Anthologica Rarissima: The Way of a Virgin Being excerpts from rare, curious and diverting books
VOLUME ONE:
THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.
Anthologica Rarissima:
Being Excerpts from Rare, Curious and Diverting Books, some now for the First Time done into English. To which are added Copious Explanatory Notes & Bibliographical References of Interest to Student, Collector and Psychologist: the Whole Introduced, Compiled & Edited by L. and C. BROVAN.
VOLUME THE FIRST:
The Way of a Virgin.
LONDON: MCMXXII. Printed for Members of the BROVAN SOCIETY by Private Subscription and for Private Circulation Only.
FOREWORD.
With the publication of its _Records_, under the title of _ANTHOLOGICA RARISSIMA_, the _Brovan Society_, which has been formed to carry out research work into the less-known and more curious folk-lore and literature of Europe and the Orient, takes leave to explain its aims and aspirations.
There exists in the literature of all countries a multitude of books not usually accorded public circulation. Yet these books contain some of the most life-like and diverting material ever fashioned by human pen. Their contents have stood the test of time and taste, and to-day, though publicly ignored, they are privately applauded. The trend of these books is, in the main, erotic, or so frank as to relegate them to the category of improper or “privately printed.” Some have never come under the hands of an English translator: others in such limited editions as to make their existence negligible so far as the average student is concerned.
_Anthologica Rarissima_ is a modest attempt to remedy this state of affairs. In a series of volumes the editors will put before their readers the cream of what is tantamount to a small library, and a library not often seen on the book-lover’s shelves. Herein will be found, set out in plain English, curious and diverting extracts from some of the world’s most remarkable works. The text will be literal and unexpurgated. Nothing of interest to the student of folk-lore, psychology and literature will be omitted or glossed over, for the editors believe that a classic castrated is a classic spoilt. The _Records_ throughout will be enriched by copious notes and valuable bibliographical references.
So far as the compilers are aware, no similar anthology exists in the English tongue. It purports to put within reach of the student and bibliophile comprehensive and representative excerpts from writers, the possession of whose works would entail time and expense beyond the means of many collectors.
At present it is impossible to give a full list of the authors from whom we shall quote. Mention of such names as those of Sir Richard Burton, Casanova, Aretino, the Marquis de Sade, Wilkes, Boccaccio, Bandello, Masuccio, Straparola, Rabelais, Lucian, Apuleius, Aristophanes, Sinistrari, Nicolas Chorier, Poggio, J. S. Farmer, John Payne, La Fontaine, Chaucer, Brantôme, Sellon, Pisanus Fraxi, Payne Knight, Havelock Ellis, Bloch, Huhner, Forel and Kraft-Ebing, will give some idea of the work contemplated. Special attention will be paid to the less-known folk-lore of Europe and the Orient, as portrayed in those remarkable books, _Kruptadia_, _Untrodden Fields of Anthropology_, _The Kama Sutra_, _The Ananga Ranga_, _The Perfumed Garden_, _The Old Man Young Again_, _Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_, _Ethnology of the Sixth Sense_, _The Book of Exposition_, _Priapeia_, _Genital Laws_, _Marriage Ceremonies and Priapic Rites_, and _Des Divinités Génératrices_.
_Anthologica Rarissima_, for reasons which will seem as regrettable as absurd to the student and collector, must ever be a privately printed work; its tone, though erotic, is in no sense pornographic. The extracts have been selected with care, and always with an eye to artistry and bibliographical value. The complete issue, extending to many volumes, will form an unique collection in the English tongue of a type of literature far too little known in this country.
The subject of our first volume--virginity and its treatment in fable, _conte_, and legend--is far from exhausted in these pages. It will be necessary to devote another _Record_ to the theme at a later date. Meanwhile, we have in preparation Vol. 2: “_The Way of a Priest_,” Vol. 3: “_The Way of a Wife_,” Vol. 4: “_The Way of a Husband_,” and Vol. 5: “_The Way of Love_.” This last, culled from such authorities as Ovid, Martial, Catullus, Aretino, Forberg, Veniero, and the authors of _The Kama Sutra_, _The Perfumed Garden_, and _The Ananga Ranga_, should prove the most complete treatise on the _Ars Amandi_ ever published in the English language.
In conclusion, we can only reiterate what was said at the outset--that this work is the outcome of a project to give the English student and collector the cream of a rare and remarkable literature.
We wish to lay special emphasis on the literal nature of our text, having often sacrificed style to preserve it. When translating from French, where an English translation already existed, we have never failed to compare and work upon the two versions for the composition of our extract.
_Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_ is a case in point, the old French text and Mr. R. B. Douglas’ English translation both being utilised in our _Record_. The same applies to Casanova; each line of his _Memoirs_, as existing in the privately printed English translation, has been closely compared with Garnier’s French text; while Aretino’s _Dialogues_ will be scrutinised in no fewer than three languages. Our aim throughout has been to put before the reader a rendering in English which most exactly approximates to the original work of the author in question.
_THE EDITORS._
CONTENTS.
Page.
FOREWORD. v.
VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS. xix.
THE ENCHANTED RING:
_Of a Young Husband who Sought to Redeem his Yard from Pawn, and of the Divers Adventures that Befell him in his Quest._ 1
VARIANT:
_Of a Tailor who Consented to Sin with a certain Woman who Admired his Proportions; and how they Fared._ 10
THE INSTRUMENT:
_Of a Young Girl who Desired her Lover to Buy a Better Instrument, which she Enjoyed, Lost and Found again._ 13
_EXCURSUS_ to THE INSTRUMENT. 16
THE TIMOROUS FIANCÉE:
_Of a Maid who would Wed None save Ivan the No-Yard; and how they were Wed, after which she first Hired, then Bought, a Good Yard from Ivan’s Uncle._ 17
_EXCURSUS_ to THE ENCHANTED RING, THE INSTRUMENT, and THE TIMOROUS FIANCÉE. 22
ADVENTURES WITH HEDVIGE AND HELÈNE AT GENEVA:
_Of an Adventure with two Charming Cousins, one of whom Desired to know why a Deity could not Impregnate a Woman; and how the Hero of our Story gave Demonstration of Theological and other Matters._ 24
_EXCURSUS_ to ADVENTURES WITH HEDVIGE AND HELÈNE. 37
THE DAMSEL AND THE PRINCE:
_Of a Young Lady, who, being Enamoured of a Prince, Sendeth for one of his Chaplains, and with him Entereth into a Plot which Bringeth the Affair to the Desired Issue._ 42
_EXCURSUS_ to THE DAMSEL AND THE PRINCE. 49
THE PENITENT NUN:
_Of a Nun, who Strove to Flee the Shafts of Love; how she Succeeded; and how certain Young Nuns Received her Counsel._ 52
BEYOND THE MARK:
_Of a Shepherd who Made an Agreement with a Shepherdess that he should Mount upon her; and how he Kept that Agreement._ 53
THE DEVIL IN HELL:
_Of a Young Maid, who, Turning Hermit, was Taught by a Monk to Put the Devil in Hell; and how she found Much Pleasure therein._ 56
_EXCURSUS_ to THE DEVIL IN HELL. 63
THE WEDDING NIGHT OF JEAN THE FOOL:
_Of a Young Husband who thought his Wife would Give him a Chicken on their Wedding Night; and how he Learned in what Fashion he must Comport himself to have that Chicken._ 65
THE MAIDEN WELL GUARDED:
_Of a Maid who had been most Strictly Enjoined to Guard her Maidenhead; and how a Youth Restored it to her when she Lost it._ 69
VARIANT:
_Of one Coypeau, who Securely Sewed up a Damsel’s Maidenhead with his own Thread._ 72
TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN:
_Of a Prince and a Princess who became Acquainted in Strange Circumstances; of their Loves, Separation, Re-union, and divers Remarkable Happenings._ 74
_EXCURSUS_ to the TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN. 92
THE FOOL:
_Of a Young Man who would fain have Wed, yet Contrived to Satisfy his Wish without Marriage._ 101
“OH MOTHER, ROGER WITH HIS KISSES”:
_Of the Emotions of an Innocent Virgin when Wooed Boisterously by her Swain._ 103
FOOLISH FEAR:
_Of a Virgin Wife who did not Understand the Business of Marriage; and how the Parties went to Law, and what Ensued therefrom._ 104
THE PRINCESS WHO PISSETH OVER THE HAYCOCKS:
_Of a King’s Daughter, the Like of whom was not Seen Elsewhere on Earth; and how she was Cured of her Ways by a Young Peasant, divers Physicians and Charlatans having Failed in the Task._ 111
THE COMB:
_Of a Pope’s Daughter who was “Combed” by a Peasant; and how the Comb was Lost and Found again, together with other Strange and Delightsome Happenings._116
_EXCURSUS_ to THE PRINCESS WHO PISSETH OVER THE HAYCOCKS and THE COMB. 121
THE SKIRMISH:
_Of a Virgin who, on her Marriage Eve, told a Wedded Friend of the Recent and Disturbing Conduct of her Fiancé._ 124
_EXCURSUS_ to THE SKIRMISH. 132
THE NIGHTINGALE:
_Of a Maid who would fain Hear the Nightingale Sing; and how she Made it Sing many Times and even Held it in her Hand._ 134
THE PIKE’S HEAD:
_Of a Young Virgin who Played a Trick on a Youth; and how the Youth, from Fear of being “Bitten,” was for some Time Ignorant of the Pleasures of Marriage._ 142
THE LOVELY NUN AND HER YOUNG BOARDER:
_Of a Lovely Young Virgin, who was of an Inquisitive Turn of Mind, and Proved herself an Apt Pupil in the School of Love._ 147
JOHN AND JOAN:
_Of a Serving Wench who sent her Fellow Servant to Buy her a Steel; and how she Fared thereafter._ 158
THE HUSBAND AS DOCTOR:
_Of a Young Squire who, when he Married, had never Mounted a Christian Creature; of the Means found to Instruct him; and how, on a Sudden, he Wept at a great Feast shortly after he had been Instructed._162
THE PRIEST AND THE LABOURER:
_Of a Priest’s two Daughters who were Tricked by a Labourer; and of divers Strange and Diverting Happenings thereafter._ 171
_EXCURSUS_ to THE PRIEST AND THE LABOURER. 178
THE TWO LOVERS AND THE TWO SISTERS:
_Of two Cavaliers who became Enamoured of two Sisters; and how they found Enjoyment of their Love, albeit in Strange Fashion but none the less Pleasant._ 179
THE BURNING YARD:
_Of a Maid who would not Suffer a Youth to Pleasure her, since, so she Alleged, he had a Burning Yard._ 188
TAKE TIME BY THE FORELOCK:
_Of a Young Virgin Wife who was Paid back in her own Coin by her Husband._ 190
_EXCURSUS_ to TAKE TIME BY THE FORELOCK. 192
FIRST MEETING BETWEEN A YOUTH AND HIS FIANCÉE:
_Of a Maid and a Youth who held Pleasant Converse in a Coach-house; and of divers Experiments and Discoveries they made there._ 193
THE BREAKER OF EGGS:
_Of a certain Wench who had Eggs in her Belly, which were Broken for her by an Obliging Youth._ 195
_EXCURSUS_ to THE BREAKER OF EGGS. 198
VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.
_Chloe! Like a fawn she flees, Trembling, timid mother-seeking, Far among the trackless hills; Starting back from bush and breeze, When the new-born spring is speaking To green leaves in little trills. Oh, how shake her heart, her knees! Run! A lizard sets a-creaking That big bush! I bring no ills; I don’t follow you to seize, Like some cruel tigress, reeking Rage; no lion I that kills In Gætulia, hot to tease Out your life! So quit your meeking By your mother! Trust your thrills! Come and learn my mysteries!_
HORACE, I., xxiii.
VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.
In devoting a volume to the romance and folk-lore of Virginity, it may not be inappropriate first to examine the psychology of a word and a quality as magical as they are misused.
What is virginity? Is it the possession intact of that delicate piece of membrane, the poets’ ‘_flos virginitatis_,’ or is it some indescribable, intangible attribute in no sense dependent on physical perfection? Does it imply abstention from and ignorance of all sexual pleasures, or must it be a chastity which falls little short of stupid, even criminal, innocence?
To us moderns, blessed (or cursed) with a smattering of science, woman is virginal just as long as we know or believe her to be, physical qualities notwithstanding. By the poet of the past, the romanticist, the mediæval lover, and the ignorant, physical as well as spiritual proofs were probably required or expected. To them, virginity was something tangible; to us it is not.
Nor is the reason far to seek. For while Havelock Ellis, the greatest authority on sexual psychology the world has known, describes the hymen as having acquired in human estimation a spiritual value which has made it far more than a part of the feminine body, ... “something that gives woman all her worth and dignity, ... her market value,” he goes on to point out that the presence or absence of the hymen is no real test of virginity.
“There are many ways,” he writes, (_Studies in the Psychology of Sex_: Philadelphia, 1914: vol. 5: _Erotic Symbolism_), “in which the hymen may be destroyed apart from coïtus.... On the other hand, integrity of the hymen is no proof of virginity, apart from the obvious fact that there may be intercourse without penetration.... The hymen may be of a yielding or folding type, so that complete penetration may take place and yet the hymen be afterwards found unruptured. It occasionally happens that the hymen is found intact at the end of pregnancy.”[1]
[1] Schurig, in the 17th century, notes a case of this kind. _C.f._ his _Gynæcologia_, where he speaks of a girl being pregnant without losing her virginity. _Vide_ note, p. 100 post, where further details of the life and works of this erudite physician will be found.
And while the foregoing is the exception rather than the rule, it goes far to prove the fallibility of the physical, tangible test.
To most of us, virginity is a quality supposedly prized at all times and by all races. This is far from the case. As Havelock Ellis points out, (_op. cit._), virginity is not usually of any value among peoples who are entirely primitive. “Indeed, even in the classic civilisation which we inherit,” he writes, “it is easy to show that the virgin and the admiration for virginity are of late growth; the virgin goddesses were not originally virgins in our modern sense. Diana was the many-breasted patroness of childbirth before she became the chaste and solitary huntress, for the earliest distinction would appear to have been simply between the woman who was attached to a man and the woman who followed an earlier rule of freedom and independence; it was a later notion to suppose that the latter women were debarred from sexual intercourse.”
A French Army Surgeon, Dr. Jacobus X--, (_Untrodden Fields of Anthropology_: Charles Carrington: Paris, 1898), has some interesting remarks on the subject, and we offer no apology for reproducing them at length. Writing on the “Unimportance of the signs of virginity in the negress,” he says:--
“The Negroes of Senegal do not attach, as the Arabs do, considerable importance to the presence of the real signs of virginity in young girls.... The non-existence of the material proofs of virginity seldom give rise to any complaint on the part of the husband.... Moreover, the size of the virile member of the Negro[2] renders it difficult for him to detect any trick. The black bride, on the wedding night, shows herself expert in the art of simulating the struggles of an expiring virginity, and it is considered good taste for the girls to require almost to be raped. The least innocent young women are often the most clever at this game.
[2] Sir Richard Burton, (_The Thousand Nights and a Night_), describes how he measured in Somaliland a negro’s _penis_, which, when quiescent, was six inches long; this organ, however, would not increase proportionately when in erection.
“Thus, throughout nearly all Senegal, the European, who has a taste for maidenheads, can easily be satisfied, provided he is willing to pay the price.[3] At St. Louis women of ill-fame procure young girls, who bear the significant name of the ‘unpierced,’[4] and vary from eight or nine years to the nubile age. It is even easier to obtain a young girl before she is nubile than afterwards, on account of the certainty of her not bearing any children. The price is within the range of all purses, according to quality, and you can have a negro girl, warranted ‘unpierced’ (belonging to the category of domestic slaves), for the modest sum of from eight to sixteen shillings. Of course, the respectable matron pockets half this sum for her honorarium....
[3] A celebrated Parisian courtesan used to boast, according to Mantegazza, that she had “sold her virginity” on 82 different occasions! _Vide_ _Curious Bypaths of History_: Carrington: Paris, 1898, for further details on this subject.--Note by Dr. Jacobus X--.
[4] _C.f._ _The Thousand Nights and a Night_, (Sir Richard F. Burton; the privately printed and uncastrated editions), where the expression is common. “ ... He found her a pearl unpierced.” Again: “ ... went in unto the Princess and found her jewel which had been hidden, an union pearl unthridden, and a filly that none but he had ridden....” Compare, also, the French erotic slang percer (to pierce), signifying the act of sexual intercourse. (Farmer: _Slang and its Analogues_, p. 25, vol. 6; _Vocabula Amatoria, etc._)
“ ... The ‘unpierced’ soon lose their right to the title when they have to do with a Toubab, but, on account of the size of their genital parts, the loss of their maidenhead is not such a serious affair for them as it would be for a little French girl who was not yet nubile. I have never remarked in a little negress, who had been deflowered by a White, the valvular inflammation, which, with us, is noticed as the result of premature copulation before the parts are sufficiently developed.... If the reader will remember that the European, who is below the average dimensions in regard to his _penis_, is like a little boy in proportion to the negress of ten or twelve years old, it is not difficult to imagine that the negress he has deflowered can entirely take in the yard of the White, the dimensions of which are much less than that of the adult black.
“ ... When the girl has to do later with a negro husband, an astringent lotion will render the bride a pseudo-virgin. The deceived husband, not having the anatomical knowledge necessary to assure himself of the real existence of the signs of virginity, feels a difficulty in copulating, and is far from suspecting any trick.[5]
[5] “The Chinese ... have discovered a way of forming a new virginity when by some accident that object has gone astray. The method consists in astringent lotions applied to the parts, the effect of which so draws them together that a certain amount of vigour is required in order to pass through, the husband--on a nuptial night--being convinced that he has overcome the usual barrier. To make the illusion more complete, a leech-bite is made just inside the critical part, and the little wound is plugged with a minute pellet of vegetable tinder, with the result that the effort made by the husband to overcome the difficulty displaces the pellet and a slight flow of blood ensues.” (_Curious Bypaths of History_, _op. cit. sup._) That this method is by no means peculiar to the Chinese is instanced by Brantôme in his _Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies_ (Paris: Carrington, 1901: first English translation), where the genial old soldier-philosopher says:--“How clever these doctors be! for they do give women remedies to make them appear virgin and intact as they were afore.... One such especially I learned of a quack these last few days. Take leeches and apply to the privy parts, getting them to drain and suck the blood in that region. Now the leeches, in sucking, do engender and leave behind little blebs or blisters full of blood. Then when the gallant bridegroom cometh on his marriage night to give assault, he doth burst these same blisters and the blood discharging from them; the thing is all bathed in gore, to the great satisfaction of both the twain; for so ‘the honour of the citadel is saved.’”
“Does not much the same kind of thing prevail also in Europe? How many girls who have been deflowered get married without their husband ever suspecting anything, although he has not the same physical disadvantages that the black has to prevent his seeing through the trick? Is it to this amorous blindness that the Greeks and Romans alluded when they represented Cupid with a bandage over his eyes? One is almost tempted to believe it.
