Waltey

Prevod

_Nardiello is sent three times by his father to trade, with a hundred ducats each time, and on each occasion buys an animal: first a cockroach, then a mouse, then a cricket. Driven out by his father for this, he reaches a place where, after curing a king’s daughter with the help of these animals and undergoing various adventures, he becomes her husband._ _The Prince and the Slave Woman warmly praised Sapia Liccarda’s good judgment; but still more warmly they praised Tolla, who had told the story so well that everyone seemed to have witnessed it. And since Popa came next in the order of the list, she rose grandly to the occasion and began as follows._ Fortune is a touchy woman, and shuns the faces of the wise, because they set more store by the turning of pages than the turning of a wheel. So she gladly keeps company with the ignorant and the worthless, and, content with the homage of the common people, thinks nothing of sharing her blessings among blockheads, as you shall hear in the tale that follows.

Once upon a time, in Vommaro, there lived a very, very rich farmer named Miccone, who had a son called Nardiello. This boy was the most wretched good-for-nothing ever to win first prize among dunces, so that his poor father was bitterly distressed and knew neither how nor by what means to set him straight and make him do anything properly. If he went to the tavern to guzzle with his idle companions, they made a fool of him; if he kept company with loose women, he bought the worst meat and paid above the market rate; if he gambled in the gaming dens, they fleeced him, ganged up on him, and took his money as easily as fried morsels from a plate. One way and another, he had squandered half his father’s property. So Miccone was forever raising the alarm, shouting, threatening, and saying, “What do you think you’re doing, you wastrel? Don’t you see my fortune is going down the drain? Give up, give up those accursed taverns, whose names begin with enemies and end with evils! Give them up: they are a migraine to the brain, a dropsy to the throat, and a flux to the purse! Give up, give up that godforsaken gambling, which risks your life and gnaws away your livelihood, drives out contentment and fritters away your cash, where the dice reduce you to nothing and the stakes whittle you down to a peg! Give up, give up whoring after those vile creatures, daughters of filthy sin, where you spill and spend, squander your substance on a strumpet, pine away over rotten flesh until there is not a bone left that does not stick out! Those are not harlots but a pirate sea, where you are captured by the Turks! Keep away from temptation, and you will shake off vice: remove the cause, as the fellow said, and you remove the effect. Here, then, are a hundred ducats. Go to the fair at Salierno and buy as many bull calves as you can, and in three or four years we shall have so many oxen. Once we have the oxen, we shall take to ploughing; once we have tilled the fields, we shall take to trading in grain; and if a good famine happens along, we shall measure our crowns by the bushel.

“And if nothing else comes of it, I shall buy you a title on some friend’s estate, and you too will be a titled gentleman, like so many others. So mind what you’re about, my son: every beginning grows, and he who never starts can never carry on.” “Leave it to this fine fellow,” Nardiello answered. “I’ll soon show you a little reckoning worked out by every rule.” “That’s what I like to hear,” his father replied;

and, having handed over the money, he sent him off toward the fair. But Nardiello had scarcely reached the waters of the Sarno, that lovely river which gave its name to the ancient Sarnelli family, when, in a pleasant grove of elms, he saw a fairy at the foot of a rock which, to soothe a perpetual trickle of cool water, had wrapped itself in ivy leaves. She was playing with a cockroach, which strummed a little guitar so splendidly that any Spaniard who heard it would have called the performance superb and magnificent. At the sight, Nardiello stopped and listened as though enchanted, saying that he would pay an eye out of his head to own so gifted an animal. The fairy told him that if he paid her a hundred ducats, she would give it to him. “You could not have caught me at a better moment,” Nardiello answered, “for I have them ready and waiting.” With that he dropped the hundred ducats into her lap, put the cockroach into a little sweetmeat box, and ran back to his father, with joy bubbling up from the very marrow of his bones. “Now you shall see, my dear sir,” he said, “whether I am a clever fellow and know how to look after my affairs! Without wearing myself out going all the way to the fair, I have found my fortune halfway there, and for a hundred ducats I have bought this jewel.” Hearing this and seeing the little box, his father felt certain he had bought some diamond trinket; but when he opened the box and saw the cockroach, shame at having been made a fool of and grief over the loss of his money were two bellows that puffed him up like a toad. Nardiello tried to explain the cockroach’s talents, but could not get a word out, for his father kept saying, “Be quiet! Shut up! Close that mouth! Stop it up! Not another squeak, you breed of mule, you horse-witted, donkey-headed fool! This instant, take that cockroach back to whoever sold it to you! Here are another hundred ducats: buy bull calves with the lot and come straight home. And mind you don’t let some devilish notion blind you again, or I’ll make you gnaw your hands off!” Nardiello took the money and set out toward Torre de Sarno. On reaching the same spot, he found another fairy amusing herself with a mouse, which performed the finest dance steps anyone had ever seen. Nardiello stood openmouthed for a while, watching the animal’s dainty steps, bows, capers, turns, and dashes, until he was quite beside himself; then he asked the fairy whether she would sell it, offering her a hundred ducats. The fairy accepted the bargain, took the money, and gave him the mouse in a box. Returning home, he showed poor Miccone his fine purchase. His father went into a dreadful rage, plunging and kicking like a skittish horse; and had a friend not happened to be there during the uproar, he would have given the boy’s back a thorough measuring.

