In the relatively liberal and tolerant pre-modern period, persons of different gender told each other riddles without fear. At the oracle of Delphi in ancient Greece, a priestess (Phythia) told riddles to men and women. In ancient Israel, the Queen of Sheba tested King Solomon with riddles. Gendered Anglo-Saxon riddles have survived from the seventh century. Early in the sixteenth century, a group of aristocratic Italian women and men gathered to share stories and riddles.[1] Some of their riddles provide important perspectives on gender, yet such riddles would be harshly repressed in many places today.
Consider a riddle that Lodovica shared with her friends:
Gentle dames, I go to find
a friend to me that’s cheer and kind,
and having found it, next I’m seen
to set it straight my knees between,
and then I rouse the life that dwells
within, and soon its virtue tells
as to and fro my hand I sway,
beneath my touch sweet ardors play —
delights which might a savage move,
and make you faint through too much love.{ Cortesi donne mie, vommi a trovare
L’amico che mi dà tanto diletto.
Ed ivi giunta, tosto me ’l fo dare,
E tra una coscia e l’altra me lo metto
Quella novella poi, che rallegrare
Tutte vi face, piglio; e inanzi e indietro
Menandola, ne manda un dolce fuore,
Che languire vi fan spesso d’amore. }[2]
Some of the women criticized Lodovica for her riddle. But they didn’t denounce her on Twitter, try to get her fired from her job, and urge that her bank account be frozen. Lodovica explained that critics of her riddle were projecting their own moral failings:
Those of you who have smutty and malign minds can only imagine things nasty and evil. It’s you who have judged my words to mean something entirely foreign to my own conception of them. This riddle of mine is intended simply to describe the viola da gamba. When a lady desires to play it and so give delight to her friends, she places it between her knees. Then, taking the bow in her right hand, she moves it to and fro so that she can draw forth from her instrument those sweet sounds that at times make us all languish in love.
{ Un mal disposto stomaco non getta fuori se non cose triste e cattive. Voi che avete il stomaco tutto disconcio, giudicate quello che non è l’intento mio. L’enimma adunque dimostra il violone, il quale la donna, per sonare e dar trastullo ad altrui, mette tra l’una coscia e l’altra; e preso il plettro con la destra mano, quello mena su e giù, onde ne uscisse un dolce suono, che d’amore fa tutti languire. }
No one should be criticized for recognizing and appreciating love.
Meninist literary critics have identified pervasive historical disparagement and brutalization of penises. Such scholars might study with suspicion Arianna’s riddle:
Rough, long, and round am I to sight,
yet ladies find in me delight.
They take me with a laughing face
and find for me a fitting place.
They handle me in knowing wise,
and put me where my business lies.
Next prick and pinch me, till I’m fain
to do their will once and again.
Now, ladies, if this thing you tell,
’tis plain to me you know it well.{ Grande e brutto son io, grosso e rotondo,
Ed a le donne do molto diletto.
Elle m’abbracian con viso giocondo,
E fra le coscie lor mi tengon stretto.
Elle pungonmi e danno, ed io secondo
Lor voglie star convengo al mio dispetto.
Donne, se questa cosa indovinate,
Dirò ben certo che sete fatate. }
Describing men as rough tends to associate them with beasts. Rough can even insinuate rape. Arianna, however, explained that her riddle describes a form upon which women place cloth to be embroidered.
A man with fine knowledge of literary history identified a possible anti-meninist dog-whistle in a riddle. Eritrea told the riddle:
I am supple, round, and white,
a good span’s length will gauge me right.
If ladies to their service bind me,
searching and alert they’ll find me.
Give me but place, and lend a hand,
I’ll enter and I’ll take my stand.
But touch me not, on mischief bent,
or dirty fingers you’ll lament.{ Bianca e tonda son’io, non molto dura;
Grossa, che la man m’empie, è cosa vera.
A le femine c’han grand’apertura,
Me le ficco nel corpo tutta intiera.
Minor a’ maschi fo di me misura,
E dentro a lor mi vò più assai leggiera.
E chi mi prende mi stringe pian piano,
Temendo d’inlordarsi al fin la mano. }
About what is her riddle?
“Your riddle, Lady Eritrea, can mean nothing other than giving a soul to the devil. But be careful that you don’t put the devil into Hell, because it may heat up,” said Bembo to her.
