The Tale of Tales

by Giambattista Basile

  27. I.e., his arms.

  28. Two traditional symbols of strength, the first of Greek mythology and the second biblical.

  29. See tale 1.2 n9.

  30. “The effect of one of the diseases spread by prostitutes” (Rak 273).

  31. “Allusion to the popular pamphlets, or chapbooks, sold in great quantities at fairs and markets, which offered news, description of extraordinary events, horoscopes, prayers, and more” (Rak 273).

  32. pubbreche (Neap.): the word can mean both a coin and a “public woman,” or prostitute. See also tale 1.2 n2.

  33. casocavalluccio (Neap.): a type of cheese, still common in southern Italy, that is usually either pear shaped or braided.

  34. The masks of Ferrara were renowned. Prostitutes would often dress up as “Ferrara nymphs” (Guarini and Burani 165).

  35. “Girls about to be married would decorate their houses by hanging coverlets and ornate cloths at the windows” (Guarini and Burani 165). Here the expression is used in the sense of “reveals in outright fashion her true possessions.”

  36. See tale 1.6 n7.

  37. “The breast-plates of horses’ harnesses were decorated with shiny studs and panels” (Guarini and Burani 166).

  38. Perhaps an allusion to a beloved cat of the author.

  39. These lines in quotes are in Italian in the original text and are a parody of the language of the Petrarchan love lyric.

  40. chille sante Martine (Neap.): San Martino falls on November 11 and is traditionally a harvest festival in which the new wine is tasted. The sense is, therefore, of “the good old days”; Rak notes that it was a common expression in Neapolitan literature (274).

  41. C. C. Maecenas (62?–8 BC) was the protector and patron of a famous group of Latin writers (including Virgil, Propertius, and Horace). Wordplay: Mecenate (Maecenas) vs. macenate (ground).

  42. “An ancient instrument used to measure the height of the stars on the horizon, vs. the penis” (Rak 274).

  43. “As did the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus [c. 636–546 BC] who, according to legend, fell into a ditch as he was contemplating the stars” (Guarini and Burani 171).

  44. Patrasso (Neap.): the patres of the Bible vs. the Greek city.

  45. Terms taken from various games (Croce 139).

  46. The poet Francesco Petrarca (1304–74) was one of the models for the European lyric tradition; Aristotle (384–322 BC) was the Greek philosopher whose works were an essential point of reference for early modern scientific research; Oberto Cantone was a Genoese mathematician whose L’uso prattico dell’aritmetica (1599) circulated widely at this time; Antonio Cornazzano of Piacenza wrote De l’arte militar (1493); Euclid, the mathematician of Alexandria (third century BC), is best known for his treatise on geometry, the Stoicheia (Elements), in which the basis of architecture in geometry is described; Carlo Gesualdo, prince of Venosa, was the most famous composer of madrigals of the time; the Roman Prospero Farinaccio (1544–1618) was one of the best-known penal lawyers of the time; Boccaccio (1313–75) was the author of the Decameron, the collection of novelle or short tales that became one of the narrative models for European prose (see Croce 555–56).

  47. cavallo (Neap.): horse vs. callo, a coin of little value (Croce 141).

  48. Perhaps an allusion to the price of popular stories contained in chapbooks, which were sold, at this time, at fairs and markets (Rak 273, 275).

  49. See tale 1.10 n31.

  50. Since everyone had their mouths open with laughter.

  1. “The requisites for a ripe fig: the skin about to crack open, a long stem, and sticky discharge at the bottom” (Rak 280).

  2. “Children’s and society games have an important role in the structure of Lo cunto, a text destined for entertainment” (Rak 280). Besides this catalogue of thirty-one popular games, there are another fourteen mentioned at the start of day 4. Most of these, as well as others, also appear in Basile’s letters published with Giulio Cesare Cortese’s Vaiasseide. In M. A. Perillo’s pastoral drama La pescatrice (1630), a similar catalogue can be found (Croce 145).

  3. “One child bends down and puts his head on the lap of another sitting child, who then holds his hands over the eyes of the first. A third jumps onto the back of the first and sings ‘Anca Nicola, you’re beautiful and you’re good, And you’re married: How many horns do you have on your head?’ as he puts a hand on the other’s head and lifts up a certain number of fingers. The other guesses, and if he does not guess right, the round is repeated. The game and song are quite ancient, appearing, for example, in a scene painted at Herculaneum” (Ferdinando Galiani, Del dialetto napoletano 154–55; cit. Croce 556–57).

  4. See frame tale n2.

  5. Similar to the Sicilian game described by Pitrè: “One person kneels, and plays the part of the ‘wife.’ The ‘mother’ (game-leader) walks around him, just as the other players are doing, and defends the wife’s head from their blows, which come in the form of punches, kicks, and shoves. If the mother, who has the role of ‘wife watcher,’ touches one of them, the touched person is ‘it’ and the previous wife becomes the game-leader” (Giochi fanciulleschi no. 168, 290–91; cit. Guarini and Burani 176–77).

