The Seven Sages of Rome
(French Version A)
Translated literally by Hans R. Runte
from MS. Paris, BN f.fr. 2137, fol. 1-46
(13th cent.) (MS. T)
as edited on-line,
with variants from all manuscripts,
by Hans R. Runte
[Fol. 1a] In Rome was an emperor who had the name Diocletian.
He had had a wife. From this wife was left to him a male heir. The
emperor was old and the child was already seven years old. One day the
emperor called the seven sages by their names:
-- [My] lords, he says, tell me to whom of you I entrust my son to teach and instruct
[him]?
The first-born spoke before [the others],
and he was the richest and best-connected one and of the highest
lineage and old, [with hair] as white as wool, and was tall and
thin and his name was Bancillas. He turned toward
the emperor and spoke to him in this manner:
-- Sire, he goes, to me you shall [fol. 1b] entrust
him and I will teach him however much I know and however much my companions
know in seven years.
Afterwards the second [sage] got up.
This one was neither too tall nor too short but was of handsome
shape and handsome girth, and [his hair] was intermingled with
white
hairs so
that the white overtook the black, and his name was Ancilles.
He looked at the emperor and said to him:
-- Sire, he goes, you shall entrust him
to me and I will teach him however much I know and however
much my companions know in six years.
Afterwards the third [sage] got up,
and he was a thin small one with curly hair, and his name was
Lentillus and he said to the emperor:
-- Sire, however much I know and however
much my companions know I will teach him in five years; entrust
him to me.
The fourth [sage] got up on his feet
before the emperor, and his name was Malcuidarz the Red, [fol.
1c] a practical
joker who
readily mocked people.
-- Sire, he says, you shall entrust him
to me. I cannot say that I will teach him my companions’ knowledge,
but however much I know I will teach him in four years.
Afterwards the fifth [sage] got up,
and his name was Cato of Rome. He was of a nice age and [his
hair] was intermingled with white hairs so that the black showed through the white. He addressed the emperor and said to him:
-- Sire, to me you shall entrust him, if
it pleases you. I do not say that I will teach him however much
my companions know, for I do not know his mind nor his memory,
but however much I know and however much I will [yet] be able
to know I will teach him as soon as he will be able to retain it.
Afterwards the sixth [sage] got up,
and he had hair [that was] yellower than wax and curly, [fol.
1d] and he had eyes as green as a falcon’s, his nose [was] very
straight and well positioned, and he was broad across the shoulders
and thin down his sides. He had neither a beard nor a mustache,
and his name was Josse. He said to the emperor:
-- Sire, you shall entrust him to me and
I will commit myself [to the task] so that you will laud me
for it at the end of three years.
Afterwards the seventh [sage] got up,
his name was Martin, and said to the emperor:
-- Sire, I ask of you that you compensate
[me for] the service that I have put in for you all my life;
entrust me your son for instruction and I consider my entire
service paid and you will have compensated me well.
The emperor replied very humbly to
them all:
-- Gentlemen, great thanks for fending for my favour. I will not split
[fol. 2a] up this good company.
Now he took his son by the hand and
said:
-- I entrust him to the seven of you.
And they bowed before him and each
one individually gave him five hundred thanks.
The sages led the child amongst them
to the assembly hall (that is a place where they hold the great discussions and the great councils about
the matters pertaining to Rome). They counsel one another
that they will not leave it [the child] in Rome, for it could well
hear there some bad word from a town woman or a chambermaid or a bad boy. They looked
at a fruit-tree garden outside Rome, a league away. This garden
measured one league in all directions and was planted in all directions
with good trees and [was equipped] with all [fol. 2b] the good fountains
that one can design. In the middle of this garden they looked at
a beautiful, good and convenient spot and had a beautiful square
house built [with] big rooms in the back and beautiful salons in the front. When the
house was built and finished, the seven sages had the seven arts painted in the four parts of the house: first astronomy, then necromancy, music, arithmetic, rhetoric,
dialectic and grammar. They had the boy’s bed made in one of the
corners of [his] room so that [he could] see the seven arts. The
sages began to tutor and teach him, and when one left him, another
took him over and taught him to the best of his knowledge. Thus they
[fol. 2c] held him seven years, and he knew perfectly his way around the seven arts.
After these seven years they held him
a long while longer so that he already argued with them about
all knowledge and [so that] they said among
themselves that they would test him. So they took sixteen
ivy leaves and put four under each post of his bed. When the
bed was prepared the boy lay down. It was night and he took no notice
of [the leaves]. When morning came and the boy was awake, he looked
up and down and right and left. The sages marveled much when they
saw him so astonished, so they spoke to him and asked him what he had
heard or seen or felt, and that he tell them. The boy answered them:
-- Surely, handsome gentlemen, either the
roof of this house [fol. 2d] has been lowered or the ground
has been raised or my bed is higher.
They looked at each other and said
together that he was wise.
It did not take a long time afterwards
that the wise men of Rome came to his father and said to him:
-- Sire, we marvel much that you do not
[re]marry, for you have sufficiently large lands and large
rents whereby three children or four, if you had them, would
be rich men.
The emperor was old; he reflected [on
it] and after his reflection he replied to them:
-- I would take her readily if she were
sought and you wanted to take on [the task], for I have indeed
only one heir.
They responded:
-- We will readily seek her for you.
Now they sought her and looked for
her in [fol. 3a] many a land until they found her and led her
to the emperor. The emperor saw [how] beautiful and well-bred she
[was], and they made him understand that she was from a great lineage.
The lady’s parents gave her to the emperor and he took her very willingly
according to the habits and the customs of the land and loved her well
[and] so much [more] than any man can love a woman, and the lady loved
him as much.
One day it happened that the emperor
and the empress were alone in a room, and one had well said
to the empress that the emperor had a male heir and [that,] if
he were dead, the heirs that would issue forth from her would be
heirs to the empire of Rome. In that room where they were the empress
confronted [fol. 3b] the emperor:
--Sire, you have a son, he is mine as [much]
as yours. It can well be that we will never have [another] one.
Will he always be in hiding? It has been seven years since you
took me, yet I have not seen him, and I would willingly see him.
Sire, by the faith you owe me, send [someone] to fetch him. You have
held this empire all your life, never did you have as many masters nor
as many servants as you have now.
-- Madam, I will send for him in the morning.
-- Great thanks, Sire, says the empress,
for I hunger greatly after seeing him.
The emperor called two messengers:
-- Go, he says, and ride up [there] and
greet the seven sages and tell them that I ask that they
come to me and that they bring me [fol. 3c] my son, for I want
to have him tested and [I want] to know how much he knows [after]
all the time that they have kept him.
The messengers now mounted and went
to the place where they heard that the sages and the emperor’s
son were. They showed them great joy and so did the child. The
messengers greeted the sages on behalf of the emperor and said to
them:
-- Handsome gentlemen, the emperor asks
you that you take his son to him and come with him, for he
wants to know how much he has learned in as much time as you have
kept him.
They said:
-- Willingly.
So they spent that day. When evening
came after dinner and it was night and the moon was shining
brightly, the sages and the[ir] pupil went down from [fol. 3d]
the room [and] down into the garden. The seven sages looked at the
moon and at the stars. Cato, who was the wisest of [them] all, looked
deeply into the moon and into the stars, and he knew the constellations
and the movements of [their] paths. And when he had looked, he spoke
and said:
-- Listen all! The emperor asks us that
we go into Rome and that we bring him his son. And if we go
there and bring him there, he will die from the first word he will
speak, and because of it we will all be destroyed.
This I see, said Cato, in the moon.
The sages looked then at the stars
and at the moon and saw that it was true. Afterwards the boy
looked at a bright star which seemed to be twelve feet from the moon. He called
[out to] his masters [fol. 4a] and said to them:
-- Look what this bright star, which is
next to the moon, means to me. I see, goes the boy, that I
will be protected from death and you all from destruction if
I can keep myself from speaking up to [the] seven[th] day[s].
When the sages had listened to what
the boy had told them, they looked at the star that the boy
showed them, and saw that what he was saying was true.
-- By [my] faith, goes Lord Bancillas, he
tells the truth. So now it behooves us to take [and give]
advice among us.
-- By [my] faith, goes the boy, I will advise
you well, if you wish. It behooves me to keep from speaking
for seven days, and you are seven sages. Little reason and discretion
will there be in you if each one cannot make [fol. 4b] pass one
day for me.
-- For sure, goes Lord Bancillas, I shall
well make mine pass.
-- And I, mine, says Cato.
-- This is good, then, said the boy. Each
one must thus come on his day, it could not be otherwise. And
you will be in a town close by, in the St. Martin borough. Gentlemen,
said the boy, I will have great trouble and many a persecution; for
God[’s sake], do think of me.
Then they left and took their leave
and came [back] into the room and fêted the emperor’s messengers.
The boy was deep in thought and thought
all night and all day, until it came [to be] morning and he
awakened and the sages were up. The boy’s horse was readied as
well as his master’s. And this [fol. 4c]
master was the one who had provided them with what they needed
while they were together. The boy took leave of his masters, crying.
He came to Rome and his masters remained in the St. Martin borough.
The emperor heard [people] say that his son was coming. Now he got
on his horse and made part of his barons, who were with him, mount
[as well]. The emperor met his son in the middle of the street and
greeted him and took him by the chin and kissed him. And [the son]
bowed before him and [before] the other barons, too. They came to the
bottom of the stairs of the [palace] and the emperor and all the others
dismounted.
The emperor took his son by the right
hand, then they went up into the palace. The emperor asks his
[fol. 4d] son how it is with him. The boy bows and answers him nothing.
-- What’s this, [my] handsome son, says
the emperor, will you not speak to me at all?
And he did not say a word. The emperor
called his [son’s] master of the household, who had come with him, and
asked him:
-- How is it that my son does not speak?
He has been at a bad school, in my opinion, he has lost his
speech.
He replied to him:
-- Sire, he was speaking this morning all
manners of talk.
The empress heard [people] say that
the child had come and that he did not speak at all, and she
derived great joy from that. She now dressed up in the richest
garments she had, then came into the hall with a great following
of ladies and damsels. The emperor and the other knights rose before
the empress. She [fol. 5a] came amongst them, then sat down next
to the emperor and said to him:
-- Sire, if he ever talked, entrust him
to me and I will make him talk if ever he is going to.
-- By [my] faith, said the emperor, I entrusted
him speaking well to the sages.
Then he took him by the hand and led
him to the empress, but the child did not want to go to her.
-- Go ahead, said the emperor to his son.
