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PERUONTO. Third Diversion Of the First Day Peruonto goeth to the forest to gather a fagot of wood, and behaveth kindly towards three girls whom he findeth
sleeping in the sun, and receiveth from then a charm. The kings daughter mocketh him, and he calleth down a curse
upon her that she should he with child of him, which cometh to pass. Knowing that he is the father, the king
commandeth that he should be put inside a cask with his wife and little ones, and thrown into the sea: but in virtue of
the charm he has received, he freeth himself of the danger, and becoming a handsome youth, is made king. All were pleased with the recital, and heard with great satisfaction of the happiness of the prince,
and of the punishment of the evil women. And now it was Meneca's turn to speak, and the
chattering of the others was silenced, and she began recounting the story which followeth: A good deed is never lost: whoso soweth the seed of kindness meeteth with due reward, and
whoso soweth the seed of love gathereth love in return. The favour which is shown to a grateful
heart is never barren, and gratitude giveth birth to gifts. Instances of these sayings occur
continually in the deeds of mankind: and ye will meet with an example of it in the tale that I am
about to relate to you. A countrywoman of Casoria, Ceccarella hight, had a son named Peruonto, who was the silliest
body and the ugliest lump of flesh that nature had ever created; so that the unhappy mother
always felt sad at heart, and cursed the day and the hour upon which she had given birth to this
good-for-nothing, who was not worth a dog's hide. The unfortunate woman could cry out as
much as she liked, but the ass never stirred to do her the lightest service. At last, after screaming
herself hoarse, and assailing him with all the epithets she could think of; she induced him to go
to the forest and gather a fagot of wood, saying, 'It is nearly time that we should have something
to eat. Run for this wood, that I may get ready somewhat: and forget not yourself on the way, but
come back at once, that I may cook the needful so as to keep the life in us.' Peruonto departed, and fared on like a monk among his brethren in a procession. Away he went,
stepping as one treading down eggs, with the gait of a jackdaw, counting his paces as he went.
At last he reached a certain part of the forest through which ran a streamlet, and near by he
espied three young girls lying on the grass, with a stone for a pillow, fast asleep, with the sun
pouring his rays straight upon them. When Peruonto saw them like a fountain amid a roaring
fire, he took compassion upon them; and with the axe which he carried to cut the wood he
severed some branches from the trees, and built a kind of arbour over them. Whilst he was busy
so doing the young girls awoke (they were the daughters of a fairy), and perceiving the kindness
and goodness of heart of Peruonto, in gratitude they gave him a charm, by which he might
possess whatever he knew how to ask for. Peruonto, having performed this action, continued faring towards the forest, where he cut down a
fagot of wood so large that it would require a cart to carry it. Seeing that it would be impossible
for him to lift it, he sat upon it, saying, 'Would it not be a fine thing if only this fagot would
carry me home?' and behold, the fagot began to trot like a Besignano horse, and arriving before
the king's palace, it began to wheel round, and prance, and curves, so that Peruonto cried out
aloud, enough to deafen all hearers. The young ladies who attended the king's daughter' Vastolla
highs, happening to look out of the window and behold this marvel, hastened to call the princess,
who, glancing out and observing the freaks played by the fagot, laughed until she fell backwards,
which thing was unusual, and the young ladies were astonished at the sight, as the Lady Vastolla
was by nature so melancholy that they never remembered to have seen her smile. Peruonto lifted
his head, and perceiving that they made a mock at him' said, 'O Vastolla, mayest thou be with
child by me !' and thus saying, tightened his heels on the fagot, which at once moved away, and
in an instant arrived home with a train of screaming children behind: and if his mother had not
quickly shut the door, they would have slain him with stones. In the meantime Vastolla, after a feeling of uneasiness, and unrest, and the hindering of the
monthly ordinary, perceived that she was with child, and hid as long as possible her plight, until
she was round as a cask. The king, discovering her condition, was wroth with exceeding wrath,
and fumed, and swore terrible oaths, and convened a meeting of the council, and thus spake to
them: 'Ye all know that the moon of mine honour is wearing horns, and ye all know that my
daughter hath furnished matter of which to write chronicles, or, even better, to chronicle my
shame. Ye all know that to adorn my brow she hath filled her belly: therefore tell me, advise me
what I had better do. Methinks I had rather have her slain than have her give birth to a bastard
race. I have a mind to let her feel rather the agonies of death than the labour of childbed: I have a
mind to let her depart this world ere she bring bad seed into it.' The ministers and advisers, who
had made use of more oil than vinegar, answered him, saying, 'Truly deserveth she a great
punishment, and of the horns which she forceth on thy brow should the handle be made of the
knife that shall slay her: but if we slay her now that she is with child, the villain who hath been