  6. A variant of hide-and-seek, “the game of the brooding hen [covalera means ‘she who broods’] is played in Naples by older girls in this way: eight or ten gather together and first play at tocco [a sort of finger game to determine who takes the first turn] to see who will be the brooding hen. The one to whom it falls must swear not to look where the others are going to hide; when they have hidden they call out to the brooding hen: ‘Come out! Come out!’ The brooding hen gets up and starts looking for the others; when she finds one she embraces her, saying ‘Bird, bird!’ and the one caught becomes the brooding hen” (B. Zito, Defennemiento della Vaiasseide 68; cit. Croce 557).

  7. Similar to the Sicilian game described by Pitrè: “Two children lie face-down on the ground, head to head, and cover themselves completely, so they can neither see nor be seen; the person assisting them is called the ‘mother.’ The other players stand and hit, one at a time, the two who are covered. The one hit says to the other: ‘Buddy of mine, I’m wounded,’ and the other: ‘Who was it?’ If the answer is correct, the player who guessed gets out from under cover and takes the place of the hitter, who goes down” (Giochi fanciulleschi no. 110, 200–201; cit. Guarini and Burani 177–78).

  8. “Game whose words were modeled on the ritualistic formulas used in public proclamations” (Croce 558).

  9. Also the name of a dance (Guarini and Burani 177).

  10. “One girl kneels, others put their hands on her head, and another runs around the circle singing ‘My little swallow, my swallow, get up and dance.’ ‘What do I need to get up and dance for?’ ‘Your father wants you, for he intends for you to marry,’ etc. When the song ends, the girl singing takes one of the other girls and starts again, until all of the girls are ‘taken,’ with the exception of the girl in the middle” (Corazzini, I componimenti minori della letteratura popolare italiana [1877]; cit. Croce 558).

  11. “A child sits on the knees of an adult, who bounces him in imitation of a horse trotting and chants: ‘Piripirotta, empty the cask, Piripirino, empty the wine.’ On the last verse, the adult opens his knees so that the child falls through them” (Luigi Molinaro del Chiaro, Giambattista Basile [a journal] 3.45; cit. Croce 558).

  12. Described in a sonnet in Sgruttendio’s Tiorba a taccone (1.37) (Croce 558).

  13. One child goes around to others with an object (a rock, a ring, etc.) closed in her fist, and pretends to let it slip into each of their hands or lap. She then asks one of them who she has really given the object to (Pitrè, Giochi 97–98; cit. Croce 558).

  14. ’ncagnarlo (Neap.): lit., to throw oneself onto someone like a rabid dog.

 
15. In tale 5.3 these words are one of the magic formulas that Betta uses.

  16. The macebearer (mazziere) was an employee of the tribunal or a confraternity who proceeded processions with a long club (Croce 559); also a card dealer.

  17. A variation of blindman’s bluff.

  18. “Not so much a game as a common beginning for games. One child puts his index finger on the palm of another’s hand, and sings: ‘To the lamp, to the lamp, some will die and others survive; to Salvatore’s parish, and whoever is left goes to prison’. The second child closes his hand, and if he is able to grab the other’s finger, the first ‘goes under’” (Corazzini, I componimenti 108–09; cit. Croce 559).

  19. “A number of children stand in a line, holding hands. As the game leader says: ‘Hang, hang my curtain’ the children stretch out their arms as far as they can, and answer: ‘I’ve hung it.’ Then, when they hear: ‘Make a knot,’ the whole line goes under the arms of the first and second in line, and answer: ‘I’ve made it.’ The arms of the second child are now crossed on her chest. This sequence is repeated until everyone is in this position. The game usually ends with everyone rolling around on the ground” (E. Rocco, Giambattista Basile 7.6–7; cit. Croce 559).

  20. A variation on blindman’s bluff. Pitrè describes a game that is probably the same, “A tafara e tafaruni”: “A good number of children make a circle without holding hands. One of them, blindfolded, is put in the middle. The others take turns touching and pinching him on various parts of his body. The next to last to do this pinches his behind and says: ‘Tafara’; the last slaps him and adds ‘Tafaruni.’ The blindfolded child has to guess the identity of the last to touch him, who is then blindfolded for the next game” (Giochi nos. 109, 200; cit. Guarini and Burani 179). In tale 5.3 this expression appears as another of the enchanted formulas.

  21. A version of leapfrog (Guarini and Burani 179).

  22. Both of these are mentioned, but not described, by Pitrè.

  23. “A game in which two children stand back to back, lock arms, and then take turns lifting each other off the ground” (Guarini and Burani 179).

  24. “Two children hold hands and stretch out their arms, forming a hollow like a chair and clasping their hands as if pledging their faith. Then another child sits on the ‘chair,’ and they carry her through the house, singing: ‘A sack of kicks for Mammara and hazelnuts; your mother did so bad that she broke the cauldron’” (Zito, Defennemiento 85; cit. Croce 560).

  25. “A game similar to Cops and Robbers, Soldiers and Bandits, etc.” (Guarini and Burani 179).

  26. “The game imitated, in some ways, judiciary proceedings” (Guarini and Burani 179).

