King Pedro’s response to Lisa

King Pedro’s response to Lisa is a story of love met not with possession but with public honor and measured kindness. When Lisa, the daughter of a wealthy apothecary in Palermo, falls desperately in love with Pedro of Aragon and wastes away because she believes her love can have no happy end, the king learns of her condition through the singer Minuccio. He visits her, offers personal comfort, and, once she has recovered, arranges her marriage to a noble young gentleman. The story’s final gesture—a kiss on the brow and Pedro’s continuing claim to be her knight—recognizes Lisa’s devotion without turning it into a royal affair.

Story and narrative setting

The episode is the seventh story of the tenth day of the Decameron, told by Pampinea. She introduces it after the company has praised the magnanimity of a different king, presenting Pedro’s conduct as another instance of princely generosity. Her tale moves from private longing to a public settlement: an apparently impossible passion is disclosed, heard by the ruler, and answered through an honorable marriage arrangement.

The story begins at a festival in Palermo, held by Pedro after he became lord of Sicily. Bernardo Puccini, a wealthy Florentine apothecary living in the city, has one daughter, Lisa, who is beautiful and of marriageable age. From a window where she is watching the festivities with other women, she sees Pedro taking part in a tournament in the Catalan fashion. The sight kindles a love that she knows is disproportionate to her own social position and unlikely to be returned. She cannot make herself stop loving him, but she also fears the pain that openly declaring her passion might bring.

Lisa’s illness and the secret entrusted to Minuccio

Pedro does not notice Lisa, and her love remains unspoken. As it grows, her distress deepens until she becomes seriously ill and visibly wastes away. Her parents try to comfort her and call on physicians and medicines, but their efforts do not help: Lisa has despaired of her love and has, in effect, given up on living.

When Bernardo offers to do whatever might please her, Lisa asks him to send Minuccio d’Arezzo. He is known as a subtle singer and instrumentalist, and Bernardo assumes that his daughter wants to hear him perform. Minuccio arrives with a viol, offers kind words, plays, and sings. His music, intended to console Lisa, instead intensifies her passion. She asks to speak with him privately and tells him the secret of her love for Pedro, the festival that first stirred it, and the despair that has made her sick. She asks Minuccio to tell the king, so that she need not die without Pedro ever knowing what she felt.

Minuccio is moved both by Lisa’s resolve and by her suffering. He promises to help and seeks out Mico da Siena, a skilled versifier, to compose a song that will convey her message. He then sets the words to a soft, plaintive melody suited to the subject. The song becomes a careful means of disclosure: Lisa’s feelings can reach the king without her having to approach him herself or make a public declaration.

Pedro hears and answers her appeal

On the third day, Minuccio performs the new song at court while Pedro is dining. The music commands the attention of the royal hall; Pedro, especially, listens closely. When he asks where the song came from, Minuccio tells him that both its words and melody are newly made and says that he can disclose its intended subject only in private. After the meal, Pedro summons him to his chamber, where Minuccio recounts Lisa’s confidence and explains the danger he believes her despair poses.

Pedro responds with compassion. He praises Lisa and tells Minuccio to reassure her that he will visit before the day is over. Minuccio returns to her with the news and sings the song to her. Lisa’s spirits improve at once, and she waits eagerly for the promised visit. The scene makes the song more than an artistic ornament: carried by a trusted intermediary, it enables the king to understand the concealed cause of her illness and gives Lisa a reason to hope before she sees him.

Pedro rides to Bernardo’s house toward vespers, under the pretext of going out for recreation. He asks that the apothecary’s fine garden be opened to him, then asks Bernardo about Lisa. Her father explains that she has been ill but has recently improved. Pedro understands the significance of this recovery. He goes with Bernardo and only two companions to Lisa’s chamber, where she is waiting for him, somewhat raised in bed. He takes her by the hand and urges her to regain her health. Lisa answers obliquely: she says that she had taken on burdens beyond her strength, but that, through his kindness, he will soon see her free of her infirmity. Pedro alone understands the meaning beneath her words and regards her with increased esteem.

Marriage, honor, and the limits of reciprocity

Pedro’s visit restores Lisa’s hope as well as her health. The kindness brings honor to Bernardo and his daughter, and Lisa soon recovers, becoming fairer than before. Pedro does not answer her passion by claiming her for himself. After consulting with the queen about what response would be fitting, he returns to the apothecary’s house with his barons. The queen comes with a company of ladies and receives Lisa among them; the gathering is described as merry before the royal couple address her.

Pedro proposes to arrange Lisa’s marriage to a husband of his choosing and says that he will continue to call himself her knight, asking from all her love only a single kiss. The terms separate Lisa’s future marriage from her feelings for the king. Lisa explains that she has always known both his royal station and her own condition as Bernardo’s daughter; nonetheless, she could not choose whom to love according to rank or suitability. She has struggled against the passion, but could not master it. Now she is willing to accept the husband Pedro selects, because that choice will bring her honor and a settled estate. Even the requested kiss, she says, must be granted with the queen’s permission.

The story’s announced conclusion completes this settlement: Pedro marries Lisa to a noble young gentleman, kisses her on the brow, and thereafter continues to avow himself her knight. The gesture acknowledges the feeling she has confessed but marks a boundary around it. Lisa receives recognition, marriage, and the king’s lasting ceremonial regard; Pedro neither mocks her love nor converts his power into a private claim upon her. Her devotion is thus answered, but not in the form she first desired.

Significance of the response

The episode makes compassion an active form of rule. Pedro does more than hear Lisa’s secret: he sends a message that revives her hope, visits her despite their difference in rank, and arranges a future that preserves her honor. At the same time, the story does not present love as a choice governed by social fitness. Lisa knows the gulf between an apothecary’s daughter and a king, yet that knowledge has not prevented her passion. The resolution respects both facts: the feeling is acknowledged as real, while its consequences are shaped into a socially recognized marriage rather than a royal liaison.

Its movement is also carefully staged. A festival first makes Pedro visible to Lisa; a song carries her hidden feeling into the court; a private visit lets the king answer her illness directly; and a public gathering with the queen turns his response into an honorable arrangement. The final image of Pedro as Lisa’s knight preserves the language of devotion while redirecting it away from possession. In Pampinea’s telling, the king’s generosity lies precisely in recognizing a love he cannot return as a lover and finding a way to answer it without denying Lisa’s dignity.