Fortune in the Decameron

Fortune in the Decameron is not simply a power that hands success to the deserving or punishes the unworthy. In the stories of Messer Ruggieri de' Figiovanni and Mithridanes, it names the capricious gap between merit and reward, and becomes a test of how people respond to that gap. One story turns the mismatch into a comic judgment about a mule and a king; the other shows envy mistaking another man's generosity for an obstacle to fame. In both, what first appears to be Fortune's verdict is changed by human conduct and recognition.

Merit and the Uncertain Distribution of Reward

Messer Ruggieri arrives at the court of Alfonso, King of Spain, already rich, high-spirited, and eager to prove his worth. He serves the king with distinction, performs deeds of arms, and becomes known as a valiant man. Yet he sees castles, cities, and baronies bestowed on people he considers undeserving, while he receives no comparable recognition. His grievance is not merely that he has failed to become richer: he says that the king has not borne witness to his merit. Fortune matters here because it appears to have separated what Ruggieri has earned from what he has been given.

Ruggieri's response is to leave. The king grants permission and gives him a fine mule for the journey, but also secretly instructs a discreet servant to accompany him, listen to his words, and report back. The hidden observation makes the departure more than a simple farewell: the king is testing what Ruggieri thinks of him, while Ruggieri believes himself to be speaking privately with a fellow traveler. The encounter allows a complaint about Fortune to emerge through an ordinary inconvenience rather than a formal accusation.

The Mule as a Judgment on the King

As the two men travel, Ruggieri suggests that their beasts should be allowed to relieve themselves around Tierce. All do so except the mule. Later, at a river, the mule urinates in the water. Ruggieri then compares the animal's untimely behavior to the king's distribution of favors: each gives at the wrong moment. The joke makes an abstract complaint concrete. Ruggieri's sharpest criticism is delivered not in a court speech but as an insult to the king's gift, overheard by the servant sent to report on him.

The next morning, as Ruggieri is preparing to continue toward Tuscany, the servant reveals the king's command and brings him back to court. Alfonso asks about the comparison, and Ruggieri explains it frankly: the king gives where he should not and withholds where he should give, just as the mule fails at the proper time and acts at the wrong one. Ruggieri's candor clarifies that he has not simply mistaken lack of payment for lack of esteem. He accepts the king's account as honorable, but maintains that the absence of a gift has failed to publicly attest to his worth.

Alfonso answers by distinguishing his own judgment from Ruggieri's Fortune. He says that he knows Ruggieri to be a most valiant knight, and attributes the failure to reward him as he deserves to Fortune rather than to ignorance or contempt. That explanation does not erase Ruggieri's grievance; it gives the king a way to acknowledge merit while describing its frustrated recognition as something beyond his control.

The Coffers and Fortune's Apparent Verdict

To make his explanation visible, Alfonso leads Ruggieri into a great hall where two locked coffers have been placed in advance. One contains the royal crown, sceptre, orb, and precious jewels; the other is full of earth. Ruggieri may choose one and keep what it contains. The arrangement gives Fortune the appearance of making a direct selection: although the greater treasure is present, Ruggieri chooses the coffer that holds earth. The result initially seems to confirm that his bad fortune has followed him even into a gift designed to test it.

Alfonso laughs and treats the choice as proof that Fortune, not the king, has denied Ruggieri the greater reward. Yet he does not leave the outcome there. Knowing that Ruggieri does not intend to become Spanish, he says he will give him neither a castle nor a city in those parts; instead, he gives him the coffer Fortune seemed to have withheld. Ruggieri accepts it and returns joyfully to Tuscany. The episode does not show merit automatically conquering chance: the chosen coffer still contains earth. Rather, the king's generosity changes the meaning of that apparent defeat. Fortune supplies the comic reversal, while Alfonso's decision supplies the recognition Ruggieri had wanted.

Envy, Providence, and the Choice to Spare

The story of Mithridanes presents a darker response to unequal reputation. An old woman contrasts Nathan's hospitality with Mithridanes's: she has entered Nathan's palace by each of its two-and-thirty gates and received alms without being recognized, whereas after entering Mithridanes's by only thirteen gates she has been recognized and chided, though still given alms. Hearing this, Mithridanes takes Nathan's fame as a diminishment of his own. He longs not merely to equal Nathan's liberality but to surpass it, and concludes that Nathan must be removed from the world if that is to happen.

Mithridanes travels for three days with a small company, keeping his purpose secret, and finds Nathan walking alone near his palace. Nathan does not reveal himself. Instead, he agrees to guide the young man to Nathan's home, ensures that the household will conceal his identity, lodges him honorably, and keeps him company. When Mithridanes later sets out to kill the old man, Nathan goes alone to a coppice, seemingly making himself available to the attack. The scene turns the desire to win fame by taking another life into a confrontation with the very generosity Mithridanes envies.

At the coppice, Mithridanes seizes Nathan and raises his threat, but recognizes him before striking. Recognition replaces fury with shame: he understands that the man who received and counselled him has also come there prepared to give up his life. Mithridanes credits God with opening his understanding when envy had closed it, casts away his sword, and asks Nathan to exact whatever punishment he thinks the attempt deserves. Nathan raises and embraces him, refuses to demand forgiveness, and tells him not to be ashamed of having sought fame by trying to kill him. The danger ends not through a contest of force or a favorable turn of worldly luck, but through Nathan's voluntary exposure and Mithridanes's recognition.

What Fortune Explains—and What It Cannot Decide

The two episodes give Fortune different dramatic work. For Ruggieri, it explains why public reward has not matched proven ability; the king's coffer test makes that uncertainty visible, then his gift answers it without pretending the chosen treasure was different. For Mithridanes, comparison with Nathan makes reputation feel like a scarce prize, and envy turns that feeling into murderous intent. His reversal begins when he recognizes the generosity he had mistaken for a rival's advantage.

Together, these stories distinguish a turn of fortune from a moral decision. Ruggieri cannot compel the world to distribute honors fairly, but his frankness exposes the disparity and makes acknowledgment possible. Mithridanes cannot become generous by eliminating Nathan; the attempted murder instead reveals how far envy has carried him from his stated ideal. Fortune may account for unequal outcomes, but the stories leave room for actions that change their consequences: a king can recognize merit, and a would-be killer can lay down his sword.