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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=431359" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Devil In Hell</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HE surely must be wrong who loving fears;<br>And does not flee when beauty first appears.<br>Ye FAIR, with charms divine, I know your fame;<br>No more I'll burn my fingers in the flame.<br>From you a soft sensation seems to rise,<br>And, to the heart, advances through the eyes;<br>What there it causes I've no need to tell:<br>Some die of love, or languish in the spell.<br>Far better surely mortals here might do;<br>There's no occasion dangers to pursue.<br>By way of proof a charmer I will bring,<br>Whose beauty to a hermit gave the sting:<br>Thence, save the sin, which fully I except;<br>A very pleasant intercourse was kept;<br>Except the sin, again I must repeat,<br>My sentiments on this will never meet<br>The taste of him at Rome, who wine had swilled,<br>Till, to the throat, he thoroughly was filled,<br>And then exclaimed, is't not a sin to drink?<br>Such conduct horrid ever I shall think;<br>I wish to prove, e'en saints in fear should live;<br>The truth is clear:--our faults may Heav'n forgive;<br>If dread of punishment, from pow'rs divine,<br>Had led this friar in the proper line,<br>He never had the charming girl retained,<br>Who, young and artless, would your heart have gained.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">HER name was Alibech, if I recollect;<br>Too innocent, deceptions to detect.<br>One day this lovely maiden having read,<br>How certain pious, holy saints were led,<br>The better to observe religious care,<br>To seek retirement in some lorn repair,<br>Where they, like Heav'nly Angels, moved around,<br>Some here, some there, were in concealment found,<br>Was quite delighted, strange as it may seem,<br>And presently she formed the frantick scheme,<br>Of imitating those her mind revered,<br>And to her plan most rigidly adhered.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">WITH silent steps the innocent withdrew;<br>To mothers, sisters,--none she bade adieu.<br>Long time she walked through fields, and plain, and dale;<br>At length she gained a wood within a vale;<br>There met an aged man, who once might be,<br>Gay, airy, pleasing, blithe, gallant, and free,<br>But now a meagre skeleton was seen<br>The shadow only of what late he'd been:<br>Said she, good father, I have much desire<br>To be a saint: thither my hopes aspire;<br>I fain would merit reverence and prayer,<br>A festival have kept with anxious care;<br>What pleasure, ev'ry year, the palm in hand,<br>And, beaming round the head, a holy band,<br>Nice presents, flow'rs, and off'rings to receive<br>Your practice difficult must I believe?<br>Already I can fast for many days,<br>And soon should learn to follow all your ways.<br>Go, said the aged man, your plan resign;<br>I'd have you, as a friend, the state decline;<br>'Tis not so easy sanctity to meet,<br>That fasting should suffice the boon to greet.<br>Heav'n guards from ill the maids and wives who fast,<br>Or holiness would very seldom last.<br>'Tis requisite to practise other things;<br>These secrets are, which move by hidden springs;<br>A hermit, whom you'll find beneath yon' beech,</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Can, better far than I, their virtues teach;<br>Go, seek him, pray, make haste if you are sage;<br>I ne'er retain such birds within my cage.<br>This having said, at once he left the belle,<br>And wisely shut the door, and barred his cell:<br>Not trusting hair-cloth, fasting, age, nor gout;<br>With beauty, anchorites themselves should doubt.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">OUR pensive fair soon found the person meant,<br>A man whose soul was on religion bent;<br>His name was Rustick, young and warm in prayer;<br>Such youthful hermits of deception share.<br>Her holy wish, the girl to him expressed,<br>A wish most fervent doubtless to be blessed,<br>And felt so strongly, Alibech had fear,<br>Some day the mark might on her fruit appear.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A SMILE her innocence from Rustick drew;<br>Said he, in me you little learning view;<br>But what I've got, I'll readily divide,<br>And nothing from your senses try to hide.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE hermit surely would have acted right;<br>Such pupil to have sent away at sight.<br>He managed otherwise, as we shall state;<br>The consequences, let us now relate.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">SINCE much he wished perfection to pursue;<br>He, to himself, exclaimed: what can'st thou do?<br>Watch, fast, and pray; wear hair-cloth too; but this<br>Is surely little that will lead to bliss;<br>All do as much, but with a FAIR to dwell,<br>And, never touch her, would be to excel;<br>'Twere triumph 'mong the Heav'nly Angels thought;<br>Let's merit it, and keep what here is brought;<br>If I resist a thing so sweet and kind,<br>I gain the end that pow'rs divine designed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">HE with him let the charming belle remain;<br>And confident he could at will abstain,<br>Both Satan and the flesh at once defied:<br>Two foes on mischief ready to decide.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">BEHOLD our saints together in a hut;<br>Young Rustick, where a corner seemed to jut;<br>A bed of rushes for the novice placed,<br>Since sleeping on the floor had her debased,<br>Who, yet unused to hardships, much must feel:<br>'Twas best that these should on her senses steal.