Bergamino

Bergamino is a celebrated speaker and storyteller whose wit turns a humiliating delay into a tactful rebuke. When Cangrande della Scala withholds both payment and explanation, Bergamino answers not with a direct complaint but with a story that makes the nobleman recognize his own conduct—and moves him to make amends.

Identity and Reputation

Bergamino is described as ready of speech and so accomplished that anyone who had heard him would find his skill beyond belief. He belongs to the company of performers and men of art invited to entertain at a notable gathering in Verona. His reputation gives him a resource when ordinary appeals fail: he can shape a grievance into a story that lets its target understand the accusation without being publicly confronted by it.

Waiting in Verona

Cangrande had planned a splendid entertainment and invited people of many kinds, especially performers. He abruptly abandoned the undertaking and, after in some measure rewarding those who had come, dismissed them all except Bergamino. Bergamino received neither a gift nor notice that he could leave. He remained, hoping that staying might eventually benefit him, although Cangrande had privately decided that anything given to him would be worse bestowed than if it had been thrown into the fire.

The delay became materially costly. Bergamino was paying for an inn, horses, and servants, and his host pressed him for payment. He had brought three fine, rich suits given to him by other noblemen so that he could appear splendidly at the entertainment. He surrendered one suit to his host, then a second to secure more time. As he began living on the third, he continued to wait rather than depart, until his diminishing means made his plight visible.

The Story as a Rebuke

One day, while Cangrande was dining, Bergamino appeared before him with a rueful expression. Asked to tell something, he immediately related the story of Primasso, a learned grammarian and gifted maker of verse. Poor despite his distinction, Primasso heard that the Abbot of Cluny kept an open and magnificent table, where food and drink were available to anyone who came while the Abbot was dining. He set out from Paris on foot to see this reported generosity for himself.

Bergamino’s tale turns on the contrast between the Abbot’s reputation for giving freely and his sudden reluctance to honor a visitor. As Primasso waits and eats the provisions he has brought, the Abbot’s hesitation becomes an inward reckoning: he wonders why he has become avaricious toward this particular man. Once he learns that his guest is the renowned Primasso, he is ashamed, makes amends, clothes him according to his standing, and gives him money and a palfrey. Primasso returns to Paris on horseback, having arrived on foot.

The parallel makes Bergamino’s meaning plain without requiring him to name his own loss. Like Primasso, he is a man of recognized merit whose worth has not been matched by generous treatment. By placing the correction inside a tale about a host who recovers his liberality, Bergamino gives Cangrande a way to acknowledge the wrong and remedy it himself.

Recognition and Resolution

Cangrande understands the story as an account of Bergamino’s injury and merit, as well as of his own stinginess. He says that this parsimony has never assailed him before on Bergamino’s account, but that he will drive it away with the same instrument Bergamino has shown him. He pays Bergamino’s host, dresses in one of his own sumptuous suits, and gives Bergamino money and a palfrey. He then leaves it to Bergamino to choose whether to stay or go.

The ending closely echoes the resolution of Primasso’s story: in each case, recognition of the visitor’s merit leads to material restitution and a horse for the return journey. Bergamino’s craft does more than secure compensation. His indirectness lets the rebuke preserve the nobleman’s dignity while making the cause of the correction unmistakable; the storyteller who had been left to spend his clothes leaves with payment, fine clothing, and a palfrey.