The Student and the Widow
Intro
- Storyteller: Pampinea
- Pampinea warns her audience that what goes around comes around, so they should be careful about playing tricks on people.
- She feels it's especially important to say this, since they have been telling plenty of stories of people who played tricks on others, but told nothing about any blowback or revenge.
- Pampinea wants to rectify that with this tale and make her friends less enthusiastic about the prospect of a prank.
Story
- A young widow of Florence, Elena, takes a certain gentleman as her lover.
- But because she's very beautiful (and she knows it), another gentleman named Rinieri falls in love with her.
- Rinieri's a very clever fellow and has just returned from his studies in Paris.
- Elena really wants nothing to do with him, but she can see that he admires her and can't resist flirting and coming up with ways to string him along.
- Her lover knows that Rinieri has a thing for his girl and begins to get jealous. Elena realizes that this is the perfect time to play a nasty little trick on Rinieri to prove her devotion to her lover.
- So she tells Rinieri to come to her just after Christmas so that they can hook up.
- Of course, Rinieri is delighted. He's received by Elena's maidservant, who locks him in the courtyard and tells him to wait there until her mistress appears.
- Meanwhile, Elena is living it up in the warm house with her lover. She takes delight in showing him the freezing Rinieri and mocking the scholar for his foolishness.
- She even goes downstairs to speak with Rinieri, saying that her brother's paid her a surprise visit and that Rinieri can't come in until he leaves.
- It takes most of the night and the near death of Rinieri, but Elena pulls off her nasty prank and convinces her lover of her devotion.
- Rinieri feels his love for Elena turning into hatred as he freezes in the courtyard.
- He spends the next several months recovering physically from the experience and plotting his revenge against the heartless wench.
- Soon, Fortune provides an opportunity for Rinieri to be avenged. Elena's lover has left her for a younger woman and leaves her longing for him.
- Her maidservant advises Elena to consult with Rinieri, the scholar, to find a magical incantation that will make her lover return.
- Elena proves herself to be seriously stupid, because she thinks this is a good idea even after what she did to Rinieri. She sends the maidservant to ask Rinieri to help.
- Of course, he agrees. He tells Elena that she needs to do everything he says so that her lover will return.
- Rinieri makes a picture of Elena's lover and tells her that she must take it to a flowing stream by herself in the middle of the night.
- She has to take off her clothes and dip herself seven times into the water. Then she has to climb up something high—a tree or onto a roof—while still naked and recite some mumbo-jumbo.
- There are some other very specific instructions, all of which Elena promises to do.
- So she goes out to a farm of hers to perform the ritual and Rinieri follows her.
- She performs the ritual exactly as prescribed and climbs up a ladder to the top of an observation tower.
- When she reaches the top, Rinieri takes away the ladder. Now Elena's stuck on the platform of the tower and she's still completely naked.
- By this time, Elena realizes that she's fallen into a trap, but it's too late. She's on top of a tower in a deserted area and no one can hear her scream.
- In the morning, Rinieri shows up and takes great pleasure in his successful revenge.
- At first, Elena's worried about her reputation (which Rinieri has assured her she's already ruined with her sexscapades).
- Then she cries and pleads with him as she gets the worst sunburn and bug bites ever. She's dying of thirst, too. But Rinieri has no pity. He spends the entire day taunting her from the ground and watching her suffer and burn. He's pretty sadistic. He remembers how he almost died in that cold courtyard.
- He suggests that if she's so anxious to get off the roof, she should just jump off and break her neck.
- He goes on and on about how much he hates her. While he's at it, he insults women in general because they're suckers for younger men.
- He tells Elena he'll bring her clothes so she can come down, but he really goes off for lunch and a long nap.
- Finally, when Rinieri can see that she is on the brink of death, he takes her clothes back to the maidservant and tells her where she can find her. He also tells her that she'll suffer for her part in his humiliation, as well.
- The maidservant arrives at the tower fearing the worst. With the help of a swineherd, they replace the ladder and carry the lady down.
- The maidservant slips on the ladder and snaps her thigh-bone; Rinieri's revenge is complete.
- Elena does live through the ordeal (so does the maidservant), but she makes up a story to explain how she got injured and burned.
- She has to live through a world of pain until her burns are healed.
- She vows not to play tricks on anyone else or to mess around with men.
- And that, says Pampinea, should teach women not to trifle with scholars.