At last his father, who was, after all, a kindly man, took another hundred ducats and said, “Mind you play no more of your tricks, for you will not get away with a third one. Go to Salierno, then, and buy the calves; for by the souls of my dead, if you go wrong this time, woe to the mother who bore you!”

With his head hanging, Nardiello set off for Salierno. When he reached the very same place, he found another fairy taking her pleasure in a cricket, which sang so sweetly that it sent people to sleep. Hearing this new sort of nightingale, Nardiello at once felt a longing to make the purchase. They agreed on a hundred ducats; he put it into a little cage made of a long gourd and twigs, and went home to his father. At this third piece of mischief, his father lost all patience and, snatching up a stick, gave him such a thrashing that he outdid Rodomonte. As soon as Nardiello could escape his clutches, he gathered up all three animals, left that country, and made his way toward Lombardy. There lived a great lord named Cenzone, who had an only daughter called Milla. Owing to some illness, she had fallen into such deep melancholy that for seven years together she had never been seen to laugh. Her father, in despair after trying a thousand remedies and spending everything he could lay hands on, had a proclamation issued that whoever made her laugh should have her for his wife. When Nardiello heard this proclamation, he took it into his head to try his luck, and, going before Cenzone, offered to make Milla laugh. The lord answered, “Keep your wits about you, my lad, for if you fail, you will lose the shape that fills your hood.” “Let the shape go, and the shoes with it!” Nardiello replied. “I mean to try, and let come what may.” The king sent for his daughter and seated himself beneath the canopy; Nardiello took the three animals out of their box, and they played, danced, and sang with such grace and such comical flourishes that the princess burst out laughing. But the prince wept in his heart, for the terms of his proclamation obliged him to give a jewel among women to the dregs of mankind. Unable to go back on his promise, however, he said to Nardiello, “I give you my daughter, with my kingdom as her dowry, but on condition that if you do not consummate the marriage within three days, I shall have you fed to the lions.” “A great fear that gives me!” said Nardiello. “In that time I’m man enough to consume the marriage, your daughter, and your whole household.” “Steady as we go, as the little pot said,” replied the king, “for melons are known by the tasting.” So the wedding was celebrated, and when evening came, when the sun, like a thief, is led with a cloak over its face to the prisons of the west, the newlyweds went to bed. But since the king had maliciously had a sleeping draught given to Nardiello, he did nothing all night but snore. When the same thing happened on the second and third nights, the king had him thrown into the lions’ enclosure. Finding himself there, Nardiello opened the animals’ box and said, “Since my fate has carted me on a bitter sledge to this dreadful pass, and I have nothing else to leave you, my lovely little creatures, I set you free, so that you may go wherever you please.” Once released, the animals began performing so many tricks and antics that the lions stood stock-still, like statues;

meanwhile the mouse spoke to Nardiello, whose soul was already between his teeth, saying, “Cheer up, master! Although you have given us our freedom, we wish to serve you more faithfully than ever, for you have fed us with such love and cared for us with such affection;

