Peruonto

Peruonto

Giambattista Basile

Peruonto goes to the forest to gather a fagot of wood, and behaves kindly towards three girls whom he finds sleeping in the sun, and receives from them a charm. The king's daughter mocks him, and he calls down a curse upon her that she should be with child of him, which coms to pass. Knowing that he is the father, the king commands that he should be put inside a cask with his wife and little ones, and thrown into the sea: but in virtue of the charm he has received, he frees himself of the danger, and becoming a handsome youth, is made king.
A good deed is never lost: whoever sows the seed of kindness meets with due reward, and whoever sows the seed of love gathers love in return.

The favor which is shown to a grateful heart is never barren, and gratitude gives birth to gifts. Instances of these sayings occur continually in the deeds of mankind: and you will meet with an example of it in the tale that I am about to relate to you.

A countrywoman of Casoria, by the name of Ceccarella, had a son named Peruonto, who was the silliest body and the ugliest lump of flesh that nature had ever created; so that the unhappy mother always felt sad at heart, and cursed the day and the hour upon which she had given birth to this good-for-nothing, who was not worth a dog's hide. The unfortunate woman could cry out as much as she liked, but the ass never stirred to do her the lightest service.

At last, after screaming herself hoarse, and assailing him with all the epithets she could think of, she induced him to go to the forest and gather a fagot of wood, saying, "It is nearly time that we should have something to eat. Run for this wood, that I may get ready somewhat: and forget not yourself on the way, but come back at once, that I may cook the needful so as to keep the life in us."

Peruonto departed, and fared on like a monk among his brethren in a procession. Away he went, stepping as one treading down eggs, with the gait of a jackdaw, counting his paces as he went. At last he reached a certain part of the forest through which ran a streamlet, and nearby he saw three young girls lying on the grass, with a stone for a pillow, fast asleep, with the sun pouring its rays straight upon them.

When Peruonto saw them, like a fountain amid a roaring fire, he took compassion upon them; and with the ax which he carried to cut the wood he severed some branches from the trees, and built a kind of arbor over them. Whilst he was busy so doing the young girls awoke (they were the daughters of a fairy), and perceiving the kindness and goodness of heart of Peruonto, in gratitude they gave him a charm, by which he might possess whatever he knew how to ask for.

Peruonto, having performed this action, continued faring towards the forest, where he cut down a fagot of wood so large that it would require a cart to carry it.

Seeing that it would be impossible for him to lift it, he sat upon it, saying, "Would it not be a fine thing if only this fagot would carry me home?"

And behold, the fagot began to trot like a Besignano horse, and arriving before the king's palace, it began to wheel round, and prance, and curvet, so that Peruonto cried out aloud, enough to deafen all hearers. The young ladies who attended the king's daughter, whose name was Vastolla, happening to look out of the window and behold this marvel, hastened to call the princess, who, glancing out and observing the tricks played by the fagot, laughed until she fell backwards, which thing was unusual, and the young ladies were astonished at the sight, as the Lady Vastolla was by nature so melancholy that they never remembered to have seen her smile.

Peruonto lifted his head, and perceiving that they were mocking him, said, "O Vastolla, may you be with child by me!" and thus saying, tightened his heels on the fagot, which at once moved away, and in an instant arrived home with a train of screaming children behind; and if his mother had not quickly shut the door, they would have slain him with stones.

In the meantime Vastolla, after a feeling of uneasiness, and unrest, and the delay of her monthly period, perceived that she was with child, and hid as long as possible her plight, until she was round as a cask.

The king, discovering her condition, was exceedingly angry, and fumed, and swore terrible oaths, and convened a meeting of the council, and thus spoke to them: '"You all know that the moon of my honor is wearing horns, and you all know that my daughter has furnished matter of which to write chronicles, or, even better, to chronicle my shame. You all know that to adorn my brow she has filled her belly; therefore tell me, advise me what I had better do. Methinks I had rather have her slain than have her give birth to a bastard race. I have a mind to let her feel rather the agonies of death than the labor of childbed. I have a mind to let her depart this world ere she bring bad seed into it."