“ ... In opposition to those who exact the virginity of the bride, there are others who attach no importance whatever to it.... The ancient Egyptians used to make an incision in the hymen previous to marriage, and St. Athanasius relates that among the Phœnicians a slave of the bridegroom was charged by him to deflower the bride.[6] The Caraib Indians attached no value to virginity, and only the daughters of the higher classes were shut up during two years previous to marriage.
[6] “That this eagerness after virginity is not an original lust, I must, indeed, prove from the opinion of a certain remote people, who esteem the taking of a maidenhead as a laborious and illiberal practice, which they delegate to men hired for that purpose, ere themselves condescend to lie with their wives; who are returned with disgrace to their friends, if it be discovered that they have brought their virginity with them.”--_The Battles of Venus_: The Hague, 1760, quoted by Pisanus Fraxi in his _Index Librorum Prohibitorum_. _Vide_ also _post_ in this Study.
“It appears that among the Chibcha Indians in Central America virginity is not at all esteemed; it was considered to be a proof that the maiden had never been able to inspire love.
“In ancient Peru the old maids were the objects of high esteem. There were sacred virgins called ‘Wives of the Sun,’ somewhat similar to the Roman vestals.[7] (The nuns of the present day, do they not style themselves the ‘Spouses of Christ’?). They made a vow of perpetual chastity.... It is also said they were buried alive when they happened to break their vow of chastity, unless indeed they could prove having conceived, not from a man, but from the sun.
[7] “Now as to these vows of virginity, Heliogabalus did promulgate a law to the effect that no Roman maid, not even a Vestal Virgin, was bound to perpetuate virginity, saying how that the female sex was over weak for women to be bound to a pact they could never be sure of keeping.” (Brantôme: _Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies_.) The author of this edict was not without a knowledge of sexual psychology, for we have ample evidence that some of the Vestals failed in their duty, which was, nominally, to guard the sacred fire and the Holy Things of Rome. “Far up by Porta Pia,” says F. Marion Crawford (_Ave Roma Immortalis_: London, 1903), “over against the new Treasury, under a modern street, lie the bones of guilty Vestals, buried living, each in a little vault two fathoms deep, with the small dish and crust and the earthen lamp that soon flickered out in the close, damp air.” Vestal Virgins had many privileges denied to other Roman women; they were free for life; they had a right to be present at the Emperor’s games; and they were treated with marked respect by the highest in the land. That the privileges of virginity did not necessarily make for the owner’s happiness is instanced by Brantôme’s grim story. “Maids and virgins,” he writes (_Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies_), “would seem in old days at Rome to have been highly honoured and privileged, so much so that the law had no jurisdiction over them to sentence them to death. Hence the story we read of a Roman Senator in the time of the Triumvirate, which was condemned to die among other victims of the Proscription, and not he alone, but all the offspring of his loins. So when a daughter of his house did appear on the scaffold, a very fair and lovely girl, but of unripe years and yet a virgin, ‘twas needful for the executioner to deflower her himself and take her maidenhead on the scaffold, and only then when she was so polluted, could he ply his knife upon her. The Emperor Tiberius did delight in having fair virgins thus publicly deflowered, and then put to death,--a right villainous piece of cruelty, pardy!”
“Several authors worthy of credence assure us that these vestals were guarded by eunuchs. The temple at Cuzco had one thousand virgins, that of Caranqua two hundred. It would appear, however, that the virginity of these vestals was not so very sacred after all, for the Inca Kings used to choose from among them concubines for themselves or for their principal vassals and favourite friends.
“Marco Polo narrates how young girls were exposed by their mothers on the public highway in order that travellers might freely make use of them.[8] A young girl was expected to have at least twenty presents earned by such prostitutions before she could hope to find a husband. This did not prevent them from being very virtuous after marriage, nor their virtue from being much appreciated.[9]
[8] _C.f._ Herodotus, who tells us that in the fifth century before Christ every woman, once in her life, had to come to the temple of Mylitta, the Babylonian Venus, and yield herself to the first stranger who threw a coin in her lap, in worship of the goddess. The money could not be refused, however small the amount, but it was given as an offertory to the temple, and the woman, having followed the man and thus made oblation to Mylitta, returned home and lived chastely ever afterwards. (Havelock Ellis: _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_: vol. 6: _Sex in Relation to Society_.) Havelock Ellis has quoted Herodotus in relation to prostitution, holding that its origin is to be found primarily in religious custom. In our opinion, the practice also merits inclusion in a catalogue of virginal folk-lore, and we are further justified in our view by the statement that the woman who so yielded herself lived chastely ever afterwards.
[9] “In old times we read of a custom in the isle of Cyprus, which ‘tis said the kindly goddess Venus, the patroness of that land, did introduce. This was that the maids of that island should go forth and wander along the banks, shores and cliffs of the sea, for to earn their marriage portions by the generous giving of their bodies to mariners, sailors and seafarers along that coast. These would put in to shore on purpose, very often indeed turning from their straight course by compass to land there; and so taking their pleasant refreshment with them, would pay handsomely, and presently hie them away again to sea, for their part only too sorry to leave such good entertainment behind. Thus would these fair maids win their marriage dowers, some more, some less, some high, some low, some grand, some lowly, according to the beauty, gifts and carnal attractions of each damsel.” (Brantôme: _Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies_.)
“Waitz assures us that in several countries of Africa a young girl is preferred for wife when she has made herself remarked by several amours and by much fecundity. (_C.f._ Havelock Ellis, _op. cit._, vol.6: ‘Equally unsound is the notion that the virgin bride brings her husband at marriage an important capital which is consumed in the first act of intercourse and can never be recovered. That is a notion which has survived into civilisation, but it belongs to barbarism and not to civilisation. So far as it has any validity it lies within a sphere of erotic perversity which cannot be taken into consideration in an estimation of moral values. For most men, however, in any case, whether they realise it or not, the woman who has been initiated into the mysteries of love has a higher erotic value than the virgin,[10] and there need be no anxiety on this ground concerning the wife who has lost her virginity.’)
[10] “I am not surprised if the Phœnicians, according to St. Athanasius, obliged their daughters, by severe laws, to suffer themselves before marriage to be deflowered by valets, or also that the Armenians, as Strabo relates, sacrificed their daughters in the temple of the Goddess Anaitis, with the object of being eased of their maidenheads, so as to be able afterwards to find advantageous marriages suited to their condition; for one cannot describe what exhaustion and what sufferings a man has to undergo in his first action, at all events if the girl be narrow.... It is far sweeter to have connection with a woman accustomed to the pleasures of love than to caress one who has not yet known a man; for as we ask a locksmith to ease the wards of a new lock he brings us, to save us the trouble we might have the first day, so had the nations of whom we spoke good reason for establishing such laws.” (Nicolas Venette: _La Génération de L’Homme, ou Tableau de L’Amour Conjugal_: Paris, 1751.)
“It was impossible,” continues Dr. Jacobus X--, “ever to find the signs of virginity among the Machacura women in Brazil, and Feldner explains the reason thus:--
“‘Among them a virgin is never to be found, for this reason: that the mother from her daughter’s tenderest years endeavours with the utmost care to remove all tightness of the vagina and obstacle therein. With this end in view, the leaf of a tree folded in the shape of a funnel is held in the right hand, then while the index finger is introduced into the genital parts and worked to and fro, warm water is admitted by means of the funnel.’ (_Journey Across Brazil_, 1828.)
“Among the Sakalaves in Madagascar the young girls deflower themselves, when the parents have not previously seen to this necessary preparation for marriage.
“Among the Balanti of Senegambia, one of the most degraded races in Africa, the girls cannot find a husband until they have been deflowered by their King, who often exacts costly presents from his female subjects for putting them in condition to be able to marry.
“Barth, (1856), in describing Adamad, says that the chief of the Bagoli used to lie the first night with the daughters of the Fulba, a people under his sway. Similar facts are related of the aborigines of Brazil and of the Kinipeto Esquimaux.
“Demosthenes informs us that there was a celebrated Greek hetaira, named Mæra, who had seven slaves whom she called her daughters, so that being supposed to be free a higher price was paid for their favours. She sold their virginity five or six times over, and ended by selling the whole lot together.
“The god Mutinus, Mutunus or Tutunus of ancient Rome used to have the new brides come and sit upon his knees, as if to offer him their virginity. St. Augustine says: ‘In the celebration of nuptials the newly wed bride used to be bidden sit on the shaft of Priapus.’ Lactantius gives more precise details: ‘And Mutunus, in whose shameful lap brides sit, in order that the god may appear to have gathered the first-fruits of their virginity.’ It appears, however, that this offering was not merely symbolical, for when they had become wives, they used to return to the favourite deity to pray for fecundity.[11]
[11] “According to Festus, _Mutinus_ is a god differing wholly from Priapus, having a public sanctuary at Rome, where the statue was placed sitting with _penis_ erect. Newly mated girls were placed in his lap, before being led away to their husbands, so that the deity might appear to have foretasted their virginity, this being supposed to render the bride fruitful.” (_Priapeia_: Cosmopoli, 1890.) Schurig (_Gynæcologia_: _op. cit. sup._) instances the Indian custom of deflowering young brides by means of an enormous priapus in the temples.
“Arnobius also asks: ‘Is it Tutunus, on whose huge organs and bristling tool you think it an auspicious and desirable thing that your matrons should be mounted?’
“Pertunda was another hermaphrodite divinity that St. Augustine maliciously proposed rather to name the _Deus Pretundus_ (who strikes first); it was carried on to the nuptial bed to aid the bridegroom: ‘Pertunda stands there ready in the bed-chamber for the aid of husbands excavating the virgin pit.’ (Arnobius.)
“The Kondadgis (Ceylon), the Cambodgians, and other peoples charged their priests with the defloration of their brides.
“Jager communicated to the Berlin Anthropological Society a passage from Gemelli Cancri, which mentions a _stupratio officialis_[12] practised at a certain period among the Bisayos of the Philippine Islands: ‘There is no known example of a custom so barbarous as that which had been there established, of having public officials, and even paid very dearly, to take the virginity of young girls, the same being considered to be an obstacle to the pleasures of the husband. As a fact there no longer exists any trace of this infamous practice since the establishment of the Spanish rule, ... but even to-day a Bisayo feels vexed to find his wife safe from suspicion, because he concludes, that not having excited the desire of anyone, she must have some bad quality which will prevent him from being happy with her.’
[12] _i.e._, a legalised defilement or ravishing. Blondeau, in his _Dictionnaire érotique latin-français_ (Liseux: Paris, 1885), translates _stupratio_ as “a combat in which one forces a beauty to yield to one’s passion ... to take possession of the honour of some pretty woman ... the struggle in which women succumb with pleasure.” _Stupro_, the verb; _stuprator_, the noun; and _stupratus_, the adjective have kindred meanings.
“On the Malabar Coast, also, there were Brahmins whose only religious office was to gather the virgin flower of young girls. These latter used to pay them for it, without which they could not find husbands. The King of Calicut himself used to grant the right of the first night to a Brahmin; the King of Tamassat grants it to the first stranger who arrives in the town; whereas the King of Campa reserves to himself the _jus primæ noctis_[13] for all the marriages in the kingdom. (_De Gubernatis, Histoire des voyageurs italiens aux Indes Orientales_: Livourne, 1875.)
[13] An old established practice whereby newly married women are deflowered by others than their husbands, whether by priest, lord, or stranger. To discuss this relic of feudalism would be beyond the scope of a note; it is summed up briefly in the idea that the lord of a domain was entitled to exact tribute from his subjects in the form of intercourse with every bride on the first night of her marriage. Our readers are referred to Dr. Karl Schmidt’s _Jus Primæ Noctis (The Law of the First Night)_, the most comprehensive treatise on the subject.
“Warthema says that the King of Calicut, when he took a wife, chose the most worthy and learned Brahmin to deflower the maiden; for this service he received from 400 to 500 crowns. At Tenasserim fathers used to beg of their daughters to allow themselves to be deflowered by Christians or Mohammedans.
“Pascal de Andagoya, who visited Nicaragua between 1514 and 1522, says that it was usual for a grand-priest to lie during the first night with the bride, and Oviedo, (1535), speaking of the Acovacks and other American nations, relates that the wife, in order that the marriage should be happy, passed the first nuptial night with the priest or _piache_, and Gomarra, (1551), relates the same thing of the inhabitants of Cumana.
“In Europe, young girls who are not very virtuous, and who have studied all the various forms of flirtation, are most generally passed off as virgins when they marry. Even when it does not really exist, there are many ways by which a virginity--which perhaps has been sold over and over again by expert and clever procuresses--can be simulated. A little time before going to the nuptial bed, the girl inserts into her vagina a few drops of pigeon’s blood; or in some cases she selects for her wedding day the last day of menstruation. A sponge, skilfully placed, allows the blood to flow at the moment of the catastrophe, when a sudden ‘Oh!’ announces to the unsuspecting husband that the temple has been violated for the first time, and that the veil of the _sanctum sanctorum_ has really been rent by him. Add also to these methods injections so astringent that, at the required time, they will give to a prostitute, whose gap has been widened by a thousand customers, a tightness greater than that of a real virgin.”
The more one examines the question, the more one is convinced that virginity or chastity has come to be regarded as a spiritual and moral asset only in civilised, or comparatively civilised, society. “In considering the moral quality of chastity among savages,” writes Havelock Ellis (_Studies in the Psychology of Sex_, vol. 6, p. 147), “we must carefully separate that chastity which among semi-primitive peoples is exclusively imposed upon women. This has no moral quality whatever, for it is not exercised as a useful discipline, but merely enforced in order to heighten the economic and erotic value of women.
“Many authorities believe that the regard for women as property furnishes the true reason for the widespread insistence on virginity in brides. Thus A. B. Ellis, speaking of the West Coast of Africa (_Yoruba Speaking Peoples_, pp. 183 _et seq._), says that girls of good class are betrothed as mere children, and are carefully guarded from men, while girls of lower class are seldom betrothed, and may lead any life they choose.”
Virginity in woman, it seems, has been set on a pedestal unsupported by history, science, or investigation. It is obviously the outcome of man’s desire, when he buys or acquires, to obtain unsoiled goods. Comes a time, however, when the value of these so-called unsoiled goods grows questionable. Something virgin, in terms of common sense, is not necessarily something valuable; here enters the thinking, and, ultimately, the erotic, element. Let a man fall to asking why he demands virginity, and he will speedily begin to realise that it is the last thing he requires. Virginity spells ignorance, awkwardness and obstacles; maturity means understanding and co-operation. Thus, by easy stages, we reach the conclusion, mentioned by Havelock Ellis and quoted above, that for most men, whether they realise it or not, the love-wise woman has a greater erotic value than the virgin.[14]
[14] Brantôme, of course, has some pertinent remarks on the subject. In his _Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies_, he devotes the seventh _Discourse_ to the following topic: _Concerning married women, widows and maids,--to wit, which of these same be better than other to love_. “One day,” writes the genial philosopher, “when I was at the Court of Spain at Madrid, and conversing with a very honourable lady, ... she did chance to ask me this question following:--’Which of the three had the greater heat of love: widow, wife or maid?’ After myself had told her mine opinion she did in turn give me hers in some such terms as these: ‘That albeit maids, with all that heat of blood that is theirs, be right well disposed to love, yet do they not love so well as wives and widows. This is because of the great experience of the business the latter have, and the obvious fact that supposing a man born blind, ... he can never desire the gift of sight so strongly as he that has sweetly enjoyed the same a while and then been deprived of it.’” Later, quoting Boccaccio, Brantôme also says:--“The widow is more painstaking of the pleasure of love an hundred fold than the virgin, seeing the latter is all for dearly guarding her precious virginity and maidenhead. Further, virgins be naturally timid, and above all in this matter, awkward and inept to find the sweet artifices and pretty complaisances required under divers circumstances in such encounters. But this is not so with the widow, who is already well practised, bold and ready in this art, having long ago bestowed and given away what the virgin doth make so much ado about giving.... Beside all this, the maid doth dread this first assault of her virginity, ... whereas widows have no such fear, but do submit themselves very sweetly and gently, even when the assailant be of the roughest.”
Quoting Westermarck (_History of Human Marriage_), he goes on to refer to the fact that the seduction of an unmarried girl “is chiefly, if not exclusively, regarded as an offence against the parents or family of the girl,” and there is no indication that it is ever held by savages that any wrong has been done to the woman herself.
“Westermarck realises at the same time,” adds Havelock Ellis, “that the preference given to virgins has also a biological basis in the instinctive masculine feeling of jealousy in regard to women who have had intercourse with other men, and especially in the erotic charm for men of the emotional state of shyness which accompanies virginity.”
Here, in all probability, are the most powerful reasons for the value placed on virginity; each reason, too, is highly practical. Who among us truly wants to share his most treasured possession? And the shy charm of virginity ‘neath the attack of the amorous lover is as undeniable as it is indescribable. Hence the virgin’s lure for the old and worn-out roué, who finds in her shrinking reluctance a stimulant to his erotic prowess which sympathy, boldness, even lewdness, have no power to furnish. That quaint old book, “_Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure_,” (London, 1780), gives a typical account of the attempt and failure of an aged rake to ravish the then virginal heroine of the story.[15]
[15] We can supplement these remarks by a further quotation from that curious work already noticed, _The Battles of Venus_, wherein we read: “This lust, then, after the _untouched_ morsel, I take not to be an original dictate of nature; but consequently to result from much experience with women, which has been demonstrated to lead to novelty of wishes from fastidious impotence.... Yet, in truth, I esteem the fruition of a virgin to be, with respect both to the mind and body of the enjoyer, the highest aggravation of sensual delight. In the first place, his fancy is heated with the prospect of enjoying a woman, after whom he has perhaps long sighed and has been in pursuit, who he thinks has never before been in bed with a man, (in whose arms never before has man laid), and in triumphing in the first sight of her virgin charms. This precious operation, then, of fancy, has been shown in the highest degree to prepare the body for enjoyment. Secondly, his body perceives, in that of a virgin, the cause of the greatest aggravation of delight. I mean not only in the coyness and resistance which she makes to his efforts, but when he is on the point of accomplishing them: when arrived, as the poet sings, ‘on the brink of giddy rapture,’ when in pity to a tender virgin’s sufferings, he is intreated not to break fiercely in, but to spare ‘fierce dilaceration and dire pangs.’ The resistance which the small, and as yet unopened, mouth of bliss makes to his eager endeavours, serves only, and that on a physical principle, to strengthen the instrument of his attack, and concurs, with the instigation of his ardent fancy, to reinforce his efforts, to unite all the co-operative powers of enjoyment, and to produce an emission copious, rapid, and transporting.... ‘In this case, part of the delight arises from considering that ... you feel the convulsive wrigglings of the chaste nymph you have so long adored....’” Our acknowledgements are again due to Pisanus Fraxi, from whose _Index Librorum Prohibitorum_ our extract is taken. The author of _The Battles of Venus_, it need hardly be said, is in no sense an authority; his work, indeed, is pornographic rather than artistic; at the same time, it is impossible to ignore his flashes of insight into a question which has exercised the minds of the greatest psychologists.
