Canicula: Difference between revisions
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{{Inset Story | {{Inset Story | ||
|Has | |Has Short Description=The Weeping Dog | ||
|Has Critical Literature=Nishimura (2001); Epstein (1967) | |Has Critical Literature=Nishimura (2001); Epstein (1967); Clouston (1884); Chauvin (1892-1922); Perry (1960) | ||
|Has Motif=Adultery; Deceitful old woman; Dog; Money in exchange for promise of sex; Gullible husband; Old woman as go-between; Bodily transformation; Failed/rejected seduction; Deceitful woman; Woman tricked/coerced into sex; Old woman; Coerced sex; Woman locked up/kept indoors; Body fluids; Love (or lust) at first sight; Window | |Has Motif=Adultery; Deceitful old woman; Dog; Money in exchange for promise of sex; Gullible husband; Old woman as go-between; Bodily transformation; Failed/rejected seduction; Deceitful woman; Woman tricked/coerced into sex; Old woman; Coerced sex; Woman locked up/kept indoors; Body fluids; Love (or lust) at first sight; Window | ||
|Has Summary='''The Weeping Dog''' | |Has Summary='''The Weeping Dog (Canicula 1)''' | ||
A husband and wife pledge absolute faithfulness to each other in the other's absence. The husband departs on a long trip, and his wife mourns and stays indoors, barely showing her face outside. However, one day a bridal procession passes her house, and hearing the music, she puts her head out the window. A young man passing by sees her beauty, and is instantly sick with love and lust. He sends her gifts and messages, and takes to his bed when she rejects him. Hearing of his distress, an old woman visits him, and promises to cure him in return for ten silver pieces. She buys a dog from the market and goes to the house where the woman lives, and begs for refreshment. When the woman goes to get her water, the old woman feeds the dog a cake of fat and spices so that tears spring to the creature's eyes, and when the wife returns, the old woman too pretends to weep. The wife asks why they both are crying, and the old woman tells her that the dog is her daughter, who had once been as beautiful as the wife, but was transformed into a bitch because she cruelly spurned a would-be lover. Fearing the same fate will be visited on her, the wife begs the old woman to visit the young man she had rejected and to tell him she would agree to sleep with him. However, when the old woman returns to the young man's home, he is not there - and thus cannot pay her fee. She decides instead to instead find any man who will pay her, and settles on the first traveller she finds disembarking from a ship. She takes the man by the arm, and offers (for a price) to lead him to a willing woman. Unbeknownst to her, it is the wife's husband, returned from travelling, and he turns her down. When the old woman insists, however, he agrees, hoping to discover what woman in his town has such loose morals. She leads him to his own house, where he finds his wife dressing and annointing herself. When his wife sees him, she thinks fast and turns on him, claiming that this had been a test, which he had failed. He agreed to follow a procuress to a house of ill repute, so, she cries, he must have been unfaithful when he was travelling too! He insists that isn't the case, and after much pleading she relents and the two are reconciled. | A husband and wife pledge absolute faithfulness to each other in the other's absence. The husband departs on a long trip, and his wife mourns and stays indoors, barely showing her face outside. However, one day a bridal procession passes her house, and hearing the music, she puts her head out the window. A young man passing by sees her beauty, and is instantly sick with love and lust. He sends her gifts and messages, and takes to his bed when she rejects him. Hearing of his distress, an old woman visits him, and promises to cure him in return for ten silver pieces. She buys a dog from the market and goes to the house where the woman lives, and begs for refreshment. When the woman goes to get her water, the old woman feeds the dog a cake of fat and spices so that tears spring to the creature's eyes, and when the wife returns, the old woman too pretends to weep. The wife asks why they both are crying, and the old woman tells her that the dog is her daughter, who