The Tale of Tales

by Giambattista Basile

  10. “The clothes of the ‘disgraced poor’ were worn, with due license, by those who had fallen into a state of need due to bad fortune, and are described by Vecellio (in Habiti antichi e moderni 176) as ‘a sack or robe of old and patched black cloth, which represented their poverty, and a hood that they wore on their heads’” (Croce 577).

  11. See tale 3.5 n18.

  12. See Petrarch, Trionfi d’amore 2.83.

  13. See introduction to day 1 n12.

  *. AT 403: The Black and the White Bride, and AT 480: The Spinning-Woman by the Spring and the Kind and the Unkind Girls. This tale bears some similarity to the latter part of 1.5. The “joint efforts” motif is a common one and can be found in Grimm 71 (“How Six Made Their Way in the World”). See also Grimm 13 (“The Three Little Gnomes in the Forest”), 24 (“Mother Holle”), 89 (“The Goose Girl”), 130 (“One-Eye, Two-Eyes, and Three-Eyes”), Perrault’s “The Fairies,” Marie-Jeanne Lhéritier’s “The Enchantments of Eloquence; or, The Effects of Sweetness,” and Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s “Aurore and Aimée” (the last two in The Great Fairy Tale Tradition).

  1. See tale 1.3 n24.

  2. “A type of large viola that Basile lists among the ‘modern musical instruments’ in the ninth eclogue of the Muse napolitane” (Croce 323).

  3. recercatella (Neap.): a short recercata; See tale 1.1 n17.

  4. “Commune in the province of Caserta, at Basile’s time in the territory of Capua, 27 km. north of Naples” (Croce 323).

  5. “In ancient times Cuculum, then Panicocoli, today Villaricca, a commune in the province of Naples in the Casoria district. Since the name Panicocoli was the object of derision among people of nearby towns, it was changed to Villaricca in the early 1800s” (Croce 578).

  6. Reference to the torture of the ropes (Rak 634).

  7. The ugliness of the fabulist Aesop was proverbial.

  8. “Hair knotted on top of the head, with a little tail hanging off it, which might have recalled the crest of parrots (from the Spanish periquito)” (Rak 635).

  9. “A shell used to call animals, especially pigs, from the fields” (Rak 635).

  10. The Ganges.

  11. vieste Cippone ca pare barone (Neap.): Cippone was evidently the name of a proverbial character.

  12. “In the neighborhood of Chiaia, on the waterfront, houses were built at sea level and there was no space in which to place cesspits or sewer pipes. Household sewage was therefore dumped into the sea, usually in the evening hours, which were called the ‘dumping hours’ or the ‘stinky hours,’ and the first hour of night also took the name of ‘the evil Chiaia hour,’ and is so designated even in legislative proceedings” (Croce 578).

  13. “According to popular custom in Naples [and southern Italy in general], imprecations are not addressed directly to the person one wishes to offend, but to his immediate family (mother, sister, etc.) and to the ‘dead ones’ whose memory he reveres” (Croce 578).

  14. See tale 3.5 n19.

  15. “At Basile’s time stage curtains were usually not raised, but lowered. In his own theatrical work Monte di Parnaso (Naples 1630), one can read: ‘The first things one sees, when the wide curtain is lowered, is a spatious theater in the largest hall of the Royal Palace, which shows a woodland scene’” (Croce 332). A similar scena boscareccia appears in the frame tale, in the form of an old hag’s private parts.

  16. See introduction to day 1 n8.

  *. “The use of hot baths, called stufe or stoves, with steam or thermal waters, was widespread in the area of Naples” (Rak 652). “They were managed by stufaroli [bath keepers] . . . and had small chambers in which after their baths ladies and gentlemen could also rinse their mouths, sip beverages brought to them by their servants, and rest on beds” (Del Tufo, Ritratto f. 79; cit. Guarini and Burani 388). Tomaso Garzoni, in his Piazza universale, comments that “there are few of them [bath keepers] who are not pimps and who do not rent out their rooms, thus mixing outer cleanliness with inner filth in those baths, which are a refuge for a thousand shameful and immodest acts of carnal lust” (cit. Croce 579). But here stufa (from the verb stufare, to bore or to make weary) is above all used to refer to the tedium that results from any type of worldly experience, however stimulating.

  1. See tale 1.7 n34.

  2. “The amulets with which the clothes and cradle of a newborn were immediately decorated; the first days following birth were considered to be of great importance for the destiny of the newborn, as is seen by the numerous mentions, in The Tale of Tales, of midwives, the calculations of astrologers, and fairies’ gifts” (Rak 652).

  3. “By request of parents, unruly children were placed in castle dungeons” (Croce 338).

  4. “Perhaps a game of chance played in the taverns of Cedrangolo, one of the most ill-reputed streets of the city” (Guarini and Burani 393).

  5. See tale 1.9 n10.

  6. “These entertainments took place in Naples, in Piazza or Largo del Castello, today Piazza Municipio” (Croce 579).