At certain times and with certain peoples the virgin maid has been fenced about with all manner of safeguards up to the very hour of her marriage; but have these and other peoples ever troubled to preserve the virginity of their daughters as they were at pains to guard the chastity of their wives? What nation ever inflicted that ghastly contrivance, the Girdle of Chastity, upon its virgin daughters? This bar to erotic pleasure was reserved exclusively for the potentially froward wife.
Originating in the woollen band worn by the Spartan virgins[16]--a garment removed for the first time by the husband on the wedding night--these Girdles of Chastity, with their padlocks and keys, were undoubtedly in use in the fourteenth or fifteenth century, and in use for an unmistakable purpose. “The first to employ this apparatus,” says Dr. Jacobus X--(_Ethnology of the Sixth Sense_: Charles Carrington: Paris, 1899), “was Francis of Tarrara, Provost of Padua in the fourteenth century. It was a belt having a central piece made of ivory, with a barbed narrow slit down the middle, which was passed between the legs and fixed there by lock and key. A specimen of this safety apparatus is to be seen actually at the Musée de Cluny in Paris.”
[16] Brantôme, apparently, had a poor opinion of Spartan virginity. “What kind of virtue was it?” he asks. (_Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies._) “Why! on their solemn feast-days the Spartan maids were used to sing and dance in public stark naked with the lads, and even wrestle in the open market place,--the which however was done in all honesty and good faith, so History saith. But what sort of honesty and purity was this, we may well ask, to look on at these pretty maids so performing publicly? Honesty was it never a whit, but pleasure in the sight of them, and especially of their bodily movements and dancing postures, and above all in their wrestling; and chiefest of all when they came to fall one atop of the other, as they say in Latin: ‘She underneath, he atop; he underneath, she atop.’ You will never persuade me ‘twas all honesty and purity herein with these Spartan maidens. I ween there is never chastity so chaste that would not have been shaken thereby, or that, so making in public and by day these feint assaults, they did not presently in privity and by night and on assignation proceed to greater combats and night attacks.”
Dr. Caufeynon, the great authority on the subject, believes, however, that these girdles only date from the Renaissance.[17] In his remarkable little work, _La Ceinture de Chasteté_ (Paris, 1904), which contains numerous engravings and photographic designs, he gives an illustration of the specimen in the Musée de Cluny. Quoting Brantôme (_Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies_), he adds:--
[17] Havelock Ellis, _op. cit._, vol. 6: _Sex in Relation to Society_, p. 163.
“In the time of Henry the king there lived an ironmonger who brought to the fair of St. Germain a dozen of certain machines to bridle the parts of women; they were fashioned of iron and went round like a girdle, and went below and were closed with a key. So cleverly were they fashioned that it was not possible for the women, when once bridled, to arrive at the sweet pleasure, there being but a few small holes in it for pissing.
“‘Tis said there were five or six jealous husbands, who bought these machines and bridled their wives with them in such fashion that they might well have said ‘Farewell, happy time,’ had there not been one who bethought her of applying to a locksmith very skilled in his art, to whom she showed the machine, her own, her husband being then out in the fields; and he applied his mind so well to the matter that he made for her a false key, with which the lady opened or closed the machine at any time and when she willed.
“The husband never discovered aught to say on the matter; and the lady gave herself up to her own good pleasure, despite her foolish, jealous, cuckold husband, being ever able to live in the freedom of cuckoldom. But the wicked locksmith who fashioned the false key tasted of it all; and he did well, so they say, for he was the first to taste of it.
“They say, too, that there were many gallant and honest gentlemen of the court who threatened that ironmonger with death did he ever presume to carry about such merchandise; so much so that he was afraid and returned no more and threw away all the rest, and no more was heard of. Wherein he was wise, for it were enough to lose half the world, for want of any body to people it, through such bridles, clasps and fastenings of a nature abominable and detestable and enemies to human multiplication.”
The troubadour Guillaume de Machault speaks of a key given to him by Agnes of Navarre; this key was obviously intended to unlock a girdle of chastity. Nicolas Chorier, in his erotic _Dialogues of Luisa Sigea_ (Paris: Isidore Liseux, 1890), mentions the apparatus. Although the existence of such girdles has often been denied, “the presence of many undoubted specimens in several of the most important museums of Europe,” says Dr. Jacobus X--(_Ethnology of the Sixth Sense_), “places their authenticity beyond all doubt. This custom existed more particularly during the time of the Crusades, ... but a very curious instance is mentioned as having occurred as late as the middle of the eighteenth century, for it is recorded that the advocate Feydeau pleaded before the supreme court of Montpellier on behalf of a woman who accused her husband of making her undergo this shameful treatment. (_Petition against the introduction of padlocks or girdles of chastity, Montpellier, 1750._)”
All this only goes to show that virginity and chastity are two very different things, and that the latter was obviously of more account than the former in the eyes of mediæval man. Much the same obtains to-day. To a certain extent we seek to preserve the virginity of our daughters; but is there any limit to the precautions with which a jealous husband will fence about his wife? In short, virginity concerns alone her who loses it; is any man’s for the taking. Chastity is another person’s property.
This slight survey of virginity would be incomplete without a reference to the operation of infibulation[18]--the artificial adhesion of the _labia majora_ by means of a ring or stitches with a view to the prevention of sexual intercourse. Kisch, (_The Sexual Life of Woman_: translated by M. Eden Paul: London: Wm. Heinemann), quotes the authority of Ploss-Bartels for saying that this operation is practised by many savage peoples, among them the Bedschas, the Gallas, the Somalis, the inhabitants of Harrar, at Massaua, etc.
[18] _C.f._ the Latin _infibulare_=to clasp, buckle, or button together. (Smith’s Latin-English dictionary.) The noun _fibula_ can be translated: (1) a clasp, buckle, pin, latchet, brace; (2) a surgical instrument for drawing together the edges of a gaping wound; (3) a ring drawn through the prepuce to prevent copulation. Celsus, Martial and Juvenal use the word in this sense. “The ancient Romans prevented actors from copulating, with the object of preserving their voices. Martial speaks of singers who sometimes broke the ring, and whom it was necessary to bring back again to the blacksmith.” (Jacobus X--, _op. cit._)
“The purpose of this practise,” he adds, “is to preserve the chastity of the girls until marriage, when the reverse operative procedure is undertaken. If the husband goes away on a journey, in many cases the operation of infibulation is once more performed upon his wives. Slave-dealers also make use of this operation so as to prevent their slaves from becoming pregnant. It is reported, however, that the operation does not invariably produce the desired effect.”
Nothing we have said or quoted, however, can alter the fact that virginity has been and will always be a certain asset in civilised or semi-civilised communities. There is a romance attached to the term which neither cynicism nor materialism can kill. Incidentally, there is a strong business side to the question. Who, as we said before, wants to feel that his dearest possession has been shared by others? Who, in more modern parlance, wants damaged goods?
While life lasts, the virgin maid will lure the normal lover, common sense and cold facts notwithstanding. What the poet sang and the amorous swain coveted in those by-gone times of pomp and paganism, in the days of chivalry, and even in that dreary early Victorian era, will be sung and coveted centuries hence. Science, new discoveries, new theories, new ideals, new conditions, cannot oust human nature, our undeniable birthright. The sanctity and value of virginity are traditions; and, as Havelock Ellis says, in that singularly beautiful postscript to his _Studies_, “there can be no world without traditions; neither can there be any life without movement. As Heracleitus knew at the outset of modern philosophy, we cannot bathe twice in the same stream, though, as we know to-day, the stream still flows in an unending circle. There is never a moment when the new dawn is not breaking over the earth, and never a moment when the sunset ceases to die. It is well to greet serenely even the first glimmer of the dawn when we see it, not hastening toward it with undue speed, nor leaving the sunset without gratitude for the dying light that once was dawn.
“In the moral world we are ourselves the light-bearers, and the cosmic process is in us made flesh. For a brief space it is granted to us, if we will, to enlighten the darkness that surrounds our path. As in the ancient torch-race, which seemed to Lucretius to be the symbol of all life, we press forward torch in hand along the course. Soon from behind comes the runner who will outpace us. All our skill lies in giving into his hand the living torch, bright and unflickering, as we ourselves disappear in the darkness.”
Beautiful words, and fitting monument to a man who gave thirty years of his life to the production of a work that will live for all time. Hardly applicable to our present theme some, perhaps, will say. We take leave to differ. In the relations between man and woman all life is epitomised. Each bears the torch, and the race they run is the life they lead. To almost all is granted the chance to hand on the torch in living, breathing prototype.
Let us recognise new conditions, new ideas; let us welcome, examine and weigh them, that none may say we do not ‘greet serenely the dawn.’ But let us also remember that theory cannot oust fact, nor materialism human nature.
Down the ages man has altered in custom and habit, but in his spiritual essence not at all. Save for local and racial differences, humanity has shared the same passions of pain, sorrow, happiness, anger, laughter and lust throughout all time. Human nature alone does not change; our birthright is immutable. Human nature ever has, and ever will, set store by virginity. It has become a tradition. And without tradition, as the great psychologist has truly told us, there is no world.
THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.
THE ENCHANTED RING.[19]
[19] _Kruptadia_: Heilbronn, 1883: Henninger Frères: vol. 1: _Secret Stories from the Russian_, No. 32. Also _Contes Secrets Russes_: Paris: Liseux, 1891.
In a certain reign, in a certain kingdom, there lived once on a time three peasant brethren, who quarrelled among themselves and divided up their goods; they did not share equally, and the division gave much to the elder brethren but very little to the youngest.
All three were young lads. They went forth together into the courtyard, saying one to the other:
“‘Tis time for us to wed.”
“‘Tis well enough for ye,” quoth the youngest brother. “Ye are rich, and the rich can marry. But what may I do? I am poor. I have not even a log of wood to my name. All I have for a fortune is a yard which reacheth to my knees!”
On this very moment there chanced to pass a merchant’s daughter, who overheard these words and said to herself:
“Ah! that I might have this young man for a husband! He hath a yard that reacheth to his very knees!”
The two elder brethren married; the youngest remained single.
The merchant’s daughter, back in her home, had no thought in her head but to wed the young peasant; several rich merchants sought her hand in marriage, but she would have none of them.
“I will wed with none save this young man,” quoth she.
Her father and mother sought to dissuade her. “What art thinking on, foolish one?” said they. “Come back to thy senses! Why wouldst wed with a poor peasant?”
“Concern not yourselves with that!” answered she. “‘Tis not ye who will have to live with him!”
The merchant’s daughter came to an understanding with the matchmaker, and dispatched her to tell the young man to come without fail and ask her hand in marriage. The matchmaker went to see him, saying:
“Hearken, oh! my little dove. Why standest there gaping? Go ask in marriage the merchant’s daughter. She hath awaited thee this long time, and will wed thee with joy.”
The young man swiftly apparelled himself, donned a new smock-frock, took his new hat, and hied him forthwith to the house of the merchant to ask his daughter’s hand in marriage. When the merchant’s daughter perceived him, when she recognised that it was indeed he whose yard reached to his knees, she fell to asking her father and mother for their blessing on a union indissoluble.
On the wedding night she went to bed with her husband, and perceived that he had but a little yard, smaller even than a finger.
“Oh! thou scoundrel!” she cried. “Thou boastest ownership of a yard reaching to thy knees! What hast done with it?”
“Dear wife, thou knowest that I was a bachelor, and very poor; when I resolved to marry, I had neither gold nor aught else to enable me so to do. So I have pledged my yard.”[20]
[20] Literally: “put it in pawn.”
“And for what sum hast thou pledged thy yard?”
“But for little--for fifty roubles.”
“Good. On the morrow I will go seek my mother, I will beg money of her, and thou wilt go without fail to recover thy yard. If thou dost not buy it back, enter not the house!”
She waited until morn, then ran swiftly in search of her mother, saying:
“Grant me a favour, little mother. Give me fifty roubles. I have sore need of them.”
“But tell me why thou hast need of them.”
“See, little mother. My husband had a yard which reached to his knees. When we desired to marry, he knew not where to find the money, the poor man, and he hath pledged his yard for fifty roubles. Now my husband hath but a tiny yard, even smaller than a finger. ‘Tis of the utmost necessity, therefore, to buy back his ancient yard.”
The mother, understanding the need, drew fifty roubles from her purse, and gave them to her daughter. The latter returned to her home and gave the money to her husband, saying:
“Go! Run now swiftly to buy back thine ancient yard, in order that strangers may not make use of it!”
The young man took the money and went forth, eyes downcast. Where might he turn now? Where find for his wife such a yard? Best leave it to chance.
He went forward, now swiftly, now slowly, and at length he encountered an aged woman.
“Good day, good woman.”
“Good day, good man. Whither goest thou at this pace?”
“Ah, good woman--would thou knewest--would thou didst know my sorrow--would I might tell thee whither I go!”
“Tell me thy sorrow, little dove. Perchance I can come to thine aid.”
“I am shamed to tell it thee.”
“Fear not, have no shame. Speak boldly.”
“Ah, well, see here, good woman. I had boasted of having a yard that reached to my knees; a merchant’s daughter, who had heard this, espoused me, but when she lay with me on our wedding night and perceived that I had but a little yard, smaller than a finger, she cried out and asked what I had done with my great yard. I told her that I had pledged it for fifty roubles; she gave me the money and bade me buy it back without fail; otherwise, I might not show myself again at my home. And I know not how to satisfy my little dove.”
The aged woman made answer to him:
“Give me thy money,” said she, “and I will find a remedy for thy sorrow.”
Forthwith he drew the fifty roubles from his pocket and gave them to her; the aged woman handed to him a ring.
“Come, take this ring,” quoth she. “Put it only on thy finger nail.”
The young man took the ring, and scarce had he put it on his finger nail ere his yard stretched itself a cubit’s length.
“Well, what of it?” asked the aged woman. “Doth thy yard reach to thy knees?”
“Yea, good woman. It reacheth even below my knees.”
“Now, my little dove, pass the ring down thy whole finger.”
He passed the ring over his entire finger, and his yard lengthened out even unto seven versts.[21]
[21] A verst would be about 1,170 yards. The virtue of the ring was indeed remarkable!
“Ah! good woman! where shall I lodge it? It will bring me ill fortune with my wife.”
“Thrust up the ring to thy finger nail; thy yard will be but a cubit’s span. This for thy guidance--pay attention and never put the ring beyond thy finger nail.”
He thanked the aged woman, and retook the road homeward; and as he journeyed he rejoiced in that he need not appear before his wife with empty hands.
But as he went, he felt a desire to eat. Going aside, he seated himself not far from the road at the foot of a burdock, drew biscuits from his wallet, dipped them in water, and fell to eating. Anon, desire to slumber o’er-came him; he lay down, belly uppermost, and played with the ring. He put it upon his finger nail, and his yard rose to the height of a cubit’s span; he pressed his whole finger through the ring, and his yard rose to a height of seven versts; he removed the ring, and his yard became small as before. He examined and re-examined the ring, and thus he fell asleep. But he forgot to conceal the ring, which rested upon his belly.
There chanced to pass in a carriage a lord and his wife. The lord saw, not far from the road, a peasant aslumbering, and upon his belly glittered a ring, as it were a live coal in the sun. He stopped the horses, saying to his lackey:
“Approach the peasant, take the ring, and bring it to me.”
Straightway the lackey ran to the peasant, and carried back the ring to the lord. And these went on their way.
The lord admired the ring.
“Look thou, my dear loved one,” said he to his wife. “What a superb ring! Behold! I put it upon my finger.” And he passed it down his whole finger.
Straightway his yard reached out, o’erturned the coachman from his box seat, struck one of the mares right beneath the tail, pushed aside the animal, and caused the carriage to go ahead of it.[22]
[22] _Contes Secrets Russes_ translate: “His yard stretched forth, hurled the driver from his seat, passed beyond the team of horses, and reached out in front of the carriage for a distance of seven versts.”
The lady beheld what misfortune had befallen, was greatly affrighted, and cried with all her force to the lackey, saying:
“Run most swiftly to the peasant and lead him hither!”
The lackey sped amain to the peasant and aroused him, saying:
“Come swiftly, my little peasant, to my master!”
The peasant sought his ring.
“A curse on thee! Thou hast taken my ring!”
“Seek not,” said the lackey. “Come to my master. He hath thy ring, which hath caused us a great fuss.”
The peasant ran to the carriage. Quoth the lord to him:
“Pardon me, but come to my aid in my misfortune!”
“What wilt give me, lord?”
“Here are one hundred roubles.”
“Give me two hundred and I will deliver thee.”
The lord drew two hundred roubles from his pocket, the peasant took the money, and withdrew the ring from the lord’s finger, whereat the yard vanished as if by magic, and there was left to the lord but his former little instrument.
The lord went his way, and the peasant hied him homeward with the ring. His wife was at the window and saw him come; she ran to meet him.
“Hast brought it back?” asked she.
“I have.”
“Show it me!”
“Come within the chamber. I cannot show it thee outside.”
They entered the chamber, nor did the wife cease to repeat: “Show it me! Show it me!”
He placed the ring on his finger-nail, and his yard lengthened a cubit’s span; then he drew off his drawers, saying: “Behold, wife!”
The wife fell on his neck.
“My dear little husband, here is truly an instrument that will be better in our house than with strangers. Come swiftly and eat; then we will to bed and make trial of it.”
Forthwith she put upon the table all manner of meats and beverages, and they fell to eating and drinking. Having feasted, they betook themselves to bed. When he had pierced his wife with this yard, she, for three whole days, was ever peering ‘neath his garment; it seemed to her that the yard was ever thrusting between her legs.
She went to pay a visit to her mother, what time her husband hied him to the garden and lay down ‘neath an apple tree.
“Well,” asked the mother of her daughter, “have ye bought back the yard?”
“We have bought it back, little mother.”
And the mother had but one thought: to steal away, profiting by her daughter’s visit, to run to the house of her son-in-law, and to make trial of his great yard.
And while the daughter chattered, the mother came to the house of the son-in-law and sped into the garden. The son-in-law was aslumbering; the ring was on his finger nail, and his yard stood erect to the height of a cubit’s span.
“I will mount upon his yard,” said the good mother to herself.
And she mounted, in sooth, upon the yard, and balanced herself thereon.
But, by ill fortune, the ring slipped to the base of the finger of the son-in-law what time he slept, and the yard raised the good mother to the height of seven versts.
The daughter perceived that her mother had gone forth, she divined the reason, and hastened to return home. In her house there was no one. She went into the garden, and what saw she? Her husband aslumbering, his yard raised to a vast height, and, all in the clouds, the good mother, scarce visible; and she, when the wind blew, turned upon the yard as though upon a stake.
What to do? How remove her mother from off the yard?
A great crowd had come together; they discussed; they proferred counsel. Said some: there is naught for it but to take a hatchet and cut the yard. Said others: no, ‘tis a bad plan. Why lose two souls? For as soon as the yard is cut, the woman will fall and kill herself. ‘Tis better to pray to God that perchance by some miracle the old woman will disentangle herself from it.
During this time the son-in-law awoke, and perceived that his ring had descended to the base of his finger, that his yard raised itself towards the sky to a height of seven versts, and that it nailed him solidly to the earth, in such wise that he could not turn upon his other side.
