Italian Folktales (20 page)

The murderers never left her by herself. One day the ringleader said to her, “Tomorrow night we're all going to descend on the palace of a certain king and steal all his valuables. You shall come with us.”

He told her the name of the king, who happened to be her own husband, whom she wrote and warned of the danger. As a result, when the murderers started through the front door of the palace at midnight, the servants barricaded there in the dark hall slew them one by one. Thus died the ringleader and five others, while all the rest fled in every direction, leaving the young woman, who was also dressed as a murderer, at the mercy of the servants. What did they do but seize her, bind her hand and foot, and carry her off to prison. From her cell she could see them constructing the gallows in the town square. Only one more day, and her seven years of silence would be up. In sign language she begged them to put off her execution until tomorrow, to which the king consented. The next day they led her to the scaffold. On the first step she asked them in signs if, instead of executing her at three o'clock, they would wait one more hour. The king agreed to this also. Four o'clock struck and she was moving a step higher, when two warriors came forward, bowed to the king, and begged permission to speak.

“Speak,” said the king.

“Why is that young man being sent to his death?”

The king explained why.

“That is no man, mind you, but our sister!” And they told the king why she had not uttered a word for the last seven years. Then they said to her, “Speak up, the danger is over, and we are safe.”

They removed her shackles and, in the presence of the whole city, she said, “I'm the king's wife, and my wicked mother-in-law killed my baby. Go to the roof, get that box, and see whether I gave birth to a dog or to a baby boy.” The king sent his servants for the box, and there inside lay a baby's skeleton.

At that, the whole city shouted, “String up the queen and the midwife in place of this courageous soul!” And so died the two old women, while the young wife returned to the palace with her husband, and the two brothers became prime ministers of the king.

 

(
Venice
)

32

There was once a king who had a daughter. One day the girl was on the balcony with her maids of honor, when an old woman came walking by.

“My little lady,” said the old woman, “be kind and give me something, won't you, please?”

“Yes, of course, good soul,” replied the maiden, and threw her down a bag of coins.

“My little lady, that's not much money . . . . Won't you give me something more?”

The king's daughter threw down another bag. The old woman again said, “Little lady, can't you give me still a little bit more?”

At that, the king's daughter lost her temper. “You know what you are? You're a nuisance, that's what! I've given you money twice, and you're not getting a cent more!”

The old woman then faced her and said, “So that's how it is! I therefore call on heaven to prevent you from marrying until you have found the Dead Man!”

The king's daughter went back inside and burst into tears.

When her father learned why she was crying, he told her, “Never give any of those old wives' tales a thought!”

“I don't know what will become of me,” she sobbed, “But I intend to depart in search of the Dead Man!”

“As you like! I give you up for lost!” replied the king, who then burst into tears himself. The girl paid no attention and set out.

After days and days of walking, she came to a marble palace. The door stood open and all the rooms were brightly lit. The girl walked in and called out, “Anybody home?”

There was no answer.

She went into the kitchen and found a pot of stew cooking on the stove. She opened the cupboard: it was full of provisions. “Since I'm already here, I may as well stay,” she said, and sat down and ate, being quite hungry after all those days of traveling. When she had finished, she opened a door and saw a comfortable bed. “I'm going to bed. We'll see what tomorrow brings.”

The next morning she awakened and resumed her tour of the palace. She opened every door until she finally found herself in a room in which a dead man lay. At his feet a note said:

 

Whoever watches over me

A year, three months, and a week,

My beloved bride shall be.

 

“So I've found him I was seeking,” murmured the girl. “All I have to do now is stick by him day and night.” Nor did she budge from there except to prepare her meals.

Thus a year went by while she watched the dead man in solitude. Then one day a cry came up from the canal: “Slave girls for sale! Slave girls for sale!”

“That's an idea!” said the maiden. “I'll buy a slave girl right now. That way I'll at least have company, and every now and then I can lie down and sleep for a few minutes. I'm so tired now I could drop.”

She went to the window, called to the slave dealer, and purchased one of his girls. She then had the girl come upstairs and stay by her side at all times.

Three more months went by, and the maiden was so tired that she said to the slave girl, “I'm going to bed now. Let me sleep for three days, no more. Wake me up the fourth day. Be careful and don't mistake the day!”

“Don't worry, I won't,” replied the slave girl.

The maiden went to sleep, while the slave girl remained day and night with the dead man. Three days passed, then one more, and the maiden slept on. The slave girl said to herself, “Do you think I'd awaken her? Let her sleep, let her sleep!”

Time was up at last, and the dead man opened his eyes, saw the slave girl, embraced her, and said, “You shall be my beloved bride!”

At those words the whole palace sprang back to life. Servants came running from one wing, maids of honor, cooks, and coachmen from the other. In short, there were people all over the place.

The noise they made awakened the maiden, who realized she had slept a whole week. “I've been cheated!” she exclaimed. “That evil soul failed to call me, and now I've lost my fortune! Cursed was the hour and the minute when I bought that slave!”

The Dead Man happened to be a king. He asked the slave girl, “Did you watch over me all the time by yourself?”

“I brought in another woman for a few minutes every day, but she slept all the time and was of little use to me.”

“Where is she now?” asked the king.

“In her room, sleeping as usual.”

So the king married the slave girl. But despite all the royal finery he had her dressed in, despite all the gold and diamonds, she was still just as homely as homely could be. The king held open house for a week. After dinner it was his wish for the servants to join everybody else at the table for dessert, and he told his wife to be sure and invite the maid who had shared in her vigil.

