Gianni di Procida
Intro
- Storyteller: Pampinea
- Pampinea will tell a story about how Love helps people endure just about anything, including terrible risks and hardships.
Story
- The setting here is Ischia, a small island in the Bay of Naples.
- On this island lives the beautiful Restituta, who's adored by a man called Gianni from the neighboring island of Procida.
- Everything goes well for them at first. But one day, Restituta is kidnapped by Sicilian pirates.
- Since they can't agree which one of them should get the girl, they decide to give her to King Frederick of Sicily as a gift.
- Women as gifts: what an interesting concept.
- King Fred is quite pleased, but he's not feeling up to despoiling a young virgin at the moment. So he puts her up at a posh villa until he's ready.
- Meanwhile, Gianni has figured out the location of his girl and sets out to recover her.
- He finds Restituta in her villa and she shows him a way in. They spend the night together.
- But Gianni forgets to set his alarm clock, so he and Restituta are discovered together in bed by the newly recovered King Fred.
- The King orders that the two lovers be bound up, naked, and burnt at the stake in the town square for this unmentionable sin.
- They're brought out in their birthday suits and everyone comes down to the square to check it out. This includes the Admiral of the Royal Fleet, who happens to know Gianni.
- Gianni tells him the whole tale and requests that he be turned to face his lover so that they can stare into each other's eyes when they are burnt to death. Now that's what we call romantic.
- The Admiral visits the King and informs him that the condemned young people belong to families that have been his biggest political supporters.
- The King freaks out and immediately orders their release. He plies them with gifts, gives them a sumptuous wedding and sends them home to live happily ever after.
- Extra credit assignment: check out recent Presidential pardons to see if any of them are politically motivated.