[44] _The Decameron_ of Giovanni Boccaccio, translated by John Payne,
Villon Society, 1884. See _Excursus_ to this story.
In the city of Capsa in Barbary there was aforetime a very rich man,
who, among his other children, had a fair and winsome young daughter,
by name Alibech. She, not being a Christian and hearing many Christians
who abode in the town mightily extol the Christian faith and the
service of God, one day questioned one of them in what manner one
might avail to serve God with the least hindrance. The other answered
that they best served God who most strictly eschewed the things of the
world, as those did who had betaken them into the solitudes of the
deserts of Thebaïs.
The girl, who was maybe fourteen years old and very simple, moved by
no ordered desire, but by some childish fancy, set off next morning by
stealth and all alone, to go to the desert of Thebaïs without letting
any know her intent.
After some days, her desire persisting, she won, with no little toil,
to the deserts in question and seeing a hut afar off, went thither and
found at the door a holy man, who marvelled to see her there and asked
her what she sought. She replied that, being inspired of God, she went
seeking to enter into His service and was now in quest of one who
should teach her how it behoved to serve Him.
The worthy man, seeing her young and very fair and fearing lest, an
he entertained her, the devil should beguile him, commended her pious
intent and giving her somewhat to eat of roots and herbs and wild
apples and dates and to drink of water, said to her:
“Daughter mine, not far hence is a holy man, who is a much better
master than I of that which thou goest seeking; do thou betake thyself
to him;” and put her in the way. However, when she reached the man in
question, she had of him the same answer and faring farther, came to
the cell of a young hermit, a very devout and good man, whose name was
Rustico and to whom she made the same request as she had done to the
others.
He, having a mind to make a trial of his own constancy, sent her not
away, as the others had done, but received her into his cell, and the
night being come, he made her a little bed of palm-fronds and bade her
lie down to rest thereon.
This done, temptations tarried not to give battle to his powers of
resistance and he, finding himself grossly deceived by these latter,
turned tail, without many assaults, and confessed himself beaten;
then, laying aside devout thoughts and orisons and mortifications, he
fell to revolving in his memory the youth and beauty of the damsel and
bethinking himself what course he should take with her, so as to win to
that which he desired of her, without her taking him for a debauched
fellow.
Accordingly, having sounded her with sundry questions, he found that
she had never known man and was in truth as simple as she seemed;
wherefore he bethought him, how, under colour of the service of God,
he might bring her to his pleasures. In the first place, he showed her
with many words how great an enemy the devil was of God the Lord and
after gave her to understand that the most acceptable service that
could be rendered to God was to put back the devil in hell, whereto He
had condemned him. The girl asked him how this might be done; and he,
“Thou shalt soon know that; do thou but as thou shalt see me do.” So
saying, he proceeded to put off the few garments he had and abode stark
naked, as likewise did the girl, whereupon he fell on his knees, as he
would pray, and caused her abide over against himself.
Matters standing thus and Rustico being more than ever inflamed in his
desires to see her so fair, there came the resurrection of the flesh,
which Alibech observing and marvelling:
“Rustico,” quoth she, “What is that I see on thee which thrusteth forth
thus and which I have not?”
“Faith, daughter mine,” answered he, “this is the devil whereof I
bespoke thee; and see now, he giveth me such sore annoy that I can
scarce put up with it.”
Then said the girl:
“Now praised be God! I see I fare better than thou, in that I have none
of yonder devil.”
“True,” rejoined Rustico; “but thou hast overwhat that I have not, and
thou hast it instead of this.”
“What is that?” asked Alibech; and he:
“Thou hast hell, and I tell thee methinketh God hath sent thee hither
for my soul’s health, for that, whenas this devil doth me this annoy,
an it please thee have so much compassion on me as to suffer me put him
back into hell, thou wilt give the utmost solacement and wilt do God
a very great pleasure and service, so indeed thou be come into these
parts to do as thou sayest.”
The girl answered in good faith:
“Marry, father mine, since I have hell, be it whensoever it pleaseth
thee;” whereupon quoth Rustico:
“Daughter, blessed be thou; let us go then and put him back there, so
he may after leave me in peace.”
So saying, he laid her on one of their little beds and taught her how
she should do to imprison that accursed one of God. The girl, who had
never yet put any devil in hell, for the first time felt some little
pain; wherefore she said to Rustico:
“Certes, father mine, this same devil must be an ill thing and an enemy
in very deed of God, for that it irketh hell itself, let be otherwhat,
when he is put back therein.”
“Daughter,” answered Rustico, “it will not always happen thus;” and to
the end that this should not happen, six times, or ever they stirred
from the bed, they put him in hell again, insomuch that for the nonce
they so took the conceit out of his head that he willingly abode at
peace. But, it returning to him again and again the ensuing days and
the obedient girl still lending herself to take it out of him, it
befell that the sport began to please her and she said to Rustico:
“I see now that those good people in Capsa spoke sooth, when they
avouched that it was so sweet a thing to serve God; for certes, I
remember me not to have ever done aught that afforded me such pleasance
and delight as putting the devil in hell; wherefore methinketh that
whoso applieth himself unto aught other than God His service is a fool.”
Accordingly, she came ofttimes to Rustico and said to him:
“Father mine, I came here to serve God and not to abide idle; let us go
put the devil in hell.” Which doing, she said whiles:
“Rustico, I know not why the devil fleeth away from hell; for, an he
abode there as willingly as hell receiveth him and holdeth him, he
would never come forth therefrom.”
