VARIANT.Béroalde de Verville, inLe Moyen de Parvenir, has a similar tale. As it differs in several respects from ourKruptadiaversion, 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.50Donatus, one of the characters in the book, is speaking:—... 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,51to which condition the girl agreed with all her heart.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 tothe 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 needle52for Madeleine forty-five times in forty-four hours; five by night and by dayforté.) 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.“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.”
VARIANT.Béroalde de Verville, inLe Moyen de Parvenir, has a similar tale. As it differs in several respects from ourKruptadiaversion, 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.50Donatus, one of the characters in the book, is speaking:—... 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,51to which condition the girl agreed with all her heart.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 tothe 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 needle52for Madeleine forty-five times in forty-four hours; five by night and by dayforté.) 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.“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.”
Béroalde de Verville, inLe Moyen de Parvenir, has a similar tale. As it differs in several respects from ourKruptadiaversion, 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.50Donatus, one of the characters in the book, is speaking:—
... 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,51to which condition the girl agreed with all her heart.
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 tothe 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 needle52for Madeleine forty-five times in forty-four hours; five by night and by dayforté.) 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.
“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.”