{ Il vostro enimma, signora Eritrea, altro non significa che dar l’anima al diavolo; ma vardate che non si metta il diavolo nell’inferno, perchè s’abbruscierà, disse il Bembo. }
Eritrea declared that her riddle had no such meaning. In other words, she wasn’t referring to a man’s penis as a devil that enters the gateway that nature made for procreation. Men’s penises in fact are not diabolic. According to Eritrea, her riddle concerned a tallow candle.
While gynocentric scholars have tended to marginalize concern about gynocentrism, one should recognize that a woman governed this group and that most of the story-tellers / riddlers were women. Consider the extent to which gynocentrism shaped Cateruzza’s riddle:
What thing is that we ladies prize?
Five fingers’ breadth will tell its size,
different fair nooks you find inside,
no outlet, though the gate is wide.
The first attempt will give us pain,
for free access is hard to gain.
But later it grows long and straight,
and large and small accommodates.{ Qual cosa è tra noi donne e damigelle,
Larga non più, nè men di cinque dita;
Dentro ritien diverse e vaghe celle.
Con buona entrata, ma priva d’uscita.
Al primo entrar vi fa guardar le stelle.
Per non trovarsi libera ispedita;
Ma poi vien lunga stretta, larga e tonda,
Quanto più e meno la grossezza abonda. }[3]
This riddle explicitly begins with women’s valuations — what ladies prize. Men hear women’s valuations repeatedly. Men’s internalization of women’s valuations historically led to sexual feudalism in which men were effectively serfs. Obscuring these systemic injustices, Cateruzza stated that her riddle was about a glove.
One must be attentive to men’s voices. The man Trevisan interrupted the stream of women’s voices using a woman’s voice:
Its length and breadth shall I disclose?
Upon my lap it nestles close.
I stroke it and I hold it tight —
till all around it gives delight.
Fair ladies, is it strange to you
it does its work correct and true?
Though rapture sweet within may dwell,
’tis passive till it knows me well.{ Un palmo e più lo toglio, e non in vano,
Ed ei col cul nel grembo mio si sede;
Io l’accareccio, e lo meno per mano,
E dò diletto a chi l’ascolta e vede.
Donne amorose, non vi paia strano,
Perchè il mistier fo con misura a fede.
E molto mi contenta il dolce suono,
Lo tengo duro fin che il mi sa buono. }[4]
The key verse is the concluding one: “’tis passive till it knows me well.” This verse challenges sexually stereotyping men as dogs. Nonetheless, Trevisan said that his riddle was about playing a lute. Lute players historically have been predominately men. Men trobairitz played their lutes to please privileged women in elite courts. Like a lute player, Trevisan used his wit to demonstrate men in their bodily being providing pleasure to women despite not being financially remunerated.
Ordinary gendered discourse, and life as well, seldom are as subtle as a riddle. Late in the twelfth century, the minnesinger Heinrich von Veldeke complained:
They’ve said it’s true, for many a year,
that women hate gray hair.
That makes it hard for me —
and a shame for them
if they prefer their lovers
clumsy rather than wise.As much or as little as I am gray,
a feeble wit in women is what I hate.
They’d rather have
new tin than old gold.
They say they favor the young ones
because they cannot wait.{ Man seit al fúr war
manig iar
dú wib hassen grawes har
das ist mir swar
vnd ist ir misse pris
dú lieber hat ir amis
tvmb danne wisDest me noch dest min
das ich gra bin
ich hasse an wiben kranken sin
das si núwes zin
nement fúr altes golt
si iehent si sin den ivngen holt
dvrh vngedolt }[5]
Men have long carried a sexual burden of performance. Men’s impotence is an epic disaster. Women who won’t wait for older men are complicit in systemic gender injustice. You should be able to solve such riddles.
* * * * *
Read more:
- piggish men rebel against constraints of men’s lives
- languishing for love: medieval women’s songs for beloved men
- women’s joy in loving men in medieval lyrics
Notes:
[1] Riddling is probably co-extensive with story-telling in most linguistic fields. The leading scholar of Italian riddles observed:
Riddling in Italy goes back to the earliest vernacular records. The oldest is written in Venetian dialect and dates back to the end of the eight or the beginning of the ninth century.
