Gladius
The Sword; or, The Lady and Her Two Lovers
A soldier in love with a married woman sends his servant to her house to arrange a tryst. Enamoured of the young servant, the wife seduces him in his master's stead. The soldier then comes himself to the house, and the wife hides the servant in the back room in order to welcome her lover. However, the woman's husband also soon returns. in a panic, the wife asks her lover to stand at the gate with his sword drawn, shouting and swearing, but answering no questions. The soldier agrees, and the husband, approaching his house, sees the armed man shouting at the gate. When the husband rushes inside and asks what is the matter, the wife replies that the man's slave had fled from his ill treatment, and that she had sheltered him; the young servant is brought forth, and the husband praises the wife for her actions.
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Nishimura notes motifs and analogues: Motif and Types: TMI K1517.1 = ATU 1419D The lovers as pursuer and fugitive; TU4693 Sword, husband deceived by. Analogues: Stories with two lovers: Hitopadesha, 2.8 ‘The woman with two Lovers’; Seventy Tales of a Parrot, Textus ornatior 35 and Textus simplicior 26; Shibun Roku, vol. 9 ‘Clever escape’; Myokado Sowa, vol. 12, ‘The wit of two lewd women’, and Yoshino Hidemasa Setsuwa Shu, 34 ‘The village headman visits his son’; Decameron, 7.6; Poggio, Facezie, 267; Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, 34. For stories in which one lover escapes by playing the part of the pursuer or escaper, see Seventy Tales of a Parrot, Textus ornatior 20 and Textus simplicior 12; Disciplina Clericalis, Example 11 ‘Sword’; Vincentius Bellovacensis, Speculum Morale, 3.9.5 (p. 1395b); Legrand d’Aussy, Anciens Fabliaux, 4.189-191 ‘De la mauvaise Femme – extrait du troisième Fabliau’; Sachs, nr. 1746, A Clever Affair; nr. 2453, Die ehrenwerte schwiegermutter [A faithful Mother-in-law]; and nr. 3951, nr. 43, Die listig belerin genandt [A sly cheating Woman]; Bandello, Le Novelle, end of 2.11; Steinhöwel, ‘Alfonsi Extract’ 10; Caxton, Fables of Aesop, ‘Alfonsi Extract’, 10; and ‘Tale of Cho San and O Ni’s Wife’ in Kidan-roku, vol. 1. |
| Critical Literature |
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| Nishimura (2001), Epstein (1967), Clouston (1884), Perry (1959) |
| Gladius appears in the following versions and secondary versions |
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| Gladius appears in the following manuscripts |
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