[37] Masuccio: _The Novellino_, translated into English by W. G.
Waters: London, Lawrence and Bullen, 1895.
_A young lady being enamoured of the Prince of Salerno sends for one
of his chaplains and declares to him that she has received from the
said prince numerous letters praying for her love. The chaplain, having
divined her motive, enters into a plot with her and brings the affair
to the issue desired._
At that time when our most glorious lord and king, Don Fernando,
was entertaining Naples, according to his constant use, with those
joustings, those marvellous hunting parties, and those sumptuous
festivals which were famed far and wide, it chanced that amongst
the other merry-makers was a certain young damsel, of beauty
almost unrivalled, and a scion of one of the noblest houses of our
Parthenopean city.
Now for some time past she had often let her eyes regale themselves
with the beauty and the grace of form belonging to my most illustrious
lord, the Prince of Salerno, and beyond this had heard sung, over and
over again, the praises of his extraordinary worth. By this time she
was more than ever captivated by him, wherefore she became so lovesick
that she could only give thought to the gentleman by whom her fancy had
been ensnared.
After she had let her thoughts ... engage themselves in many and divers
plans by which she might honourably achieve the victory in so worthy
an adventure, she found that all these schemes were over-difficult to
compass; wherefore it more than once came into her head that she would
follow the advice of certain other ladies of her acquaintance, who,
whenever they found they could not refrain from entering the lists of
love, were wont to send word to the gallant youths beloved of them and
challenge them to the amorous warfare.
But this damsel, who was gifted with no small prudence, and was
persuaded at the same time that she would not, by following such a
course, be setting a very high value either upon herself or upon her
undertaking, suddenly determined that she would make trial of a novel
and very crafty stratagem to induce the prince aforesaid to cull the
first fruits of her virgin garden. Having chosen a time when the prince
had gone to other parts for diversion in the chase, she let come to her
a certain priest, a man whom she could fully trust, and one who was
much about the house, and to him she gave directions as to what she
would have him do.
_This priest now brings Fra Paulo, the chaplain and the prince’s
most trusted attendant, to the damsel who alleges the receipt of
impassioned love-letters from the prince. She is at a loss to know
whether these letters have been concocted by one of her brothers with
a view to putting her constancy to proof, or whether they have really
been written by the prince who “is in sooth taken with love of me,
seeing that I have at times kept my eyes fixed upon him somewhat more
than was due.” The text continues_:--
With these, and with other words of a like character, which had been
prepared with the most consummate art, she laid before the chaplain
the letters aforesaid, by way of giving him still farther assurance of
the truth of her craftily devised discourse. Fra Paulo, although, as a
prudent man, and as one accustomed to bring contests of this sort to
a victorious issue, he had fully detected and comprehended the hidden
wishes and purpose of the young lady, nevertheless, as she went on step
by step with her reasonings and arguments, was astonished at finding so
great ingenuity and astuteness in the brain of a damsel so delicate and
youthful.
Still, as he remarked more than once that, whenever she mentioned the
name of his lord the prince, her face changed colour, he understood
that the passion which possessed her must be indeed burning and fierce.
Wherefore he determined to let this same wind speed his own bark over
such a pleasant sea, and he thus made answer to her:--
“Lady mine, because of your kindness, you have thought well enough of
me to unveil to me your secret affairs, you may rest assured that,
no less for the preservation of your own good name than for the
safeguarding of my lord’s, I will deal with this matter with all that
silence and secrecy which, according to your judgement and mine as
well, the gravity and importance of the same demand....
“ ... I declare once for all that these letters were never written
by my lord; in sooth, if they had been his handiwork, I should have
marvelled amain, because it is his custom never to write with his own
hand to any woman, however fiercely his passion may be kindled for her,
unless he may first have made proof of her love.... At the outset of
all his love affairs the letters and messages thereanent are written
and arranged by the agency of the chamberlain, who is in his closest
confidence. Wherefore I hold it for certain that these same letters
must be from the hands of this man....
“ ... Many a time, when I have chanced to be discoursing concerning the
beauty of women with my lord, he, with a little sigh, which he seemed
fain to repress, has never ceased to place you before all other ladies.
