--
Masetto da Lamporecchio feigns to be dumb, and obtains a gardener's place at
a convent of women, who with one accord make haste to lie with him.
--
Fairest ladies, not a few there are both of men and of women, who are so
foolish as blindly to believe that, so soon as a young woman has been veiled
in white and cowled in black, she ceases to be a woman, and is no more
subject to the cravings proper to her sex, than if, in assuming the garb and
profession of a nun, she had put on the nature of a stone: and if,
perchance, they hear of aught that is counter to this their faith, they are
no less vehement in their censure than if some most heinous and unnatural
crime had been committed; neither bethinking them of themselves, whom
unrestricted liberty avails not to satisfy, nor making due allowance for the
prepotent forces of idleness and solitude. And likewise not a few there are
that blindly believe that, what with the hoe and the spade and coarse fare
and hardship, the carnal propensities are utterly eradicated from the
tillers of the soil, and therewith all nimbleness of wit and understanding.
But how gross is the error of such as so suppose, I, on whom the queen has
laid her commands, am minded, without deviating from the theme prescribed by
her, to make manifest to you by a little story.
In this very country-side of ours there was and yet is a convent of women of
great repute for sanctity--name it I will not, lest I should in some measure
diminish its repute--the nuns being at the time of which I speak but nine in
number, including the abbess, and all young women. Their very beautiful
garden was in charge of a foolish fellow, who, not being content with his
wage, squared accounts with their steward and hied him back to Lamporecchio,
whence he came. Among others who welcomed him home was a young husbandman,
Masetto by name, a stout and hardy fellow, and handsome for a contadino, who
asked him where he had been so long. Nuto, as our good friend was called,
told him. Masetto then asked how he had been employed at the convent, and
Nuto answered:--"I kept their large and beautiful garden in good trim, and,
besides, I sometimes went to the wood to fetch the faggots, I drew water,
and did some other trifling services; but the ladies gave so little wage
that it scarce kept me in shoes. And moreover they are all young, and, I
think, they are one and all possessed of the devil, for 'tis impossible to
do anything to their mind; indeed, when I would be at work in the
kitchen-garden, 'put this here,' would say one, 'put that here,' would say
another, and a third would snatch the hoe from my hand, and say, 'that is
not as it should be'; and so they would worry me until I would give up
working and go out of the garden; so that, what with this thing and that, I
was minded to stay there no more, and so I am come hither. The steward asked
me before I left to send him any one whom on my return I might find fit for
the work, and I promised; but God bless his loins, I shall be at no pains to
find out and send him any one."
As Nuto thus ran on, Masetto was seized by such a desire to be with these
nuns that he quite pined, as he gathered from what Nuto said that his desire
might be gratified. And as that could not be, if he said nothing to Nuto, he
remarked:--"Ah! 'twas well done of thee to come hither. A man to live with
women! he might as well live with so many devils: six times out of seven
they know not themselves what they want." There the conversation ended; but
Masetto began to cast about how he should proceed to get permission to live
with them. He knew that he was quite competent for the services of which
Nuto spoke, and had therefore no fear of failing on that score; but he
doubted he should not be received, because he was too young and
well-favoured. So, after much pondering, he fell into the following train of
thought:--The place is a long way off, and no one there knows me; if I make
believe that I am dumb, doubtless I shall be admitted. Whereupon he made his
mind up, laid a hatchet across his shoulder, and saying not a word to any of
his destination, set forth, intending to present himself at the convent in
the character of a destitute man. Arrived there, he had no sooner entered
than he chanced to encounter the steward in the courtyard, and making signs
to him as dumb folk do, he let him know that of his charity he craved
something to eat, and that, if need were, he would split firewood. The
steward promptly gave him to eat, and then set before him some logs which
Nuto had not been able to split, all which Masetto, who was very strong,
split in a very short time. The steward, having occasion to go to the wood,
took him with him, and there set him at work on the lopping; which done he
placed the ass in front of him, and by signs made him understand that he was
to take the loppings back to the convent. This he did so well that the
steward kept him for some days to do one or two odd jobs. Whereby it so
befell that one day the abbess saw him, and asked the steward who he was.
