son usage, ait suivit Bozon plutôt que Pierre Alphonse. Les détails omis par Bozon manquent dans les Gesta, et ce que les Gesta ajoutent au récit de Bozon ne vient pas de Pierre Alphonse et peut être considéré comme pure amplification. Il y a aussi dans les Gesta un mot qui, sauf le cas d'une coïncidence fortuite, paraît bien déceler l'imitation. L'un des compagnons, dit l'auteur des Gesta, se lève et mange tout le pain: 'Nec unicam micam sociis suis dimisit.' De même Bozon: 'Si s'en va al tortel et le mangea chascun mie.' Il y a dans la Disciplina: At rusticus, perspecta eorum astutia, dormientibus sociis traxit panem semicoctum, comedit et iterum jacuit.'" 1 John Bromyard, sometime a chancellor of Cambridge University, gives the story a different turn in his "Summa Praedicantium,' written probably near the middle of the fourteenth century. Certain executors, he says, argued that if the defunct was in heaven he would have no need of his wealth, if he was in hell it would be of no use to him, and if he was in purgatory he would finally get through without it; so they divided it among themselves. "De quibus[dam] dicitur, quod inter ea convenerunt, quod dormirent, & qui pulchrius somniaret, panem totum comederet, uno ergo somniante, quod esset in cœlo, & alio, quod esset in inferno. Tertius interim panem comedit. Et illi, qui dormierunt somn[i]um suum, nihil inuenerunt. (Psal. 75) Sic isti dicentes eum esse in cœlo, uel in inferno, bona interim deuorant." 2 There is nothing to indicate whence Bromyard took this story, but the almost casual way in which he uses it suggests that he was telling it from memory. The version in the "Seelentrost" is brief: Once there were three companions who had only one loaf of bread. Two of them planned to trick the third out of his share; but he overheard them rehearse their "dreams," "Ich wil sagen, mich doicht des, dat ich bi unse here gode seïsse, und du salt sagen, dat dich doicht, dat du bi unser lever frauwen seisses," and secretly ate the bread. The two repeated their dreams; the third said he saw them sitting there, and, since they would not need the loaf, he ate it; "und alsus bewisten sich de loegenhaftliche drome." 3 The express statement that two of them put their heads together with the intention of deceiving the other suggests that the author drew directly from the "Disciplina Clericalis" (or perhaps from 1 P. Meyer, op. cit., p. 293. Summa Praedicantium E, 8, 14, ed. Venice, 1586. Franz Pfeiffer, Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Kölnischen Mundart, in Frommann's Die deutschen Mundarten, 2: 11-12 (No. 82). The "Seelentrost" exists in a Low-German manuscript of 1407; it was first printed in 1474 (Paul's Grundriss, 2 (part 1): 350; here, however, the reference to "Zeitschrift für deut. Mundarten" is an error). In the Själens Tröst (ed. G. E. Klemming, Stockholm, 1871-73), pp. 477-478, "De otrogne reskamraterne," the moral is omitted. Boner), since this motive does not appear in the other versions. But the changes, particularly the substitution of dining with Jesus and the Virgin for the journeys to heaven and hell, and the simplicity of the other details, would seem to indicate that the author had the tale from oral tradition. At the very beginning of the fifteenth century our story intruded itself into Æsopic literature; for the so-called "Magdeburger Æsop,' in Middle Low German rhymed couplets, frequently attributed to Gerhard von Minden, contains a version entitled "Van twên gesellen unde hûsmanne." 1 Two companions were on a pilgrimage, and a peasant was with them. When they had only enough meal left to make one loaf of bread or cake, the two plotted how to cheat the peasant of his share, although he had always been a good companion. He agreed to their plan of giving the whole loaf to the one who had the best dream, but suspected they were trying to deceive him; so he ate the bread in the night. The dénouement is as in Petrus. The two cursed the peasant for a slindig man, and confessed that his cunning was too much for them. The poet concluded (rather euphuistically), "Untruwe nu nicht gudes en reit, de truwe der untruwe wedersteit, Al de sik an untruwe keren unde untruwe ore kinder leren, de moten to lest der ere enberen." The resemblances between this version and those of Boner and the "Gesta Romanorum" (the most likely sources) are not sufficient to make it probable that the author followed either of them. He may have used the "Disciplina" directly, but there is no external evidence. No. XXVII of "El Libro de los Enxemplos," compiled by Climente Sanchez in the early part of the fifteenth century, is almost a literal translation from the "Disciplina." Here the moral is, as usual: "É ansi acaesció que aquellos que quisieron engañar á su compañero por su sotilleza fueron engañados." 