“First Night, Fourth Fable.” The Nights of Straparola, Straparola, Giovanni Francesco, translated by Waters, W.G. (William George), London: Lawrence and Bullen, 1894, pp. 35-38.

Tale Summary

Tebaldo, Prince of Salermo, has a beautiful and wise wife who dies and instructs him not to marry someone whose finger does not fit her own ring. After sending home every woman who courted him, his own daughter, Doralice, finds the ring to fit her perfectly, and Tebaldo becomes taken with the idea of wedding her. Upon hearing this, Doralice seeks the advice of her maid, who promises to keep her virginity safe. She instructs the daughter to hide in a wardrobe until a better fate befalls her, and after a long time of asking for her whereabouts, the prince eventually has the wardrobe sold. The maid watches as a rich dealer from Genoa loads the item onto his ship, and thinks to herself that when faced with two evils it is best to choose the lesser. Arriving in Britain (England), king Genese demands that the merchant sell the chest to him. Every day Doralice emerged from the chest to make the king’s room neat, and Genese hides to spy who was cleaning and sprucing. Catching her and hearing her story, the king falls in love and marries her, having with her 2 children. Tebaldo, meanwhile still obsessed with his daughter, dressed as a merchant and tracks her down. She does not recognize him but is overcome with his offerings, which he says he will give to her if he may spend one night in the room where her children slept. That night, he kills the two of them with a dagger that the queen wears, having stolen it from her in her sleep. Now dressing as an astrologer, Tebaldo tells the king that someone wearing a bloody dagger is the culprit, leading him to his wife, and Genese commands that Doralice be buried up to her chin for the worms to eat her. Tebaldo returns home and brags of his accomplishment to the maid, who rides the next day to England in order to save Doralice with the truth. Upon hearing her story, Genese digs up his wife and musters troops to capture Salermo and its prince. Tebaldo is publicly tortured and eaten by dogs, and Genese and Doralice live together happily.