SUN, MOON, AND TALIA
Sun, Moon, and Talia is from Giambattista Basile's Il Pentamerone, a collection of folktales first published at Naples and in the Neopolitan dialect.
This
story will seem familiar to many readers; consider, as you pad along,
the almost ostentatious literary nature of the tale and the light
allusions to the relationship between the King, Talia, Sun, and Moon.
It
is a well-known fact that the cruel man is generally his own hangman;
and he who throws stones at Heaven frequently comes off with a broken
head. But the reverse of the medal shows us that innocence is a shield
of fig-tree wood, upon which the sword of malice is broken, or blunts
its point; so that, when a poor man fancies himself already dead and
buried, he revives again in bone and flesh, as you shall hear in the
story which I am going to draw from the cask of memory with the tap of
my tongue.
There was once a great Lord, who, having a daughter
born to him named Talia, commanded the seers and wise men of his
kingdom to come and tell him her fortune; and after various
counsellings they came to the conclusion, that a great peril awaited
her from a piece of stalk in some flax. Thereupon he issued a command,
prohibiting any flax or hemp, or such-like thing, to be brought into
his house, hoping thus to avoid the danger.
When Talia was
grown up, and was standing one day at the window, she saw an old woman
pass by who was spinning. She had never seen a distaff or a spindle,
and being vastly pleased with the twisting and twirling of the thread,
her curiosity was so great that she made the old woman come upstairs.
Then, taking the distaff in her hand, Talia began to draw out the
thread, when, by mischance, a piece of stalk in the flax getting under
her finger-nail, she fell dead upon the ground; at which sight the old
woman hobbled downstairs as quickly as she could.
When the
unhappy father heard of the disaster that had befallen Talia, after
weeping bitterly, he placed her in that palace in the country, upon a
velvet seat under a canopy of brocade; and fastening the doors, he
quitted for ever the place which had been the cause of such misfortune
to him, in order to drive all remembrance of it from his mind.
Now,
a certain King happened to go one day to the chase, and a falcon
escaping from him flew in at the window of that palace. When the King
found that the bird did not return at his call, he ordered his
attendants to knock at the door, thinking that the palace was
inhabited; and after knocking for some time, the King ordered them to
fetch a vine-dresser's ladder, wishing himself to scale the house and
see what was inside. Then he mounted the ladder, and going through the
whole palace, he stood aghast at not finding there any living person.
At last he came to the room where Talia was lying, as if enchanted; and
when the King saw her, he called to her, thinking that she was asleep,
but in vain, for she still slept on, however loud he called. So, after
admiring her beauty awhile, the King returned home to his kingdom,
where for a long time he forgot all that had happened.
Meanwhile,
two little twins, one a boy and the other a girl, who looked like two
little jewels, wandered, from I know not where, into the palace and
found Talia in a trance. At first they were afraid because they tried
in vain to awaken her; but, becoming bolder, the girl gently took
Talia's finger into her mouth, to bite it and wake her up by this
means; and so it happened that the splinter of flax came out. Thereupon
she seemed to awake as from a deep sleep; and when she saw those little
jewels at her side, she took them to her heart, and loved them more
than her life; but she wondered greatly at seeing herself quite alone
in the palace with two children, and food and refreshment brought her
by unseen hands.
After a time the King, calling Talia to mind,
took occasion one day when he went to the chase to go and see her; and
when he found her awakened, and with two beautiful little creatures by
her side, he was struck dumb with rapture. Then the King told Talia who
he was, and they formed a great league and friendship, and he
remained there for several days, promising, as he took leave, to return and fetch her.
When
the King went back to his own kingdom he was for ever repeating the
names of Talia and the little ones, insomuch that, when he was eating
he had Talia in his mouth, and Sun and Moon (for so he named the
children); nay, even when he went to rest he did not leave off calling
on them, first one and then the other.
