Wise Wives and Manly Sons: Matching Saladin in El Conde Lucanor

Don Juan Manuel places two Saladin stories at key points in the frame tale collection of El Conde Lucanor: #25 and #50 out of 51 short tales.  Each story portrays Saladin as meeting the limits respectively of his power and his virtue at the hands of men and women he admires and accolades, but also is chastened by and learns from.  Don Juan Manuel's Spanish Saladin talks back to other French and Italian tales of Saladin's kin-reshaping generosity, laying down limits for his power, while making his virtue an ongoing quest rather than an in-hand accolade.    Boccaccio's Tale of Messir Torello parallels #25 and Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale parallels #50, and we'll explore the might-have beens of the different choices they make, both for Saladin and for the rapist knight.  Ultimately, Don Juan Manual's Saladin stories perform both the virtue and the limits of crusade itself.