Ninetta and Restagnone's Love Affair and Poisoning

Ninetta and Restagnone's Love Affair and Poisoning is a romance that begins in secrecy, briefly builds a life beyond family supervision, and ends when jealousy turns intimacy into murder. Their story moves from a garden in Marseilles to an estate near Candia, but distance from home cannot preserve the attachment: once Restagnone is free to enjoy Ninetta without hindrance, his desire shifts, and she answers his change of heart with poison.

Origins and Secret Attachment

Ninetta was one of three daughters of Narnald Cluada, a very wealthy merchant of Marseilles. She and her twin sister Maddalena were fifteen, while their younger sister Bertella was fourteen. Their relatives were waiting for Narnald to return from Spain before arranging marriages for the daughters. In his absence, Ninetta had already formed a secret relationship with Restagnone, a young man of gentle birth who was poor. He loved her deeply, and she loved him in return; with the aid of a household maid, she arranged for him to enter her father's garden so that the two could meet without anyone knowing.

The garden provided a private space for their attachment, but secrecy also shaped its limits. The lovers had enjoyed their meetings for some time when the arrival of two other suitors gave Restagnone an opportunity to turn their private romance into a larger plan. Folco, a rich young man, loved Maddalena; his companion Ughetto, likewise wealthy, loved Bertella. Ninetta and Restagnone were already lovers, while the younger men wanted access to the sisters. The relationship thus became the center of a scheme involving all three couples, not merely a concealed meeting between two people.

The Escape and Shared Household

Restagnone proposed that Folco and Ughetto pool their wealth with him, choose a place abroad, and carry the three sisters away to live together. He presented the plan as a way for each man to be with his beloved and for the group to enjoy a comfortable life. Ninetta's cooperation was essential: he could not approach her without difficulty, but when they met, she approved the proposal and assured him that her sisters would follow her lead. Restagnone then told the two young men that the women were willing.

The lovers made their departure possible through secrecy and shared resources. Restagnone, Folco, and Ughetto sold land on the pretense that they intended to trade with the proceeds, converted their other possessions into money, and bought and equipped a light brigantine. Ninetta persuaded her sisters to embrace the venture. On the appointed night, the three women took a large quantity of money and jewels from their father's coffer and left the house to meet the men. The group sailed first to Genoa, where Folco, Ughetto, and Restagnone began their life with the women, then continued from port to port until they reached Crete before the eighth day.

Near Candia they purchased substantial estates and built handsome, comfortable houses. The three couples lived on a lordly scale, with many servants, hounds, hawks, and horses, and passed their time in banquets and amusements. For Ninetta and Restagnone, the escape fulfilled the immediate purpose of their secret love: they were together openly within their new household, without the supervision and obstacles that had governed their meetings in Marseilles. But the arrangement also depended on wealth and unrestricted access, conditions that would later expose the fragility of their bond rather than secure it.

Plenty, Jealousy, and a Change in Love

The account makes the reversal turn on abundance. Restagnone, who had loved Ninetta greatly, now had her whenever he wished, without hindrance; he began to tire of her, and his love waned. At an entertainment he encountered a young woman of the country, described as fair and noble, who pleased him greatly. He began courting her with lavish entertainments and every sort of gallantry. The narrative reports the courtship but does not establish whether he won the woman's favor.

Ninetta learned of his new pursuit and became intensely jealous. She heard reports of his movements so closely that he could scarcely take a step without the news reaching her, and she reproached him repeatedly. The story links her reaction to the very conditions that had seemed to make the shared life ideal: Restagnone's access to Ninetta had become effortless, while the other woman was now desired and harder to attain. Ninetta's reproaches did not restore their earlier attachment. Instead, they intensified Restagnone's pursuit of the new woman; whether he actually gained her favor or not, Ninetta came to believe that he had.

Her response then changed in kind. Grief over the suspected betrayal gave way to anger and resentment, and the love she had borne Restagnone became bitter hatred. The narration presents this progression as the immediate path to her decision to avenge the affront by killing him. The contrast is stark: Ninetta had once helped devise an escape so that she and Restagnone could remain together, but the security of that life could not prevent her from interpreting his shifted desire as an injury requiring punishment.

Poisoning and Discovery

Ninetta went to an old Greek woman skilled in preparing poisons and persuaded her, with gifts and promises, to make a lethal liquid. One evening, when Restagnone was heated and unsuspecting, Ninetta gave it to him to drink. The poison was potent enough to kill him before morning. The attack was concealed within the ordinary intimacy of their life together: Restagnone did not suspect that the drink had been prepared for his death.

Folco, Ughetto, and the women mourned Restagnone, not knowing that he had been poisoned. Ninetta joined their grief, and they arranged an honorable burial for him. That public mourning temporarily concealed the crime, but the old woman who had supplied the poison was later arrested for another offense. Under torture, she confessed to this crime as well and disclosed what had happened. The Duke of Crete then surrounded Folco's palace by surprise at night and took Ninetta prisoner without noise or resistance. Without torturing her, he obtained the confession he wanted about Restagnone's death.

The arrest ends the recorded course of Ninetta and Restagnone's relationship: the secret lovers' shared household has become the setting of a murder investigation, and Ninetta is removed from it as a prisoner. Folco and Ughetto received private notice of the reason for her arrest, and they and their ladies tried to save her from the fire they feared would be her punishment. The account establishes their fear and their efforts, but not the eventual sentence or outcome. The relationship therefore closes not with reconciliation or a settled judgment, but with Restagnone dead, Ninetta's crime exposed, and the consequences still unfolding.