Decameron Tenth Day, Tenth Story Summary

Griselda

Intro

• Storyteller: Dioneo
• Dioneo says that since the stories have been about nobility, he'll tell a story about a marquis.
• But that is where his cooperation ends. Instead of telling a story about munificence, Dioneo is going to tell a story about a character notable for his brutality.
• Don't try this at home, he says. Nobody should ever profit from this sort of behavior.
• Editor's note: Chaucer did profit from the story—he included it as "The Clerk's Tale" in his Canterbury Tales.

Story

• A man called Gualtieri becomes Marquis of Saluzzo. He's not married and spends all of his time hunting, so his people are worried about the future of his estate.
• They urge Gualtieri to marry and provide them with an heir.
• Gualtieri finally gives in on one condition: he gets to choose his own wife and they'll have to honor her as their lady, whoever she is.
• His people agree and eagerly await his choice.
• Gualtieri had taken a liking to a poor girl in his locality, so he approached her father and made a bargain for marriage.
• Then he returns to his own people and gives them the news, reminding them of their promise.
• The people, who never believed he would settle down, are joyful.
• Gualtieri and his people plan a lavish wedding. He has a dress made to fit his bride and buys rings and crowns for her.
• Just one thing: he has to tell the girl that she's marrying him.
• So on the day of the wedding, Gualtieri rides out to the village to get his bride. Since she has no idea that he intends to marry her, she's standing around with the other village girls, trying to get a look at the lucky bride.
• We learn that her name is Griselda. Gualtieri sits down with her and her father and asks her a series of questions. He wants to know if she'll obey him, no matter what.
• When she agrees, Gualtieri brings her outside to his waiting kinsman.
• Then he strips her naked in front of all the men and women present. Nice.
• Only then does he call for the new clothes he's had made for her (perhaps he should have done that before the stripping).
• He asks her if she'll accept him as her husband (she does). He accepts her as his wife. It's a done deal.
• There's a huge party at Gualtieri's house, just as if he'd married a high-born lady.
• And in fact Griselda turns out to be a treasure. She has excellent manners, treats her husband's subjects well, and is totally compliant with Gualtieri's wishes. Everyone adores her.
• Griselda has a daughter and Gualtieri is super happy with her. But then, something disturbing happens.
• Dioneo says that Gualtieri's "seized" with a desire to test Griselda's goodness and begins treating her badly.
• She responds with total submissiveness and Gualtieri is pleased that she is passing his tests. But he doesn't tell her that.
• He's also not finished with her. He tells her that his subjects are complaining about this low-born daughter of theirs.
• So one day, a servant appears to Griselda and implies that Gualtieri has ordered him to take the infant out and murder it.
• Griselda obeys and hands over the baby even though she's heartbroken.
• Gualtieri actually sends the child to be raised by a kinswoman in Bologna, but he lets Griselda think she's dead.
• Griselda then has another child, a boy. Gualtieri decides to play with his wife's emotions some more.
• He tells her that his subjects resent that they'll be ruled by the grandson of a farmer, so he's going to do the same thing to the boy as he did to the girl.
• Not only that, he's going to look around for someone better to marry.
• Griselda says that he should do whatever makes him happy. She's nobody, anyway.
• So the boy baby is taken from her in the same way, and Griselda responds as she did before.
• Gualtieri's subjects also think he's had his own children killed and they hate him for it.
• The women who surround Griselda console her, but she simply says that her husband's word is law.
• Everyone loves Griselda even more because of her sweet nature and all the abuse she suffers.
• Years pass, and Gualtieri decides it's time for one more test. He's going to divorce Griselda and marry someone else.
• Gualtieri takes the cruel scheme to a whole new level: he pretends to have received papers from the Pope that allow him to divorce Griselda.
• He brings Griselda before his people and tells her his intentions. Griselda shames him with her humility and steadiness.
• She says that she never believed she was worthy of him, so she doesn't blame him for taking these steps.
• But would he please let her leave with a slip on so that she doesn't have to show her nakedness to the world?
• Gualtieri wants to cry at her goodness, but he keeps at it. Okay, he says, you can keep your slip.
• So Griselda returns to her village thirteen years after her marriage and takes up her old sheep-herding job.
• Gualtieri's subjects are not happy. But he's not done yet.
• He tells everyone he's going to marry again. Since he no longer has a wife or serving women to set the place in order for the wedding, he calls Griselda back to do it for him.
• Amazingly, she complies. She cleans, arranges the bedrooms and sends the invitations. She also has to stand by and greet all the guests as though she were still lady of the house.
• Meanwhile, Gualtieri sends to Bologna for his children to be returned. At this point, the girl is 12 and the boy is 6. He orders his kinsman to say that the daughter is to be Gualtieri's bride.
• At the wedding feast, Griselda greets the new "bride" and treats her well. Griselda sits at the meal in her disgusting old dress and listens to the guests compliment the new, young mistress. She compliments the young girl as well.
• Gualtieri is so astounded at the patience of Griselda that he decides enough is enough.
• Finally. We can't take one more second of this.
• He asks Griselda what she thinks of his new bride, and Griselda lets a little bit of her emotions show. She warns him not to treat her as roughly as he treated his "previous wife," since the new lady is high-born.
• Gualtieri reveals his purpose in tormenting her all those years: to keep the peace in his household (for himself, of course), to teach her how to be a wife and to teach his people how to choose a proper wife.
• He then discloses the identities of the young lady and her little brother and professes undying love for his perfect, obedient wife.
• Shmoop may get sick now.
• But Griselda does not. Somehow, she still loves this guy and is overjoyed by his revelations.
• And somehow, everyone forgives Gualtieri and actually believes he's a wise man for all that he's done.
• In the end, they feast for days and Griselda is restored to her rightful place.
• Her father's set up properly in a comfortable house, and the daughter is married off to a gentleman.
• Dioneo ends by saying that Gualtieri probably didn't deserve Griselda. After all, most women, being turned out in their slips, would have found a sugar daddy to buy them a fine dress.
• That's all he can say about it?