Part 15 (1/2)
”'Senti o bella una parola, Te la dico a te sola, Qui nessun ci puo'l sentire Una cosa ti vuo dire; Se la senti la stemperona, L'a un voce da buffona Tiene in mano la corona. {103} Per fare credere a questo o quella, Che l'e sempre una verginella.'
”'Hear, O lovely maid, a word, Only to thyself I'd bear it, For it must not be o'erheard, Least of all should the preacher hear it.
'Tis that, while seeming pious, she, Holding in hand a rosary, Her talk is all hypocrisy, To make believe to simple ears, That still the maiden wreath she wears.'
”Then another voice answered:
”'La risposta ti vuo dare, Senza farti aspettare; Ora di un bell' affare, Te la voglio raccontare, Quella donna che sta a cantare, E una Strega di queste contrade, Che va da questo e quello, A cantarle indovinello, A chi racconta: Voi siete Buona donna affezionata.
Al vostro marito, ma non sapete, Cie' di voi un 'altra appasionata.'
”'Friends, you'll not have long to wait For what I'm going to relate; And it is a pretty story Which I am going to lay before ye.
That dame who singing there you see Is a witch of this our Tuscany, Who up and down the city flies, Deceiving people with her lies, Saying to one: The truth to tell, I know you love your husband well; But you will find, on close inspection, Another has his fond affection.'
”In short, the imp, by changing his voice artfully, and singing his ribald songs everywhere, managed in the end to persuade people that the fairy was no better than she should be, and a common mischief-maker and disturber of domestic peace. So the husbands, becoming jealous, began to quarrel with their wives, and then to swear at the witch who led them astray or put false suspicion into their minds.
”But it happened that the fairy was in high favour with a great saint, and going to him, she told all her troubles and the wicked things which were said of her, and besought him to free her good name from the slanders which the imp of darkness had spread abroad (_l'aveva chalugnato_).
”Then the saint, very angry, changed the devil into a bronze figure (_mascherone_, an architectural ornament), but first compelled him to go about to all who had been influenced by his slanders, and undo the mischief which he had made, and finally to make a full confession in public of everything, including his designs on the beautiful fairy, and how he hoped by compromising her to lead her to share his fate.
”Truly the imp cut but a sorry figure when compelled to thus stand up in the Old Market place at the corner of the Palazzo Cavolaia before a vast mult.i.tude and avow all his dirty little tricks; but he contrived withal to so artfully represent his pa.s.sionate love for the fairy, and to turn all his sins to that account, that many had compa.s.sion on him, so that indeed among the people, in time, no one ever spoke ill of the _doppio povero diavolo_, or doubly poor devil, for they said he was to be pitied since he had no love on earth and was shut out of heaven.
”Nor did he quite lose his power, for it was said that after he had been confined in the bronze image, if any one spoke ill of him or said, 'This is a devil, and as a devil he can never enter Paradise,' then the imp would persecute that man with strange voices and sounds until such time as the offender should betake himself to the Palazzo della Cavolaia, and there, standing before the bronze image, should ask his pardon.
”And if it pleased the Diavolino, he forgave them, and they had peace; but if it did not, they were pursued by the double mocking voice which made dialogue or sang duets over all their sins and follies and disgraces. And whether they stayed at home or went abroad, the voices were ever about them, crying aloud or t.i.ttering and whispering or hissing, so that they had no rest by day or night; and this is what befell all who spoke ill of the Diavolino del Canto dei Diavoli.”
The saint mentioned in this story was certainly Pietro Martire or Peter the Martyrer, better deserving the name of murderer, who, preaching at the very corner where the bronze imp was afterwards placed, declared that he beheld the devil, and promptly exorcised him. There can be little doubt that the image was placed there to commemorate this probably ”pious fraud.”
It is only since I wrote all this that I learned that there were formerly _two_ of these devils, one having been stolen not many years ago. This verifies to some extent the consistency of the author of the legend, ”The Devil of the Mercato Vecchio,” who says there were four.
There is a very amusing and curious trait of character manifested in the conclusion of this story which might escape the reader's attention were it not indicated. It is the vindication of the ”puir deil,” and the very evident desire to prove that he was led astray by love, and that even the higher spirit could not take away all his power. Here I recognise beyond all question the witch, the fortune-teller and sorceress, who prefers Cain to Abel, and sings invocations to the former, and to Diana as the dark queen of the _Strege_, and always takes sides with the heretic and sinner and magian and goblin. It is the last working of the true spirit of ancient heathenism, for the fortune-tellers, and especially those of the mountains, all come of families who have been regarded as enemies by the Church during all the Middle Ages, and who are probably real and direct descendants of Canidia and her contemporaries, for where this thing is in a family it never dies out. I have a great many traditions in which the hand of the heathen witch and the wors.h.i.+p of ”him who has been wronged” and banished to darkness, is as evident as it is here.
”Which indeed seems to show,” comments the learned Flaxius, ”that if the devil is never quite so black as he is painted, yet, on the other hand, he is so far from being of a pure white-as the jolly George Sand boys, such as Heine and Co., thought-that it is hard to make him out of any lighter hue than mud and verdigris mixed. _In medio tutissimus ibis_.
'Tis also to be especially noted, that in this legend-as in Sh.e.l.ley's poem-the Devil appears as a meddling wretch who is interested in small things, and above all, as given to gossip:
”The Devil sat down in London town Before earth's morning ray, With a favourite imp he began to chat, On religion, and scandal, and this and that, Until the dawn of day.”
SEEING THAT ALL WAS RIGHT A LEGEND OF THE PORTA A SAN NICOL
”G.o.d keep us from the devil's lackies, Who are the aggravating jackies, Who to the letter execute An order and exactly do't, Or else, with fancy free and bold, Do twice as much as they are told, And when reproved, cry bravely, 'Oh!
I _thought_ you'd like it so and so.'
From all such, wheresoe'er they be, _Libera nos_, _Domine_!'
The Porta a San Nicol in Florence is, among other legends, a.s.sociated with a jest played by the famous Barlacchia on a friend, the story of which runs as follows: