De mulierum subtili decepcione


De mulierum subtili decepcione is a story found in the Gesta Romanorum, a medieval Latin compilation of exempla and tales. It is also known as Darius and his Three Sons.
In Hermann Oesterley's edition of the Gesta Romanorum, this tale appears as chapter 120.

Summary

Summarising the version of the story translated from the manuscript London, British Library, MS Harley 219 of the Latin Gesta Romanorum by Thomas Hoccleve, Sebastian Sobecki writes:
The narrative is a moralizing coming-of-age tale in which Jonathas, the youngest son of the emperor, receives three talismans, a ring, a brooch, and a magic carpet. He then attends university and falls in love with the prostitute Fellicula, who on three separate occasions cheats him of one of these three items, each time forcing Jonathas to return to his mother, who admonishes him with a variant of the same life lesson. When Fellicula has obtained all three enchanted items, she leaves Jonathas behind in a distant country, after which she is stricken with sickness. Abandoned at the far end of the world, Jonathas makes his way back, acquiring along the way both poisons and the means to heal Fellicula. Once he has returned, he pretends to heal her, but instead gives her the poisonous items that cause Fellicula to die a gruesome death.

Influence

The story was influential in medieval Europe. It was translated into a Middle English prose version, surviving in the following manuscripts:
  • London, British Library, Additional MS 9066
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This Middle English prose translation was itself translated into Icelandic as Jónatas ævintýri, probably in 1429–34. Jónatas ævintýri was a source for the Icelandic Viktors saga ok Blávus, which in turn lent Jónatas-material to Sigrgarðs saga frœkna.
A separate translation from Latin into Middle English was undertaken by Thomas Hoccleve, as the fifth and final section of the work known as his Series. This is a 672-line Middle English verse rendition. The copy of the Latin Gesta Romanorum used by Hoccleve for this purpose was identified in 2023 as London, British Library, MS Harley 219. Hoccleve's poem was later incorporated into William Browne's 1614 poem The Shepheards Pipe.

Editions and translations

Latin text

  • See Gesta Romanorum.

    Middle English prose translation

  • Gesta Romanorum, ed. by Sidney J. H. Herrtage, Early English Text Society, extra series, 33, pp. .

    Hoccleve's ''Tale of Jonathas''

  • , in Hoccleve's Works: The Minor Poems, in the Huntington Library Ms. HM 111, the Durham Univ. Ms. Cosin V.III.9, and Huntington Library Ms. HM 744 '', vol. 1 ed. by Frederick J. Furnivall, vol. 2 ed. by I. Gollancz, rev. edn by Jerome Mitchell and A. I. Doyle, Early English Text Society, Extra Series, 61, 73, I 219–42.

  • Icelandic translation

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