Summary “Love for Three Oranges” Gozzi


At King Tref, Silvio, his only son and heir, the prince of Tartaglia, suddenly becomes very ill. The king is constantly in a state of agitation and oppression. The best doctors of the state invited by the king diagnosed him with the “deepest hypochondria” and unanimously admitted that he could not help him. The only way to restore Tartaglia health and vivacity is to make him laugh.

A friend and companion of the king, Pantalone, offers Silvio several ways to heal the sick: first you need to arrange a fun game in the palace, accompanied by a masquerade and all sorts of bacchanalias. Then he invited the master to laugh at the prince, Truffaldino, who had recently arrived in the city. The King seems to be reasonable about the offer of Pantalone and he instructs Knave Tref Leandro to arrange a feast. Leandro tried to dissuade the king, believing that loud music and crowded people would only worsen the state of Tartaglia, but the king insists that the first minister execute

the order.

Leandro persuaded the king not because of compassion for his son. He had long been in contact with the niece of Silvio, Princess Clarice. Insidious lovers decided to remove from their path the only heir to the throne and after Silvio died, to rise to the head of state. Leandro and Clarice enlisted the support of the fairy Morgana, who miscalculated, putting a large sum of money on the portrait of the king. She promises to be present at the feast and, letting the spells, prevent the improvement of the state of Tartaglia.

The master of laughter Truffaldino, sent by the magician Celio, struggles, trying to make Tartal laugh. Magician Celio loved the king and hated Leandro because of the same game on which the fairy miscalculated and he won. All the fun causes the prince tears and he asks to go to his room. In the crowd appears Fairy Morgan, taking the form of an ugly old woman. Truffaldino, barely seeing her, pushes her and showeres him with a stream of curses. The old woman ridiculously lifts her feet to the ground, falling to the ground. Seeing this scene, Tartaglia finally laughs and immediately

recovers. Morgana is furious. As soon as she has risen, she enchants the prince with a terrible thing-makes him crave three oranges.

The obsessed Tartaglia orders Truffaldino to immediately assemble and accompany him while he searches for the three oranges from the fairy tale that grow on the branches of the tree of the magical giantess Creon, whose possessions are two thousand miles from the city. Truffaldino has nothing left to do but follow the prince. He puts on armor, boots in iron shoes and takes a sword with him. King Silvio can not keep his son from taking a risky expedition and is deprived of the senses from the realization of his helplessness. Two people leave the city. Clarice and Leandro triumph, and along with them their accomplice Brighella, a servant at the palace, who hopes after the death of the prince to implant his order in the palace.

Quickly get to the giantess help them devil, who all the way inflated his furs and sent the wind into the backs of travelers. The devil disappears only when they are at the target. Entrance to the possessions of the giantess is blocked by the magician Celio. At first he tries to dissuade the prince and his servant from carrying out his plans. Seeing that the words are powerless, the mage gives them a detailed instruction on how to avoid the magic of the giantess and gives them the tools necessary for this.

Tartaglia from Truffaldino approached the gate of the castle where Creonte lives. To open the Gate, they smear it with a magic ointment. The road opens. Hardly having gone inside, as on them the terrible Dog rushes. He is thrown bread, and he is distracted by food. Truffaldino fulfills the punishment of the magician: he takes out the Rope from the well, he puts it to dry in the sun, then gives a broom to Pekarke. While his servant is busy with all these preparations, Tartaglia manages to steal from the castle three huge oranges. As soon as he touched the fruit, the sun faded, and the earth was shaken by the terrible roar of Creon. She called her servants to kill the brazen newcomers. But all the servants, as one, refuse to obey the giantess: she forced Pekarka to spoil her breast, sweeping the oven for her, Rope nearly rotted in the well, the Dog was tormented by hunger, and the Gate rusted softly. Nobody wanted to kill their saviors.

Tartaglia and Truffaldino escape their castle of the giantess, while she desperately calls for thunder and lightning. Nature heard her request: the sky opens and lightning incinerates Creon. The fairy Morgana learns that Tartaglia and Truffaldino safely escaped the terrible death at the hands of Creon, stocked with oranges and now move back to the castle, and they are driven by the furs of the devil. But Morgana is not going to give up: she still has something hidden in her sleeve. On the way home Truffaldino overtakes his master, and sits down to rest and wait until the prince overtakes him. Stopping, Truffaldino is thirsty. To quench it, he cuts one orange. A girl comes out of it and says that she is exhausted from thirst, then loses consciousness. To save her, Truffaldino cuts the second orange, from it appears another girl, who also complains about her suffering and falls next to the first. Both die. Truffaldino did not have time to cut the third orange only thanks to the arrival of Tartaglia. The prince himself cuts an orange and releases a third girl, who also prays for water. The prince saw what Truffaldino had not noticed: the lake was not far off. He fills his iron shoe with water and lifts him hungry. Having drunk, the girl is represented by Ninetta and tells that the evil Creonta imprisoned her and her sisters in oranges. All three girls were the daughters of the King of Antipodes. Tartaglia falls in love with Ninnett and wants to take her with him to the palace to present her there to her father as her bride. But she refuses to appear in the palace until she looks like a princess. Tartaglia takes care of the girl’s requests and leaves her to wait by the lake,

Left alone, Ninett gets acquainted with the Smeraldina arapka. Servant of Moran holds two studs, given to her by a fairy. The first one was ordered to put a girl in her hair – then she turned to the bird. Then pretend to be Ninett until she marries Tartil and marries him alone on her wedding night: then she will need to stick a second hairpin into her husband’s head so that he turns into a wild beast. Then the path to the throne would be free for the villains Leandro and Clarice. Smeraldina sticks a hairpin into Ninett’s hair, she turns into a Dove and flies away, and Smeraldina takes her place.

Come Tartaglia and Silvio, surrounded by hundreds of subjects. Tartaglia is embarrassed by the change in the bride, but does not say anything to her. Wedding orders begin.

The Prince forgives Truffaldino of all his sins and honors him with the title of a royal cook. The servant immediately begins to prepare the roast for the wedding. Here Golubka flies into the kitchen and hears Truffaldino. When the unlucky cook wakes up, his roast has already completely burned down. The situation is repeated several times, until an angry Pantalone comes to the rescue and does not catch the Dove. Taking a hairpin from her head, he is amazed at how the bird turned into Ninett. The feasts have long since destroyed everything that was on the table, and come to the indignation why they do not take the roast so long. All present, together with the king, go into the kitchen, where they are met by Ninett. The girl tells about what Smeraldin did, and the king orders to burn the arap. Immediately appears the magician Celio, who denounces the acts of Clarice, Leandro and Brighella,

After the triumph of justice took place, Tartaglia and Ninett are finally reunited. Feast and fun went on in a big way: guests poured tobacco into each other’s wine, shaved rats and allowed them to run around the table. In short, the fun was a success.


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Summary “Love for Three Oranges” Gozzi