The Provost and the Widow
Intro
- Storyteller: Emilia
- Emilia says that although there have already been many stories about how clergymen will do anything to get their hands on women, there are plenty more out there.
- She proposes to tell yet another of these stories.
Story
- A young and beautiful widow of Fiesole attracts the attention of the provost of her church.
- But he's old and pompous and boring. And oh yeah, he's a priest.
- The widow's in a tricky situation. She can't afford to make this priest angry, since he's in a position of power and she has to see him all the time.
- So she diplomatically tells him in no uncertain terms that a) he's a priest; b) he's getting too old for these shenanigans; and c) she's a widow and can't be acting like a young woman having a fling.
- Of course, the Provost won't take no for an answer and pretty soon our widow's at the end of her rope.
- She comes up with a plan to teach this priest a lesson and gets the go-ahead from her brothers to put it into action.
- Next time she sees the provost, he corners her in the church and hits on her as usual.
- The widow pretends that she can no longer refuse him and makes a date with him that night at her house.
- But there's one condition: since her younger brothers still live at home and the walls are paper thin, they must do everything in the dark and be absolutely silent.
- Now the widow has a maidservant named Ciutazza. Let's just say that she's not the best looking woman around.
- The widow makes a deal with Ciutazza: sleep with the provost, and I'll buy you a new smock.
- Ciutazza agrees to the arrangement and takes the provost to bed in place of her lady.
- Meanwhile, the two brothers, who are in on the joke, go to town to fetch the bishop.
- They bring him back to the house and entertain him for a while. Then they have something to show him.
- When the provost is found in bed with Ciutazza, the bishop loses his mind.
- He's so angry with him that he forces him to see who he's really been sleeping with and sends the provost on a "walk of shame" back to the church.
- The provost is then sentenced to 40 days penance for his deeds, but that's the least of his troubles.
- Now when he walks through town, the little boys point him out as the lover of ugly Ciutazza.
- Ciutazza, on the other hand, comes out of the whole affair with a nice new smock.