The bishop of the small town of Aodi, after the death of a relative, the Duke of Milan, Francesco Sforza, becomes one of the contenders for the ducal throne. However, the vicissitudes of turbulent times and the hatred of enemies force him to leave Milan and settle in his episcopal residence in Lodi; but even there, near Milan, rival relatives do not leave the bishop alone. Then he, together with his daughter, the young beautiful widow of Lucretia Gonzaga, leaves for Venice. Here, on the island of Murano, father and daughter rent a magnificent palazzo; in this palazzo around Signora Lucretia, the most refined society will soon gather: beautiful, educated, pleasant girls, and gentlemen who are in no way inferior to them.
In the midst of a grand Venetian carnival. In order to make the pastime even more enjoyable, the beautiful Lucretia offers the following: let five damsels every evening after dancing,
certain lots, telling guests entertaining short stories and fairy tales, accompanying them with ingenious riddles.
The girls around Lucretia turned out to be extremely lively and capable storytellers, and therefore were able to give listeners great pleasure with their stories, equally fascinating and instructive. Here are just some of them.
Once upon a time there lived in Genoa a nobleman named Raynaldo Scaglia. Seeing that his life was declining, Raynaldo called on his only son, Salardo, and ordered him to keep three instructions forever in his memory and never to deviate from them. The instructions were as follows: no matter how strong love Salardo had for his wife, he should in no way reveal to her any of his secrets;
under no circumstances should you bring up as your son and make the heir to the state of a child born not of him; in no case give themselves to the power of the sovereign, autocratic ruling the country.
Less than a year after the death of his father, Salardo married Theodora, the daughter of one of the first Genoese nobles. No matter how much the spouses loved each other, God did not bless their offspring, and therefore they decided to raise, as their own child, the son of a poor widow, nicknamed Postumio. After a certain time, Salardo left Genoa and settled in Monferrato, where he succeeded very quickly and became the closest friend of the local marquise. Among the joys and luxuries of court life, Salardo came to the conclusion that his father had simply lost his mind in his old age: after violating his father’s instructions, he not only lost nothing, but, on the contrary, gained a lot. Taunting the memory of his father, the wicked son decided to violate the third instruction, and at the same time to assure himself of Theodora’s devotion.
Salardo stole the favorite hunting falcon of the Marquis, carried it to his friend Francoe and asked to hide for the time being. Returning home, he killed one of his own falcons and told his wife to cook him for dinner; he told her that it was the marquise's falcon that he had killed. The obedient Theodora complied with her husband’s order, but at the table she refused to touch the bird, for which Salardo awarded her a good crack. The next morning, getting up early in tears, all in tears from the resentment suffered, Theodora hurried to the palace and told the Marquis about the crime of her husband. The Marquis burned with anger and ordered to immediately hang Salardo, and divide his property into three parts: one to the widow, the second to the son, and the third to the executioner. The resourceful Postumio volunteered to hang his own father, so that all the property would remain in the family;
Theodore his quick wits pleased.Salardo, who bitterly and sincerely repented of his filial disrespect, was already standing on the scaffold with a noose around his neck when Francois delivered the Marquise irrefutable evidence of the friend's innocence. The Marquis forgave Salardo and ordered Postumio to be hanged in his place, but Salardo persuaded the gentleman to let the villain go on all four sides, and in return for the property he wanted to take over, he handed a noose around his neck. Nobody heard anything about Postumio, Theodora took refuge in a monastery and soon died there, and Salardo returned to Genoa, where he lived serenely for many more years, distributing most of his fortune to things pleasing to God.
Another story happened in Venice. A merchant named Dimitrio lived in this glorious city. He kept his young wife Polysena in an unprecedented luxury for their estate, and all because he loved her very much. Dimitrio often went out of business for a long time, while the cute and spoiled woman in his absence began to get confused with one priest. Who knows how long their tricks would have lasted had it not been for Manusso, the godfather and friend of Dimitrio. Manusso’s house was directly opposite the house of the unlucky merchant, and one fine evening he saw a priest stealthily sneak through the door and how they and the mistress were busy with what it was inconvenient to call words.
When Dimitrio returned to Venice, Manusso told him what he knew. Dimitrio doubted the veracity of the words of a friend, but he prompted him a way to see for himself. And once, Dimitrio told Polysene that he was leaving for Cyprus, and he secretly made his way from the harbor to Manusso’s house. Later in the evening he dressed up as a beggar, smeared his face with dirt and knocked on the door of his own house, praying not to let him freeze on a rainy night. The compassionate servant girl let the beggar in and assigned him the room next door to Polisena’s bedroom. There was no trace of Dimitrio's doubts, and early in the morning he slipped out of the house, unnoticed by anyone.
having washed and changed clothes, he again knocked on the door of his own house, explaining to his wife's bewilderment that, they say, bad weather forced him to return from the road. Polysena barely managed to hide the priest in the chest with dresses, where he hid, trembling with fear. Dimitrio sent the maid to call the Polysena brothers for dinner, but he himself did not go anywhere from home. The brother-in-law eagerly responded to Dimitrio’s invitation. After dinner, the owner began to paint in what luxury and contentment he contains their sister, and in evidence ordered Polisene to show the brothers all his countless jewels and outfits. She, herself not her own, opened the chests one by one, until finally, along with the dresses, the priest was removed to the light of day. The Polysena brothers wanted to stab him, but Dimitrio convinced them that it was not good to kill a spiritual lady, and besides, when she was in the same underwear. He told his brother-in-law to take him away. On the way home, they did not contain righteous anger. They killed the poor thing to death.
