Gulfardo's ruse against Ambruogia

Gulfardo’s ruse against Madam Ambruogia makes a secret affair hinge on an ordinary debt. In Milan, he converts his standing as a reliable borrower into a way to expose and reverse her demand for two hundred gold florins: the money passes from her husband to Gulfardo, from Gulfardo to her, and finally back to her husband, while a companion witnesses the crucial handover. The scheme leaves the affair undisclosed as such but turns its proposed price into a repayment that costs Gulfardo nothing.

Setting and Stakes

The story introduces Gulfardo as a German in the pay of the state at Milan, a robust man described as loyal to those who employ him. His punctual repayment of earlier loans has earned him an unusual practical advantage: merchants are willing to lend him considerable sums at low interest. Credit here is not merely background. His reputation gives him access to money, and that access makes the later deception possible.

During his stay, Gulfardo falls in love with Madam Ambruogia, the wife of the wealthy merchant Guasparruolo Cagastraccio, who is also Gulfardo’s friend and acquaintance. He conducts his affection discreetly enough that neither her husband nor anyone else suspects it. When he asks Madam Ambruogia for her favors, however, she sets two conditions: he must keep the arrangement secret, and he must give her two hundred gold florins, which she says she needs for an unspecified purpose. The demand changes the character of the affair. Gulfardo had regarded her as a worthy lady; the narrator stresses that he is indignant at discovering that she will agree in exchange for money.

Turning the Price into a Loan

Rather than openly challenge Madam Ambruogia or abandon his plan, Gulfardo makes her proposed payment the mechanism of his counterplot. He sends word that he will provide the money and maintain secrecy, while saying that one trusted companion will know what he does. Madam Ambruogia accepts this arrangement. She tells him that Guasparruolo is shortly to leave for Genoa on business and that she will send for him when her husband has gone.

Before that opportunity arrives, Gulfardo approaches Guasparruolo directly. He asks to borrow two hundred gold florins at the same rate of interest at which the merchant usually lends to him. Guasparruolo agrees and counts out the sum. The transaction is genuine: Gulfardo now owes the money to the husband, while the wife expects to receive an equal sum from Gulfardo as the price of her consent. By borrowing from the very household in which the money will be delivered, he prepares a second account of the transfer that can later be supported by a witness.

The Witnessed Handover

After Guasparruolo has left for Genoa, Madam Ambruogia summons Gulfardo. He comes with his companion and puts the two hundred florins into her hands in that companion’s presence. He presents the money as something she should give to her husband when Guasparruolo returns. Madam Ambruogia does not understand the purpose of this wording: she supposes Gulfardo has arranged the handover so that his companion will not recognize the money as payment for her favors. Wanting to verify the amount, she spreads the coins on the table, finds the full two hundred florins, and puts them away.

She then takes Gulfardo to her chamber. The story reports that she grants him her favors not only that night but on several further nights before her husband returns. The companion’s presence at the transfer, rather than at the affair, is what matters to the coming deception: he can attest that Gulfardo gave the money to Madam Ambruogia as a return for Guasparruolo.

The Reversal and Its Meaning

When Guasparruolo has returned, Gulfardo chooses a moment when his wife is present and brings his companion with him. He tells the merchant that he had no need of the two hundred florins he borrowed, since the business for which he sought them did not come to pass; he says that he returned the money to Madam Ambruogia and asks Guasparruolo to cancel the account. Asked whether she received it, Madam Ambruogia cannot deny the handover in front of the witness. She confirms that she has the money and explains that she had not yet remembered to tell her husband.

Guasparruolo accepts her confirmation and releases Gulfardo from the debt. After Gulfardo leaves, Madam Ambruogia gives the money to her husband as the supposed dishonorable price of her favors. The reversal is exact: the sum that she demanded from Gulfardo becomes the repayment of the loan he took from her husband, while her own admission supplies the proof that clears his account. The tale’s final emphasis on the affair being enjoyed without cost rests on this chain of credit, transfer, testimony, and cancellation. Its irony also complicates the narrator’s moral framing: Gulfardo is praised for punctuality as a borrower, yet that same trusted credit enables a calculated fraud; Madam Ambruogia’s attempt to set a price leaves her holding the evidence that makes the trick succeed.