[PW] [Publib] "the horse may talk"

[Dennis Lien]

At 06:46 PM 2/13/2007, you wrote:
>This is Stith-Thompson index number K551.11, "Ten (five) year respite
>given captive while he undertakes to teach elephant (ass) to speak.
>---- Captive explains to friends that in that time the captor, the
>elephant (ass), or himself is likely to die."
>
>It is a variation of M291: "Trickster undertakes impossible bargains
>and collects his part. ---- Trusts that in the year he is given either
>he or the other will die."

Also a variant of H1024.7.1 -- "Teaching the horse to speak"

The various Stith Thompson links led to versions from Italy, Spain,
Ceylon, and probably other places, but the earliest versions I
found those appear to be from 15th/16th C. Italian novelle, and
the very earliest may in Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459, but I
gather his FACETAIAE wasn't published until 1510):



Facetiae

http://www.ipa.net/~magreyn/poggio.htm#250

250 Facetum Hominis Dictum Asinum Erudire Promittentis
Tyrannus ad exhauriendum bona subditi, qui se multa facturum jactabat, sub 
gravi poena praecepit ut asinum litteras doceret. Ille impossibile ait 
fore, nisi multum temporis sibi in erudiendo asino concederetur; petere 
quantum vellet jussus, decennium impetravit. Deridebatur ab omnibus, 
quoniam rem impossibilem suscepisset. Ille amicos solatus: -- 'Nil timeo,' 
inquit; 'nam interim, aut ego moriar, aut asinus, aut Dominus.' Quibus 
verbis ostendit salutare esse rem difficilem in longum protrahi ac differri.

****************

I've got just enough Latin to identify the plot, but not enough to translate
(and I just realized that Babelfish doesn't offer Latin to English 
translation),
so I'll just leave the above in the decent obscurity of the original...


Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // d-lien at umn.edu