Madam Beatrice—Messer Egano de' Gulluzzi

Madam Beatrice’s marriage to Messer Egano de' Gulluzzi becomes the setting for a sustained deception: while Egano trusts both his wife and his newly favored servant, Beatrice conducts an affair with that servant and engineers a trick that makes Egano mistake an assault for proof of loyalty. Their relationship is defined not by an open marital quarrel but by the contrast between Egano’s confidence and Beatrice’s command of the household’s appearances.

Background and Household

Messer Egano de' Gulluzzi is a gentleman of Bologna with a large household. Madam Beatrice enters the narrative through the praise of other men: gentlemen returning from a visit to the Holy Sepulchre declare that, among all the women they have seen, none matches her beauty. Lodovico, hearing this report, becomes consumed with the desire to see her. He has never previously been in love, but resolves to travel to Bologna and remain there if she pleases him.

To reach her, Lodovico conceals his purpose from his father, claiming instead that he wishes to visit the Holy Sepulchre. In Bologna he sees Madam Beatrice at an entertainment and finds her even more beautiful than he had imagined. He decides to stay until he has won her love, sells his horses, dismisses his servants, and presents himself as a man seeking service. Through an innkeeper’s recommendation, he enters Egano’s household under the name Anichino. His assumed identity is therefore not incidental: it gives him regular access to Madam Beatrice while placing him inside her husband’s trust.

Trust and the Affair

Anichino proves so useful that Egano comes to value him above the other servants. He trusts him not merely with his own service but with the management of his affairs. The new servant’s position gives him frequent opportunities to see Madam Beatrice, while his place in the household makes the affair particularly dangerous: the person Egano trusts to protect his interests is the man who is secretly courting his wife.

Madam Beatrice responds to Anichino’s declarations by returning his love. She promises him a meeting in her chamber after midnight, with the door left open, and gives him a kiss as assurance. The arrangement relies on her knowledge of the household and on Egano’s habits. After Egano returns from fowling, eats supper, and goes to bed, she leaves the chamber door open as promised. Anichino enters at the appointed hour and approaches the side of the bed where she lies.

The scene turns on a sudden reversal. Madam Beatrice takes Anichino’s hand in both of hers and holds it fast, while turning in bed so that Egano wakes. She then asks her husband which servant he considers most trustworthy. Egano names Anichino without hesitation. Beatrice uses that answer as the groundwork for a false accusation: she claims that Anichino had solicited her while Egano was away fowling, and says she had pretended to agree so that her husband could test the servant’s loyalty. She proposes that Egano dress in one of her gowns and veil himself, then wait in the garden at the foot of a pine tree to see whether Anichino comes to meet her.

The Garden Deception

Egano accepts the test. In the darkness he puts on one of Madam Beatrice’s gowns, covers his head with a veil, and goes down to wait beneath the pine. Once he has left the chamber, she locks its door from within. Anichino, who had been frightened that she meant to betray him, now understands that the apparent accusation has been a way to clear the room and send Egano away. At her direction, he dresses, takes a stout stick, and follows his disguised master into the garden.

When Egano rises to greet him, Anichino pretends to mistake him for Madam Beatrice. He denounces the supposed woman for having solicited him and raises the stick against him. Egano runs back to the chamber without revealing himself, having received several blows and a scolding from the servant he believes to be defending his honor. The physical beating gives the deception its comic force: Egano has gone out to verify Anichino’s fidelity and returns injured by the very man whose loyalty he meant to test.

Marriage, Deception, and Outcome

Back in the chamber, Egano tells Madam Beatrice that Anichino came to the garden but beat and rebuked him, apparently mistaking him for her. Beatrice presents the episode as evidence that Anichino is faithful to his master and that Egano has been properly tested. Egano accepts this account and concludes that he has the truest wife and the most trustworthy servant a gentleman could have. His confidence in both is not weakened by the incident; the supposed proof of loyalty strengthens it.

The trick protects the lovers’ access to one another without exposing the affair. Egano and Madam Beatrice even make merry with Anichino about the adventure, while the servant remains in the household and the lovers continue their meetings for as long as he stays in Bologna. The outcome depends on a coordinated performance: Beatrice invents the test and controls its timing, Anichino acts out the role of the loyal servant, and Egano supplies the trust that makes their false explanation credible. Their relationship thus reverses the household’s visible order. Egano appears to command wife and servant, yet the two lovers jointly direct his movements and shape what he believes.