XIV.—The Contending Lovers

Willard Edward Farnham

doi:10.2307/457138

XIV.—The Contending Lovers

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020

Willard Edward Farnham

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The Contending Lovers is a folk-tale of love rivalry— but of love rivalry with a difference. Because it has certain uncommon distinctions, among them a provocative love problem which is usually left wholly unsolved, I have previously attempted to show in brief fashion its affinity with Chaucer's Parlement of Foules and to prove by especial reference to Il Paradiso degli Alberti, a work cut of Chaucer's own period, that the Parlement should be regarded as a poetical and highly sophisticated version of the folk-tale. But the curious and interesting features of The Contending Lovers will support a self-sufficient study in folk-lore, and such a study is primarily the aim of the following pages. The Parlement will occasionally be admitted to the discussion, especially in conclusion, since relationship to Chaucer necessarily gives the folk-tale itself an enhanced interest, but only casual arguments will be made for this relationship. The material, now studied in detail, is meant to form its own argument.

Type: Research Article
Information: PMLA , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , 1920 , pp. 247 - 324

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/457138 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1920

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^{page 247 note 1} The name is chosen after some consideration. Benfey in his famous Ausland essay (Ausland, 1858, pp. 969 ff.; Kleinere Schriften ii, iii, pp. 94 ff.) calls one type of the tale “Das Märchen von den Menschen mit den wunderbaren Eigenschaften,” a denomination which has the decided disadvantage of not fitting all types. The lovers as we shall find them are not always men of skill or wonderful gifts. Wesselofsky (Il Paradiso degli Alberti, i, ii, p. 240) speaks of “quel ciclo leggendario che noi diciamo dei fratelli artifici,” laying himself open to the objection that the lovers are not always brothers and not always artificers. Therefore I submit The Contending Lovers as indicating more accurately an important and distinctive feature, namely the striving of the suitors both by deed and by argument for the hand of the desired maiden.

^{page 247 note 2} The Sources of Chaucer's “Parlement of Foules,” Publications of the Modern Language Association, xxxii (1917), pp. 492 ff.; The Fowls in Chaucer's Parlement, University of Wisconsin Studies in Language and Literature, no. 2 (1918), pp. 341 ff.

^{page 247 note 3} Publications of the Modern Language Association, xxxii, pp. 495 ff.

^{page 247 note 4} Much material has become available since Benfey's Ausland essay (see note 1) and Wesselofsky's notes to the tale of the founding of Prato (Il Paradiso degli Alberti, Bologna, 1867, I, ii, pp. 238 ff.). Valuable as both works are, no attempt is made by either of these scholars to distinguish or study types, and Benfey confines his study largely to one type. In addition to these two treatments there are convenient collections of notes or scattered presentations of material in Clouston, Popular Tales and Fictions, 1887, i, pp. 277 ff.; D'Ancona, Studj di Critica e Storia Letteraria, Bologna, 1912, revised and enlarged edition, ii, pp. 160 ff.; Köhler, Kleinere Schriften, I, pp. 438 ff.; Chauvin, Bibliographie des Ouvrages Arabes, 1892-1909, vi, p. 133, note 3, and viii, p. 76; Basset, Revue des Traditions Populaires, vii (1892), p. 188, note 4; Cosquin, Revue des Traditions Populaires, xxxi (1916), pp. 98 ff., and 145 ff. Bolte und Polívka, Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- u. Hausmärchen der Brüder Grimm, Band iii, 1918, which was delayed by the war and has but recently become available, furnishes by far the best and most exhaustive collection of notes. (No. 129, pp. 45-58.)

^{page 249 note 1} For brief information see Babington, The Vedāla Cadai, 1831 (Misc. Trs. from Oriental Langs.), Preface, p. iv; Sagas from the Far East, 1873, p. 245; Oesterley, Baitāl Pachīsī, 1873, Einleitung, p. 2.

^{page 249 note 2} A text of the Vetālapanchavinsati has been constituted by Uhle based largely on the Çivadāsa redaction (Die Vetālapañcavinçatika, in den Recensionen des Çivadāsa und eines Ungenannten, von Heinrich Uhle, Leipzig, 1881). However, the tales are not fully translated and those which have been translated are to be found in scattered places. The first six, the eighth, and the twelfth are accessible in translations into European languages. (See notes to tales given in following pages.) The Hindi Baitāl Pachīsī, however, includes all the Yetāla tales and has been translated into English and German.

