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Day 5: Third 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
Filostrato begins his tale with a laugh, acknowledging the mockery he’s received from his companions for his sour attitude towards love—especially when he was sovereign on the previous day. To make amends, he promises to tell a happy tale today.
Panfilo and Emilia both began their tales by gently chastising Filostrato for the previous day’s theme. His response to their mockery is good natured and generous, as befits an aristocratic young man and a member of the brigata, which exemplifies moderation and order.
Active
Themes
In Romagna, Messer Lizio da Valbona and his wife Madonna Giacomina cherish their daughter (later identified as Caterina), determined to marry her to no one less than a great nobleman. The couple is friendly with a youth named Ricciardo de’ Manardi da Brettinoro, who spends so much time in their home that they think of him as a son. When he and Caterina fall in love, he hatches a plan for them to be together.
Caterina’s noble parents have high aspirations for their daughter’s marriage, which will not only ensure her own wealth and status, but which has the potential to tie them to a “great” nobleman through ties of kinship. The way that daughters created alliances between families through their marriages contributes to the protective attitude towards their sexuality. Although Ricciardio and Caterina are raised more like siblings than neighbors, love asserts its power over them, and (like other childhood playmates in the tales) they fall in love.
Active
Themes
Ricciardo de’ Manardi da Brettinoro suggests that Caterina ask for permission to sleep on a balcony overlooking the garden, where he can climb up and join her after dark. Complaining that the late May weather has been too hot for sleeping indoors, Caterina presents the idea to her parents, but her cranky father says no. She spends the next night complaining so loudly that her mother (with whom she shares a room) can’t sleep, and in the morning, Madonna Giacomina insists that Lizio da Valbona allow his daughter to sleep on the balcony so she can hear the nightingales singing in the cool air.
Active
Themes
Caterina’s bed, with curtains hanging around it, is placed on the balcony. That night, she signals Ricciardo de’ Manardi da Brettinoro, and he climbs up—with some difficulty and danger—to her. Together, they make the nightingales “sing at frequent intervals,” and when they’re tired from their exertions, they fall asleep naked and entwined in each other’s arms. Caterina’s right arm is under Ricciardo’s neck and her left hand cradles “that part of his person which…you ladies are too embarrassed to mention.” They are discovered in this position by Lizio da Valbona just after dawn.
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Lizio da Valbona summons Madonna Giacomina to see how Caterina has “succeeded in waylaying” the nightingale and “is holding it in her hand.” Because of the deceitful way that Ricciardo de’ Manardi da Brettinoro has behaved, Madonna Giacomina is about to scream bloody murder, but Lizio restrains her. Brettinoro is a rich young nobleman, and they could find a worse husband for their daughter. When the pair wake up, they’re given an ultimatum: marry immediately or die. Less to save their lives than on account of their love, they happily agree to wed with her parents as witnesses. And after a larger, public wedding celebration, they spend the rest of their lives “caging nightingales by the score.”
Active
Themes