The boy did not want to refuse his
father, instead he got up and left with the empress for her
room[s]. The empress ordered all her ladies and her damsels to
be put into another room, and between her and the boy they stayed
in the room alone and sat down on a very rich blanket covered by a silk
sheet. The empress looked at him very attentively and wanted to
make him [fol. 5b] listen to her and said to him:
-- Handsome sweet friend, handsome sweet
sir, listen to me. I have heard [people] speak much of you,
and because of the great good that you know I love you. And because
of the great love that I have for you have I endeavoured that
your father has taken me as his wife, and I have kept my virginity for you in that he never had
any part of me. Therefore I want you to love me and I will love
you.
Then she threw her arms around his
neck and he drew back. The takes him by the chin and wanted
to kiss him, and he drew further back.
-- How[’s that], she goes, handsome sweet
friend, will you not at all speak to me nor make love?
The boy wanted to preserve his father’s
honour and his own, so he did not say a word. When the empress
saw [fol. 5c] that she would not draw a word out of him, she threw
her hands at a silk cloth she had put on and at the ermine coat
and at her shirt and ripped everything to the middle of her chest;
and moreover, like an evil plotter and [like] one full of evil craft
and evil trick[s] she threw her hands into her hair and tore out part
of it. She raised her hands up to her face and scratched herself
and was bloody all over. Afterwards, when she had done this, she “threw”
out a big and hideous shout, and the barons who were in the hall came
toward [her] room. When the emperor saw [that] the one whom he loved
so much was in so bad a state, he was furious and like beyond his senses.
-- How[’s that], he goes, who put you in
this state?
-- By [my] faith, she goes, this devil (who
is) here. He al- [fol. 5d] most strangled me. If you had
not come so soon, I would be dead or he would have had his way
with me. He is nothing to you, he is a devil, have him tied up.
-- By my head, said the emperor, he will
not be protected [much] long[er].
The emperor then has his soldiers come,
those whose service it is to torture and hang people.
-- Go, he says, and destroy the one who
was to be my son.
-- Sire, they go, we will do your bidding.
So they left the room and entered the
hall. The mighty lords of the land were furious about what they
had seen happen and about [the fact] that the emperor wanted to
have his son destroyed, so they were much astonished by it and
did not know how this could have happened. They [fol. 6a] came to
him and said to him:
-- Sire, we marvel much at what you are
doing. Put off until tomorrow your son’s destruction and then,
by the verdict of your court, kill him if he has committed a
misdeed.
-- Certainly, says the emperor, I will readily
wait until tomorrow.
So then he ordered him to be thrown
down into the [prison] cell so that he may not flee.
The empress was very sad and enraged
that the boy has been given a delay of his destruction. So
she thought and murmured to herself until night, for she still
believed that she would find as good a reason to destroy him as
she had sought and pursued. When night had come, the emperor went
to bed. The empress gave him a very ugly frown
-- What is it, madam, goes [fol. 6b] the
emperor, what face do you make? Tell me your thought[s] and what
you have.
-- Certainly, Sire, I will tell you. You
are dead and destroyed, for he has come by whom you will be
stripped of your heritage and will lose [your] land[s], and this
will be in [a short] time: it is your son. And so, may happen to you
what happened to the pine tree from his (pine) off-shoot.
-- And what, says the emperor, happened
to the pine from his off-shoot?
-- Sire, she says, I will tell you willingly,
so listen to me.
“In this city there once was a burgher who
had a very beautiful garden which was big and planted with
all [kinds of] good trees. In the centre of this garden there was
a pine which was more beautiful and taller and straighter than any
other. The nobleman made [his gardener] look for the best soil(s) [fol.
6c] one could find and had it put at the foot of the pine. The pine
sprouted forth and grew as one could wish, and out of the growth arose
a little pine from one of the main roots and came along as one could wish.
Whenever the burgher saw it, he derived great joy from it and made [his
gardener] look for the best soil one could find and had it put at the
foot of the pine. [So it went] until the nobleman had gone on his business
trip and stayed [away] a long time. And when he had come back, the first
thing he did was to go in his garden and found his little pine short. So
he called his gardener and said to him:
- What’s this? Why is my little pine [so]
short?
- Sir, goes the gardener, don’t you see
why?
- Not at all, he ges.
- I will tell you why. Look up [and see]
how the branch of the [fol. 6d] holds it [back] so that it cannot
go forward.
- Cut it off, goes the nobleman.
- Sir, willingly.
He took the axe and took a ladder and
put it against the branch and struck until the branch was cut
off. When it was cut off, the nobleman said to him:
- Cut [on] and make a path for it.
- Sir, willingly.”
-- Now, Sire, goes the empress, thus is
the big pine cut [back] and made ugly in favour of the little
pine. And there is still more,...
“... for the little pine came from the front
stump and cut, and [because] of the force [involved] one of
the main roots rose [through the soil] and dried out at that point.
When the nobleman came back into his garden one day and saw the
little pine which came along as one could wish and which had already
outgrown the other one, and when he saw the big one [fol. 7a] dried
out in one section, he said to his gardener:
- What does, he goes, this big pine have
which is dried out?
- Sir, he goes, the shade of your little
pine does that.
- So cut [the big one] down altogether,
says the gentleman.
- Willingly, sir, he goes.”
[Frame resumes]
-- Sire, says the empress, thus is [the
big pine] cut down, thus has it been totally brought to shame
by the one which had issued forth from it. So it is with your
son who issued forth from you, who brings shame upon you, for the
whole empire is already against you in order to rob your heritage,
and you were the day before yesterday at the point of saving yourself.
And therefore may happen to you exactly what also happened to the
[big] pine because of his little pine.
-- By my head, Lady, such [a thing] will
not happen to me, for [my son] will die in the morning.
Thus [things] remained from that [moment]
to the next day. When the emperor had risen, he called [fol.
7b] his servants.
-- Go, he says, and pull my son out of the
gaol and destroy him.
-- Sire, they go, at your command!
They came to the [prison] cell and
pulled the boy out. The doors were opened and the palace filled
with the barons of the land. They saw that soldiers were leading the boy away.
All those who saw him had a great weight in their heart and several
fainted in the streets. Hear now that the first of the sages
came. He met the boy whom the servants were taking away to be hanged.
One did not say a word to the other. Lord Bancillas passes by and came
to the foot of the stairs of the [palace] hall. He dismounted. There
were quite a lot of people to take his horse. He climbed up the stairs
and came into [fol. 7c] the hall and said to the emperor:
-- Sire, may God give you a good day!
-- May God never bless you, said the emperor.
-- What is it, Sire, goes my Lord Bancillas,
what have you got? Why do you want to destroy your son?
-- Why? goes the emperor. There are enough
[reasons] why, and I will tell you. I had entrusted my son to
you to instruct and teach him, to you and your companions as to
men whom I loved much and whom I trusted, and you have already kept
him seven years. The first thing you taught him is that you have
taken away his speech; the second that he wanted to take my wife
by force; and of the other tasks there are enough wherefore I want
to have him destroyed, and as soon as he will be [fol. 7d] destroyed,
know that you and your companion[s] will die afterwards.
-- Sire, says master Bancillas, listen to
me! You say that he has lost his speech. For that he has not
deserved death, rather there is a greater reason to treat him better
than one has ever before. And if it is true that he wanted to take
your wife by force, for that he has not deserved death. Pace your
grace and your word, I will not believe that he ever thought of it.
-- By [my] faith, said the emperor, like
she who is all disshevelled and all torn up, he loses a lot
in this matter..
-- Ha, Sire, goes my Lord Bancillas, she
did not carry him in her body nine months. And if you want
to destroy him in this manner, [fol. 8a] may happen to you, too,
what happened to the knight [and] his greyhound.
-- What happened, says the emperor, to the
knight [and] his greyhound?
-- Sire, I will not tell you if you do not
delay your son’s death, for he would be dead before I would
have told [the story], and then my story would not be worth anything.
-- By [my] faith, goes the emperor, I will
grant him a respite.
-- Send for him, goes the sage.
The messengers ran [off] now, who brought
him back. When the barons heard the news, they all felt a very
great joy. The boy was brought back before his master and he
bowed [before] him, then he was put back down into the gaol.
-- Now tell [me], goes the emperor.
-- Willingly, Sire.
“In this city it happened [fol. 8b] on a
day which is called the King of Sundays (that’s the day of the
Trinity) that the knights must go to amuse themselves in the meadows.
The knight’s meadow was down from his house and the house was enclosed
by an old and ancient and cracked wall. He was rich and had from
his wife a small child in the cradle. The child had three nurses:
the first served to breast-feed him, the second to bathe him, the
third to shake out the sheets and to put him to bed. The knight had
a strong and fast greyhound which reached all the things after which
he ran, and whatever he reached he took. The greyhound was better
than any other, and the gentleman loved him more than anything.
The knight had gone out [fol. 8c] on
his horse into the meadows with the others, [his] sword girthed,
the shield at his neck, the lance in his fist. And his wife
had gone out beyond the door onto the drawbridge, and the nurses
had brought the child to the foot of the wall and were climbing
up the stairs to the crenels of the wall. The knights began to tourney against one another.
A serpent was living in the wall [and] it heard
the noise of the shields and of the lances, so it wondered
much about it [because] it had not at all learned such a custom.
So it raised its head and issued forth out of the wall through one
of the crevices. The serpent came toward the cradle, and on the threshold
of the hall was the greyhound which heard the noise of the tourney
and saw the big [fol. 8d] and hideous and poisonous serpent. Then
it went up to the serpent and took it in the middle of the fat [part]
of the stomach. The serpent raised [its] head and bit it in the neck.
From the anguish and from the pain it felt [the greyhound] cried
out, and then it returns to the serpent and leaps over the cradle
and then over the serpent. The cradle was turned upside down, but
there was such good luck that the two headboards of the cradle were
high so that the child’s face did not touch the ground. The battle between
the serpent and the greyhound began. The serpent wanted to flee, but
the greyhound took it in the middle of the fat [part] of the stomach,
and the serpent bit it in the side. The greyhound cried out from the
pain he felt, so it leaped once again over the cradle, so that the cradle
was all bloody from it [fol. 9a] and the whole place as well, until at
the end the greyhound took it by the head and strangled it with all its
might in such a manner that it killed the serpent and it was dead. [By]
then the greyhound had so much rage in itself that it did not want at
all to leave it as such, but it sliced it into three sections, then
left it thus. The cradle and the place around [it] were all bloody, and
the greyhound was all swollen and bloodied. It entered the hall and began
to shout and to scream and to writhe among the layers [of its blankets]
and was shouting like someone who was totally destroyed and anguished.
