"There once lived in Florence a young nobleman, who had grown up putting
great faith in _fate_, _ninfe_, and similar spirits, believing that they
were friendly, and brought good fortune to those who showed them respect.
Now there was in his palazzo in the Via Calzaioli, at the corner of the
Condotta, a very old well or fountain, on which were ancient and worn
images, and in which there was a marvellous echo, and it was said that
two nymphs had their home in it. And the Signore, believing in them,
often cast into the spring wine or flowers, uttering a prayer to them,
and at table he would always cast a little wine into water, or sprinkle
water on the ground to do them honour.
"One day he had with him at table two friends, who ridiculed him when he
did this, and still more when he sang a song praising nymphs and fairies,
in answer to their remarks. Whereupon one said to him:
"'Truly, I would like to see
An example, if 't may be,
How a fairy in a fountain,
Or a goblin of the mountain,
Or a nymph of stream or wood,
Ever did one any good;
For such fays of air or river,
One might wait, I ween, for ever,
And if even such things be,
They are devils all to me.'
"Then the young Signore, being somewhat angered, replied:
"'In the wood and by the stream,
Not in reverie or dream,
Where the ancient oak-trees blow,
And the murmuring torrents flow,
Men whose wisdom none condemn
Oft have met and talked with them.
Demons for you they may be,
But are angels unto me.'
"To which his friend sang in reply, laughing:
"'Only prove that they exist,
And we will no more resist;
Let them come before we go,
With _ha_!_ ha_!_ ha_! and _ho_!_ ho_!_ ho_!'
"And as they sang this, they heard a peal of silvery laughter without,
or, as it seemed, actually singing in the hall and making a chorus with
their voices. And at the instant a servant came and said that two very
beautiful ladies were without, who begged the young Signore to come to
them immediately, and that it was on a matter of life and death.
"So he rose and stepped outside, but he had hardly crossed the threshold
before the stone ceiling of the hall fell in with a tremendous crash, and
just where the young Signore had sat was a great stone weighing many
_quintale_ or hundredweights, so that it was plain that if he had not
been called away, in an instant more he would have been crushed like a
fly under a hammer. As for his two friends, they had broken arms and cut
faces, bearing marks in memory of the day to the end of their lives.
"When the young Signore was without the door and looked for the ladies,
they were gone, and a little boy, who was the only person present,
declared that he had seen them, that they were wonderfully beautiful, and
that, merrily laughing, they had jumped or gone down into the well.
"Therefore it was generally believed by all who heard the tale that it
was the Fairies of the Well, or _Fonte_, who thus saved the life of the
young Signore, who from that day honoured them more devoutly than ever;
nor did his friends any longer doubt that there are spirits of air or
earth, who, when treated with pious reverence, can confer benefits on
their worshippers.
"'For there are fairies all around
Everywhere, and elves abound
Even in our homes unseen:
They go wherever we have been,
And often by the fireside sit,
A-laughing gaily at our wit;
And when the ringing echo falls
Back from the ceiling or the walls,
'Tis not our voices to us thrown
In a reflection, but their own;
For they are near at every turn,
As he who watches soon may learn.'
"And the young Signore, to do honour to the fairies, because they had
saved his life, put them one on either side of his coat-of-arms, as you
may see by the shield which is on the house at the corner of the Via
Calzaioli."
* * * * *
The authenticity of this legend, is more than doubtful, because it exists
elsewhere, as I have read it, being unable to give my authority; but
unless my memory deceives me, it goes back to classic times, and may be
found in some such work as that of Philostratus _de Vita Apollonii_ or
Grosius. Neither am I well assured, to judge from the source whence I
had it, that it is current among the people, though no great measure of
credulity is here required, since it may be laid down as a rule, with
rarest exception, that there is no old Roman tale of the kind which may
not be unearthed with pains and patience among old Tuscan peasant women.
However, the _shield_ is still on the corner of the Via Calzaioli, albeit
one of the nymphs on it has been knocked or worn away. Thus even _fates_
must yield in time to fate.
I have in a note to another legend spoken of the instinct which seems to
lead children or grown people to associate wells with indwelling fairies,
to hear a voice in the echo, and see a face in the reflection in the
still water. Keats has beautifully expressed it in "Endymion":
"Some mouldered steps lead into this cool cell
Far as the slabbed margin of a well,
Whose patient level peeps its crystal eye
Right upward through the bushes to the sky. . . .
Upon a day when thus I watched . . . behold!
A wonder fair as any I have told--
The same bright face I tasted in my sleep
Smiling in the clear well. My heart did leap
Through the cool depth. . . .
Or 'tis the cell of Echo, where she sits
And babbles thorough silence till her wits
Are gone in tender madness, and anon
Faints into sleep, with many a dying tone."
"In which tale," writes the immortal Flaxius, "there is a pretty
allegory. Few there are who know why truth is said to be at the bottom
of a well; but this I can indeed declare to you. For as a mirror was
above all things an emblem of truth, because it shows all things exactly
as they are, so the water in a well was, as many traditions prove,
considered as a mirror, because looking into it we see our face, which we
of course most commonly see in a glass, and this disk of shining water
resembles in every way a hand-mirror. And for this reason a mirror was
also regarded as expressing life itself, for which reason people so
greatly fear to break them. So in the Latin, _Velut in speculo_, and in
the Italian, _Vero come un specchio_--'True as a mirror,' we have the
same idea. And a poet has written, 'Mirrored as in a well,' and many
have re-echoed the same pretty fancy.
"Which reminds me that in the Oberpfalz or Upper Palatinate maidens were
wont to go to a well by moonlight, and if on looking therein they saw
their own faces, they believed that they would soon be happily married.
But if a cloud darkened the moon and they saw nothing, then they would
die old maids. But luckiest of all was it if they fancied they saw a
man's face, for this would be the future husband himself.
"Now it befell that a certain youth near Heidelberg fell into a well, or
put himself there, when a certain maid whom he loved, came and looked in,
and believing that she saw the face of her destined spouse, went away in
full faith that the fairy of the well had taken his form, and so she
married him. Which, if it be not true, is _ben trovato_.
"Truth is always represented, be it remembered, as holding a mirror.
"And note also that the hand-mirror and the well were strangely connected
in ancient times, as appears by Pausanias, who states that before a
certain temple of Ceres hung a _speculum_, which, after it had been
immersed in a neighbouring well or spring, showed invalids by reflection
whether they would live or die. And with all this, the holding a mirror
to the mouth of an insensible person to tell whether the breath was still
in the body, seemed also to make it an indicator of life."
"Thus in life all things do pass,
As it were, in magic glass."