Currado Malespina—Spina

Currado Malespina’s relationship with his daughter Spina is tested when he discovers her secret love for his servant Giannotto. His response first makes paternal authority an instrument of punishment: he has the lovers seized and imprisoned, intending a shameful death. Once he learns Giannotto’s true identity, however, Currado redirects that authority toward reconciliation, arranging a marriage that repairs both the lovers’ position and the family honor he believes they have injured.

A Daughter Returned to Her Father’s House

Spina returns to Currado’s household after being widowed by Niccolo da Grignano. She is a little over sixteen, fair and agreeable, and her father’s daughter; Giannotto, meanwhile, serves Currado with aptitude and earns his acceptance. Their different positions in the household make the affair consequential: the young widow and her father’s servant fall passionately in love, and for several months their relationship remains unknown to the others.

The secrecy ends during an excursion through a thick wood. Spina and Giannotto leave the company behind, settle in a secluded grassy place among trees and flowers, and give themselves over to their love. Spina’s mother discovers them first, and Currado follows. The scene turns private intimacy into a confrontation with paternal authority, while the lovers’ decision to slip away together exposes them to the household’s judgment.

Discovery, Anger, and Imprisonment

Currado is deeply angered by what he sees. He does not initially speak with the couple about their conduct: he orders three serving-men to seize them and take them in bonds to one of his castles. He leaves in a rage, resolved to put them both to a shameful death. His anger concerns not only Spina’s sexual conduct but also Giannotto’s position as a servant whom Currado has treated well. In Currado’s view, the young man has betrayed the friendship and service owed to his household as well as dishonored his daughter.

Spina’s mother shares the anger at first and considers her daughter deserving of severe punishment. But she understands from Currado’s words that his intent may be lethal, and refuses to accept the prospect of her husband becoming his daughter’s murderer. She follows him and pleads for another course: imprisonment, rather than death. Her intervention changes the immediate outcome. Currado relents and orders the lovers held separately, under guard, with scant food and great discomfort, until he decides what further action to take.

The imprisonment lasts a year. Currado forgets the prisoners, while Spina and Giannotto endure separation, continual grief, and fasting. The delay leaves the relationship suspended between the father’s first impulse to destroy it and any possibility of reconciliation. Spina’s mother has secured their survival, but Currado has not yet withdrawn his judgment or offered a way back into the family.

Recognition and a Change of Judgment

A political upheaval brings the decisive change. When Giannotto hears that Pedro of Aragon has raised Sicily against Charles I of Anjou, he laments that the event has come too late to help him. Questioned by his gaoler, he reveals that he is not Giannotto but Giusfredi, the son of Arrighetto Capece, and that his father had once ruled in Sicily during the lifetime of Manfred. His disclosure makes a hidden family identity visible within the prison where Currado’s servant has been confined.

The gaoler reports the conversation to Currado. Currado discreetly asks Madam Beritola whether she had a son named Giusfredi; she confirms that her elder son, if alive, would bear that name. Currado then examines Giannotto and, satisfied by clear tokens of his past, recognizes him as Giusfredi. The recognition changes the terms of his decision. He sees an opportunity both to show mercy and to remove the shame he associates with Spina’s relationship: he offers to make Giannotto her lawful husband and to receive him as a son, provided Giannotto is willing.

Marriage and Reconciliation

Currado’s offer does not erase the harm he believes Giannotto has done. He reminds him that he had treated him as a friend and that, as a servant, Giannotto ought to have protected his honor and interests. Yet Currado now distinguishes the young man’s offense from an attempt to betray or harm him. Giannotto answers that his love for Spina was sincere, that he accepts the proposed marriage, and that he would rather return to prison than be given false hope. His response confirms both his attachment to Currado’s daughter and his willingness to accept Currado’s authority without disguising his feelings.

Currado is moved by Giannotto’s candor and regards him as a man of great spirit, whose love is fervent and tender. He embraces and kisses him, then has Spina brought from her separate confinement. By then she has grown lean, pale, and weak. In Currado’s presence, the lovers contract marriage according to their custom. He provides for the newly married pair for several days before revealing the reconciliation to their mothers.

The resolution transforms Currado’s role within the family. He begins as a father who would punish his daughter and her lover for violating his household’s expectations; he ends by making the marriage possible and welcoming the man he had imprisoned as a son. His acceptance depends in part on the discovery of Giannotto’s noble birth, but also on the young man’s frank declaration of love and respect. For Spina, the change means that a relationship first treated as an offense can continue openly as a marriage. For Currado, the same act that had threatened his honor becomes the occasion to restore it through mercy and consent.