"The Devil's Breeches" (Italian)

From Italian Folk Tales (Selected and retold by Italo Calvino)

Motifs:

Escape from undesired lovers (T320ff)

Soldier makes a deal with the devil (M211)

For seven years he must not wash or comb himself (C721.1 & C723.1)

Magical breeches (D1055)

He marries the youngest of three princesses (L54.1)

The elder two made sport of him (Q2)

The elder sisters kill themselves

The devil "You got one, I got two" (K217)

Proppean analysis:

a - (Initial Situation): A young man has lost his money and is forced to hire himself out to other lords. Their wives and daughters all fall in love with his good looks forcing him to move on.

a - (misfortune) The desires to be rid of his looks

F¹ - (A magical agent is directly transferred) The devil gives the man a pair of breeches that are always full of money

M = g¹ - (task = interdiction) The man must not wash for 7 years

T - (transfiguration) The man gradually becomes hideous in appearance

a⁵ - (lack) The king needs money

B - (lack made Mown) the man is invited to the king

K - (lack liquidated) man pays the kings debts in return for daughter

T = d (transformation = interdiction violated) Man is cleaned (too soon)

o - (unrecognized arrival) The man returns unrecognized to the king

Q - (hero recognized) The soldier's ribbon matches the half given to his bride

W - (wedding) Man marries

* - Sisters die (are taken by the devil for their oaths)

Total: aaF¹M=g¹Ta⁵BKT=doQW