Disciplina Clericalis/Tale 9/Tale A
The King and His Jester
A discyple was somtyme whiche toke his playsyre to reherce and telle many fables, the whiche prayd to his mayster that he wold reherce vnto hym a long fable. To whome the mayster ansuerd: "Kepe and beware wel that hit happe not to vs as it happed to a kynge and to his fabulatour." And the discyple ansuerd: "My mayster, I pray the to telle to me how it befelle." And thenne the mayster sayd to his discyple:[1] "Somtyme was a kynge whiche hadde a fabulatour, the whiche reherced to hym at euery tyme that he wold sleep fyue fables for to reioysshe the kynge and for to make hym falle in to a slepe. It bifelle thenne on a daye that the kynge was moche sorowful and so heuy that he coude in no wyse falle a slepe. And after that the sayd fabulator had told and reherced (f. 128b) his fyue fables the kynge desyred to here more. And thenne the sayd fabulatour recyted vnto hym thre fables wel shorte. And the kynge thenne sayd to hym: 'I wold fayne here one wel longe, and thenne shalle I leue wel the slepe.' The fabulatour thenne reherced vnto hym suche a fable: Of a ryche man whiche wente to the market or feyre for to bye sheep; the whiche man bought a thowsand sheep. And as he was retornynge fro the feyre, he cam vnto a ryuer, and bycause of the grete wawes[2] of the water he coude nat passe ouer the brydge. Neuertheles he went soo longe to and fro on the ryuage of the sayd ryuer, that at the last he fonde a narowe way[3] vpon the whiche myght passe scant ynough thre sheep attones. And thus he passed and had them ouer one after another. And hyderto reherced of this fable[4] the fabulatour felle on slepe. And anon after the kynge awoke the fabulatour and sayd to hym in this manere: 'I pray the that thow wylt make an ende of thy fable.' And the fabulatour ansuerd to hym in this manere: 'Syre, this ryuer is ryght grete and the ship is lytyll,[5] wherfore late the marzhaunt doo passe ouer his sheep; and after I shalle make an ende of my fable.' And thenne was the kynge wel appeased and pacyfyed.
And therfore be thow (f. 129) content of that I have reherced vnto the. For there is folke so[6] superstycious or capaxe that they may not be contented with fewe wordes."[7]
The disciple said: "It is recorded in ancient proverbs that he who grieves because of his possessions does not suffer as severely as he who is afflicted with pains of his body. And the story teller did not love his king as much as thou lovest me, for he only wished to divert the king's mind a little with stories, which was not thy intention with me at all. I pray thee, therefore, instruct me further, if thou wih, concerning the resourcefulness of women." The master replied :
- ↑ Jacobs reads 'descyple.'
- ↑ Jacobs reads 'waiues.'
- ↑ Lat. (I, 16, l. 19) exiguam naviculam.
- ↑ Lat. His dictis fabulator obdormivit.
- ↑ Jacobs 'lytyl.'
- ↑ Jacobs omits 'so.'
- ↑ There is no punctuation in Caxton's text except vertical lines at the ends of sentences. I have also normalized the capitalization, otherwise no changes are made. Caxton's last two sentences—which are in reality a translation of Steinhöwel—are quite different from the Latin (cf. I, 16, l. 26): Quodsi amplius me praedictis etiam subtexere alia compuleris, iam dicti praesidio exempli me deliberare conabor. And there is nothing in Caxton which corresponds to the latter part of the connecting dialogue between Nos. XII and XIII of the Latin version.