Italian Popular Tales Part 39

For copious references to other European versions, see Kohler's notes to Gonz., No. 65 (II. p. 242), and Benfey, _Pant._ I. p. 222.

[12] The earliest Italian versions are in the _Cento nov. ant., Testo Papanti_ (_Romania_, No. 10, p. 191), and Straparola, XI. 2. Later popular versions, besides the Istrian one in the text, are: Nerucci, p.

430, and Bernoni, III. p. 91, both of which are much distorted. Some of the episodes are found in other stories, as, for instance, the division of the property, including the wife, which occurs in Gonz., No. 74. "The Thankful Dead" is also the subject of an Italian novel, _Novella di Messer Danese e di Messer Gigliotto_, Pisa, 1868 (privately printed), and of a popular poem, _Istoria bellissima di Stellante Costantina_ composta da Giovanni Orazio Brunetto.

The extensive literature of this interesting story can best be found in D'Ancona's notes to the version in the _Cento nov. ant._, cited above.

To these may be added: Ive's notes to the story in the text, Cosquin's notes to No. 19 of the _Contes pop. lorrains_ (_Rom._ No. 24, p. 534), and Nisard, _Hist. des Livres pop._ II. p. 450. Basque and Spanish versions have been published recently, the former in Webster's _Basque Legends_, pp. 146, 151, and the latter in Caballero, _Cuentos, oraciones_, etc., Leipzig, 1878, p. 23. A version from Mentone may be found in the _Folk-Lore Record_, vol. III. p. 48, "John of Calais."

[13] In the original it is _la Voria_, which in Sicilian means "breeze,"

but I take it to be the same as _Boria_ in Italian (Lat. _Boreas -ae_), the North Wind.

[14] Other Italian versions are: _Nov. fior._ p. 440; _Archivio_, III.

542 (Abruzzi); Pitre, No. 31; _Tuscan Fairy Tales_, No. 10, p. 102; De Nino, No. 69; and Widter-Wolf, No. 10 (_Jahrbuch_, VII. 139). See also Prato, _Una nov. pop. monferrina_, Como, 1882; and Finamore, _Trad. pop.

abruzzesi_, Nos. 17, 19.

References to other European versions will be found in Kohler's notes to Widter-Wolf, No. 10. See also Grimm, No. 92; Ralston's _R. F. T._ p.

132, and Chap. I., note 11, of the present work.

[15] A work of this kind, similar in scope to Nisard's _Hist. des Livres populaires_, is greatly to be desired, and ought to be undertaken before the great changes in the social condition of Italy shall have rendered such a task difficult, if not impossible.

CHAPTER III.

STORIES OF ORIENTAL ORIGIN.

[1] There are three Italian translations of the _Pantschatantra_, all of the XVI. century. Two, _Discorsi degli Animali_, by Angelo Firenzuola, 1548, and _La Filosofia Morale_, by Doni, 1552, represent the Hebrew translation by Rabbi Joel (1250), from which they are derived through the _Directorium humanae vitae_ of Johannes de Capua (1263-78); the third, _Del Governo de' Regni_, by G. Nuti, 1583, is from the Greek version of Simeon Seth (1080). A full account of the various translations of the _Pantschatantra_ may be found in Max Muller's _Chips_, Vol. IV. p. 165, "The Migration of Fables." See also Benfey, _Pant._ I. pp. 1-19, _Buddhist Birth Stories_; or, _Jataka Tales_, By V. Fausboll and T. W. Rhys Davids, Boston, 1880, p. xciii., and Landau, _Die Quellen des Decamerone_, mentioned in the following note.

_The Seven Wise Masters_ was also translated into Italian at an early date. One version, _Il Libro dei Sette Savj di Roma_, Pisa, 1864, edited by Prof. A. D'Ancona, is a XIII. century translation from a French prose version (Cod. 7974, _Bib. nat._); another, of the same date, _Storia d'

una crudele Matrigna_, Bologna, 1862, is from an uncertain source, from which is probably derived a third version, _Il Libro dei Sette Savi di Roma tratto da un codice del secolo XIV._ per cura di Antonio Cappelli, Bologna, 1865. The MS. from which the version edited by Della Lucia in 1832 (reprinted at Bologna, 1862) was taken has been recently discovered and printed in _Operette inedite o rare, Libreria Dante_, Florence, 1883, No. 3. A fourth version of the end of the XIII. or the beginning of the XIV. century is still inedited, it is mentioned by D'Ancona in the _Libro dei Sette Savj_, p. xxviii., and its contents given. The latest and most curious version is _I Compa.s.sionevoli Avvenimenti di Erasto_, a work of the XVI. century (first edition, Venice, 1542) which contains four stories found in no other version of the Seven Wise Masters. The popularity of this version, the source of which is unknown, was great. See D'Ancona, _op. cit._, pp. x.x.xi.-x.x.xiv.