It was late afternoon and the knights’ tourney ends
and everyone left for his home. The nurses went down the [fol.
9b] stairs of the wall and came into the hall and saw the cradle
upside down and the place around all bloody. They looked towards
the greyhound which was wailing, so they thought that it was rabid
and that it had eaten and strangled the child, for the reason that
they saw him bloody. So they began to shout and to scream and to tear
at their hair and to say:
- Ha, poor us, what shall we do? What will
we be able to become? Let’s flee from here!
That piece of advice was soon taken:
they hit the road and flee. As they were passing the
door they met their lady on the drawbridge. She saw [how] ugly and
frightened they were, so she asked them what was the matter with them, and they replied
that the greyhound was rabid and had [fol. 9c] strangled and
killed her child. [When she heard] this reply, the lady let out
a shout and fainted. And when she had returned [to her senses], her
lord had come, with the shield at his neck, who had tourneyed with
the others. He saw his wife who told him that his greyhound was rabid
and that it had strangled his child.
- For sure, goes the knight, this weighs
on me.
He came into the courtyard and dismounted.
There were enough [men] who held his horse for him and took
his shield and his lance.
The greyhound recognized his master’s
horse and thought that he had come. When it heard him speak,
it sprang up on its feet, sick as it was, and went up to his master
and put its two forefeet in the middle of his chest. The knight had
heard [the] news of his [fol. 9d] greyhound which had killed his child.
He was so anguished that he now draws [his] sword and cut its head
off, then handed it to one of his squires. Afterwards he went up into
the hall and looked in the direction of the cradle and saw [that] it
was all blood[-stained] and [that] the place [around it was] all blood[-stained,
too]. He came over there and found the three sections of the serpent
and then wondered much how this could have happened. He came over to
the cradle and saw [how it was] upside down and found the child alive.
So he called the lady and the people who had come with him, for them to
see this marvel. They looked at the serpent and knew with certainty
that the greyhound had fought with the serpent for the child, to protect
the child. [fol. 10a] So the knight said to the lady:
- Madam, you made me kill my greyhound over
our child that he had protected against death. I believed
you, which [means that] I did not act wisely. But know this much:
for what I did upon your advice, nobody will give me penance,
rather I will give it to me myself.
He sat down and had his shoes removed and
then cut off the front part of his shoes and left without looking at
[any] wife or child he may have had, and fled into exile because
of the anger his greyhound [had caused him].”
[Frame resumes]
Then master Bancillas said to the emperor:
-- Sire, if upon the advice of your wife
you want to destroy your son without the advice of your barons,
then may happen to you what happened [fol. 10b] to the knight with
his greyhound.
-- By my head, said the emperor, it will
not happen to me like this, if it pleases God, for he will not
die today.
-- Sire, five hundred thanks, said master
Bancillas, for everyone would hate you for it and curse you.
It was late, the court departed, the
doors were closed. The emperor came to the empress. She was
extremely furious because she could not carry out [her plan
to] her advantage. The emperor asked her:
-- Madam, what bothers you?
-- Sire, she goes, I am furious, not because
of myself but because of your great damage and your great debasement
which threatens you, and I will tell you why. It’s because of
this devil whom you call son, who has come in order to [fol. 10c]
disinherit and destroy you. May therefore happen to you what happened
to the boar that was caught by way of scratching [it].
-- Tell me, goes the emperor, how it was
caught by scratching.
-- Sire, willingly.
“In this country was once a big and marvelous
forest, abundant with fruits and shrubs. In it lived peacefully
a big, fully grown and proud boar, so that nobody dared enter
the forest in these parts. In the middle of this forest in a [certain]
place was a service-tree which was well loaded with ripe sorb-apples.
The boar got drunk with them once every day. One day a shepherd had
lost one of his animals [which] had fled into the forest. The shepherd
came there and saw the service-tree and coveted much some of the sorb-apples
[fol. 10d] which lay on the ground. He lowered himself and began to
gather them up until he had his apron full of them. While he was filling
his other apron, there came the boar. When the shepherd saw him coming,
he was afraid and right he was, and wanted to flee. But he saw the boar
coming so close to him that he did not dare, so he was so perplexed that
he did not know what to do. Then he looked up the service-tree and climbed
up. The boar came underneath the service-tree. It wondered much why it
had not found as many sorb-apples as it usually did, then looked up the
service-tree and saw the shepherd. Then it got angry and began to chew and
to gnash its teeth and to sharpen its two [front] feet against the ground
and struck with its teeth against the service-tree so that everything shook.
[fol. 11a] It seemed to him who was up in [the tree] that it should split
down the middle. All the boar had [in mind] was to eat. And the shepherd
then looked [down] at the ground and saw that all the boar had [in mind]
was to eat. So he put his hand into his apron and let the sorb-apples go,
and the boar began to eat. While the boar was eating, it fell asleep. When
the shepherd saw this, he climbed down lower towards the ground and held
himself with one of [his] hands by the branches and with the other began
to scratch the boar. The boar felt drunken, so it bent [its] two hind-legs
and then [his] forelegs, and [the shepherd] began to scratch and held
firmly on to the branch and then put his [free] hand under [the boar’s
stomach and began to scratch until the boar lay down, and [fol. 11b] he [continued]
to scratch. The boar closed [its] eyes and fell asleep. The shepherd covered
its head with his overalls and scratched vigourously with [his] left hand,
then pulls his knife out of its sheath. The shepherd was strong and resolute
and was not at all scared. So he raised the knife and struck the boar right
through the body at the heart’s place. He recommenced and struck [the boar]
all the way through the heart and killed it. The shepherd left, who this
time did not want to do more, neither cut up nor carry off [the boar].”
[Frame resumes]
-- Now then, Sire, you have heard how this
boar, which was so strong and so big, died by being scratched,
and how a miserable shepherd, who knew nothing, killed it. So is
it with you who listen to [what] those sages are saying. By their
white words you can know that they want [fol. 11c] to destroy and
disinherit you.
-- By my head, madam, you tell the truth.
But know that I will not believe them [any longer], for [my
son] will die in the morning.
-- Certainly, she says, you will only act
wisely.
Thereupon they left [things] until
the morning when the doors were opened. The palace filled
up witth the barons of the land. The emperor called his guardsmen
and told them:
-- Take my son and lead him [to were] he
will be destroyed.
They executed his order, and when they brought
[the son] before the emperor, they asked him by which death
he should die.
-- Hang him, he said.
-- Sire, as you wish.
They left and entered the street. There
arose the shout[s] of the people who pitied him.
Then there was one of the sages who
was his master and was called [sic] Augustes. He looked at his [fol. 11d]
disciple whom they were leading to destruction, and pitied
him. He passed on and came to the stairs of the hall, dismounted
and came before the emperor and greeted him. The emperor did not
respond to his greeting, but threatened him and said to him:
-- I had entrusted you my son to teach him,
and you have robbed him of [his] speech. By the lord who is
called God, you did this at your risk; I will compensate you for
it.
-- Sire, goes my lord Augustes, I have well
heard how part of the things have gone. Your bad will is not
[directed] at him, that he does not speak; there is something
else. But if you want to kill him in this manner, then may happen
to you what happened to Hippocrates [at the hand] of his nephew.
-- And what happened to him? says [fol.
12a] the emperor.
-- By [my] faith, goes he, if you wish to
delay your son’s death today, I will tell you, and then you
do what you want to do once I have spoken.
-- Sure, goes the emperor, this I grant
you.
There were enough messengers who ran
to bring back the child, then it was put into the gaol. Thereupon
master Augustes began his story.
-- Sire,
“Hippocrates was the wisest man on could
find. From all his lineage he had only one nephew. He did not
want to teach him anything of his knowledge, and nevertheless
the young man thought that it was proper for him to know certain
things. So he listened carefully to [his uncle] and paid him great
attention and worked at it so much that he knew [a lot] and revealed
to his uncle Hippocrates his [fol. 12b] knowledge. Hippocrates saw
that he knew enough.
Hardly any time passed before news
came that the king of Hungary had a son who was sick, so he
asked Hippocrates to come to him. And he replied that he could
not go there, but that he would send him a nephew of his. He ordered
his nephew to ready himself and loaded a pack-horse for him and told
him to leave with the messengers. They travelled until they came to
the king in Hungary. One brought the child before him. He looked at it
and then at the king and then at the mother. He took her by the hand,
then drew her aside and then asked to see the urine of all three. They showed
him. When he had seen it, he thought [and] then called the queen and said
to her:
- Madam, whose child is this?
- Sir, he is [fol. 12c] my son and the son
of my lord the king.
- Madam, I well believe that he is your
son, but he is not the king’s son.
- He is so, says the queen.
- That’s not true, he says, and if you don’t
tell me otherwise, I will leave.
- By [my] faith, she goes, if I knew that
you said it for sure, I would have your body put to shame.
- Madam, I shall leave; but know this well:
if you don’t tell me who fathered him, he cannot [find] healing.
Then he leaves [her] and began to shake
his head. When the queen sees this, she calls him back and
said to him:
- Sir, I will tell it to you on condition that no word of it get out.
- Madam, he said, none will.
- Sir, goes the lady, it happened that the
count of Namur was passing through this country, and [fol.
12d] my lord put him up, and in the end he appealed to me and he
lay with me and fathered this child. Sir, for God[’s sake], speak
to nobody about it.
- Madam, I will not. He must have adultery
poisoning. Give him beef (meat) to eat.
They carried out his order, and as soon
as he had eaten some, he was healed. When the king saw that
his son was healed, he gave [Hippocrates’s nephew] all he wanted.
He now left all happy and came to his
uncle. The uncle asked him:
- Did you heal the child?
- Yes, sir.
- What did you give it to eat?
- Beef (meat).
- So it was adultery?
- True, sir.
- You are wise, said Hippocrates.
Hippocrates thought of treason and
of felony regarding his nephew. One day he called him and
said to him:
- Handsome nephew, come with me into this
garden.
And [fol. 13a] when they were in the garden,
Hippocrates said:
- God, what a good herb I smell!
[His nephew] leaps ahead and kneels down
and picks it and brought it to him and said to him:
- Sir, here, look at it!
Hippocrates took it in his hand, then advanced
a bit further and said:
- I smell yet a better one.
[The other] came forward to pick it and
knelt down. Hippocrates ha[d] equipped himself well and [now]
pulls out his knife and killed his nephew. And he did still
more: he took all his books and burned them.
