Puteus

AdulteryDeceptionDeceitful womanGullible husbandSuicideWoman locked up/kept indoorsLesson: women’s cleverness and deceit

The Well (or, The Husband Locked Out)

This story takes place in a city that maintains a strict curfew, and anyone found in the streets after curfew is severely punished. In this city, a man keeps his wife under lock and key, but unbeknownst to him, she regularly sneaks out to meet a lover (in some versions, she accomplishes this by encouraging her husband to drink to excess nightly). One night, discovering her gone, the man locks the door, and refuses to open it for her when she returns and begs entry. She shouts through the door that she would rather drown herself then face public punishment, and then drops a large rock into the well. Hearing the splash and thinking she has thrown herself into the well, her husband rushes out; his wife slips into the house as he does so, and locks him out instead, refusing to let him in.

Note
Nishimura notes relevant analogues and motifs: Motif and Types: TMI K1511, ATU 1377: The husband locked out; TU5246: Wife throws stone in well. Analogues: Seventy Tales of a Parrot, Textus ornatior 25, Textus simplicior 16; Disciplina Clericalis, Example 14, ‘The Well’; Tales of Marzuban, 8.5 ‘The Carpenter and his Wife’; Nasreddin Hoca Monogatari, pp. 208-209; Vincentius Bellovacensis, Speculum Morale, 3.9.5 (p.1395 DE); The Book of Tales by A.B.C., 303 (235) ‘You’ll never learn a woman’s games:…’; Wesselski, Mönchslatein, 67 (taken from Disciplina Clericalis); Decameron, 7.4; Sercambi, Il Novelliere, 142; Arcipreste de Talavera…, 2.1 ‘De los vicios e tachas e malas condiciones de las perversas mugeres,…’; Legrand d’Aussy, Anciens Fabliaux, 3.146-155 ‘De celui qui enferma sa femme dans une tour,…'; Sachs, nr. 3966, nr. 46, ‘Das weib im brunnen’; Molière, George Dandin. Kathāratnākara, 22. Reference stories, etc.: Sabadino degli Arienti, Le Porretane, 45; Rakugo, ‘Rokushaku-bo’. Additional Bibliography: Chauvin VIII224, IX12; Landau 42; Schwarzbaum, XXII, 28-30; Nishimura, Disciplina Clericalis, pp. 292-295.

Critical Literature
Nishimura (2001), Clouston (1884), Campbell (1907), Runte, Wikeley, Farrell (1984)

Puteus appears in the following versions and secondary versions

Puteus is narrated in the following occurrences

Narrator	Pages
Anxilles	Paris Bibliothèque nationale de France, français 95
Bancillas	Cambridge University Library MS Ff. 2, 38
Bankarios	Aberystwyth National Library of Wales Cardiff MS 3.4 (RMWL Cardiff MS 5), Aberystwyth National Library of Wales Llanstephan MS 117
Fourth Master	S (Scala Coeli)
Lentulus	A (Seven Sages), Aberystwyth National Library of Wales Cardiff MS 2.83 (RMWL MS 6), Aberystwyth National Library of Wales Llanover MS 13075B, Aberystwyth National Library of Wales Llanstephan MS 171, Aberystwyth National Library of Wales Llanstephan MS 2., Anonymous Verse Version, Aventewr von Diocleciano, Brno Moravská knihovna RKP-0048.042 (Rkp 84), Brussel Koninklijke Bibliotheek 9245, Bühnenfassung / Stage adaptation: Sebastian Wild, Tragedj, Cambridge University Library MS Dd.1.17, Cambridge University Library MS Gg.6.28, Colmar Bibliothèque Municipale Ms. 55, Early Modern and Modern Welsh Version A, Edinburgh National Library of Scotland Advocates MS 19.2.1, Auchinleck Manuscript, Edinburgh National Library of Scotland MS. 16500, Asloan Manuscript, Erlangen Universitätsbibliothek Ms. B 11, French A/L Overlap, French Version A: Roman des Sept Sages, German Version H, H (Historia Septem Sapientum), Hans von Bühel, Dyocletianus Leben, L (Sept Sages de Rome), London British Library Arundel 140, London British Library Cotton Galba E IX, London British Library Egerton 1995, Middle English Version A, Middle Welsh Version A, Old Swedish Redaction C, Old Swedish Version A: Sju vise mästare, Old Swedish Version H: Sju vise mästare, Older Scots Version A: Buke of the Sevyne Sagis, Oxford Balliol College Library MS 354 (Richard Hill's Commonplace Book), Oxford Bodleian Library Jesus College MS. 111, Oxford Bodleian Library Jesus College MS. 20, Oxford Bodleian Library Rawlinson poet. 175, Paris Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal 3354, Paris Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal 3516, Prosafassung / Prose Version, Scots Version H: Rolland, Seuin Seages, Spanish Version H: Los Siete Sabios de Roma, Versfassung / Verse Version, Welsh Version A: Chwedleu Seith Doethon Rufein
Malquidras	D (Sept Sages de Rome), K (Sept Sages de Rome)
Second Master	Admont Stiftsbibliothek Cod. 163, Admont Stiftsbibliothek Cod. 652, Augsburg Universitätsbibliothek Cod. I. 2. 2° 22, Bamberg Staatsbibliothek Msc. Class. 87, Bamberg Staatsbibliothek Msc. Theol. 230, Basel Universitätsbibliothek Mscr. A IX 15, Basel Universitätsbibliothek UBH E II 3, Berlin Staatsbibliothek Ms. germ. fol. 643, Berlin Staatsbibliothek Ms. lat. qu. 184, Berlin Staatsbibliothek Ms. lat. qu. 409 (excerpts within Gesta Romanorum), Berlin Staatsbibliothek Ms. lat. qu. 641, Berlin Staatsbibliothek Ms. lat. qu. 710, Berlin Staatsbibliothek Ms. theol. lat. fol. 239, Berlin Staatsbibliothek Ms. theol. lat. qu. 109, Berlin Staatsbibliothek Ms. theol. lat. qu. 151, Berlin Staatsbibliothek Ms. theol. lat. qu. 272, Bern Burgerbibliothek Cod. 723, Brno Moravský zemský archiv Cerr II 361, Colmar Bibliothèque des Dominicains CPC 6 (278), Dresden Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Mscr. Dresd. C 398, Dresden Sächsische Landesbibliothek, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Mscr. Dresd. F 61a, Dresden, Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Mscr. Dresd. F 61a, Eichstätt Universitätsbibliothek Cod. st 698, Fulda Hochschul- und Landesbibliothek Hs. B 11, Gdańsk PAN Biblioteka Gdańska Ms. 1974, Latin Version H, Polish Version H, Thystorye of ye vii wyse Maysters of rome (English, 16th c.)
Seventh Master	British Library, Additional MS 15685
Virgil	Dolopathos, French Dolopathos, Latin Dolopathos

Puteus appears in the following manuscripts