262
NOTES AND QUERIES. " [9 th s. xn. OCT. 3, 1903.
A notable form of the story is to be found
in the 'Decamerone' of Boccaccio (G. I.,
N. 5), in which the Marchesana di Mon-
ferrato is said to have served up to
Philippe le Borgne a banquet of sameness
during the absence of her husband on a
crusade, with the same intention and the same
result as the heroine of the Arabic stories.
In this variant the episode of the 'Lion's
Track ' disappears. Manni, as usual, believes
Boccaccio's story to be the record of a fact in
history. He cites a letter written by Aldus
Manutius the younger expressing the same
view, and enclosing a long passage from a
history of Naples written by Paolo Emilio
Santorio, in which the story is told, with
much diffuseness, of King Manfred and his
sister. Here the banquet of sameness fails
of its purpose.*
Another Italian variant is supplied by Antonio Cornazzano, who is sometimes called, apparently in error, Antonio Cornazzano dal Borzetti, and flourished in the fifteenth cen- tury, although his Italian ' Proverbii in Face- tie ' were not printed until 1523. There was an edition in Latin verse of ten of them, issued at Milan in 1503. It is not certain whether he wrote in Latin or Italian, for the issues are not described as translations. His 'Life of Christ' was printed in 1472. In the edition of Cornazzano's * Proverbs ' issued at Paris in 1812 there are two stories to illus- trate the saying " Tutta e fava." The twelfth offers a parallel to the banquet of Aphikia. A lady of Lombardy, married to a husband sensual and unfaithful, prepares for this prince and his barons a stately feast of many dishes, all of which are skilfully compounded out of beans. Toward the end of the dinner she is asked what the various dishes are made of, and to each question comes the answer " Tutta e fava." The prince, struck by the ingenious form of her reproof, dismisses his mistresses and becomes a model husband. t
- D. M. Manni, ' Istqria della Decamerone.' He
refers also to the story in Sansovino.
t "Proverbii di Messer Antonio Cornazzano in Facetie. Parigi, dai Torchi di P. Didot il Mage MDCCXII.," p. 74. Of this rare and beautiful edition there is a copy on vellum in the John Ry lands Library, Manchester. Speaking of the thirty-seventh and thirty-eighth stories in the Heptameron,' Toldo says: "Le due novelle svol- gono un simile argomento. La seconda riconosce |>er fonte la 71 n delle novelle del Morlini e la prima vuolsi dal Jacob che ricordi la storia della signora di Langallier, quale leggesi nel Livre du Chevalier de la lour Landry pour I'enseignement de ses filles <Montaiglon la pubblico nell' ediz. elz. dello Janet) Peru essa assomiglia anche alia nov. 5 a G. I. del Decamerone e piu ancora alia ll a della Cornazzano,
' shame," but
version
- Count Lucanor ' was written by a Spanish
prince, Don Juan Manuel, who was born in 1282. The fiftieth story relates that Saladin sent away one of his great vassals in order to gain access to the wife, whose love he solicited. She consents on condition that he will tell her what is the best thing a man can possess. He finds the reply difficult, and under- takes a journey in order to search for the right answer. Finally he learns that honour is a man's dearest treasure. When he returns to the lady she points out the necessity for him to relinquish the proposals he has made to her. The Spanish word ver- ffuenza, which Dr. James York translates by " honour, literally means there can be no doubt that his conveys the spirit of the original.*
The dividing line between history and legend is not always easy to draw in the Western world, and it is still less easy in the East. We need not therefore be surprised to learn from Prof. Ryssel that Arabic writers of the ninth century narrate the incident of the * Lion's Track ' as historical. He refers to Prof. T. Noldeke, who in his review of Bathgen's 1 Sindban ' tells us that the story of the ' Lion's Track ' is to be found in the ' AlmaAasin wal'- acfolad ' of GaAiz, who died in 869, and in the work of Dinawari, who died ten years earlier. According to this account Chosran Parwez had a vizier named Nachargan for whom he had a great regard. The king, however, had held a conversation with the wife of his vizier, and the result had been a coolness in the household. The king, having heard of this, said to Nachargan in the presence of the Court, " I hear that thou hast a fountain of sweet water, but drinkest not thereof." The vizier answered, " O king, I hear that the lion visits that fountain regularly, and I avoid it for fear of the lion." The king, delighted with the cleverness of this reply, gave rich presents to the lady and a rich crown to the husband. This is the "Treasure
in cui si narra d' un singolare banchette di sole fave che una moglie prepara al marito libertino, per farlo accorto che da donna a donna non ci puo essere altra differenza fuor di quella che corre da fava a fava " (Pietro Toldo, 'Contribute) allo Studio della Novella Francese del xv. e xvi. secolo con- siderata specialmente nelle sue attinenze con la Litteratura Italiana,' Roma, 1893, p. 77). The narratives given by Queen Marguerite and Geoftroy de la Tour Landry do not appear to me to have any resemblance to Boccaccio's story. Toldo appears to refer to No. 14 of the ' Grand Parangon ' as a variant (p. 91).
- " Count Lucanor by the Prince John Manuel,
done into English by James York, 1868, London, 1899," p. 231.