^{page 249 note 3} Oesterley, Baitāl Pachīsī, Einleitung, p. 3.

^{page 249 note 4} The Vetāla tales are also part of the more modern Sanskrit collection Kathā-Sarit-Sāgara. The Siddhi-Kür is a Mongolian Vetāla redaction, and among Indian dialect versions are the Tamul Vedāla Cadai and the Hindi Baitāl Pachīsī.

^{page 249 note 5} See Der Vetālapaneavinçati, oder fünfundzwanzig erzählungen eines Daemon, erster Teil, tr. A. Luber, Gorz, 1875, pp. 14 ff. The Hindi Baitāl Pachīsī will be used to supplement direct translations from the Sanskrit. The minor variations in the tales which it gives are of small importance for our purposes. The Baitāl has been translated into English by W. Burckhardt Barker, Hertford, 1855.

^{page 249 note 6} The introduction is fuller and slightly different in the Baitāl Pachīsī, where we are given more traditional matter about King Vikramāditya, or Bikram, as he is here called. For variations in introduction among other versions of the Vetāla collection see Oesterley, work cited, pp. 171 ff.

^{page 249 note 7} I summarize from a French translation of the Çivadāsa redaction: La Jeune Fille et les Trois Brahmanes, tr. Victor Henry from Uhle's text, Rev. des Trad. Pop., i (1886), pp. 370 ff.

^{page 249 note 8} In Luber's translation we have a variant version (ii. Erzählung, pp. 25 ff.). The lovers are four. A dies on the funeral pyre, B gathers the ashes and holds watch over them, C travels as a religious man, D goes back to his home and does nothing. The Baitāl has three lovers, but the first and second divide the custody of the ashes, and the first does not die. Henry translates still another variant with three lovers in Rev. des Trad. Pop., i, pp. 372 ff.

^{page 249 note 9} Translated by Benfey, Kleinere Schriften, ii, iii, pp. 96 ff., and also by Luber. The Baitāl is remarkably close to the Sanskrit version.

^{page 249 note 10} “Eifer, Muth und Geduld, Stärke, Weisheit und hohe Tapferkeit, wer über diese sechs Gaben herrscht, den fürchten die Götter selbst,” translates Benfey (see p. 98).

^{page 249 note 11} Translated by Benfey, Orient und Occident, i (1862), pp. 730 ff.

^{page 249 note 12} The version in the Baitāl Pachīsī is the same in all essential details.

^{page 249 note 13} I summarize from the Baitāl Pachīsī, tr. Barker, 1855, pp. 157 ff., Oesterley has had the chance to compare the Baitāl version with a summary of the Vetāla tale, and finds little difference between the two.

^{page 249 note 14} See the Ausland essay already referred to.

^{page 249 note 15} See Paradiso, i, ii, pp. 238 ff.

^{page 249 note 16} Clouston, Popular Tales and Fictions, i, pp. 288 ff.

^{page 249 note 17} Tub. Mod. Lang. Assoc., xxxii, p. 499.

^{page 249 note 18} Kathā-Sarit-Sāgara, tr. C. H. Tawney, Calcutta, 1884, ii, pp. 242 ff.

^{page 249 note 19} Tawney, ii, pp. 275 ff. Worthy of note is one change. The man of knowledge has a more definite accomplishment than before, for he can restore dead creatures to life.

^{page 249 note 20} Tawney, I, pp. 498 ff.

^{page 249 note 21} See summary on p. 255 above.

^{page 249 note 22} The Vedāla Cadai, tr. B. G. Babington, London, 1831 (Misc. Trs. from Orient. Langs.), vol. i; Vedāla Cadai 2 is Vetāla 2, Vedāla Cadai 4 is Vetāla 5, and Vedāla Cadai 5 is Vetāla 6.

^{page 249 note 23} B. Jülg, Kalmückische Märchen, Leipzig, 1866, no. 1, pp. 5 ff. The tale is also translated in Sagas from the Far-East, London, 1873, no. 9, pp. 105 ff., Five to One.

