The Nights of Straparola - Vol I

E. R. Hughes, W. G. Waters, Giovanni Francesco Straparola

Description

Volume I of the first English translation of ‘The Nights of Straparola’, originally published in 1894. A collection of stories in two volumes written by the Italian Renaissance author, Giovanni Francesco Straparola during the fifteenth century.
The two volumes are divided into nights, where Lords, Ladies, damsels and gentlemen are gathered at a party in Venice and tell each other fairy tales, witty fables, and follies to entertain themselves. 74 tales are told over 13 nights, including folk and fairy-tales, novellas with themes of trickery and intrigue; and tragic and heroic stories.
The collection includes some of the first known printed versions of European fairy tales, as they are known today, such as “Puss in Boots”, “The Four Clever Brothers”, “Donkeyskin” and others. Many of these tales have been collected or retold in later fairy tale collections, such as those by Giambattista Basile and the Brothers Grimm.
This wonderful book is translated by W. G. Waters and is illustrated by E. R. Hughes.
Pook Press celebrates the great 'Golden Age of Illustration' in children's literature - a period of unparalleled excellence in book illustration. We publish rare and vintage classic illustrated books, in high-quality colour editions, so that the masterful artwork and story-telling can continue to delight both young and old.

Sujets

• Folk Tales
• Fairy Tales
• Legends
• Mythology
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 16 octobre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528767460
• Langue: English

Extrait

STRAPAROLA.
V OLUME I.
Copyright 2018 Read Books Ltd. This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