Upon learning of the death of his wife, Dimitrio thought about the maid - she was beautiful, kind and chubby. She became his adored wife and owner of the deceased Polisena’s outfits and jewelry.
After finishing the story of Dimitrio and Polisen, Ariadne, as agreed, made a riddle: “Three good friends once feasted / At the set table, <...> / And the servant brings them in the finale / Three pigeons on an expensive dish. / Each of his own, without wasting a word, / Took, and yet two remained. "
How could this be? This is not the most ingenious of those mysteries that the storytellers offered to the audience, but she also put them into a dead end. And the solution is this: just one of the friends was called Everyone.
But what happened somehow on the island of Capraia. On this island near the royal palace lived a poor widow with her son named Pietro, and nicknamed the Fool. Pietro was a fisherman, but a useless fisherman, and so he and his mother were always starving.Once, the Fool was lucky and he pulled out a large tuna from the water, which suddenly begged in a human voice, saying, let me go, Pietro, you will have more use from living me than from fried me. Pietro took pity and was immediately rewarded - he caught as many fish as he had never seen in his life. When he returned home with prey, the royal daughter, Luciana, as usual, began to make fun of him evil. The Fool could not stand it, ran to the shore, called for tuna and ordered that Lucana become pregnant. The due date passed, and the girl, who was barely twelve years old, gave birth to a charming baby. The investigation began:
all male islanders over the age of thirteen were brought to the palace on pain of death. To everyone's surprise, the infant recognized Pietro the Fool as his father.
The king was unable to bear such a shame. He ordered to put Luciana, Pietro and baby in a tarred barrel and throw into the sea. The fool was not at all afraid and, sitting in a barrel, told Lucian about the magic tuna and where the baby had come from. Then he called for tuna and ordered Lucian to obey as himself. She first ordered the tuna to throw the barrel ashore. Coming out of the barrel and looking around, Luciana wished that the most magnificent palace in the world was erected on the shore, and Pietro was dirty and fool turned into the most beautiful and wise man in the world. All her wishes were fulfilled in no time.
The king and queen, meanwhile, could not forgive themselves for being so cruel to their daughter and grandson, and, in order to alleviate mental anguish, went to Jerusalem. On the way, they saw a beautiful palace on the island and ordered the shipbuilders to land on the beach. Great was their joy when they found their grandson alive and safe, and their daughter, who told them the whole wonderful story that had happened to her and Pietro. Then they all lived happily ever after, and when the king died, Pietro began to rule his kingdom.
In Bohemia, the next storyteller began her story, a poor widow lived. When dying, she left a leg for her three sons with only a sour milk, a cutting board and a cat. The cat went to the youngest - Konstantino Lucky. Konstantino was saddened: what is the use of a cat when the stomach sticks to your back from hunger? But then the cat said that she would take care of food herself. The cat ran into the field, caught a hare and went with prey to the royal palace. In the palace she was led to the king, to whom she presented a hare on behalf of her lord Konstantino, the kindest, most beautiful and powerful man in the world. Out of respect for the glorious Mr. Konstantin, the king invited the guest to the table, and she, having satiated herself, cleverly secretly filled a full bag of food for the owner.
Then the cat more than once went to the palace with various offerings, but soon she got bored, and she asked the owner to completely trust her, promising that in a short time he would make him rich. And then one fine day she brought Konstantino to the bank of the river to the royal palace itself, undressed, pushed it into the water and screamed that Messer Constantino was drowning. The courtiers came running to the cry, pulled Konstantino out of the water, gave beautiful clothes and took them to the king. The cat told him a story about how her master was heading to the palace with rich gifts, but the robbers, having learned about this, robbed and nearly killed him. The king in every possible way treated the guest and even gave his daughter Elizabeth to him. After the wedding, a rich caravan with a dowry was equipped and, under reliable guard, sent to the newlywed's house. Of course there wasn’t any house, but the cat arranged everything and took care of everything. She ran forward and whomsoever she met along the road, she ordered everyone under pain of death to answer that everything around belonged to Messer Konstantin the Happy.Having reached a magnificent castle and finding a small garrison there, the cat told the soldiers that they should attack a myriad of troops any minute, and that they could save their life in the only way - to call Messer Konstantin their master. So they did. Young people were conveniently housed in a castle, the real owner of which, as it soon became known, died in a foreign land, leaving no offspring. When the father of Elizabeth died, Konstantino, as the son-in-law of the deceased, rightfully occupied the Bohemian throne.
Many more tales and stories were told in the palace of beautiful Lucretia on the island of Murano for thirteen carnival nights. At the end of the thirteenth night, a ringing of bells rang over Venice, which heralded the end of the carnival and the beginning of Great Lent, urging pious Christians to leave amusement for prayer and repentance.
