Pedro of Aragon’s response to Lisa Puccini transforms a secret and socially unequal passion into an act of public compassion: he comforts a young woman made ill by love, secures her marriage to a suitable husband, and thereafter calls himself her knight. In Pampinea’s seventh story of the tenth day, the king’s generosity lies not in returning Lisa’s love as a lover, but in recognizing its seriousness and answering it without humiliating or exploiting her.

Setting and the Origin of Lisa’s Love

The story is set in Palermo after the expulsion of the French from Sicily, when Pedro of Aragon has become lord of the island. During a great festival held with his barons, the king rides in a tournament, and Lisa, daughter of the wealthy Florentine apothecary Bernardo Puccini, watches from a window among other women. Seeing Pedro compete, she falls passionately in love with him. The encounter is brief and distant: the king does not notice her, and she returns to her father’s house with a feeling she believes her social position gives her little hope of fulfilling.

Lisa’s distress grows from the difference between the object of her love and her own station, but knowing that the match is unsuitable does not make her able to stop loving him. She keeps the passion secret, afraid to reveal it and invite greater sorrow. As her feelings intensify, melancholy compounds her suffering until she can no longer endure it. Her parents try tenderly to hearten her and seek help from physicians and medicines, but these efforts fail because the source of her illness is not understood. She visibly wastes away, as though despair had made her unwilling to live.

Illness, Confidence, and the Song

When Bernardo offers to do whatever might please his daughter, Lisa uses the opportunity to seek a way to communicate with the king before she dies. She asks her father to bring Minuccio d’Arezzo, a singer and player welcomed at court. Bernardo assumes that Lisa wants to hear music for comfort; Minuccio comes, speaks kindly to her, plays his viol, and sings. But music that he intends as solace only intensifies her passion.

Lisa then asks to speak with Minuccio alone and entrusts him with her secret. She explains that her love began at the festival, that she knows how far beneath the king’s rank she stands, and that repeated efforts to master her feelings have come to nothing. She has resolved to die, but cannot bear to leave without Pedro first learning why she has suffered. Her request is precise: Minuccio must keep her confidence, tell the king what she cannot say to him herself, and return with news of his response.

Minuccio makes Lisa’s private confession into a song, setting its words to a plaintive melody. Three days after receiving her confidence, he performs it at court while Pedro is at table. The king listens attentively and asks where the song came from. Minuccio explains that both words and tune are newly made, but will disclose their intended recipient only in private. Once the meal is over, Pedro summons him to his chamber, where Minuccio recounts Lisa’s love and the danger it has brought her to.

Pedro’s Visit and Response

Pedro receives the disclosure with pleasure and commends Lisa. He resolves to show compassion to a young woman whose love he regards as worthy of consideration, and sends Minuccio back to tell her that he will visit before evening. The news itself brings a visible change: Lisa is so relieved and content that she shows signs of marked improvement, and she waits eagerly for the promised visit without the household understanding its cause.

At evening Pedro rides to Bernardo’s house under the pretext of going out for recreation. He asks for access to the apothecary’s garden, then learns from Bernardo that Lisa has been sick but has lately improved. The king understands what her recovery signifies. Accompanied by Bernardo and only two others, he goes to her chamber. Lisa is waiting for him, partly raised in bed. Pedro takes her hand and gently urges her to recover, since someone so young ought to bring comfort to others rather than surrender to illness.

For Lisa, the touch and presence of the man she loves bring intense joy, though she remains bashful. She answers indirectly, explaining that she had tried to bear burdens beyond her small strength and that, thanks to his kindness, she expects soon to be free of her infirmity. Pedro alone understands the meaning beneath her words. He grows more deeply moved by her and privately resents the fortune that made her the daughter of a man of modest standing. After staying to comfort her further, he takes his leave. His visit has acknowledged the truth she could not openly declare and has given her reason to recover.

Marriage, Rank, and the Meaning of Knighthood

Pedro’s attention does not end with the private visit. Lisa recovers within a few days and, once well, becomes fairer than before. Having consulted the queen about how best to repay her love, Pedro returns to Bernardo’s house on horseback with a company of barons. The queen comes with a company of ladies, and Lisa is received among them. The public gathering turns a secret, isolating attachment into an occasion of honor witnessed by the royal household.

Pedro proposes that Lisa marry the man he will choose for her. He also promises to continue calling himself her knight, asking only for a kiss as the return for the love she has given him. Lisa accepts the marriage arrangement as an honor and says she will hold dear the husband Pedro bestows on her. She also makes clear that she has always known the distance between her rank and his: her love arose from inclination, not from a belief that she was entitled to become queen. Even when Pedro asks for a kiss, she will not grant it without the queen’s permission. Her deference preserves the distinction between her private feeling and the public bounds of their positions.

The story’s announced conclusion is that Pedro marries Lisa to a noble young gentleman, kisses her on the brow, and thereafter avows himself her knight. The ending redirects rather than erases her passion. Lisa does not obtain Pedro as a husband, but neither is her love dismissed as foolishness or punished as presumption. Pedro uses his authority to secure her a marriage and social honor, while his continuing title of knight preserves a bond of esteem that does not demand that she surrender her dignity. Pampinea presents this act as a counterpart to the magnanimity praised in the preceding story: a king’s greatness appears in the care with which he responds to a love he cannot return as a lover.