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62
AUCASSIN AND NICOLETTE
"Go to, fool! What dost thou there?"
Quoth the king: "A son I bear.
Soon as is my month fulfilled,
And I am quite whole and healed,
Then shall I the mass go hear,
As my ancestor did ere,
And my great war to maintain
'Gainst mine enemies again.
I will not leave it!"[1]
Here they speak and tell the story.
When Aucassin heard the king speak thus, he took all the clothes which were on him, and flung them down the room. He saw behind him a stick. He took it, and turned and struck him, and beat him so that he was like to have killed him.
- ↑ The custom of a husband taking to his bed when his wife has borne a child is a curious superstition well-known to ethnologists and folk-lore students. The convenient name of Couvade, though originally applied to this custom by a mistake, has now become recognised, and it seems best to retain it.
