Early Fiction in England: From Geoffrey of Monmouth to Chaucer (Penguin Classics) by Bilinmeyen

Author:Bilinmeyen [Bilinmeyen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141392882
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2015-09-23T20:00:00+00:00

The Fantastical Shoemaker of Constantinople

Translated by Richard Sowerby

Around the time when Gerbert1 was surrounded by supernatural success, a young man from Constantinople was working as a shoemaker. He was a commoner, and he surpassed all the masters of his craft with his remarkable new creations. He could do more work in one day than anybody else could do in two, and every item made by his hurried hands was more elegant than the studious work of the masters. For he could simply look at any bare foot, crooked or straight, and straight away clothe it with the best-fitting shoe; he would not even work for anyone unless he first saw their foot. For these reasons, he became popular with the nobility, and could waste no time on any of the poor. Moreover, since he tended to win first place in all the contests in the arena, whether in throwing, wrestling or other such manly trials, he was known far and wide as a remarkable man.

Now one day, a very beautiful young woman with a whole host of attendants came to his window and showed him her bare foot, to have it shod by him. The wretched man gave it a shrewd look, and the shoes were made and sold; but having begun at the foot, he then took the whole woman into his heart, imbibing a noxious evil which consumed him utterly. He was a slave craving royal dainties, which he could never hope to touch. Despite this he threw away his things, sold his inheritance and became a soldier, so that even though it was late in the day to be swapping the meanness of his situation for the good standing of a nobleman, he might at least earn himself a gentler rejection. Before he dared to address his beloved, he impulsively pursued this military career he had seized for himself, and with constant training accompanied by success, he became among knights what he had been among shoemakers. Now that he judged himself worthy, he tried his luck; but he could not get what he wanted from the fair maiden’s father. Blazing with excessive rage, intending to seize by force what his abject birth and lack of estates had denied him, he collected a great band of pirates, and prepared for a battle on the seas to avenge his rejection on land. So it was that he came to be feared on both land and sea, for success never abandoned him.

Now while he was wending his violent way, always winning, he heard the news that his love was dead. Although he wept, he accepted a truce and hurried to the funeral, watched the burial and made a note of the spot. The next night, quite alone, he tunnelled into the tomb and went into the dead woman as if she were alive. Reaching the end of his crime, he was lifting himself up from the corpse when he heard a voice, saying that he should return there in time for the birth, to carry off what he had conceived.

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