4 Amatores
The woman and her four lovers; or, The lovers in the chest
In the prolonged absence of her husband, a wife takes a young lover. The young man is imprisoned for brawling, and the woman tries to secure his release from prison. She visits a series of officials - the governor, a judge, a minister - all of whom are struck by her beauty, and who pressure her into agreeing to an affair with them. The woman agrees to each of their demands, and gives them each a time and place to meet her - the same place, and slightly staggered times. Then she goes to a carpenter, and commissions him to make a large cabinet with at least three compartments for her, each with a strong lock. The carpenter, just as lecherous as the other men, offers to pay her for sex instead. Her counter-offer is to sleep with him for free, if he will instead build her a cabinet with four compartments, to be delivered to her home. He agrees. Once the cabinet is delivered, the officials arrive, one by one. She tells the first, the governor, that she will have sex with him if he agrees to write a letter of release for the young man (whom she claims is her brother); but once he has done so, there is a knock at the door. The woman tells him it must be her husband home early, and she urges him to hide in her cabinet. (In some versions, she also has him remove his clothes first, or dress in something humiliating for her pleasure.) Next the judge is bundled into another compartment, then the minister, when finally the carpenter arrives. The woman encourages him to examine his work, and as he steps close to the last empty compartment, she pushes him in and locks the door. Using the letter of release, the woman frees her lover, and the two leave town - abandoning the four would-be-lovers in the cabinet to languish in their own filth for days, before they are at last discovered and publicly shamed.
In some versions, the husband really does return, and the wife tells him that the men she has conceled from him are entertainers - and each man is then forced to emerge, wearing humiliating costumes in garish colours, to perform or tell tales to convince the husband of their identity. In other versions, the wife does not take a lover initially, and her tricks are to preserve her fidelity to her husband.
(From Clouston, Basset, Nishimura).
| Note |
|---|
|
Clouston, in his usual censorious way, makes oblique reference to the fact that some versions of the original are graphic - and suggests that the placement of some of the cabinet's compartments above each other (and their resulting exposure to each other's body fluids) is key to the men's suffering. Penzer (1924, pp. 42-44) offers a detailed bibliography of the 'Entrapped Suitors' motif, including a reference to the medieval fabliau 'Constant du Hamel', the narrative's appearance in the Gesta Romanorum and the Decameron, and the popular metrical English version of the story, 'The Wright's Chaste Wife'. The links to the Amatores story are also noted. Nishimura notes many similar (and some additional) texts, motifs, and references: Motifs and Type: TMI K1218.1, ATU 1730: The entrapped suitors. (Lai l'épervier). K1218.1.4.1: Four importunate lovers are forced to hide in a four-compartmented chest which is sold. Analogues: Konponsetsu Issai Ubu Hitsushuni Binaya, 2 (Taishozo, 23, 916b~c); Konponsetsu Issai Ubu Binaya Zoji, 28 (Taishozo, 24, 341c-342a); Jataka, 546 ‘Maha-ummagga-j.’ (p. 52; a woman throws four men who woo her into a dung heap one after another, wraps them in a bamboo screen, and takes them to the king); Schiefner, Tibetan Tales, 8 ‘Mahaushadha and Viśakhā; Kathasaritsagra, ch.4, ‘Upakośā and her four lovers’ (the four suitors are used as witnesses to recover the husbands’ money) and ch.13, ‘Story of Devasmitā’ (the men are stripped one after another and thrown outside; combined with ‘canicula’); Jāḥiẓ, Le Livre des Beautés et des Antithèses, (Vloten, pp. 263~267); Pétis de la Croix, Les mille et un jours, ‘Die Geschichte der schönen Aruja’ (pp. 509-536, begins with a young wife going to collect a debt on behalf of her sick husband); Arabian Nights, ‘The Goodwife of Cairo and the Four Gallants’ (in Burton’s Supplemental Nights, vol.6, pp. 251-261); Voltaire, Zadig, 13; Afanasjew, Russian Ridiculous Tales, 64 (a) and 65; Indonesian folktale ‘Mr. Moksel’s Wife’ in World Folktales, vol. 2. On the medieval fabliau ‘Constant du Hamel, ou la Dame qui atrappa un Prâtre, un Prevost, et un Forestier', see Clouston p. 317. Reference stories, etc.: Seventy Tales of a Parrot, Textus ornatior 43, Textus simplicior 33 (a woman hides her lovers in a basket one after another and deceives her husband by saying that they are their ancestors when he returns home). Bibliography: Chauvin VI185, VIII18. Nishimura, Disciplina Clericalis, p. 297. Marzolph, 87. |
| Critical Literature |
|---|
| Clouston (1884), Nishimura (2001), Penzer (1924), Basset (1903) |
| 4 Amatores appears in the following versions and secondary versions |
|---|
| This inset story appears in no versions of the database |
| 4 Amatores is narrated in the following occurrences | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| 4 Amatores appears in the following manuscripts |
|---|