2 The story is in at least one manuscript included among the exempla of Jacques de Vitry, but it is not in the usual canon. Nor does it 1 W. Seelman, Gerhard von Minden, No. XCI, pp. 134-136 (Niederdeutsche Denkmäler, II, Bremen, 1878). 2 Gayangos, Bibl. de Autores Españoles (Madrid, 1860), 51: 453-454. Morel-Fatio ("Romania," 7: 481-526) supposes the Libro to be a translation of a Latin Alphabetum Exemplorum. Compare T. F. Crane, Exempla of Jacques de Vitry (London, 1890), pp. ciii-civ. P. Meyer, op. cit., p. 293, note 1. appear in the "Alphabetum Narrationum" of Étienne de Besançon, though both the English and the Catalan fifteenth-century translations of this work contain it,' both drawing directly, as it seems, on Petrus, and not one from the other. The Catalan version bears the rubric "Eximpli de los ciutadans qui volien enganar un aldea, e laldea engana los ciutadans, segons que recompte Pere Alfons," and illustrates the maxim "Deceptor aliquando decipitur quibus decipere volebat." 2 The English version begins, "Petrus Alphonsus tellis how" . . . and ends with the quotation, “Fallere fallentem non est fraus,' etc." The story must have been added to the "Alphabetum Narrationum" from the "Disciplina" some time between ca. 1300, when the compilation was made, and the date of these translations. About the year 1480, through Heinrich Steinhöwel our tale renewed its Æsopic connections, but apparently in complete independence of the "Magdeburger Esop."4 Steinhöwel's Latin version has almost no verbal similarity to the "Disciplina Clericalis," except one striking passage where the two are nearly identical, but in the details of the narrative they agree fully. Steinhöwel prefixes his moral: "Sepe cadit homo in foveam, quam fecit alteri." In his German translation, which he made "nit wort vss wort, sunder sin vss sin," the story is entitled "Von dryen gesellen, ainem puren und zweyen burgern." It begins with the same argument, and ends, "Also schluog untrüwe ieren aignen herren." About 1483 Jules Machault, a monk at Lyons, translated Steinhöwel into French; and in 1484 Caxton translated Machault's Esop into English. About 1485 a Dutch translation of Machault was made. In the same year appeared an "Italian version of Steinhöwel by one Tuppo," says Joseph Jacobs," but Oesterley implies that the Italian Esops of Del Tuppo and Zucchi were independent of Steinhöwel; and in Cesare De Lollis's introduction to "L'Esopo di Francesco del Tuppo" there is no mention of Steinhöwel's work. Hain mentions a Bohemian translation (Prague, 1 Compare Crane, op. cit., pp. lxxii, cv, et seq. 7 2 Recull de eximplis e miracles, etc. [Barcelona, 1880], 1 : 185–186 (No. CCI). Alphabet of Tales (ed. M. M. Banks (E. E. T. S.], London, 1904), pp. 166–167, No. CCXXXVIII. This story is apparently not in MS. Harley 268 (second half of the fourteenth century), which contains 792 exempla. On Etienne cf. Crane, op. cit., pp. lxxi-lxxii and notes. Herbert (Catalogue, 3: 423 et seq.) thinks that the Alphabetum Narrationum was by Arnoldus, and was written ca. 1308. Etienne died 1294. • Steinhöwels Asop (ed. by H. Oesterley [Litt. Verein in Stuttgart], Tübingen, 1873). pp. 311 et seq. Compare Hermann Knust, Steinhöwels Esop, in Zs. f. deut. Philologie, 19: 197 et seq. • Petrus reads: "Rusticus vero callide et sicut territus esset respondit: Qui sunt qui me vocant? At illi: Socii sumus. Quibus rusticus"... Steinhöwel: "Rusticus vero callide, quasi perterritus, respondit: Qui sunt hii, qui me vocant? et illi, socii tui sumus, rusticus ait" ... • Fables of Æsop (London, 1889), 1 : 186. 7 Alla Libreria Dante in Firenze, Num. 13, 1886. 1487). In 1496 Steinhöwel was translated into Spanish. Whether the story of the "Three Dreams" is in the Dutch, Italian, and Bohemian versions, I have been unable to ascertain. It must have been in Machault, since it appears in Caxton under the "Fables of Alfonce." "The V fable is of the feythe of the thre felawes. Ofte it happeth that the euyll which is procured to other cometh to hym which procureth it: as it apperyth by the felawes"1... Goedeke refers to this tale in the Spanish "Ysopo" of Madrid, 1644, fol. 162, which cannot be other than the early Spanish translation of Steinhöwel.2 Hans Sachs tells the story for Jan. 7, 1530, and says it is "ein guette abentewr, Die ist zwar erst geschehen hewr Dort in dem oberlande." Two burghers and a peasant are on a pilgrimage to Mecca. They have one evening a single ayerkuchen, and the two burghers