the principal cause of thy disgust, and who hath dressed thee horns right and left will escape
unhurt: he who, teaching thee the policy of Tiberius, hath put before him a Cornelius Tacitus,
and to represent to thee true sleep, hath made thee issue forth from the horn-gate. Let us await,
therefore, until it comes to port, and then we are likely to know the root of this dishonour: and
afterwards we will think and resolve, with a grain of salt, which course we had best follow.' The king was pleased with this rede, perceiving in it sound sense, and therefore held his hand,
and said, 'Let us await the issue of events.' But as Heaven willed, the time came: and with little
labour, at the first sound of the midwife's voice, and the first squeeze of the body, out sprang
two men-children like two golden apples. The king, who was full of wrath, sent for his ministers
and counsellors, and said to them, 'My daughter hath been brought to bed, and the time hath
come for her to die' Answered the old sages (and all to gain time upon time), 'No; we will tarry
until the children get older, so as to be able by their favour to recognise their father.' The king,
not desiring his counsellors to think him unjust, shrugged his shoulders and took it quietly, and
patiently tarried till the children were seven years of age, at which time he again sent for his
counsellors, and asked them their rede: and one of them said, 'As thou hast not been able to
know from thy daughter who was the false coiner that altered the crown from thy image, it is
time that we seek to obliterate the stain. Command thou that a great banquet should be got ready,
and ask all the grandees and noblemen of the city, and let us be watchful, and seek with our own
eyes him to whom the children incline most by the inclination of nature: for that one without fail
will be the father, and we will at once get hold of him like goat's excrement.' The king was
pleased with this rede. He gave orders for the banquet, invited all folk of any consequence, and
after they had eaten their fill he bade them stand in line and pass before the children: but they
took as much notice of them as did Alexander's courser of the rabbits, so that the king became
enraged and bit his lips with anger: and although he was not wanting in shoes, because of the
tightness of those he was compelled to wear he stamped the ground with the excess of pain; but
his advisers said to him, 'Softly, Your Majesty! Hearten your heart. We will give another
banquet in a short while, no more inviting the noblest of the land, but instead folk of the lower
class, as women are ever wont to attach themselves to the worst: and perchance we will meet
with the seed of your wrath amid cutlers, comb-sellers, and other merchants of small wares, as
we have not met with him among the noble and well-born.' The king was pleased with this rede,
and commanded the second banquet to be got ready, whereto came, by ban invited, all folk from
Chiaja, all the rogues, all adventurers and fortune-hunters, all quick-witted, all ruffians, and
villains, and apron-wights that were to be found in the city, who, taking seat like unto noblemen
at a long table spread with rich abundance, began straightway to load themselves. Now it so happened that Ceccarella, having heard the ban which invited folk to this banquet,
began to urge Peruonto to go to it also, and so much did she say and do that at last she prevailed
upon him to depart, and he wells: and he had hardly entered the place of feasting, when the two
pretty children ran to him, and embraced him, and received him with great joy, and sported and
played with him. The king, beholding this sight, wrenched off all his beard, seeing that the good
name of this lottery and this lump of copeta[Note: Giuggiolena, paste condensed with honey,
hazel-nuts, and almonds, made in different shapes and figures, and seasoned with comfits.]
belonged to a sorcerer, scirpio[Note: Scirpio, fem. scirpia, sour-looking, Lat. scirpus; a woman
thin, lurid-looking,bronzed with shaggy hair, a witch.], hideous, and badly made, who sickened
the sight so that one could not even gaze upon him without flinching. He was, besides, velvet-headed, owl-eyed, and had a nose like a parrot-beak, a mouth like that of a Lucerna fish, and was
all in rags, so that, without reading, thou couldst have an insight into all the secrets; and sighing
heavily, the king said, 'Hath ever any one seen anything like this, that that light-o'-brains
daughter mine should have it in her head to fall in love with this sea-monster? hath ever any one
seen one that could take to the heel of such an hairy foot? Ah, infamous woman, what blind and
false metamorphoses are these: to become a strumpet for a pig, so that I should become a ram?
But why do I tarry? what am I thinking of? Let them feel the weight of my just chastisement, let
them be punished as they deserve, and let them bear the penalty that ye will adjudge: and take
them out of my sight, for I cannot endure them. The ministers all took counsel together, and resolved that the princess and the malefactor, with
the two children, should be put into a cask and thrown into the sea, so that they should thus end
their days without the king soiling his hands with his own blood. No sooner was the sentence
pronounced than the cask was brought, and all four were put therein; but before they were
thrown in, some of the handmaidens of Princess Vastolla, who were weeping with bitter
weeping, put inside the hogshead raisins and dried figs, so that they could live for a little time.
