I have always heard say, that he who gives pleasure finds it: the bell
of Manfredonia says, "Give me, I give thee": he who does not bait the
hook of the affections with courtesy never catches the fish of
kindness; and if you wish to hear the proof of this, listen to my
story, and then say whether the covetous man does not always lose more
than the liberal one.
There were once two sisters, named Luceta and Troccola, who had two
daughters, Marziella and Puccia. Marziella was as fair to look upon as
she was good at heart; whilst, on the contrary, Puccia by the same rule
had a face of ugliness and a heart of pestilence, but the girl
resembled her parent, for Troccola was a harpy within and a very
scare-crow without.
Now it happened that Luceta had occasion to boil some parsnips, in
order to fry them with green sauce; so she said to her daughter,
"Marziella, my dear, go to the well and fetch me a pitcher of water."
"With all my heart, mother," replied the girl, "but if you love me give
me a cake, for I should like to eat it with a draught of the fresh
water."
"By all means," said the mother; so she took from a basket that hung
upon a hook a beautiful cake (for she had baked a batch the day
before), and gave it to Marziella, who set the pitcher on a pad upon
her head, and went to the fountain, which like a charlatan upon a
marble bench, to the music of the falling water, was selling secrets to
drive away thirst. And as she was stooping down to fill her pitcher, up
came a hump-backed old woman, and seeing the beautiful cake, which
Marziella was just going to bite, she said to her, "My pretty girl,
give me a little piece of your cake, and may Heaven send you good
fortune!"
Marziella, who was as generous as a queen, replied, "Take it all, my
good woman, and I am only sorry that it is not made of sugar and
almonds, for I would equally give it you with all my heart."
The old woman, seeing Marziella's kindness, said to her, "Go, and may
Heaven reward you for the goodness you have shown me! and I pray all
the stars that you may ever be content and happy; that when you breathe
roses and jessamines may fall from your mouth; that when you comb your
locks pearls and garnets may fall from them, and when you set your foot
on the ground lilies and violets may spring up."
Marziella thanked the old woman, and went her way home, where her
mother, having cooked a bit of supper, they paid the natural debt to
the body, and thus ended the day. And the next morning, when the Sun
displayed in the market-place of the celestial fields the merchandise
of light which he had brought from the East, as Marziella was combing
her hair, she saw a shower of pearls and garnets fall from it into her
lap; whereupon calling her mother with great joy, they put them all
into a basket, and Luceta went to sell a great part of them to a
usurer, who was a friend of hers. Meanwhile Troccola came to see her
sister, and finding Marziella in great delight and busied with the
pearls, she asked her how, when, and where she had gotten them. But the
maiden, who did not understand the ways of the world, and had perhaps
never heard the proverb, "Do not all you are able, eat not all you
wish, spend not all you have, and tell not all you know," related the
whole affair to her aunt, who no longer cared to await her sister's
return, for every hour seemed to her a thousand years until she got
home again. Then giving a cake to her daughter, she sent her for water
to the fountain, where Puccia found the same old woman. And when the
old woman asked her for a little piece of cake she answered gruffly,
"Have I nothing to do, forsooth, but to give you cake? Do you take me
to be so foolish as to give you what belongs to me? Look ye, charity
begins at home." And so saying she swallowed the cake in four pieces,
making the old woman's mouth water, who when she saw the last morsel
disappear and her hopes buried with the cake, exclaimed in a rage,
"Begone! and whenever you breathe may you foam at the mouth like a
doctor's mule, may toads drop from your lips, and every time you set
foot to the ground may there spring up ferns and thistles!"
Puccia took the pitcher of water and returned home, where her mother
was all impatience to hear what had befallen her at the fountain. But
no sooner did Puccia open her lips, than a shower of toads fell from
them, at the sight of which her mother added the fire of rage to the
snow of envy, sending forth flame and smoke through nose and mouth.
Now it happened some time afterwards that Ciommo, the brother of
Marziella, was at the court of the King of Chiunzo; and the
conversation turning on the beauty of various women, he stepped
forward, unasked, and said that all the handsome women might hide their
heads when his sister made her appearance, who beside the beauty of her
form, which made harmony on the song of a noble soul, possessed also a
wonderful virtue in her hair, mouth, and feet, which was given to her
by a fairy. When the King heard these praises he told Ciommo to bring
his sister to the court; adding that, if he found her such as he had
represented, he would take her to wife.
Now Ciommo thought this a chance not to be lost; so he forthwith sent a
messenger post-haste to his mother, telling her what had happened, and
begging her to come instantly with her daughter, in order not to let
slip the good luck. But Luceta, who was very unwell, commending the
lamb to the wolf, begged her sister to have the kindness to accompany
Marziella to the court of Chiunzo for such and such a thing. Whereupon
Troccola, who saw that matters were playing into her hand, promised her
sister to take Marziella safe and sound to her brother, and then
embarked with her niece and Puccia in a boat. But when they were some
way out at sea, whilst the sailors were asleep, she threw Marziella
into the water; and just as the poor girl was on the point of being
drowned there came a most beautiful syren, who took her in her arms and
carried her off.
When Troccola arrived at Chiunzo, Ciommo, who had not seen his sister
for so long a time, mistook Puccia, and received her as if she were
Marziella, and led her instantly to the King. But no sooner did she
open her lips than toads dropped on the ground; and when the King
looked at her more closely he saw, that as she breathed hard from the
fatigue of the journey, she made a lather at her mouth, which looked
just like a washtub; then looking down on the ground, he saw a meadow
of stinking plants, the sight of which made him quite ill. Upon this he
drove Puccia and her mother away, and sent Ciommo in disgrace to keep
the geese of the court.