“and now, at the last, you have shown us such tenderness by setting us free. But have no fear: he who does good may hope for good; do a kindness, and forget it. Know, then, that we are enchanted creatures, and to show you what we can do and what we are worth, follow us, and we shall bring you out of this danger.” With Nardiello following behind, the mouse quickly made a hole large enough for a man to pass through, and by a stairlike ascent they brought him safely out above. They lodged him in a straw hut and told him to ask there for whatever he desired, since they would leave nothing undone to please him. “What would please me,” Nardiello answered, “would be for you, if the king has given Milla another husband, to do me the kindness of preventing that marriage from being consummated, for that would consume this wretched life of mine.” “That is nothing, nothing at all,” answered the animals. “Take heart and wait for us in this hut: we shall soon get to the bottom of the business.” They set off for court and found that the king had married his daughter to a great English lord, and that very evening the cask was to be broached. So the animals slipped deftly into the bridal chamber and waited until evening, when the banquet was over and the moon comes out to feed her little hens on dew. The couple went to bed; and since the bridegroom had overloaded his crossbow and taken aboard more than his share, he had scarcely burrowed beneath the sheets before he fell asleep like a slaughtered ox. Hearing him snore, the cockroach crept slowly up the bedpost, hauled himself beneath the covers, and slipped briskly into the bridegroom’s backside, serving him as such an effective suppository that he loosened his bowels enough to let him say, with Petrarch:

_From love he drew a subtle liquid forth._ The bride, hearing the squelching of his dysentery, _The breeze, the fragrance, coolness, and the shade_, woke her husband. When he saw with what perfume he had censed his idol, he nearly died of shame and burst with anger;

and, getting out of bed and washing himself from head to foot, he sent for the physicians, who blamed the mishap on his excesses at the banquet. When the following evening came, he consulted his servants, and they all agreed that he should swaddle himself in good stout cloths to guard against any further accident. This done, he went to bed; but when he fell asleep again and the cockroach returned to play him a second trick, it found every passage blocked. It went back to its companions in dismay, explaining how the bridegroom had built himself ramparts of swaddling bands, embankments of napkins, and trenches of rags. Hearing this, the mouse said, “Come with me, and you shall see whether I am a good enough sapper to clear the way for you.” Arriving at the scene, it began to gnaw the cloths and made a hole level with the other one. Through this the cockroach entered and administered another medicinal treatment, producing a sea of liquid topaz, whose Arabian fumes infected the palace. The stifled bride awoke to find a yellow flood had turned the Holland linen sheets into gold-patterned Venetian tabby. Holding her nose, she fled to the maidens’ chamber. The poor bridegroom summoned his servants and lamented at length the misfortune that had made him begin establishing the greatness of his house on such a slippery foundation. His attendants comforted him and advised him to keep his wits about him on the third night, telling him the story of the farting patient and the sharp-tongued physician. When the patient let a fart escape, the doctor, speaking in Latin fashion, said, _Sanitatibus_; when he followed it with another, he replied, _Ventositatibus_; but when a third came along, he opened his mouth wide and said, _Asinitatibus_. “So, although the first mosaic you laid in the marriage bed was blamed on overeating, and the second on a disordered stomach that had loosened your bowels, the third will be put down to a shitting disposition, and you will be driven out in stench and disgrace.” “Have no fear,” said the bridegroom. “Tonight, even if I burst, I mean to stay on the alert and not let sleep get the better of me. Besides, we shall think of some way to plug the main drain, so that no one can say of me, _Three times he fell, and at the third lay still._” With this resolution, when the next night came, he changed both room and bed and summoned his attendants, asking their advice on stopping up his body so that it would not play him a third trick. As for staying awake, all the poppies in the world would not put him to sleep. Among these servants was a young man who took an interest in the gunner’s art; and since everyone talks of his own trade, he advised the bridegroom to have a wooden plug made for himself, such as they used for mortars. This was immediately fashioned, and, having fitted it properly into place, he went to bed without touching the bride, for fear of exerting himself and spoiling the contrivance, and without closing his eyes, so as to be ready for any stirring of his stomach. The cockroach, seeing that the bridegroom would not fall asleep, said to its companions, “Alas, this time we are beaten, and our skill is of no use to us, for the bridegroom stays awake and gives me no chance to carry on the enterprise.” “Wait,” said the cricket, “and I shall help you.” It began singing sweetly, and sent the bridegroom to sleep. At this the cockroach hurried off to turn itself into a syringe; but finding the door shut and the road blocked, it returned in despair and confusion to its companions and told them what had happened. The mouse, whose sole aim was to serve and satisfy Nardiello, went straight to the pantry and, sniffing from jar to jar, came upon a pot of hot mustard. Dipping its tail into it, it ran to the bridegroom’s bed and smeared the insides of the poor Englishman’s nostrils. He began sneezing so violently that he shot out the plug with tremendous force; and since his back was turned toward the bride, it struck her in the chest with such fury that it almost killed her. The king came running at her screams and asked what was wrong. She said someone had fired a petard into her breast. The king marveled at this nonsense, wondering how she could speak with a petard in her chest; then he lifted the covers and sheets and found the bran mine and the mortar’s plug, which had raised a fine purple bruise on the bride. Though I cannot say which did her more harm, the stench of the powder or the blow from the ball. Seeing this filth, and hearing that it was the third liquidation of the contract he had drawn up, the king drove the man out of his kingdom. Then, reflecting that all this evil had befallen him because of his cruelty toward poor Nardiello, he beat his breast with his fists. While he was thus showing remorse for what he had done, the cricket said, “Do not despair, for Nardiello is alive, and his good qualities make him worthy to be Your Magnificence’s son-in-law. If you are willing for him to come, we shall send for him at once.” “Oh, welcome, welcome, my lovely little creature, with this news that deserves a handsome reward! You have lifted me out of a sea of troubles, for my heart was wrung by the wrong I had done that poor young man. So bring him here, for I wish to embrace him as a son and give him my daughter for his wife.” Hearing this, the cricket went hopping and leaping to the hut where Nardiello was staying, told him everything that had happened, and brought him to the royal palace. There the king welcomed and embraced him, Milla’s hand was placed in his, and, receiving the fairies’ enchantment, he became a handsome young man. He sent for his father from Vommaro, and they lived together happy and content, proving, after a thousand hardships and a thousand troubles, _More may come in a single hour than in a hundred years._