had once been as beautiful as the wife, but was transformed into a bitch because she cruelly spurned a would-be lover. Fearing the same fate will be visited on her, the wife begs the old woman to visit the young man she had rejected and to tell him she would agree to sleep with him. However, when the old woman returns to the young man's home, he is not there - and thus cannot pay her fee. She decides instead to instead find any man who will pay her, and settles on the first traveller she finds disembarking from a ship. She takes the man by the arm, and offers (for a price) to lead him to a willing woman. Unbeknownst to her, it is the wife's husband, returned from travelling, and he turns her down. When the old woman insists, however, he agrees, hoping to discover what woman in his town has such loose morals. She leads him to his own house, where he finds his wife dressing and annointing herself. When his wife sees him, she thinks fast and turns on him, claiming that this had been a test, which he had failed. He agreed to follow a procuress to a house of ill repute, so, she cries, he must have been unfaithful when he was travelling too! He insists that isn't the case, and after much pleading she relents and the two are reconciled. | ||
From ''Mishle Sendebar'' | From ''Mishle Sendebar'' | ||
'''Canicula 2:''' | |||
A variation of this story, titled ''Canicula 2'' by Nishimura, is found in the [[Persian Sindbadnama|Persian ''Sindbadnama'';]] it is the 15th story, told by one of viziers. In this iteration of the story, the old woman does find the young man, and brings him to the married woman as promised, and the two have sex. (How or if this impacts the tale's conclusion is currently unconfirmed). | |||
See also another very similar story in the Sindbadnama, referred to as [[Canicula 3]]. | |||
[Added by Jane Bonsall] | [Added by Jane Bonsall] | ||
|Has Note=Note: Nishimura titles this story 'Canicula', while Epstein calls it 'Catula'. | |Has Note=Note: Nishimura titles this story 'Canicula', while Epstein calls it 'Catula'. See Nishimura (2001) pp. 266-268 for the relation of ‘canicula 1, 2, 3’. | ||
Nishimura also notes the following motifs, analogues and references: | |||
'''Motifs and Types:''' TMI K1350 Woman persuaded (or wooed) by trick. K1351 The weeping bitch. N741 Unexpected meeting of husband and wife. ATU 1515 The weeping bitch. TU661 Weeping bitch. | |||
'''Analogues:''' ''Seventy Tales of a Parrot'', 1. ''Kathasaritsagara'', ch. 13, ‘8. Story of Devasmitā’ (The married woman doubts the story that a woman has turned into a dog. This story contains the motif that a woman calls the men in turn and gets rid of them, also found in ‘102. 4 amatores’, and the motif of the lotus flower that never withers as long as she remains faithful. Cf. TMI H431.1 Shirt as chastity index. ''Gesta Romanorum'', 69 ‘Das Hemd der Treue’, etc). ''Le Jardin parfumé'', ch. 11, ‘The Tale of the Deceived Husband’. | |||
'''Reference stories and etc.:''' The beginning of ''Golden Legend'', 87 ‘Theodora the Saint’ (Theodora is persistently wooed, but does not fall for the would-be lover. Theodora is pressured by a female sorceress who tells her that god cannot see anything at night, and she agrees to a liaison in the darkness). Hecuba, queen of Troy, wife of Priam, is said to have turned into a dog (Quintus, ''The War at Troy'', xiv, p. 428). ''Born Judas'', 259 ‘Die wandernde Seele’, 298 ‘Der Schuldschein’ and 326 ‘Der schwarze Hund’ are the stories that a man was reborn as an animal after his death, and 303 is the story that he was reborn as a man again. For other stories of people being reborn as animals, see my translation of ''Disciplina Clericlis'', pp. 288-291. | |||
'''Additional Bibliography:''' Landau 2, 15. Hagen, I, pp. cxii-cxvi; Schwarzbaum, XXII, pp. 24-28. Nishimura, ''Disciplina Clericalis'', pp. 286-292; Tawney-Penzer, ''Ocean of Story'', I, pp. 165-171. | |||
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Latest revision as of 11:46, 10 March 2026
The Weeping Dog (Canicula 1)
