Gualtieri

Gualtieri is the Marquis of Saluzzo whose marriage to Griselda becomes a prolonged test of obedience, patience, and rank. He begins as a ruler who would rather hunt and hawk than marry or provide an heir; when his vassals press him to wed, he chooses a poor village girl and then subjects her to ordeals that make her apparent submission the measure of his authority. The story ends in reconciliation and public celebration, but its approval of Griselda does not erase its recognition that Gualtieri’s trials were cruel and intolerable.

Identity and Reluctance to Marry

At the beginning of the story, Gualtieri has neither wife nor children and spends his time hunting and hawking, with no inclination to marry or secure an heir. His vassals object because they need a successor and do not want to remain without a lord. They offer to find him a bride of suitable birth and family, but he rejects their confidence that a woman’s character can be inferred from her parents. He warns that an ill-suited marriage can make a man’s life difficult, then agrees to marry chiefly to satisfy his subjects.

Even as he yields, Gualtieri insists on choosing for himself. He tells the vassals that they must honor as their lady whichever woman he selects, and threatens that they will regret having pressed him if they break that promise. The bargain places the choice of bride, and the terms on which she will be received, in his hands. His compliance with the demand for marriage therefore does not mean surrendering control: he accepts the institution while reserving the authority to define its conditions.

Marriage to Griselda

Gualtieri has already noticed a poor young woman from a nearby village whose manners please him. He considers her sufficiently beautiful and believes he can live comfortably with her, and he arranges the marriage directly with her father. Before the wedding, he has rich garments made to fit a girl of her size and prepares rings, girdles, a crown, and other bridal finery. He then assembles his neighbors and kin, reminds them of their promise, and ensures that the wedding is celebrated with honor.

After marriage, Griselda proves gracious, diligent, and obedient in her new position. Gualtieri is content with her, and his subjects come to love and honor her. Those who had thought him foolish for marrying beneath his rank revise their judgment: they praise his discernment in recognizing virtues they believe were concealed by her poor clothes and rustic upbringing. The change in public opinion strengthens the story’s contrast between inherited status and personal worth, even as Gualtieri remains the person who controls the terms of Griselda’s elevation.

The Trials of Patience

After Griselda gives birth to a daughter, Gualtieri begins what he conceives as a test of her endurance. He tells her that his vassals resent her humble birth and are displeased that she has borne a child. Griselda answers without outward agitation, acknowledging the lower standing from which he raised her and leaving him to decide what he believes best for his honor. Gualtieri takes her calm response as evidence that she has not become proud through her new rank.

He then sends a servant who has been coached to suggest that the daughter must be taken away, allowing Griselda to believe the child will be killed. Though she suffers inward anguish, she gives up the baby, kisses and blesses her, and asks that the child not be left to beasts or birds unless that too is commanded. Gualtieri is astonished by her constancy and secretly sends the girl to be raised by a kinswoman in Bologna. The vassals, believing the child dead, condemn Gualtieri as barbarous and pity Griselda; she gives them no account of her private grief, replying only that she accepts what pleases the child’s father.

Gualtieri repeats the deception after the birth of a son. He arranges for the boy to be sent to Bologna as well, again making the household believe that he has ordered the child’s death. Griselda shows the same outward composure, though Gualtieri knows that she loves the children and understands that her conduct comes from discretion, not indifference. Her silence thus conceals both the depth of her suffering and the strength of her attachment, while the people around her interpret the staged events as proof of her husband’s cruelty.

The Apparent Repudiation

Several years after the birth of the daughter, Gualtieri announces that he can no longer keep Griselda as his wife. He claims that he has sought a papal dispensation to put her away and marry another woman, and has counterfeit letters produced to make the claim seem legitimate. His announcement turns the earlier private tests into a public spectacle: his subjects rebuke him, while Griselda must face the prospect of losing her position and returning to her father’s household, perhaps to her former life tending sheep.

Griselda bears this new humiliation with a firm outward manner. She returns the ring with which Gualtieri married her and treats the dignity of her former position as something lent rather than permanently hers. She recalls that he took her into his household without possessions and offers to leave without demanding a retinue or payment. Her response makes the imbalance between them unmistakable: Gualtieri can confer rank and withdraw it, while she must meet each reversal without control over the decision. His test is not merely whether she can endure misfortune, but whether she will continue to accept his authority when it strips away marriage, status, and security.

Revelation and Narrative Judgment

Gualtieri eventually decides that he has seen enough. In front of his people, he presents the young woman everyone takes to be his new bride and asks Griselda to assess her. Griselda welcomes the supposed bride and asks Gualtieri not to impose on her the same sufferings he imposed on his former wife, reasoning that a younger woman raised delicately might not endure them. Her solicitude for the woman who seems to be replacing her becomes the final demonstration of her patience and generosity.

Gualtieri then reveals that the young woman is their daughter and that her brother, too, has survived. He explains that he inflicted the trials to test Griselda, to instruct her in the role of a wife, and to secure the peace he feared he might lack in marriage. He embraces her, restores her children, and publicly acknowledges her as his wife. Griselda weeps with joy; the family is reunited, she is dressed again in magnificent clothing, and the festivities continue for several days. Gualtieri also provides for Griselda’s father, taking him out of his labor and placing him in an honorable situation, and later arranges a distinguished marriage for their daughter.

The ending grants Gualtieri the reconciliation he seeks, and the assembled company recognizes Griselda above all for her wisdom. Yet the story does not present his conduct as uncomplicatedly admirable: the people celebrate the happy outcome while still judging his tests excessively harsh, even intolerable. Gualtieri’s defining contradiction is therefore central to his narrative role. He is capable of honoring Griselda, restoring her family, and providing for her father, but he pursues domestic security through deception and coercion. The story’s final emphasis falls not on the supposed wisdom of such a method, but on Griselda’s extraordinary endurance and on the gulf between her virtue and the power Gualtieri exercises over her.