After that, Hippocrates was sick to
death, he had diarrhea, (that is) death’s messenger. So he had
a 268-litre barrel fetched and had it filled
with the clearest fountain water one could find, then had the
bottom pierced in a hundred spots and had a hundred [fol. 13b]
wooden pins put into [the holes], then put powder around each [pin].
Thereupon he asked several people [to come] and said to them:
- [Dear] sirs, I am [close] to death from
diarrhea. Look, I have had this barrel filled from the clearest
fountain one could find. So now, pull all the pins out!
- Willingly, they go.
Now they pull them out, but not a [single]
drop of water issued forth from [the barrel].
- So you can see, said Hippocrates, how
I water-proofed this barrel, and I cannot plug myself. I know for certain
that I am dying.
Before long after that he was dead.”
[Frame resumes]
-- Sire, goes master Augustes to the emperor,
thus died Hippocrates and his nephew, and [thus] his books
were burned. What [13c] would have grieved him so if he had
left his nephew alive or had left his books?
-- Certainly, says the emperor, nothing
would have grieved him.
-- Sire, like that you want to act, [too].
You have only one son and this one you want to destroy because
of what your wife says. You are an old man and know well that you
will never have another child. And if you want to destroy him thus,
may happen to you what happened to Hippocrates through his nephew.
-- By my head, says the emperor, such a
thing will not happen to me, for he will die tomorrow.
-- Sire, said master Augustes, five hundred
thanks, for you will do [yourself] honour.
Thus was he spared that night. The
doors were closed. The emperor came to the empress. [fol.
13d] She presented him an ugly face and had swollen eyes from
crying. The emperor asked her:
-- Madam, what have you [gotten]? Tell it
to me!
-- Sire, she goes, great anger and great
rage.
-- Madam, goes the emperor, why?
-- Sire, she goes, my telling [you] would
not be worthwhile. But anyway, it grieves me that you once
took me [for your wife] in order [merely] to leave [me] so soon.
-- How[’s that], madam? said the emperor,
are we aleady at the leaving [stage]?
-- Sire, she goes, yes, for I would not
at all consider your vileness nor your debasement.
-- Madam, how [do you mean]?
-- Sire, she goes, I will tell you (it).
I see well that all the men of your court are after you and that, as far as he whom
you call son is concerned, they want him to have the empire.
And if it [fol. 14a] comes to [the point] where he must have
it, then may happen to you what happened to the one who threw
his father’s head into the cesspool.
-- For love[’s sake], madam, who was that?
Tell me (it).
-- Sire, she goes, what would my telling
be worth?
-- Madam, I beg you to tell me (it).
-- Sire, willingly, to see whether you might
gain knowledge from it. Sire,
[The empress: gaza]
“in this city [there] was an emperor whose
name was Octavianus. who loved gold and silver more than any
other thing. He loved [them] so much that he filled the entire
Crescent tower with them. And [there] were [also] seven sages
in this city. Five [of them] had gone off on a conquest. And of the
two sages who stayed behind, one was so generous and so [free-]spending
that he spent what he [fol. 14b] had, and when he could not get
[money], he borrowed it. His [money] was refused to nobody. He had
two sons and two daughters. He dressed nobly and spent much on his body, his own and his
children’s. The other sage was so penny-pinching and avaricious
that he did not want to spend anything, and however much he could
have, he kept it. To this one Octavianus entrusted the protection
of his tower and his treasure.
The generous sage one night called
one of his sons and said to him:
- Go, and take a pick-axe and I [shall take]
another one, and let’s go to the Crescent tower and pick [at
it] until we pull the treasure out. and with that money we will
be well-off and will pay our debts.
- Oho, Sire, said the young man, this we
will not do at all. What would we do if we [fol. 14c] were found
there? We and our lineage would be dead and dishonoured.
- It will never happen, goes the father,
that people find us there, and I want you to come [with me] there.
- Handsome father, I will do your bidding.
It was overcast, the
did not shine nor does any star appear in the sky.
Now they went off there and began to pick around the foot of the tower
and picked away until they entered it. Then they loaded of those riches
[on their shulders] and carried away as much as they could and left their
pick-axe[s] in the tower and returned home and unloaded. The next day
they paid their debts, and [the sage] dressed his household richly and
had his houses, which were falling down, re-straightened and maintained
himself nobly.
[Fol. 14d] The sage who had the watch
of the tower came to the tower to find out whether anything
had touched it. He saw [that] it had miserably crumbled and [then]
he found the hole. So he entered inside and saw the pick-axe and
saw perfectly that somebody had carried away part of the [emperor’s]
possessions. So he came back to his house without in the least seeming
[to be upset]. Then he had a dyer’s vat made and put it in front
of the hole in the tower, and had a big, marvelous hole made in the
ground and had the vat buried in it. Then he took the strongest glue
he could find, and sea clay and wood tar and [molten] lead and mixed them
all together so that the vat was totally full, then he took little branches
and small sticks and put them over the vat and covered it with earth
on [fol. 15a] top, [and] then he left.
After that it took hardly a long time
before the generous sage had spent what he had carried home,
so he had nothing else to spend, for he had held court splendidly
and incurred great expenses. One night he called his son and said
to him:
- Son, let’s once again go to the tower.
- Oho, Sire, said the young man, we won’t,
control
yourself.
- Yes we will, said the father, let’s go
(there) another time.
- Sire, said the son, at your order, let’s
go, by God.
It was night and late. They started
on their way, the father in front and the son behind [him], until
they came to the tower. And as the father thought he was entering
inside, he fell into the vat and got in up to his throat. He felt
that the glue and the clay hold so tightly [fol. 15b] his extremities
that he could not pull one of them towards himself. He shouted altogether
beautifully to his son:
- I am dead.
The young man said:
- You’re not, handsome father, I will help
you.
The young man lowered himself to the vat
and the father said to him:
- Pull back, handsome son! If you fall in,
you are dead.
- So what shall I do?
- Cut my head off, he says.
- Oho, handsome father, this I would not
do in any manner, but I will go to get help.
- It can’t be, says the father, hurry up
[and decapitate me] before other people get a hold of me, for,
since I will have my head cut off, I will not be recognized, nor
will my lineage ever have any reproach in this.
The other one lowered himself toward the
vat with all the armour he had brought along and cut his head
off, then he was so panicked that he threw it into one of his
father’s cesspools. [fol. 15c] And when the daughters found out
about it, there was very great mourning throughout the house.
In the morning, when the avaricious
sage had gotten up, he came to the tower and entered it. He looked
[around] and saw the one in the vat, who had his head cut off. So
he called his men and had [them] pull him out. He looked right and
left, up and down, but [the corpse] could not be recognized. So
the sage ordered that one take two horses and had [the corpse] tied
by the feet to the[ir] tails and had it dragged through Rome, and
he ordered that, wherever [his men] saw people doing great mourning,
they turn [in there] and take them [into custody].
The men went on the horses all over
Rome until they came up to the house of the sage whom they were
dragging [behind them]. And [the sage’s] sons were inside and
his [fol. 15d] daughters [as well]. They came out. When they saw
their father being dragged [around], they began to shout. [One]
brother could not hold [his siblings] back, so he struck himself in
the thigh with a knife. Those who were going [with] the corpse entered
inside and asked for the master of the house. The young man answered
that he was in town.
- And what then is the matter with these
young ladies who are shouting so?
- [My] lord, don’t you see that I wounded
myself in the thigh with a knife? They were afraid that I
had lost my mind or would die.
- It’s true, sir, they go, we [can] see
it for sure.
So they left the house and took the one
they were dragging outside Rome and buried him.”
[Frame resumes]
-- Now then, Sire, said the empress, the
son was rich because his father died shamefully. [fol. 16a]
And his father’s head, why did he not put it in a nice cemetery?
Very little did he care about the body and the head as long as he had
the money. As much I tell you with respect to your son: he chases after
being emperor, and when he will have [your] land in his hand[s], he
will care very little about you. And thus, if you want to act [according
to the fact] that you do not want to believe me, then may happen to you
what happened to him whose head was thrown into the cesspool.
-- By my head, goes the emperor, such a
thing will not happen to me, for I will never believe anyone
regarding this. He will die in the morning.
-- Sire, goes the empress, may God give
you strength and courage for it.
That night went by until in the morning
the doors were opened. The emperor was up. The palace was filling
up with the high barons [fol. 16b] of the land. The emperor
ordered his guardsmen to destroy his son.
-- Sire, they go, at your order[s].
They pulled him out of the gaol and led
him before the emperor. They asked him which death he [sh]ould
die.
-- Bury him all alive, said the emperor.
So they went off and led the child very
humbly through the streets of Rome.
Here then came one of the masters whose
name was Lentillus. He met his disciple who bowed before him.
The sage felt great pity for him [but] went on until he came
to the foot of the stairs of the hall and dismounted, and everyone
shouted at him:
-- Hey, master, think of your disciple!
He came before the emperor and saluted him.
[fol. 16c] The emperor does not respond to his salutation
but says that God may not help him.
-- Oho, Sire, said master Lantillus [sic],
why?
-- I will tell you, goes the emperor. I
(had) entrusted you my son to teach and instruct [him]. [For]
the first doctrine you made him [learn], you took his speech
away; [for] the other one, he wanted to take my wife by force.
But may God never grant that you enjoy it, [nor] will you, for as
soon as he will be destroyed, you will die after him.
-- Sire, goes master Lantillus, suffer that
I reply. [That he wanted] to take your wife by force is hard
to believe. But if you want to destroy him thus and without
any other reason, then may happen to you what happened to the
rich man at the hand of his wi- [fol. 16d] fe.
-- What happened to him? says the emperor.
-- Sire, I will not tell you (it) if you
don’t grant your son a delay, for if I tell [you], he will have
no profit from it if he were to be destroyed [afterwards].
The emperor ordered that he be brought back.
There were many who ran [to get] the boy and he was brought
back. Then master Lantillus began his story.
-- Sire,
“there was in this city a man who was from
a great lineage and had no wife nor any heir who would hold
his land after him. So his friends came and told him to take a
wife by whom he may have heirs who would hold his land after him.
He said that he would take one willingly, that they search [one]
for him. They sought him [one]. The man was old and senile, the lady
was beautiful and young and had no delight from [fol. 17a] him nor
any [love-]sport, and [so it went] until she loved [someone] in the
city.
And it was at the time their habit
and custom that, if somebody was caught wandering all over
Rome after curfew had been sounded, he was, regardless of how
important his relatives were, detained until the next morning when
the sages had come into the assembly hall. Then he was chased and beaten throughout the city.
