2. “A game played by children in which they hold hands in a circle, and kick away one of the players who tries to enter the circle from outside it. The child who lets the outside player in must then go outside the circle” (Croce 3).
3. The majority of Basile’s tales start with the formulaic “dice ch’era na vota” (“it is said that there once was”), evoking the temporal distancing of the fairy tale but also the oral tradition (“It is said”) in which fairy-tale types had thrived for centuries before (and after) Basile. The corresponding Italian “c’era una volta” is usually translated into the English “once upon a time,” though I have preferred a more literal translation.
4. “Zoroaster, or Zarathustra, was the prophet of the esoteric doctrine of the Mazdaic religion of pre-Islamic Iran (X–VI c. BC), according to which the child prophet laughs in his cradle, surrounded by light. [. . .] Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 550–480 BC) was the Greek philosopher legendary for his enigmatic thought and his refusal to diffuse his writings” (Rak 26). In Roman times he was known as the “weeping philosopher.” The reason for the reference to Zoroaster, who does laugh, is unclear.
5. “A popular singer and leader of musicians of the time, mentioned also by [Basile’s contemporaries] Del Tufo, Cortese, and Sgruttendio. He gave his name to a sort of dance” (Croce 3).
6. “In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Moorish ‘dance of Lucia’ was widely performed in Naples. It derived from the ecstatic dances of possession characterized by continuous spinning, like those that today are still performed by dervishes. Already ‘desacralized’ in the sixteenth century, it was transformed into a ritualistic Carnival performance. . . . The ambiguous character of Lucia was played by a man in blackface, dressed as an Oriental woman, whose song and movements referred to the sexual act, birth, death, and resurrection. The accompanying chorus insulted Lucia with the epithet of ‘bitch.’ . . . Later this dance was confused with the dance of Sfessania, which took its name from the city of Fez in Morocco” (De Simone 7). Jacques Callot, the French artist and contemporary of Basile, did a series of engravings of the Sfessania in 1620. The list of “acts” intended to amuse Zoza is a compendium of the various forms of street theater in vogue at the time.
7. “The work Opera nuova piacevole et da ridere de un villano nomato Grillo quale volse diventar medico (Venice, 1521) was reprinted many times in this period. This Grillo, among other things, cured a king’s daughter by some strange means, causing her to burst into laughter” (Croce 4).
8. erva sardoneca (Neap.): A plant of Sardinia believed to cause convulsive laughter in whomever ingested it (Rak 27).
9. “Fountains of oil and, much more often, of wine were one of the most common displays used in seventeenth-century festivities. The ‘pleasure’ derived on the one hand from the precious foodstuffs that were obtained, but on the other from the observation, from afar, of the throngs of people and the incidents to which such an apparatus, like other similar displays, gave rise. Experiments with mechanical fountains were, in these decades, in a phase of expansion” (Rak 27–28).
10. “A popular feast-day. In Naples every house became a tavern, with green branches over the door; races were run, greased poles were set up, and other merry-making took place. The first of May was, in fact, celebrated everywhere, and Tuscan literature abounds with references to it” (Croce 539).
11. “The murderous efficacy of Catalan arms was proverbial” (Croce 5).
12. “Neapolitan prostitutes of the time paid a tax of two carlins per month” (Croce 5).
13. parasacco (Neap.): “The name of a devil or other evil spirit which nurses used to frighten children with, saying that he will open his sack, push them inside, and carry them off” (Croce 5).
14. Verses from scene 1, act 1 of Giovan Battista Guarini’s Pastor fido (1590), a pastoral drama that was immensely popular at this time.
15. “The nymph Egeria wept so much at king Numa’s death that Diana transformed her into a fountain” (Croce 6). See Ovid’s Metamorphoses 15.479–551.
16. One of the first of hundreds of metaphorical descriptions of the Sun’s rising or setting, a stylistic trademark of The Tale of Tales (see introduction).
17. This Roman comedy (sometimes also translated as The Doubles) by Plautus (c. 250–184 BC) had an enormous influence on Renaissance theater and at this time continued to be performed in many imitations and variations.
18. “One of the terms used to indicate the physical characteristics of the numerous members of the population of Naples who were of Middle Eastern [or North African] origin, for the most part purchased in slave markets or taken as booty in the course of sea raids or naval battles” (Rak 29). Later in the frame this slave speaks in the Neapolitan-Moorish patois that, besides being spoken in Naples and other ports of Italy where Moorish slaves lived, was also used in comic theater of the time. Such speech is also found in tales 6, 9, and 10 of day 5.
19. “An allusion to the myth of Argus and the cow Io that was stolen from him by Mercury” (Croce 8).
20. “The expression is taken from certain card games, in which the player who has obtained the points needed to win throws his remaining cards on the table, saying: ‘I’m out’” (Croce 8).
21. compa’ Iunno . . . Pezzillo (Neap.): “Two popular singers of humble origins who were famous in Naples at the time. They are also mentioned in tale 6 of day 4, and in other places in the works of Basile, Cortese, and Sgruttendio [other seventeenth-century Neapolitan authors]. . . . The other two subsequently mentioned were probably similar figures” (Croce 540).