Izvirnik

_Nardiello è mmannato tre bote da lo Patre a ffare mercanzia co cciento docate la vota, e ttutte le bote accatta mo no Sorece, mo no Scarafone, e mo no Grillo, e cacciato pe cchesto da lo Patre, arriva dove sananno pe mmiezo de st’animale la Figlia de no Rrè, dapò varie socciesse le deventa Marito._ _Laudaro assaje lo Prencepe, e la Schiava lo jodizio de Sapia Liccarda: ma assaje cchiù laudaro Tolla, che aveva saputo accossì buono projere sto fatto, che parze ad ogne uno de nc’essere presente; e perchè secotanno l’ordene de la lista soccedeva Popa a parlare, essa se portaje da Orlanno, decenno de sta manera._ La Fortuna è ffemmena pontegliosa, e suje la facce de li sapute, perchè fanno cchiù ccunto de le botate de carta, che de le girate de na rota,

e perzò pratteca volentiere co ’gnorante, e da poco, e non se cura ped’avere onore prebeo, de spartire li bene suoje a bozzacchie de lo muodo, che ve farraggio sentire nne lo cunto, che ssecoteja. Era na vota a lo Vommaro no massaro ricco ricco chiamato Miccone, che aveva no Figlio chiammato Nardiello, lo quale era lo cchiù sciaurato caccial’appascere, che se trovasse maje a la premmonara de li vozzacchie, tanto che lo scuro Patre nne steva ammaro, e nnegrecato, che non sapeva de che muodo, nè de che manera ’ndirizzarelo a ffare cosa a lleviello, e che ffosse a llenza: si jeva a la Taverna a scrofoniare co li compagne Aliviente, era fatto corrivo; se prattecava co mmale femmene, pigliava la peo carne, e la pagava contr’assisa; si

joquava pe le barattarie, le facevano la pizza, lo mettevano ’n miezo, e se le pigliavano sfritte sfritte de manera che de vaga, e de riesto ne aveva strosciato la mmetate de la rrobba paterna; pe la quale cosa Miccone faceva sempre arme a Castiello, gridanno, ammenaccianno, e decenno: che te pienze fare sbaraglione: non vide ca la rrobba mia oramaje se nne vace pe l’acqua abascio: lassa, lassa ste ’mmardette Ostarie, che commenzano co nomme de nemice, e fenisceno co segnefecate de male; lassale ca sò mingrania de lo cellevriello: dropesia de la Canna, e ccacarella de la vorza: lassa lassa sto scommonecato juoco, che mmette a rriseco la vita, e se roseca la rrobba, che nne votta li contiente, e nne fruscia li contante, dove le zare te arreduceno

