Ciacco’s revenge on Biondello turns a petty dinner deception into a carefully staged public beating. In Lauretta’s tale, the prankster who once sent a hungry companion to a meal that did not exist is made to suffer a punishment he cannot understand until it is over. The exchange ends not with a new trick but with recognition: Biondello answers Ciacco’s taunt by setting the false lampreys against the wine he has just been forced to drink.

The Two Florentine Spongers

Ciacco lives in Florence, where his appetite exceeds his means. Well-mannered and fond of pleasant sayings, he makes a living of sorts by attaching himself to wealthy people who enjoy good food, sometimes dining with them without an invitation. Biondello practices the same trade. He is a little, carefully dressed man, with his coif and yellow periwig kept neat; his polish contrasts with the hungry opportunism the two men share.

The first trick begins during Lent, when Biondello is buying two fine lampreys for Messer Vieri de' Cerchj. Ciacco asks what the fish are for. Biondello replies that Messer Corso Donati has already received three better lampreys and a sturgeon, but wants the additional fish for a dinner to which Ciacco is welcome. The invitation is invented, but Ciacco accepts it at once, confident that he will be there.

A Meal That Delivers the Insult

When Ciacco goes to Messer Corso’s house, he finds his host with several neighbors, not yet at dinner. Asked what brings him, Ciacco says he has come to eat with the company. Messer Corso welcomes him and leads everyone to the table. The meal begins with chickpeas and pickled tunny, followed by fried fish from the Arno—and nothing more. The grand promise of lampreys and sturgeon has dissolved into a sparse dinner at which Ciacco must recognize that Biondello has made him the butt of a joke.

Ciacco is inwardly furious and resolves to repay the deception. Biondello, meanwhile, has amused many people with the trick. When the two meet again, Biondello laughs and asks how Ciacco enjoyed Messer Corso’s lampreys. Ciacco answers that Biondello will know better than he did within eight days. The reply gives notice of retaliation without revealing its design.

The False Message

Ciacco hires a shrewd huckster and takes him near the Cavicciuoli Gallery, where Messer Filippo Argenti is present. Filippo is a large, powerfully built man, renowned for his temper and his readiness to take offense. Ciacco gives the huckster a large glass flask and instructs him to ask Filippo for red wine in Biondello’s name, presenting the request as a joke meant to entertain Biondello and his companions. The huckster checks whether he has anything else to say. Ciacco says no, but warns him to keep out of Filippo’s reach, since the angry man may lay hands on him.

Filippo hears the message and takes it as an insult from Biondello, whom he knows. The huckster escapes his grasp and returns to Ciacco with the flask. Satisfied that the first part of the scheme has worked, Ciacco pays him. He then finds Biondello and falsely says that Filippo is asking for him, without explaining why. Biondello says he will go speak with him. Ciacco follows to watch what happens, while Biondello walks into a confrontation whose cause has been concealed from him.

The Blow, and the Reply

Filippo is still enraged when Biondello arrives. He strikes him, seizes him by the hair, tears off his coif, and throws down his bonnet. Biondello asks what is happening, but Filippo answers with blows and accusations about the message requesting wine. He batters Biondello’s face, leaves his hair disordered, and rolls him in the mire, tearing his clothes. Biondello cannot explain himself: he has heard Filippo refer to the wine request but does not know what it means, because he never sent the huckster.

The bystanders finally pull Biondello out of Filippo’s grasp. They explain that the beating followed the message and reproach him for provoking a man they know to be dangerous. Bruised and distressed, Biondello protests that he did not send the request. Once he recovers enough to go home, he suspects that Ciacco arranged the trap. The deception has succeeded because Filippo’s anger supplies the violence, while Ciacco keeps his own role hidden until the punishment is complete.

After many days, when his bruises have healed, Biondello encounters Ciacco again. Ciacco asks how he liked Filippo’s wine. Biondello answers by comparing it with the lampreys at Messer Corso’s table: each man has now been made to taste the other’s trick. Ciacco says the matter can rest there, but warns that if Biondello again invites him to eat as before, he will answer in the same fashion. Biondello recognizes that wishing Ciacco ill is easier than carrying it out, and thereafter takes care not to offend him. The ending makes the revenge reciprocal in form but unequal in force: a false dinner invitation becomes an actual beating, after which the injured man accepts the warning and the prankster keeps his advantage.