Now the King's stepmother
had grown suspicious at his long absence at the chase, and when she
heard him calling thus on Talia, Sun, and Moon, she waxed wroth, and
said to the King's secretary, "Hark ye, friend, you stand in great
danger, between the axe and the block; tell me who it is that my
stepson is enamoured of, and I will make you rich; but if you conceal
the truth from me, I'll make you rue it."
The man, moved on the
one side by fear, and on the other pricked by interest, which is a
bandage to the eyes of honour, the blind of justice, and an old
horse-shoe to trip up good faith, told the Queen the whole truth.
Whereupon she sent the secretary in the King's name to Talia, saying
that he wished to see the children. Then Talia sent them with great
joy, but the Queen commanded the cook to kill them, and serve them up
in various ways for her wretched stepson to eat.
Now the cook,
who had a tender heart, seeing the two pretty little golden pippins,
took compassion on them, and gave them to his wife, bidding her keep
them concealed; then he killed and dressed two little kids in a hundred
different ways. When the King came, the Queen quickly ordered the
dishes served up; and the King fell to eating with great delight,
exclaiming, "How good this is! Oh, how excellent, by the soul of my
grandfather!" And the old Queen all the while kept saying, "Eat away,
for you know what you eat."
At first the King paid no attention
to what she said; but at last, hearing the music continue, he replied,
"Ay, I know well enough what I eat, for YOU brought nothing to the
house." And at last, getting up in a rage, he went off to a villa at a
little distance to cool his anger.
Meanwhile the Queen, not
satisfied with what she had done, called the secretary again, and sent
him to fetch Talia, pretending that the King wished to see her. At this
summons Talia went that very instant, longing to see the light of her
eyes, and not knowing that only the smoke awaited her. But when she
came before the Queen,
the latter said to her, with the face of a
Nero, and full of poison as a viper, "Welcome, Madam Sly-cheat! Are you
indeed the pretty mischief-maker? Are you the weed that has caught my
son's eye and given me all this trouble."
When Talia heard this
she began to excuse herself; but the Queen would not listen to a word;
and having a large fire lighted in the courtyard, she commanded that
Talia should be thrown into the flames. Poor Talia, seeing matters come
to a bad pass, fell on her knees before the Queen, and besought her at
least to grant her time to take the clothes from off her back.
Whereupon the Queen, not so much out of pity for the unhappy girl, as
to get possession of her dress, which was embroidered all over with
gold and pearls, said to her, "Undress yourself--I allow you." Then
Talia began to undress, and as she took off each garment she uttered an
exclamation of grief; and when she had stripped off her cloak, her
gown, and her jacket, and was proceeding to take off her petticoat,
they seized her and were dragging her away. At that moment the King
came up, and seeing the spectacle he demanded to know the whole truth;
and when he asked also for the children, and heard that his stepmother
had ordered them to be killed, the unhappy King gave himself up to
despair. He then ordered her to be thrown into the same fire which had
been lighted for Talia, and the secretary with her, who was the handle
of this cruel game and the weaver of this wicked web. Then he was going
to do the same with the cook, thinking that he had killed the children;
but the cook threw himself at the King's feet and said, "Truly, sir
King, I would desire no other sinecure in return for the service I have
done you than to be thrown into a furnace full of live coals; I would
ask no other gratuity than the thrust of a spike; I would wish for no
other amusement than to be roasted in the fire; I would desire no other
privilege than to have the ashes of the cook mingled with those of a
Queen. But I look for no such great reward for having saved the
children, and brought them back to you in spite of that wicked creature
who wished to kill them."
When the King heard these words he was
quite beside himself; he appeared to dream, and could not believe what
his ears had heard. Then he said to the cook, "If it is true that you
have saved the children, be assured I will take you from turning the
spit, and reward you so that you shall call yourself the happiest man
in the world."
As the King was speaking these words, the wife of
the cook, seeing the dilemma her husband was in, brought Sun and Moon
before the King, who, playing at the game of three with Talia and the
other children, went round and round kissing first one and then
another. Then giving the cook a large reward, he made him his
chamberlain; and he took Talia to wife, who enjoyed a long life with
her husband and the children, acknowledging that—
And bliss will rain upon his head."
