Page 88 - THE DECAMERON: 100 Days on 100 Etchings by Petru Rusu
P. 88
“Lisabetta and Her Brothers“
Three merchant brothers of Messina have a beautiful sister it. Then she puts it into a large pot and covers it with soil,
named Lisabetta. Lisabetta’s in love with one of her brothers’ planting some basil on top. She becomes very attached to this
employees, the handsome Lorenzo. And Lorenzo has fallen plant and waters it only with her tears (well, that and some
in love with her. Pretty soon, they hook up. Everything’s fine rose essence). The basil plant flourishes. Lisabetta does not.
and dandy until Lisabetta’s oldest brother sees her going to Her brothers notice. They take away the basil pot because her
Lorenzo’s bedroom. He and the other two brothers decide attachment seems...unhealthy. Lisabetta becomes truly sick.
on a drastic course of action. They lure Lorenzo out to the She lies in bed and calls for her basil. The bros get suspicious,
countryside and murder him. They tell Lisabetta that he’s away so they root around in the soil to see what this is really
on a business trip. When she asks about his disappearance, about. Guess who they find? They realize that something
they threaten her. She prays to him to come to her, and after funny’s going on, so they re-bury the head and flee to Naples.
a while, he appears to her in a dream. He looks pretty bad. Meanwhile, Lisabetta literally cries herself to death over the
He tells her about his murder and describes his burial place. loss of her basil pot. Filomena says that after a time, the
So she takes her maidservant with her to the place Lorenzo whole story came out and a song was composed about this
had described and yeah he was still there. She does what any sad story, probably “Tears on My Pillow” by Little Anthony
woman in her situation would do: cuts off his head and then and the Imperials. Some critics see Lisabetta as an extreme
buries the rest of his body in a more loving fashion. Lisabetta example of the kind of lovelorn ladies that Boccaccio claims is
takes the head home with her and cries over it and kisses his target audience.
“Lisabetta and Her Brothers” Retrieved from publicly source: shmoop
DECAMERON 88 <https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/decameron/summary/fourth-day-fifth-story>
