Lusca

Lusca is Lydia’s trusted chamberwoman and the indispensable intermediary in Lydia’s effort to win Pyrrhus. She carries Lydia’s private desire to the young man, meets his first refusal with bluntness and persistence, and later helps stage the proof that overcomes his suspicion. Her role is practical rather than ornamental: Lydia entrusts her with a secret, and Lusca turns that confidence into a series of consequential actions.

Position and Trust

Lusca serves in Lydia’s household as a chamberwoman whom Lydia trusts greatly. When Lydia decides to disclose her passion for Pyrrhus, she first charges Lusca to keep the secret from everyone except the man to whom she is specifically instructed to reveal it. The confidence places Lusca between mistress and servant, private desire and household loyalty. Lydia does not speak directly to Pyrrhus at first; she relies on Lusca to communicate both the feeling and the request that he come to her.

The story gives Lusca no separate history or stated personal motive. Her significance emerges through what she is asked to do and how she does it. She is not merely a silent carrier of messages: when Pyrrhus rebuffs her, she openly challenges him, returns to Lydia with his answer, and accepts the renewed task of persuading him. Her access to both sides of the household’s relationship makes her the agent through whom Lydia’s desire can be expressed and negotiated.

The First Approach and Refusal

Lydia’s first message explains that she is young, feels deprived of pleasure by her much older husband, and has chosen Pyrrhus as the man she wants. She tells Lusca that she cannot rest except when she sees or thinks of him and asks her chamberwoman to find a suitable moment to deliver the request. Lusca does so, taking Pyrrhus aside when she judges the time and place appropriate.

Pyrrhus is astonished. He doubts that Lydia truly sent the message and fears it may be a test arranged with Nicostratus’s knowledge. Even if the desire is real, he says, returning it would be an outrage against the master who trusts him with his affairs. Lusca does not soften her response to preserve his comfort. She tells him that the message comes from her lady and that she will speak to him about whatever Lydia instructs her to discuss, whether he likes it or not. She also calls him an ass, an insult that makes her first intervention notably direct rather than deferential.

Lusca then carries Pyrrhus’s rejection back to Lydia. Lydia is so distressed by the report that she wishes for death. That consequence does not end Lusca’s involvement: after some days, Lydia again asks her to approach him, explaining that the first attempt has not brought him over and that she fears the failure will turn the desired love into hatred. Lusca comforts her and sets out to try again.

Persuasion and Pyrrhus’s Test

The second approach is more elaborate. Lusca reminds Pyrrhus that Lydia’s passion is still urgent and warns that refusing her may cost her life. She recasts his scruples as foolishness, asking him to consider the extraordinary good fortune of being loved by a woman of Lydia’s beauty and rank. The appeal is not limited to pleasure: Lusca points to the material advantages he might gain in arms, horses, clothing, and money if he accepts Lydia’s favor.

She also challenges the standard of loyalty Pyrrhus invokes. In her argument, a servant’s duty to a master is not the same as the reciprocal loyalty owed between friends or relatives; servants, she says, may treat their masters as their masters treat them. She asks whether Nicostratus would show comparable restraint if he desired a woman belonging to Pyrrhus’s family, and warns that he might use force if persuasion failed. These are Lusca’s arguments to Pyrrhus, not proof that Nicostratus has made such a threat. Their function is to weaken Pyrrhus’s claim that fidelity to his master must decide the matter.

Pyrrhus has considered her appeal, but he still wants assurance that Lydia’s offer is not a trap. He sets three conditions: Lydia must kill Nicostratus’s hawk in his presence, send Pyrrhus a lock of her husband’s beard, and provide one of his best teeth. Lusca recognizes that the demands are difficult for both her and Lydia. Nevertheless, she takes the request back, and Lydia agrees to perform what Pyrrhus requires. Lydia also proposes a further demonstration: she will take pleasure with Pyrrhus in her husband’s presence while making Nicostratus believe nothing has happened. Lusca thus remains the channel through which the test and Lydia’s acceptance pass between them.

The Tooth and Lusca’s Physical Part

The tooth episode gives Lusca a direct role in the staged proof. Lydia persuades Nicostratus that his breath smells terrible and that a rotten tooth is the cause. When he agrees that the tooth should be removed, she refuses to summon a surgeon, claiming she can manage the matter herself. She has the necessary instruments fetched, sends everyone out of the chamber except Lusca, and locks the door.

Lydia makes Nicostratus lie on a table. Lusca holds him fast while Lydia uses pincers to pull out one of his teeth. Nicostratus cries out from the pain; Lydia then substitutes a frightfully decayed tooth she had ready and shows it to him as if it had come from his mouth. He believes the explanation and leaves the room thinking the extraction has cured him. Lusca’s part is brief but essential to the mechanics of the deception: she helps restrain the husband while Lydia removes the tooth Pyrrhus demanded, and the removed tooth is sent to Pyrrhus as evidence of Lydia’s willingness to meet his conditions.

Characterization and Narrative Role

Lusca’s actions combine obedience to Lydia with an assertive manner toward Pyrrhus. She guards her mistress’s confidence, communicates the request, refuses to let Pyrrhus end the matter with a single rejection, and presses him with both emotional and material arguments. When words alone do not settle his doubt, she participates in the practical scheme that produces the requested token. The account does not say that Lusca shares Lydia’s desire or explain what she personally gains; it presents her instead through her loyalty, persistence, and effectiveness as an intermediary.

Her progression also shapes the story’s movement from concealed feeling to enacted proof. The first message exposes Lydia’s desire but leaves Pyrrhus unconvinced; Lusca’s renewed appeal shifts the dispute to whether his scruples are justified; the tooth test turns that dispute into an action inside the household. In the available episode, Lusca is therefore both the voice that urges Pyrrhus to reconsider and the assistant whose presence makes Lydia’s deception possible. Her importance lies not in a separate romantic plot, but in the chain of communication and action through which Lydia attempts to overcome the barriers between mistress, husband, and trusted servant.