Page:The Way of a Virgin.djvu/106

Rh Aretino's Dialogues: i. 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 nowdays." 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 entirely in our own language; in other editions the most dramatic part of the narative, 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.