Griselda (folklore)

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Griselda is sent away as her husband remarries, from a set of Sienese paintings in the National Gallery London (c.1490, by the unnamed Master of the Story of Griselda) Spalliera Panels The Story of Griselda Part II Exile.jpg
Griselda is sent away as her husband remarries, from a set of Sienese paintings in the National Gallery London (c.1490, by the unnamed Master of the Story of Griselda)

Griselda (anglicised to Grizzel and similar forms) is a figure in European folklore noted for her patience and obedience.

Contents

In literature

One of Griselda's children is taken away from her in an illustration from Eliza Haweis' 1882 book Chaucer for Children Haweis - Griselda's Sorrow.jpg
One of Griselda's children is taken away from her in an illustration from Eliza Haweis' 1882 book Chaucer for Children

In the most famous version of the Griselda tale, written by Giovanni Boccaccio c.1350, [1] [2] [3] Griselda marries Gualtieri, the Marquis of Saluzzo, who tests her by declaring that their two children—a son and a daughter—must both be put to death. Griselda gives both of them up without protest, but Gualtieri does not actually kill the children, instead sending them away to Bologna to be raised. In a final test, Gualtieri publicly renounces Griselda, claiming he had been granted papal dispensation to divorce her and marry a better woman; Griselda goes to live with her father. Some years later, Gualtieri announces he is to remarry and recalls Griselda as a servant to prepare the wedding celebrations. He introduces her to a twelve-year-old girl he claims is to be his bride but who is really their daughter; Griselda wishes them well. At this, Gualtieri reveals their grown children to her and Griselda is restored to her place as wife and mother. [4]

Griselda appears in tales by Petrarch [5] (died 1374, Historia Griseldis published 100 years later) and by Chaucer ( The Clerk's Tale in The Canterbury Tales , late 1300s). She is also cited in Christine de Pizan's The Book of the City of Ladies. [6] Patient Griselda  [ fr ] is a tale by Charles Perrault (1691). [7] [8] John Phillip's play The Commodye of Pacient and Meeke Grissill (also known as The Plaie of Grissill) dates from 1565. Henry Chettle, Thomas Dekker and William Haughton collaborated on another dramatic version, Patient Grissel , first performed in 1599. There are operas named Griselda by Antonio Maria Bononcini ( Griselda , 1718), Alessandro Scarlatti ( La Griselda , 1721), Giovanni Bononcini ( Griselda , 1722), and Antonio Vivaldi ( Griselda , 1735). Also Jules Massenet's Grisélidis (1901) was inspired by the tale of Griselda.

William Shakespeare's play The Winter's Tale (1623) features many elements of the Griselda story. [9] Anthony Trollope's high Victorian novel Miss Mackenzie (1865) is based on the Griselda theme. The Modern Griselda is a novel by Maria Edgeworth from 1804. Patient Griselda is one of a group of historical or legendary dinner-party guests in Caryl Churchill's 1982 play Top Girls . "Patient Griselda" is a 2015 short story by Steven Anthony George in the anthology Twice Upon A Time: Fairytale, Folklore, & Myth. Reimagined & Remastered, where the tale is retold as a late twentieth century horror story.

The tale of Griselda was re-imagined by Margaret Atwood in her short story "Impatient Griselda," which was published in The New York Times Magazine on July 12, 2020. [10]

In art

Boccaccio's story of Griselda is depicted in a set of three Sienese panel paintings dating from around 1490 which hang in the National Gallery in London. They are the work of an unnamed Italian artist known as the Master of the Story of Griselda. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giovanni Boccaccio</span> Italian author and poet (1313–1375)

Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was sometimes simply known as "the Certaldese" and one of the most important figures in the European literary panorama of the fourteenth century. Some scholars define him as the greatest European prose writer of his time, a versatile writer who amalgamated different literary trends and genres, making them converge in original works, thanks to a creative activity exercised under the banner of experimentalism.

Summary of <i>Decameron</i> tales

This article contains summaries and commentaries of the 100 stories within Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron.

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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 14th century.

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The central episode of the Merchant's Tale is like a fabliau, though of a very unusual sort: It is cast in the high style, and some of the scenes are among Chaucer's most elaborate displays of rhetorical art.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Clerk's Tale</span> Tale from The Canterbury Tales

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Shipman's Tale</span>

"The Shipman's Tale" is one of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Monk's Tale</span> One of Geoffrey Chaucers Canterbury Tales

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<i>Griselda</i> (A. Scarlatti) Opera by Alessandro Scarlatti

Griselda is an opera seria in three acts by the Italian composer Alessandro Scarlatti, the last of Scarlatti’s operas to survive completely today. The libretto is by Apostolo Zeno, with revisions by an anonymous author. Zeno wrote his work in 1701 and it had already been set by Pollarolo and Antonio Maria Bononcini. It is based on the story of Patient Griselda from Boccaccio's tenth day of The Decameron. Scarlatti's opera was first performed at the Teatro Capranica, Rome, in January 1721 with an all-male cast.

