_TALE XXXVIII_.
_A towns-woman of Tours returned so much good for all the evil treatment she had received from her husband, that the latter forsook the mistress whom he was quietly maintaining, and returned to his wife_. (1)
1 It is probable that the incidents related in this tale occurred between 1460 and 1470. They will be found recorded in the _Menagier de Paris_. (See Baron Pichon's edition, 1847, vol. i. p. 237). A similar narrative figures in some editions of Morlini's tales, notably the _Novello, Fabello, et Comedies, Neapoli_, 1520. We further find it in Gueudeville's translation of Erasmus's Colloquies (_Dialogue sur le mariage, collogues, &c., Leyden_, 1720, vol. i. p. 87), and Mr. Walter Keily has pointed out (the _Heptameron_, Bohn, 1864) that William Warner worked the same incidents into his poem _Albion's England_, his stanzas being reproduced in Percy's _Reliques_ under the title of _The Patient Countess_.--L. and Ed.
In the city of Tours there dwelt a chaste and comely townswoman, who, byreason of her virtues, was not only loved but feared also and respectedby her husband. Nevertheless, with all the fickleness of men who growweary of ever eating good bread, he fell in love with a farm tenant (2)of his own, and would oft-time leave Tours to visit the farm, where healways remained two or three days; and when he came back to Tours he wasalways in so sorry a plight that his wife had much ado to cure him, yet,as soon as he was whole again, he never failed to return to the placewhere pleasure caused him to forget all his ills.
2 The French word here is _metayere_. The _metayer_ (fem. metayere) was a farm tenant under the general control of his landlord, who supplied him with seed and took to himself a considerable portion of the produce. The system was done away with at the Revolution, but was revived here and there under the Restoration, when some of the nobles came to "their own" again, and there may even nowadays be a few instances of the kind.--Ed.
When his wife, who was anxious above all things for his life and health,found him constantly return home in so evil a plight, she went to thefarm and found there the young woman whom her husband loved. Then,without anger but with graceful courage, she told her that she knew herhusband often went to see her, but that she was ill-pleased to find himalways return home exhausted in consequence of her sorry treatment ofhim. The poor woman, influenced as much by respect for her mistressas by regard for the truth, was not able to deny the fact, and cravedforgiveness.
The lady asked to see the room and bed in which her husband was wontto sleep, and found it so cold and dirty and ill-appointed that she wasmoved to pity. Forthwith she sent for a good bed furnished with sheets,blankets and counterpane such as her husband loved; she caused the roomto be made clean and neat and hung with tapestries; provided suitableware for his meat and drink, a pipe of good wine, sweetmeats andconfections, and begged the woman to send him back no more in somiserable a state.
It was not long before the husband again went, as was his wont, to seehis tenant, and he was greatly amazed to find his poor lodging in suchexcellent order. And still more was he surprised when the woman gave himto drink in a silver cup; and he asked her whence all these good thingshad come. The poor woman told him, weeping, that they were from hiswife, who had taken such great pity on his sorry treatment that she hadfurnished the house in this way, and had charged her to be careful ofhis health.
When the gentleman saw the exceeding generosity of his wife in returningso much good for all the evil turns that he had done her, he looked uponhis own wrongdoing as no less great than her kindness; and, after givingsome money to his tenant, he begged her to live in future as an honestwoman. Then he went back to his wife, acknowledged his wrongdoing, andtold her that, but for her great gentleness and generosity, hecould never have forsaken the life that he had been leading. Andthenceforward, forgetting the past, they lived in all peacefulnesstogether.
"You may be sure, ladies, that there are but few husbands whom a wife'slove and patience cannot win at last, unless they be harder even thanstone, which weak and yielding water will in time make hollow."
"That woman," said Parlamente, "had neither heart, gall nor liver."
"What would you have had her do?" said Longarine. "She practised whatGod commands, and returned good for evil." (3)
3 "Recompense to no man evil for evil."--_Rom_. xii. 17. "Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing."--1 _Pet_. iii. 9.--Ed.
"I think," said Hircan, "she must have been in love with some GreyFriar, who had laid upon her the penance of having her husband welltreated in the country, so that, meantime, she might be free toentertain herself well in the town."
"Therein," said Oisille, "you clearly show the wickedness of your ownheart, judging ill of a good deed. I rather believe her to have been sosubdued by the love of God that she cared for naught save the salvationof her husband's soul."
"It seems to me," said Simontault, "that he had more reason to returnto his wife when he was so cold at the farm than afterwards when he wastreated so well."
"From what I can see," said Saffredent, "you are not of the same opinionas the rich man of Paris who, when he lay with his wife, could not putoff his gear without being chilled, but who never felt the worse whenhe went without cap or shoes, in the depth of winter, to see hisservant-maid in the cellar. Yet his wife was very beautiful and the maidvery ugly."
"Have you not heard," said Geburon, "that God always aids lunatics,lovers and sots? Perhaps he was all three in one."
"Do you thence conclude," said Pariamente, "that God recks not of thewise, the chaste and the temperate? Help is not needed by those who canhelp themselves. He who said that He had come for the sick and not forthe whole, (4) came by the law of His mercy to succour our infirmities,thereby annulling the decrees of His rigorous justice; and he that deemshimself wise is a fool in the sight of God. But, to end the sermon, towhom will Longarine give her vote?"
4 "They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick."--_St. Mark_ ii. 17. See also _St. Luke_ v. 31.--Ed.
"I give it," she said, "to Saffredent."
"Then I hope," said Saffredent, "to prove to you that God does notfavour lovers. For although it has already been said, ladies, that viceis common to men and women alike, yet will a subtle artifice be morereadily and adroitly devised by a woman than by a man Of this I am nowabout to give you an instance."
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The Tales Of The Heptameron, Vol. IV. (of V.) Page 11