’nzero, e le pparole t’assottigliano comm’a ppirolo. Lassa, lassa de vordelliare pe sse mmale razze, figlie de lo brutto peccato, dove spanne, e spienne pe na perchia consumme li puorchie, pe na carne sfatta spanteche, reducennote dove n’uosso spunteche: ca non so Meretrice, ma no maro trace, dove si ppigliato da Turche: allontanate dall’accasione, ca te scraste da lo vizio; remota la causa (disse chillo) se remmove l’effetto. Eccote perzò sti ciento docate, va a la fera de Salierno, e accattane tante Jenche, ca ’n capo de tre, o quatto anne farrimmo tanta Vuoje; fatte li Vuoje, ’nce mettarrimmo a ffare lo campo, fatto lo campo, ’nce darrimmo a fare mercanzia de grano, e si ’nce mmatte na bona carestia, mesurarimmo li scute a ttommola;

e quanno maje autro, te compro no titolo sopra na terra de quarche Ammico, e sarraje tu puro titolato comm’a tant’autre: perzò attienne, Figlio mio, ca ogne capo alleva, chi no accommenza non secoteja. Lassa fare a sto fusto, respose Nardiello, ca mo faccio lo cunteciello mio, ca aggio fatto pe ttutte regole: Cossì voglio io, lebrecaje lo Patre: e sborzatole li tornise, s’abbiaje a la vota de la fera; ma non fu arrevato all’acque de Sarno, chillo bello sciummo, c’ha dato nomme a la famiglia antica de li Sarnelli; che drinto no bello voschetto d’urme a pede na preta, che pe remmedio de no rettorio perpetuo d’acqua fresca, s’era ’ntorneata de frunne d’ellera, vedde na Fata che se jocoliava co no scarafone, lo quale sonava de manera na chitarrella, che se

l’avesse sentuto no Spagnuolo averria ditto, ch’era cosa soperosa, e granniosa: la quale cosa visto Nardiello, se fermaje, e comme ’ncantato a ssentire, dicenno ca averria pagato na visola, ed avesse avuto n’Anemale accossì vertoluso, a lo quale disse la Fata, che si l’avesse pagato ciento docate, nce l’averria dato; maje a mmeglio tiempo de chisto, respose Nardiello, ca l’aggio prunte, e lleste, e cossì decenno le jettaje ’n zino li ciento docate, e pigliatose lo scarafone dinto a no marzapaniello, corze a lo Patre, co n’allegrezza, che le saglieva da l’ossa pezzelle; decenno: ora mò vedarraje, messere mio, s’io so ommo de ’nciegno, e ssaccio fare lo fatto mio, pocca senza stracquareme pe fi a la fera, aggio trovato a mmeza strada la sciorte mia, e pe ciento

docate aggio avuto sta gioja. Lo Patre sentenno sto pparlare, e bedenno la scatolella, tenne pe ccierto, ch’avesse accattato quarche branchilio de diamante, ma aperta la scatola, e bisto lo scarafone, lo scuorno de lo corrivo, e lo dolore de lo ’nteresse foro duje mantece, che lo fecero abbottare comm’a rruospo; e bolenno Nardiello contare la virtù de lo scarrafone, non fu possibele maje, che le facesse dire parola, decennole sempre: stà zitto, appila, chiude sta vocca, ammafara, non pepetare, razza de mulo, Jodizio de cavallo, capo d’Aseno, ed a sta medesema pedata torna lo scarrafone a chi te l’ha vennuto: eccote ciento autre docate, che te dongo, comprane tutte Jenche, tornanno subeto; e bì che non te cecasse lo brutto fatto, ca te ne faccio

manciare le mmano a ddiente. Nardiello pigliatese li denare, s’abbiaje verzo la Torre de Sarno, ed arrivato a lo medesemo luoco, trovaje n’autra Fata, che pazziava co no Sorece, che ffaceva le cchiù belle mutanze de ballo, che maje potesse vedere. Nardiello stato no piezzo canna-apierto a bedere li dainette, le contenenzie, le ccapriole, le botate, e le scorzete de l’anemale, appe a spiretare, ed addemmannaje a la Fata si lo voleva vennere, che l’averria dato ciento docate; la Fata azzettaje lo partito, e pigliatese li frisole, le dette lo Sorece drinto la scatola, e ttornato a la casa soja, mostraje a lo nigro Miccone la bella compra fatta, lo quale fece cose mmardette, sbattenno comm’a no cavallo fantasteco; e si non era pe no compare che se trovaje

