The Tale of Tales by Giambattista Basile

Author:Giambattista Basile
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2016-01-25T16:00:00+00:00

9

ROSELLA*

Ninth Entertainment of the Third Day

The Grand Turk has a prince captured so that he can bathe in a lord’s blood. His daughter falls in love with the prince and they run away, but the girl’s mother comes after them and her hands are cut off by the prince. The Grand Turk dies of a broken heart; when his daughter is put under a curse by her mother the prince forgets about her. But after the girl performs some trickery, she returns to her husband’s memory and they live happily ever after.

They listened to Paola’s tale with great satisfaction, and everyone said that the father was right to want a son who knew something, even if in this case the cuckoo had sung for him,1 since if the others had kneaded the pasta he had taken off with the macaroni. But then it was Ciommetella’s turn to have her say and she began speaking in this manner: “Those who live badly cannot die well, and whoever eludes this sentence is a white crow, for those who sow rye grass cannot reap wheat, and those who plant spurge cannot pick broccoli florets. The tale with which I now come to you will prove that I am not a liar. I beg you to pay me for it by allowing your ears to fly wide open and your mouths to hang while I make all efforts to satisfy you.

“There once was a Grand Turk who had leprosy and could find no cure for it. His doctors were unable to find an expedient to get this patient, with his insistent requests, off their back, and decided to propose something impossible to him, telling him that it was necessary to bathe in the blood of a great prince.2

“The Grand Turk wanted his health back, and when he heard this savage prescription he immediately sent a large fleet to sea, commanding them to scour every corner of the earth and with spies and the promise of great rewards to try to get their hands on a prince. And as they sailed along the coast of Clear Fountain they ran into a little pleasure boat that was carrying Paoluccio, son of the king of that land, whom they stole away and carried off to Constantinople.

“When the doctors saw him they acted not so much out of compassion for the poor prince as in their own interest, for since the bath was not to bring any improvement, they would be the ones to shit their penance. Intending to play for time and draw the matter out as long as they could, they explained to the Grand Turk that this prince was angry about the freedom he had lost playing at tressette, and that his torpid blood would cause more harm than benefits; it was therefore necessary to suspend the cure until the melancholy humor had left the prince and to keep him happy and feed him hearty food that would enrich his blood. When the Grand Turk

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