[This way of introducing the box incident is more like Straparola’s, and again connects this group with the former one in which I have had occasion to mention it.]
[2] This is one of the very rare instances in which the Devil appears in Roman stories in this kind of character, so common in Northern popular tales. [↑]
[3] ‘Colle gioie compagne.’ [↑]
[6] A ‘buon carnevale’ chiefly implies the wish that the person to whom it is addressed should have good success with partners at the balls, &c. [↑]
[7] A ‘festino’ is the common name for a public masqued ball commencing at midnight. There are three principal ones in the Roman Carneval; in other parts of Italy, where the Carneval is longer, there are probably more. It is also called ‘Veglione,’ because it keeps people awake at a time when they ought to be in bed. [↑]
[8] ‘How quick princes always were in falling in love in those days!’ was the running comment of the narrator. [↑]