He withdrew very softly the ring from his finger; his yard descended to the height of a cubit’s span; and the son-in-law saw his mother-in-law suspended upon it.
“How camest thou there, little mother?”
“Pardon, my little son-in-law. I will not do it any more!”
_VARIANT._
Once on a time a tailor possessed a magic ring; as soon as he put it upon his finger, his yard assumed an extraordinary development. It fell out that he went to work at the house of a woman; by nature he was gay and given to jesting, and when he lay down to slumber he neglected always to cover his genitals.
The woman observed that he had a yard of great proportions; desirous of sampling the power of such an instrument, she summoned the tailor to her chamber.
“Hearken,” quoth she to him. “Consent to sin once with me.”
“Why not, madam? But only on one condition--that thou dost not fart! If thou dost fart, thou shalt pay me three hundred roubles.”
“Very good,” answered she.
They betook themselves to bed; the good woman took all possible precautions not to expel wind during the sexual act; she instructed her chambermaid to seek a large onion, to thrust this into her fundament, and to hold it there with both hands. These orders were carried out minutely, but at the first assault delivered by the tailor upon the woman, the onion was violently expelled and struck the chambermaid with such force that she was killed outright!
The woman lost her three hundred roubles; the tailor pocketed this sum and hied him homeward. Having journeyed some distance, he felt a desire to slumber and lay down in a field. He placed the ring upon his finger and his yard stretched to the length of one verst. As he lay thus, slumber o’ertook him, and whilst he slept came seven starving wolves, which devoured the greater part of his yard. He awoke as if naught had chanced,[23] took the ring from his finger, put it in his pocket, and pursued his way.
[23] The _Kruptadia_ version says: “As if flies had just tickled his yard.”
Came night, and the tailor entered the house of a peasant. Now this peasant had married a young woman who had a liking for well-membered men. The guest went to sleep in the courtyard, leaving his yard exposed. Perceiving it, the peasant’s wife felt a great desire; raising her robe, she coupled with the tailor.
“Good,” quoth he to himself; and he placed the ring on his finger, and his yard rose little by little to the height of one verst. But when the wife perceived herself so far from the earth, all desire to futter left her, and she clung with both hands to this strange support in mid-air.
Beholding the peril that beset the wretched woman, her neighbours and relations fell to praying for the safety of both. But the tailor gently withdrew the ring from his finger; gradually the dimensions of his member decreased, and, when it reached but to a small height, the woman jumped to earth.
“Ah! insatiable coynte,” quoth the tailor to her. “It had been thy death had they cut my yard.”[24]
[24] The main theme of these foregoing _contes_--the yard which increases to gigantic proportions--is not confined to Russian folk-lore. In _Kruptadia_, vol. 2: _Some Erotic Folk-Lore from Scotland_, we find the following:--A man and a woman were in each other’s embraces. The man was succuba. His yard began to enlarge and enlarge and lift the woman. When she was nearly reaching the roof she exclaimed: “Farewell freens, farewell foes, For I’m awa’ to heaven On a pintel’s nose.”
THE INSTRUMENT.[25]
[25] _Kruptadia_: Heilbronn: Henninger Frères, 1884: _Breton Folk Lore_.
Once on a time a youth, wishing to become a smith, quitted his village and hired himself as an apprentice to a farrier. His master was a busy man, all the beds in his house being filled by his workmen, and when evening came he was sore pressed to find sleeping quarters for his apprentice. Reflecting long, he thus finally argued:--
“In each bed are several persons; my daughter alone hath one to herself. With her will I put the youth to sleep. His parents are good people, and I have known him from boyhood. There is no danger.”
When these two were in bed together, the youth began to caress the daughter, a maid nigh unto sixteen years, and since she did not repulse him, he lost no time in showing her how one makes love. The daughter found the business very much to her liking, and Pierre (for so the apprentice was named) gave her several lessons in this pretty game. She did not tire, and wished that the play might last the whole night long; but Pierre, awearied, would fain have slept. Anon, when he began to grow drowsy, she pinched him and snuggled up to him; but he did not respond to her allurements.
“Pierre,” said she, “dost play no more with thine implement?”
“No--’tis used up,” quoth Pierre.
“‘Tis a pity,” said the girl. “Why is it not more solid? Would it cost much to have another?”
“Yea--at least three or four hundred francs.”
“I myself have not that sum; but I know where my father keepeth his money, and on the morrow I will give thee the wherewithal to procure another. What dost thou call it?”
“‘Tis called an ‘instrument’,”[26] quoth Pierre.
[26] _Frenolle_ is the word in the text--probably a fantastic term, since Pierre’s “instrument” is not known by that name in Haut Bretagne. Farmer, in his monumental work _Slang and its Analogues_, (Privately Printed, 1890-1904) and Landes (_Glossaire Érotique de la Langue française_--Brussels, 1861) do not include the word in their comprehensive lists of French erotic synonyms for _penis_. Nor can we find mention of it in _Vocabula Amatoria_ (London, 1896). Littré, even, does not give the word.
In the morning the girl, taking her father’s money, gave it to the apprentice, who hied him to the town and made pretence of buying another instrument; and when night came, he played on his instrument to the infinite satisfaction of the girl.
On the morrow the apprentice received a letter, wherein he learned that his mother lay ill and desired to see him. He started on his journey forthwith. Anon the girl appeared, and not seeing the apprentice, inquired:
“Where is Pierre?”
And they answered her that he was gone and would return no more. Whereat she sped after him, and when she perceived him afar off, cried out:--
“Pierre! Pierre! At least leave me the instrument!”
Pierre, who was in a field at the moment, wrenched up a big turnip, and casting it into a swamp at the feet of the girl, cried out:--
“Take it--’tis there!”
And while the girl sought the instrument, he continued on his way.
With both her eyes she looked, but of Pierre’s instrument could perceive no vestige. Anon she sat down on the edge of the swamp and gave herself up to tears. Presently there chanced to pass the vicar, who made inquiry as to the cause of her grief.
“Oh! thy reverence!” she made answer. “The instrument hath fallen in the swamp and I cannot recover it. A sad pity, for ‘tis a precious instrument and cost three or four hundred francs.”
“Let us both seek,” quoth the vicar. “I will aid thee.”
He tucked up his gown, and both fell to seeking in the swamp, which was somewhat deep. Anon the girl turned her head, and perceiving the vicar with his garments tucked up above his hips, cried out:--
“Ah! thy reverence! No need for further search! ‘Tis thou who hast the instrument ‘twixt thy legs!”
_EXCURSUS_ to _THE INSTRUMENT_
A variant of the foregoing story, (_The Instrument_), is to be found in _Le Moyen de Parvenir_ (Béroalde de Verville). The editors of _Kruptadia_ draw attention to it, quoting the following extract:--
The simpleton husband Hauteroue, while futtering his wife, remarked:--
“What a labour it is, my love!”
“I am not surprised,” quoth she. “Thou dost work with a bad implement.”
“I should have a better had I the money.”
“Let not that hinder thee; I will give thee the money on the morrow.”
When the husband received his money, he set out to enjoy himself; then he went to bed with his wife, whom he pleasured well.
“Ho! my love!” said she. “This implement is as good as the one thou hadst. But, love, what hast done with the other?”
“I have thrown it away, my love.”
“Bah! Thou hast made a great mistake. ‘Twould have served for my mother!”
THE TIMOROUS FIANCÉE.[27]
[27] _Kruptadia_: Heilbronn: 1883: Henninger Frères: vol. 1: _Secret Stories from the Russian_.
Two young girls held converse together. Quoth one:
“Like thee, little one, I, too, will never marry.”
“And why should we marry against our will?” said the other. “We have no masters.”
“Hast seen, little one, that instrument with which men make trial upon us?”
“I have seen it.”
“And is it not huge?”
“Little one, it is assuredly of the size of an arm!”
“One would never come out of it alive.”
“Come, I will tickle thee with a straw.”
“That also hurteth me.”
The foolish one lay down, and the wiser fell to tickling her with a straw. “Ah! that hurteth!” she repeated.
Now the father of one of the young girls forced her to take a husband; she waited two nights, then went to see her young friend.
“Good day, little one,” she said.
The latter besought her to relate forthwith what had befallen.
“Ah!” answered the young wife. “Had I known, had I truly known the business, I had not listened to my father or my mother. I thought to lose my life, and my tongue hung from my mouth a foot in length.”
The young friend was so affrighted that she had no wish to speak further of fiancés.
“I will wed with none,” quoth she. “And if my father seeks to employ violence, 1 will espouse, for form’s sake, the first bachelor I encounter.”
Now there was in the same village a young lad and a very poor. None would give him a seemly maid in marriage, and he did not desire an ill; by chance he overheard the conversation of the young girls.
“Wait,” thought he to himself. “I will play a trick on that one. At a suitable moment I will say that I have no yard.”
Came a day when the young girl went to mass; she beheld the lad leading his horse, thin and unshod, to the watering place; the poor beast went limping, and the young girl laughed. They came to a steep slope; the mare climbed with difficulty, then fell and rolled on her back. The lad was annoyed, seized the mare by her tail, and fell to beating her without pity, saying:
“Get up! Thou wilt flay all the skin off thyself!”
“Why beatest thou the horse, brigand?” asked the young girl.
The lad lifted the tail, looked at it and said:
“And what should I do? Futter her? But I have no yard.”
When the girl heard his words, she pissed herself with joy, saying:
“Behold! the good God hath sent me a fiancé after my liking!”
She returned to her house, sat down in a secluded corner, and fell to pouting. Presently all the family seated themselves at table, calling on her to come, but she replied in anger:
“I will not!”
“Come, Douniouchka,” said the mother. “What art thinking of? Tell me.”
The father intervened.
“Why dost pout? Perchance thou dost desire to wed? Thou wouldst wed with this one and not with that?” The young girl had but one idea in her head: to wed Ivan the No-Yard.
“I will wed,” she replied, “neither this one nor that. An it please ye or not, I will wed Ivan.”
“What sayest thou, little fool? Art enraged, or hast lost thy reason? Thou wouldst share thy life with him?”
“He is my destiny. Seek not to marry me to another, else I will drown or strangle myself.”
Hitherto the old father had not honoured the poverty-stricken Ivan with so much as a look, but now he went himself to the lad to make him release his daughter. He approached. Ivan was seated, repairing an old hempen shoe.
“Good day, Ivanouchka.”
“Good day, old man.”
“What dost thou?”
“I seek to mend my hempen shoes.”
“Shoes? Thou hast need of new boots.”
“Since I have with difficulty amassed fifteen copeks to buy these shoes, where shall I find money to purchase boots?”
“And why dost thou not marry, Vania?”
“Who would give me his daughter?”
“I, if thou wilt! Kiss me on the mouth.”
And they came to an understanding.
At the rich man’s house there was no lack of beer and brandy. The girl and the lad were wed forthwith, high feast was held, and then the best man conducted the young people to their sleeping chamber and put them to bed. One knows the sequel. Ivan pierced the young girl till she bled and there was a road by which he might travel.
“What a blockhead, what a fool I have been!” thought Dounuka. “What have I done? How much better had I taken one richly-endowed! But where hath he found this yard? I will question him.”
And she questioned him, saying:
“Hearken, Ivanouchka. Where hast got this yard?”
“I have hired it from mine uncle for one night.”
“Ah! my little dove! Beg it of him for yet another night.”
A second night passed and she said to him again:
“Little dove! Beg of thine uncle if he will not sell thee the yard outright. But bargain well.”
“Good. One can always bargain.”
He went to the house of his grandsire, came to an understanding with him,[28] and returned to his home.
[28] _Lui donne le mot._ “Put him wise” would be the exact modern equivalent.
“Well, what of it?” asked his wife.
“What can I say?” answered the lad. “There was no bargaining with him. We must give him three hundred roubles or he will not yield us the yard. And where may we get this sum?”
“Ah, well. Return and beg him to hire thee the yard for yet another night. To-morrow I ask my father for the money, and we will buy the yard outright.”
“Nay--go thyself and ask it of him. In sooth, I dare not.”
She went to the uncle’s house, entered his apartment, prayed to heaven, and bowed, saying:
“Good day, mine uncle.”
“Thou art welcome. What good news hast thou?”
“See, mine uncle, I am shamed to speak, but ‘twould be a sin an I kept silent. Lend thy yard to Ivan for a night.”
The relative took counsel with himself, shook his head, and said:
“It can be lent, but care must be taken of a yard belonging to another.”
“We will take care of it, uncle. I swear by the Cross. And to-morrow, without fail, we will buy it outright of thee.”
“Go, then, and send Ivan to me.”
She bowed to the earth and left the house.
On the morrow she went to seek her father, asked of him three hundred roubles for her husband, and bought for herself a good yard.
_EXCURSUS_ to _THE ENCHANTED RING_, _THE INSTRUMENT_, and _THE TIMOROUS FIANCÉE_.
Each of the three foregoing stories is remarkable for the fact that it contains the same naïve idea--the possibility of purchasing a male “implement.” The idea is fairly common in folk-lore stories of virginity, but, almost always, results in a highly humorous situation. It is a crude but very effective method of depicting the ignorance, even stupidity, of a virgin girl. It also affords the story-teller an opportunity of an indirect reference to a favourite theme--the erotic tendency of women once their sexual senses are aroused.[29]
[29] _C.f._ _Excursus_ to _The Tale of Kamar al-Zaman_, where the subject is discussed at length.
One episode of _The Enchanted Ring_ (the remarkable qualities of the young man’s _penis_ when adorned with the ring) can hardly fail to recall “_The Night of Power_,” (Sir Richard F. Burton’s _Thousand Nights and a Night_), wherein the husband’s organs undergo rapid and wonderful transformation. This tale is described by Sir Richard Burton as “the grossest and most brutal satire on the sex, suggesting that a woman would prefer an additional inch of _penis_ to anything this world or the next can offer her.” One cannot help noting, none the less, the indecent anxiety of the mother-in-law, in our story from _Kruptadia_, to sample the mighty yard of the newly-returned husband.[30]
[30] In _The Night of Power_ we have the story of a man who, believing that three prayers would be granted to him, consults his wife as to what he shall ask. She advises him to ask Allah to “greaten and magnify his yard.” He does so, whereupon his yard “became as big as a column, and he could neither sit nor stand nor move about nor even stir from his stead; and when he would have carnally known his wife, she fled before him from place to place.” In distress the husband asks, as his second wish, to be delivered of this burden, and “immediately his prickle disappeared altogether and he became clean smooth. When his wife saw this, she said: ‘I have no occasion for thee now thou art become pegless as an eunuch, shaven and shorn.... Pray Allah the most High to restore thee thy yard as it was.’ So he prayed to his Lord and his prickle was restored to its first estate. Thus the man lost his three wishes by the ill counsel and lack of wit in the woman.” Our brief summary is taken from Sir Richard F. Burton’s translation of _The Thousand Nights and a Night_.
ADVENTURES WITH HEDVIGE AND HELÈNE AT GENEVA.[31]
[31] _Memoirs of Jacques Casanova_: For the first time translated into English and Privately Printed, 1894: 12 vols.: 1000 copies only. Also _Mémoires de J. Casanova de Seingalt: Garnier Frères_, Paris, N.D. Our text is a blend of the two versions.
_Casanova makes the acquaintance of two charming cousins, Hedvige and Helène, at Geneva. After sundry meetings, at which theology and sexual matters are discussed in a frank and amusing fashion, Casanova gets the chance to take his two charmers for a stroll in the garden where they can be sure of immunity from interruption. Casanova’s opportunity occurs as a result of Hedvige’s desire to know why a deity could not impregnate a woman, a male acquaintance having said that he could not with propriety expound such mysteries to her. Casanova gladly agrees to make the matter clear, adding, however, that he must be allowed to speak quite plainly. The text continues:_
Yea, speak clearly,” quoth Hedvige, “for none can hear us; but I am forced to confess that I am cognisant of the formation of man only in theory and by lecture. True, I have seen statues, but I have never seen and still less have I examined real[32] man. And thou, Helène?”
[32] _i.e._, naked.
“I have never desired so to do.”
“Why not? ‘Tis good to know all.”
“Well, my charming Hedvige,” said I, “thy theologian wished to tell thee that Jesus was not capable of erection.”
“What is that?”
“Give me thy hand.”
“I feel it and I can picture it; for, without this natural phenomenon, man could not impregnate his consort. And this foolish theologian pretendeth that it is an imperfection!”
“Yea, for this phenomenon springeth from desire, for ‘tis very true that it would not have worked in me, sweet Hedvige, had I not found thee charming and had not what I had seen of thee given me the most seductive idea of the beauties I see not. Tell me frankly if, after feeling this rigidity of mine, thou dost not experience an agreeable sensation?”
“I confess it; ‘tis precisely where thou pressest. Dost not feel as I, my dear Helène, an itching and a longing on likening to the very true discourse given to us by this gentleman?”
“Yea, I feel it, but I feel it very often, without any discourse exciting it.”
“And then,” quoth I, “Nature forceth thee to appease it thus?”
“Not at all.”
“Oh, that it were so, Hedvige! Even in sleep one’s hand strayeth there by instinct; and, lacking this easement, I have read that we should suffer terrible maladies.”
And whilst we continued this philosophical converse, which the youthful theologian sustained with an authoritative tone, and which brought a look of voluptuousness to the lovely complexion of her cousin, we came to the edge of a fine pool where one descended by a marble staircase to bathe. Although it was chilly, our heads were warm, and it came to me to propose to the maidens that they put their feet in the water, assuring them that it would do them good and, if they permitted me, that I would count it an honour to remove their shoes and stockings.
“Come,” said Hedvige, “I like the project well.”
“I, too,” said Helène.
“Seat yourselves, ladies, on the first stair.”
Behold them, then, seated, and thy servant, on the fourth stair, busy unshoeing them, what time he extolled the beauty of their legs and made pretence to be incurious at the moment to see higher than the knee. Then, having gone down to the water, they had perforce to lift their garments, and in this business I encouraged them.
“Ah, well,” remarked Hedvige, “men also have thighs.”
Helène, who would have felt shame to show less courage than her cousin, did not hang back.
“Come, my charming naiads,” quoth I, “‘tis enough. Ye will catch cold if ye remain for long in the water.”
They reascended the staircase backwards, ever holding up their robes lest they might wet them; and it fell to me to dry their limbs with all the handkerchiefs that I possessed. This pleasant task permitted me to see and touch everything at my leisure, and the reader will scarce need my word to affirm that I made the best of my opportunity. The pretty niece (Hedvige) declared that I was too curious, but Helène let me have my way with an air so tender and so languid that I was hard pressed not to push the matter further. In the end, having again put on their shoes and stockings, I told them that I was enchanted to have viewed the secret charms of the two most lovely ladies in Geneva.
“What effect hath it on thee?” asked Hedvige of me.
“I dare not tell ye to look, but feel, both of ye.”
“Bathe thou thyself also.”
“Impossible. The business is too long for a man.”
“But we have yet two full hours to remain here without fear of interruption from anyone.”
