Peronella
Intro
- Storyteller: Filostrato
- Filostrato says that because men play so many tricks on women, whenever they hear of tricks played by a woman on a man, it should be circulated to as many people as possible.
- The reason? Men should realize that women are every bit as clever as they are, and so that they'll think twice before messing with them.
Story
- Peronella, a beautiful and charming woman, lives with her poor husband in a district of Naples.
- Every day, Peronella's husband goes off to find work and Peronella stays home to spin wool.
- Pretty soon, she catches the eye of a young gentleman called Giannello. They figure out that once her husband leaves for the day, they have plenty of time to play around before he returns.
- Except for one day, when Peronella's husband returns early and finds the door to the house locked.
- What a virtuous wife, he thinks. She's locked the door behind me to keep the naughty men out.
- Inside, Peronella hears her husband knock on the door and gives herself up for lost. She hides Giannello in an empty "tub" (or wine barrel) and goes to answer the door.
- When she sees her husband returned so early from work, she gives him a dressing down: how could she have married such a lazybones? How are they going to put food on the table?
- He tells her to relax: it's a saint's feast day so there's no work. However, he's sold the empty tub to the man he brought with him.
- Peronella does some quick thinking and tells her husband that she's already sold it for even more. The man's in there now inspecting it.
- Peronella's husband is pleased and goes to check it out. Giannello plays along, even saying that the tub needs a good cleaning before he buys it.
- The husband is glad to oblige—for such a good price—so he lowers himself into the tub and begins scraping away the leftover wine.
- Giannello sees his final opportunity to get what he really came for. While Peronella is leaning over the edge of the tub and giving instructions to her husband, Giannello, uh, completes his task like a wild stallion with a mare, according to Filostrato.
- And just in time, too, before the husband clambers back out of the tub.
- So Giannello winds up with the "embraces" of his lover—and a tub in the bargain.