  7. See the introduction to day 1 n21.

  8. teorbie e colasciune (Neap.): both stringed instruments belonging to the lute family and popular in seventeenth-century music.

  9. Two other famous singers of the time (Rak 653).

  10. In Basile’s time, a sinfonia was usually a piece for an instrumental ensemble such as, for example, the overture to an opera.

  11. Dances typically performed at the end of festivities (Rak 653).

  12. I.e., sword.

  13. One of the most famous dances of the time (Rak 653).

  1. Reference to a practice common among agricultural laborers. “Still today, in many parts of the South, day laborers meet before dawn at a central gathering place in the hope of being chosen by the ‘foremen’ who distribute the daily work. In exchange for giving them work, the laborers must give the foremen a percentage of their pay” (De Simone 585).

  2. Mentioned in Del Tufo, Ritratto f. 101 (Croce 580).

  3. “One player has to guess which of his adversary’s closed fists contains something” (Guarini and Burani 400).

  4. “This game consists in making the piuzo, a wooden cylinder with pointed ends, jump in the air, hitting it and keeping it up with a bat” (Guarini and Burani 153–54).

  5. The well-known game, played with two people, the object of which is to predict the number of fingers the other player will hold up (usually by shouting out a number at exactly the same time as the other player shows her fingers). It is often used to decide who will be “it” or go first in a game.

  6. A variation on hopscotch. “On the ground, a semi-circle is drawn with chalk, then a square with its diagonals, and then three rectangles, so that a bell-shaped figure of eight parts is formed. Players take turns throwing a key, tile, or other small object into the sections, after which they hop on one foot to the object and try to kick it out of the bell. If the object or foot touches a line, the player loses” (Rocco, Vocabolario napoletano; cit. Croce 580).

  7. A card game (Croce 580).

  8. “Players try to hit and knock down little piles of walnuts, chestnuts and the like by throwing another walnut or chestnut at them” (De Bourcard, Usi e costumi di Napoli 1.299; Pitrè, Giochi no. 66; cit. Croce 580).

  9. A primitive form of bocce in which “a ball is thrown, and then players take turns throwing the others, trying to make them go as close as possible to the first” (De Bourcard, Usi 1.302; cit. Croce 580).

  10. A variation on Odds and Evens (Croce 581).

  11. “A variation on morra, used to determine whose turn it is for something (and in particular, to drink wine, and therefore much used in wine-cellars)” (Croce 581).

  12. For the colascione (lute), See tale 1.3 n24; “the chiuchiero (pipes) was a rustic wind instrument sim
ilar to bagpipes; the vottafuoche (fire-throwers), mentioned a number of times in The Tale of Tales, were also wind instruments; the cro-cro (also called zerre-zerre) consisted of a stick with a toothed wheel attached to it, which when shook and turned struck a reed and produced a sound; the scacciapensieri is a sort of Jew’s harp; and the zuche-zuche a form of violin. These were all popular and ancient instruments that Basile contrasted to modern instruments in the ninth eclogue of his Muse napoletane, praising them and inveighing against the person who first ruined them” (Croce 581).

  13. In the ninth eclogue of the Muse Basile also laments the disappearance of songs, especially villanelle, from “the good old days, where the memory of gentle Naples was preserved, sweet as honey,” and lists various types of villanelle, transcribing one in its entirety. “Villanelle, in fact, began to disappear in the first decades of the 17th century, while madrigals endured for some time still” (Croce 582). See, for example, G. M. Monti, Le villanelle napoletane e l’antica lirica dialettale (Città di Castello, 1925), and Elena Barassi, Costume e pratica musicale in Napoli al tempo di Giambattista Basile (Firenze: Olschki, 1967). The Flemish musician and composer Orlando di Lasso’s collection of villanelle from the mid-sixteenth century is an important testimony of this tradition and one that Basile was most probably familiar with.

  14. Iesce, iesce Sole (Neap.): See tale 1.10 n3. “This is a nursery rhyme, many variants of which may be found in Luigi Molinaro del Chiaro, Canti popolari raccolti in Napoli (Naples 1916)” (Croce 583).

  15. Possibly a song of fourteenth-century origin (Croce 583).

  16. These compositions are all in rhyme, and often the meaning (in many cases, not clear) seems to be subordinate to the meter.

  *. AT 560: The Magic Ring.

  1. gallo patano (Neap.): “a small breed, with short legs” (Croce 351).

  2. “Perhaps Basile was thinking of the alettoria or ‘rooster’s stone’ that could be found under certain conditions, not in the head but in the ventricle of the rooster, and to which were attributed many powers. See Pliny, Natural History XXXVII, 54, as well as medieval lapidaries” (Croce 583).

  3. “Tight socks were a particular of the dress of the upper classes” (Rak 674). The expression thus means to change social status, or to put on airs.

  4. “Movable wooden dolls, animated by a system of weights and counterweights, were at this time very popular, and occupied an important place among the attractions taken around to town squares by traveling peddlers of toys and knick-knacks” (Guarini and Burani 405).

