Costanza / Costanzo

Last updated

Costanza / Costanzo is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giovanni Francesco Straparola in The Facetious Nights of Straparola (written between 1550 and 1555). [1]

Contents

Synopsis

A king married to have heirs, and his wife bore three daughters. In time, he realized that his wife had come to an age where she would have no more children, and his three daughters were ready for marriage. He married them off and split his kingdom between them, keeping only enough land to support his court.

A few years later, the queen gave birth to a fourth daughter, Costanza. Costanza was raised well and became a gracious, educated and accomplished princess. When she was old enough to marry, they proposed that she marry the son of a marquis, because her dowry would not be enough for a match equal to her birth. Costanza refused to marry below her station, dressed as a man, and left, calling herself Costanzo.

She entered a king's service, where the queen desired her as a lover, but "Costanzo" rejected her. The king had long wished to have as a captive one of the satyrs that did great damage in his land; the queen suggested to him that so good a servant as Costanzo could catch one. The king proposed it to Costanzo, who agreed to please him. She asked for a large vessel, wine, and bread. In the woods, she filled the vessel with the wine and bread and climbed a tree. The satyrs smelled it, ate the bread, and fell asleep. Costanza tied up one and carried him off. On the way back, the satyr woke and began to laugh: at a funeral of a child, at a hanging, at a crowd that hailed her as "Costanzo", and at being presented to the king.

The king tried to make the satyr talk. The queen said that Costanzo could certainly make it talk. Costanzo tried to bribe it with food, then threatened it with hunger, and finally promised to free it. It ate and talked. It told that at the funeral, the apparent father was not the father, but the priest was; at the hanging, the crowd was filled with officials who pilfered far more money than the thief to be hanged; and that it would explain the rest the next day. The next day, it explained that they were hailing her by the wrong name, and that the king was deluded into believing his wife's maidens were women, when they were disguised men. The king had his queen and her disguised lovers burned, and married Costanza.

Variants

The woman who disguises herself as a man is also found in Giambattista Basile's The Three Crowns . A later French variant, Belle-Belle ou Le Chevalier Fortuné by Madame d'Aulnoy, shows more influence from Straparola. [2]

The woman disguised as a man is found in folk fairy tales as well, such as Vasilisa The Priest’s Daughter .

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sleeping Beauty</span> European fairy tale

"Sleeping Beauty", also titled in English as The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods, is a fairy tale about a princess cursed by an evil fairy to sleep for a hundred years before being awakened by a handsome prince. A good fairy, knowing the princess would be frightened if alone when she wakes, uses her wand to put every living person and animal in the palace and forest asleep, to awaken when the princess does.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giovanni Francesco Straparola</span> Italian writer and fairy tale collector

Giovanni Francesco "Gianfrancesco" Straparola, also known as Zoan or Zuan Francesco Straparola da Caravaggio, was an Italian writer of poetry, and collector and writer of short stories. Some time during his life, he migrated from Caravaggio to Venice where he published a collection of stories in two volumes called The Facetious Nights or The Pleasant Nights. This collection includes some of the first known printed versions of fairy tales in Europe, as they are known today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Three Little Men in the Wood</span> German fairy tale

"The Three Little Men in the Wood" or "The Three Little Gnomes in the Forest" is a German fairy tale collected in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's Fairy Tales. Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book (1890) as "The Three Dwarfs," and a version of the tale appears in A Book of Dwarfs (1964) by Ruth Manning-Sanders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Princess Belle-Etoile</span> French literary fairy tale written by Madame dAulnoy

Princess Belle-Etoile is a French literary fairy tale written by Madame d'Aulnoy. Her source for the tale was Ancilotto, King of Provino, by Giovanni Francesco Straparola.

"The Pig King" or "King Pig" is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giovanni Francesco Straparola in his The Facetious Nights of Straparola. Madame d'Aulnoy wrote a French, also literary, variant, titled Prince Marcassin.

Belle-Belle ou Le Chevalier Fortuné is a French literary fairy tale, written by Madame d'Aulnoy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Old Witch</span>

The Old Witch is an English fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in his 1894 book, More English Fairy Tales. It is also included within A Book of Witches by Ruth Manning-Sanders and A Book of British Fairy Tales by Alan Garner.

Ancilotto, King of Provino is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giovanni Francesco Straparola in The Facetious Nights of Straparola.

Biancabella and the Snake is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giovanni Francesco Straparola in The Facetious Nights of Straparola.

Penta of the Chopped-off Hands or The Girl With the Maimed Hands is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone.

Sapia Liccarda is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone. It is not known whether he had a specific source, either literary or oral, for this tale.

The Dove is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone.

Maestro Lattantio and His Apprentice Dionigi is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giovanni Francesco Straparola in The Facetious Nights of Straparola.

Guerrino and the Savage Man is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giovanni Francesco Straparola in The Facetious Nights of Straparola.

Vasilisa the Priest's Daughter is a Russian fairy tale collected by Aleksandr Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki.

The Three Crowns is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone.

"The Three Fairies" is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone.

<i>The Facetious Nights of Straparola</i>

The Facetious Nights of Straparola, also known as The Nights of Straparola, is a two-volume collection of 75 stories by Italian author and fairy-tale collector Giovanni Francesco Straparola. Modeled after Boccaccio's Decameron, it is significant as often being called the first European storybook to contain fairy-tales; it would influence later fairy-tale authors like Charles Perrault and Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puss in Boots</span> European fairy tale about a cat

"Puss in Boots" is a European fairy tale about an anthropomorphic cat who uses trickery and deceit to gain power, wealth, and the hand in marriage of a princess for his penniless and low-born master.

References

  1. ↑ W. G. Waters, translator, The Facetious Nights by Straparola London: Privately Printed for Members of the Society of Bibliophiles, 1901. 4 volumes.
  2. ↑ Jack Zipes, The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm, p 159, ISBN   0-393-97636-X
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.