Chapter XLII: Master of All Masters

_Source_.--I have taken what suited me from a number of sources, which shows how wide-spread this quaint droll is in England: (i) In Mayhew, _London Poor_, iii. 391, told by a lad in a workhouse; (ii) several versions in 7 _Notes and Queries_, iii. 35, 87, 159, 398.

_Parallels_.--Rev. W. Gregor gives a Scotch version under the title “The Clever Apprentice,” in _Folk-Lore Journal_, vii. 166. Mr. Hartland, in _Notes and Queries_, _l.c._, 87, refers to Pitré's _Fiabi sicil._, iii. 120, for a variant.

_Remarks_.--According to Mr. Hartland, the story is designed as a satire on pedantry, and is as old in Italy as Straparola (sixteenth century). In passionate Sicily a wife disgusted with her husband's pedantry sets the house on fire, and informs her husband of the fact in this unintelligible gibberish; he, not understanding his own lingo, falls a victim to the flames, and she marries the servant who had taken the message.