“Ima subit, resilit. Ventosi prælia vento,
Exagitant juvenes: pellunt dextra atque repellunt,
Corruit ille iterùm; levisque aere truditur aer;
Ictibus impatiens obmurmurat; altaque rursus
Nubila metitur cursu; si forte globosa
Excipiant miserata globum patiturque repulsam.”
P. CAR. DE LUCA, 1. 19, EX. J. B. GANDUTIO: _Harpastum Florentinum_;
_or_, _On the Florentine Game of Ball_ (1603).
“Jamque calent lusorum animi; color ardet in ore
In vultu sanguis rubet, omnesque occupat artus;
Præcipites hinc, inde ruunt, cursuque sequaci
Atque oculis sphæræ volucri vigilantibus justant.”
PILÆ LUDUS: _The Game of Ball_. _Auctor Incertus_. _XVIth Century_.
“Now the playing at _ball_ is allowed to Christians, because, like
chess, draughts, billiards, bowls, _trucca_, and the like, it is a
game of skill and not of chance, which latter makes illicit the most
innocent play.”—_Trattato di Giochi_, etc., _Rome_, 1708.
There was once upon a time a grand signore in Florence who had a clever
servant, a young man, who, whether he had a fairy god-mother or a witch
grandmother is not told; but it is certain that he had such luck at
playing ball as to always win and never lose. And his master so arranged
it with him as to bet and win immense sums.
One day Virgilio, being present at a match in which this young man
played, observed that there sat upon his ball a tiny invisible goblin,
who directed its course as he pleased.
“Beautiful indeed is thy play,” said Virgilio to the youth, “and thy
ball—_ha tutta la finezza dell’ arte_—hath all the refinement of its art;
but ’tis a pity that it is not an honest ball.”
“Thou art mistaken,” replied the young man; but he reddened as he spoke.
“Ah, well,” answered Virgil, “I will show thee anon whether I have made a
mistake or told the truth. _A carne di lupo dente di cane_—A dog’s teeth
to a wolf’s hide. My young friend and his old master need a bite or two
to cure them of their evil ways.”
There was in Florence the next day a great fair, or _festa_, and Virgil,
passing where young people were diverting themselves, saw a very
beautiful, bold-faced girl, who looked like a gipsy, or as if she
belonged to some show, playing ball. Then Virgil, calling a goblin not
bigger than a babe’s finger, {109} bade it go and sit on the girl’s ball,
and inhabit and inspire it to win. It did so, and the girl won every
time. Then Virgilio said to her:
“Come with me, and I will show you how to win one hundred crowns. There
is a young man who carries all before him at playing; thou must drive him
before thee; _e render la pariglia_—pay him back in his own money. Then
shalt thou have one hundred crowns.”
So they went together to the castle, and Virgilio said to the old
signore:
“I have found a young girl who plays ball so well, that I am anxious to
try her game against that of your young man.”
“What will you bet on her?” asked the old signore.
“A thousand crowns,” replied Virgilio.
“Done!” was the response.
But when they met on the ground the youth and the girl fell in love at
first sight to the last degree, and not being much troubled with modesty,
told one another so—_schiettamente e senza preamboli_—plainly, without
prelude, preamble, or preface, as is the way and wont of professionals or
show-people, wherein they showed their common sense of the value of time,
which is to them as money.
Then they began to play, and it was in the old fashion, with two balls at
once, each player tossing one to the other with the drum. {110a} And it
came to pass that in the instant that the two goblins beheld one another
from afar they also fell in love. And as fairies and _folletti_ do
everything, when they will, a thousand times more rapidly than human
beings, and as neither could or would conquer in the game, they both
cried:
“Let us be for ever united in love.”
So the two balls met with a bump half-way in their course and fell to the
ground as one, while the fays embraced; and at the same instant the youth
and the girl, unable to suppress their feelings, rushed into one
another’s arms and began to kiss, and Virgilio and the old signore roared
with laughter, the latter having a second attack of merriment when
Virgilio explained to him the entire trick and plot.
Then, as it was a drawn game, the thousand crowns were by common consent
bestowed on the young couple, who were married to their hearts’ content,
having one _festa_ after another, at which all the guests went from
bottle to bottle, even as the ass of a dealer in pottery goeth from door
to door, or as the pig of Saint Antonio went from house to house. Amen!
* * * * *
Singularly enough, though this story comes from a witch source, there is
in it no incantation addressed to a ball to make it always win for its
owner; and, oddly enough, I recall one for that purpose, taken from an
American burlesque of “Der Freyschütz,” {110b} in which the demon-hunter
calls on Zamiel the fiend to give him a magic ninepin or skittle-ball.
“Sammy-hell, a boon I beg!
By thy well and wooden leg!
We ask for that ’ere bowling ball
Wot’ll knock down one and all.
Give us all the queer ingredients,
And we’ll remain your most obedients!”
The idea of enchanted dice which always throw sixes and the like, forms
the subject of stories possibly wherever dice are thrown or cards played,
inasmuch as all gamblers who live or lose by chance are naturally led to
believe that fortune can be invoked or propitiated. Hence the majority
of them carry charms, fetishes, or amulets.