The nights of Straparola, volume 1 [of 2]Straparola, Giovanni Francesco
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The nights of Straparola, volume 1 [of 2]
Straparola, Giovanni Francesco
Fairy tales -- Italy; Tales -- Italy
Then said Costanzo, ‘And besides this, I beg you to tell me how it was
that, when we were come into the palace, you laughed longer and louder
than ever?’ ‘Ah, I beg you will not trouble me more at present,’ said
Chiappino, ‘but go your way and come back to-morrow, and then I will
answer you and tell you certain things of which perchance you have no
inkling.’ When Costanzo heard this, he said to the king, ‘Let us depart
and come back to-morrow, and hear what this thing may be.’ Whereupon the
king and Costanzo took their leave, and gave orders that Chiappino
should be given to eat and drink of the best, and that he should be
allowed to chatter as he would.
When the next day had come they both went to see Chiappino, and they
found him puffing and blowing like a great pig, and, having gone close
to him, cried out to him several times in a loud voice. But Chiappino,
who had well filled his belly, answered nought. Then Costanzo gave him a
sharp prick with a dart which he had with him, whereupon the satyr awoke
and stood up and demanded who was there. ‘Now get up, Chiappino,’ said
Costanzo, ‘and tell us that thing which yesterday you promised we should
hear, and say why you laughed so loud when we came to the palace?’ To
which question Chiappino made this reply: ‘For a reason which you ought
to understand better than I. It was, forsooth, at hearing them all
shouting “Costanzo! Costanzo!” while all the time you are Costanza.’ The
king when he heard this could in no wise comprehend what this saying of
Chiappino’s might mean; but Costanzo, who immediately recognized its
import, in order to keep him from speaking more, at once stopped the way
for him[25] by saying: ‘And when you had been brought into the very
presence of the king and queen, what made you laugh then as if nothing
could stop you?’ To this Chiappino made answer: ‘I laughed then so
outrageously because the king, and you as well, believed that the
maidens who were in service on the queen were really maidens, whereas
the greater part of them were young men.’ And then he was silent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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