Nutrix: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 13:13, 24 November 2025

The Foolish Nurse ('Li Exemples de la Fole Norriche')

In a land where, by law, the local lord seizes the property of anyone who dies without a male heir, a wealthy and childless old couple decide to find a boy to raise as their own. They find a poor woman who fell pregnant by a clergyman, and keep her in secret while the wife feigns pregnancy. When the woman gives birth, the couple pretend the baby is their son, and keep the poor woman on as his nurse. A few years later, word of the miracle of this elderly couple's child reaches the lord, and he comes to investigate. Upon seeing the child in the arms of the 'nurse', the lord notes their resemblance and grows suspicious. He gives the child a dagger and tells him to go to his 'mother', and tell her that she must decide which of the two of them should lose an eye. The wife, horrified, blinds herself rather than allow any harm to come to her 'son'. Her husband does the same. But when the lord asks the 'nurse' - the birth-mother - to follow suit, she refuses, saying that to do so would be foolishness. The lord's advisor convinces him that the adoptive parents must truly be the child's biological family, since they were willing to blind themselves to protect him, and the lord leaves, saying 'foolish is the nurse who loves more than the mother'. The son later goes on to gain wealth and power through cunning and deceit, and eventually, when the demands of his 'parents' become too onerous, he poisons them both.

[From Runte. Added by Jane Bonsall.]

Note
The anxieties around inheritance appear across medieval literary traditions, and deception in order to produce an heir (either by adopting a child, or raising a girl as boy) is a repeated motif (see Roman de Silence for example). Nishimura notes additional analogues, including one in Cassidorus (one of the continuations/sequels), as well as Aristophanes, Women at the Thesmophoria, and Giraldi Cinthio, Hundred Tales, 4.8.

Critical Literature
Nishimura (2001), Runte (1974), Runte (1971)

Nutrix appears in the following versions and secondary versions

Nutrix is narrated in the following occurrences

Narrator	Pages
Empress	M ('Male Marastre'), Paris Bibliothèque nationale de France, français 573

Nutrix appears in the following manuscripts

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-{{Inset Story}}
+{{Inset Story
-'''The Foolish Nurse ('C'est Li Exemplres de la Fole Norriche')'''
+|Has Critical Literature=Nishimura (2001); Runte (1974); Runte (1971)
+|Has Motif=Deception; Deceitful old woman; Deceitful old man; Riches; Childbirth; Pregnancy; (Threat of) bodily mutilation; Familial relationships; Familial duty; Murder; Mistaken or concealed identity; Old woman; Judgement; Court of law; Member of Clergy; Blindness; Adoption; Children; Evidence; False evidence of virtue; Illegitimacy; Misinterpretation; Poison; Violence
+|Has Summary='''The Foolish Nurse ('Li Exemples de la Fole Norriche')'''
+In a land where, by law, the local lord seizes the property of anyone who dies without a male heir, a wealthy and childless old couple decide to find a boy to raise as their own. They find a poor woman who fell pregnant by a clergyman, and keep her in secret while the wife feigns pregnancy. When the woman gives birth, the couple pretend the baby is their son, and keep the poor woman on as his nurse. A few years later, word of the miracle of this elderly couple's child reaches the lord, and he comes to investigate. Upon seeing the child in the arms of the 'nurse', the lord notes their resemblance and grows suspicious. He gives the child a dagger and tells him to go to his 'mother', and tell her that she must decide which of the two of them should lose an eye. The wife, horrified, blinds herself rather than allow any harm to come to her 'son'. Her husband does the same. But when the lord asks the 'nurse' - the birth-mother - to follow suit, she refuses, saying that to do so would be foolishness. The lord's advisor convinces him that the adoptive parents must truly be the child's biological family, since they were willing to blind themselves to protect him, and the lord leaves, saying 'foolish is the nurse who loves more than the mother'. The son later goes on to gain wealth and power through cunning and deceit, and eventually, when the demands of his 'parents' become too onerous, he poisons them both.
+[From Runte. Added by Jane Bonsall.]
+|Has Note=The anxieties around inheritance appear across medieval literary traditions, and deception in order to produce an heir (either by adopting a child, or raising a girl as boy) is a repeated motif (see ''Roman de Silence'' for example).
+Nishimura notes additional analogues, including one in ''Cassidorus'' (one of the continuations/sequels), as well as Aristophanes, ''Women at the Thesmophoria'', and Giraldi Cinthio, ''Hundred Tales'', 4.8.
+}}