The _Disciplina Clericalis_ was not known, apparently, in Italy as a collection, but the separate stories were known as early as Boccaccio, who borrowed the outlines of three of his stories from it (VII. 4; VIII.

10: X. 8). Three of the stories of the _Disc. Cler._ are also found in the Ital. trans. of Frate Jacopo da Cessole's book on Chess (_Volgarizzamento del libro de' Costumi e degli offizii de' n.o.bili sopra il giuoco degli Scachi_, Milan, 1829) and reprinted in _Libro di Novelle Antiche_, Bologna, 1868, Novelle III., IV., and VI. This translation is of the XII. century. Other stories from the _Disc. Cler._ are found in the _Cento nov. ant._, Gualt., LIII., x.x.xI., LXVI., Borg., LXXIV.

(_Cent. nov._, Biagi, pp. 226, 51, 58); and in Cintio, _Gli Ecatommiti_, I, 3; VII. 6.

[2] It has been generally supposed that the Oriental element was introduced into European literature from Spain through the medium of the French. We shall see later that this was the case with the famous collection of tales just mentioned, the _Disciplina Clericalis_.

Oriental elements are also found in the French _fabliaux_ which are supposed to have furnished Boccaccio with the plots of a number of his novels. See Landau, _Die Quellen des Decamerone_, 2d ed., Vienna, 1884, p. 107. Professor Bartoli in his _I Precursori del Boccaccio e alcune delle sue Fonti_, Florence, 1876, endeavors to show that Boccaccio may have taken the above mentioned novels from sources common to them and the French _fabliaux_. It is undeniable that there was in the Middle Ages an immense ma.s.s of stories common to the whole western world, and diffused by oral tradition as well as by literary means, and it is very unsafe to say that any one literary version is taken directly from another. Sufficient attention has not been paid to the large Oriental element in European entertaining literature prior to the Renaissance. In early Italian literature besides Boccaccio, the _Cento novelle antiche_ abound in Oriental elements. See D'Ancona, _Le Fonti del Novellino_, in the _Romania_, vol. III. pp. 164-194, since republished in _Studj di Critica e Storia Letteraria_, Bologna, 1880, pp. 219-359.

[3] See Introduction, Notes 3, 7.

[4] In the _Pantschatantra_ (Benfey's trans, vol. II. p. 120) this story is as follows: A merchant confides to a neighbor some iron scales or balances for safe-keeping. When he wishes them back he is told that the mice have eaten them up. The merchant is silent, and some time after asks his neighbor to lend him his son to aid him in bathing. After the bath the merchant shuts the boy up in a cave, and when the father asks where he is, is told that a falcon has carried him off. The neighbor exclaimed: "Thou liar, how can a falcon carry away a boy?" The merchant responded: "Thou veracious man! If a falcon cannot carry away a boy, neither can mice eat iron scales. Therefore give me back my scales if you desire your son." See also Benfey, _Pant._ I. p. 283. La Fontaine has used the same story for his fable of _Le Depositaire infidele_ (livre IX. 1): see also references in _Fables inedites_, vol. II. p.

193.

[5] The fables in Pitre of non-Oriental origin may be mentioned here; they are: No. 271, "_Brancaliuni_," found also in Straparola, X. 2; No.

272, "The Two Mice," compare Aesop, ed. Furia, 198, and Schneller, No.

59; No. 274, "Wind, Water, and Honor," found in Straparola, XI. 2; No.

275, "G.o.dfather Wolf and G.o.dmother Fox"; No. 276, "The Lion, the Wolf, and the Fox," Aesop, ed. Furia, 233; No. 277, "The Fox," see _Roman du Renart_, Paris, 1828, I. p. 129, and _Nov. tosc._ No. 69; No. 278, "L'Acidduzzu (Pretty Little Bird)," compare Asbj. & Moe, No. 42, Bernoni, _Punt._ III. p. 69, "_El Galo_," Nerucci, _Cincelle da Bambini_, p. 38; No. 279, "The Wolf and the Finch," Gonz., No. 66, _Nov.

tosc._ No. 52 (add to Kohler's references: Asbj. & M., Nos. 42, 102, [Dasent, _Tales from the Fjeld_, p. 35, "The Greedy Cat,"] and Bernoni, _Punt._ III. p. 69); and finally No. 280, "The Cricket and the Ants,"

see Aesop, ed. Furia, 121, La Fontaine, _La Cigale et la Fourmi_, livre I. 1: see copious references in Robert, _Fables inedites_, I. p. 2. For Bernoni, III. p. 69, "_El Galo_," and Pitre, No. 279, see Chap. V. pp.