And although his words are rare and few and sententious, he has full
often let me know secretly that you are the only one to whom he has
entirely given his love.
“Therefore meseems that ... you should give me authority to act, so I
may be able to place the whole matter together with your own doubts
and fears, before the notice of my lord.... And in order that you may
speedily be informed of the answer, and that the affair may be kept no
long time in suspense, it will behove you to be on the watch for me,
for when you shall see me pass by your house, and call to a certain boy
who will be standing opposite thereto, you may be assured that I have
done my errand, and on the following morning let us meet once more in
this same spot.”
The young lady, deeming that she had assuredly gulled the friar by
her trick, and that her plot could not now fail to come to an issue
perfectly satisfactory to her, was so greatly overjoyed that it seemed
to her as if she had in sooth been crowned by Heaven.... Then, having
brought their discourse to an end, and each one being in a contented
mood, though for a different cause, they went their several ways.
As Fortune willed it ... the friar was met by the news that the prince
had already taken the road with the intention of being in Naples on
the following day. Wherefore Fra Paulo, having gone out to meet him,
was mightily glad to let him know the whole history of the craft of
the amorous damsel, and of the scheme which she had framed. The prince
gave ear to the same with no less amazement than pleasure; for, albeit
he had rarely cast his eyes upon this young girl, and retained no
recollection of her beauty, nevertheless it seemed to him to be only
just and right that he should hold dear those who loved him. So he made
answer to the friar, and bade him set the business in progress in such
wise that the meeting might be brought to pass at the earliest possible
time.
The friar, pleased beyond measure and eager to do service to the
prince, betook himself towards the house of the damsel as soon as
he had dismounted from his beast. Then, having made the sign which
had been agreed between themselves--a sign which she observed and
understood with the utmost pleasure--the damsel duly repaired on the
following morning to the spot which had been chosen; and there, when
she met the friar, he said to her:--
“My dear lord, who for your pleasure arrived last night in Naples,
commends himself to you. I have set before him at full length the
purport of the converse betwixt you and me, but I could not draw from
his lips any other reply except that he prays and conjures you, by the
perfect love which he has for so long a time borne and still bears to
you, and also by that love which you should dutifully entertain towards
him, that it will please you, on this same evening, to give him a
kindly audience in order that he may, without needing to confide in any
living man, lay bare to you those matters which he has kept hitherto,
and still keeps, secured by a strong lock within his passionate breast.”
The young woman, who, as she listened to these words, was so vastly
overjoyed that she could with difficulty contain herself within her
skin, now felt that every hour would be as a thousand years until she
should find herself engaged in the supreme conclusions of love; and,
after a few feeble denials and hesitations, answered that she was ready
to do what the prince desired. She did not quit the friar’s company
until they had, in discreet wise, settled when and in what manner and
in what place she and the prince should come together for the amorous
battle.
The friar then betook himself straightway to his beloved lord and
prince, who indeed was awaiting him and his answer. Then he set forth
everything to the prince, who, when himseemed that the appointed time
had come, went with his attendants to the meeting-place, and there he
found the lovely young damsel, who, delicately arrayed and perfumed,
received him with open arms and exceeding great delight.
Then, after countless kisses had been given and received by the prince,
they got on board their bark, and after the helm had been duly set and
the sails spread to the wind, the damsel, what though she was not as
yet greatly versed in the mariner’s art, let her lover navigate the sea
of love during all the time they were able to spend together. When at
last they found themselves with great delight once more in port, the
damsel, tenderly clasping the neck of the prince with her arms, thus
addressed him:--
“My sweetest lord, for that I alone, aided by my own skill and
forethought, have succeeded in bringing you hither this first time I
have but to thank myself, but for the future I must leave to the care
of you and of Love the devising of the means whereby you may be able to
show me further proofs of your passion. Now there remains nothing more
for me to say except that I recommend myself without ceasing to your
favour.”
Thereupon the illustrious lord the prince heartened her with soft
and tender words, and they then took leave of one another with great
pleasure and delight; and if anyone should still wish to know whether,
and in what fashion, this love of theirs bore further fruit, let him
inquire on his own behalf.
