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Day 2: First Tale
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Decameron, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love and Sex
Men and Women
Moderation and Excess
Intelligence
Class and Character
Faith vs. Religion
Summary
Analysis
While the company is still laughing over Neifile’s story, Filomena commands Filostrato to tell the next tale. Rinaldo d’Asti is a traveling merchant who unfortunately falls into the company of three disguised highway robbers. As the robbers make small talk with him, they compare the prayers they say for protection on the road. Rinaldo is partial to St. Julian’s paternoster, while the robbers claim to use the Dirupisti, Intemerata, or De Profundis. One of the robbers suggests that they compare whose prayers are rewarded with the best sleeping arrangements at the end of the day.
Florence was at the heart of important medieval trade networks, and Rinaldo d’Asti is one of many merchants in The Decameron who fall into sticky situations. St. Julian is considered the patron saint of travelers in the Roman Catholic Church; the prayers listed by the robbers are much more general purpose and include two Psalms and a prayer to Mary. While their lack of devotion to the traveler’s saint should perhaps raise Rinaldo’s suspicions, the theft of his goods also demonstrates the difference between what one deserves and one’s fortune: even though he’s doing everything right—not travelling alone, praying to the right saints—he still falls prey to misfortune.
Active
Themes
At nightfall, the thieves attack Rinaldo, whose servant abandons him and runs to the nearby fortress town, Castel Guiglielmo. Rinaldo is nearly naked in the gathering gloom of night and a raging snowstorm. With no other options (since a war has recently destroyed the countryside), Rinaldo walks towards the fortress, but it’s locked up tight for the night by the time he arrives. Fortunately, he finds an alcove near a door, with a pile of hay that offers him a little protection from the weather.
The escalating disasters faced by Rinaldo emphasis his unluckiness in this moment: not only was he robbed, but it’s winter, it’s storming, and a recent war cleared the countryside of shelter and food. The desertion of the servant points to class stereotypes: the servant is an afterthought (only appearing in the story to run away and make Rinaldo’s situation that much worse) rather than being important in his own right. And his cowardly behavior betrays a suspicion that the lower one is on the social ladder, the worse one’s character is.
Active
Themes
The door leads to the home of a widowed Lady of Guiglielmo Fortress who has become a local aristocrat’s mistress. Expecting a visit from the aristocrat, she has prepared a meal and a bath, but when he is called away at the last minute, she decides to enjoy the bath herself. Through the wall, she overhears Rinaldo’s loud prayers of complaint to God and St. Julian, and she sends her maid to investigate. Pitying him, the two women usher him in, warm him in the bath, clothe him, and feed him supper. All the while, he thanks St. Julian for blessing him.
Active
Themes
Rinaldo is handsome, and the Lady is already in a romantic mood. To her eyes, Rinaldo is a gift from fortune. She flirts with Rinaldo, who not only willingly accepts but reciprocates her advances. Before long, they are in bed together, thoroughly enjoying themselves.
Active
Themes
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First thing in the morning, the Lady gives Rinaldo some old clothes and money, secretly letting him out through the door. He enters the front gates as if at the end of a long journey, and while he’s looking for his ignoble servant, the thieves—arrested after a second robbery attempt—are brought in. They confess their crimes against Rinaldo and return his belongings—except for a pair of garters. Thanking God and St. Julian, Rinaldo rides home.
Active
Themes