<br>A little fruit, and bread not over fine,<br>She had for supper:--water too for wine.<br>The hermit fasted; but the lady fed,<br>And ate with appetite her fruit and bread.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">APART their place of rest, the maiden slept,<br>But something quite awake the other kept:<br>The Devil could by no means quiet rest,<br>Till he should get admitted as a guest.<br>He was received within the humble cell;<br>The friar's thoughts were on his smiling belle,<br>Her simple manners, fascinating grace,<br>Complexion, age; each feature he would trace;<br>The heaving bosom, and the beauteous charms;<br>That made him wish to clasp her in his arms.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">BY passion moved, he bade at once adieu,<br>To hair-cloth, discipline, and fasting too;<br>Cried he, my saints are these; to them I'll pray;<br>From Alibech no longer he would stay,<br>But to her flew, and roused the girl from sleep:<br>Said he, so soon you should not silence keep,<br>It is not right:--there's something to be done,<br>Ere we suspend the converse we've begun:<br>'Tis proper that, to please the pow'rs divine;<br>We Satan instantly in Hell confine;<br>He was created for no other end;<br>To block him up let's ev'ry effort lend.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">IMMEDIATELY within the bed he slid,<br>When, scarcely knowing what young Rustick did;<br>And, unaccustomed to the mystick scene,<br>She knew not what the anchorite could mean,<br>Nor this nor that but, partly by consent,<br>And partly force, yet wishing to prevent,<br>Though not presuming to resist his sway<br>To him 'mid pain and pleasure, she gave way,<br>Believing ev'ry thing was most exact,<br>And, what the saint performed, a gracious act,<br>By thus the Devil shutting up in Hell,<br>Where he was destined with his imps to dwell.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">HENCEFORTH 'twas requisite, if saint she'd be;<br>From martyrdom she must not think to flee,<br>For friar Rustick little sought to please:<br>The lesson was not given quite at ease,<br>Which made the girl (not much improved in wit)<br>Exclaim, this Devil mischief will commit;<br>'Tis very plain, though strange it may appear<br>To hurt his prison e'en he'll persevere;<br>The injury now you clearly may perceive;<br>But, for the evil done, I shall not grieve:<br>Yet richly he deserves to be again<br>Shut up effectually in his domain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">IT shall be so, the anchorite replied;<br>Once more the mystick art was fully tried;<br>Such care he took, such charity was shown,<br>That Hell, by use, free with the Devil grown,<br>His presence pleasant always would have found;<br>Could Rustick equally have kept his ground.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">CRIED Alibech, 'tis very truly said,<br>No prison has so nice and soft a bed,<br>But presently the host will weary grow;<br>And here our pair soon discord seemed to show:<br>Hell, for the prisoner, in vain inquired;<br>Deaf was the fiend, and quietly retired;<br>Repeated calls of course must irksome prove:<br>The fair grew weary, when he would not move;<br>Her strong desire to be a saint declined;<br>And Rustick to get rid of her designed;<br>In this with him the belle agreed so well,<br>That secretly she left the hermit's cell,<br>And home returned in haste the shortest way;<br>But what the fair could to her parents say,<br>Is what I fain would know, though truly yet;<br>The full particulars I ne'er could get.<br>'Tis probable she made them understand,<br>Her heart was prompted by divine command;<br>To try to be a saint; that they believed,<br>Or seemingly for truth the tale received.<br>Perhaps the parents were not quite exact,<br>In narrowly examining the fact;<br>Though some suspicions doubtless might arise<br>About her Hell, they could not well disguise;<br>But 'tis so formed that little can be seen,<br>And many jailors in it duped have been.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">FOR Alibech great feasting was prepared,<br>When, through simplicity, the girl declared,<br>To those around, without the least restraint,<br>How she had acted to be made a saint.<br>You'd surely no occasion, they replied,<br>To go so far instruction to provide,<br>When at your house you might have had, with ease,<br>Like secret lectures, just as you should please.<br>Said one, my brother could the thing have done;<br>Another cried,--my cousin would have run<br>To do the same; or Neherbal, who's near,<br>No novice in the business would appear;<br>He seeks your hand, which you'll be wise to take<br>Before he learns--what might a diff'rence make.<br>She took the hint, and he the fair received;<br>A handsome fortune many fears relieved;<br>This joined to num'rous charms that had the belle;<br>He fancied pure a most suspicious Hell,<br>And freely used the blessings Hymen sends;<br>May Heav'n like joys bestow on all our friends!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=La+Fontaine">La Fontaine</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=431359" data-title="The Devil In Hell de La Fontaine" data-description="HE surely must be wrong who loving fears;
And does not flee when beauty first appears.
Ye FAIR, with charms divine, I know your fame;
No more I'll burn my fingers in the flame.
From you a soft sensation seems to rise,
And, to the heart, advances t..."></div>
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