Then the cask was closed, and taken away, and flung into the sea, and it kept sailing on whither
the wind blew it. Meanwhile Vastolla, weeping with sore weeping, her eyes running two
streamlets of tears, said to Peruonto, 'What great misfortune is ours that our grave should be
Bacchus' cradle! Oh, could I but have known who it was that worked in this body to have me
thrown into this prison! Alas! I am come to a sad end, without knowing the why or wherefore. O
thou cruel one, tell me, tell me, what magic art didst thou use, what wand didst thou hend, to
bring me to this pass, to be shut herein by this hogshead's hoops? tell me, tell me, what devil
tempted thee to put into me the invisible pipe, and gain nothing by it but the spectacle of a
blackened factor?' Pernonto, who had for a time listened and pretended not to hear (making
merchant's ear), answered at last, 'If thou wilt know how it came to pass, give me some raisins
and figs.' The princess, desiring to draw from him something, gave him a handful of each; and
as soon as his desire was satisfied, he began to recount all that had happened to him with the
three young girls and then fagot of wood, and how at last he came under her window, and how,
when she laughed at him, he wished her to be with child by him: which when the lady Vastolla
heard, she heartened her heart, and said to him, 'Brother mine, why should we make exit of life
inside this hogshead? Why not wish for this vessel to become a splendid ship, so that we may
escape from this peril and arrive in good port?' And Pernonto rejoined, 'Give me figs and
raisins, if it be thy desire to know.' And Vastolla at once satisfied his gluttony, so that he should
be willing to speak: and like a carnival fisherwoman, with the raisins and figs she fished for the
words fresh out of his body. And Pernonto said the words desired by the princess: and at once
the cask became a ship, with all the sails ready for sailing, and with all the sailors that were
needed for the ship's service; and there were to be seen some lowering the sheets, some hauling
the shrouds, some holding the rudder, some setting the studding-sails, some mounting to the
upper-main-topsail, one crying, 'Put the ship about!' and another, 'Put the helm up !' and one
blowing the trumpet, and others firing the guns, and some doing one thing, and some another, so
long as Vastolla remained on board the ship, swimming in a sea of sweetness. It being now the hour when the moon played with the sun at going and coming, Vastolla said to
Peruonto, Handsome youth mine, wish that this ship may become a palace, so that we may be
more secure. Thou knowest what is usually said: "Praise the sea, but dwell on shore; and
Peruonto answered, 'If it be thy desire that I should say so, give me some figs and raisins' and
she at once gave him what he asked, and Pernonto having eaten, wished his wish, and the ship
became a beautiful palace, adorned in all points, and furnished with such splendour that nothing
was wanting. So that the princess, who would have parted with life easily but a short time before,
now would not have exchanged her place with the highest lady in the world, seeing that she was
served and entreated as a queen. Then, to put a seal upon her good-fortune, she begged Peruonto
to obtain the grace of becoming handsome and polished, so that they could joy together:
remarking that, although saith the proverb, 'Better a pig for an husband than an emperor for a
friend,' if he could change his looks she would take it as the greatest good-fortune: and Peruonto
in the same way answered, 'Give me figs and raisins, if it be thy will that I should thus desire.'
And Vastolla at once remedied the costiveness of his words with the raisins and figs, so that as
soon as the wish was spoken he became from a sparrow a bullfinch, from a ghul a narcissus, and
from an hideous mask a handsome youth. Vastolla, seeing such a transformation, was beside
herself with excess of joy, and throwing her arms around him, tasted of the sweet juice of
happiness. Now it so happened that at this same time the king, who from the day on which he had
pronounced the cruel sentence had not lifted his eyes from the ground, was entreated to the chase
by his courtiers, who bethought themselves thus to cheer him. And he went; and night surprising
him, sighting from afar a light from a lanthorn at one of the windows of the palace, he sent one
of his followers to see if they would receive him there: and he was answered that he might not
only break a glass, but he could also shatter a night vase. So the king accepted the invitation, and
mounting the steps, entered: and going from room to room, he could see no person living except
the two children, who kept at his side, saying , 'Grandsire! grandsire! grandsire!' The king
wondered with greatest wonder, and marvelled with greatest marvel: and being wearied, seated
himself by a table, when he beheld spread on it by invisible hands a white cloth and divers dishes
of food, of which he partook, and wines of good vintage, of which he drank truly as a king,
served by the two pretty children, never ceasing; and whilst he was at meat, a band of
calascioni[Note: Calascione (Gr. 'KELUS'), an ancient and famous instrument with gut-strings.] and
tambourines discoursed delicious music, touching even the marrow of his bones. When he had
done eating, a bed suddenly appeared made of cloth of gold; and having had his boots pulled off,
he took his rest, and all his courtiers did the same, after having well supped at an hundred tables,
which were ready laid in other rooms. As soon as morning came, the king got ready to depart, and was going to take with him also the
little ones, when Vastolla and her husband appeared, and falling at his feet, asked his pardon, and
recounted to him all their fortune. The king, seeing that he had won two nephews that were like
two grains of gold and two priceless gems galore, and a son-in-law like a jinn, embraced first
one and then the other, and took them with him to the city, and commanded great festivals and
rejoicings to be made for this great gain, which lasted many days: solemnly confessing to
himself that 'Man proposeth, but God disposeth.' |
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Publishers' Note Introduction First Day
Second Day
Third Day
Fourth Day
Fifth Day
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