The girl, then, on this wise often inviting Rustico and exhorting him
to the service of God, so took the bombast out of his doublet that he
felt cold what time another had sweated; wherefore he fell to telling
her that the devil was not to be chastised nor put into hell, save
whenas he should lift up his head for pride.
“And we,” added he, “by God’s grace, have so baffled him that he
prayeth our Lord to suffer him abide in peace;” and on this wise he for
awhile imposed silence on her.
However, when she saw that he required her not of putting the devil in
hell, she said to him one day:
“Rustico, an thy devil be chastened and give thee no more annoy, my
hell letteth me not be; wherefore thou wilt do well to aid me with thy
devil in abating the raging of my hell, even as with my hell I have
helped thee take the conceit out of thy devil.”
Rustico, who lived on roots and water, could ill avail to answer her
calls and told her that it would need overmany devils to appease hell,
but he would do what he might thereof. Accordingly he satisfied her
bytimes, but so seldom it was but casting a bean into the lion’s mouth;
whereat the girl, herseeming she served not God as diligently as she
would fain have done, murmured somewhat.
But, whilst this debate was toward between Rustico his devil and
Alibech her hell, for overmuch desire on the one part and lack of
power on the other, it befell that a fire broke out in Capsa and burnt
Alibech’s father in his own house, with as many children and other
family as he had; by reason whereof she abode heir to all his good.
Thereupon, a young man called Nëerbale, who had spent all his substance
in gallantry, hearing that she was alive, set out in search of her
and finding her, before the court (_i.e._, the government) had laid
hands upon her father’s estate, as that of a man dying without heir,
to Rustico’s great satisfaction, but against her own will, brought her
back to Capsa, where he took her to wife and succeeded, in her right,
to the ample inheritance of her father.
There, being asked by the women at what she served God in the desert,
she answered (Nëerbale having not yet lain with her) that she served
Him at putting the devil in hell and that Nëerbale had done a grievous
sin in that he had taken her from such service.
The ladies asked:
“How putteth one the devil in hell?”
And the girl, what with words and what with gestures, expounded it to
them; whereat they set up so great a laughing that they laugh yet and
said:
“Give yourself no concern, my child; nay, for that is done here also
and Nëerbale will serve our Lord full well with thee at this.”
Thereafter, telling it from one to another throughout the city, they
brought it to a common saying there that the most acceptable service
one could render to God was to put the devil in hell, which byword,
having passed the sea hither, is yet current here. Wherefore do all you
young ladies, who have need of God’s grace, learn to put the devil in
hell, for that this is highly acceptable to Him and pleasing to both
parties and much good may grow and ensue thereof.
_EXCURSUS_ to _THE DEVIL IN HELL_.
Boccaccio’s immortal story of Alibech who “turned hermit and was taught
by Rustico, a monk, to put the devil in hell” has been drawn upon or
brazenly copied by innumerable _raconteurs_. La Fontaine has an exactly
similar story. “To put the devil in hell” has passed into use as an
accepted slang term for the act of copulation. _Hell_, in English,
and _Enfer_ in French, are erotic synonyms for the female _pudendum_,
as are _devil_ and _diable_ for the male organ of generation. (_C.f._
Farmer: _Slang and its Analogues_ and _Vocabula Amatoria_; also Landes:
_Glossaire érotique de la langue française_.) “Vainly doth hell her
prisoner recall,” says La Fontaine; “the devil is dumb.”
It is a moot point whether “The Devil in Hell” should have been
included in this or the subsequent volume, _The Way of a Priest_.
It seems to us, however, that the woman’s part transcends the man’s
throughout, and for that reason we prefer to look upon the story as
illustrating a phase of virginity rather than as an example of priestly
lust.
Boccaccio’s “Nightingale,” which is also given in this volume, has
provided yet another French slang term for the _penis_. “To put the
nightingale in its cage or nest” is a fanciful but frequent description
of the venereal act. (_C.f._ Pietro Aretino’s _Dialogues_: 1. _The
Life of Nuns_: English and French translations: Liseux, Paris, 1889 and
1882.) On the other hand, _nightingale_, in old English slang, denoted
a prostitute. (Farmer: _Slang and its Analogues_.)
The inclusion of any of Boccaccio’s tales in this volume has not gone
uncritised by friends and advisers. “_The Decameron_,” they argue, “is
accessible to all; it is hackneyed nowadays.” If the frequent issue of
cheap, castrated and badly-produced editions of the immortal work are
these so-called means of access, the argument is a poor one.
Boccaccio, to be appreciated, must be read in the original,
unexpurgated Italian, or, at any rate, in a translation which is
equally free and is the work of a scholar and booklover. Some of
Boccaccio’s stories are fitly classed as the world’s best, and among
these “The Devil in Hell” takes place. It is a story that has lived for
centuries and will live while literature lasts.
Further, so far as we know, in one English translation alone, Payne’s,
(_vide_ note _ante_, p. 56), is this story told in its entirety in
our own language; in other editions the most dramatic part of the
narrative, the part, in fact, which _makes_ the story, is invariably
rendered in Italian or French, or is hopelessly bowdlerised. Thus is
prudery satisfied and genius mocked. “The Devil in Hell” is strong fare
assuredly, but it is served up in so artistic a manner as to please
even the most delicate palate.