The Victim of This Practical Joke Felt So Humiliated That He Moved to Another Country
Once in Matteo’s home, the cabinet maker’s protests that he was Manetto, and not Matteo, were dismissed with derision. In the course of that day and evening, he was nearly convinced that he had, indeed, morphed into somebody else. Eventually, Manetto was put to sleep with a potion supplied by Brunelleschi, and carried unconscious back to his own home, for the final bit of the practical joke. When he came to a day later in his own home, Manetto discovered that his house was in disarray, with furniture, tools, and other items rearranged.
His confusion grew with the arrival of Matteo’s brothers, who now addressed him by his real name, Manetto. They shared a strange story about the previous evening, when their sibling got it in his head that he was Manetto. The story was confirmed when Matteo arrived, and described a weird dream in which he had been Manetto. That nearly drove the real Manetto around the bend. He became convinced – at least for a while – that he had morphed into Matteo for a couple of days. When he eventually discovered what had actually happened, Manetto felt so humiliated, that he left Florence and moved to Hungary.