_EXCURSUS_ to _THE DAMSEL AND THE PRINCE_.
Because Masuccio--so far as the general public is concerned--may be
counted among the lesser-known of the Novellieri of the Cinquecento, it
may not be inappropriate to give a few details of his life and work.
To this purpose we cannot do better than quote from the admirable
introduction to Mr. W. G. Waters’ translation of the _Novellino_,
whence is taken our story of _The Damsel and the Prince_.
Masuccio, says Mr. Waters, “was probably born about 1420.... Seeing
that he was Sanseverino’s secretary, and that the great majority of his
novels are dedicated to prominent Neapolitans, it may be assumed that
his life was chiefly spent in Naples and the neighbourhood.... After
1474 Masuccio fades entirely from view....
“Masuccio seems to have rated himself as one with a message to deliver
... his phraseology gives one the impression that he wrote with
his feelings at white heat.... In the very Prologue to the work he
announces his primary theme, by proclaiming himself the scourger of
priestly vices.... If the words which a man speaks or writes are ever
to be taken as evidence of the mind that is in him, then assuredly
Masuccio may be credited with ardent hatred of the offences he
denounces.[38] Putting aside occasional lapses into licentiousness of
expression as accidents inseparable from the age in which he wrote, it
is almost impossible to doubt his sincerity as a would-be reformer of
manners....
[38] Masuccio, of course, cannot claim any peculiar virtue in this
respect, lust in the guise or under the cloak of religion being a
favourite theme of mediæval and even later novelists. We shall deal
at length with the subject in the second volume of _Anthologica
Rarissima: The Way of a Priest_.
“ ... Masuccio’s canvas is a limited one. A few of his stories are in
the vein of genuine buffo, a few more are tragedies pure and simple,
but the majority of the residue will be found to treat of one or other
of his two particular themes, the castigation of profligate clerics
and unchaste women. He devotes one part of the work to each of these
specially; but in the other parts he never lets a friar or a woman
escape the lash if he finds the chance of laying it on.
“The most scathing passages ... are those which occur here and there
in the ‘Masuccio’ at the end of his stories.... As an instance may
be quoted the conclusion to Novel XXIII., in which, after screaming
himself hoarse over the crimes of women, he finishes with these words:--
“‘Would that it had been God’s pleasure and Nature’s to have suffered
us to be brought forth from the oak-trees, or indeed to have been
engendered from water and mire like the frogs in the humid rains of
summer, rather than to have taken our origin from so base, so corrupt,
and so vilely fashioned a sex as womankind.’”
As a further example of Masuccio’s hatred of women, Mr. Waters cites
“the frightful indictment at the end of Novel VI. which he prefers
against women who put on the habit of religious houses.” We might do
worse than quote it:--
“ ... I keep silence, likewise, concerning all that might be said on
the subject of the marriage of these women with friars ... how they
make sumptuous marriage feasts, inviting thereto from this convent
and that their friends, who present themselves with equipages laden
with all manner of rich goods.... With the consent of the abbess and
of their prelate they execute marriage contracts, duly written and
sealed; and then, having supped off all manner of sumptuous meats, and
performed every other ceremony pertaining to the rite of marriage, they
go to bed one with another without showing any fear or shame, just as
if their union had been contracted with the full sanction of their own
fathers, and by the laws of marriage....”[39]
[39] _C.f._ _The New Metamorphosis, or The Golden Ass of Apuleius
altered and improved to Modern Times_, by Carlo Socio: London, 1822,
extracts from which, exactly germane to Masuccio’s denunciation, will
be found in vol. 2 of _Anthologica Rarissima: The Way of a Priest_.
Space will not permit us, however, to deal _in extenso_ with
Masuccio’s hatred of priest and woman. We can best refer the reader
to his _Novellino_, or to such extracts as we shall make from them
in subsequent volumes of _Anthologica Rarissima_. Our purpose, in
the foregoing sketch, was to give some slight impression of the aims
and mentality of the author of the two stories reproduced in this
particular volume.