NOVEL VIII.
Two neighbours are very intimate together, when one making very free with the other’s wife, the other finds it out, and returns the compliment, whilst the friend is locked up in a chest all the time.
The lady’s sufferings seemed grievous to all who heard them; though their pity for her was the less, as they judged that she had in some measure deserved them; whilst the scholar was deemed most rigidly obstinate, and even cruel. But Pampinea having made an end, the queen ordered Fiammetta to go on, who spoke as follows; – As I suppose you have been under some concern for the scholar’s severity, it may be proper, I believe, to revive your drooping spirits with some more cheerful subject. Therefore I shall tell you a story of a certain young man, who received an injury with more mildness than he, and returned it with more moderation. Whence you may learn, that a person ought to be content if he gives people as good as they bring, without desiring an unreasonable vengeance, and far beyond what the provocation which he may have received requires.
Know, then, that at Siena lived, as I have been told, two wealthy young citizens, the one named Spinelloccio Tanena, and the other Zeppa di Mino, near neighbours to each other, and as intimate together as if they had been brothers, and each had a very handsome wife. Now it happened that Spinelloccio, going often to the other’s house, whether he was at home or not, became too familiar at last with his wife, which continued some time before anybody perceived it. But Zeppa being at home one day, without her knowing it, Spinelloccio came to enquire for him, and being told by her that he was gone abroad, he began to make free with her as Usual. This Zeppa was a witness to, and greatly troubled at; yet knowing that making a clamour would no way lessen the injury, but rather add to his shame, he began to think of some revenge, which should make no noise abroad, and with which he should yet be content.
Resolving at length what to do, he went into the room after the friend was gone away, when he found his wife setting her head-dress a little to rights, and he said, “What are you doing, madam?” ” She replied, “Do you not see?” – “Yes, truly,” quoth he, “and I have seen a great deal more than I could have wished. So he charged her with the thing, and she came to an open confession, as it was in vain to deny it, and began to weep and beg his pardon. He then said to her, “You see you have been guilty of a very great crime; if you expect forgiveness from me, you must resolve to do what I shall enjoin you, which is to tell Spinelloccio that about the third hour tomorrow he must find some pretence for leaving me to go to you, when I will return home; and as soon as you hear me, do you make him go into that chest, and lock him up, and after you have done this, I will tell you the rest. Have no doubt, however, about it, for I promise you I will do him no harm.” She agreed to do so, and kept her word.
The next day, the two friends being together, Spinelloccio, who had promised the lady to be with her then, said to Zeppa, “I am engaged to go and dine with a friend, whom I would not have wait for me: so fare you well.” “It is a long while till dinner yet,” said Zeppa. – “Yes,” replied the other, “but we have business to confer about, which requires me to be there in good time. So he left him, took a little circuit, and went to the lady. No sooner were they shut in together in the chamber than Zeppa returned; when she, seeming to be very much frightened, made Spinelloccio go into the chest, as the husband had directed, locked him up, and then came out to her husband, who asked her whether dinner was ready. “It will be very soon,” she replied, – “Then,” said he, “as Spinelloccio has gone to dine with a friend, and has left his wife at home by herself, go and call to her out of the window, to come and dine with us.” The lady whose fear for herself had rendered her very obedient, did as she was desired, and Spinelloccio’s wife came, after much entreaty, hearing that her husband was not to dine at home.
Zeppa shewed the greatest fondness towards her imaginable, and making a sign for his wife to go into the kitchen, he took her familiarly by the hand, led her into the chamber, and locked the door. Upon this she began to say, “Oh, Zeppa, w.iat means this? Is this what you invited me for? Is this the regard you have for your friend Spinelloccio?”
Zeppa having got her up to the chest where her husband was shut in, and holding her fast, replied, “Madam, before you utter any complaints, hear what I am going to tell you: I have loved your husband, and still love him, as a brother; and what has come of the trust I reposed in him? Yesterday I found out, though he knows nothing of it, that he is as intimate with my wife as he is with you. Now I respect him so much, that I intend to take no other revenge than simple retaliation. He has had my wife, and I mean to have you. If you will not consent to this, be assured I shall revenge myself in such a manner, that both he and you shall have cause to repent it.” Then, in reply to the lady’s remonstrances, he entered into such details as convinced her of the truth of what he alleged. – “Well, Zeppa,” she said, at last, ‘since your revenge is to fall upon me, I must be content. Only make my peace with your wife for what we are going to do, in like manner as I am ready to forgive her.” – “Be assured I will do that,” he said, “and moreover I will make you a present also of as fine a jewel as you could wish to have. So saying he fell to kissing her; and laying her down on the chest in which her husband was locked up, he took his fill of revenge, and so did she too on her own account.
Spinelloccio, hearing what passed, was fit to burst with vexation; and had it not been that he was prevented by the fear of Zeppa’s anger, he would have roared out, and abused his wife, even shut up as he was. But considering again that he had given the provocation, and that Zeppa had reason for what he had done, and had behaved humanely and like a friend, he resolved to respect him more than ever.
When Zeppa had received full satisfaction from the lady, he got up from the chest. She asked for the jewel which he had promised, whereupon he went to the door and called his wife, who coming in with a smile said only this to her, “Madam, you have given me tit for tat.” Then said Zeppa, “Here, open this chest.” She did so, and he showed Spinelloccio to his wife. Now it would be difficult to sav which of the two was the more confounded: the man at seeing his friend, and knowing that he was privy to what he had done, or the woman at seeing her husband, and being conscious that he must have heard and felt what she had done over his head. “Behold,” added Zeppa, “this is the jewel; I now give it you.’spinelloccio hereupon came out of the chest, and said, “Well, now we are even; and, as you said before to my wife, it is best for us to Continue friends:” Zeppa was content; so they all four sat down to dinner together in the greatest peace and harmony; and from that day forth each of the wives had two husbands, and each of the husbands two wives, without the least dispute or grudge ever arising between them on that account.
[This story is in the “Seven Wise Masters,” of Hebers, but was probably suggested to Boccaccio by the latter part of the Fabliau, “Constant du Hamel” (Le Grand, iv, 226). There, a priest, a provost, and a forester, attempt to seduce a peasant’s wife. The husband has thus a triple vengeance to execute. But, in the Fabliau, this was an ungrateful return to the wife, who had not yielded to the solicitations of her lovers, but had contrived to coop them up successively in a tun which held feathers. The Fabliau, again, probably derived its origin from some oriental tale. In the story of Arruya, in the “Persian Tales,” a lady solicited by a cadi, a doctor, and a governor, exposes them to each other. To Persia the story has probably come from the Brahmins, as there is a similar incident in the “Bahar Danush,” which is founded on their traditions. Boccaccio’s tale is introduced in La Fontaine’s “Le Faiseur d’oreilles et le racommodeur de moules.”