A husband and wife pledge absolute faithfulness to each other in the other's absence. The husband departs on a long trip, and his wife mourns and stays indoors, barely showing her face outside. However, one day a bridal procession passes her house, and hearing the music, she puts her head out the window. A young man passing by sees her beauty, and is instantly sick with love and lust. He sends her gifts and messages, and takes to his bed when she rejects him. Hearing of his distress, an old woman visits him, and promises to cure him in return for ten silver pieces. She buys a dog from the market and goes to the house where the woman lives, and begs for refreshment. When the woman goes to get her water, the old woman feeds the dog a cake of fat and spices so that tears spring to the creature's eyes, and when the wife returns, the old woman too pretends to weep. The wife asks why they both are crying, and the old woman tells her that the dog is her daughter, who had once been as beautiful as the wife, but was transformed into a bitch because she cruelly spurned a would-be lover. Fearing the same fate will be visited on her, the wife begs the old woman to visit the young man she had rejected and to tell him she would agree to sleep with him. However, when the old woman returns to the young man's home, he is not there - and thus cannot pay her fee. She decides instead to instead find any man who will pay her, and settles on the first traveller she finds disembarking from a ship. She takes the man by the arm, and offers (for a price) to lead him to a willing woman. Unbeknownst to her, it is the wife's husband, returned from travelling, and he turns her down. When the old woman insists, however, he agrees, hoping to discover what woman in his town has such loose morals. She leads him to his own house, where he finds his wife dressing and annointing herself. When his wife sees him, she thinks fast and turns on him, claiming that this had been a test, which he had failed. He agreed to follow a procuress to a house of ill repute, so, she cries, he must have been unfaithful when he was travelling too! He insists that isn't the case, and after much pleading she relents and the two are reconciled.
From Mishle Sendebar
Canicula 2:
A variation of this story, titled Canicula 2 by Nishimura, is found in the Persian Sindbadnama; it is the 15th story, told by one of viziers. In this iteration of the story, the old woman does find the young man, and brings him to the married woman as promised, and the two have sex. (How or if this impacts the tale's conclusion is currently unconfirmed).
See also another very similar story in the Sindbadnama, referred to as Canicula 3.
[Added by Jane Bonsall]
Note
Note: Nishimura titles this story 'Canicula', while Epstein calls it 'Catula'. See Nishimura (2001) pp. 266-268 for the relation of ‘canicula 1, 2, 3’.
Nishimura also notes the following motifs, analogues and references:
Motifs and Types: TMI K1350 Woman persuaded (or wooed) by trick. K1351 The weeping bitch. N741 Unexpected meeting of husband and wife. ATU 1515 The weeping bitch. TU661 Weeping bitch.
Analogues: Seventy Tales of a Parrot, 1. Kathasaritsagara, ch. 13, ‘8. Story of Devasmitā’ (The married woman doubts the story that a woman has turned into a dog. This story contains the motif that a woman calls the men in turn and gets rid of them, also found in ‘102. 4 amatores’, and the motif of the lotus flower that never withers as long as she remains faithful. Cf. TMI H431.1 Shirt as chastity index. Gesta Romanorum, 69 ‘Das Hemd der Treue’, etc). Le Jardin parfumé, ch. 11, ‘The Tale of the Deceived Husband’.
Reference stories and etc.: The beginning of Golden Legend, 87 ‘Theodora the Saint’ (Theodora is persistently wooed, but does not fall for the would-be lover. Theodora is pressured by a female sorceress who tells her that god cannot see anything at night, and she agrees to a liaison in the darkness). Hecuba, queen of Troy, wife of Priam, is said to have turned into a dog (Quintus, The War at Troy, xiv, p. 428). Born Judas, 259 ‘Die wandernde Seele’, 298 ‘Der Schuldschein’ and 326 ‘Der schwarze Hund’ are the stories that a man was reborn as an animal after his death, and 303 is the story that he was reborn as a man again. For other stories of people being reborn as animals, see my translation of Disciplina Clericlis, pp. 288-291.
Additional Bibliography: Landau 2, 15. Hagen, I, pp. cxii-cxvi; Schwarzbaum, XXII, pp. 24-28. Nishimura, Disciplina Clericalis, pp. 286-292; Tawney-Penzer, Ocean of Story, I, pp. 165-171.