The ministers and advisers, who had made use of more oil than vinegar, answered him, saying, "Truly she deserves a great punishment, and of the horns which she forces on your brow should the handle be made of the knife that shall slay her; but if we slay her now that she is with child, the villain who has been the principal cause of your disgust, and who has dressed you with horns right and left will escape unhurt. Let us await, therefore, until it comes to port, and then we are likely to know the root of this dishonor; and afterwards we will think and resolve, with a grain of salt, which course we should best follow."

The king was pleased with this advice, perceiving in it sound sense, and therefore held his hand, and said, "Let us await the issue of events."

As heaven willed, the time came, and with little labor, at the first sound of the midwife's voice, and the first squeeze of the body, out sprang two male children like two golden apples.

The king, who was full of wrath, sent for his ministers and counselors, and said to them, "My daughter has been brought to bed, and the time has come for her to die."

The old sages answered (and all to gain time upon time), "No, we will wait until the children get older, so as to be able by their favor to recognize their father."

The king, not desiring his counselors to think him unjust, shrugged his shoulders and took it quietly, and patiently waited until the children were seven years of age, at which time he again sent for his counselors, and asked them for their advice.

One of them said, "As you have not been able to know from your daughter who was the false coiner that altered the crown from your image, it is time that we seek to obliterate the stain. Command that a great banquet should be prepared, and ask all the grandees and noblemen of the city, and let us be watchful, and seek with our own eyes him to whom the children incline most by the inclination of nature, for that one without fail will be the father, and we will at once get hold of him like goat's excrement."

The king was pleased with this advice. He gave orders for the banquet, invited all folk of any consequence, and after they had eaten their fill he asked them to stand in line and pass before the children, but they took as much notice of them as did Alexander's steed of the rabbits, so that the king became enraged and bit his lips with anger, and although he was not wanting in shoes, because of the tightness of those he was compelled to wear he stamped the ground with the excess of pain.

His advisers said to him, "Softly, your majesty! Take heart. We will give another banquet in a short while, no more inviting the noblest of the land, but instead folk of the lower class, as women often attach themselves to the worst: and perchance we will meet with the seed of your wrath amid cutlers, comb-sellers, and other merchants of small wares, as we have not met with him among the noble and well-born."

The king was pleased with this advice, and commanded the second banquet to be prepared, whereto came, by invited by a summons, all folk from Chiaja, all the rogues, all adventurers and fortune-hunters, all quick-witted, all ruffians, and villains, and apron-wights that were to be found in the city, who, taking seat like unto noblemen at a long table spread with rich abundance, began straightway to stuff themselves.

Now it so happened that Ceccarella, having heard the ban which invited folk to this banquet, began to urge Peruonto to go to it also, and so much did she say and do that at last she prevailed upon him to depart, and he went. He had hardly entered the place of feasting, when the two pretty children ran to him, and embraced him, and received him with great joy, and sported and played with him.

The king, beholding this sight, pulled out his own beard, seeing that the winning ticket of this lottery had fallen to an ugly brute, the sight of whom made one sick. He was shaggy-headed, owl-eyed, had a nose like a parrot's beak, and a mouth like a fish. He was so tattered and torn, that no part of his body was hidden.

Sighing heavily, the king said, "Has ever any one seen anything like this, that that light-o'-brains daughter mine should have it in her head to fall in love with this sea-monster? Has ever any one seen one that could take to the heel of such a hairy foot? Ah, infamous woman, what blind and false metamorphoses are these: to become a strumpet for a pig, so that I should become a ram? But what am I waiting for? What am I thinking of? Let them feel the weight of my just chastisement. Let them be punished as they deserve, and let them bear the penalty that you will adjudge. Take them out of my sight, for I cannot endure them."

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