Page 84 - THE DECAMERON: 100 Days on 100 Etchings by Petru Rusu

“The Three Young Men & Three Sisters“
This one takes place in Marseilles and involves the three
eldest daughters of a rich merchant. The first two are
15-year-old twins, Ninetta and Maddalena, and the third
is 14-year-old Bertella. There were marriages arranged
for all three girls, but they managed to fall in love with
a whole other set of young men. Bertella hooks up with
a man called Restagnone, while a fellow called Folco
falls hard for Maddalena. Ninetta catches the eye of
Ughetto. Ninetta’s lover, Restagnone, convinces the
other two gentlemen to share their wealth with him if he
can convince the girls to run away with them to some
secluded spot in the world and set up house. So the
men choose Crete as their new residence, sell off their
goods and purchase a small ship as their getaway vehicle.
Meanwhile, Ninetta convinces her twin sisters that this
scheme is a good idea. They steal some of their father’s
fortune as their dowries and set out to sea with their
lovers. They arrive in Crete as happy as can be, build
grand estates for themselves and party like they’re royalty.
But all good things must come to an end, especially when
you’re a 14-year-old married to an older gentleman with
time on his hands. Restagnone gets a wandering eye
and acquires a taste for a lovely gentlewoman in his new
neighborhood. Ninetta learns that Restagnone’s actually
hooked up with her rival and she’s furious. She finds
an old Greek woman who knows a thing or two about
DECAMERON 84
poisons. You can guess the rest. And Ninetta would have
gotten away with it, but the old Greek woman gets hauled
in by the cops. Under torture, she confesses to making
the poison that killed Restagnone. Her sisters are greatly
distressed when the Duke of Crete makes it known that he
intends to burn Ninetta at the stake. Maddalena realizes
that she has the key to saving her, since the Duke has a
major thing for her. She sends word to the Duke that she’s
ready to do whatever he wants in exchange for Ninetta’s
life. He agrees and brings Ninetta along, trussed up in a
sack, to his tryst with Maddalena. When it’s over, he tells
her to send Ninetta far away so that he’s not tempted to
burn her anyway. Meanwhile, Folco and Ughetto believe
that Ninetta’s been dumped into the sea by the Duke.
When Folco returns to Maddalena and sees that Ninetta’s
still alive, he immediately becomes suspicious. Folco
understands how things went between Maddalena and
the Duke and in his fury, he kills his wife. He then assures
Ninetta that he’ll take her to safety, and the two disappear
into the blue with a sack of money and a boat. Meanwhile,
Ughetto and Bertella are completely clueless as to the
fates of the other lovers. They are totally shocked when
the Duke arrests them both for the murder of Maddalena.
They know they’re in a precarious situation, so they bribe
their guards and escape to Rhodes, where they die in
poverty and misery.
“The Three Young Men & Three Sisters” Retrieved from publicly source: shmoop
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