Nepos
The Grandson
A rich man in Rome leaves all his wealth to his son, who soon becomes ungrateful and drives his aging father from the family home, forcing him to live in poverty and obscurity. His son, a boy of eleven, loves his grandather, and visits him often. One day, the grandfather asks the child to request a new cloak for him, as he knows his son will deny any request he makes. The boy asks his father, but is denied. After begging and pleading, the father at last gives the child a cloak so old and ragged that even the household servants do not want it. The boy stows the rags in a drawer, then takes his father's good cloak with him and gives it to his grandfather. One day, while playing with the boy, the father opens the drawer and finds the rags. When asked, the child explains that since now he knows that this is what is granted to the elderly, he set the ragged cloak aside for himself and his mother when they grow old. The father is shocked, comes to his senses, and apologises to his father. The grandfather is returned to the household, and given all due respect by his son and grandson.
Note: this is the second of three stories about ungrateful sons mistreating their fathers told in sequence by the stepmother in Storia di Stefano (S), following Filius ingratus and before Arca.
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Nishimura notes the following analogues, references, and motifs: Motifs and Type: TMI J121: Ungrateful son reproved by naïve actions of his own son: preparing for old age. P236.1: Folly of father’s giving all property to children before his death. ATU 980: The ungrateful Son. TU2001: Father in stable. Analogies: Jātaka, 446 ‘Takkaḷa-j.’. Zo Hozo-kyo, 16. Jacques de Vitry, Exempla, 288 ‘A wicked man made his father lie in a stable,…’. The Book of Tales by A.B.C., 337 (272) ‘As you treat your father ill,…’. Scala Coeli, 535 ‘Le fils qui met de côté du drap…’. Hagen, Gesamtabenteuer, 48 ‘Die halbe Decke’ = Liebe, Lust und Leid, 6. Sercambi, Il Novelliere, 68. Pauli, Schimpf und Ernst, 436 ‘Zwo Elen Tuchs geb einer seinem Vatter zu eim Rock‘ and 760 ‚Unehr gegen die Eltern‘. Grimm’s Fairy Tales, KHM 78 ‘Der alte Großvater und der Enkel’. Afanasjew, Russische Volksmärchen, 449 ‘Die Mulde’ (rope basket type). Schwarzbaum, Jewish and World Folklore, 299 ‚Father and Son‘. Chu Ko Sen, vol.1, 57 ‘Genkoku brings back the cart’. Konjaku Monogatari-shu, 9.45 ‘Story of the Chinese Genkoku who deceived his father to stop his unfilial piety’. Shaseki-shu, 3.6 ‘Kodomo no Chugen no Koto’ (rope basket type). Nihon Mukashibanashi Tsukan, 28 ‘Type Index’, 410B ‘Ubasute Yama – rope basket type’. Choi In Hak, A Study on Korean Folktales…, 662 ‘Abandoning one's parents on the mountain’ (rope basket type). Korean Folktales, ‘The thankless Son who abandons his Parents’). Reference stories, etc.: Choi In Hak, A Study on Korean Folktales, 403 ‘Thankful daughter-in-law’. Eberhard, Typen chinesischer Volksmärchen, 201 ‘Das Vorbild’. |
| Critical Literature |
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| Nishimura (2001), Rajna (1880) |
| Nepos appears in the following versions and secondary versions |
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| Nepos is narrated in the following occurrences | ||||
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| Nepos appears in the following manuscripts |
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| This inset story appears in no manuscripts of the database |