Then Ciommo, in despair and not knowing what had happened to him, drove
the geese into the fields, and letting them go their way along the
seashore, he used to retire into a little straw shed, where he bewailed
his lot until evening, when it was time to return home. But whilst the
geese were running about on the shore, Marziella would come out of the
water, and feed them with sweetmeats, and give them rose-water to
drink; so that the geese grew as big as sheep, and were so fat that
they could not see out of their eyes. And in the evening when they came
into a little garden under the King's window, they began to sing--
"Pire, pire pire!
The sun and the moon are bright and clear,
But she who feeds us is still more fair."
Now the King, hearing this goose-music every evening, ordered Ciommo to
be called, and asked him where, and how, and upon what he fed his
geese. And Ciommo replied, "I give them nothing to eat but the fresh
grass of the field." But the King, who was not satisfied with this
answer, sent a trusty servant after Ciommo to watch and observe where
he drove the geese. Then the man followed in his footsteps, and saw him
go into the little straw shed, leaving the geese to themselves; and
going their way they had no sooner come to the shore than Marziella
rose up out of the sea; and I do not believe that even the mother of
that blind boy who, as the poet says, "desires no other alms than
tears," ever rose from the waves so fair. When the servant of the King
saw this, he ran back to his master, beside himself with amazement, and
told him the pretty spectacle he had seen upon the seashore.
The curiosity of the King was increased by what the man told him, and
he had a great desire to go himself and see the beautiful sight. So the
next morning, when the Cock, the ringleader of the birds, excited them
all to arm mankind against the Night, and Ciommo went with the geese to
the accustomed spot, the King followed him closely; and when the geese
came to the seashore, without Ciommo, who remained as usual in the
little shed, the King saw Marziella rise out of the water. And after
giving the geese a trayful of sweetmeats to eat and a cupful of
rose-water to drink, she seated herself on a rock and began to comb her
locks, from which fell handfuls of pearls and garnets; at the same time
a cloud of flowers dropped from her mouth, and under her feet was a
Syrian carpet of lilies and violets.
When the King saw this sight, he ordered Ciommo to be called, and,
pointing to Marziella, asked him whether he knew that beautiful maiden.
Then Ciommo, recognising his sister, ran to embrace her, and in the
presence of the King heard from her all the treacherous conduct of
Troccola, and how the envy of that wicked creature had brought that
fair fire of love to dwell in the waters of the sea.
The joy of the King is not to be told at the acquisition of so fair a
jewel; and turning to the brother he said that he had good reason to
praise Marziella so much, and indeed that he found her three times more
beautiful than he had described her; he deemed her, therefore, more
than worthy to be his wife if she would be content to receive the
sceptre of his kingdom.
"Alas, would to Heaven it could be so!" answered Marziella, "and that I
could serve you as the slave of your crown! But see you not this golden
chain upon my foot, by which the sorceress holds me prisoner? When I
take too much fresh air, and tarry too long on the shore, she draws me
into the waves, and thus keeps me held in rich slavery by a golden
chain."
"What way is there," said the King, "to free you from the claws of this
syren?"
"The way," replied Marziella, "would be to cut this chain with a smooth
file, and to loose me from it."
"Wait till to-morrow morning," answered the King; "I will then come
with all that is needful, and take you home with me, where you shall be
the pupil of my eye, the core of my heart, and the life of my soul."
And then exchanging a shake of the hands as the earnest-money of their
love, she went back into the water and he into the fire--and into such
a fire indeed that he had not an hour's rest the whole day long. And
when the black old hag of the Night came forth to have a country-dance
with the Stars, he never closed an eye, but lay ruminating in his
memory over the beauties of Marziella, discoursing in thought of the
marvels of her hair, the miracles of her mouth, and the wonders of her
feet; and applying the gold of her graces to the touchstone of
judgment, he found that it was four-and-twenty carats fine. But he
upbraided the Night for not leaving off her embroidery of the Stars,
and chided the Sun for not arriving with the chariot of light to enrich
his house with the treasure he longed for--a mine of gold which
produced pearls, a pearl-shell from which sprang flowers.
But whilst he was thus at sea, thinking of her who was all the while in
the sea, behold the pioneers of the Sun appeared, who smooth the road
along which he has to pass with the army of his rays. Then the King
dressed himself, and went with Ciommo to the seashore, where he found
Marziella; and the King with his own hand cut the chain from the foot
of the beloved object with the file which they had brought, but all the
while he forged a still stronger one for his heart; and setting her on
the saddle behind him, she who was already fixed on the saddle of his
heart, he set out for the royal palace, where by his command all the
handsome ladies of the land were assembled, who received Marziella as
their mistress with all due honour. Then the King married her, and
there were great festivities; and among all the casks which were burnt
for the illuminations, the King ordered that Troccola should be shut up
in a tub, and made to suffer for the treachery she had shown to
Marziella. Then sending for Luceta, he gave her and Ciommo enough to
live upon like princes; whilst Puccia, driven out of the kingdom,
wandered about as a beggar; and, as the reward of her not having sown a
little bit of cake, she had now to suffer a constant want of bread; for
it is the will of Heaven that--
"He who shows no pity finds none."