This response caused me to see the happiness that awaited me; but I did not think fit to expose myself to an illness by entering the water in the state in which I was. Seeing a summer-house not far off and assured that M. Tronchin would have left it open, I took my two beauties by the arm and led them thither, not letting them guess, however, my intentions.
The summer-house was full of vases of _pot pourri_, pretty engravings, and so forth; but what I valued most was a large and lovely divan, fit for repose and for pleasure. There, seated ‘twixt these two beauties and lavishing caresses upon them, I said that I desired to show them that which they had never seen, at the same time exposing to their gaze the principal agent of humanity. They raised themselves to admire it, and then, taking the hand of each one of them, I procured for them a considerable pleasure; but, in the course of this labour, an abundant emission on my part caused them great amazement.
“‘Tis its speech,” said I. “The speech of the great creator of men.”
“‘Tis delicious!” cried Helène, laughing at the term ‘speech.’
“I, too, have the power of speech,” said Hedvige, “and I will show it thee, if thou wilt wait a moment.”
“Put thyself in my hands, sweet Hedvige. I will spare thee the trouble of making it come thyself, and I will do it better than thee.”
“I well believe it. But I have never done that with a man.”
“Nor I,” said Helène.
When they had placed themselves directly before me, their arms enlaced, I made them swoon away afresh. Then, having seated ourselves, what time my hand strayed all over their charms, I let them divert themselves at their leisure, till in the end I moistened their palms with a second emission of the natural moisture, which they examined curiously on their fingers.
Having once again put ourselves in a state of decency, we passed yet another half hour in exchanging kisses, after which I told them that they had rendered me partially happy, but, to make the work perfect, that I hoped they would devise a means of granting me their first favours. Then I showed them those preservative sachets which the English have invented in order to rid the fair sex of all fear. These little “purses,”[33] the use of which I explained to them, excited their admiration, and Hedvige said to her cousin that she would give thought to the matter. Become intimate friends and in good case to become even better, we took our way towards the house, where we found Helène’s mother and the minister walking by the edge of the lake....
[33] _Capote Anglaise_: in slang terms, a French letter or condom. The French talk about an “English” letter; we say the reverse.
_Follows now the description of a dinner at which Casanova, Hedvige and Helène are present. The text continues:_
Helène shone in solving the questions put to her by the company. M. de Ximenes begged her to justify as best she might our first mother, who had deceived her husband by causing him to eat the fatal apple.
“Eve,” quoth she, “deceived not her husband; she did but cajole him into eating it in the hope of giving him one more perfection. Moreover, Eve had not received the prohibition from God but from Adam; in her act there was seduction, not deceit; in all probability her womanly sense did not let her regard the prohibition as serious.” ...
... Another lady then asked her if one might believe the history of the apple to be symbolical. Hedvige answered:
“I think not, since it could only be a symbol of sexual union, and ‘tis established that such was not consummated ‘twixt Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.”
“On this point the learned differ.”
“So much the worse for them, madam; the Scripture is plain enough. ‘Tis written in the first verse of the fourth chapter that Adam knew Eve after his expulsion from their terrestrial paradise, and that in consequence she conceived Cain.”
“Yea, but the verse sayeth not that Adam did not know her before, and, consequently, he might so have done.”
“This I cannot allow, for had he known her before she would have conceived; ‘twere foolish to suppose that two creatures, who had just quitted God’s hands, and were, in consequence, as nigh perfect as is possible, could consummate the act of generation with no result.”
_The conversation now becomes very theological and controversial, and we take leave to omit it._
... After dinner ... I went apart with Helène, who told me that her cousin and the pastor would sup with her mother on the following day.
“Hedvige,” she added, “will stay and sleep with me, as is ever her custom when she cometh with her uncle to sup. It remaineth to be seen if thou art willing to hide in a spot I will show thee to-morrow at eleven of the clock, in order to pass the night with us. Call on my mother at that hour to-morrow, and I will find means of showing thee the spot....”
... In the morning I paid the mother a visit, and as Helène was escorting me out, she showed me a closed door ‘twixt the two stairs.
“At seven hours of the clock,” said she, “thou will find it open, and when thou art within, put on the bolt. Take care lest any see thee as thou enter the house.”
_Casanova, in due course, takes up his position in the hiding place, and during his long wait for the two charmers, gives himself up to reflection on his past. The text continues:_
... In my long and profligate career, during which I have turned the heads of several hundreds of ladies, I have grown familiar with all methods of seduction; but it hath ever been my guiding principle never to press my attack against novices or those in whom prejudices were likely to prove an obstacle, save in the presence of another woman. Timidity, I soon discovered, maketh a girl averse from seduction; in company with another girl she is easily conquered; the weakness of one bringeth on the fall of the other.
Fathers and mothers are of contrary opinion, but they err. They will not trust their daughter to take a walk or go to a ball with a young man, but no difficulty is made if she hath another girl with her. I repeat--they err; if the young man hath the requisite skill, their daughter is lost. A sense of false shame hindereth them from making a determined resistance to seduction, but, the first step taken, the fall cometh inevitably and rapidly. One girl, granting some small favour, straightway maketh her friend grant a much greater, thereby to hide her own blushes; and if the seducer be clever at his trade, the youthful innocent will soon have travelled too far to be able to draw back. In addition, the more innocent the girl, the greater her ignorance of seduction’s methods. Ere she hath time to think, pleasure doth attract her, curiosity draweth her yet a little further, and opportunity doth the rest.
For example, ‘twere possible I had been able to seduce Hedvige without Helène, but I am assured I had never succeeded with Helène had she not seen her cousin grant me certain licenses what time she took liberties with me--practices which she thought, doubtless, contrary to the modesty and decorum of a respectable young woman.... I desire what I say to be a warning to fathers and mothers, and to secure me a place in their esteem, at any rate.
Shortly after the pastor had gone I heard three light knocks on my prison door. I opened it, and a hand soft as satin grasped mine. My whole being quivered. ‘Twas Helène’s hand, and that happy moment had already repaid me for my long waiting.
“Follow me softly,” she said, in a low voice; but scarce had she closed the door ere I, in my impatience, clasped her tenderly in my arms, and caused her to feel the effect which her mere presence had produced on me, what time I assured myself of her docility.
“Be prudent, my friend,” said she to me, “and come softly upstairs.”
I followed her as best I might in the darkness, she leading me along a gallery into a room without light, the door of which she closed behind us, and thence into a lighted chamber, wherein was Hedvige, well nigh in a state of nudity. She came to me with open arms on the instant she saw me, and, embracing me ardently, signified her appreciation of my patience in my weary prison.
“Divine Hedvige,” quoth I, “had I not loved thee madly, I had not stayed one fourth of an hour in that dismal cell; but for thy sake I would readily pass hours there daily till I quit this spot. But let us lose no time. To bed!”
“Do ye twain get to bed,” quoth Helène. “I will couch on the divan.”
“Oh!” cried Hedvige. “Think not so. Our fate must be exactly equal.”
“Yea, beloved Helène,” said I, embracing her. “I love thee both with equal ardour, and these ceremonies but waste the time wherein I should be convincing ye of my passion. Follow my example. I am about to disrobe and place myself in the midst of the bed. Come lie beside me, and ye will see if I love ye as ye are worthy to be loved. If all be safe, I will remain till ye send me away, but whate’er ye do, of your mercy extinguish not the light.”
In the twinkling of an eye, all the while discussing the theory of shame with Hedvige the theologian, I presented myself to their gaze in the costume of Adam. Hedvige, blushing but fearing, perchance, to depreciate herself in my opinion by any further reserve, parted with the last shred of modesty, citing the opinion of St. Clement Alexandrinus, who held that in the shirt lay the seat of shame.
I praised unstintingly her charms and the perfection of her form, thereby hoping to encourage Helène, who was disrobing but slowly; but a charge of mock modesty from her cousin had more effect than all my praises. At length this Venus was in a state of nature, covering her most secret parts with one hand, concealing one breast with the other, and seeming most sadly shamed of all she could not conceal. Her modest confusion, this strife ‘twixt expiring modesty and growing passion, enchanted me.
Hedvige was taller than Helène, her skin was whiter, and her breasts twice the size of her cousin’s; but in Helène was more animation, her form was more sweetly moulded, and her bust was on the model of the Venus de Medici.
By degrees she became bolder, put at ease by her cousin, and we passed several moments in admiring each other; then to bed we went. Nature called loudly, and all we desired was to satisfy its demands. With a coolness that I did not fear would fail me, I made a woman of Hedvige, and when all was o’er she kissed me, saying that the pain was naught compared to the pleasure.
Next came the turn of Helène, who was six years younger than Hedvige; but the finest “fleece”[34] that e’er I saw presented something of an obstacle. This she parted with her two hands, being jealous of her cousin’s success; and although she was not initiated into the mysteries of love without woeful pain, her sighs were truly sighs of happiness as she responded to my ardent efforts. Her charms and vivacious movements caused me to shorten the sacrifice, and when I quitted the sanctuary my two beauties perceived I was in need of repose.
[34] “Fleece,” of course, is an accepted erotic term for pubic hair (Farmer: _Slang and its Analogues_); _c.f._ also the French term _toison_. Helène’s hirsute adornment is in keeping with psychological precept--that hairiness and sensuality go hand in hand. Havelock Ellis, in his _Studies_, quotes numerous authorities who are strongly of this opinion, (vol. 5: _Erotic Symbolism_). Lombroso, he adds, found that prostitutes generally tend to be hairy. In another volume of his _Studies_, Havelock Ellis relates the history of a man for whom a hirsute _mons veneris_ always had a peculiar attraction. “When accosted by prostitutes,” says the subject of this history, “I would never go with them unless assured that the _mons veneris_ was very hirsute.” That genial old soldier Brantôme (_Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies_: Translated by A. R. Allinson: Paris, Charles Carrington, 1901) says: “I have heard speak of a certain great lady, and I have known her myself and do know her still, who is all shaggy and hairy over the chest, stomach, shoulders and all down the spine, and on her bottom, like a savage.... The proverb hath it, no person thus hairy is ever rich or wanton; but verily in this case the lady is both the one and the other, I can assure you....” Brantôme also speaks of women who “have hair in that part not curly at all, but so long and drooping, you would say they were the moustachios of a Saracen’s head. Nathless they do never remove this fleece, but prefer to have it so, seeing there is a saying: ‘A grassgrown path and a hairy coynte are both good roads to ride.’ ... I have heard speak of another fair and honourable lady which did have the hair of this part so long she would entwine the same with strings or ribbons of silk, crimson and other colours, and have them curled like the curls of a wig, and attached to her thighs. And in such guise would she show her _motte_ to her husband or lover. Or else she would unwind the ribbons and cords, so that the hair did remain after in curl, and looking prettier so than it would otherwise have done.” Elsewhere Brantôme tells of a gentleman of his acquaintance who, while sleeping with a very beautiful lady, “and one of good condition, and doing his devoir with her, did find in that part sundry hairs so sharp and prickly that ‘twas with all the difficulty in the world he could finish, so sharply did these prick and pierce him....” Abnormal growth of pubic hair is by no means confined to _conte_ and fable. Jahn, says Havelock Ellis in his _Studies_, delivered a woman whose pubic hair was longer than that of her head, reaching below her knees. Paulini also knew a woman “whose pubic hair nearly reached her knees and was sold to make wigs. Bartholin mentions a soldier’s wife who plaited her pubic hair behind her back.” (_Erotic Symbolism_). We have no actual evidence that Helène’s growth was of these abnormal dimensions, but it was obviously out of the ordinary to provoke comment from a man of Casanova’s experience.
The altar was purified of the blood of the victims, and we all bathed, enchanted to serve one another.
Life returned to me ‘neath their curious fingers, and the sight filled them with joy.... For several hours I overwhelmed them with happiness, passing five or six times from one to the other before exhausting myself and arriving at the ecstatic spasm. In the intervals, perceiving them docile and desirous, I made them execute Aretin’s most complicated postures, a business that amused them beyond measure.[35] We were lavish with our kisses on whatever part took our fancy, and just as Hedvige applied her lips to the mouth of the pistol, it went off and the discharge inundated her face and her bosom. She was delighted, and studied the eruption to an end with all the curiosity of a physician.
[35] Pietro Aretino, author of _The Ragionamenti_, is generally supposed to have enumerated a variety of postures in which the venereal act might be performed. To the many he is known solely as “the man of the postures.” This particular claim to distinction is, to say the least, a matter much in dispute, but we will reserve discussion of the question for Vol. 2 of _Anthologica Rarissima_, where lavish excerpts from Aretino’s works will be given.
The night seemed short, though we had not lost a moment’s space, and at daybreak we had to part. 1 left them in bed, being fortunate to get away observed of none.
_In the evening, after supper, Casanova contrives another meeting with his charmers._
... Going out with my heroines, I worked wonders. Hedvige philosophised over the pleasure, and told me that she would ne’er have tasted it had I not chanced to encounter her uncle. Helène did not speak; more voluptuous than her cousin, she swelled out like a dove, and came to life only to expire a moment after. I wondered at her amazing fecundity, although such is not uncommon; while I was engaged in one operation, she passed fourteen times from life to death. True, ‘twas the sixth course I had run, so I made my pace somewhat slower to enjoy the pleasure she took in the business....
_After passing another night with the cousins, Casanova again sets out on his travels; and here, for the time being, we will leave him._
_EXCURSUS_ to _ADVENTURES WITH HEDVIGE AND HELÈNE AT GENEVA_.
Jacques Casanova, Chevalier de Seingalt, Knight of the Golden Spur, and one of the most remarkable figures in history and letters, was born on April 2nd, 1725. To-day, nearly two hundred years afterwards, his _Memoirs_ are more vivid and readable than anything penned by our contemporary writers.
“He who opens these wonderful pages,” says the English translator in his preface, “is as one who sits in a theatre and looks across the gloom, not on a stage-play, but on another and a vanished world. The curtain draws up, and suddenly a hundred and fifty years are rolled away, and in bright light stands out before us the whole life of the past; the gay dresses, the polished wit, the careless morals, and all the revel and dancing of those merry years before the mighty deluge of the Revolution.
“The palaces and marble stairs of old Venice are no longer desolate, but thronged with scarlet-robed senators, prisoners with the doom of the Ten upon their heads cross the Bridge of Sighs, at dead of night the nun slips out of the convent gate to the dark canal where a gondola is waiting, we assist at the _parties fines_ of cardinals, and we see the bank made at faro.
“Venice gives place to the assembly rooms of Mrs. Cornely and the fast taverns of the London of 1760; we pass from Versailles to the Winter Palace of St. Petersburg in the days of Catherine, from the policy of the Great Frederick to the lewd mirth of strolling-players, and the presence-chamber of the Vatican is succeeded by an intrigue in a garret.
“It is indeed a new experience to read this history of a man who, refraining from nothing, has concealed nothing; of one who stood in the courts of Louis the Magnificent for Madame de Pompadour and the nobles of the _ancien régime_, and had an affair with an adventuress of Denmark Street, Soho; who was bound over to keep the peace by Fielding, and knew Cagliostro.
“The friend of popes and kings and noblemen, and of all the male and female ruffians and vagabonds of Europe, abbé, soldier, charlatan, gamester, financier, diplomatist, _viveur_, philosopher, virtuoso, ‘chemist, fiddler, and buffoon’, each of these, and all of these, was Giacomo Casanova, Chevalier de Seingalt, Knight of the Golden Spur.”
The English translation of Casanova’s _Memoirs_, from which the foregoing is taken, is a valuable work. To-day the twelve volume set, of which 1,000 copies were privately printed in 1894, commands anything from thirty to forty-five pounds in the sale-room or book-seller’s shop. We have been told that the printer of this English version was prosecuted, and all copies of the work confiscated by the police, who were ordered to burn them. Further, we are told that the copies we buy and read to-day are the copies burned by the police.
If this be so, all honour to the police, for the destruction of any scholarly rendering of these _Memoirs_ can only be described as an act of vandalism. Because Casanova is not for the multitude, does it follow he is not for the few? Translated into the English tongue, Casanova’s _Memoirs_ must be “privately printed” by reason of his plain speech in the matter of amorous intrigue, yet, were every erotic word and scene expunged, the work would still be of fascinating interest and inestimable value to the student of history. There exists a bowdlerised and abridged edition of these _Memoirs_; we have never seen, and we never wish to see, this work. A study of life, without a leavening of human nature, is worse than useless.
Casanova, if any reliance is to be set on his writings, was a sexual athlete--a member of that rare and remarkable class of men who are capable of amazing feats in the lists of love. Frequent reference is made to his prowess and observations by the great sexual psychologists, Havelock Ellis in particular. Bloch, (_The Sexual Life of Our Time_), quoting from a work by Oscar A. H. Schmitz, has some interesting remarks to make on the character of Casanova.
“Casanova,” he says, “is pre-eminently the erotic, also crafty and deceitful (seducer), not, however, for the gratification of his need of power, but rather for the agreeable satisfaction of his need for sensual love; ... for Casanova each one is ‘the woman’ ... Casanova is human, cares always for the happiness of the woman he loves, and devotes to them a tender reflection; ... Casanova is the typical feminist, he possesses a profound understanding of woman’s soul, is not disappointed by love, and needs for his life’s happiness continuous contact with feminine natures....”
“Whatever I have done in the course of my life,” says Casanova,[36] “whether it be good or evil, has been done freely; I am a free agent.... Man is free, but his freedom ceases when he has no faith in it.... Man is free; yet we must not suppose he is at liberty to do everything he pleases, for he becomes a slave the moment he allows his actions to be ruled by his passions. The man who has sufficient power over himself to wait until his nature has recovered its even balance is the truly wise man, but such beings are seldom met with....
[36] English translation of the Author’s Preface.
“The sanguine temperament rendered me very sensible to the attractions of voluptuousness.... The chief business of my life has always been to indulge my senses; I never knew anything of greater importance. I felt myself born for the fair sex, I have ever loved it dearly, and I have been loved by it as often and as much as I could....
“ ... Should anyone bring against me an accusation of sensuality he would be wrong, for all the fierceness of my senses never caused me to neglect any of my duties.... I have always been fond of highly-seasoned, rich dishes.... As for women, I have always found the odour of my beloved ones exceeding pleasant....
“ ... It may be that certain love scenes will be considered too explicit, but let no one blame me, unless it be for lack of skill, for I ought not to be scolded because, in my old age, I can find no other enjoyment but that which recollections of the past afford to me. After all, virtuous and prudish readers are at liberty to skip over any offensive pictures, and I think it my duty to give them this piece of advice....
“ ... My Memoirs are not written for young persons who, in order to avoid false steps and slippery roads, ought to spend their youth in blissful ignorance, but for those who, having thorough experience of life, are no longer exposed to temptation, and who, having but too often gone through the fire, are like salamanders, and can be scorched by it no more.... I have no hesitation in saying that the really virtuous are those persons who can practise virtue without the slightest trouble; such persons are always full of toleration, and it is to them that my Memoirs are addressed....”