270, 272.

There are two fables in Coronedi-Berti's collection: No. 20: "_La Fola del Corov_," and No. 21, "_La Fola dla Voulp_." The first is the well-known fable of the crow in the peac.o.c.k's feathers; for copious references see Robert, _Fables inedites_, I. p. 247, to La Fontaine's _Le Geai pare des plumes du Paon_, livre IV, fab. IX., and Oesterley to Kirchhof's _Wendunmuth_, 7, 52. In the second fable the fox leaves her little ones at home, bidding them admit no one without a counter-sign.

The wolf learns it from the simple little foxes themselves, gains admission, and eats two of them up. The mother takes her revenge in almost the same way as does the fox in Pitre's fable, No. 277.

[6] This fable is also found in Pitre, No. 273, "The Man, the Wolf, and the Fox," and in Gonz., No. 69, "Lion, Horse, and Fox:" see Benfey, _Pant._ I. 113, and Kohler's references to Gonz., No. 69.

There is also a version of this fable in Morosi, p. 75, which is as follows:--

XLIX. THE MAN, THE SERPENT, AND THE FOX.

There was once a huntsman, who, in pa.s.sing a quarry, found a serpent under a large stone. The serpent asked the hunter to liberate him, but the latter said: "I will not free you, for you will eat me." The serpent replied: "Liberate me, for I will not eat you." When the hunter had set the serpent at liberty, the latter wanted to devour him, but the hunter said: "What are you doing? Did you not promise me that you would not eat me?" The serpent replied that hunger did not observe promises. The hunter then said: "If you have no right to eat me, will you do it?"

"No," answered the serpent. "Let us go, then," said the hunter, "and ask three times." They went into the woods and found a greyhound, and asked him, and he replied: "I had a master, and I went hunting and caught hares, and when I carried them home my master had nothing too good to give me to eat; now, when I cannot overtake even a tortoise, because I am old, my master wishes to kill me; for this reason I condemn you to be eaten by the serpent; for he who does good finds evil." "Do you hear? We have one judge," said the serpent. They continued their journey, and found a horse, and asked him, and he too replied that the serpent was right to eat the man, "for," he said, "I had a master, who fed me when I could travel; now that I can do so no longer, he would like to hang me."

The serpent said: "Behold, two judges!" They went on, and found a fox.

The huntsman said: "Fox, you must aid me. Listen: I was pa.s.sing a quarry, and found this serpent dying under a large stone, and he asked aid from me, and I released him, and now he wants to eat me." The fox answered: "I will be the judge. Let us return to the quarry, to see how the serpent was." They went there, and put the stone on the serpent, and the fox asked: "Is that the way you were?" "Yes," answered the serpent.

"Very well, then, stay so always!" said the fox.

[7] The individual stories of the _Thousand and One Nights_ were known in Europe long before the collection, which was not translated into French until 1704-1717. This is shown by the fact that some of the XIII.

century _fabliaux_ embody stories of the _Thousand and One Nights_. See Note 10. An interesting article by Mr. H. C. Coote on "Folk-Lore, the source of some of M. Galland's Tales," will be found in the _Folk-Lore Record_, vol. III. pp. 178-191.

[8] The Sicilian versions are in Pitre, No. 81. The version from Palermo, of which Pitre gives only a _resume_, is printed entire in F.

Sabatini, _La Lanterna, Nov. pop. sicil._ Imola, 1878. The Roman version, "How Cajusse was married," is in Busk, p. 158; and the Mantuan in Visentini, No. 35. Tuscan versions may be found in the _Rivista di Lett. pop._ p. 267; De Nino, No. 5; and a version from Bergamo in the same periodical, p. 288. For the episode of the "Magician with no heart in his body," see Chap. I. note 12.

[9] See Pitre, No. 36, and Gonz., No. 5, with Kohler's copious references. As this story is found in Chap. I. p. 17, it is only mentioned here for the sake of completeness.