  5. “A dance in which poles or clubs decorated with flowers were held, replacing the swords previously used. During Carnival people danced in masks under the windows of fair ladies or nobles, who would throw money to the dancers” (Croce 583).

  6. “Four children gather around a big fire, and another four go off to hide. The first four each throw a rock into the fire shouting ‘Hot bread!’ and the ones who hid come out and run toward the ‘oven.’ The ‘bakers’ run away and try not to get caught. Whoever is caught has to carry his captor piggyback to the oven” (Croce 583).

  7. Wordplay: pipata (doll) vs. paputo (bogeyman).

  8. no capopuorpo (Neap.): lit., octopus head. “A sort of pilgrim’s cloak, which has this name because it hangs in frayed shreds that recall the tentacles of the octopus” (Guarini and Burani 407).

  9. calantrielle (Neap.): heavy pigskin boots (Guarini and Burani 407).

  10. Evidently frequented by cuckolds.

  11. “An application of ink was a popular remedy for burns” (Croce 356).

  12. “Receiving a last-minute pardon was not uncommon for those condemned to death” (Rak 675).

  *. AT 613: The Two Travelers, and AT 910D: The Treasure of the Hanging Man. Penzer notes some resemblance to Grimm 107 and refers to Eastern and Western variants of the motif of “the intended suicide’s luck” (2:20). See also Straparola 1.1, “Salardo.”

  1. na rotta de cuollo (Neap.): “a miscalculated jump through the hoop” (Rak 696).

  2. Justinian law, which was at this time used in the kingdom of Naples (Croce 584).

  3. “What follows is a ‘decalogue’ of the emerging ‘popolo civile’ [urban middle class], situated between the nobility and the lower classes. Advice of this sort was widely circulated at the time in booklets” (Rak 696).

  4. Deformed citation of the first words of a passage from the Gospel of John (1.12) that reads, “Quotquot autem receperunt eum” (cit. Rak 696).

  5. See tale 2.1 n7.

  6. Since cucumbers were of little value, there was no point in fixing their price (Rak 696).

  7. See the end of tale 2.4, and the eclogue “The Crucible,” for similar reflections on serving noblemen or in court.

  8. a fare accepe cappiello co li studiante (Neap.): “In scholastic debates the winner wore a laurel wreath, while the loser took his hat and left, and it was said to him: ‘Accipe pileum pro corona’ (quote from E. Rocco’s Vocabolario)” (Croce 360).

  9. “The goddess of wisdom was also the creator of the olive and, therefore, of the lamp oil that wise men use in order to continue their studies into the night, consuming ‘more oil than wine’” (Rak 697).

  10. “Jocose citation of a verse of a song, used proverbially to indicate a desperate situation” (Guarini and Burani 414).

  11. l’Indigeste (Neap.): jocose reference to the Digesta, the anthology of sentences of the most celebrated Roman jurists that is part of the Corpus Juris Civilis, or Code of Justinian (Rak 697).

  12. The grammar of Aelius Donatus was still used in schools at this time. See also tale 2.7 n25.

  13. Another well-known grammar of the time, N. Perrotti da Sassoferrato’s Cornucopia linguae latinae (1489) (Rak 697).

  14. See tale 1.7 n9.

  15. Dice were made from bones.

  16. I.e., fortune’s favorite; not of the common lot (used ironically here). Popular saying also present in the Latin tradition: “gallinae filius albae” (Juvenal, Satires 13.141; cit. Croce 361).

  17. Money (coins) and hearts, along with clubs and swords, are the suits of Neapolitan cards. The meaning is “play whatever you have.” “Playing cards were used for predicting the future and as a mnemonic device for learning” (Rak 697).

  18. Reference to the work of a goldsmith, who purifies gold with nitric acid (Guarini and Burani 416).

  19. The crescent moon was the emblem of the emperor of Turkey.

  20. sparmata (Neap.): greased vs. lash.

  21. See tale 3.3 n18.

  22. “The beginning of the psalm ‘Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus’ (117), which in the Roman rite was the first of the psalms to be used at the bedside of the dying” (Rak 697).

  23. One of the roots used in potions in medical practice of the time (Croce 364).

  24. A bed for paralytics or others forced to stay in bed, perforated to allow for hygienic functions.

  25. Galileo’s telescope was new (1609–10), and in Naples other books and experiments had immediately followed, such as N. Stelliola’s Del telescopio overo ispecchio celeste (1627) (Rak 698).

  26. “In the representation of Carnival and Lent that was performed in Sorrento and elsewhere, on the last night of Carnival, one of the characters was a gigantic skeleton of wood and cardboard, armed with a sickle, which represented Death and reaped the life of Carnival” (Croce 584). Carnival, too, was an enormous, big-bellied figure that sat on a float and was surrounded by delicacies. When Carnival was killed, the crowds threw themselves on the bounty, and its members were burned in a bonfire, while Lent, personified as a lurid and wasted old woman, entered the city in triumph on another float (Rak 698).