a sto greciglio, l’averria pigliato bona la mesura de lo scartiello. All’utemo lo Patre, ch’era ’nsomato de bona manera, pigliato ciento autre docate, le disse: avierte a non fare cchiù de le ttoje, ca non te resce la terza: Va donca a Salierno, e ccompra li jenche, ca pe l’arma de li muorte mieje, si tu la sgarre, negra mammata, che te figliaje. Nardiello co la capo vascia, sfilaje a la vota de Salierno, ed arrivato a lo stisso luogo, trovaje n’autra Fata, che pigliava sfizio co no Grillo, lo quale cantava cossì docemente, che ffaceva addormentare le pperzone: Nardiello, che sentette sta nova foggia de roscegnuolo, le venne subeto golio de fare sta mercanzia; ed accordatose pe cciento docate, se lo mese drinto na gajolella fatta de cocozza longa, e

sproccole, e se nne tornaje a lo Patre, lo quale vedenno lo terzo male servizio, le scappaje la pacienzia, e ddato de mano a no tutaro, lo frusciaje de bona manera, che fece cchiù de Rodamonte. Nardiello quanno le potte scappare da le granfe, pigliatese tutte tre st’animale, sfrattaje da chillo pajese, e ttoccaje a la vota de Lommardia, dove nc’era no gran Segnore chiammato Cenzone, lo quale aveva na Figlia uneca, ch’aveva nomme Milla, che pe ccerta ’nfermetate l’era venuta tanta malenconia, che pe lo spazio de sett’anne continove non s’era vista ridere; tanto, che desperato lo patre, dapò avere tentato mille remmedie, e spiso lo ccuotto, e lo ccrudo, fece jettare no banno, che chi l’avesse fatta ridere, nce l’averria data pe mmogliere. Nardiello,

che sentette sto banno, le venne ’ncrapiccio de tentare la sciorte soja, e ghiuto ’nnante a Cenzone, s’offerze de fare ridere Milla; a lo quale respose lo Segnore, sta ’n cellevriello, o cammarata, ca si po non te resce lo fatto, nce jarrà la forma de lo Cappucio. Vagace la forma, e la scarpa leprecaje Nardiello, ch’io mme ’nce voglio provare, e bengane chello, che benire nne vole. Lo Rrè fatto venire la Figlia, e ssedutose sotta lo Bardacchino, Nardiello cacciaje da la scatola li tre anemale, li quale sonaro, ballaro, e ccantaro co ttanta grazia, e co ttante squasenzie, che la Regina scappaje a rridere; ma chianze lo Prencepe drinto a lo core sujo, pocca ’n vertù de lo banno, era astritto de dare na gioja de le ffemmene a la feccia dell’uommene; ma

non potenno darese arreto de la promessa, disse a Nnardiello; Io te dò figliama, e lo stato pe ddote, ma co ppatto, che si tu non conzumme fra tre ghiuorne lo matremmonio, io te faccio manciare da li Liune. N’aggio paura, disse Nardiello, ca fra sto tiempo songo ommo de conzomare lo matremonio, figlieta, e tutta la casa toja. Adaso, ca jammo, disse carcariello, ch’a la prova se canosceno li mellune. Fatto addonca la festa, e benuta la sera, quanno lo Sole comm’a mmariuolo è portato co la cappa ’nfaccia a le ccarcere de ll’occidente, li Zite se jezero a ccorcare. Ma perchè maleziosamente lo Rrè fece dare l’adduobbio a Nnardiello, non fece autro tutta la notte, che gronfiare, la qual cosa continuato lo secunno, e lo terzo juorno, lo Rrè lo fece jettare a lo

serraglio de li Liune, dove Nardiello vedennose arredutto, aperze la scatola de ll’anemale, decenno: pocca la sciorte mia m’ave carriato co n’ammaro straolo a sto nigro passo, non avenno autro che ve lassare, o belle anemale mieje, io ve faccio franche, azzò pozzate ire dove ve pare, e piace. L’anemale comme foro scapole, e commenzaro a ffare tanta bagattelle, e ghioquarelle, che li Liune remasero comme statole; ’ntanto parlaje lo sorece a Nardiello, ch’era già co lo spireto a li diente, decennole: Allegramente, patrone, ca si be ’nce aje dato libertà, nuje te volimmo essere cchiù schiave, che mmaje, pocca ’nce aje cevato co ttanto ammore, e cconservato co tanta affezione; ed all’utemo nce aje mostrato signo de tanto sbisciolamiento, co