There is another complete version of "The Forty Thieves" in Nerucci, No.

54, _Cicerchia, o i ventidua Ladri_. The thieves are twenty-two, and _cicerchia_ is the magic word that opens and shuts the robbers' cave. A version in Ortoli, p. 137, has seven thieves.

[10] Pitre, No. 164, "The Three Hunchbacks;" Straparola, V. 3. It is also found in the _fabliau_, _Les Trois Bossus_, Barbazan-Meon, III.

245; for copious references see Von der Hagen, _Gesammtabenteuer_, III.

p. x.x.xv. _et seq._ Pitre, No. 165, "_Fra Ghiniparu_," is a variation of the above theme, and finds its counterpart in the _fabliau_ of _Le Sacristain de Cluni_: see _Gesammtabenteuer_, _ut sup._ Other versions are in Finamore, _Trad. pop. abruzzesi_, No. 9, and _Nov. tosc._ No. 58.

[11] The story is, properly speaking, in the introduction to the _Thousand and One Nights_: see Lane, _The Thousand and One Nights_, London, 1865, I. 10. See Straparola, XII. 3, and _Schmipf und Ernst_ von Johannes Pauli, herausgegeben von Hermann Oesterley (_Bibliothek des litt. Vereins_, Lx.x.xV.), Stuttgart, 1866, No. 134, "_Ein bosz weib tugenhaft zemachen_."

[12] For the first story, see _Thousand and One Nights_ (ed. Breslau), IX. 129; _Pent._ V. 7; Gonz., No. 45; Hahn, No. 47; and Grimm, No. 129.

For the second, see _Thousand and One Nights_ (ed. Breslau), II. 196; ed. Lane, III. 41.

[13] See Lane, I. 140, and, for the transformations, p. 156. This story is also in Straparola, VIII. 5. It is well known in the North of Europe from the Grimm tale (No. 68), "The Thief and his Master," To the references in Grimm, II. p. 431, may be added: _Revue Celtique_, I. 132, II.; Benfey, _Pant._ I. p. 410; Brueyre, 253; Ralston, _R. F. T._ 229; Asbj. & M., No. 57 [Dasent, _Pop. Tales_, No. x.x.xIX.] (comp. Nos. 9, 46 [Dasent, _Pop. Tales_, Nos. XXIII., IX.]); Hahn, No. 68; Bernhauer, _Vierzig Viziere_, p. 195; _Orient und Occident_, II. 313; III. 374; Grundtvig, I. 248; Julg, _Kalmukische Marchen, Einleitung_, p. 1; and F.

J. Child, _English and Scottish Popular Ballads_, Part II. p. 399, "The Twa Magicians."

[14] The princ.i.p.al sources of information in regard to the _Disciplina Clericalis_ and its author are the two editions of Paris and Berlin: _Disciplina Clericalis_: auctore Petro Alphonsi, Ex-Judaeo Hispano, Parisiis, MDCCCXXIV. 2 vols. (Societe des Bibliophiles francais); Petri Alfonsi Disciplina Clericalis, zum ersten Mal herausgegeben mit Einleitung und Anmerkungen von Fr. Wilh. Val. Schmidt, Berlin, 1827. The first edition was edited by J. Labouderie, Vicar-general of Avignon, and as only two hundred and fifty copies were printed, it is now very scarce. Schmidt even had not seen it: and when he published his own edition, three years later, thought it the first. The Paris edition contains the best text, and has besides two Old-French translations, one in prose, the other in verse. The Berlin edition is, however, more valuable on account of the notes.

[15] This is the story shortly after mentioned, Pitre, No. 138, "The Treasure." The date of the _Cento nov. ant._ cannot be accurately fixed; the compilation was probably made at the end of the XIII. cent., although individual stories may be of an earlier date.

[16] See _Disciplina Cler._ ed. Schmidt, pp. 63 and 142. For copious references see Oesterley's _Gesta Rom._ cap. 106.

[17] There are several literary Italian versions of this story: one in Casalicchio, VI., I., VI.; and in Cintio, _Ecatommiti_, I. 3. There is another popular version in Imbriani's _Nov. fior._ p. 616, "The Three Friends."

[18] See _Disc. Cler._ ed. Schmidt, pp. 50 and 128. The version in the _Cento nov. ant._ ed. Gualt, No. 31, is as follows: Messer Azzolino had a story-teller, whom he made tell stories during the long winter nights.