<i>The Decameron</i> 14th-century collection of stories by Giovanni Boccaccio

The Decameron, subtitled Prince Galehaut and sometimes nicknamed l'Umana commedia, is a collection of short stories by the 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375). The book is structured as a frame story containing 100 tales told by a group of seven young women and three young men; they shelter in a secluded villa just outside Florence in order to escape the Black Death, which was afflicting the city. Boccaccio probably conceived of the Decameron after the epidemic of 1348, and completed it by 1353. The various tales of love in The Decameron range from the erotic to the tragic. Tales of wit, practical jokes, and life lessons contribute to the mosaic. In addition to its literary value and widespread influence, it provides a document of life at the time. Written in the vernacular of the Florentine language, it is considered a masterpiece of early Italian prose.

<i>Griselda</i> (Antonio Maria Bononcini)

Griselda is an opera in three acts composed by Antonio Maria Bononcini. The opera uses a slightly revised version of the 1701 Italian libretto by Apostolo Zeno that was based on Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron. The opera was dedicated to Prince Maximilian Karl von Löwenstein, the Austrian governor of Milan, who died during the opera's world première on 26 December 1718 at the Teatro Regio Ducale in Milan. Nevertheless, Bononcini's opera was well received and enjoyed several revivals during the eighteenth century.

Griselda is a dramma per musica in three acts that was composed by Giovanni Bononcini. The opera uses a revised version of the 1701 Italian libretto by Apostolo Zeno that was based on Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron. The Italian poet Paolo Antonio Rolli was hired to revise the text. Bononcini's opera premiered in London at the King’s Theatre on 22 February 1722. From the opera, an aria "Per la gloria d'adorarvi" is nowadays a famous and popular concert piece, with opera singers such as Oleg Ryabets, or Ramon Vargas.

<i>Histoires ou contes du temps passé</i> Fairy tale collection by Charles Perrault

Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités or Contes de ma mère l'Oye is a collection of literary fairy tales written by Charles Perrault, published in Paris in 1697. The work became popular because it was written at a time when fairy tales were fashionable amongst aristocrats in Parisian literary salons. Perrault wrote the work when he retired from court as secretary to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, minister to Louis XIV of France. Colbert's death may have forced Perrault's retirement, at which point he turned to writing. Scholars have debated as to the origin of his tales and whether they are original literary fairy tales modified from commonly known stories, or based on stories written by earlier medieval writers such as Boccaccio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Influence of Italian humanism on Chaucer</span>

Contact between Geoffrey Chaucer and the Italian humanists Petrarch or Boccaccio has been proposed by scholars for centuries. More recent scholarship tends to discount these earlier speculations because of lack of evidence. As Leonard Koff remarks, the story of their meeting is "a 'tydying' worthy of Chaucer himself".

John Phillip (fl.1561) was an English poet and dramatist of the Elizabethan era.

<i>Novelle licenziose di vergini vogliose</i> 1973 film by Joe DAmato

Italian: Novelle licenziose di vergini vogliose, lit. 'Licentious Tales of Lusty Virgins', is a 1973 Italian decamerotic comedy film lensed and directed for the most part by Joe D'Amato. The story and screenplay were written by D'Amato and producer Diego Spataro.

References

  1. Boccaccio, Decamerone, day 10, tale 10.
  2. "Boccaccio, Decameron, Day 10, Tale 10 (Italian, tr. into Mod. Engl.) (analogue of the Clerk's Tale)". sites.fas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  3. "Légendes médiévales: Décaméron 5/5". mythologica.fr (in French). Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  4. Cazal, Françoise (2000). Boccace, Pétrarque, Nerli de Mezière, Metge, Timoneda, Trancoso, Deloney (in French). Presses Univ. du Mirail. ISBN   9782858165308.[ page needed ]
  5. "La Patience Griselidis, marquise de Saluces". bp16.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  6. Pizan, Christine (1999). The Book of the City of Ladies. Penguin UK. ISBN   978-0-14-190758-1.[ page needed ]
  7. "British Painter Vanessa Garwood: Second Solo Exhibition At Rook & Raven - Artlyst". Artlyst. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  8. "Charles Perrault / Enrichetto dal ciuffo, la fiaba dimenticata che però insegna molto (oggi, 12 gennaio 2016)". Il Sussidiario.net. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  9. Grace Annelyse McCarthy. The evolution of the patient woman : examining Patient Griselda as a source for William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. OCLC   910124763.[ page needed ]
  10. Atwood, Margaret (8 July 2020). "Margaret Atwood: 'Impatient Griselda,' a Short Story". The New York Times.
  11. "Master of the Story of Griselda | The Story of Griselda, Part I: Marriage | NG912 | National Gallery, London". www.nationalgallery.org.uk. Retrieved 23 January 2020.

Further reading