ffarence franche; ma non dubetare, ca chi bene fa, bene aspetta; fa bene, e scordatenne: Ma sacce, che nuje simmo fatate; e pe farete vedere si potimmo, e balimmo, vienence appriesso, ca te cacciammo da sto pericolo; ed abbiannose Nardiello dereto, lo sorece fece subbeto no pertuso quanto nce capesse n’ommo, pe lo quale co na sagliuta a scaletta lo portaro ’ncoppa a lo ssarvo, dove mettennolo drinto a na pagliara, le dissero, che llà commannasse tutto chello, che desederava, ca no averriano lassato cosa da fare pe darele gusto; lo gusto mio sarria, respose Nardiello, che si lo Rrè ha dato autro marito a Milla, mme facissevo tanto de piacere, de non fare conzomare sto matremmonio, perchè sarria no conzommare sta negra vita. Chesso è nniente, e ttutto

uno, resposero l’anemale, sta de buon’armo, ed aspettace a sta capanna, ca mo nne cacciarrimmo lo ffraceto; e abbiatose a la Corte, trovaro, che lo Rrè aveva mmaretata la Figlia co no gran Segnore ’Ngrese, e la sera stessa se metteva mano a la votte; pe la quale cosa l’animale trasute destramente a la Cammara de li Zite, aspettato la sera, che fornuto lo banchetto, quanno esce la Luna a ppascere de rosata le gallinelle, se jezero a ccorcare; e perchè lo Zito aveva carrecato la valestra, e pigliato carta soperchia, appena se ’ncaforchiaje drinto a le llenzola, che s’addormette, comm’a scannato. Lo Scarrafone, che ’ntese lo gronfiare de lo Zito, se ne sagliette chiano chiano pe lo pede de la travacca, e rremorchiatose sotto coperta, se ’nficcaje lesto

lesto a lo tafanario de lo Zito, servennole de soppositorio ’nforma tale, che le spilaje de manera lo cuorpo, che potte dicere co lo Petrarca: _D’amor trasse indi un liquido sottile._ La Zita, che ntese lo squacquarare de lo vesentierio, _L’aura, l’odore, il refrigerio, e l’ombra_, scetaje lo marito, lo quale visto con quale sproffummo aveva ’ncenzato l’Idolo sujo, appe a mmorire de vregogna, ed a crepantare de collera; ed auzatose da lo lietto, e fattose na colata a tutta la perzona, mannaje a chiammare li Miedece, li quale dettero la causa de sta desgrazia a lo desordene de lo banchetto passato; e comme fu la sera appriesso, tornatose a consigliare co li Cammariere, foro tutte de

parere, che se ’mbracasse de buone panne, pe rremmediare a quarche nuovo ’nconveniente; la quale cosa fatta, se jeze a ccorcare, ma addormentatose de nuovo, e tornato lo scarrafone a ffarele lo secunno corrivo, trovaje ammarrate li passe: pe la quale cosa tornaje male contento a li compagne, decennole, comme lo Zito s’aveva fatto reparate de fasciatore, argene de tillicarelle, e ttrincere de pezze. Lo sorece, che sentette chesto, disse: Viene co mmico, e bedarraje si so buono guastatore a ffarete la schianata; ed arrivato sopra la facce de lo luoco, commenzaje a rrosecare li panne, e a farele no pertuso a lleviello dell’autro, pe dove trasenno lo scarrafone, le fece n’autra cura medecenale, de manera che fece no maro de liquide topazie, e

l’Arabe fumme ’nfettarono lo Palazzo; de la quale cosa scetatase l’ammorbata Zita, ed a lo delluvio citrino ch’aveva fatto deventare le llenzola d’Olanna, Tabbia de Venezia gialla onnato, appilannose lo naso, fojette a la Cammara de le Zitelle; e lo nigro Zito, chiammanno li Cammariere, se fece na longa lamentazione de la desgrazia soja, che co ffonnamiento accossì lubreco aveva commenzato a fermare le grannezze de la casa soja: li fammiliare suoje lo confortavano, consigliannolo, che stesse ’n cellevriello la terza notte, contannole lo cunto de lo malato pedetaro, e de lo miedeco mozzecutolo, lo quale avennose lassato scappare no vernacchio, lo miedeco parlannole letterummeco, disse; _Sanitatibus_, ma asseconnanno n’autra, isso

leprecaje, _Ventositatibus_, ma continuanno la terza, isso aperze tanto de canna, e disse, _Asinitatibus_. Perzò, si lo primmo lavore a mmusaico fatto a lo lietto nozziale s’è ’ncorpato a lo desordene de lo mmagnare, lo secunno a lo male stato de lo stommaco, pe lo quale se ll’era scommuosso lo cuorpo; lo terzo se mputarrà a nnatura cacazzara, e sarraje cacciato a ffieto, ed a bregogna. Non dubetare, disse lo Zito, ca sta notte, se dovesse crepare, voglio stare sempre all’erta, non lassannome vencere da lo suonno; ed otra a cchesto, pensarrimmo che remmedio potimmo fare ad appilare lo connutto maistro, azzò non mme se dica, _Tre volte cadde, ed a la terza giacque._ Co st’appontamiento addonca, comme venne l’autra notte, cagnato