Casanova, as he himself tells us, was three score and twelve years when he wrote his _Memoirs_. The writing, he adds, was both a solace and a pleasure. Nevertheless, as the English translator says in his appendix, “the last five years of his life were passed in petty mortifications.... Death came to him somewhat as a release. He received the sacraments with devotion, exclaimed: ‘Great God, and all ye who witness my death, I have lived a philosopher and I die a Christian,’ and so died--a quiet ending to a wonderfully brilliant and entirely useless career.”
THE DAMSEL AND THE PRINCE.[37]
[37] Masuccio: _The Novellino_, translated into English by W. G. Waters: London, Lawrence and Bullen, 1895.
_A young lady being enamoured of the Prince of Salerno sends for one of his chaplains and declares to him that she has received from the said prince numerous letters praying for her love. The chaplain, having divined her motive, enters into a plot with her and brings the affair to the issue desired._
At that time when our most glorious lord and king, Don Fernando, was entertaining Naples, according to his constant use, with those joustings, those marvellous hunting parties, and those sumptuous festivals which were famed far and wide, it chanced that amongst the other merry-makers was a certain young damsel, of beauty almost unrivalled, and a scion of one of the noblest houses of our Parthenopean city.
Now for some time past she had often let her eyes regale themselves with the beauty and the grace of form belonging to my most illustrious lord, the Prince of Salerno, and beyond this had heard sung, over and over again, the praises of his extraordinary worth. By this time she was more than ever captivated by him, wherefore she became so lovesick that she could only give thought to the gentleman by whom her fancy had been ensnared.
After she had let her thoughts ... engage themselves in many and divers plans by which she might honourably achieve the victory in so worthy an adventure, she found that all these schemes were over-difficult to compass; wherefore it more than once came into her head that she would follow the advice of certain other ladies of her acquaintance, who, whenever they found they could not refrain from entering the lists of love, were wont to send word to the gallant youths beloved of them and challenge them to the amorous warfare.
But this damsel, who was gifted with no small prudence, and was persuaded at the same time that she would not, by following such a course, be setting a very high value either upon herself or upon her undertaking, suddenly determined that she would make trial of a novel and very crafty stratagem to induce the prince aforesaid to cull the first fruits of her virgin garden. Having chosen a time when the prince had gone to other parts for diversion in the chase, she let come to her a certain priest, a man whom she could fully trust, and one who was much about the house, and to him she gave directions as to what she would have him do.
_This priest now brings Fra Paulo, the chaplain and the prince’s most trusted attendant, to the damsel who alleges the receipt of impassioned love-letters from the prince. She is at a loss to know whether these letters have been concocted by one of her brothers with a view to putting her constancy to proof, or whether they have really been written by the prince who “is in sooth taken with love of me, seeing that I have at times kept my eyes fixed upon him somewhat more than was due.” The text continues_:--
With these, and with other words of a like character, which had been prepared with the most consummate art, she laid before the chaplain the letters aforesaid, by way of giving him still farther assurance of the truth of her craftily devised discourse. Fra Paulo, although, as a prudent man, and as one accustomed to bring contests of this sort to a victorious issue, he had fully detected and comprehended the hidden wishes and purpose of the young lady, nevertheless, as she went on step by step with her reasonings and arguments, was astonished at finding so great ingenuity and astuteness in the brain of a damsel so delicate and youthful.
Still, as he remarked more than once that, whenever she mentioned the name of his lord the prince, her face changed colour, he understood that the passion which possessed her must be indeed burning and fierce. Wherefore he determined to let this same wind speed his own bark over such a pleasant sea, and he thus made answer to her:--
“Lady mine, because of your kindness, you have thought well enough of me to unveil to me your secret affairs, you may rest assured that, no less for the preservation of your own good name than for the safeguarding of my lord’s, I will deal with this matter with all that silence and secrecy which, according to your judgement and mine as well, the gravity and importance of the same demand....
“ ... I declare once for all that these letters were never written by my lord; in sooth, if they had been his handiwork, I should have marvelled amain, because it is his custom never to write with his own hand to any woman, however fiercely his passion may be kindled for her, unless he may first have made proof of her love.... At the outset of all his love affairs the letters and messages thereanent are written and arranged by the agency of the chamberlain, who is in his closest confidence. Wherefore I hold it for certain that these same letters must be from the hands of this man....
“ ... Many a time, when I have chanced to be discoursing concerning the beauty of women with my lord, he, with a little sigh, which he seemed fain to repress, has never ceased to place you before all other ladies. And although his words are rare and few and sententious, he has full often let me know secretly that you are the only one to whom he has entirely given his love.
“Therefore meseems that ... you should give me authority to act, so I may be able to place the whole matter together with your own doubts and fears, before the notice of my lord.... And in order that you may speedily be informed of the answer, and that the affair may be kept no long time in suspense, it will behove you to be on the watch for me, for when you shall see me pass by your house, and call to a certain boy who will be standing opposite thereto, you may be assured that I have done my errand, and on the following morning let us meet once more in this same spot.”
The young lady, deeming that she had assuredly gulled the friar by her trick, and that her plot could not now fail to come to an issue perfectly satisfactory to her, was so greatly overjoyed that it seemed to her as if she had in sooth been crowned by Heaven.... Then, having brought their discourse to an end, and each one being in a contented mood, though for a different cause, they went their several ways.
As Fortune willed it ... the friar was met by the news that the prince had already taken the road with the intention of being in Naples on the following day. Wherefore Fra Paulo, having gone out to meet him, was mightily glad to let him know the whole history of the craft of the amorous damsel, and of the scheme which she had framed. The prince gave ear to the same with no less amazement than pleasure; for, albeit he had rarely cast his eyes upon this young girl, and retained no recollection of her beauty, nevertheless it seemed to him to be only just and right that he should hold dear those who loved him. So he made answer to the friar, and bade him set the business in progress in such wise that the meeting might be brought to pass at the earliest possible time.
The friar, pleased beyond measure and eager to do service to the prince, betook himself towards the house of the damsel as soon as he had dismounted from his beast. Then, having made the sign which had been agreed between themselves--a sign which she observed and understood with the utmost pleasure--the damsel duly repaired on the following morning to the spot which had been chosen; and there, when she met the friar, he said to her:--
“My dear lord, who for your pleasure arrived last night in Naples, commends himself to you. I have set before him at full length the purport of the converse betwixt you and me, but I could not draw from his lips any other reply except that he prays and conjures you, by the perfect love which he has for so long a time borne and still bears to you, and also by that love which you should dutifully entertain towards him, that it will please you, on this same evening, to give him a kindly audience in order that he may, without needing to confide in any living man, lay bare to you those matters which he has kept hitherto, and still keeps, secured by a strong lock within his passionate breast.”
The young woman, who, as she listened to these words, was so vastly overjoyed that she could with difficulty contain herself within her skin, now felt that every hour would be as a thousand years until she should find herself engaged in the supreme conclusions of love; and, after a few feeble denials and hesitations, answered that she was ready to do what the prince desired. She did not quit the friar’s company until they had, in discreet wise, settled when and in what manner and in what place she and the prince should come together for the amorous battle.
The friar then betook himself straightway to his beloved lord and prince, who indeed was awaiting him and his answer. Then he set forth everything to the prince, who, when himseemed that the appointed time had come, went with his attendants to the meeting-place, and there he found the lovely young damsel, who, delicately arrayed and perfumed, received him with open arms and exceeding great delight.
Then, after countless kisses had been given and received by the prince, they got on board their bark, and after the helm had been duly set and the sails spread to the wind, the damsel, what though she was not as yet greatly versed in the mariner’s art, let her lover navigate the sea of love during all the time they were able to spend together. When at last they found themselves with great delight once more in port, the damsel, tenderly clasping the neck of the prince with her arms, thus addressed him:--
“My sweetest lord, for that I alone, aided by my own skill and forethought, have succeeded in bringing you hither this first time I have but to thank myself, but for the future I must leave to the care of you and of Love the devising of the means whereby you may be able to show me further proofs of your passion. Now there remains nothing more for me to say except that I recommend myself without ceasing to your favour.”
Thereupon the illustrious lord the prince heartened her with soft and tender words, and they then took leave of one another with great pleasure and delight; and if anyone should still wish to know whether, and in what fashion, this love of theirs bore further fruit, let him inquire on his own behalf.
_EXCURSUS_ to _THE DAMSEL AND THE PRINCE_.
Because Masuccio--so far as the general public is concerned--may be counted among the lesser-known of the Novellieri of the Cinquecento, it may not be inappropriate to give a few details of his life and work. To this purpose we cannot do better than quote from the admirable introduction to Mr. W. G. Waters’ translation of the _Novellino_, whence is taken our story of _The Damsel and the Prince_.
Masuccio, says Mr. Waters, “was probably born about 1420.... Seeing that he was Sanseverino’s secretary, and that the great majority of his novels are dedicated to prominent Neapolitans, it may be assumed that his life was chiefly spent in Naples and the neighbourhood.... After 1474 Masuccio fades entirely from view....
“Masuccio seems to have rated himself as one with a message to deliver ... his phraseology gives one the impression that he wrote with his feelings at white heat.... In the very Prologue to the work he announces his primary theme, by proclaiming himself the scourger of priestly vices.... If the words which a man speaks or writes are ever to be taken as evidence of the mind that is in him, then assuredly Masuccio may be credited with ardent hatred of the offences he denounces.[38] Putting aside occasional lapses into licentiousness of expression as accidents inseparable from the age in which he wrote, it is almost impossible to doubt his sincerity as a would-be reformer of manners....
[38] Masuccio, of course, cannot claim any peculiar virtue in this respect, lust in the guise or under the cloak of religion being a favourite theme of mediæval and even later novelists. We shall deal at length with the subject in the second volume of _Anthologica Rarissima: The Way of a Priest_.
“ ... Masuccio’s canvas is a limited one. A few of his stories are in the vein of genuine buffo, a few more are tragedies pure and simple, but the majority of the residue will be found to treat of one or other of his two particular themes, the castigation of profligate clerics and unchaste women. He devotes one part of the work to each of these specially; but in the other parts he never lets a friar or a woman escape the lash if he finds the chance of laying it on.
“The most scathing passages ... are those which occur here and there in the ‘Masuccio’ at the end of his stories.... As an instance may be quoted the conclusion to Novel XXIII., in which, after screaming himself hoarse over the crimes of women, he finishes with these words:--
“‘Would that it had been God’s pleasure and Nature’s to have suffered us to be brought forth from the oak-trees, or indeed to have been engendered from water and mire like the frogs in the humid rains of summer, rather than to have taken our origin from so base, so corrupt, and so vilely fashioned a sex as womankind.’”
As a further example of Masuccio’s hatred of women, Mr. Waters cites “the frightful indictment at the end of Novel VI. which he prefers against women who put on the habit of religious houses.” We might do worse than quote it:--
“ ... I keep silence, likewise, concerning all that might be said on the subject of the marriage of these women with friars ... how they make sumptuous marriage feasts, inviting thereto from this convent and that their friends, who present themselves with equipages laden with all manner of rich goods.... With the consent of the abbess and of their prelate they execute marriage contracts, duly written and sealed; and then, having supped off all manner of sumptuous meats, and performed every other ceremony pertaining to the rite of marriage, they go to bed one with another without showing any fear or shame, just as if their union had been contracted with the full sanction of their own fathers, and by the laws of marriage....”[39]
[39] _C.f._ _The New Metamorphosis, or The Golden Ass of Apuleius altered and improved to Modern Times_, by Carlo Socio: London, 1822, extracts from which, exactly germane to Masuccio’s denunciation, will be found in vol. 2 of _Anthologica Rarissima: The Way of a Priest_.
Space will not permit us, however, to deal _in extenso_ with Masuccio’s hatred of priest and woman. We can best refer the reader to his _Novellino_, or to such extracts as we shall make from them in subsequent volumes of _Anthologica Rarissima_. Our purpose, in the foregoing sketch, was to give some slight impression of the aims and mentality of the author of the two stories reproduced in this particular volume.
THE PENITENT NUN.[40]
[40] J. S. Farmer: _Merry Songs and Ballads_: vol. 5: by John Lockman: from _Musical Miscellany_, (1731). Farmer, of course, is the editor and compiler of _Slang and its Analogues_, to which we make constant reference.
Dame _Jane_ a sprightly Nun, and gay, And formed of very yielding Clay, Had long with resolution strove To guard against the Shafts of Love. Fond _Cupid_ smiling, spies the Fair, And soon he baffles all her Care, In vain she tries her Pain to smother, The Nymph too frail, the Nymph too frail, becomes a Mother.
But no, these little Follies o’er, She firmly vows she’ll sin no more; No more to Vice will fall a Prey, But spend in Prayer each fleeting Day. Close in her Cell immur’d she lies, Nor from the Cross removes her Eyes; Whilst Sisters crouding at the Crate, Spend all their Time, spend all their Time in Worldly Prate.
The Abbess, overjoy’d to find This happy Change in Jenny’s Mind, The rest, with Air compos’d, addressing, “Daughters, if you expect a Blessing, “From pious _Jane_, Example take, “The World and all its Joys forsake.” “We will (they all replied as One) “But first let’s do as _Jane_ has done.”
BEYOND THE MARK.[41]
[41] _Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_: “now first done into the English tongue by Robert B. Douglas, (_One Hundred Merrie and Delightsome Stories_)”: Paris, Charles Carrington, 1899 (?): 82nd story. The editors of _Anthologica Rarissima_ have taken slight liberties with Mr. Douglas’ translation, deeming archaic phraseology more fitting to the atmosphere of the narrative.
_Of a shepherd who made an agreement with a shepherdess that he should mount upon her “in order that he might see farther,” but was not to penetrate beyond a mark which she herself made with her hand upon the instrument of the said shepherd--as will more plainly appear hereafter._
Listen, an it please ye, to what happened, near Lille, to a shepherd and a young shepherdess who tended their flocks together, or near together.
Nature had already stirred in them, and they were of an age to know “the way of the world,” so one day an agreement was made between them that the shepherd should mount on the shepherdess “in order to see farther,”[42]--provided, however, that he should not penetrate beyond a mark which she made with her hand upon the natural instrument of the shepherd, and which was about two fingers’ breadth below the head; and the mark was made with a blackberry taken from the hedge.
[42] The phrase has passed into use as an accepted slang term for the sexual act.
That being done, they began God’s work, and the shepherd pushed in as though it had cost him no trouble, and without thinking about any mark or sign, or the promise he had made to the shepherdess, for all that he had it buried up to the hilt, and if he had had more he would have found a place to put it.
The pretty shepherdess, who had never had such a wedding, enjoyed herself so much that she would willingly have done nothing else all her life. The battle being ended, both went to look after their sheep, which had meanwhile strayed some distance. They being brought together again, the shepherd, who was called Hacquin, to pass the time, sat in a swing set up between two hedges, and there he swung, as happy as a king.
The shepherdess sat by the side of a ditch, and made a wreath of flowers. She sang a little song, hoping that it would attract the shepherd, and he would begin the game over again; but that was very far from his thoughts. When she found he did not come, she began to call: “Hacquin! Hacquin!”
And he replied: “What wantest thou?”
“Come hither! Come hither! Wilt thou?” said she.
But Hacquin had had a surfeit of pleasure and made answer:
“In God’s name, leave me alone. I do naught. I enjoy myself.”
Then the shepherdess cried:
“Come hither, Hacquin; I will let thee go in further, without making any mark.”
“By St. John,” said Hacquin, “I went far beyond the mark, and I do not want any more.”
He would not go to the shepherdess, who was much vexed to have to remain idle.[43]
[43] _Songs of the Groves: Records of the Ancient World_, (The Vine Press: Steyning, Sussex: 1921), has a singularly charming account of a rustic courtship. _The Wooing_, the poem to which we refer, is a rendering from the Greek of Theocritus, and is remarkable for the vivid picture conjured up before our eyes in a few lines of verse. Daphnis, a young shepherd, and a maiden, discourse of love and marriage; eventually she yields to his passion:--
“_Remove your hand, you satyr; do not seek my blossoms so!_” “_Just a first glance! Oh! I must see those snowy flowers of mine!_” “_O Pan! O Pan! I’m fainting! Take away that hand of thine!_” “_Darling, look up! Don’t tremble so! Why fear your Lycidas?_” “_Oh, Daphnis! I shall spoil my robe; it’s filthy on this grass._” “_But--just see here!--the softest fleece over your robe I’ve thrown._” “_Ah me! Oh! Don’t undo my belt! Why do you loose my zone?_” “_Because the Paphian Queen must have it for an offering._” “_Some one will come! I hear a noise! Leave off, you cruel thing!_” “_A noise? My cypresses: they murmur how my darling weds._” “_Oh, I am bare! You’ve torn my robe into a string of shreds!_” “_A better robe I’ll give you soon; a larger robe I’ll buy._” “_Oh, yes! You’ll give me all, when soon salt even you’ll deny._” “_Oh, I could pour my soul into you for your dear delight!_” “_Forgive, O Artemis, forgive your faithless acolyte._” “_Venus shall have an ox; a calf for Cupid I will burn._” “_A virgin came I hither, but a woman shall return._” “_The nurse, the mother, of my babes, now never more a maid._” _So with young limbs entwined in love all joyously they played, Soft-murmuring each to each; then from their secret couch they leap: She, when she had arisen, went away to feed her sheep; Shame was in her eyes, but her heart beat high above: Joyous, he went to feed his flocks, glad from the bed of love._
THE DEVIL IN HELL.[44]
[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.
THE WEDDING NIGHT OF JEAN THE FOOL.[45]
[45] _Kruptadia_: Heilbronn, Henninger Frères, 1884: vol. 2, _Breton Folk Lore_.
“Mother mine,” quoth Jean the Fool, “I would marry.”
“Thou wouldst marry, poor innocent? And what wouldst thou do with a woman? And who would want thee? To marry, thou must have culture at thy back (for thus they term those who have worldly goods), and thou hast none. Furthermore, thou must pay court to the maidens, and thou art too great a fool to know how to do that.”
“What doth one do when he goeth to visit the maidens?”
“One goeth to them when they hold a party, one indulgeth in all manner of drolleries, one pincheth them, one snatcheth their handkerchiefs when they blow their noses, one pulleth at their petticoats, and one laugheth.”
“Good,” said Jean to himself; and went out.
Passing down a road, narrow and filled with mire, he sat down, and when he felt he had sufficient ‘cultivation’ on his backside, he went to a farm where there was a party. The youths and maidens, when they saw Jean the Idiot enter all smeared with mire, drew back to make room for him, lest they themselves be soiled. In the end he found in the lobby a stool on which he sat near one of the maidens, whom he scrutinised closely.
She drew away from him; Jean pinched her, rudely snatched away her handkerchief when she sought to make use of it, and laughed like a fool. Then, thinking to succeed with her, he tugged so violently at her petticoat that he broke the strings that held it up. The maiden, half undressed, was enraged, and Jean was kicked out of doors, amid the shouting and jeering of the entire company.
From this moment Jean the Fool had no desire to pay court to maidens. But his mother, who felt herself growing old and had need of a daughter-in-law to aid her, said to him one day:
“Jean, thou must marry.”
“Nay, indeed, mother mine. I was tricked enough when I saw the maidens.”
