The PadlockCanepa, Nancy. Giambattista Basile's The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2007. pp. 199-212. (Italian: Lo catenaccio) is a literary fairy tale written by the Italian poet Giambattista Basile in the Pentamerone, as the ninth story of the second day. It is considered to be one of two rewritings of the Graeco-Roman myth of "Cupid and Psyche" by Basile, the other being "Lo turzo d'oro".

In spite of its origins as a literary tale, it is related to the international cycle of Animal as Bridegroom or The Search for the Lost Husband, in that a human girl marries a supernatural or enchanted husband, loses him and must search for him. Similar stories have been collected from oral tradition across the Mediterranean, in Italy, Greece and Spain, and nearby countries.

Summary

A woman lives in poverty with her three daughters. One day, she sends her daughters to fetch water for them, but her elders try to make the other go in their place. Luciella, the youngest, takes the jug and goes to fetch water herself. At the fountain, she meets a "handsome slave", who makes a proposition for her: if she comes to live with him in a nearby cave, the man will wash her in pretty things.

Luciella agrees to his offer, but goes back home to deliver the water to her mother. The girl then accompanies the slave to a nearby cave: inside, an underground palace, filled with gold. She sleeps in an ornate bed, and, after the candles are put out, someone joins her in bed. This continues on for some days.

One day, Luciella begins to miss home, and the slave agrees to let her pay a visit to her relatives, but bids her not to tell anything about her new life. The girl obeys at first: she visits her family, but remains steadfast to her mother and sisters' questions and goes back to the underground palace. She visits them time and time again, jealousy creeping even greater in their hearts. The fourth time, Luciella's mother and sisters tell her her mysterious bedmate must be a handsome man with a padlock on his body, and convince her to light a candle to check on this padlock.

Moved by her family's words, Luciella returns home and retires to the bedchambers that same night. She is given a sleeping draught, but tosses its contents away and pretends to fall asleep. While her bedmate is asleep, she lights a candle and confirms her family's story: her companion is a handsome youth, and there is a padlock on him. Luciella opens it and sees some women with skeins, one dropping one of the skeins. Luciella, kind that she was, shouts out for the woman to get the skein she dropped, but her voice wakes up the companion at her bedside. Feeling betrayed, the youth commands some female slaves to dress Luciella in rags and to throw her out of the palace and into the woods.

Heavily pregnant and abandoned by her husband, Luciella wanders to the city of Torre-Longa, where she takes shelter with the local queen and gives birth to a beautiful baby in the stables. That same night, a man comes at night and rocks the baby with a song, saying that, if the crows never crowed, he would stay by his son's side. However, as soon as morning comes, the rooster crows and the youth disappears. This goes on for some more days, until the queen's maid witnesses the event and reports to the queen the finding. The queen issues an edict for all roosters to be killed around the city, following the youth's instructions. The next time, the youth appears again, but, this time, the rooster does not crow. The queen embraces the youth, who she recognizes as her son, and breaks his curse. Luciella regains her husband, and the queen is happy she gained a grandson and her son back.Basile, Giambattista, Burton, Richard, sir. Il pentamerone : or, The tale of tales. New York: H. Liveright, 1927. pp. 174-178.

Analysis Tale type Scholars have called attention to structural similarities between the tale and the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche, as related by Apuleius in the 2nd century AD. In fact, The Padlock is considered to be one of Basile's renditions of the myth, the other being Lo turzo d'oro ("The Golden Root", tale type ATU 425B, "The Son of the Witch").Maggi, Armando. Preserving the Spell: Basile's "The Tale of Tales" and Its Afterlife in the Fairy-Tale Tradition. The University of Chicago Press, 2015. p. 34. . On the other hand, scholars like Richard McGillivray Dawkins and Nancy Canepa suggest that Basile's tale originated from the Mediterranean, instead of being a literary work.

Philologist classified the tale as Italian type 425, Lo sposo scomparso ("The Lost Husband").D'aronco, Gianfranco "Le fiabe di magia in Italia: memoria". In: Atti dell'Accademia di scienze lettere e arti di Udine, serie 6, v. 14 (1954/1957). p. 92. The Italian type corresponds, in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, to type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband". The second revision of the index, made in 1961 by scholar Stith Thompson, referred to the tale as "Pentamerone II, No. 9" and listed it under subtypes 425E and 425L.Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. pp. 143, 144. Renato Aprile, editor of the Italian Catalogue of Tales of Magic, sourced the tale from Campania and classified it as part of the "Amor e Psiche" cycle (type 425), as subtypes 425E(L).

