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[Illustration:  203a.jpg The Gentleman reproaching his Friend for his Jealousy]

[The Gentleman reproaching his Friend for his Jealousy]

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TALE XLVII.

Two gentlemen lined in such perfect friendship that for a great while they had everything excepting a wife in common, until one was married, when without cause he began to suspect his companion, who, in vexation at being wrongfully suspected, withdrew his friendship, and did not rest till he had made the other a cuckold.

Not far from the province of Le Perche (1) there dwelt two gentlemen who from the days of their childhood had lived in such perfect friendship that they had but one heart, one house, one bed, one table, and one purse.  They continued living in this perfect friendship for a long time, without there ever being between them any wish or word such as might betray that they were different persons; so truly did they live not merely like two brothers but like one individual man.

     1 Between Normandy and Maine.  Its chief town was Mortagne.

Of the two one married, yet did not on that account abate his friendship for his fellow or cease to live with him as had been his wont.  And whenever they chanced to lodge where room was scanty, he failed not to make him sleep with himself and his wife; (2) though he did, in truth, himself lie in the middle.  Their goods were all in common, so that neither the marriage nor aught else that might betide could impair their perfect friendship.

2 To do honour to a guest it was then a common practice to invite him to share the same bed as one’s self and one’s wife.  In this wise, long after Queen Margaret s time, we find Louis XIII. sharing the bed of the Duke and Duchess of Luynes.  Tale vii. of the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles (imitated in Malespini’s Ducento Novelle and the Joyeuses Adventures et nouvelles recreations) relates what befell a Paris goldsmith who took a carter to bed with him and his spouse, and neglected to follow the usual custom of sleeping in the middle.  In Queen Margaret’s time, it may be added, the so-called “beds of honour” in the abodes of noblemen and gentlemen were large enough to accommodate four or five persons.—­B.  J. and Ed.

But after some time, worldly happiness, which is ever changeful in its nature, could no longer abide in this too happy household.  The husband, without cause, lost the confidence that he had in his friend and in his wife, and, being unable to conceal the truth from the latter, spoke to her with angry words.  At this she was greatly amazed, for he had charged her in all things save one to treat his friend as she did himself, and now he forbade her to speak with him except it were before others.  She made the matter known to her husband’s friend, who did not believe her, knowing as he well did that he had never purposed doing aught to grieve his comrade.  And as he was wont to hide nothing from him, he told him what he had heard, begging him not to conceal the truth, for neither in this nor in any other matter had he any desire to occasion the severance of the friendship which had so long subsisted between them.