^{page 249 note 24} Siddhi-Kür means a dead body endowed with supernatural powers, substantially a demon like the Vetāla.

^{page 249 note 25} Sometimes knives are stuck in the trees to indicate by rust harm to the owners.

^{page 249 note 26} Ausland essay, Kleinere Schriften, ii, iii, pp. 103 ff.

^{page 249 note 27} Tr. A. Weber, Indische Studien, XV (1878), pp. 184 ff.

^{page 249 note 28} Tr. Léon Feer, Paris, 1883.

^{page 249 note 29} B. Jülg, Mongolische Märchen-Sammlung, 1868, pp. 238 ff. Also in Sagas from the Far East, 1873, pp. 298 ff.

^{page 249 note 30} Tr. Baron Lescailler, Le Trône Enchanté, New York, 1817, i, pp. 177 ff.

^{page 249 note 31} Lescailler, i, pp. 191-2.

^{page 249 note 32} For a complete discussion of the versions of the Tūti-Nāma see Benfey, Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen, 1858, pp. 529 ff., (Kleinere Schriften, ii, iii, pp. 64 ff.),

^{page 249 note 33} Tūti-Nāmeh (Das Papagaienbuch), translated by Georg Rosen, 1858.

^{page 249 note 34} Die Çukasaptati (Textus Simplicior) aus dem Sanskrit übersetzt von Richard Schmidt, Kiel, 1894.

^{page 249 note 35} Der Textus Ornatior der Çukasaptati, von Richard Schmidt, Stuttgart, 1896.

^{page 249 note 36} The Tooti Nameh or Tales of a Parrot, translated for J. Debrett, London, 1801.

^{page 249 note 37} See Benfey, Kleinere Schriften, ii, iii, p. 66.

^{page 249 note 38} Translation for Debrett, pp. 49 ff.

^{page 249 note 39} This tale appears in Rosen's Turkish version, Theil I, pp. 151 ff.

^{page 249 note 40} Translation for Debrett, pp. 113 ff. See Rosen, ii, pp. 165 ff. for the Turkish version.

^{page 249 note 41} Translation for Debrett, pp. 122 ff.

^{page 249 note 42} See Rosen, ii, pp. 169 ff. for the Turkish version.

^{page 249 note 43} W. A. Clouston, The Book of Sindibād, 1884, pp. 106 ff. The tale does not occur in other important eastern texts of the Seven Wise Masters. See the comparative table at the beginning of the work.

^{page 249 note 44} Revue des Traditions populaires, xxxi (1916), pp. 98 ff., and pp. 145 ff.

^{page 249 note 45} This tale with the adventures of Prince Ahmed is one of those in Galland's work which can now be found in no Oriental original. Galland, it was even thought at one time, might have constructed the tale himself, but it is now thought by many that such a suspicion is groundless. For his edition Burton translates it in roundabout fashion from a Hindustani translation of Galland in order to get rid of “inordinate Gallicism.” Cosquin's ire is considerably aroused at this attitude (Revue des Traditions populaires, xxxi, pp. 116 ff.), and somewhat justly, since after all Galland's French is the closest text we have to what is probably a genuine Oriental story. Clouston in his note to the tale in Burton expresses wonder that anyone should accuse Galland of fabricating a tale that rings so true. See Burton, Supplemental Nights, Appendix, iii, p. 600.

^{page 249 note 46} Galland, ed. 1881, x, pp. 1 ff.

^{page 249 note 47} For a discussion of this matter see pp. 305 ff. below.

^{page 249 note 48} I do not pretend to make a complete collation of incidents for the following summaries. References to tales are given merely as examples.

^{page 249 note 49} This is the type in which Benfey finds the beginnings of Das Märchen von “den Menschen mit den wunderbaren Eigenschaften.” Consequently it is the type which has attracted to itself most scholarly interest.

^{page 278 note 1} Lack of space and the inaccessibility of rarer versions in less-read European languages forbid completeness. For further material see the indispensable notes to Grimm 129 by Bolte and Polívka, Anmerkungen, Band iii (1918), pp. 45-58. In most cases the character of inaccessible versions there noted is sufficiently indicated.

