“‘It shall be so anon for ye both,’ replied the favourite of Fortune; ‘only take these flowers and guard them well.’
“Si, Signore, they sat down on the bench three beggars, and they rose three fine cavaliers, in velvet and satin, with gold-mounted swords, and found their horses and attendants waiting. And when they got home, they did not know their wives or children, nor were they known unto them, and it was an hour before all was got right. Then all went with them as if it were oiled. The first man found a great treasure the very first day in his cellar—in fine, they all grew rich, and the three sons married the three girls, and they all put the three wheels on their scudi. One of the wheels is the ball on which Fortune rolled along, and the other two are her feet; or else the three men each took a wheel to himself. Anyhow, there they are, pick and choose, Signore—chi ha piú cervello, l’usi!—let him who has brains, brain!
“Now, it is a saying that ogni fior non fa frutto—every blossom doth not bear a fruit—but the flowers of Fortune bear fruit enough to make up for the short crop elsewhere.
“But there is some sense and use in such stories as these, Signore, after all; for a poor devil who half believes—and very often quite believes in them—gets a great deal of hope and comfort out of them. They make him trust that luck or fairies or something will give him a good turn yet some day—chi sa?—and so he hopes, and truly, as they say that no pretty girl is ever quite poor, so no man who hopes is ever really broken—grazie, Signore! I hope to tell you another story before long.”
There is something in the making Fortune with two heels for feet which suggests a memory of skate-rollers.
I once published an article in the Ethnologische Monatsheft of Budapest, which set forth more fully the idea expressed in this tale, that the popular or fairy tale is a source of comfort, or a Bible to the poor, for it always teaches the frequently delusive, but always cheering lesson that good-luck or fortune may turn up some day, even for the most unfortunate. The Scripture promises happiness for the poorest, or indeed specially for the poorest in the next life; the fairy tale teaches that Cinderella, the despised, and the youngest, humblest of the three, will win fortune while here on earth. It inspires hope, which is a great secret of happiness and success.
To which the learned Flaxius annotates:
“It hath escaped the author—as it hath indeed all mankind—that as the first syllable of Fortuna is fort (Latin fortis), so the true beginning of luck is strength; and if we are to understand by una, ‘one’ or ‘only,’ we may even believe that the name means strength alone or vigorous will, in accordance with which the ancients declared that ‘Fortune favours the bold,’ and also Fortuna contentionis studiosa est—‘Fortune delights in strife.’ Therefore she is ever fleeting in this world. Fortuna simul cum moribus immutatur, as Boethius hath it.”
THE STORY OF THE UNFINISHED PALACE
a legend of the via del proconsolo
“‘Yes, you have cheated me,’ howled the devil to the architect. ‘But I lay a curse upon your work. It shall never be finished.’”—Snow and Planche’s “Legends of the Rhine.”