cammara, e llietto; lo Zito se chiammaje li Cammarate, cercannole consiglio circa l’ammafarare lo cuorpo, che non le facesse la terza burla, che ’n quanto a lo stare scetato, no l’averriano addormentato tutte li papagne, che sò a lo munno. Era fra chiste Serviture no giovane, che se delettava de l’arte de pommardiero; e perchè ogn’uno tratta de lo mestiero sujo, consigliaje a lo Zito a farese no tappo de ligno, comme se fa a li masche, la quale cosa fu subeto stampata ed acconciatolo comme aveva da stare, se jette a ccorcare, non toccanno la Zita, pe paura de non fare forza, e guastare la ’nvenzione, e non chiudenno l’uocchie, pe ttrovarese lesto ad ogne recercata de stommaco: lo scarafone, che non bedette maje dormire lo Zito, disse a

li compagne: Oimè, chesta è la vota, che rrestammo chiarite, e l’arte nostra non nce serve pe nniente; pocca lo Zito non dorme, e non me da luoco a ssecotiare la ’mpresa. Aspetta, disse lo grillo, ca mo te servo; e commenzanno a ccantare docemente, facette addormentare lo Zito; la quale cosa vista lo scarrafone, corze a farese de se stisso serenga; ma trovata chiusa la porta, e ’mpeduta la strata, tornaje desperato, e confuso a li compagne, decenno chello, che l’era socciesso. Lo sorece, che non aveva autro fine, che sservire, e contentare Nardiello; a chella medesema pedata jette a la despenza, e addoranno da fesina a fesina, nvattette n’arvaro de mostarda de senapa, dove ’mbroscinatose co la coda, corze a lo lietto de lo Zito,

e nne sodonse tutte le fforgie de lo naso de lo nigro Ngrese, lo quale accommenzaje a sternutare accossì forte, che sbottaje lo tappo co ttanta furia, che trovannose votato de spalle a la Zita, le schiaffaje ’mpietto accossì furiuso, che l’appe ad accidere: a le strille de la quale corze lo Rrè, e domannanno, che cosa aveva: disse, che l’era stato sparato no pedardo ’n pietto. Se maravigliaje lo Rrè de sto spreposeto, che co no pedardo ’mpietto potesse parlare; ed auzato le ccoperte, e le llenzole, trovaje la mena de vrenna, e lo tappo de lo masco, ch’aveva fatto na bona molegnana a la Zita; si bè non saccio, che le facesse cchiù ddanno, o lo fieto de la porvere, o la botta de la palla. Lo Rrè visto sta schefienzia, e ’ntiso, ch’era la terza

liquidazione de sto stromiento ch’isso aveva fatto, lo cacciaje da lo stato sujo; e cconsideranno ca tutto sto mmale l’era socciesso pe la canetate usata da lo povero Nardiello, se nne deva le ppunia ’n pietto; e mmentre de chello, ch’aveva fatto faceva cennole, non te desperare, ca Nardiello è bivo, e pe le bone qualetate soje mmereta essere jennero de vostra magnificenza; e si ve contentate, che benga, mò lo mannarrimmo a chiammare. O che ssinghe lo ben-venuto co sta nova de veveraggio, o bello anemale mio. Tu m’aje levato da no maro d’affanne, pocca mme senteva no rangolo a lo core de lo tuorto fatto a chillo povero giovane. Perzò facitelo venire, ca lo voglio abbracciare comm’a Ffiglio, e darele Figliama pe mmogliere: sentuto chesto, lo

sgrillo companno zompanno, jette a la capanna dove steva Nardiello, e contannole tutto lo socciesso, lo fece venire a lo Palazzo rejale, dove ’ncontrato, ed abbracciato da lo Rrè, le fu consegnata Milla pe mmano, e rrecevuta la fatazione deventaje no bello giovane, che mmannato a chiammare lo patre da lo Vommaro, stettero ’nsiemme felice, e ccontente; provanno dopo mille stiente, e mmille affanne, _Ca vene cchiù ntra n’ora, che ’n cient’anne._

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