[Notes by LKG]
This story is part of the Decameron unit. Story source: The Decameron by Boccaccio, translated by J. M. Rigg (1903).
Dom Felice and Fra Puccio (cont.)
"First of all then, the penitent must with great exactitude confess his sins when he comes to begin the penance. Then follows a period of fasting and very strict abstinence which must last for forty days, during which time he is to touch no woman whomsoever, not even his wife. Moreover, thou must have in thy house some place whence thou mayst see the sky by night, whither thou must resort at compline, and there thou must have a beam, very broad, and placed in such a way, that, standing, thou canst rest thy nether part upon it, and so, not raising thy feet from the ground, thou must extend thy arms, so as to make a sort of crucifix, and if thou wouldst have pegs to rest them on thou mayst, and on this manner, thy gaze fixed on the sky and never moving a jot, thou must stand until matins. And wert thou lettered, it were proper for thee to say meanwhile certain prayers that I would give thee, but as thou art not so, thou must say three hundred paternosters and as many avemarias in honour of the Trinity, and thus contemplating the sky, be ever mindful that God was the creator of the heaven and the earth, and being set even as Christ was upon the cross, meditate on His passion."Then, when the matin-bell sounds, thou mayst, if thou please, go to bed — but see that thou undress not — and sleep, but in the morning thou must go to church, and hear at least three masses, and say fifty paternosters and as many avemarias, after which thou mayst with a pure heart do aught that thou hast to do and breakfast, but at vespers thou must be again at church and say there certain prayers, which I shall give thee in writing and which are indispensable, and after compline thou must repeat thy former exercise. Do this, and I, who have done it before thee, have good hope that even before thou shalt have reached the end of the penance, thou wilt, if thou shalt do it in a devout spirit, have already a marvellous foretaste of the eternal blessedness."
"This," said Fra Puccio, "is neither a very severe nor a very long penance, and can be very easily managed, wherefore in God's name I will begin on Sunday." And so he took his leave of Dom Felice, and went home and, by Dom Felice's permission, informed his wife of every particular of his intended penance.
The lady understood very well what the monk meant by enjoining him not to stir from his post until matins, and, deeming it an excellent device, she said that she was well content that he should do this or aught else that he thought good for his soul, and to the end that his penance might be blest of, she would herself fast with him, though she would go no further.
So they did as they had agreed: when Sunday came, Fra Puccio began his penance, and master monk, by understanding with the lady, came most evenings, at the hour when he was secure from discovery, to sup with her, always bringing with him abundance both of meat and of drink and, after, slept with her till the matin hour when he got up and left her, and Fra Puccio went to bed.
The place which Fra Puccio had chosen for his penance was close to the room in which the lady slept and only separated from it by the thinnest of partitions, so that, the monk and the lady disporting themselves with one another without stint or restraint, Fra Puccio thought he felt the floor of the house shake a little and, pausing at his hundredth paternoster,but without leaving his post, called out to the lady to know what she was about.
The lady, who dearly loved a jest and was just then riding the horse of St. Benedict or St. John Gualbert, answered: "I'faith, husband, I am as restless as may be."
"Restless," said Fra Puccio, "how so? What means this restlessness?"
Whereto with a hearty laugh, for which she doubtless had good occasion, the bonny lady replied: "What means it? How should you ask such a question? Why, I have heard you say a thousand times: 'Who fasting goes to bed, uneasy lies his head.'"
Fra Puccio, supposing that her wakefulness and restlessness abed was due to want of food, said in good faith: "Wife, I told thee I would have thee not fast, but as thou hast chosen to fast, think not of it, but think how thou mayst compose thyself to sleep; thou tossest about the bed in such sort that the shaking is felt here."
"That need cause thee no alarm," rejoined the lady. "I know what I am about; I will manage as well as I can, and do thou likewise."
So Fra Puccio said no more to her but resumed his paternosters, and thenceforth every night, while Fra Puccio's penance lasted, the lady and master monk, having had a bed made up for them in another part of the house, did there wanton it most gamesomely, the monk departing and the lady going back to her bed at one and the same time, being shortly before Fra Puccio's return from his nightly vigil. The friar thus persisting in his penance while the lady took her fill of pleasure with the monk, she would from time to time say jestingly to him: "Thou layest a penance upon Fra Puccio whereby we are rewarded with Paradise."
So well indeed did she relish the dainties with which the monk regaled her, the more so by contrast with the abstemious life to which her husband had long accustomed her that, when Fra Puccio's penance was done, she found means to enjoy them elsewhere and ordered her indulgence with such discretion as to ensure its long continuance.
Whereby (that my story may end as it began) it came to pass that Fra Puccio, hoping by his penance to win a place for himself in Paradise, did in fact translate thither the monk who had shewn him the way and the wife who lived with him in great dearth of that of which the monk in his charity gave her superabundant largess.
Next: The Pot of Basil
(1000 words)