And so the rich man’s wife one night
felt desire for her friend. It was very overcast that night. She was lying close to her husband
and she remembered her agreement [with her friend] very well.
The lady feigns and said to her husband that she was sick. And
finally she got up from his side and went down the stairs and
unlocked the door and found her friend. He began by kissing her and
em- [fol. 17b] bracing her, and they did [according to] their wish[es].
But [common] sense and jealousy entered
her husband’s heart and he got up and went downstairs as fast
as he could and heard them talking together. He was furious and
locked the door from his side, then came upstairs to the windows
and shouted and said:
- Hey, madam, lady, nothing [you do now]
is worth your [effort], for I have heard your lecher with you.
- Hey, Sire, she goes, by God’s mercy, you
certainly did not, pace your grace.
- I certainly did, he goes.
- Hey, Sire, for God’s [sake], have pity
on me. Curfew is about to sound.
- I would like that for sure, he goes.
- Hey, Sire, I will be dead and destroyed
and will be beaten up tomorrow, and all my relatives will be
dishonoured.
- Too bad, madam, for him who cares.
There in front [of the house] was a
very ancient well.
- Sire, she [fol. 17c] goes, if you don’t
open the door for me, I will let myself fall into this well.
- For sure, madam, I would like that a lot.
- By [my] faith, she goes, so you will never
see me again.
It was very overcast so that they could
not see each other. In front of the house was a big stone. She
raised it up to her neck and came to the well.
- Sire, she says, the heart cannot lie,
to God be [you] commended!
After [that] she let the stone fall into
the well.
- Ah, [by] Saint Mary, now my wife is dead.
I only did it in order to punish her and to test her.
She came [around] to the back of the house,
and he ran downstairs and opened the door and went to the
well, and she went in and locked the door. Meanwhile he called
out to his wife and said:
- Beautiful sister, are [fol. 17d] you down
there [in the well]?
- Not at all, she says, I am not dead at
all. You would like me to be in the well. So now your lechery
is apparent and [so is] your badness. I was not beautiful enough
for you.
- Ah, beautiful sister, I heard such great
grieving from you that I thought you had fallen into the well.
- May God help me, she says, you will not
get [back] into the house.
- Ah, beautiful sister, by God’s mercy,
the curfew is about to be sounded, and if I am taken, I will
be beaten up tomorrow.
- May God help me, she said, I don’t ask
for more. At last the good people will know what [kind of] life
you lead and have led for a long time.
Then it happened that the curfew sounded
and that the sentry came and took him and said to the lady:
- Hey, lady, never before did we hear [people]
talk about [fol. 18a] your husband’s vileness.
- So, she goes, you can see now that I have
hidden it as much as I could. But now I don’t want to hide it
any longer, and you don’t know at all [the kind of] life he has
led with me.
- By [our] faith, lady, they go, we will
take him away now that the curfew will have been sounded.
- Certainly, she says, that makes me feel
good.
Then the curfew stops sounding and
they take him and lead him away into the tower as they were
sworn to do, and he was there until the next day when he was chased
and beaten throughout the city.”
[Frame resumes]
-- Now then, Sire, said Lentillus [sic]
to the emperor, the lady deceived her husband nicely. Have
you heard this disloyalty and this treason that the lady committed
toward her husband? Yours will treat you worse still, if you believe
her [reasons] to kill your son.
-- By [fol. 18b] my head, says the emperor,
never ever did I hear [people] talk of such a bad, treacherous
woman.
-- Sire, so take care, goes Lentillus, that
yours will not do to you similarly [in order] to kill your
son.
-- She will not, he goes, if it pleases
God.
-- May God preserve you from it, Sire, goes
the sage.
-- By my head, says the emperor, he will
not die today.
Thereupon they let [things] be until
it was evening [and] the doors were closed. The emperor came
to the empress. She showed him a very ugly mood. The emperor asked her what
bothered her.
-- Sire, she goes, I am the saddest creature
alive. I will leave in the morning, [may you] know it!
-- You will not, madam, rather you will
stay, if it pleases God and you.
-- Sire, I will not, for I [fol. 18c] want
to leave with honour rather than stayin shame. And I am a young
woman from a great lineage, and you don’t want to believe anything
I tell you. And therefore may happen to you what happened to him
who delivered his wife to the big king.
-- Madam, by the faith you owe me, who was
that? Tell me (it)! It is my opninion that he hardly loved her.
-- Sire, what would my telling [you] be
worth? You don’t want to do anything I tell you.
-- Madam, goes the emperor, yes I will.
-- Sire,
“there was a king in Puille who was a homosexual.
He disdained women above all things. And so it was until he
became very ill and bloated, so that all his limbs became indistinguishable
inside him until he [fol. 18d] requested a physician, and the latter
came and looked at him and saw his urine.
-- Look here, goes the king, if you can
cure me, I will give you as much land and wealth as will please
you.
-- Sire, goes he, great thanks, and I will
cure you very well.
The physician took care of him until he
was cured. He gave him barley bread to eat and fountain water
to drink until his swelling receded and his limbs [re]appeared.
One day he said that a woman would suit him:
-- By God, said the king, I will [indeed]
have [my men] look for her.
He called the [chief] officer [of his court]
and said to him:
-- Seek me a woman.
-- Ha, sire, goes the officer, I would
be unable to find her, for they believe that you are still as
bloated as you used to be.
-- Give her beforehand twenty [fol. 19a]
marks from my treasury, goes the king.
-- Sire, willingly.
The officer came to his wife and said to
her:
-- Madam, you must earn twenty marks.
-- Sir, goes she, how?
-- You will lie, he says, tonight only with
the king.
-- Ha, sir, she goes, thank you. For sure,
if it pleases God, I won’t.
-- You will so, he says, I order you to.
-- Ha, sir, I will not do it, and if I have
to eat dirt.
-- Madam, may loss come to him who does
not want to win. [Your refusal] is worth nothing, you have
to do it.
-- Sir, she goes, by God, you will do with
me as you wish.
When night had come, the officer came to
his master in the chamber where one put him to bed. The king
said to him:
-- Officer, have you sought the woman whom
I mentioned?
-- Sire, yes, but she does not want to be
[fol. 19b] seen, because she is a noble woman.
-- By God, [so be it], said the king.
The officer himself put out the candle and
had all the sergeants leave the chamber. Then he came to his
wife, and she came before the emperor’s [sic] bed. The
lady disrobed, then she threw herself next to the king. The officer
locked the chamber with them inside. The king lay with the lady
until it was close to day[break]. The officer came to the chamber
and unlocked it.
-- Are you sleeping, sire? he said to the
king.
-- Officer, I am not.
-- Sire, he said, it is necessary that that
woman leave, that she not be seen.
-- By my head, goes the king, she will not
do that.
-- Sire, I had an agreement with her friends
that she would not be recognized.
-- By God, goes the king.
The officer left the cham- [fol. 19c] ber
and waited until it was day and prime was sounded. Then he
came back into the chamber and said:
-- Madam, madam, get up!
-- By my head, said the king, she will not
do that.
The officer could not endure [it] any longer.
He now opened the windows and said:
-- Ha, sire, by God, she’s my wife.
The king sat up and looked at the officer
and then at the lady. After that he was very sorely enraged
and said to the officer:
-- Scoundrel. traitor, why did you bring
her to me?
-- For sure, sire, in order to earn the
twenty marks.
-- Because of greed you are disgraced, said
the king. By my head, if you are found in here when I have
risen, I will have your eyes torn out and your body dragged at
[the end of] a horse’s tail.
The officer [fol. 19d] fled, and all having been said
and done, the king married [the officer’s] wife in his
land.
[Frame resumes]
-- Now then, sire, have you not heard what
the officer did out of material greed? Look what happened to
him: he has for ever lost his wealth and his wife is well married.
Similarly you must take care of yourself, for you are greedy to
hear those sages’ words and greed will vanquish you so that because
of it you will be impoverished and miserable and shameful in the world.
About myself I worry not at all, for my friends will maintain me well
and richly. May [my story] be appealing to you, for if you are not careful,
those who have nothing and are not supposed to have anything will be
the masters.
-- By my head, said the [fol. 20a] [emperor], they will not, for I say to
you that nothing can protect him from dying tomorrow.
-- For sure, sire, you would be acting wisely.
Thus [things] remained until the next day
when the emperor was up and the doors [were] open. The palace
filled with the high barons of the land. The emperor called
his servants:
-- Go, he said, take my son and torture
him for me.
-- Sire, at your command.
They left for the jail and led him before
the emperor on top of the [palace] steps and went through
the streets of Rome, and all those who saw them took great pity
of him.
See here now how his master came whose name
was Malcuidarz the Red. He pitied his disciple. The boy bowed
before him. The master continued on and ro- [fol. 20b] de until
he came to the steps of the hall. He dismounted; many were there
to take his horse. He comes before the emperor and salutes him.
The emperor does not return his salutation but curses him. The sage
answers him:
-- Why do you curse me?
-- Because, he goes, I had given you my
son and you have robbed him of his speech, and he wanted to
take my wife by force, and for [all] that I have him destroyed.
-- Ha, sire, goes the sage, thank you. If
you, without judgment and without the advice of your barons,
were to destroy him, then may happen to you what happened to
the ancient sage because of his wife.
-- And what happened to him, goes the emperor,
tell me, for I would gladly hear the ancient sage’s life, and
I would gladly hear how his wife deceived him.
-- Sire, she did not deceive him, for as
a sage he protected himself very well against that.
-- Tell me, goes the emperor.
-- Sire, then send [people] get your son.
-- Gladly, goes he.
There were enough [people] who ran [to get
him]. He came back. The boy bowed before the emperor and his
master, then he was put in the cell. And my lord Maucuidarz
began his tale.
-- Sire,
there was in this city an old sage of great
age who had rich and good land. His friends came to him and
said to him to take a wife, and hardly would you ever see an old
man take [more] willingly a young wife. He said to them to seek
him one. They found him a young and beautiful and blond [woman].
The sage had [already] had two [wives]. He was old and passed his
age. [fol. 20d] The lady was with her husband one year and not once
did he have sex with her, even if it is that she had inclination for
it. [But]
at the end of the year she came to the convent [and sat] beside
her mother and said to her:
-- Lady [mother], I get no solace from my
husband. But know that I want to have sex.
-- Phew, [my] daughter, goes the mother,
this you won’t do.
-- Certainly, madam, I will do [so].
-- Do you want to do so according to my
advice?
-- Yes, my lady.
-- I advise that you test your husband beforehand.
-- Gladly, mother. And on what?