^{page 294 note 1} Clouston, Appendix, Burton's Supplemental Nights, iii, p. 608: “Almost suspiciously like the story in Galland in many of the details is an Icelandic version in Powell and Magnússon's collection, yet I cannot conceive how the peasantry of that country could have got it out of ‘Les Mille et Une Nuits.‘” See this tale in the summary above.

^{page 294 note 2} It will be remembered that even in the Orient a mixture of Rescue and Resuscitation themes occurred in the Persian Book of Sindibād, where there are both a warrior to rescue the maiden and a physician of wondrous power to resuscitate her when she is dangerously ill. As a European example see Luzel 9, where a violin player brings the princess back to life after she has been drowned in the course of the rescue.

^{page 294 note 3} “Alle uns bekannten Formen desselben zeigen sich mit der zuletzt gegebenen des Papagaienbuches innigst verwandt,” he declares (Kleinere Schriften, ii, iii, p. 110).

^{page 294 note 4} Ibid., p. 112.

^{page 294 note 5} See pp. 280 and 286 above.

^{page 294 note 6} Bd. Benfey, ii, pp. 150 ff., Der kluge Feind.

^{page 294 note 7} See also a later Arabic version in the Kalila u Dimna summarized and commented upon by Wesselofsky, Paradiso, I, ii, pp. 246 ff. For other references see Benfey, work cited, I, pp. 287 ff; also Chauvin, Bibliographie des Ouvrages Arabes, vii, pp. 124-5.

^{page 294 note 8} Notes to Mac Innes, Folk and Hero Tales, pp. 445 ff.

^{page 294 note 9} Ibid., p. 448.

^{page 294 note 10} Charles Renel, Contes de Madagascar, 1910, no. 91, ii, pp. 118 ff., Les trois Hommes.

^{page 294 note 11} Renel thinks no. 146 of his collection a “conte arabe.” (See ii, p. 291.)

^{page 294 note 12} J. F. Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands, no. 16, i, pp. 236 ff.

^{page 294 note 13} Translated by Anton Dietrich, Russische Volksmärchen, 1831, no. 3, Von den sieben Simeonen, den leiblichen Brüdern.

^{page 294 note 14} Arthur and Gorlagon, 1903, pp. 223 ff.

^{page 294 note 15} MacDaugal, Folk and Hero Tales, no. 1, pp. 1 ff. Summarized at length by Professor Kittredge.

^{page 294 note 16} See Kittredge, work cited, p. 227, note 2, for extensive references to literature on the subject.

^{page 294 note 17} Adeline Rittershaus, Die Neuisländischen Volksmärchen, 1902, no. 42, pp. 177 ff., Die kunstreichen Brüder.

^{page 294 note 18} For still other tales of skilful companions see the second part of Benfey's Ausland essay (Kleinere Schriften, ii, iii, pp. 132 ff.).

^{page 294 note 19} Cosquin, Contes populaires de Lorraine, no. 70, ii, pp. 271 ff., Le Franc Voleur.

^{page 294 note 20} S. W. Kölle, African Native Literature, 1854, no. 4, pp. 145 ff.

^{page 294 note 21} Douglas Hyde, An Sgéaluidhe Gaelhealach, no, 32.

^{page 294 note 22} Mrs. M. Carey, Fairy Legends of the French Provinces, 1887, pp. 183 ff.

^{page 294 note 23} For more tales of the sort see Köhler, Kleinere Schriften, i, p. 141.

^{page 294 note 24} The Grateful Dead, p. 124.

^{page 294 note 25} Laura Gonzenbach, Sicilianische Märchen, 1870, no. 74, ii, pp. 96 ff.

^{page 294 note 26} Pitrè, Novelle Popolari Toscani, 1885, no. 17, pp. 115 ff.

^{page 294 note 27} Cf. Köhler, Kleinere Schriften, I, pp. 192-3.

^{page 294 note 28} Grimm 129.

^{page 294 note 29} Wratislaw 9.

^{page 294 note 30} Pineau, Rev. des Trad. Pop., xii, pp. 201 ff.

^{page 294 note 31} Pio, tale 3 of The Golden Casket.

