Summary of the Physician tale

As Titus Livius tells us, there was once a knight called Virginius who had a loving wife and daughter.

The daughter possessed a great beauty and she was humble in speech and avoided events which might compromise her virtue. The narrator then breaks off to advice governesses and parents to bring up their children to be virtuous.

One day the maid went into the town with her mother and the judge who governed the region saw her and immediately fell in love with the knight’s daughter.

Suddenly the devil ran into his heart  and taught him how he, by trickery, could have the maid for his own.

So the judge, whose name was Appius, organized a plan with a churl called Claudius after giving him expensive gifts for his complicity.

The churl made a complaint claiming that Virginius was holding one of his servants, a beautiful young girl, against his will, and pretending she was his daughter. The judge did not listen to Virginius’ argument in his own defense, but ordered that the girl had to return under the property of the churl.

When Virginius returned home, he called his daughter and explained to her that now there were only two options open to her: either death or shame. Virginius decided, in a long speech to his daughter, to kill her even if she begged for mercy and another solution. Then she fainted, and, when she awoke, she blessed God that she could die befour being dishonored. Virginius then took his sword and cut off her head, and took it to the judge.

When the judge saw the head, he tried to escape and hang himself, but soon a thousand people came in, knowing of the trickery, took Appius and threw him into prison. Claudius was sentenced to be hanged upon a tree, but Virginius reduced the sentence to exile.

The last verse of the tale says:”abandon sin, before sin abandons you”, and with this message the narrator wishes that men behave morally before sin destroys them.