-- Pretty daughter, [test him] on his tree
which is in your garden, which he loves more than all the other
trees. Have it cut down, then you will see what he will say to
you.
-- If it pleases God, he will not kill me,
the daughter says.
So the lady returned to her home and askrd
where her husband was. They told her that he had gone to amuse
himself on [fol. 21a] his horse in the company of his hunting
master and dog trainer. She then called a servant of hers and said
to him:
-- Take an axe and come with me.
-- Madam, willingly.
They entered the garden and she said to
him:
-- Cut this tree down for me.
-- Ha, madam, he said, I would not dare;
that’s my master’s special tree.
-- You will do so anyhow, I order you to.
-- For sure, madam, I will not do so.
The lady takes the axe from his hand and
starts to hit [the tree] so much [from] right and left that
she cut it down, and he cut it into logs, after [which] she ordered
him to [have the tree] carried [away]. While they were carrying
it [away], her husband came. He looked at the logs of the tree and
the leaves and the branches and was altogether beyond himself and said:
-- Where did you take this branch?
-- For sure, sire, goes the lady, when I
just now came [back] from the [fol. 21b] convent, they told
me that you had gone for birds by the river; and I knew well that
you were sensitive to cold and that there was no log in the house,
so I went into this garden and cut down this tree.
-- Madam, said the husband, I think that this is my special
tree that you cut down.
-- For sure, sire, I don’t know whether
it is.
The husband went out to have a look and
found that it was the [special] one that had been cut down,
so he returned to his house and said:
-- Ha, madam, you have served me badly,
that’s my special tree that you cut down.
-- Ha, sire, goes the lady, truely I was
paying no attention to it and I did it because I knew [full]
well that you would come [home] all wet and rained on.
-- Madam, for that reason I will leave things
for now, inasmuch as you did it for me.
So they let it be until [fol. 21c] the next
day when the lady got up and went to the convent and found
her mother and greeted her. The mother asked her how it was with
her, and she said:
-- Good. I tested my husband.
-- Did you cut the tree down?
-- Yes, for sure.
-- And did he say anything?
-- Sure, he did not greatly pretend to be
angry. Really, madam, I want to have sex.
-- You will not do [anything of the sort],
let [things] be.
-- For sure. mother, I could not contain
myself.
-- So in that case I will tell you what
you will do. Test him again.
-- Madam, gladly.
-- I will tell you on what. He has a little
dog that he loves more than any living thing. He would not
suffer that one of his men move it from beside the fire, nor that
anyone except him feed it.
-- I will kill it tonight.
-- I approve it, says the mother.
Then the mother departs from her daughter.
[fol. 21d] The [young] lady returned to her house. In the evening
the fire was lit and burned brightly. The beds were well appointed
with pretty quilts and with pretty rugs. The lady was dressed
in an entirely fresh squirrel cape. Now came the husband from hunting.
The lady got up toward him and removed his cape, then she went
to remove the spurs and committed herself much to serving him. Then
she prepares for him a bright red mantle and put it over her husband’s
shoulders and prepares a chair for him. The husband sat down, and
[so did] in turn the lady on a stool. The dogs lay down all over the
beds, and the husband’s little dog lay down on the lady’s cape which
was entirely fresh. When she saw that she was very angry. [fol. 22a]
Then she saw one of the cattle handlers from plough[ing] who had a knife
at his belt. The lady lept forward and took it, then with it struck the
little dog through the entrails and killed it, so that the cape and
the room were all bloodied from it. The husband looked at this marvel
and said:
-- How, madam, were you so daring that you
dared kill my little dog in front of me?
-- How, sire? So you don’t see every day
how they turn our beds upside down? Never will two days go by
without it being necessary to do a washing because of your dogs.
By God’s death, I will strike them with my hands if they lie down
on my beds this way. Now look at my cape that I had just put on,
[how] it has been mistreated. [fol. 22b] Do you believe that I’m not
sad because of it?
The husband replies:
-- Certainly, madam, you have served me
badly, I hold it against you. But for now I will leave it be, this
time, [and] I will speak of it no more.
-- By [my] faith, sire, goes the lady, you
will do with me at your pleasure, for I am entirely yours. And
know that I repent much for what I have done.
Then she started to cry very hard and says:
-- For sure, it weighs much on me, for I
know [full] well that you loved it much.
When the husband saw her crying, he let
[things] be. The next day it happened that the lady came
to her mother [in] the convent. The mother, when she saw her,
greeted her and [the daughter greeted her mother], then [the mother] reasoned with her and said to her:
-- Pretty daughter, how have things been
for you?
-- Madam, good, [fol. 22c] but I tell you
that I want to have sex.
-- Ha, pretty daughter, so you will not
be able to retain yourself?
-- For sure, pretty mother, no.
-- Pretty sweet daughter, I have all my
life stood by your father, so that I never committed foolishness
nor had any inclination for it.
-- Madam, it is not so with me as it was
with you, for my father was a young man, and you [were] a young
girl when he took you, so you enjoyed one another. But I have
no joy nor any distraction from mine [husband], so I must chase
after [them].
-- And with whom will you have an affair, pretty daughter?
-- I will tell you who has asked me: the
priest of this town. I won’t love a knight, for he would gab
about me and boast about it and ask me to commit to my promises,
and I would be ashamed of it.
-- On we go, pretty daughter, [fol. 22d]
do once again [according to] my advice, for you will never see
worse vengeance than [that] of an old man.
--Madam, gladly will I carry out your advice.
-- Pretty daughter, test him again, and
I will tell you on what. Tomorrow will be Thursday and Christmas
Eve; so your husband will hold his Christmas [festivities]
and will hold great court, for all the valiant men of this town
will be there, and you will be at the head of the table. And when
the first dish will be sitting [on the table], you will hurl your
keys into the fringes of the tablecloth, then you will get up and
will pull everything behind you. This way you will have testes your
husband three times.
-- Madam, you speak well, and I will do
so.
She then left and came to her house, and
[stayed there] until Christmas Day came. [fol. 23a] The vassals
of the town had come and plenty of others. The tables were set
and the tablecloths and the salt shakers and the knives, and they
sat down. The lady sat down at the head of the table. The servants
brought the first dishes and the spices with them on the table. While
the servers began to slice [the meat], the lady entangles her keys
in the fringes of the tablecloth, then gets up and makes a big step forward,
and the dishes spilled [all] over the tablecloth. The husband was very
angry, and the lady pulls her keys, which were entangled in the tablecloth,
toward her.
-- Madam, said the husband, you have acted
badly.
-- By [my] faith, says the lady, I can’t
[take it] anymore. I was [simply] going to fetch your good
knife which was not [fol. 23b] on the table, and that weighed
on me.
-- Well, madam, by God, bring us another
tablecloth!
Then another one was brought and they ate
happily. The husband did not show that he was angry. When
they had eaten and the tablecloths were removed, the husband
honoured them much and they left. Thr husband suffered this night
[to go by] until the next day when the husband came to the lady
and said to her:
-- Madam, madam, you have set me three bad
traps. If I can, you will not set me the fourth. Bad blood makes
you do this, you must be bled!
Now he gave orders to the head servant and
had the fire made. When the lady saw such a great fire being
made, she asked her husband [fol. 23c] what he wanted to do.
-- Madam, he goes, I want to have you bloodlet.
-- Ha, sire, goes she, I have never been
bled in my life.
-- It is necessary, goes the husband, to
do it, for bad blood has made you set the bad traps you have
set me.
Right then, whether she wanted or not, he
had her bare the right arm and had it heated by the fire.
The bloodletter struck her, and the blood gushed forth with
great force. A [mixture of] mucus and mud came out, so much so
that [in the end] the red blood came out. Then he had the arm bandaged
up and [had] the other arm stretched forth out of the dress. The
lady began to scream, but it did not help her in the least. He had
the arm heated, and the bloodletter struck into it. The same [matter]
came out of this arm as [fol. 23d] [had come out] of the other, so
much so that the red blood came out of it. When the sage [sic] saw
the red blood, he had her bandaged up, then had her carried into a bed
in her room. She began to scream and to wail. The lady asked for her
mother and she came. When she saw her mother, she said to her:
-- My lady, I’m dead.
-- How[’s that], pretty daughter?
-- Madam, he had me bled.
-- Now then, pretty daughter, do you feel
like having sex?
-- For sure, madam, not I.
-- Daughter [mine], I told you so exactly:
you will never see such cruel vengeance as from an old man.
-- For sure, madam, I will never again have
sex.
-- By [my] faith, daughter, you will act
wisely.
[Frame resumes]
-- Sire emperor, goes master Malcuidarz
the Red, so was this [man] not wise? His wife set him three
traps [that were] ug- [fol. 24a] ly. The fourth one was nastier
still, for she would have loved the priest of the town. As much
I’m telling you about your wife. She wants to set you a nasty trap,
[she] who wants you to kill your son. Look now how the old wise man
avenged himself well.
-- Certainly, said the emperor, [that] he
truly did.
-- Sire, therefore do not believe your wife
with respect to whatever she will tell you.
-- By my head, says the emperor, I won’t.
Then they let the words [be]. It was night,
the doors of the palace were closed. The emperor came to the
empress who was very angry and irritated. The emperor asked
her:
-- Madam, what have you?
-- What, sire, I have plenty of what, sire,
[plenty] of [the fact] that you have en- [fol. 24b] tered [the
realm of] such bad covetousness [that you] listen to treasonous
and false words. So it was no wonder at all that Cras[s]us coveted
gold and silver, nor that he died of such covetousness.
-- How, says the emperor, did he die of
it?
-- Yes, truly.
-- So tell me, [by the] faith that you owe
me.
-- Sire, what I tell you, what is it worth?
For you remember nor hear nothing of it.
-- Madam, for sure I will hear it perfectly,
so speak.
-- Sire,
there was in this city a learned man whose name was Virgil,
and he was a very good man learned in all [of] the seven arts. He knew a
lot of magic, and through magic did he make in this city a fire that burned
every day. And those poor women, who had those little children, when they
[fol. 24c] could not enter where those rich men [live] in those high houses,
who sleep until nine o’clock, they warmed themselves by this fire and took
hot water to bathe their children. Next to this fire there was a man cast
in copper, who held a bow and was aiming to shoot. On the forehead of this
man there were letters written which said: Whoever will strike me, I will
shoot. In this city there was [also] a learned man from Lombardy, a noble
and rich man, and he was at school. This learned man came to see the fire
and looked at it and saw the letters that [the copper statue] had written
on its forehead and understood them and knew that there was written: Whoever
will strike me, I will shoot. So he said to his companions:
-- Shall I strike him?