22. uno de ciento vinte a carrino (Neap.): one of the 120 calli, or cavalli, that made up a carlino or carlin (a coin); hence, a minuscule sum.
23. Basile makes reference to the episode from book 1 of Virgil’s Aeneid, in which Dido is made to fall in love by Cupid, who appears in the form of Aeneas’s son Ascanius.
24. “A reference to the popular belief that if pregnant women desire but cannot obtain something and by accident touch themselves on a part of their body, on the corresponding part of the child’s body the mark (‘the craving’) of the desired thing will appear. Here the slave was afraid that if she touched her mouth, her child would be born with a disposition for querulous requests, which was in the mother’s own nature” (Croce 11).
25. I.e., a bother. “Various popular beliefs about March and its misfortunes circulated at this time: for example, it was believed that in March the infirm, especially those suffering from syphilis, suffered more intensely” (Guarini and Burani 25).
26. These are all derivatives of noble names common in Naples (Lucrezia, Francesca, Domenica, Vittoria, Porzia, Antonia, Giulia, Paola, Girolama, Giacoma), which Basile ironically distorts, just as the women themselves are “deformed” versions of the conventional group of noble tale-tellers found in the frames of many novella collections (e.g., Boccaccio’s Decameron), as is evidenced by both their social class and their physical irregularities.
27. “Aristotle; but the reference is certainly jocose” (Croce 12).
28. “Avvisi were hand-written news-sheets, and also sometimes the dispatches of diplomatic agents. Gazzette were printed newspapers, which at this time were just beginning to appear” (Croce 12).
29. sfrattapanelle (Neap.): lit., “bread evicters.” “Servants were given seven loaves of bread at the beginning of the week, that were to last them seven days (bread was baked on Saturday and distributed on Sunday); thus their alternate name of settepanelle [seven breads]” (Croce 12).
*. AT 563: The Table, the Ass, and the Stick. Penzer notes that “this is one of the most widely spread tales in the whole collection,” mentioning tale 36 from the Grimms’ Children’s and Household Tales (“The Magic Table, the Golden Donkey, and the Club in the Sack”), as well as many other Italian versions (1:24).
1. A well-known Venetian
ballad singer and oral storyteller of the time (Croce 15).
2. The preambles include discussion of topics that range from the classic Renaissance themes of fortuna and virtù, to envy and ingratitude (also very much present in writings on the court of this period), to more concrete observations on the ills and virtues exemplified in the present or previous tale. Starting with the preamble to the next tale (1.2), these introductions are generally divided into three “narrative moments”: a description of the reactions of Tadeo and his court to the preceding tale (often with comments on the performative skill of the teller), Tadeo’s call for silence, and the next teller’s “moral introduction” to her tale.
3. A town in the province of Caserta, about twenty kilometers from Naples (Croce 15). The towns from which the protagonists of the tales hail are, when mentioned by name, either real geographical locales, such as this one (and this is somewhat surprising in the often spatially abstract world of the fairy tale), or more fantastic places, such as “High Mountain” (1.5) or “Long Pergola” (1.9).
4. The name “Antuono” was also used as a common noun, to refer to a simpleton (Croce 16).
5. I.e., to give him a beating.
6. The goddess of the moon, Diana.
7. Roland was the protagonist of the French epic (c. 1100) Chanson de Roland and of its countless imitations and spin-offs not only in the “high” epic tradition (e.g., Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso) but also in popular poems and in theatrical renditions by mountebanks and puppeteers.
8. Or Iskanderbeg, the commonly used name of Giorgio Castriota (1403–68). “This Albanian national hero [who in the fifteenth century repulsed numerous Turkish invasions in Albania] was very popular in Naples because of the help he gave to Ferdinand of Aragon [king of Naples] in defense of his throne” (Guarini and Burani 29).
9. Croce considers it a mistake that Basile has Antuono return to Pascarola (another nearby town) instead of Marigliano. Such inconsistencies, which we find throughout The Tale of Tales, may indeed be due to a lack of final editing but in some cases could also be intentional. Here, for example, the fact that Antuono wants to “return” to a different town may suggest, as subsequent events will prove, that he is not yet ready to return home.
10. valevano quattrociento (Neap.): lit., “were worth four hundred.” The expression possibly derives from a popular ditty (Guarini and Burani 31).
11. de li quattro dell’arte (Neap.): “In the hierarchy of the guilds of crafts and trades there were, at the top, the consuls and the ‘four of the trades’” (Croce 18).
12. “Fish that lived in harbor waters were believed to have the gift of special craftiness” (Guarini and Burani 31).
13. “The ‘coagulant’ (quaglio) and the ‘crucible’ (coppella) were the acid and the vessel that goldsmiths used to assay gold and silver; quaglio is also rennet, yeast, or sperm, all substances associated with the idea of extreme sagacity and shrewdness of the dishonest and deceptive sort” (Guarini and Burani 31).