ATU 425E Nancy Canepa indexes it as subtype ATU 425E, "Enchanted Husband Sings Lullaby". In this type, the heroine's husband has a padlock on his body; after she betrays his trust, she is expelled and takes shelter in a castle where she gives birth to their child; at night her husband comes to lull the baby with a song in which there are instructions on how to save him.Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. p. 143.

According to Jan-Öjvind Swahn and Hans-Jörg Uther, Lo Catenaccio is the oldest example of type ATU 425E.Swahn, Jan Öjvind. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche. Lund, C.W.K. Gleerup. 1955. p. 318.

AaTh 425L The tale could also be classified as type AaTh 425L, "The Padlock on the Enchanted Husband", or "The Husband with a Lock in his Navel", according to American folklorist D. L. Ashliman.Ashliman, D. L. A Guide to Folktales in the English Language: Based on the Aarne-Thompson Classification System. Bibliographies and Indexes in World Literature, vol. 11. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1987. p. 90. . In subtype AaTh 425L, the heroine discovers a padlock or keyhole on her husband's body; she opens it and sees strange sights within; her scream alerts the enchanted husband, who expels his (pregnant) wife.Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. p. 144. However, German folklorist Hans-Jörg Uther, in his 2004 revision of the international index, subsumed type AaTh 425L under new type ATU 425E.

Motifs Scholar , in his monograph about Cupid and Psyche, remarked that the heroine's pregnancy was an "essential" trait of subtype AaTh 425L.Swahn, Jan Öjvind. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche. Lund, C.W.K. Gleerup. 1955. p. 244.

The prince's lullaby In his 1955 monograph, Swahn noted that the husband's lullaby to his child was "rather uniformly formed", containing instructions to extinguish "the cocks [galli] and the clocks [campane]". Similarly, according to Italian literary critic and Anna Buia, the prince's lullaby from Basile's tale is "preserved" in most of the subsequent variants, with explicit references to silencing the clocks and the roosters. In the same vein, professor Michael Merakles argued that the prince's lullaby "dissolved" in Greek variants, but its existence can be gleamed by fragmentary references present in the texts.Merakles, Michales G. Studien zum griechischen Märchen. Eingeleitet, übers, und bearb. von Walter Puchner. Raabser Märchen-Reihe, Bd. 9. Wien: Österr. Museum für Volkskunde, 1992. p. 106 and footnote nr. 292. .

The crowing of the rooster Although they acknowledged that the crowing of the rooster marks type AaTh 425E, Mario Lavagetto and Anna Buia, as well as folklorist Letterio Di Francia, remarked that the motif is "widespread" in Italian tradition.Di Francia, Letterio (Curatore). Fiabe e novelle calabresi. Prima e seconda parte. Torino: Giovanni Chiantore. 1935. p. 41. In this regard, German folklorist noted that the rooster's crowing in Basile's tale acquires a negative connotation, since it helps prolong the prince's enchantment, and only by having the roosters killed can he be saved in a more permanent manner. Similarly, according to Di Francia, there is a widespread belief across Italy that the rooster's crowing facilitates the action of supernatural beings, and spells can be broken only by ceasing their singing.Di Francia, Letterio (Curatore). Fiabe e novelle calabresi. Prima e seconda parte. Torino: Giovanni Chiantore. 1935. p. 76.

Variants Nancy Canepa locates similar stories in Turkey and Greece. Likewise, according to the Greek Folktale Catalogue, type 425E is "popular" in Turkey and Greece, while type 425L is known across the Greek Aegean Islands and in Asia Minor.Angelopoulou, Anna; Brouskou, Aígle. "ΚΑΤΑΛΟΓΟΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΩΝ ΠΑΡΑΜΥΘΙΩΝ". Vol. 3: ΕΠΕΞΕΡΓΑΣΙΑ ΤΥΠΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΠΑΡΑΛΛΑΓΩΝ AT 300-499. Athens: ΚΕΝΤΡΟ ΝΕΟΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΩΝ ΕΡΕΥΝΩΝ Ε.Ι.Ε, 1999. pp. 775, 779. . On the other hand, Swahn restricted the former subtype to Italy and Catalonia. In the same vein, Renato Aprile described subtype 425E as "almost exclusively" of Central and Southern Italian provenance, barring some Catalan texts.

Italy The "Istituto centrale per i beni sonori ed audiovisivi" ("Central Institute of Sound and Audiovisual Heritage") promoted research and registration throughout the Italian territory between the years 1968–1969 and 1972. In 1975 the Institute published a catalog edited by and Liliana Serafini reported 4 variants of subtype 425E, under the banner Il marito incantato canta la ninna nanna ("The Enchanted Husband Sings Lullaby"). They also reported a single variant of subtype 425L, Il lucchetto sul marito incantato, which they also classified as the former.

King Animmulu