2
Another version of this story was told me, or rather an entirely
different story embodying the same purport, which, though full of fun,
turned on the double meanings of common words of household use too
homely for the most part, and some too coarse to please the English
reader. The husband, among other things, tells his wife to prepare
dinner for a friend and to mind she has 'brocoli strascinati' and 'uovi
spersi,' [361] as they are his favourite dishes. 'Strascinare' is to
drag anything along, but is technically used to express brocoli chopped
up and fried, the commonest Roman dish. 'Spergere' is to scatter, but
the word is used among common people to express eggs poached in broth,
a favourite delicacy; (eggs poached as in England are called 'uova in
bianco'). The wife, taking the words literally, drags the brocoli all
over the house and all over the yard, till it is so nasty it cannot
be eaten, instead of frying it, and scatters the eggs all about the
place instead of poaching them, and so on through a number of other
absurdities difficult to explain in detail. In the end the husband
falls ill, partly from her bad cooking and partly from annoyance;
a doctor is called in, who tells her (among other directions which
she similarly misunderstands), that he must have nothing but 'brodo,'
[362] but she is to make it 'alto, alto.' 'Alto' is literally 'high,'
but he uses it for 'good,' 'strong;' she, however, understands him
to mean her to make it in a high place, and goes up on the roof to
make it. When the husband asks for it she says she cannot get it for
him then as it is up on the roof.
Ultimately the husband dies of vexation.
There is a very familiar German story which everyone who has any
acquaintance with the people must have met, of a lady who complains to
her servant that the tea has not 'drawn,' and the simple girl answers,
'It is not my fault, I have drawn it all about the place enough I'm
sure' (Ich hab' es genug umhergezogen).