14. Del Tufo (in Ritratto di Napoli nel 1588 81) describes a Neapolitan innkeeper in the act of settling accounts with his patron: “At last he comes to settle the bill with an eager and joyful face, and says to each of them: ‘Four and four makes eight, and thirteen makes twenty-one. Four for the bread and six for the wine makes ten; six more for the escapece; seven for the roast and three for the stew and six for fruit and cheese and roast provolone; and, without a thought to the innkeeper who earns not a rag and to the health of my patrons, two more, and may it do you well: that’s right, if I haven’t counted wrong, you owe me eight carlins’” (Croce 541).
15. “Asinus ad lyram”: Latin proverb (Croce 19); used for an awkward or unintelligent person.
16. I.e., got him drunk (Guarini and Burani 34).
17. recercata (Neap.): type of instrumental composition, usually contrapuntal, with complexly interwoven melodic lines (similar to a motet for voices); it can be fugal or canonic or can more generally refer to a prelude.
18. “The public crier of the grand Court of the Vicaria of Naples, who issued proclamations to the sound of a trumpet” (Croce 21).
19. scazzamauriello (Neap.): the name, in Naples, of a domestic imp or sprite also called the monaciello. “According to popular imagination this little creature, dressed like a priest with a red skullcap, furtively frequented houses, and especially kitchens and hearths, where he performed minor mischief (moving objects or making them disappear, turning on and off the stove, turning on the faucet, and so on). Sometimes he snuck into women’s beds, to the great despair of their husbands, who didn’t even dare to make the sign of the cross. Astute and capricious, the monaciello was sometimes indulgent with women: he would warn them of some imminent disaster, suggest the way to avoid danger or cure an illness, give the numbers for the next lottery, indicate the spot where a treasure was buried, etc.” (Guarini and Burani 36).
20. One of dozens of musical metaphors in The Tale of Tales. This was a period of intense musical activity in Italy; for instance, the first modern operas were written in the academies and courts of early seventeenth-century Italy. As a court intellectual, Basile had a good deal of hands-on experience with musical culture, and several of his Italian works are musical dramas. Moreover, his sister Adriana was a renowned virtuosa of the time, collaborating with Claudio Monteverdi and singing for many years at the Mantuan court.
21. The comparison is between a ship’s hold and the ribbed back of a person.
*. AT 652A: The Myrtle. This tale bears some similarity to Grimm 76, “The Pink Flower,” and has variants in Pitrè, Fiabe, novelle e racconti popolari siciliani 37 (“Rosemary”), and Pitrè, Novelle popolari toscane 6 (“The Apple”). Penzer notes that “tales in which a fairy or a dead woman lives in a flower, and assumes human form on certain occasions, are quite common in folk tales” (1:33).
1. I.e., would stop robbing.
2. na pubreca . . . tre tornise (Neap.): wordplay; “public woman” (prostitute) vs. prubeca, a copper coin worth one tornise (tournois) or six cavalli, emitted by Philip III of Spain in 1599 and on which was engraved publica commoditas (Rak 70). This is one of many currencies mentioned in The Tale of Tales. Often I do not translate the exact term, which would have little meaning for the modern reader, but do annotate when there is a play on words or otherwise significant use of the term.
3. Pills used for a variety of ailments (Croce 25).
4. Village outside of Naples.
5. “Ornamental plant of the Mediterranean. Symbol of love and erotic poetry and sacred to Venus for its ability to die and be reborn, it was subsequently used for decorative hedges in cemeteries. It is still used in Naples for funeral wreaths” (De Simone 47).
6. For the household imp, or monaciello, see tale 1.1 n19.
7. “Two children’s games whose names are here used for their lewd connotations” (Croce 26). “In Roman times the sparrow (passer) was regarded as the most lecherous of creatures” (Penzer 1:26). See also the introduction to day 2.
8. “G. B. Pino (in his Ragionamento sovra del asino, Naples c. 1530) says of Cupid: ‘He was the dear son, he was the painted egg of his mother, little Venus.’ It was the custom to send eggs painted various colors as holiday gifts” (Croce 27).
9. “In The Life of Merlin (1150) by Geoffrey of Monmouth, Morgan le Fay is a sorceress who cures King Arthur’s wounds on an enchanted island. In Celtic mythology she may be either good or evil; in southern Italian culture fata morgana refers to a mirage, usually in the strait of Messina” (Rak 71).
10. Venus, after the island best known for worship of the goddess and on which she was born.
11. Helen of Troy, the mortal woman of Greek mythology whose beauty set off the Trojan War.
12. The first is the Creusa of mythology, who was abducted and raped by Apollo and bore the son Ion. The second is an “allusion
to the story of Marco and Fiorella, two famous lovers, which was very popular at one time. [. . .] Guillaume de Blois wrote a Tragedy of Flaura and Marco around 1160” (Croce 542).
The Tale of Tales Page 57