^{page 294 note 32} Groome, Gypsy Folk-Tales, 1899, pp. 41 ff.

^{page 294 note 33} Without attempting to go into the question I give an interesting comment by Groome on this tale: “Dr. Barbu Constantinescu's ‘Two Thieves’ is so curious a combination of the ‘Rhampsinitus’ story in Herodotus and of Grimm's Master Thief, that I am more than inclined to regard it as the lost original which, according to Campbell of Islay, ‘it were vain to look for in any modern work or in any modern age.‘” (Work cited, p. 52.)

^{page 294 note 34} Knowles, Folk-Tales of Kashmir, 1893, pp. 110 ff.

^{page 294 note 35} As in Grimm 192, Cosquin, Contes pop. de Lorraine, ii, pp. 271 ff., and other cases. See Köhler, Kleinere Schriften, i, pp. 255 ff.

^{page 294 note 36} See a short treatment by W. R. S. Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales 1873, pp. 231 ff.

^{page 294 note 37} Tr. Henry, Rev. des Trad. Pop., I, p. 371.

^{page 294 note 38} Tr. Benfey, Kleinere Schriften, ii, iii, p. 98.

^{page 294 note 39} Tr. Barker, Baitāl Pachīsī, p. 162.

^{page 294 note 40} Tr. for J. Debrett, pp. 51 ff. See p. 268 above.

^{page 294 note 41} Tr. Waters, p. 73.

^{page 294 note 42} Hieronymi Morlini, Parthenopei, Novellae, etc., 1855, p. 155.

^{page 294 note 43} Sébillot, p. 59.

^{page 294 note 44} As in Meyer, p. 121, an Albanian Rescue story, and Jones-Kropf, p. 156, a Magyar Gifts story. In the latter “all the learned and old people of the realm” are called together.

^{page 294 note 45} Jagié, Arch. f. Slav. Phil., v, p. 37.

^{page 294 note 46} Naaké, p. 206.

^{page 294 note 47} Luzel, pp. 324 ff.

^{page 294 note 48} See Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc., xxxii, p. 499.

^{page 294 note 49} Barker, Baitāl Pachīsī, p. 162.

^{page 294 note 50} The Mahābharata in English, translated by Pratāpa Chandra Rāy, Calcutta, 1889—. Adi Parva, Section cxii, pp. 332 ff. In spite of the obvious shortcomings of this translation due to somewhat infelicitous use of English idiom I must use it for lack of a better.

^{page 294 note 51} The resemblance is especially striking when feats of strength or skill are performed at the svayamvara, as sometimes happens. (See account of Draupadi's Svayamvara, Mahābharata, tr. Rāy, Adi Parva, section clxxxvii, pp. 524 ff.) There are stories of mediæval tournaments which have almost all the features of the Oriental svayamvara. In Ipomedon, for example, the daughter of the Duke of Calabria, when she is besought by her barons to take a husband, requests that a three days' tournament be announced for her hand, expecting Ipomedon to win her. (Ed. Kölbing and Koschwitz, 1889, ll. 2515-52, p. 43.) Instances from romances might be multiplied beyond necessity. Sir Triamour, Sir Gowther, Le Bone Florence de Rome, Parthenope of Blois, and Sir Degravant all furnish instances of jousts where the fair lady is the prize.

^{page 294 note 52} Friedrich S. Krauss, Das Geschlechtleben des Ukrainischen Bauernvolkes, 1909, Teil I, pp. 248 ff., Das hoffnungsvolle, sündige Fleisch.

^{page 294 note 53} See p. 312 above.

^{page 294 note 54} See p. 285 above.

^{page 294 note 55} Grundtvig 17; Krauss 32 and 33; Jagić 46.

^{page 294 note 56} Mijatovies-Denton, p. 230.

^{page 294 note 57} Caballero-Ingram, p. 22.

^{page 294 note 58} See The Jātaka, tr. H. T. Francis, 1905, no. 536, v, pp. 226 ff.

^{page 322 note 1} The Fowls in Chaucer's Parlement, University of Wisconsin Studies in Language and Literature, no. 2 (1918), pp. 341 ff.

^{page 322 note 2} This is also true of the redaction of the Vetāla story in the Kathā-Sarit-Sāgara.

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