De Filippis (1947) p. 136. For more on the history of riddles in Italy, De Filippis (1948).
[2] Giovanni (Zoan) Francesco Straparola, The Pleasant Nights {Le Piacevoli Notti}, following Night 12, Story 2, Italian text from Rua (1899), English translation (modified) from Beecher (2012). The immediately subsequent quote above similarly follows Night 12, Story 2.
Le Piacevoli Notti was first published in Venice in 1550 (vol. 1, nights 1-5) and 1553 (vol. 2, nights 6-13). For a freely available online English translation (with some bowdlerization), Waters (1894). Beecher (2012) revises Waters (1984) and provides a complete translation of all the text.
Straparola’s riddles were just as influential historically as his stories. De Filippis (1947) p. 146. Nonetheless, scholars have studied Straparola’s stories much more extensively than Straparola’s riddles.
Subsequent quotes above, unless otherwise noted, are similarly from the riddles added after each of Straparola’s stories. The stories to which the riddles above are appended are, cited by night.story: 10.2 (Rough, long, and round…), 10.4 (I am supple, round, and white…), 6.3 (What thing is that…), and 13.11 (Its length and breadth…).
[3] Beecher’s text adds four additional verses:
the shape of him that does employ
his pains to work this pleasant toy.
It’s always ready to oblige
the user’s taste, whae’er the size.
Beecher (2012) vol. 2, p. 44. Corresponding verses don’t exist in Rua’s Italian text, nor in any other Italian text I’ve been able to find. Those English verses appear in Carrington’s edition (Paris, 1906) of Waters (1894).
[4] De Filippis remarked of Straparola’s riddles and their French adaptations:
Some of them are really lascivious, even if the young ladies who relate them pretend not to know it. The bagpipe, candle, glove, lock, lute, pen, stockpot, shoe, trumpet, warming-pan and several others, could all be gathered together under one heading and given a suitable name which would describe them all. This could be done with both the Italian and the French versions. The only difference between the two would be that the French list would be longer, since Larivey, not only increased the unseemliness of his Italian models by extending Straparola’s octaves into French sonnets, but added several other succulent morsels taken from other Italian sources. Indecency in riddles, however, is not an Italian monopoly.
De Filippis (1947) p. 146.
[5] Heinrich von Veldeke, minnesang 62.11, “They’ve said it’s true, for many a year {Man seit al fúr war},” Middle High German text (regularized) from the Codex Manesse, folio 31r, via Wikisource; English translation (modified slightly) from Goldin (1973) pp. 18-21. Goldin’s text has different word forms and has slightly different lineation. It’s first verse: “Men seget vorwâr nû manech jâr”. Whether Henrich wrote in Middle High German or Middle Dutch (Maaslandic) is a matter of dispute.
[images] (1) Portrait of a happy young woman, perhaps Maria de’ Medici. Excerpt from painting by Alessandro Allori. Painted about 1555. Via Wikimedia Commons. (2) Excerpt from portrait of Eleanor of Toledo. Painted by Bronzino about 1545. Via Wikimedia Commons. (3) Except from portrait of a Renaissance woman. Painted about 1585 by Scipione Pulzone. Preserved as accession # 37.605 in the The Walters Art Museum. The Walters Art Museum exemplifies public service by providing this image under a CCO license.
References:
Beecher, Donald. 2012. Giovanni Francesco Straparola. The Pleasant Nights. 2 vols. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
De Filippis, Michele. 1947. “Straparola’s Riddles.” Italica. 24 (2): 134-146.
De Filippis, Michele. 1948. The Literary Riddle in Italy to the End of the Sixteenth Century. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Goldin, Frederick. 1973. German and Italian Lyrics of the Middle Ages: an anthology and a history. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press.
Rua, Giuseppe. 1899. Le piacevoli notti di M. Giovanfrancesco Straparola da Caravaggio nelle quali si contengono le favole con i loro enimmi da dieci donne e duo giovani raccontate. 2 vols. Bologna: Romagnoli-Dall’ Acqua. Alternate presentation of 1927 edition.
Waters, W.G., trans. 1894. Giovanni Francesco Straparola. The Nights. Vol. 1. Vol. 2. London: Lawrence and Bullen. Alternate presentation: vol. 1, vol. 2.