-- Sire, yes, if it pleases you.
He now [fol. 24d] struck him, and he shoots
into the fire and extinguishes it immediately.
[Frame resumes]
-- Sire, goes the empress, did he not commit
a sin?
-- Certainly, madam, yes.
-- Indeed, goes she, for those poor women
from all over the city took [their] fire there.
-- It’s true.
-- Sire, [Virgil] did still more. For
[Empress resumes]
at one of the gates of Rome he made a man
cast in copper [who] held a ball in his hand, and at one of
the other gates he made a similar one, and one threw the ball
to the other on Saturday night.
[Frame resumes]
-- That he did?
-- Sire, he did still more. For
[Empress resumes]
he made through magic a mirror on a huge
marble column by which those of this city saw those who wanted
to come to Rome in order to do [it] harm, and as soon as they saw
that some territory wanted to rise up against Rome, they sent
orders to the communities of the cities [fol. 25a] in the area,
so that they armed themselves [and] then went into that territory and
distroyed it. [This went on] until the king of Puille was furious about
it and assembled all the wise men of his land and asked them what
he should do about Rome which was thus doing harm to his land, and
what was their thinking and should he make truce with Rome. There were
two young men there who were brothers. One of them got up and spoke
to the king and said to him:
-- By [my] faith, sire, if you were willing
to give us of your [riches], we would fell the mirror of Rome.
-- By [my] faith, said the king, I will
give you whatever you demand (for what [else] could I have
it?), whether you want towns, whether you want castles, whether
you want land.
They replied:
-- We will put ourselves in your household.
-- Great thanks, goes the king.
The first-born [of the two] said:
-- Sire, now have two baskets filled with
gold for us.
-- Gladly, says the king.
Filled they were. He had them put on a sturdy
cart with two horses, then they took to the(ir) road all the
way to Rome. At that time Crassus was emperor of Rome, who was
very covetous. They came so late to Rome that they took care [to
watch] that nobody came out of the city. By one of the gates they
buried one of the baskets and by the second [gate they buried]
the other one, and then they found lodging in the city and spent
lots of money. In the morning, when the emperor was up, they came to
the palace and greeted him and said to him:
-- Sire, we are diviners and finders of
treasures, so we have come to [fol. 25c] you, for we know [full]
well that in your realm there are lots of them.
-- May you be welcome, said the emperor,
and you will stay with me.
-- Sire, gladly, but we shall want one half
of what we will find, and you [keep] the other.
-- By [my] faith, said the emperor, I agree. I can never have anything if
not through you.
-- Sire, says the first-born, I will dream
tonight and tomorrow I will tell you what I dreamt.
-- I grant it, says the emperor.
They left for their lodgings and were much
at ease that night. And when it came to the next day, they came
to the emperor and the first-born said to him:
-- Sire, I dreamt.
-- So tell [me] what [you dreamt], said
the emperor.
-- Sire, I dreamt [of] a small treasure
at the gate toward Puille.
-- Let’s go there, said the empe- [fol.
25d] ror.
-- By [my] faith, sire, gladly.
The emperor came there with a great company
of people [who were] with him. He brought miners, and they
began to dig where the diviner said. When they had dug, they found
one of the baskets that [the brothers] had put there. The emperor
had it pulled out, and then it was divided so that the emperor had
one half of it, and the brothers the other. The emperor was overjoyed
and coveted it much. The other [brother] said that he would dream [also].
He found his basket as well. The emperor congratulated himself for [having
employed] them:
-- By [my] faith, gentlemen, he said, now
I truly know that you are for real.
They replied:
-- Certainly, sire, That’s nothing. We have
dreamt [of] one of [those treasures] under that mirror [that
is] so big that all the horses which are at your court could hardly
pull it [out].
-- Certainly, says the emperor, this I would
not want at any price: that I cause the mirror to be felled,
for we see in it all those who want to do harm to this city.
Those replied to him:
-- Sire, do not worry that it may fall,
for we will save it very well.
-- By God, said the emperor, so be there
in the morning.
-- Sire, gladly.
They took leave and went to their lodgings.
When it came to the [next] morning, they came to the mirror
and began to dig until the foot of the mirror was completely dug
up, until it held only a little bit. When it came to the night, they
left and so did the workmen. When it was midnight, they brought fire
and put it [fol. 26b] at the foundation, then they sealed it up [all]
around. It burned inside. And when they saw that the fire had well
taken, they went on their way. They had not gone [a] great [distance]
when the mirror fell and the marble columns broke into pieces. They
saw it fall beautifully, so they went on being very joyful. In the
morning, when the high barons of Rome and from nearby there assembled
to see the mirror, they looked and saw that it had fallen [over] because
of the emperor’s covetousness. The emperor came and was very angry [because]
of this misadventure. He had [his men] look for the diviners, but they
could not be found. He felt deceived and was very much afraid. The high-ranking
men of the land ask- [fol. 26c] ed him why he had done this. He did
not know what to answer them, except that [he had done it] out of greed
for gold. Now they took him and put a restraining device on his stomach because of the
great scorn they had about the great loss they had suffered, then they took
molten gold and poured it down his mouth and into his eyes and into his
ears, and then they said to him:
-- Gold you wanted, gold you coveted, gold
you shall have and gold you will lose and by gold you will
die.
[Frame resumes]
-- Sire, says the empress to the emperor,
so now this one is dead to his great shame and because of greed.
-- True it is, says the emperor.
-- Sire, now you can truly know that you
as well will die.
-- Alas, [my] lady, says the emperor, what
are you saying?
-- Sire, I am telling you the truth. Is
it not entirely clear that you a- [fol. 26d] re so greedy to
hear and remember the words of those sages that you will lose [your]
honour because of it and will die shamefully? You will well die shamefully
when you will lose the crown of your life for [the sake of] a scoundrel
whom you have reared, whom you call son. Woe on a son who seeks his
father’s ruin.
-- Madam, said the emperor, don’t be angry
now, because by the faith I owe you, he will not disinherit
me, for he will die in the morning.
-- Well. sire, may it not grieve you: I
don’t believe you.
-- Madam, he will, know it [for sure].
-- Sire, may God give you good courage for
it.
Then they let [things] be until the next
day when it was light. The emperor got up. The doors were opened
and the noblemen were assembled in the palace. [fol. 27a] The emperor
called his servants and said to them:
-- Take my son and destroy him.
-- Sire, willingly.
They dragged him out of the jail and led
him so swiftly up into the palace before the emperor that they
did not even let him bow before his father. They rushed down
the steps and entered into the street. All tthose who saw him took
great pity of him. At this point came his master whose name was Caton,
he who wrote the book because of which children go to school and are
taught. His disciple bowed toward him when he came before him. [Caton]
had a very great [feeling of] pity about their leading him away in this
manner; he travelled onward a very good distance and got off [his horse]
at the foot of the stairs of the hall. There were more than enough people
to take his horse. He ascended up [fol. 27b] the steps until he came
before the emperor and saluted him. And the emperor spoke to him of shame
and wickedness and threatened him and said:
-- I had given my son over to you to be
taught and you have taken away his speech, and my wife he
wanted to take by force.
-- Sire, Caton says, [concerning] his speech
I don’t say that he has lost it, for if it were that he has
lost it, little thanks should you owe us for it. But as to your wife whom he
wanted to take by force, as she tells you, she has nothing,
and if you destroy your son because of that, then may happen to
you what happened to the burgher with his magpie.
-- And what happened to him, says the emperor,
and his magpie?
-- By [my] faith, says Caton, my words would
be worth nothing if your son were to be killed. But make him
[enjoy] some respite and I will tell you the tale.
-- I will grant him [fol. 27c] a respite
until you have spoken, goes the emperor.
-- Sire, so send for him.
-- Willingly.
Messengers hurried out to bring the young
man back. He came before the emperor and before his master
and bowed toward them and then was led into the jail. Then master
Caton began his tale.
-- Sire, said Caton,
in this city there was a burgher who had a magpie which
spoke the Roman language very well. And when the burgher came from outside, the
magpie told him whatever it knew and [had] heard and seen. And it often happened
that the magpie told the man
the truth. When the wife’s friend had been with her,
he believed [his magpie] entirely. Until the gentleman had gone away on
business and did not return that [fol. 27d] night. The lady asked her friend
[to come]. The magpie was high up in a cage [which was] attached to a pole.
The friend came up to the house and did not dare enter because of the magpie.
He asked the lady [to come]. She came to him. He said to her:
-- [My] lady, I don’t dare enter because
of the magpie, because [I can’t be sure] that it will not tell
your husband.
-- Come [in, it’s] safe, she goes, for a way [out of this] I will well think of.
-- [My] lady, he goes, willingly.
He passed through and entered the [bed]room.
The magpie looked at him and recognized him, for he had done
it nasty tricks many times. So it said:
-- Ha, sire who are reposing in [my lady’s]
room, why do you not come here when my master is here?
Then it fell silent and the lady thought
of a grand stratagem. When night had fallen, she took her chambermaid
and gave her a big pot full of water and a cand- [fol. 28a] le
brightly burning and a hammer [made] of wood. When it came toward
midnight, she made her climb up on the house right above the spot where
the magpie was, and she began to hit hard on the shingles. When she
had hit enough, she took the candle and thrust it between two shingles,
which gave the magpie light[ning] into the face. After [that] she
took the water and poured it on the magpie. That kind of life she made
it lead until day[light]. When day had broken, she descended with the
hammer in one hand and the candle in the other, and the lady’s friend
left.
Hardly [any time] remained after that before
the master [of the house] came [back]. He came right straight
to his magpie, greeted it and asked it:
-- Friend, how is it with you? Did you eat
today?
-- Sire, says the magpie, my lady’s friend
was last night all [fol. 28b] long in here and lay with her.
He left only a little while ago. I saw him go through here.
The master looked at the lady with a felon’s
eyes. Then he turned toward his magpie and said to it:
-- Certainly, [my] beautiful, very sweet
friend, I fully believe you in this matter.
-- Sire, goes the magpie, last night it
thundered and rained all night and lightning came to me from
all directions right into [my] eyes, and but for a little I
[could have] died last night.
The master looked at the lady and she at
him.
-- By [my] faith, goes the master, last
night there was a very beautiful and very clear night.
-- For sure, sire, goes the lady, in my opinion one of the clear[est] of this
year.
