Isabella or the pot of Basil

Isabella, whose story has been told by Keats, in a tale, and poem, was a maid of messina who was left to be taken care of her two brothers. Her brothers were rich and absorbed in business, they found solace in the company of Lorenzo, the comely manager of their enterprises.  The brothers noticed that isabella and Lorenzo have had many meetings, but, wishing to avoid conflict, they pretended not to have seen this.  Finally they took Lorenzo to a festival outside the city, and there they killed him.  They told their sister that Lorenzo had been sent on a long jouney, but when months had passed, she could no longer stand the pain of his absence anymore.  She asked her brother when he would return.  "What do you mean?" said one of the brothers. "What have you in common with such as Lorenzo? Ask for him farther, and you shall be answered as you deserve."   Isabella stayed in her chamber for that day, for she feared for Lorenzo.  When she had fallen asleep, Lorenzos ghost appeared, and addressed her: "Isabella, I can never return to you, for on that day we saw each other last your brothers slew me."  After telling where she would find his body, he melted into the air. Unable to shake off the impression of the scene, she fled to the scene of the murder.  She found Lorenzo.  With a knife she removed his, and borrowing "a great and goodly pot,"layed it in there and covered it with soil.  She planted some basil of Salerno, and the plant started to grow from lorenzos flesh.  She kept the plant in her house where she would weep over it.  Her brothers became worried for her mental health, so they took the plant away from her.  Her brothers then became aware that she had hidden the head of her lover in the pot, so they burried it again. When they realized that the murder had been discovered they fled to Naples.  Isabella died of heart-emptiness, still weeping over her pot of basil.