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Dov'eri 'ersera a cena Caro mio figlio, savio e gentil? Mi fai morire Ohimè! Dov'eri 'ersera a cena Gentile mio cavalier?— Ero dalla mia dama; Mio core stà male, Che male mi stà! Ero dalla mia dama; 'L mio core che se ne và.— Che ti diènno da cena, Caro mio figlio, savio e gentil? Mi fai morire, Ohimè! Che ti diènno da cena, Gentile mio cavalier?— Un anguilletta arrosto, Cara mia madre; Mio core stà male, Che male mi stà! Un anguilletta arrosto, 'L mio core che se ne và. |
Other versions of the same poem occur in the dialects of Venice, Como and Lecco with such variations as prove them all to be the offshoots from some original now lost in great antiquity. That it existed and was famous so far back as the middle of the seventeenth century, is proved by an allusion in the Cicalata in lode della Padella e della Frittura, recited before the Accademia della Crusca by Lorenzo Panciatichi in 1656.[352] A few lines are also quoted in the incatenatura of the Cieco Fiorentino, published at Verona in 1629.[353] Any one who is familiar with our Border Minstrelsy will perceive at once that this is only an Italian version of the Ballad of Lord Donald or Lord Randal.[354] The identity between the two is rendered still more striking by an analysis of the several Lombard versions. In that of Como, for example, the young man makes his will; and this is the last verse[355]:
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Cossa lassè alla vostra dama, Figliuol mio caro, fiorito e gentil, Cossa lassè alla vostra dama? La fôrca da impiccarla, Signora mama, mio cor sta mal! La fôrca da impiccarla: Ohimè, ch'io moro, ohimè! |
The same version furnishes the episode of the poisoned hounds[356]:
It is worth mentioning that the same Ballad belongs under slightly different forms to the Germans, Swedes, and other nations of the Teutonic stock; but so far as I have yet been able to discover, it remains the sole instance of that species of popular literature in Italy.[357] The phenomenon is singular, and though conjectures may be hazarded in explanation, it is impossible, until further researches for parallel examples have been made, to advance a theory of how this Ballad penetrated so far south as Tuscany.