  27. Variant of Covalera (Croce 560).

  28. Possibly a variant of Stone in Your Lap (Guarini and Burani 179).

  29. Another variant of Covalera (Croce 560).

  30. Greco is a wine produced near Naples.

  31. “Everyone holds hands and moves around in a circle, leaving one in the middle who has to try to escape by passing under the arms of one of the couples. When she has sung ‘Open the door for the poor falcon,’ all of the others lift their arms as high as they can and reply: ‘The doors are open, if the falcon wants to come in.’ If in that moment the one in the middle is able to escape through one of the openings before being stopped by the joined hands, which quickly lower to block her way, she wins; if not, she goes back and the game continues. . . . The name of falcon is given to the one in the middle, as if she were in a cage” (Galiani, Del dialetto 146; cit. Croce 561).

  32. ’nchire lo stefano (Neap.): stefano is stomach. Stefano and Trinculo (the term trincole is also used in tale 1.10) were the two Neapolitans in Shakespeare’s The Tempest (Croce 561).

  *. AT 310: The Maiden in the Tower, and AT 313: The Girl as Helper in the Hero’s Flight. Croce mentions versions from Pitrè (Fiabe, nov. e racc. siciliani 20, “The Old Woman in the Garden,” as well as 13 and 18) and Imbriani (16, “Prezzemolina”). Readers will also, of course, recognize the tale as a predecessor of Grimm 12, “Rapunzel.” A variant closer to Basile’s time can be found in Charlotte-Rose Caumont de la Force’s “Persinette” (in Zipes, ed., The Great Fairy Tale Tradition).

  1. “A pilgrimage to the sacred sites of Rome was a common penance” (Rak 294).

  2. “According to popular belief, if someone fails to satisfy a pregnant woman’s cravings, he or she will be punished with a sty, resulting in red and swollen eyelids” (Croce 148).

  3. Petrosinella: lit., “little parsley.” Here, as in the frame tale, we find an allusion to another, much more widespread popular belief regarding a pregnant woman’s craving: that if it is not satisfied and the woman touches a part of her own body, the shape of whatever was craved will appear on the newborn’s body in that same spot. Birthmarks are, in fact, called voglie: “longings” or “fancies.” Penzer notes, “The peasantry are convinced of the necessity of gratifying the longings of a pregnant woman. Should this be impossible, charms and spells are resorted to so as to prevent miscarriage and other evils” (1:140).

  4. “Women of the time would dye their hair blonde by smearing it with a certain substance and then letting it dry in the sun for many hours. While doing this they circled their foreheads with a straw visor” (Croce 561).

  5. “The sirens were among the most popular mythological icons in Campania” (Rak 294).

  6. A children’s game; passara (sparrow) is also a euphemism for the female genitals.

  7. “Rosso, a thief, was being taken to the gallows, and when the carriage he was in jolted him due to the broken pavestones, he begged his guard to tell the appropriate magistrate to repair the street, since it was a disgrace that those passing along it on their way to be hanged had to feel their insides being shaken up. The expression ‘Rosso’s troubles’ is Florentine in origin” (Croce 562).

  8. “That is, before May 4, which is still, in Naples, the day designated for moving and changing residence,” and was established as such by the viceroy Count of Lemos (1610–16) (Croce 150).

  *. AT 432: The Prince as Bird. Croce mentions popular versions of this tale from Pitrè and Imbriani. The name “Verde Prato” (Green Meadow) does not appear in the tale itself (perhaps Basile had intended to use it for the prince), but a possible source is M. A. Biondo’s Angitia cortigiana de natura del Cortigiano (1550), in which “It happened that a gentleman by the name of Green Feather came to die because of a female friend of his. He had fallen in love with a very noble and courtly lady by the name of Lucente, and since he had no other way to enter into where she lived [. . .] he had a tunnel of crystal made” (cit. Rak 308). See also Pitrè, Fiabe, nov. e racc. sic. 38, “The Magic Balls,” and Gonzenbach 27, “The Green Bird.”

  1. na Caterina papara (Neap.): “A woman famous at this time for her dissolute and criminal life. The family name ‘Paparo’ [duck] existed in Naples” (Croce 153).

  2. “Heavily decorated velvet breeches, cut in long strips up to the knee, that German lords of the time wore” (Croce 155).

  3. “Lampa is both a lamp and a measure (2 carafes) used for wine in some areas of the Kingdom of Naples” (Croce 156).

  4. zannettarie (Neap.): “money-clippers, especially of half-carlin coins, which took on the name of zannette” (Croce 156).

  5. Galen (c. AD 129–200) was a Greek physician and writer whose works constituted one of the main foundations of medieval medical knowledge in the West. Mesua (Yak·ya ibn Māsawaih.) was “an Arab physician (c. mid-9th century) whose works were translated and printed in Italian until the late 16th century” (Rak 309).

  6. Hypericum perforatum, or St. John’s wort, a medicinal plant with astringent properties.

  7. “The juice of onion was, according to popular belief, an irritant” (Rak 309).

  8. “The fat of various animals was said to have therap
eutic qualities” (Rak 309).