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.
THE WEDDING NIGHT OF JEAN THE FOOL.[45]
“Mother mine,” quoth Jean the Fool, “I would marry.”