"Madam," replied the steward, "'tis a poor deaf mute that came here a day or
two ago craving alms, so I have treated him kindly, and have let him make
himself useful in many ways. If he knew how to do the work of the
kitchen-garden and would stay with us, I doubt not we should be well served;
for we have need of him, and he is strong, and would be able for whatever he
might turn his hand to; besides which you would have no cause to be
apprehensive lest he should be cracking his jokes with your young women."
"As I trust in God," said the abbess, "thou sayst sooth; find out if he can
do the garden work, and if he can, do all thou canst to keep him with us;
give him a pair of shoes, an old hood, and speak him well, make much of him,
and let him be well fed." All which the steward promised to do.
Masetto, meanwhile, was close at hand, making as if he were sweeping the
courtyard, and heard all that passed between the abbess and the steward,
whereat he gleefully communed with himself on this wise:--Put me once within
there, and you will see that I will do the work of the kitchen-garden as it
never was done before. So the steward set him to work in the kitchen-garden,
and finding that he knew his business excellently well, made signs to him to
know whether he would stay, and he made answer by signs that he was ready to
do whatever the steward wished. The steward then signified that he was
engaged, told him to take charge of the kitchen-garden, and shewed him what
he had to do there. Then, having other matters to attend to, he went away,
and left him there. Now, as Masetto worked there day by day, the nuns began
to tease him, and make him their butt (as it commonly happens that folk
serve the dumb) and used bad language to him, the worst they could think of,
supposing that he could not understand them, all which passed scarce heeded
by the abbess, who perhaps deemed him as destitute of virility as of speech.
Now it so befell that after a hard day's work he was taking a little rest,
when two young nuns, who were walking in the garden, approached the spot
where he lay, and stopped to look at him, while he pretended to be asleep.
And so the bolder of the two said to the other:--"If I thought thou wouldst
keep the secret, I would tell thee what I have sometimes meditated, and
which thou perhaps mightest also find agreeable." The other replied:--"Speak
thy mind freely and be sure that I will never tell a soul." Whereupon the
bold one began:--"I know not if thou hast ever considered how close we are
kept here, and that within these precincts dare never enter any man, unless
it be the old steward or this mute: and I have often heard from ladies that
have come hither, that all the other sweets that the world has to offer
signify not a jot in comparison of the pleasure that a woman has in
connexion with a man. Whereof I have more than once been minded to make
experiment with this mute, no other man being available. Nor, indeed, could
one find any man in the whole world so meet therefor; seeing that he could
not blab if he would; thou seest that he is but a dull clownish lad, whose
size has increased out of all proportion to his sense; wherefore I would
fain hear what thou hast to say to it." "Alas!" said the other, "what is't
thou sayst? Knowest thou not that we have vowed our virginity to God?" "Oh,"
rejoined the first, "think but how many vows are made to Him all day long,
and never a one performed: and so, for our vow, let Him find another or
others to perform it." "But," said her companion, "suppose that we
conceived, how then?" "Nay but," protested the first, "thou goest about to
imagine evil before it befalls, thee: time enough to think of that when it
comes to pass; there will be a thousand ways to prevent its ever being
known, so only we do not publish it ourselves." Thus reassured, the other
was now the more eager of the two to test the quality of the male human
animal. "Well then," she said, "how shall we go about it?" and was
answered:--"Thou seest 'tis past none; I make no doubt but all the sisters
are asleep, except ourselves; search we through the kitchen-garden, to see
if there be any there, and if there be none, we have but to take him by the
hand and lead him hither to the hut where he takes shelter from the rain;
and then one shall mount guard while the other has him with her inside. He
is such a simpleton that he will do just whatever we bid him." No word of
this conversation escaped Masetto, who, being disposed to obey, hoped for
nothing so much as that one of them should take him by the hand. They,
meanwhile, looked carefully all about them, and satisfied themselves that
they were secure from observation: then she that had broached the subject
came close up to Masetto, and shook him; whereupon he started to his feet.
