Canicula 3

AdulteryDeceitful old manDeceitful womanGullible husbandOld woman as go-betweenOld womanDeceptionMoney in exchange for promise of sexMisinterpretationMultiple lovers

An old man has a beautiful young wife. The husband often leaves her alone in the city in order to visit his fields and vineyards in the countryside (or, in some iterations, he is a merchant who must travel far). Every time he leaves, his wife has trysts with many lovers. An old woman acts as a go-between for the wife and her paramours. One day, after a long stint away, the husband returns to town - but instead of going home, he asks an old procuress to help him find a woman of easy virtue for him to sleep with. (In some versions - the Samarqandi version and the Tutinama - the husband claims to a foreigner.) The old woman does not know who he is, and so leads him to his own house and introduces him to his wife. When the wife skillfully hides her distress and approaches her husband, he believes her innocent, and so kneels down and begs her forgiveness.

From Nishimura's summary of the Persian Sindbadnama.

[Added by Jane Bonsall]

Note

This story is closely related to the other Canicula stories in structure and in detail, with the obvious ommission of the wife's initial reluctance to engage in adultery and the ploy of the weeping dog.

Nishimura notes the following motifs, analogues, and references:

Motif. TMI N741 Unexpected meeting of husband and wife.

Analogues: Hagen, Gesamtabenteuer, 9 'Alten Weibes List' (by Konrad von Würzburg). Liebe, Lust und Leid, 16 ‘Alten Weibers List’. Persische Dekameron, 21 ‚Die Frau des Kaufmanns‘.

Reference stories and etc.: Sasaki Kizen, Hear Me Storybook (Kikimimi Soshi), 155 ‘Illness of sisters’. Girolamo Parabosco, Distraction, 7.

Additional Bibliography: Landau 2. Hagen, I, pp. cxii-cxvi.

Critical Literature

Nishimura (2001), Chauvin (1892-1922), Clouston (1884)

Canicula 3 appears in the following versions and secondary versions

	Has Language Of Version	Has Branch Of Tradition	Is Adapted From
Persian Sindbadnama	Persian	Book of Sindbad

Canicula 3 is narrated in the following occurrences

Narrator	Pages
Third Master	Persian Sindbadnama, Zahiri al Samarqandi, Sindbadnama

Canicula 3 appears in the following manuscripts

	Has Language	Has Siglum Of The Version Of The Seven Sages	Has Language Group Within Version