Lodovico

Lodovico is a merchant’s son who reaches Bologna under the assumed name Anichino in pursuit of Madam Beatrice, the wife of Egano de' Gulluzzi. His story turns on the gap between the identity he conceals and the loyalty he performs: he enters Egano’s household to get near Beatrice, wins her love, and then helps her deceive her husband. Their plot makes Egano’s confidence in his servant the very instrument by which the lovers outwit him.

Identity and Background

Lodovico is the only son of a Florentine gentleman living in Paris. His father, driven by poverty to become a merchant, has prospered greatly through commerce. Rather than place his son in a warehouse, however, he sends him to serve among gentlemen at the court of the King of France, where Lodovico learns refined manners and other accomplishments. His upbringing thus gives him both a mercantile family background and access to a courtly world.

Before hearing of Madam Beatrice, Lodovico has never been in love. His desire begins at second hand: gentlemen recently returned from visiting the Holy Sepulchre discuss beautiful women they have seen, and one singles out Beatrice, wife of Egano de' Gulluzzi of Bologna, as unsurpassed in beauty. The others who have seen her agree. Lodovico’s response is immediate and consuming. He can think of nothing but seeing her and resolves to travel to Bologna, stay if she pleases him, and try to gain her love.

Arrival in Bologna and Assumed Identity

To obtain his father’s permission, Lodovico claims that he wants to visit the Holy Sepulchre. Once the journey is approved, he sets out under the name Anichino. On the day after arriving in Bologna, he sees Beatrice at an entertainment and finds her still more beautiful than he had imagined. He determines not to leave until he has won her affection.

Rather than approach her directly, he identifies access to her husband’s household as the route to his aim. He sells his horses, makes arrangements for his servants to act as though they do not know him, and tells his host that he is seeking a position as a servant with a gentleman of standing. The host recommends Egano, who keeps a large household and wants well-presented servants. The arrangement is made quickly, to Anichino’s satisfaction. He serves Egano so effectively that Egano grows especially fond of him and entrusts him not only with personal service but with the management of his affairs.

A Confession and a Promise

The opportunity for Lodovico’s confession comes while Egano is away fowling. Beatrice, who has not yet realized that Anichino loves her, plays chess with him. Wanting to please her, he deliberately allows her to win, and she is delighted. When the women attending them leave the two alone, Anichino sighs. Beatrice asks what troubles him; he says that his distress is greater than losing at chess.

She presses him to explain and promises to keep his confidence. Only after securing that assurance does he reveal who he is, what he heard about her, when and why he fell in love, and why he entered her husband’s service. He asks her either to return his secret desire or, if she will not, to let him continue loving her without changing his present conduct. The disclosure converts his carefully concealed purpose into an open appeal, but it also gives Beatrice the choice over what follows.

Beatrice says that his words have moved her more than the presents, promises, and entreaties of the many other men who have courted her. She gives him her love and promises to meet him before the night is over. To confirm her promise, she embraces and kisses him. Their relationship is therefore established through a private exchange of confession, consent, and a planned rendezvous—not through Lodovico’s access to her household alone.

The Night-time Deception

After supper, Egano goes to bed, tired from fowling, and Beatrice leaves the chamber door open as promised. Anichino enters at the appointed hour and approaches the side of the bed where she lies. She takes his hand and holds it, then turns so that Egano wakes. Instead of allowing the encounter to expose them, she tells Egano that Anichino solicited her during the day. She claims that she pretended to agree and arranged to meet him at the foot of a pine in the garden, while saying that she herself will not go.

Beatrice proposes that Egano test his servant’s loyalty by putting on one of her gowns and a veil and waiting in her place. Egano trusts Anichino so completely that the suggestion that the servant might betray him prompts him to go. Once he has left the chamber, Beatrice locks the door from within. Anichino, who has been frightened by her apparent betrayal and has tried repeatedly to pull his hand free, discovers that she has kept him there to protect their plan. At her invitation, he joins her in bed, and they take pleasure together.

Reversal and Narrative Role

Beatrice then gives Anichino a cudgel and instructs him to go into the garden, pretend to mistake Egano for her, and beat him as though punishing an unfaithful woman. Anichino follows her plan. Egano, waiting beneath the pine in his wife’s gown and veil, rises to greet the approaching servant; Anichino instead denounces the supposed woman and strikes him. Egano flees back to the chamber, having received several blows and a scolding, and reports that Anichino treated him as though he were Beatrice.

The reversal depends on the contrast between Egano’s stated trust and his inability to recognize the person he is meant to test. Lodovico’s initial disguise as Anichino gets him into the household; Beatrice’s disguise of herself as the supposed target of a tryst lets the couple turn Egano’s own confidence into a trap. In Filomena’s tale, the episode makes disguise and quick improvisation the means by which the lovers preserve their secret and leave Egano interpreting a beating as proof of Anichino’s fidelity.