plan to cheat the peasant (who fras almal vil) of his share by the dream device. While he is asleep, as they suppose, they rehearse their "dreams;" in the morning he feigns surprise at finding them still there, and explains why he ate the cake. Also geschicht noch den listigen knaben, Die eim ein grueben graben, Und fallen self darein. Untrew wird zaler sein.3 The editors note several parallels, but overlook Steinhöwel. It was suggested by A. L. Stiefel that Sachs's source was not the "Gesta Romanorum" (as Goetze and Drescher said), but Steinhöwel, since this tale is not in the German "Gesta." Stiefel was wrong in the latter statement; but it is clear that Sachs could not have used the "Gesta," because he says the travellers were on their way to Mecca, whereas Mecca is not mentioned in the "Gesta Romanorum" version. The parallels that Stiefel points out between Steinhöwel and Sachs are quite convincing, however; the only important change made by Sachs is the substitution of the Eierkuchen for the unbaked loaf. The argument is clinched by the fact (overlooked by Stiefel) that Hans Sachs copied Steinhöwel's moral: "Offt beschicht, das ainer selber in ain gruoben felt, die er ainem andern hat gemachet." 1 Ed. J. Jacobs, 2: 266 et seq. 2 K. Goedeke, Parallelen II, in Orient und Occident, 3 (1864): 191-192. (Gesta Romanorum, pp. 728-729) cites simply, "Ysopo, coll. 5, bl. 152." Oesterley 3 Goetze und Drescher, Sämtliche Fabeln und Schwänke von Hans Sachs (Neudrucke deut. Litt. werke des XVI. u. XVII. Jhds., Nos. 164–169), 3 (1900): 54–56 (No. 17, "Der ayerkuchen"). "Neue Beiträge zur Quellenkunde Hans Sachsischer Fabeln und Schwänke," in Koch's Studien z. vergl. Lit. gesch., 8 (1908): 278. The transition from the mediaval versions of our story to the Renaissance adaptations is completed by Joachim Camerarius. His title is "Somniatores." 1 Three travellers, crossing a barren and desert country, run short of food, and two of them scheme to defraud the third of his share. They make the familiar covenant; and the one who was supposed to be rather stupid gets up while the others are asleep and eats the whole stock of food - there is no mention of bread in particular. Then the others relate their dreams. "I thought I was snatched by a great power like a storm," says the first, "and I sat before the throne of Jove." "I was borne by a similar force like a whirlwind down to the jaws of the earth," says the other, "and I stood in the realm of Dis." The dénouement is the same as in Petrus; but besides Paganizing the dreams, perhaps, as Schmidt suggests, to avoid giving offence with the two visions of heaven and hell, but rather, I think, because the airing of classical information was then in vogue, - Camerarius expresses the moral in the words of Lucretius: Circumretit enim vis atque iniuria quemque Atque unde exorta est, ad eum plerumque revertit." 2 A version from the early sixteenth century-"Van drie ghesellen met eender Koecke" - is mentioned by J. W. Muller in "Een en ander over de Veelderhande Heneuchlijcke Dichten, Tafelspelen ende Refereynen." 3 From all points of view, I think, the crown and summit of the story of the "Three Dreams" is the version by Giraldi Cintio, in his "Ecatommiti," the third tale of the first decade.4 Giraldi has reworked the material completely, and has arrived at a different moral from that of the other adaptations, but the outline and framework remain essentially the same. For realistic effect he chose as a background the famine at Rome in 1527, which would still be a distinct memory in the minds of his older readers. To the other miseries of our city which we have left behind [says the speaker] was added that of famine: it was impossible to obtain food anywhere. In a certain house, however, three men a philosopher, an 1 Fabulae Æsopicae, plures quingentis et aliae quaedam narrationes . . . compositae studio et diligentia Ioachimi Camerarii (London, 1571), No. 259: 284-285. Same in Fabulae Æsopi (Nürnberg, 1546), No. 260: 194-196; and Argentorati (1557), No. 260. Goedeke cites the edition of 1564 (p. 212), and gives Steinhöwel as the source. Schmidt, in his edition of Petrus (p. 144), quotes Camerarius from Lange, Democritus ridens (Ulm, 1689), p. 107 (which Oesterley gives as a separate reference), and says Petrus is the source. 2 De rerum naturae, 5: 1150–1151. Compare Hesiod, Works and Days, 264–265. Tijdschrift voor nederlandsche Taal- en Letterkunde, 18 (1899): 207–208. 4 Gli Ecatommiti ovvero Cento Novelle di Gio. Battista Giraldi Cintio (Firenze, 1833), in Raccolta di Novellieri Italiani, Parte Seconda, pp. 1825-1828. The Ecatommiti was first printed in 1565. |