A young man, being upon business in a certain city, goes on a
hunting excursion, and, fatigued with the chase, stops at a
country house to ask refreshment. The lady of the mansion
receives him kindly, and admits him as her lover. In the midst
of their dalliance the husband comes home, and the young man had
no recourse to escape discovery but to jump into a basin which
was in the court of the house, and stand with head in a hollow
gourd that happened to be in the water. The husband, surprised
to see the gourd stationary in the water, which was itself
agitated by the wind, throws a stone at it, when the lover slips
from beneath it and holds his breath till almost suffocated.
Fortunately, the husband presently retires with his wife into an
inner room of the house, and thus the young man was enabled to
make good his escape.
The next day he relates his adventure before a large company at a
coffee-house. The husband happens to be one of the audience,
and, meditating revenge, pretends to admire the gallantry of the
young man and invites him to his house. The lover accompanies
him, and on seeing his residence is overwhelmed with confusion;
but, recovering himself, resolves to abide all hazards, in hopes
of escaping by some lucky stratagem. His host introduces him to
his wife, and begs him to relate his merry adventure before her,
having resolved, when he should finish, to put them both to
death. The young man complies, but with an artful presence of
mind exclaims at the conclusion, "Glad was I when I awoke from so
alarming a dream." The husband upon this, after some questions,
is satisfied that he had only told his dream, and, having
entertained him nobly, dismisses him kindly.
The story is told in an elaborate form by Ser Giovanni
Fiorentino, in "Il Pecorone" (The Big Sheep, or, as Dunlop has
it, The Dunce), which was begun in 1378 but not published till
1554 (at Milan). It is the second novel of the First Day and has
been thus translated by Roscoe: