Tingoccio and Meuccio
Intro
- Storyteller: Dioneo
- Dioneo says that he was fully intending to behave himself today, being that he's the King, and tell a story that conformed to the theme. But someone already told the story he had in mind.
- Instead, he's going to take his cue from Elissa and tell a story about the Sienese.
- He'll make up for violating his own law at another time.
Story
- Tingoccio Mini and Meuccio di Tura are BFFs. They love to go to church together and listen to sermons.
- The sermons they've heard often deal with the afterlife, but they're confused. How do they know what really awaits them after death?
- They make a pact with each other. Whoever dies first will come back and tell the other what it's like.
- Meanwhile, Tingoccio becomes godfather to the son of a beautiful woman called Monna Mita.
- It happens that both Tingoccio and Meuccio fall in love with Mita.
- Neither wants to own up to his desires. Tingoccio's ashamed to be in lust with the mother of his godchild and Meuccio thinks that if Tingoccio knows, he'll poison Mita's mind against him.
- Tingoccio eventually overcomes his scruples and gets Mita into bed with him.
- Dioneo says that things go so well in that department that Tingoccio worked too hard and got a fever that eventually killed him.
- True to his word, Tingoccio appears to Meuccio after death.
- Meuccio's freaked out, but manages to ask if Tingoccio has been damned to Hell or not.
- Tingoccio replies that while he's not in Hell, he's being severely punished for his sins.
- Would Meuccio please say some prayers and have masses said for his soul? Meuccio promises to do this.
- Before Tingoccio leaves, Meuccio remembers to ask the important question: what punishment had he been given for sleeping with Mita, the mother of his godchild?
- Tingoccio reveals that when he was being roasted in the fire for all his other sins, he was still particularly worried about that.
- One of the other souls asked why he was trembling in the fire. Tingoccio tells him the reason and the soul has a good laugh at his stupidity: sleeping with a mother of a godchild doesn't even count as a sin.
- After Tingoccio goes, Meuccio laughs at his own stupidity—he'd let several women out of his clutches because they were the mothers of his godchildren.
- He decides to be wiser in the future.