Wednesday, December 11, 2013

The Devil Who Took A Wife

Belphagor
All this talk of Niccolò Machiavelli and his sage advice to princes overlooks some equally sage insight he gave to men regarding women. Il Demonio Che Prese Moglie (The Devil Who Took A Wife) was originally published in 1539 under the title La Novella di Belfagor Ardiavolo (The Short Story Of Belfagor, Arch-Demon). The whole story is here, translated. I have an Italian copy bound in my trusty Beginning Readings In Italian. I found a synopsis here and repost it below, but the whole story is not too long to enjoy. To me, the story is a a mash-up of Trooper York's "Hell Needs A New PA Announcer" and Frank Capra's "It's A Wonderful Life." But instead of an angel sent down to Earth from Heaven, it's a demon sent up from Hell back to Earth:
The princes of Hell plan to send Belfagor, an archdevil to earth to find why all men state women as the cause of their damnation. Belfagor takes the human name Roderigo and weds Onesta, who he actually falls in love with. But his wife brings misfortunes and debt and Roderigo is chased from town by a mob, only to be saved by Gianmatteo, to whom Roderigo promises great riches. Roderigo says he will possess a woman and Gianmatteo will pretend to exorcise her. Gianmatteo learns of a girl possessed and exorcises Roderigo from her, but Roderigo says that the payment will not make him rich enough, so he possess the daughter of King Charles. Gianmatteo is called upon to take the demon from the daughter of King Charles. He leans over to whisper in her ear and tells Roderigo to leave. Roderigo agrees, but says he is no longer bound to Gianmatteo and for him to stay out of his way from now on. Gianmatteo is rewarded and before long he is called upon to help the daughter of the King of France, who shows signs of being possessed. Gianmatteo reluctantly goes to perform the exorcism. Roderigo is stubborn and will not leave the girl and Gianmatteo tells the King that he will try one last ceremony on Sunday. That Sunday, crowds, the clergy, and instrumentalist gather in the town with the possessed girl high on a scaffold above them. Gianmatteo asks for Roderigo to leave one last time and Roderigo mocks him. Gianmatteo cues the band to play and Roderigo asks what the horrible sound is. Gianmatteo tells him it is his wife, coming to fetch him back. Roderigo panics and flees at the mention of his wife and returns to Hell to report the 'troubles, humiliations, and hazards of the matrimonial yoke.'

8 comments:

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

When Gianmatteo cued the band to play, this what they heard.

chickelit said...

Roderigo should have demonically possessed Onesta as a parting shot in Machiaveli's story. But that would have resolved something, and not left us to ponder the eternal mystery of women.

bagoh20 said...

That ladies' cello society is freaking me out, man!

chickelit said...

bagoh20 said...
That ladies' cello society is freaking me out, man!

Are you sure you're not confusing cello with cielo?

It's the "soft c-words" that confuse in Italian.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Maybe she was bipolar... they didn't have medication back then.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I watched a movie called EM (2008) about a woman with bipolar disorder who was involved with a guy.

I gave the movie 3 stars.

chickelit said...

Is there a functional difference between the words "dipole" and "bipole".

Serious question.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

When you pray, you say let dipole come...

Seriously though.

A bipole is a bisexual Polish person and a dipole is a Polish who goes back to Poland for retirement.

That's my Not serious answer.