'''The Widow'''
This popular antifeminist tale tells of a knight who loves his wife to distraction, and is so upset when she receives a minor injury (often from a knife he had given her) that he dies of grief (or kills himself). The newly widowed woman refuses leave his gravesite, and builds a fire there to warm herself. A man charged with guarding a nearby gallows, where the bodies of three convicted thieves hang, sees the fire and asks to be allowed to share its warmth. The two speak, then flirt, and the widow is impressed by his honour; in some texts they begin a sexual relationship, in others she asks him to take her to wife. The guardsman checks the gallows and is horrified to discover that the body of one of thieves has been stolen while he was distracted. The widow offers to help: she tells him he may hang the body of her erstwhile husband in place of the missing thief’s corpse. Repulsed, the guard will not do it, so the widow does it herself. To complete the illusion that her husband’s body was that of the missing thief, she then mutilates his head, and knocks out his front teeth. In many versions, this show of faithlessness causes the guardsman to abandon her.
As Nishimura points out (2001), this story closely resembles Petronius's narrative of the 'Widow of Ephesus' from the ''Satyricon''. The motif of the 'soon-consoled widow' appears throughout European and Middle Eastern medieval literary culture.
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| Vidua appears in the following versions and secondary versions
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| Vidua is narrated in the following occurrences
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Pages
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| Caton |
Aberystwyth National Library of Wales Cardiff MS 2.83 (RMWL MS 6), Aberystwyth National Library of Wales Cardiff MS 3.4 (RMWL Cardiff MS 5), Aberystwyth National Library of Wales Llanover MS 13075B, Aberystwyth National Library of Wales Llanstephan MS 117, Aberystwyth National Library of Wales Llanstephan MS 171, Aberystwyth National Library of Wales Llanstephan MS 2., Early Modern and Modern Welsh Version A, Middle Welsh Version A, Oxford Bodleian Library Jesus College MS. 111, Oxford Bodleian Library Jesus College MS. 20, Welsh Version A: Chwedleu Seith Doethon Rufein
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| Jesse |
A (Seven Sages), Brussel Koninklijke Bibliotheek 9245, C (Sept Sages de Rome), Cambridge University Library MS Dd.1.17, Cambridge University Library MS Gg.6.28, Chartres Bibliothèque municipale 620, D (Sept Sages de Rome), Edinburgh National Library of Scotland Advocates MS 19.2.1, Auchinleck Manuscript, French A/L Overlap, French Version A: Roman des Sept Sages, K (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, Old Swedish Version A: Sju vise mästare, Oxford Balliol College Library MS 354 (Richard Hill's Commonplace Book), Oxford Bodleian Library Rawlinson poet. 175, Paris Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal 3516, Paris Bibliothèque nationale de France, français 95, Uppsala Universitetsbiblioteket Cod. C 7
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| Joachim |
Anonymous Verse Version, Bühnenfassung / Stage adaptation: Sebastian Wild, Tragedj, Colmar Bibliothèque Municipale Ms. 55, German Version H, H (Historia Septem Sapientum), Hans von Bühel, Dyocletianus Leben, Hystorij von Diocleciano, Prosafassung / Prose Version, Spanish Version H: Los Siete Sabios de Roma, Swedish Version H: Sju vise mästare, Versfassung / Verse Version, Wien Schottenstift Cod. 33 (407)
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| Lentulus |
Cambridge University Library MS Ff. 2, 38, M ('Male Marastre'), Paris Bibliothèque nationale de France, français 573
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| Seventh Master |
Berlin Staatsbibliothek Ms. theol. lat. qu. 272, Continental Group x, Dresden Sächsische Landesbibliothek, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Mscr. Dresd. F 61a, Latin Version H, Polish Version H, Scots Version H: Rolland, Seuin Seages, Thystorye of ye vii wyse Maysters of rome (English, 16th c.)
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| Sixth Master |
Chantilly Musée Condé MS 683, Dublin Trinity College Library Ms 667, Edinburgh National Library of Scotland Advocates MS 72.1.39, Gaelic Version A, German Version A: Allegatio/Libellus, Latin Version A, Latin Version A: Allegatio / Libellus, London British Library Additional MS 15685, S (Scala Coeli), St. Florian Stiftsbibliothek Cod. XI 92 B, Wien Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Cod. 2937
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| Vidua appears in the following manuscripts
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