Duke of Athens

The Duke of Athens is a young, handsome, and reputedly capable ruler whose passion for Alatiel overturns his kinship with the Prince of the Morea. His decisive role in her story is defined by a visit that becomes a crime: he murders the prince, carries Alatiel away, and sets in motion a war of vengeance.

Identity and Introduction

The Duke is a friend and kinsman of the Prince of the Morea. Hearing reports of the beauty of Alatiel, whom the prince has taken into his household and treats with the honor due a wife, he travels to Chiarenza under the respectable appearance of paying a customary visit. The prince receives him with honor and sumptuous hospitality. When the two men speak of Alatiel, the prince insists that she is even more beautiful than rumor suggests and offers to let the Duke judge for himself. Seated between them when they visit her lodging, Alatiel can understand little of their language; the Duke, however, is captivated by her appearance. Afterward, his desire weighs more heavily with him than either honor or equity, and he resolves to deprive his kinsman of the woman he possesses.

Murder and Abduction

The Duke turns desire into a planned seizure. With the prince’s chamberlain, Ciuriaci, he arranges a secret entry into the palace at night, bringing an armed companion. They find the Prince of the Morea standing naked at a window above the seashore, seeking a breeze in the heat while Alatiel sleeps. The Duke approaches softly and stabs him through the small of the back, then casts his body from the high window onto ruined houses below, where the fall makes no sound. His companion strangles Ciuriaci with a halter and throws him down beside the prince, eliminating the witness who enabled the attack.

The Duke then takes a light to Alatiel’s bedside and, seeing her asleep, lies with her while she mistakes him for the prince. Afterward he has his companions carry her out through a private door and leaves at once with his men. Though he has a wife, he does not bring Alatiel to Athens: he keeps her secretly in a fine residence just beyond the city, supplying her needs honorably while concealing her from his household and the consequences of his crime.

Consequences and Narrative Significance

The crime is initially concealed by the very secrecy on which the Duke has relied: the prince’s courtiers assume he has slipped away privately with Alatiel and do not investigate the closed chamber. The deception breaks when an idiot drags Ciuriaci’s body from the ruins by the halter around his neck. The townspeople follow him to the place where both bodies lie, recognize the chamberlain, and find the Prince of the Morea dead. Once they learn that the Duke has departed secretly, they identify him as the murderer and Alatiel’s abductor. The prince’s brother takes his place, gathers allies, kinsmen, and servants, and raises a powerful army to make war on the Duke. Thus the Duke’s attempt to possess Alatiel turns a private betrayal of kinship into a public conflict, while the narrative leaves his fate unresolved.

Characterization and Narrative Function

The Duke’s episode turns the language of courtly admiration against itself: the prince’s invitation to judge Alatiel’s beauty gives his kinsman access to the household, but the Duke converts that trust into an opportunity for violence. His public standing as a friend and relative therefore sharpens, rather than excuses, the betrayal. The narrative presents his desire not as a mutual romance but as a force he chooses to place above honor, kinship, and equity; his conduct makes the apparent privilege of rank serve private predation.