamporecchio” Retrieved from publicly source: shmoop
DECAMERON 58 <https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/decameron/summary/third-day-first-story>