The master asked his neighbours and they
told him the same thing. The lady saw [as] her [advantage] point
that she could speak up, and she said to her husband, within
earshot of his neighbours:
-- Now then, gentlemen, now [fol. 28c] you
can hear for what my husband has always blamed and hit me, [he]
who believed his magpie about anything it told him. Now it
has told him that my friend had last night laid with me all night.
For sure it lied as [it lied] about the weather.
The husband was furious that his magpie
had lied to him about the weather, similarly he thought that
it had lied about his wife. So he came to his magpie and said
to it:
-- By my head, you will never lie to me
[again].
Then he took it and broke its neck. When
he had done this, he was so astonished that he did not know
what to say. Then he dismounted the cage where the magpie was
and saw the undone shingles. Then he took a ladder and climbed on
top of the house and saw the pot that the chambermaid had left there,
and saw the wax [that had] dripped on [fol. 28d] the shingles and
that the roof was undone, and he saw the large hole through which she
had thrust the burning candle. Then he realized the treason that his
wife had done him and began to mourn terribly and said:
-- Ha, poor miserable [creature that I am],
why did I believe my wife?
Then he chased his wife out of his house.
[Frame resumes]
So, sire, goes master Caton, if he had informed
himself beforehand, he would not have killed his magpie.
Now he repents and is in mourning. Now he has chased his wife
away because upon her advice he had killed his magpie. In exactly
similar fashion I see and hear that the empress is working on how
to destroy your son, and if you believe her in this without believing
other advice, then may happen to you the same that happened to the
burgher [because] of his magpie.
-- By my head, [fol. 29a] said the emperor,
nothing similar will happen to me.
-- Sire, goes Caton, you will do the right
thing. One must not kill one’s child because of what its stepmother
says.
Thereupon they let [things] be until evening
when the doors were closed. The emperor came to the empress.
She made a bad expression toward him. The emperor, who loved her
much, looked at her and said to her:
-- [My] lady, what is the matter, tell me.
-- For sure, sire, I will leave [tomorrow]
morning for my friends and my family, for I am of high lineage.
-- [My] lady, why? Tell me.
-- By [my] faith, sire, I know [full] well
that you will be destroyed eventually, for you do not want to
believe any advice. And therefore may possibly happen to you
the same [fate] that happened to king Herod who [fol. 29b] so much
held in contempt the saying of his wife to the advantage of the advice
of the seven sages that he lost his sight over it.
-- His sight? said the emperor, how? This
I would dearly like to hear.
-- Why would I tell it to you? You would
do nothing about it.
-- By my head, [my] lady, you will tell
it.
-- Willingly, sire, since it pleases you.
-- Sire,
there was in this city an emperor [sic]
whose name was Herod, and he had seven sages such as there
still are. But they had put forth in this city such a custom that
whoever had a dream, he came to the seven sages and brought them
a gold coin and they told him his dream and explained to him what
he had dreamed and what according to it could happen. And they had
so much gold and possessions that they [fol. 29c] surmounted the emperor
in riches. The emperor had such an illness that, when he wanted
to ride outside of Rome, he went blind and could not go outside [the
city]. Until one day he called the seven sages and said to them:
-- Sires, tell me what I will ask you.
They replied:
-- Willingly.
-- Why, he said, do my eyes go blind when
I must go outside this city?
-- Sire, the sages say, to this we do not
know how to reply to you without a delay.
-- Must there be a delay? says the emperor.
-- By [our] faith, sire, yes.
-- And I give it to you: up to eight days.
-- Sire. that would be little, [give us]
rather up to fifteen.
-- By God, [so be it], said the emperor.
Thereupon they leave. They do not want to
let [fol. 29d] a long time [go by since] the emperor’s request;
rather they sought advice from several people until one told
them that a child was in the land, who had had no father, [and]
who gave explanations for whatever one asked of him. They went forth
outside Rome and came to the area where [the child’s presence]
had been indicated to them, and they eventually found him in a town
where he was mingled amidst his companions who reproached him that
he was born without a father. The sages stopped there and asked who
he was and what his name was. Those [companions] replied that his name
was Mellin. There came now to the sages a man who was disturbed by a
dream he had dreamed, and he held a gold coin [fol. 30a] in his hand.
Mellin came toward him and said to him:
-- I know perfectly where you are going
and what you are asking and what you are bringing.
The sages listened to him.
-- You dreamed, said Mellin, a dream because
of which you are disturbed, and therefore you are going to
Rome to the sages and are bringing them a coin. I will tell you [the
dream], and you will take your coin [back]. You dreamed that in the
centre of your house there is a fountain and that all those of your
household were served and watered by it.
The fountain signifies a great treasure which is underneath your
house. Go and have it dug up and from it you and your entire family
will be rich, if it is not taken away from you.
The man returned to his house and the sages
and servants [as well]. The man asked for workers and had
[them] dig until they found the treasure and pulled it [fol.
30b] up. There was a lot of it, a great plenty. The sages took
as much as they wanted and offered some to the child, but he had no
desire for it. The sages left and took the child with them. When they
were outside the town they asked him whether he would be able to tell
the emperor why his eyesight gave him trouble whenever he wanted to leave
Rome. Mellin said:
-- Yes, [very] well.
So they took him to Rome before the emperor
on the day that had been set for the response. One of them
spoke up and said:
-- Sire, we have come on our day to respond
why your eyesight gives you trouble whenever you want to go
outside Rome.
-- That’s true, says the emperor.
-- Sire, we have brought a child who will
respond for us.
-- Do you take [fol. 30c] upon you what
he will say?
-- Sire, yes.
-- So speak, I will hear it willingly.
-- Sire, goes Mellin, lead me to a room
and there I will speak to you.
-- Willingly, says the emperor.
So he led him into his room and Mellin began
to say to him:
-- Sire, listen to me. Under your bed there
is a cauldron which bubbles in great waves, and there are
seven bubbles and as long as the seven bubbles last and as long
as that cauldron is there, you cannot go outside Rome, [whatever]
road or path you may know. And if you take out the cauldron without
extinguishing the bubbles, you [will] have lost your eyesight forever.
-- By [my] faith, handsome, gentle friend,
goes the emperor, you must advise me in this matter.
-- Sire, willingly. Have the bed taken [fol.
30d] out and have [your men] dig.
The emperor had the bed taken out. Afterward
he had [his men] dig until the cauldron was found. The sages
were there and several people who saw it. The emperor spoke to the
child and said:
-- Young man, he goes, now I know perfectly
that you are wise. So from now on I want to act according to
your advice.
-- Sire, he says, great thanks. Have all
these people draw back and go out from in here. Now they went
away, then Mellin said to him:
-- Sire, do you see these seven bubbles?
This signifies these seven devils that you have every day at
your council.
-- Ha, [my] God, says the emperor, will
I be able to remove them from around me?
-- Certainly, yes, easily, says Mellin.
-- Can I see them and hear and touch [them]?
-- Sire, yes.
-- And who are they, handsome [fol. 31a]
gentle friend? Tell me it.
-- Sire, willingly. By [my] faith, they
are those seven sages that you have around you. They are
of your land richer than you are, and they are used to a bad
custom because of which the land is lost and they are rich because
of it. For if a man, be he a knight or a burgher, dreams a dream,
it is absolutely necessary that he come to the sages and bring a
coin and give it to them in order [for them] to explain his dream.
And if they did it any other way, they would believe that they are shamed.
Thus the sages have given the people to understand. And because you
have suffered this bad custom, your eyesight gives you trouble when
you go outside this city. So, take the oldest of the sages and have
his head cut off, and the [fol. 31b] largest of the bubbles will be extinguished.
-- By [my] faith, said the emperor, I will
do it.
Now he had the oldest brought forth with
the help of many people and had his head cut off, and immediately
the biggest bubble was extinguished. The emperor went to have
a look at the cauldron and found the big bubble extinguished.
-- By my head, he goes, from now on forward,
Mellin, I will believe you [and] what you will tell me.
Then he had the head[s] of all the sages
cut off and the entire cauldron was extinguished and became
totally cold.
-- By [my] faith, sire, goes Mellin, now
you can remove the cauldron, and you [can] wash your hands
in it and your whole body.
-- Willingly, says the emperor.
The emperor did as Mellin commanded him.
When the cauldron was removed and the [fol. 31c] filled in and
the bed was made again as it used to be, Mellin said:
-- Sire, now you can mount and ride [off].
-- By my head, says the emperor, that I
will do. But you will ride with me.
-- Sire, said Mellin, willingly.
The saddles were put on. The emperor and
Mellin mounted, and the barons and the burghers of the land
mounted afterward in order to see the great marvel. It had well been
five years that the emperor had not gone outside Rome. When [the moment]
came to pass through the gate, Mellin was beside him and said to him:
-- Sire, you will go ahead.
Then [the emperor] struck the horse with
the spurs and passed [through] the gate and his eyesight gave
him no trouble. When the emperor saw this, he [felt] very great
joy. Then he took [fol. 31d] Mellin and began to kiss and hug [him]
and kept him with him. And all the others made him a great feast
when they saw that the emperor had regained his eyesight as he used
to.
[Frame resumes]
-- Sire, have you heard this adventure that
happened to Herod from his seven sages who had blinded him
with their trickery and with their treachery and [who could
have destroyed him] because he believed them too much? And if
you believe [that] your sages [want to] destroy you and take the
empire from you, [then] may happen to you what happened to Herod.
-- Thus it will not happen with me, for
I will not believe them, so much so that I [am ready to] lose
[my] land and become blind.
The empress replies:
-- May God preserve you from it.
Then they spent that night until it came
to the morning when the emperor got up and [32a] the empress
[too]. The doors were opened. The emperor ordered that one lead
his son to be destroyed. Then there came the other sage whose name
was Jesse, and at the step [leading to] the hall he got off his horse;
there were many [people] who held it. Then he went up and saluted
the emperor and the other noblemen. After that he said to the emperor:
-- Sire, I marvel much at you who are a wise man, that
you want to destroy your son because of what a woman is saying [and] without
[any other] judgment. Mark my word, you are committing the greatest marvel
that ever a great man like you committed, and mark my word, you are because
of it much blamed by your barons and other people when you believe the empress
so much. Mark my word, she does not like [32b] your honour nor your wealth
when she thus wants to destroy and kill your son. So I pray to God that may
happen to you what happened to a viscount who once was [and] who died because
he had injured his wife a little on her thumb with a knife.
-- How was that, handsome sire? Tell me [as a sign
of our] friendship.
-- Sire, I will tell you willingly, but the child must
[first] be respited from death.
-- Friend, says the emperor, so shall he, for that
tale I want to hear and retain.
Then he said to his seargents:
-- Bring me back my son.
’
Notes