“Nevertheless, ‘tis good to be married. Thy wife will give thee a chicken to eat.”[46]
[46] The play on words here is somewhat obscure. _Manger un poulet_ is not a slang term for the sexual act. Interpreting freely, we might read: “Will give thee a chicken to pluck,” _i.e._: her virginity. This is borne out by the wife’s subsequent behaviour. On the other hand, the mother may be speaking simply and literally.
Jean gave his consent and was married. When he was abed with his wife, he believed that she would serve up a chicken for him, and he said to her:
“Give it me.”
“Take it,” answered his wife.
“Give it me, I tell thee.”
“Take it, then.”
Thus passed the night, and on the morrow Jean the Fool went weeping to his mother, saying:
“Mother, I begged her for it, and she would not give it me.”
“He lieth!” cried the wife. “I have told him to take it if he wished it.”
And she went to complain to her mother that she had married an idiot, who passed the whole night saying “Give it me” without doing aught else. The good woman saw clearly that her son-in-law was foolish, and she bade him on the following night mount upon his wife and thrust at a spot where he felt some hair.
Jean did as he was counselled, but instead of stretching himself at full length upon her, laid himself across his wife and began to thrust with all his force, but without success, as one can well imagine, a woman’s slit not being at the same angle as her mouth.
Nor was it until the third night that Jean the Fool learned how he must comport himself to have a chicken, and then he found it very much to his taste and his wife also.[47]
[47] We make no apology for the frequent extracts from _Kruptadia_ to be found in this volume and those to follow of _Anthologica Rarissima_. _Kruptadia_, perhaps the most remarkable _recueil_ of folk lore stories, songs, sayings and proverbs in the world, is a work far too little known to the student and bibliophile. Its rarity may be explained by the fact that comparatively few copies of each volume were struck off. Of Vol. 2, from which “The Wedding Night of Jean the Fool” is taken, only 135 numbered copies were done. A complete 12-volume set, in the original format (the work was begun in Heilbronn by Henninger Frères and completed in Paris by Welter) is not often seen, and we count ourselves fortunate in having one before us as we write. Havelock Ellis frequently refers to the collection in his _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_, while Pisanus Fraxi, the great bibliographer of erotic, prohibited and uncommon books, was just able to notice the first two volumes in his _Catena Librorum Tacendorum_, (London: Privately Printed: 1885). He pays generous tribute to the production. “Students of folk lore,” he writes, “will hail with delight the appearance of this well-printed and carefully got up little volume, to be followed, let us hope, by many others of the same kind, equally remarkable for talented and faithful rendering, and masterly editing.” Dealing with the tales themselves, he goes on to say that “they reveal to us in an interesting and unequivocal manner the feelings, aspirations, modes of thought, manner of living of the people who tell them, and are possibly one of the most valuable contributions to the study of folk lore which has yet appeared.... They are all characteristic--all good.” Fraxi then gives the pith of “The Enchanted Ring,” which we have already printed at length in this volume. In the concluding pages of his _Catena Librorum Tacendorum_, Fraxi states that vol. 2 of _Kruptadia_ has reached him in time to mention briefly its contents. Since these words were written, ten other volumes have been issued--a veritable mine of entertaining and instructive information. We even go so far as to say that genuine students of folk lore and collectors of curious literature cannot afford to ignore _Kruptadia_, even as they should have access to Pisanus Fraxi’s 3-volume work, _INDEX LIBRORUM PROHIBITORUM_, _CENTURIA LIBRORUM ABSCONDITORUM_, and _CATENA LIBRORUM TACENDORUM_. Possession of these works by all is impossible owing to their rarity, cost and small imprint. Not every student can afford to pay £20 to £30 for the complete set of _Kruptadia_, even if he be lucky enough to chance on such a find, while Fraxi’s amazing bibliography, in the sale room alone, commands about £35; and while the price tends steadily to increase, the appearance of the complete 3-volume set as steadily decreases.
THE MAIDEN WELL GUARDED.[48]
[48] _Kruptadia_: Heilbronn, Henninger Frères, 1884: _Breton Folk Lore_.
There lived a maiden whose mother guarded her with infinite care lest some youth should do her ill; and she was brought up in all innocence. And when she begged to go to gatherings even as other maids of her age, her mother was wont to answer her, saying:
“Nay, my daughter, thou shalt not go, for there thou art like to lose thy maidenhead.”
One day, nevertheless, Pierre, the maiden’s lover, who was a good lad and a quiet, came seeking to conduct her to an assembly, and both lad and maid besought the mother to let them go. In the end she consented, thinking in herself that Pierre was too honest to do her daughter ill, and she enjoined him guard her well.
Behold, then, these two on their way; and as they went, the maiden said:
“My mother hath strictly enjoined me to guard my maidenhead. It seemeth that at assemblies one is in case to lose it. How best preserve it?”
“Hath not thy mother shown thee a method of so doing?”
“Yea,” answered the maiden, “she hath enjoined me to press my thighs tightly together.”
Quitting the road, they entered a wood wherein were several streamlets, which one crossed by means of planks. Even as the maid walked upon one of these planks Pierre, who marched behind her, cast a stone into the water hard by the girl.
“Alas!” cried the maiden. “What will my mother say? Behold, my maidenhead hath fallen in the water and is lost!”
“Fear not,” answered the lad. “‘Tis fortunate I am here. I will restore it thee. Come with me ‘neath the trees, and say naught if the business hurteth thee, for ‘tis all for thy good.”
Then Pierre, in very sooth, ‘put back’ the maidenhead for her, and shortly afterward they came to the second plank. Even as the girl stood upon it, two or three frogs, slumbering at the streamside, were affrighted and hopped into the water, which spirted up ‘neath the maiden.
“Ah! Pierre!” cried she. “‘Tis lost again! It seemeth that it was not firm. ‘Twas most wrong of thee not to have put it back more firmly.”
“Say no more,” answered Pierre. “I will again put it back.”
And when the maidenhead had been put back for the second time, they went on, reaching the assembly, where they diverted themselves as did the others.
On their return journey, even as the young girl passed over a plank, Pierre cast in the water an apple which he had in his pocket.
“What will my mother say?” cried the girl. “‘Tis the third time I have lost it to-day!”
“Fear not,” quoth Pierre. “I am about to sew it on again.”
When the maidenhead had been resewed, the girl, who was acquiring a taste for this form of embroidery, said to Pierre:
“‘Tis not sewn sufficiently firm.”
“Indeed it is.”
“‘Tis not.”
“But I have no more thread.”
“Miserable deceiver!” cried the girl. “He saith he hath no more thread, yet all the while he possesseth two great balls of it!”[49]
[49] _Peloton_ is the word in the text, signifying, literally, _a ball made of things (thread, silk or wool) wound round it_. The play on words is remarkably apt in the last few lines of the story, _peloton_ exactly connoting, in the mind of the simple girl, the youth’s testicles and pubic hair.
_VARIANT._
Béroalde de Verville, in _Le Moyen de Parvenir_, has a similar tale. As it differs in several respects from our _Kruptadia_ version, we give it here. Our extract is from Arthur Machen’s text, which is, so far as we know, the only English translation of the old French Canon’s much censured work.[50] Donatus, one of the characters in the book, is speaking:--
[50] _Fantastic Tales or The Way to Attain: A Book full of Pantagruelism: Now for the first time done into English_ by Arthur Machen: Privately Printed: Carbonnek, 1890. We shall return to the subject of De Verville’s work in a later page of this volume.
... That’s like the case of my landlady’s daughter.... One day this young wench desired to go to a bride-ale, and asked leave of her mother, who granted it on the condition that she would solemnly, paragraphically, and distinctively promise to keep her maidenhead,[51] to which condition the girl agreed with all her heart.
[51] The word is ours. Machen translates “honour.”
So she went away to the wedding, and set herself to keep guard o’er her maidenhead. The lasses and lads all danced away, but she not a step, nor did she dare approach the board where the others were engaged in the quintessential operation of making ordure with the teeth. The poor girl stayed all the time in a corner of the room, with her two hands at the bottom of her stomach, just opposite to the diameter (I mean opposite to the centre which so far was cut by no diameter). Coypeau, seeing her thus dung in the mouth (I should say, down in the mouth) came up to her and said:
“What cheer, Coz; shall we foot it awhile?”
“Nay, I dare not, for fear I lose my maidenhead; my mother bade me take great care of it.”
“Oh, Oh,” says he, “and is that all? Why Coz, sweet Coz, follow me to this little closet, and I’ll sew it up so tight that it shall never fall out.”
All this he said in a whisper, but she heard him well enough, for she was fain to be a-dancing; and so she followed him. He then proceeded to show her how the wolf dances with his tail between his legs, and sewed up her maidenhead so securely that he told her it would never fall out by that way.
Thereupon she began to dance, and enjoyed herself to her heart’s content; but she liked needlework so well that she asked for some more, and had three stitches. (That was enough in all conscience, though I have threaded the needle[52] for Madeleine forty-five times in forty-four hours; five by night and by day _forté_.) Coypeau was not quite so strong as that, but he gave the poor girl a great treat. She ate some sweetmeats, and feeling ashamed no longer, bethought her of her maidenhead, and went up to him, and asked him if he would give it another stitch.
[52] _Enfiler une aiguille_, more usually, _enfiler_. The expression is common to most erotic writers. _Vide_ various erotic lexicographers quoted _ante_.
“Faith! “ said he, “I can’t, I haven’t any more thread.”
“Come, Come,” quoth she, “I thought I saw two nice little balls of thread.”
TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN.[53]
[53] _The Thousand Nights and a Night_, translated by Sir Richard F. Burton, and printed by the Burton Club for private subscribers only: Lauristan Edition, limited to 1,000 numbered sets. As the story in the original is of considerable length, we have summarised portions of it, retaining in its entirety that part of the text which will appeal most to the bibliophile. The paragraphing, also, is in many cases our own.
_King Shahriman had a son, Kamar al-Zaman, who “grew up of surpassing beauty ... and symmetry,” but was unwilling to marry. For this he is eventually cast into prison. A similar fate has befallen Princess Budur, daughter of King Ghayur, Lord of China Islands and Seas, and for a similar reason. The maiden is pictured as one “than whom Allah hath made none fairer in her time ... with cheeks like purple wine ... lips as coral ... breasts like two globes of ivory, from whose brightness the moons borrow light, and a stomach with little waves as it were a figured cloth ... with creases like folded scrolls, ending in a waist slender past all imagination; based upon back parts like a hillock of blown sand, that force her to sit when she would lief stand....”_
_Two genii, Maymunah, a woman, and Dahnash, a man, now come into the story, the former as a champion of Kamar, the latter as Princess Budur’s. After a long dispute as to the rival charms of Prince and Princess, they convey the latter to the Prince’s side, the test of beauty to be as follows_:--
_Each is to be awakened in turn, without knowledge of the other, and whichever is the more enamoured will be held inferior in comeliness._
_Dahnash then changes himself into a flea, and bites Kamar al-Zaman, who wakes up. The text continues_:--
... Then turning sideways, he found lying by him something whose breath was sweeter than musk and whose skin was softer than cream. Hereat he marvelled with great marvel, and he sat up and looked at what lay beside him; when he saw it to be a young lady like an union pearl, or a shining sun, or a dome seen from afar on a well-built wall: for she was five feet tall ... bosomed high and rosy-cheeked....
And when Kamar al-Zaman saw the lady Budur, daughter of King Ghayur, and her beauty and comeliness, she was sleeping clad in a shift of Venetian silk, without her petticoat trousers, and wore on her head a kerchief embroidered with gold and set with stones of price; her ears were hung with twin earrings which shone like constellations, and round her neck was a collar of union pearls, of size unique, past the competence of any king.
When he saw this, his reason was confounded and natural heat began to stir in him; Allah awoke in him the desire of coïtion and he said to himself:
“Whatso Allah willeth, that shall be, and what he willeth not shall be!”
So saying, he put out his hand, turning her over, loosed the collar of her chemise; then arose before his sight her bosom, with its breasts like double globes of ivory; whereat his inclination for her redoubled and he desired her with exceeding hot desire. He would have awakened her but she would not awake, for Dahnash had made her sleep heavy; so he shook her and moved her, saying:
“O my beloved, awake and look on me; I am Kamar al-Zaman.”
But she awoke not, neither moved her head; whereupon he considered her case for a long hour and said to himself:
“If I guess aright, this is the damsel to whom my father would have married me, and these three years I have refused her; but Inshallah!--God willing--as soon as it is dawn, I will say to him: Marry me to her, that I may enjoy her; nor will I let half the day pass ere I possess her and take my fill of her beauty and loveliness.”
Then he bent over Budur to buss her, whereat the Jinniyah Maymunah trembled and was abashed and Dahnash, the Ifrit, was like to fly for joy. But as Kamar al-Zaman was about to kiss her on the mouth, he was ashamed before Allah and turned away his head and averted his face, saying to his heart: “Have patience.”
Then he took thought awhile and said:
“I will be patient; haply my father when he was wroth with me and sent me to this jail, may have brought my young lady and made her lie by my side to try me with her, and may have charged her not to be readily awakened when I would arouse her, and may have said to her:
“‘Whatever thing Kamar al-Zaman do to thee, make me ware thereof’;
“Or belike my sire standeth hidden in some stead whence (being himself unseen) he can see all I do with this young lady; and to-morrow he will scold me and cry:
“‘How cometh it that thou sayest, I have no mind to marry; and yet thou didst kiss and embrace yonder damsel?’
“So I will withhold myself lest I be ashamed before my sire; and the right and proper thing to do is not to touch her at this present, nor even to look upon her, except to take from her somewhat which shall serve as a token to me and a memorial of her; that some sign endure between me and her.”
Then Kamar al-Zaman raised the young lady’s hand and took from her little finger a seal-ring worth an immense amount of money, for that its bezel was a precious jewel ... and set it on his own; then, turning his back to her, went to sleep.[54] ...
[54] “The young man,” says Sir Richard Burton, in a footnote, “must have been a demon of chastity.”
Thereupon Maymunah changed herself into a flea and entering into the raiment of Budur, the loved of Dahnash, crept up her calf and came upon her thigh and, reaching a place some four carats[55] below her navel, there bit her. Thereupon she opened her eyes and sitting up in bed, saw a youth lying beside her and breathing heavily in his sleep, the loveliest of Almighty Allah’s creatures, with eyes that put to shame the fairest Houris of Heaven; and a mouth like Solomon’s seal, whose water was sweeter to the taste and more efficacious than a theriack, and lips the colour of coral-stone, and cheeks like blood-red anemone....
[55] Carat = one finger-breadth here. The derivation is from the Greek _Keration_, a bean, the seed of the _abrus precatorius_.--Note by Sir Richard Burton.
Now when Princess Budur saw him, she was seized by a transport of passion and yearning and love-longing, and she said to herself:
“Alas, my shame! This is a strange youth and I know him not. How cometh he to be lying by my side on one bed?”
Then she looked at him a second time and, noting his beauty and loveliness, said:
“By Allah, he is indeed a comely youth and my heart is well-nigh torn in sunder with longing for him! But alas, how am I shamed by him! By the Almighty, had I known it was this youth who sought me in marriage of my father, I had not rejected him, but had wived with him and enjoyed his loveliness!”
Then she gazed in his face and said:
“O my lord and light of mine eyes, awake from sleep and take thy pleasure in my beauty and grace.”
And she moved him with her hand; but Maymunah the Jinniyah let down sleep upon him as it were a curtain, and pressed heavily on his head with her wings so that Kamar al-Zaman awoke not. Then Princess Budur shook him with her hands and said:
“My life on thee, hearken to me; awake and up from thy sleep and look on the narcissus and the tender down thereon, and enjoy the sight of naked waist and navel; and touzle me and tumble me from this moment till break of day! Allah upon thee, O my lord, sit up and prop thee against the pillow and slumber not!”
Still Kamar al-Zaman made her no reply but breathed hard in his sleep. Continued she:
“Alas! Alas! thou art insolent in thy beauty and comeliness and grace and loving looks! But if thou art handsome, so am I handsome; what then is this thou dost? Have they taught thee to flout me or hath my father, the wretched old fellow, made thee swear not to speak to me to-night?”
But Kamar al-Zaman opened not his mouth neither awoke, whereat her passion for him redoubled and Allah inflamed her heart with love of him. She stole one glance of eyes that cost her a thousand sighs: her heart fluttered, and her vitals throbbed and her hands and feet quivered; and she said to Kamar al-Zaman:
“Talk to me, O my lord! Speak to me, O my friend! Answer me, O my beloved, and tell me thy name, for indeed thou hast ravished my wit!”
And during all this time he abode drowned in sleep and answered her not a word, and Princess Budur sighed and said:
“Alas! Alas! why art thou so proud and self-satisfied?”
Then she shook him and turning his hand over, saw her seal-ring on his little finger, whereat she cried a loud cry, and followed it with a sigh of passion and said:
“Alack! Alack! By Allah, thou art my beloved and thou lovest me! Yet thou seemest to turn thee away from me out of coquetry, for all, O my darling, thou camest to me, whilst I was asleep and knew not what thou didst with me, and tookest my seal-ring; and yet I will not pull it off thy finger.”
So saying, she opened the bosom of his shirt and bent over him and kissed him and put forth her hand to him, seeking somewhat that she might take as a token, but found nothing. Then she thrust her hand into his breast and, because of the smoothness of his body, it slipped down to his waist and thence to his navel and thence to his yard, whereupon her heart ached and her vitals quivered and lust was sore upon her, for that the desire of women is fiercer than the desire of men,[56] and she was ashamed of her own shamelessness.
[56] ... In hot-damp climates the venereal requirements and reproductive powers of the female greatly exceed those of the male.... In cold-dry or hot-dry mountainous lands the reverse is the case; hence polygamy there prevails whilst the low countries require polyandry in either form, legal or illegal, _i.e._, prostitution.--Note by Sir Richard Burton. See, also, _excursus_ to this story, where the subject is dealt with at length.
Then she plucked his seal-ring from his finger, and put it on her own instead of the ring he had taken, and bussed his inner lips and hands, nor did she leave any part of him unkissed; after which she took him to her breast and embraced him and, laying one of her hands under his neck and the other under his arm-pit, nestled close to him and fell asleep by his side.
... When Princess Budur fell asleep by the side of Kamar al-Zaman, after doing that which she did, quoth Maymunah to Dahnash:
“Sawst thou, O accursed, how proudly and coquettishly my beloved bore himself, and how hotly and passionately thy mistress showed herself to my dearling? There can be no doubt that my beloved is handsomer than thine; nevertheless I pardon thee.”
... The two Ifrits went forward to Princess Budur and upraising her flew away with her; then, bearing her back to her own place, they laid her on her own bed, while Maymunah abode alone with Kamar al-Zaman, gazing upon him as he slept, till the night was all but spent, when she went her way. As soon as morning morrowed, the Prince awoke from sleep and turned right and left, but found not the maiden by him and said in his mind:
“What is this business? It is as if my father would incline me to marriage with the damsel who was with me and have now taken her away by stealth, to the intent that my desire for wedlock may redouble.”
Then he called out to the eunuch who slept at the door, saying:
“Woe to thee, O damned one, arise at once!”
