Melisso

Melisso is a rich young gentleman from Lajazzo whose journey to Jerusalem turns a complaint about being unloved into a lesson about the difference between generosity and love. Although he spends his wealth entertaining his fellow townsmen, he cannot find anyone who wishes him well. Solomon’s terse counsel initially seems useless, but an encounter at Goosebridge supplies the example that allows Melisso to understand it: hospitality offered for display is not the same as affection offered for another person’s sake.

Identity and Departure

Melisso is introduced as a young man of noble birth and great wealth, living in Lajazzo. His journey is prompted by dissatisfaction rather than material need. Solomon’s reputation for miraculous wisdom and readiness to advise those who sought him had drawn supplicants from distant places, and Melisso travels toward Jerusalem hoping to resolve a personal difficulty.

The difficulty becomes clear when Melisso meets Giosefo after leaving Antioch. The two young men are traveling in the same direction and, following the custom of wayfarers, fall into conversation. Giosefo explains that he seeks advice about his supposedly unmanageable wife. In turn, Melisso describes his own grievance: he is young and rich, keeps open house, and entertains his fellow townsmen, yet cannot find someone who loves him. His complaint establishes the story’s central question—not whether he gives, but what his giving means to those who receive it.

Solomon’s Answer

At Jerusalem, an introduction through one of Solomon’s barons admits the two travelers to the king. Melisso briefly presents his problem. Solomon answers him with a single word: Love. He is then dismissed, while Giosefo remains to put his own question and receives the equally enigmatic instruction to go to Goosebridge.

Melisso does not immediately grasp how Solomon’s answer applies to him. As the two men leave, Giosefo tells him what the king said; they consider the replies obscure and set out for home believing they have been mocked. The delay between advice and understanding matters. Solomon does not explain Melisso’s conduct for him, and the meaning of the answer emerges only when experience provides a concrete comparison.

The Lesson at Goosebridge

On their return journey, Melisso and Giosefo reach a river crossed by a fine bridge. A caravan of pack animals is passing, and the travelers have to wait. One mule balks and refuses to go forward. Its muleteer first tries moderate blows, then beats the animal harder as it shies from side to side and turns back. Melisso and Giosefo urge him to use gentler treatment, but the muleteer insists that he knows his own mule. He continues striking it until it finally crosses.

When Giosefo asks a poor man at the bridge’s entrance the name of the place, the answer is Goosebridge. The name suddenly makes Solomon’s instruction intelligible to him: the scene has shown that some behavior cannot be changed by gentle appeals alone. Melisso is present for this discovery, but the account of the mule is specifically applied to Giosefo’s problem with his wife. The scene therefore does not simply decode Solomon’s words for both travelers in the same way; Giosefo identifies the relevance of the bridge to the counsel he received.

Melisso’s Recognition and Narrative Role

After several days, Melisso parts from Giosefo and returns to his own home. He tells a perceptive acquaintance what Solomon said, and that man interprets the answer directly. Melisso, he explains, does not love the people he entertains: his honors and services are performed for pomp and ostentation, not out of affection for them. Solomon’s instruction was therefore not to increase his expenditure or devise a more impressive form of hospitality, but to love; if Melisso gives from genuine feeling, he may in turn be loved.

The tale concludes that the difficult wife was corrected and the young man, by loving, became beloved. It does not recount a particular change in Melisso’s later conduct or identify anyone who returns his affection. Instead, it closes with the lesson expressed as a general outcome. His story moves from the visible measure of his generosity—an open house and abundant entertainment—to the inward disposition that those acts alone cannot prove. The journey gives him a riddle, Goosebridge gives Giosefo a physical demonstration, and Melisso’s acquaintance supplies the explanation that makes his own answer plain. Through this sequence, Melisso’s complaint becomes an exemplum about motive: social service can look generous while serving vanity, whereas love depends on the feeling behind the act.