THE NIGHTS
OF
STRAPAROLA
BY
GIOVANNI FRANCESCO STRAPAROLA
NOW FIRST TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY
W. G. WATERS
ILLUSTRATED BY E. R. HUGHES, A.R.W.S
VOLUME I
Contents.
L IST OF I LLUSTRATIONS
I NTRODUCTION
P ROEM
NIGHT THE FIRST
T HE F IRST F ABLE . Salardo, son of Rainaldo Scaglia, quits Genoa and goes to Montferrat, where he disobeys certain injun c ions laid upon him by his father s testament, and is condemned to death therefor; but, being delivered, he returns to his own country
T HE S ECOND F ABLE . Cassandrino, a noted robber, and a friend of the pr tor of Perugia, steals the pr tor s bed and his horse Liardo, but afterwards becomes a man of probity and good repute
T HE T HIRD F ABLE . Pre Scarpafico, having been once duped by three robbers, dupes them thrice in return, and lives happily the rest of his days
T HE F OURTH F ABLE . Tebaldo, Prince of Salerno, wishes to have his only daughter Doralice to wife, but she, through her father s persecution, flees to England, where she marries Genese the king, and has by him two children. These, having been slain by Tebaldo, are avenged by their father King Genese
T HE F IFTH F ABLE . Dimitrio the chapman, having disguised himself as a certain Gramottiveggio, surprises his wife Polissena with a priest, and sends her back to her brothers, who put her to death, and Dimitrio afterwards marries his serving-woman
NIGHT THE SECOND
T HE F IRST F ABLE . Galeotto, King of Anglia, has a son who is born in the shape of a pig. This son marries three wives, and in the end, having thrown off his scmblance, becomes a handsome youth
T HE S ECOND F ABLE . Filenio Sistemo, a student of Bologna, having been tricked by certain ladies, takes his revenge upon them at a feast to which he has bidden them
T HE T HIRD F ABLE . Carlo da Rimini vainly pursues Theodosia with his love, she having resolved to live a virgin. In striving to embrace her he meets with divers misadventures, and is well beaten by his own servants to boot
T HE F OURTH F ABLE . The devil, having heard divers husbands railing over the humours of their wives, makes trial of matrimony by espousing Silvia Balastro, and, not being able to endure his wife for long, enters into the body of the Duke of Malphi
T HE F IFTH F ABLE . Messer Simplicio di Rossi is enamoured of Giliola, the wife of Ghirotto Scanferla, a peasant, and having been caught in her company is ill-handled by her husband therefor
NIGHT THE THIRD
T HE F IRST F ABLE . A simple fellow, named Peter, gets back his wits by the help of a tunny fish which he spared after having taken it in his net, and likewise wins for his wife a king s daughter
T HE S ECOND F ABLE . Dalfreno, King of Tunis, had two sons, one called Listico and the other Livoretto. The latter afterwards was known as Porcarollo, and in the end won for his wife Bellisandra, the daughter of Attarante, King of Damascus
T HE T HIRD F ABLE . Biancabella, the daughter of Lamberico, Marquis of Monferrato, is sent away by the stepmother of Ferrandino, King of Naples, in order that she may be put to death; but the assassins only cut off her hands and put out her eyes. Afterwards, her hurts having been healed by a snake, she returns happily to Ferrandino
T HE F OURTH F ABLE . Fortunio, on account of an injury done to him by his supposed father and mother, leaves them, and after much wandering, comes to a wood, where he finds three animals, who do him good service. Afterwards he goes to Polonia, where he gets to wife Doralice, the king s daughter, as a reward for his prowess
T HE F IFTH F ABLE . Isotta, the wife of Lucaferro Albani of Bergamo, devises how she may trick Travaglino the cowherd of her brother Emilliano and thereby show him to be a liar, but she loses her husband s farm and returns home worsted in her attempt, and bringing with her a bull s head with gilded horns
NIGHT THE FOURTH
T HE F IRST F ABLE . Ricardo, King of Thebes, had four daughters, one of whom, having become a wanderer and altered her name of Costanza to Costanzo, arrived at the court of Cacco, King of Bettinia, who took her to wife on account of the many worthy deeds wrought by her
T HE S ECOND F ABLE . Erminione Glaucio, an Athenian, takes to wife Filenia Centurione, and, having become jealous of her, accuses her before the tribunal, but by the help of Hippolito, her lover, she is acquitted and Erminione punished
T HE T HIRD F ABLE . Ancilotto, King of Provino, takes to wife the daughter of a baker, and has by her three children. These, after much persecution at the hands of the king s mother, are made known to their father through the strange working of certain water, and of an apple, and of a bird
T HE F OURTH F ABLE . Nerino, the son of Gallese, King of Portugal, becoming enamoured of Genobbia, wife of Messer Raimondo Brunello, a physician, has his will of her and carries her with him to Portugal, while Messer Raimondo dies of grief
T HE F IFTH F ABLE . Flamminio Veraldo sets out from Ostia in search of Death, and, not finding it, meets Life instead; this latter lets him see Fear and make trial of Death
NIGHT THE FIFTH
T HE F IRST F ABLE . Guerrino, only son of Filippomaria, King of Sicily, sets free from his father s prison a certain savage man. His mother, through fear of the king, drives her son into exile, and him the savage man, now humanized, delivers from many and measureless ills
T HE S ECOND F ABLE . Adamantina, the daughter of Bagolana Savonese, by the working of a certain doll becomes the wife of Drusiano, King of Bohemia
T HE T HIRD F ABLE . Bertholdo of Valsabbia has three sons, all of them hunchbacks and much alike in seeming. One of them, called Zambo, goes out into the world to seek his fortune, and arrives at Rome, where he is killed and thrown into the Tiber, together with his two brothers
T HE F OURTH F ABLE . Marsilio Vercelese, being enamoured of Thia, the wife of Cechato Rabboso, is taken by her into her house during her husband s absence. He having come back unexpe c ed, is cozened by Thia, who feigns to work a spell, during which Marsilio silently takes to flight
T HE F IFTH F ABLE . Madonna Modesta, wife of Messer Tristano Zanchetto, in her young days gathers together a great number of shoes, offerings made by her various lovers. Having grown old, she disposes of the same to divers servants, varlets, and other folk of mean estate
ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. I.
F RONTISPIECE . (T HIRD N IGHT , F OURTH F ABLE . T HE S IREN .)
P ROEM . T HE P ALACE AT M URANO
F IRST N IGHT , F OURTH F ABLE . D ORALICE IN THE K ING S C HAMBER
S ECOND N IGHT , F IRST F ABLE . T HE P IG P RINCE
T HIRD N IGHT , T HIRD F ABLE . B IANCABELLA AND THE S ERPENT
T HIRD N IGHT , F IFTH F ABLE . I SOTTA AND T RAVAGLINO
F OURTH N IGHT , S ECOND F ABLE . T HE T RIAL OF THE S ERPENT
F IFTH N IGHT , F IRST F ABLE . G OLDEN H AIR
F IFTH N IGHT , F OURTH F ABLE . T HE C ONJURATION OF THE K ITE
Introduction.
T HE name of Giovanni Francesco Straparola has been handed down to later ages as the author of the Piacevoli Notti, and on no other account, for the reason that he is one of those fortunate men of letters concerning whom next to nothing is known. He writes himself down as da Caravaggio; so it may be reasonably assumed that he first saw the light in that town, but no investigator has yet succeeded in indicating the year of his birth, or in bringing to light any circumstances of his life, other than certain fa c s conne c ed with the authorship and publication of his works. The ground has been closely searched more than once, and in every case the seekers have come back compelled to admit that they have no story to tell or new fa c to add to the scanty stock which has been already garnered. Straparola as a personage still remains the shadow he was when La Monnoie summed up the little that was known about him in the preface to the edition, published in 1725, of the French translation of the Notti.
He was doubtless baptized by the Christian names given above, but it is scarcely probable that Straparola can ever have been the surname or style of any family in Caravaggio or elsewhere. More likely than not it is an instance of the Italian predile c ion for nicknaming-a coined word designed to exhibit and perhaps to hold up to ridicule his undue loquacity; just as the familiar names of Masaccio, and Ghirlandaio, and Guercino, were tacked on to their illustrious wearers on account of some personal peculiarity or former calling. Caravaggio is a small town lying near to Crema, and about half way between Cremona and Bergamo. It enjoyed in the Middle Ages some fame as a place of pilgrimage on account of a spring of healing water which gushed forth on a certain occasion when the Virgin Mary manifested herself. Polidoro Caldara and Michael Angelo Caravaggio were amongst its famous men, and of these it keeps the memory, but Straparola is entirely forgotten. Fontanini, in the Biblioteca dell eloquenza Italiana, does not name him at all. Quadrio, Storia e ragione d ogni poesia, mentions him as the author of the Piacevoli Notti, and remarks on his borrowings from Morlini. Tiraboschi, in the index to the Storia della letteratura Italiana, does not even give his name, and Crescimbeni 1 concerns himself only with the enigmas which are to be found at the end of the fables. It is indeed