In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Peruonto, a tried and true wretch, goes to the woods to gather some kindling, shows kindness to three boys who are sleeping in the sun, and receives an enchantment . When he is made fun of by the king’s daughter he puts a curse on her, willing that she become pregnant by him, which happens. The king finds out that Peruonto is the father of the baby, puts him in a barrel with his wife and children, and throws it out to sea. But by virtue of the enchantment Peruonto frees himself from the dangerous situation and, after he turns into a handsome young man, becomes king. They all showed signs of having felt great pleasure at the consolation that the poor prince had received, and at the punishment delivered upon those wicked women. But since Meneca needed to continue the conversation, an end was put to the others’ chatter, and she began to tell of the fact that follows : “A good deed is never wasted; those who sow courtesy reap benefits, and those who plant kindness harvest affection. A favor granted to a grateful soul is never sterile, but generates gratitude and gives birth to rewards. One can find continual proof of this in the experiences of men; you will see one example in the tale that you are about to hear. “An illustrious woman of Casoria1 named Ceccarella had a son named Peruonto,2 who was the most dismal creature, the greatest yokel, and the 3 Peruonto Third Entertainment of the First Day 61 AT 675: The Lazy Boy. Penzer points out the principal motifs of this tale: “The first is the ‘gift of wishing,’ in this case awarded for kindness. It is one of the varieties of the ‘gratitude’ motif. The second is the ‘means of recognition,’ consisting of tricks by which it is hoped to show up the culprit—in this case the father of the child of the unmarried Princess” (1:42). He notes similarities with tales by Straparola (Le piacevoli notti 3.1, “Crazy Peter”), Afanasev, and the many affinities with the “Hanns Dumm” type. The “means of recognition” motif also appears in the famous tale of Rhampsinitus in Herodotus and in Ser Giovanni’s fourteenth-century rewriting of it, among others. Other variants of this tale can be found in Pitrè, Fiabe, nov. e racc. siciliani 188, “The Place of Raisins and Figs”; and Pitrè, Nov. pop. toscane 30, “The Tale of the Little Falcon.” See also Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy, “The Dolphin” (in Zipes, Beauties, Beasts, and Enchantments). 1. Town in a swampy area six kilometers northeast of Naples. 2. “Nickname that derives from the dialect term peruontolo, which in Southern Italy has various meanings: a large fava bean, a bell clapper, or the phallus” (De Simone 65–67). most solemn idiot3 that Nature had ever created. On account of this his poor mother’s heart was blacker than an old rag, and a thousand times a day she cursed the knees4 that had held the door wide for a flycatcher who wasn’t worth his weight in dog sperm. But the unfortunate woman could scream and open her mouth all she liked; the good-for-nothing wouldn’t have gotten up from taking a shit to do her a damned service. Finally, after a thousand thunderous scoldings, a thousand juicy tirades, a thousand ‘I’m telling you’s’ and ‘I told you’s,’ and with a scream today and a shriek tomorrow, she sent him off to the woods for some kindling, saying, ‘It’s high time to choke on a morsel or two; run and get wood, don’t lose your way, and come right back, for we need to drag a few broccoli stalks in a bit of oil so that we can drag this life of ours a little farther along.’ “That good-for-nothing Peruonto left like someone condemned to march between the Brothers of the White Justice;5 he left and he walked as if he were treading on eggs, at a magpie’s pace;6 he counted his steps, moving off oh so slowly, advancing little by little, creeping ahead, poking lazily along the road to the woods, like the crow that flies off never to return again. “And when he was in the middle of a meadow where a river ran—chattering and murmuring about the scant discretion of the stones that blocked its way—he came across three boys who...

Share