Beatrice’s pear-tree deception is a comic tale of desire converted into an elaborate test of loyalty: Madam Beatrice and Lodovico deceive Messer Egano de' Gulluzzi so completely that he mistakes a beating for proof of his servant’s virtue. The deception unfolds not through enchantment but through clothing, a staged appointment in a garden, and Egano’s confidence in the very man who is his rival. Filomena presents a sequence in which each apparent danger to the lovers becomes another instrument of their success.

Disguise and entry into the household

The story begins in Paris, where Lodovico, the only son of a wealthy Florentine merchant, hears returned pilgrims praise Madam Beatrice, the wife of Messer Egano de' Gulluzzi of Bologna, as unmatched in beauty. Lodovico has never before been in love, but the description sets his thoughts on seeing her. He decides to travel to Bologna and, if she pleases him, remain there. To obtain his father’s consent, he falsely claims that he wants to visit the Holy Sepulchre.

Once he has seen Beatrice at an entertainment, he finds her even more beautiful than he expected and resolves not to leave Bologna until he has won her love. Rather than approach her openly, he seeks a place in her husband’s household, where he will have repeated access to her. He sells his horses, sends his servants away with instructions to act as if they do not know him, and asks his host to help him find service with a gentleman. The host recommends Egano, who employs many servants and prefers them well presented. Lodovico enters his service under the name Anichino.

He proves so useful that Egano comes to value him highly, entrusting him not only with personal service but with the management of his affairs. The arrangement gives Lodovico what he sought: proximity to Beatrice and the confidence of the husband whose trust makes the pursuit possible. Beatrice, for her part, has not yet recognized Lodovico’s love, though she privately admires his appearance and manner.

The confession and promise

The opportunity comes while Egano is away fowling. Beatrice and Anichino play chess alone after her women leave them. Anichino deliberately allows her to win, delighting her; then he sighs. When she asks what troubles him, he first hesitates, fearing that his confession may displease her or be repeated. Beatrice assures him that she will keep it secret. He then tells her who he is, what he heard about her, how he came to Bologna and entered her husband’s service, and how deeply he loves her. He asks her to grant his desire, or, if she will not, at least to let him continue loving her without being driven from his present position.

Beatrice accepts his declaration and returns his love. She says that the many other men who have courted her have not moved her, but that Anichino’s words have made her feel his in a short time. She promises him a meeting in her chamber before the night is over, tells him to come around midnight, and explains that she will leave the door open. A kiss seals the promise before they part to wait for the appointed hour.

The garden ruse

After Egano returns from fowling and goes to bed, Beatrice follows, leaving the chamber door open as promised. Anichino enters at midnight and approaches the side of the bed where she lies. She takes his hand and holds it fast, then wakes Egano and asks whom he considers the most trustworthy and devoted of his servants. Egano names Anichino without hesitation. That answer makes the coming trick depend on a trust Egano himself has just affirmed.

Beatrice tells her husband that Anichino solicited her while Egano was away and that she agreed to meet him that night at the foot of a pine in the garden. She claims she will not go, but proposes that Egano test his servant by dressing in one of her gowns and covering his head with her veil. Egano accepts the suggestion and goes down to the garden to wait. The disguise turns the jealous husband into the apparent object of his servant’s advances, while keeping him unaware that Beatrice has invented the entire appointment.

Once Egano has left the chamber, Beatrice locks the door. Anichino, who had feared she meant to betray him, realizes that she has instead created a safe opportunity for them to be together. Afterward, she sends him to the garden with a stout cudgel and tells him to act as though he has come to rebuke the woman he supposedly solicited. He approaches the pine, where Egano rises to welcome him, and scolds him as if he were a disloyal woman before striking him with the stick. Egano flees without speaking; Anichino follows, continuing to denounce the supposed woman and threatening to report her to Egano.

Reversal and comic ending

Back in the chamber, Egano tells Beatrice that Anichino recognized him as his wife and beat him soundly while condemning her supposed misconduct. Beatrice presents the beating as a successful test: the servant, she says, endured her words more patiently than Egano endured the blows. Egano accepts this explanation and concludes that he has the most faithful servant and the truest wife a gentleman could have. The reversal is complete: his attempt to verify Anichino’s loyalty has instead supplied the lovers with proof of it, while the bruises become part of the evidence he uses to reassure himself.

Egano and Beatrice make merry about the adventure more than once, and Anichino remains in Egano’s household. The husband’s certainty protects the arrangement he believes he has exposed; the lovers’ affair can continue for as long as Anichino stays in Bologna. The tale’s comedy turns on a sharp contrast between Egano’s confidence and the audience’s knowledge: the man who claims to recognize loyalty has been made to enact the deception himself. Filomena’s story thereby makes disguise and quick improvisation the means by which Beatrice preserves her desire and manages the danger posed by her husband’s trust.