So she took him by the hand with a blandishing air, to which he replied with
some clownish grins. And then she led him into the hut, where he needed no
pressing to do what she desired of him. Which done, she changed places with
the other, as loyal comradeship required; and Masetto, still keeping up the
pretence of simplicity, did their pleasure. Wherefore before they left, each
must needs make another assay of the mute's powers of riding; and
afterwards, talking the matter over many times, they agreed that it was in
truth not less but even more delightful than they had been given to
understand; and so, as they found convenient opportunity, they continued to
go and disport themselves with the mute.
Now it so chanced that one of their gossips, looking out of the window of
her cell, saw what they did, and imparted it to two others. The three held
counsel together whether they should not denounce the offenders to the
abbess, but soon changed their mind, and came to an understanding with them,
whereby they became partners in Masetto. And in course of time by divers
chances the remaining three nuns also entered the partnership. Last of all
the abbess, still witting nought of these doings, happened one very hot day,
as she walked by herself through the garden, to find Masetto, who now rode
so much by night that he could stand very little fatigue by day, stretched
at full length asleep under the shade of an almond-tree, his person quite
exposed in front by reason that the wind had disarranged his clothes. Which
the lady observing, and knowing that she was alone, fell a prey to the same
appetite to which her nuns had yielded: she aroused Masetto, and took him
with her to her chamber, where, for some days, though the nuns loudly
complained that the gardener no longer came to work in the kitchen-garden,
she kept him, tasting and re-tasting the sweetness of that indulgence which
she was wont to be the first to censure in others. And when at last she had
sent him back from her chamber to his room, she must needs send for him
again and again, and made such exorbitant demands upon him, that Masetto,
not being able to satisfy so many women, bethought him that his part of
mute, should he persist in it, might entail disastrous consequences. So one
night, when he was with the abbess, he cut the tongue-string, and thus broke
silence:--"Madam, I have understood that a cock may very well serve ten
hens, but that ten men are sorely tasked to satisfy a single woman; and here
am I expected to serve nine, a burden quite beyond my power to bear; nay, by
what I have already undergone I am now so reduced that my strength is quite
spent; wherefore either bid me Godspeed, or find some means to make matters
tolerable." Wonder-struck to hear the supposed mute thus speak, the lady
exclaimed:--"What means this? I took thee to be dumb." "And in sooth, Madam,
so was I," said Masetto, "not indeed from my birth, but through an illness
which took from me the power of speech, which only this very night have I
recovered; and so I praise God with all my heart." The lady believed him;
and asked him what he meant by saying that he had nine to serve. Masetto
told her how things stood; whereby she perceived that of all her nuns there
was not any but was much wiser than she; and lest, if Masetto were sent
away, he should give the convent a bad name, she discreetly determined to
arrange matters with the nuns in such sort that he might remain there. So,
the steward having died within the last few days, she assembled all the
nuns; and their and her own past errors being fully avowed, they by common
consent, and with Masetto's concurrence, resolved that the neighbours should
be given to understand that by their prayers and the merits of their patron
saint, Masetto, long mute, had recovered the power of speech; after which
they made him steward, and so ordered matters among themselves that he was
able to endure the burden of their service. In the course of which, though
he procreated not a few little monastics, yet 'twas all managed so
discreetly that no breath of scandal stirred, until after the abbess's
death, by which time Masetto was advanced in years and minded to return home
with the wealth that he had gotten; which he was suffered to do, as soon as
he made his desire known. And so Masetto, who had left Lamporecchio with a
hatchet on his shoulder, returned thither in his old age rich and a father,
having by the wisdom with which he employed his youth, spared himself the
pains and expense of rearing children, and averring that such was the
measure that Christ meted out to the man that set horns on his cap.