Page:The Pentamerone, or The Story of Stories.djvu/240

Rh CORVETTO.

heard say, that Juno went to Candia to find Falsehood; but if any one were to ask me where fraud and hypocrisy might truly be found, I should know of no other place to name than the Court, where detraction always wears the mask of amusement, slander goes drest as a Graziano, treachery as a Zany, and villainy as a Polichinello; where at the same time people cut and sew up, wound and heal, break and glue together; of which I will give you only one instance, in the story which I am going to tell you.

was once upon a time in the service of the King of Wide-River an excellent youth named Corvetto, who for his good conduct was beloved by his master, and for this very cause was disliked and hated by all the courtiers; in fact they were such bats of ignorance, that they could not see the lustre of the virtue of Corvetto, who purchased his master's favour with the ready