So the eunuch rose, bemused with sleep, and brought him basin and ewer, whereupon Kamar al-Zaman entered the water-closet and did his need;[57] then, coming out, made the Wuzu-ablution and prayed the dawn-prayer, after which he sat telling on his beads the ninety-and-nine names of Almighty Allah....
[57] “This morning evacuation,” says Sir Richard Burton, in a footnote, “is considered, in the East, a _sine qua non_ of health.... The natives of India ... unlike Europeans, accustom themselves to evacuate twice a day, evening as well as morning. This may, perhaps, partly account for their mildness and effeminacy; for:--’C’est la constipation qui rend l’homme rigoureux.’”
_Strictly speaking, the rest of the story, which is of great length, is somewhat out of place in this volume. The reader, however, may be interested to know the upshot of the stratagem adopted by the genii, so we take leave to give it, summarising where necessary._
_Kamar al-Zaman and the Princess Budur, madly in love but grief-stricken by their separation, are eventually brought together and married. Later while on a journey, they are again separated by divers mischances, Kamar becoming an assistant to a gardener, while Budur, having adopted male garb to preserve her chastity, reaches the dominions of King Armanus. Here she is taken for a king’s son, and Armanus, who is old, gives her his daughter Hayat al-Nufus in marriage and makes her lord of his kingdom. An embarrassing situation now arises, Budur being unable to consummate the marriage or to explain her failure to the bride. Matters come to a crisis on the third night when Hayat speaks out. The text continues_:--
... Hayat al-Nufus caught her by the skirt and clung to her, saying:
“O my lord, art thou not ashamed before my father, after all his favour, to neglect me at such a time as this”
When Queen Budur heard her words, she sat down in the same place and said:
“O my beloved, what is this thou sayest?”
She replied:
“What I say is that I never saw any so proud of himself as thou. Is every fair one so disdainful? I say not this to incline thee to me; I say it only of my fear for thee from King Armanus; because he purposeth, unless thou go in unto me this very night, and do away my maidenhead, to strip thee of the kingship on the morrow and banish thee his kingdom; and peradventure his excessive anger may lead him to slay thee. But I, O my lord, have ruth on thee and give thee fair warning; and it is thy right to reck.”
Now when Queen Budur heard her speak these words, she bowed her head groundwards awhile in sore perplexity and said in herself:
“If I refuse I’m lost; and if I obey I’m shamed. But I am now Queen of all the Ebony Islands and they are under my rule, nor shall I ever again meet my Kamar al-Zaman save in this place; for there is no way for him to his native land but through the Ebony Islands. Verily, I know not what to do in my present case, but I commit my care to Allah who directeth all for the best, for I am no man that I should arise and open this virgin girl.”
Then quoth Queen Budur to Hayat al-Nufus:
“O my beloved, that I have neglected thee and abstained from thee is in my own despite.”
And she told her her whole story from beginning to end and showed her person to her, saying:
“I conjure you by Allah to keep my counsel, for I have concealed my case only that Allah may re-unite me with my beloved Kamar al-Zaman and then come what may.”
... The Princess heard her with extreme wonderment and was moved to pity and prayed Allah to re-unite her with her beloved, saying:
“Fear nothing, O my sister; but have patience till Allah bring to pass that which must come to pass.... O my sister, verily the breasts of the noble and brave are of secrets the grave; and I will not discover thine.”
Then they toyed and embraced and kissed and slept till near the Mu’ezzin’s call to dawn-prayer, when Hayat al-Nufus arose and took a pigeon-poult,[58] and cut its throat over her smock and besmeared herself with its blood. Then she pulled off her petticoat-trousers and cried aloud, whereupon her people hastened to her and raised the usual lullilooing and outcries of joy and gladness....
[58] “The belief that young pigeons’ blood resembles the virginal discharge is universal,” says Sir Richard Burton, in a footnote; “but the blood most resembling man’s is that of the pig, which in other points is so very human. In our day Arabs and Hindus rarely submit to inspection the nuptial sheet, as practised by the Israelites and Persians. The bride takes to bed a white kerchief with which she staunches the blood and next morning the stains are displayed in the Harem. In Darfour this is done by the bridegroom. “_Prima Venus debet esse cruenta_” (Love’s first battle should be bloody), say the Easterns with much truth, and they have no faith in our complaisant creed which allows the hymen-membrane to disappear by any but one accident.” The creed, of course, is not peculiar to the East, and realistic descriptions of this “sanguinary combat” will be found in Nicolas Chorier’s _Dialogues_, _Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure_, (_op. cit._), and other erotic works. _C.f._ also the modern custom of including a clean sheet among the bride’s trousseau. Further remarks on this subject will be found in our preliminary essay to this volume, “Human Nature, Tradition, and Virginity.”
_We can omit a description of the manner in which Kamar al-Zaman is at length brought to the Ebony Islands, where honour and dignity are heaped upon him, in particular by Queen Budur, whom he believes to be a man and the king of the dominion. Growing suspicious of these favours, Kamar asks permission to depart. The text continues_:--
... Answered Kamar al-Zaman:
“O King, verily this favour, if there be no reason for it, is indeed a wonder of wonders, more by token that thou hast advanced me to dignities such as befit men of age and experience, albeit I am as it were a young child.”
And Queen Budur rejoined:
“The reason is that I love thee for thine exceeding loveliness and thy surpassing beauty; and if thou wilt but grant me my desire of thy body, I will advance thee yet farther in honour and favour and largesse; and I will make thee Wazir, for all thy tender age, even as the folk made me Sultan over them and I no older than thou....”
When Kamar al-Zaman heard these words, he was abashed and his cheeks flushed till they seemed aflame; and he said:
“I need not these favours which lead to the commission of sin; I will live poor in wealth but wealthy in virtue and honour.”
Quoth she:
“I am not to be duped by thy scruples, arising from prudery and coquettish ways; and Allah bless him who saith:--
_To him I spake of coupling, but he said to me, ‘How long this noyous long persistency?’_
_But when gold piece I showëd him, he cried, ‘Who from the Almighty Sovereign e’er shall flee?’_”
Now when Kamar al-Zaman heard these words and understood her verses and their import, he said:
“O King, I have not the habit of these doings, nor have I strength to bear these heavy burthens for which elder age than I have proved unable; then how will it be with my tender age?”
But she smiled at his speech and retorted:
“Indeed, it is a matter right marvellous how error springeth from the disorder of man’s intendiment! Since thou art a boy, why standest thou in fear of sin or the doing of things forbidden, seeing that thou art not yet come to the years of canonical responsibility; and the offences of a child incur neither punishment nor reproof? Verily, thou hast committed thyself to a quibble for the sake of contention, and it is thy duty to bow before a proposal of fruition, so henceforward cease from denial and coyness, for the commandment of Allah is a decree foreordained: indeed, I have more reason than thou to fear falling and by sin to be misled; and well-inspired was he who said:--
_My prickle is big and the little one said, ‘Thrust boldly in vitals with lion-like stroke!’_
_Then I, ‘’Tis a sin!’; and he, ‘No sin to me!’ So I had him at once with a counterfeit poke.”_[59]
[59] “_i.e._, Not the real thing (with a woman),” says Sir R. Burton, in a note. “It may also mean ‘by his incitement of me.’ All this scene is written in the worst form of Persian-Egyptian blackguardism, and forms a curious anthropological study.”
When Kamar al-Zaman heard these words, the light became darkness in his sight and he said:
“O King, thou hast in thy household fair women and female slaves, who have not their like in this age: shall not these suffice thee without me? Do thy will with them and let me go!”
She replied:
“Thou sayest sooth, but it is not with them that one who loveth thee can heal himself of torment and can abate his fever; for, when tastes and inclinations are corrupted by vice, they hear and obey other than good advice. So leave arguing and listen to what the poet saith:--
_Seest not the bazaar with its fruit in rows? These men are for figs and for sycamore those!_[60]
[60] _i.e._, Some men prefer sodomy (figs = _anus_); others natural intercourse (sycamore = _cunnus_).
“And what another saith:--
_O beauty’s Union! love for thee’s my creed; free choice of Faith and eke my best desire_:
_Women I have forsworn for thee; so may deem me all men this day a shaveling friar._
“And yet another:--
_A boy of twice ten is fit for a King!_
“And yet another:--
_The penis smooth and round was made with anus best to match it: Had it been made for cunnus’ sake it had been formed like hatchet!_
“And yet another said:--
_My soul thy sacrifice! I chose thee out who art not menstruous or oviparous_:
_Did I with women mell, I should beget brats till the wide wide world grew strait for us._
“And yet another:--
_She saith_ (_sore hurt in sense the most acute, for she had proffered what did not besuit_):--
‘_Unless thou stroke as man should swive his wife, blame not when horns thy brow shall incornute!_
‘_Thy wand seems waxen, to a limpo grown: and more I palm it, softer grows the brute!_’
“And yet another:--
_Quoth she (for I to lie with her forbore), ‘O folly-following fool, O fool to core_:
‘_If thou my coynte for Kiblah[61] to thy coigne reject, we’ll show thee what shall please thee more._’[62]
[61] Note by Sir Richard Burton: Kiblah = the fronting place of prayer; Mecca for Moslems, Jerusalem for Jews and early Christians.
[62] Note by Sir Richard Burton: The Koran says (chap. 2): “Your wives are your tillage: go in therefore unto your tillage in what manner soever you will.” Usually this is understood as meaning in any posture, standing or sitting, lying, backwards or forwards. Yet there is a popular saying about the man whom the woman rides (vulg. _St. George_; in France, _le postillion_): “Cursed be he who maketh woman Heaven and himself earth!” Some hold the Koranic passage to have been revealed in confutation of the Jews, who pretended that if a man lay with his wife backwards, he would beget a cleverer child. Others again understood it of preposterous venery; which is absurd: every ancient law-giver framed his code to increase the true wealth of the people--population--and severely punished all processes, like onanism, which impeded it. The Persians utilise the hatred of women for such misuse when they would force a wife to demand a divorce and thus forfeit her claim to dowry; they convert them into catamites till, after a month or so, they lose all patience and leave the house. We do not propose to add to Sir Richard’s note, reserving our remarks on the subject for their proper place in a subsequent volume.
“And yet another:--
_She proffered me a tender coynte: Quoth I, ‘I will not roger thee!’_
_She drew back, saying, ‘From the Faith he turns, who’s turned by Heaven’s decree!_[63]
[63] Note by Sir Richard: Koran 51, 9, alluding, in the text, to the preposterous venery her lover demands.
_’And front-wise futtering, in one day, is obsolete persistency!’_
_Then swung she round and shining rump like silvern lump she showëd me!_
_I cried: ‘Well done, O mistress mine! No more am I in pain for thee;_
_’O thou of all that Allah oped[64] showest me fairest victory!’_
[64] Note by Sir Richard: Arab “Futùh,” meaning openings, and also victories, benefits. The lover congratulates her on her mortifying self in order to please him.
“And yet another:--
_Men craving pardon will uphold their hands; women pray pardon with their legs on high:_[65]
[65] _Vide_ note to _Excursus_ to this story, p. 100.
_Out on it for a pious, prayerful work! The Lord shall raise it in the depths to lie._”[66]
[66] Note by Sir Richard: “And the righteous work will be exalt.” (Koran 35, 11). Applied ironically.
When Kamar al-Zaman heard her quote this poetry, and was certified that there was no escaping compliance with what willed she, he said:
“O King of the age, if thou must needs have it so, make covenant with me that thou wilt do this thing with me but once, though it avail not to correct thy depraved appetite; and that thou wilt never again require this thing of me to the end of time; so perchance shall Allah purge me of the sin.”
She replied:
“I promise thee this same, hoping that Allah of His favour will relent toward us and blot out our mortal offence; for the girdle of Heaven’s forgiveness is not indeed so strait, but it may compass us around and absolve us of the excess of our heinous sins and bring us to the light of salvation out of the darkness of error; and indeed excellently well saith the poet:--
_Of evil thing the folk suspect us twain; and to this thought their hearts and souls are bent:_
_Come, dear! let’s justify and free their souls that wrong us; one good bout and then--repent!”_
Thereupon she made with him an agreement and a covenant and swore a solemn oath by Him who is Self-existent, that this thing should befall betwixt them but once and never again for all time, and that the desire of him was driving her to death and perdition. So he rose up with her, on this condition, and went with her to her own boudoir, that she might quench the lowe of her lust, saying:
“There is no Majesty, and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! This is the fated decree of the All-powerful, the All-wise!”
And he doffed his bag-trousers, shameful and abashed, with the tears running from his eyes from stress of affright. Thereat she smiled and making him mount upon a couch with her, said to him:
“After this night, thou shalt see naught that will offend thee.”
Then she turned to him bussing and bosoming him and bending calf over calf, and said to him:
“Put thy hand between my thighs to the accustomed place; so haply it may stand up to prayer after prostration.”
He wept and cried:
“I am not good at aught of this.”
But she said:
“By my life, an thou do as I bid thee, it shall profit thee!”
So he put out his hand, with vitals afire for confusion, and found her thighs cooler than cream and softer than silk. The touching of them pleasured him and he moved his hand hither and thither, till it came to a dome abounding in good gifts and movements and shifts, and said in himself:
“Perhaps this King is an hermaphrodite,[67] neither man nor woman quite.”
[67] Note by Sir Richard: Easterns still believe in what Westerns know to be an impossibility, human beings with the parts and proportions of both sexes equally developed and capable of reproduction; and Al-Islam even provides special rules for them. ... The old Greeks dreamed, after their fashion, a beautiful poetic dream of a human animal uniting the contradictory beauties of man and woman. The duality of the generative organs seems an old Egyptian tradition; at least we find it in _Genesis_ (1.27), where the image of the Deity is created male and female, before man was formed out of the dust of the ground (2.7). The old tradition found its way to India (if the Hindus did not borrow the idea from the Greeks); and one of the forms of Mahadeva, the third person of their triad, is entitled “Ardhanári” = the Half-Woman, which has suggested to them some charming pictures. Europeans, seeing the left breast conspicuously feminine, have indulged in silly surmises about the “Amazons.”
So he said to her:
“O King, I cannot find that thou hast a tool like the tools of men; what then moved thee to do this deed?”
Then loudly laughed Queen Budur till she fell on her back,[68] and said:
[68] Note by Sir Richard: This is a mere phrase for our “dying of laughter”: the queen was on her back. And as Easterns sit on carpets, their falling back is very different from the same movement off a chair.
“O my dearling, how quickly thou hast forgotten the nights we have lain together!”
Then she made herself known to him, and he knew her for his wife, the Lady Budur, daughter of King al-Ghayur, Lord of the Isles and the Seas. So he embraced her and she embraced him, and he kissed her and she kissed him; then they lay down on the bed of pleasure voluptuous....
* * * * *
_Here we end our extract from the Tale of Kamar al-Zaman, although the story runs on for another forty odd pages in Sir Richard Burton’s translation. A situation similar to that just described occurs in another story in ‘The Nights,’ and we shall have occasion to quote from that in a subsequent volume._
_EXCURSUS_ to _THE TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN_.
“We are told that in the East there was once a woman named Moarbeda who was a philosopher and considered to be the wisest woman of her time. When Moarbeda was once asked: ‘In what part of a woman’s body does her mind reside?’ she replied: ‘Between her thighs.’”--Havelock Ellis: _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_, Vol. 3: _The Sexual Impulse in Women_.[69]
[69] Havelock Ellis is quoting from _The Perfumed Garden of The Cheikh Nefzaoui_: Cosmopoli, 1886, printed for the Kama Shastra Society of London and Benares.
* * * * *
The amativeness of woman, as compared with that of man, is a question, of course, entirely beyond the scope of this note. We must be content with examining some of the most interesting and pertinent extracts from the works of those qualified to speak on the subject.
At the outset we are confronted with the striking fact that, while the ancients were prone to regard woman as generally amative, even lustful, modern thought has exactly reversed this opinion. “It seems to have been reserved for the nineteenth century,” says Havelock Ellis, (_op. cit. supra_), “to state that women are apt to be congenitally incapable of experiencing complete sexual satisfaction, and peculiarly liable to sexual anaesthesia. This idea appears to have been almost unknown to the eighteenth century....”
Thus we have two schools of thought, one attributing to woman an intense sexual impulse, even greater than in man, the other holding her sexually frigid by nature and erotic only by pretence or accident. We may helpfully quote again from our Havelock Ellis, who has summarised in masterly fashion the various authorities on both sides:--
“In the treatise _On Generation_, (chap. 5), which until recent times was commonly ascribed to Hippocrates,” he says, “it is stated that men have greater pleasure in coïtus than women, though the pleasure of women lasts longer, and this opinion, though not usually accepted, was treated with great respect by medical authors down to the end of the 17th century.... Gall had stated decisively that the sexual desires of men are stronger and more imperious than those of women. (_Fonctions du Cerveau_, 1825).... Raciborski declared that three-fourths of women merely endure the approaches of men. (_De la Puberté chez la Femme_).
“‘When the question is carefully inquired into and without prejudice,’ said Lawson Tait, ‘it is found that women have their sexual appetites far less developed than men.’ (Lawson Tait, _Provincial Medical Journal_, 1891). ‘The sexual instinct is very powerful in man and comparatively weak in women,’ he stated elsewhere. (_Diseases of Women_, 1889). Hammond stated that ... ‘it is doubtful if in one-tenth of the instances of intercourse they [women] experience the slightest pleasurable sensation from first to last.’ (Hammond, _Sexual Impotence_).
“Lombroso and Ferrero consider that sexual sensibility ... is less pronounced in women.... ‘Woman is naturally and organically frigid....’ (Lombroso and Ferrero, _La Donna Deliquente, la Prostituta, e la Donna Normale_, 1893). Krafft-Ebing was of opinion that women require less sexual satisfaction than men, being less sensual.... ‘The sensuality of men,’ Moll states, ‘is in my opinion very much greater than that of women.’
“Adler, who discusses the direction at some length, decides that the sexual needs of women are less than those of men, though in some cases the orgasm in quantity and quality greatly exceeds that of men. He believes, not only that the sexual impulse in women is absolutely less than in men, and requires stronger stimulation to arouse it, but that also it suffers from a latency due to inhibition, which acts like a foreign body in the brain ... and demands great skill in the man who is to awaken the woman to love.”
Here we have one side of the question--a side strangely at variance with ancient thought, romance and history. The supposed frigidity of women is characterised by Havelock Ellis as ‘an opinion of very recent growth ... confined, on the whole, to a few countries.’ (_Studies_, vol. 3, page 196). He goes on to quote Brierre de Boismont, who wrote: ‘Turn to history, and on every page you will be able to recognise the predominance of erotic ideas in women.’ It is the same to-day, he adds, and he attributes it to the fact that men are more easily able to gratify their sexual impulses. (_Des Hallucinations_, 1862).
“The laws of Manu,” continues Havelock Ellis, “attribute to women concupiscence and anger, the love of bed and of adornment. The Jews attribute to women greater sexual desire than to men. This is illustrated, according to Knobel (as quoted by Dillman), by _Genesis_,