“I'm not about to do that,” said the bride. “In the first place she wouldn't come, for all she does is sleep.”

On the contrary, all the poor maiden did was sigh and weep, day and night, over having slept one day too many and lost her fortune.

At the end of the week of open house, the king announced he had to go away to look after his property and that it was his custom on such occasions to bring back a present to every servant in his household. He sent for them all and asked them each what they wanted. Some said a handkerchief, some an outfit, others a pair of breeches, others a cutaway coat, and he wrote down everything so as to forget nothing. He said to his wife, “Call that maid of yours and let me find out what she wants, because I will bring her something too.” The maiden was called in. The king found her so beautiful and genteel of face and speech that he was altogether charmed with her. “Tell me, my dear, what you want me to bring you.”

“Please be so good,” sighed the maiden, “as to bring me a tinderbox, a black taper, and a knife.”

The king was dumbfounded by such a request. “Fine, fine, have no fear, I'll remember all three things.”

He left, attended to his business, and then went to buy his servants' presents. Loaded down with all those purchases, he boarded his ship to sail back home. The ship weighed anchor, but could move neither forward nor backward. The sailors asked, “Venerable Majesty, did you possibly forget something?”

“No, not a thing,” he replied, but then he went over his notes and saw that he had forgotten the maiden's three presents. He disembarked at once, entered a shop, and requested the three items.

The merchant looked him in the eye. “Excuse me for asking, but who will receive these things?”

“They are for one of my servants,” replied the king.

“Listen carefully,” said the merchant. “When you get home, don't give her anything, but make her wait three days. Then enter her room and say, ‘Go get me a drink of water, and I'll give you the three presents.' As soon as she leaves the room, put them on her dresser and hide under the bed or in some other place where you can watch what she does.”

“I'll do just that,” said the king.

Upon his arrival all the servants ran out to meet him, and he gave them each the present he'd promised them. The last one in line was the maiden, who asked if he'd bought her three presents.

“You worrisome girl!” he replied. “I bought them and will give them to you later . . . . ”

She returned to her room and cried, sure that he'd brought her nothing.

Three days later she heard a knock on the door, and there stood the king. “I'm here with your presents, but go get me a drink of water first, as I am thirsty.”

The girl ran off. The king put everything on the dresser and hid under the bed. When she returned and found the king gone, she said, “He's gone off once more without giving me anything.” She put the water down on the dresser and spied the presents.

Then she bolted the door, undressed, struck a light, and lit the black candle, which she placed on a little table. She picked up the knife and thrust it into the tabletop, saying, “Do you remember when I was back home with His Majesty my father and an old woman told me I wouldn't marry until I found the Dead Man?”

The knife replied, “Indeed I do.”

“Do you remember my traveling the world over and finding a palace with the Dead Man inside?”

“Indeed I do.”

“And you remember my watching him for a year and three months and then buying, to keep me company, that ugly slave I instructed to let me sleep for three days, since I was tired, and who let me sleep for a whole week only to have the Dead Man awaken, embrace her, and take her for his wife?”

“I remember only too well, alas!”

“Who should have been rewarded, myself who toiled a whole year and three months, or that woman who was there only a few days?”

“You.”

“Since you remember everything and say I deserved the prize, fly from the little table and lodge yourself in my heart.”

When the king heard the knife tearing loose from the table, he jumped out from under the bed, embraced the maiden, and said, “I heard everything! You shall be my wife! In the meantime stay in your room and leave everything to me.”

He went to the slave girl and said, “Now that I'm back from my trip, I shall hold a week of open house.”

“Just so you don't squander too much money on it,” replied the slave.

“But that has always been my custom every time I've returned from a journey.”

There was a grand banquet, and the king said to the slave, “I want all my servants to come in for dessert, and I want you to invite your maid too.”

“Can't you let that woman alone? She's so disagreeable.”

“If you don't invite her, I will.” Thus the maiden came to the table, as tearful as ever.

When dinner was over, the king gave an account of his journey. He had visited a city, he said, whose king had been under a spell like the one he had been under himself. A maiden had watched him for a year and three months, then bought a slave to keep her company. Exhausted, the maiden went to sleep, and the slave girl failed to awaken her. The Dead Man woke up, saw the slave girl, and married her.

“Now tell me, everybody, which one should have been the king's bride, the one who watched for a week, or the one who watched for a year and three months?”

“The one who watched for a year and three months,” agreed everyone.

The king continued. “Here, ladies and gentlemen, is the lady who watched for a year and three months, and here is the slave girl she bought. Tell me how this ugly Moor should die for her shameful treachery.”

They all jumped to their feet clamoring, “Burn her! In the middle of the town square, in a caldron of flaming pitch!”

It was done. The king married the maiden, and they lived happily ever afterward, nor was any more ever said about them.

 

(
Venice
)

33

There was once a noble couple that longed to have a son, but alas, they had none. One day the lord was abroad and encountered a wizard. “Sir Wizard,” he said, “please tell me what I can do to have a son.”

The wizard gave him an apple and said, “Have your wife eat it, and at the end of nine months she will give birth to a fine baby boy.”

The husband took the apple home to his wife. “Eat this apple, and we will have a fine baby boy. A wizard told me so.”

Overjoyed, the wife called her maidservant and told her to peel the apple. The maidservant did so, but kept the peeling and ate it herself.

A son was born to the lady, and on the same day a son was born to her maidservant. The maidservant's son was as ruddy as an apple skin; the lady's son was as white as apple pulp. The lord looked on them both as his sons and reared and schooled them together.