Summary “The King of the Deer” Gozzi
There was such a city in the world Serendipp. And once passed by the great magician Durandarte. He went into the city to rest his feet, and the ruler of this city, Deramo, welcomed the traveler at his palace, fed him and gave him drink, delighted his hearing with wonderful music, for which he was rewarded with two miraculous sorcerer secrets. Once, despite his power, Durandarte could not cope with the god fairy Demogorgon, and he turned it into a Parrot. The faithful servant of Durandarte, Chigolotti, carried him to the Ronchislap forest, which was not far from Serendippe. There Durandarte promised to return to punish a traitor who was horribly treated with one of his magic gifts.
The ruler of Serendippe Deramo was single. Once upon a time, long ago, he gathered in his office two thousand seven hundred and forty-eight princesses and girls from noble families, hoping to find among them one that would be nice to his heart. But such among them was not. After the insidious first Minister
Angela also extinguishes at this test: she is afraid that if the king rejects her love (which she is sure of), she will be disgraced and humiliated until the end of her days. Her father, Pantalone, would like to save his
The statue giggles all over, barely seeing Smeraldin. She played a whole play, trying to please Deramo: she deliberately falls into a swoon from too much emotion. They endure it. The king is surprised that while he was talking with Angela, the statue did not move. He is touched by her sincere love and publicly announces that he has found the bride, holding Angela by the hand. So that no one has any questions about how he chose girls, he shows everyone a statue, a gift from Durandarte, and then breaks it up with his own hands, so that no one is tempted to take advantage of it.
Pantalone is grateful to Deramo for the honor that fell to their daughter’s share. Tartaglia depicts himself as a joyful servant, feeling the rage and anger burning him from the inside. Arriving home, Tartaglia scolds Clarice for telling her about her love for Leandro, and because of this childish tyranny he failed to become a father-in-law of the king. Silently Tartaglia laments that dreams of Angel can now also be buried. But still the insidious minister hopes that not all is over, and persuades Angela and Leandro to wait with the wedding.
After Deramo and Angela got engaged, the king arranges a holiday in the Ronchislap forest, inviting everyone to hunt. There, in the woods, everyone is dispersed and the king is alone with Tartaglia, who only waited for the chance to kill the king, by force to seize power and take his wife to Angela. Only by chance he does not shoot at Deramo when he turns away. The keen mind of the king immediately notices that the minister is in a very bad mood, and directly asks him what happened. He pretending to be a faithful and loving servant, begins to lament that in thirty years of faithful service the king does not trust him as a friend: he did not even consider it necessary to tell him about the wonderful gift of Durandarte.
The touched Deramo wants to console the minister, and tells him about the second gift – a hellish spell. The essence of it is that if you bring the right words over the corpse of a person or an animal, the pronouncer of the spell dies, and his spirit moves into a dead body. This spell works in both directions – with it you can move back and forth. Tartaglia heartily thanks the king, already building a cunning plan in his head. When Deramo in front of Tartaglia kills two deer, the minister asks the king to demonstrate the curse. Deramo agrees, pronounces the right words and, behold, he is no longer a king, but a deer, and runs off into the forest. Tartaglia, without wasting time, repeats the curse over the body of the king, and settles into his body. After that he chop off his head and throw it into the bushes, and for the deer into which the monarch has moved, he lets the hunters. Along the way, he meets an old peasant. He, having said that he had not seen any deer, gets a bullet in the forehead and immediately dies. The courtiers are struck by the sudden change in the behavior of the king. They are surprised how evil and rude he has become, but they have nothing to show him.
Tartaglia brings Angela to tears when she starts rudely soliciting her. She does not recognize her former husband and sends him out. Tartaglia is somewhat upset, but does not lose hope that sooner or later it will surrender. After some time, Truffaldino finds the decapitated body of the minister in the forest, and brings to the palace the news of the murder of the king’s minion. Taking the opportunity, Tartaglia decides to feel his power and strength: he throws everyone who participated in the hunt into prison. In addition to the corpse of the minister, Truffaldino finds in the forest the speaker of Parrot, the one in which Durandarte was once converted by the god of fairies. He himself trusted the hunter and asked him to take him to the queen – they say, she will be delighted with such a magical gift and will truffle Truffaldino. Deramo, turning into a deer, barely escapes from the hunters, and goes to the old man murdered by Tartaglia.
Truffaldino brings Parrot to the queen, but she is not in the mood to play with an outlandish toy, and sends the hunter out. Then he begins to persuade her to take the bird. Angela is angry and threatens to throw him out the window. A dispute begins, and then a guard appears, who executed the order of Tartaglia and dragged Truffaldino behind bars. All the same peasant-Deramo manages to penetrate into his palace. There, finding his wife, he explained with her. At first, Angela is terrified, but then she listens to the old man and distinguishes the voice of her beloved husband. She notices that the peasant is talking loftily and beautifully, as Deramo once said. After the old man tells her about the morning conversation between them, which only they could know together, Angela’s doubts completely disappear. Then unfortunate spouses start to think,
Angela hints to the minister that she is about to surrender to him and give in to him her caresses, if only he will fulfill her request. Tartaglia is ready for everything: he lets out Pantalone and Brighella from prison, who has undeservedly locked up there, blesses Clarice and Leandro, who could no longer wait until they were allowed to marry. The third request of Angela, he leaves for later – first the queen must surrender to him. Angela and Deramo did not foresee such a turn; the girl starts to resist, Tartaglia roughly grabs her and drags her to her bedchamber.
Unable to allow such a tragedy to happen, Deramo leaves his refuge and rushes to Tartaglia. The fight is tied, and Tartaglia is already preparing to slaughter the king, as the earthquake begins – this Durandarte turns back into a man. The Sorcerer returns to Deramo his former body, and Tartaglio makes an ugly horned beast. In desperation, the traitor is praying and dying, but Durandante solemnly declares that he will not die from bullets, but from shame and shame. People for a long time were in a daze, becoming witnesses of the wonderful transformations of Durandarte. It’s time to start a merry wedding feast, when a traitor was exposed, and good triumphs.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)