BEYOND THE MARK.[1]
Of a shepherd who made an agreement with a shepherdess that he should mount upon her "in order that he might see farther," but was not to penetrate beyond a mark which she herself made with her hand upon the instrument of the said shepherd—as will more plainly appear hereafter.
LISTEN, an it please ye, to what happened, near Lille, to a shepherd and a young shepherdess who tended their flocks together, or near together.
Nature had already stirred in them, and they were of an age to know "the way of the world," so one day an agreement was made between them that the shepherd should mount on the shepherdess "in order to see farther,"[2]—provided, however, that he should not penetrate beyond a mark which she made with her hand upon the natural instrument of the shepherd, and which was about two fingers' breadth below the head; and the
- ↑ Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles: "now first done into the English tongue by Robert B. Douglas, (One Hundred Merrie and Delightsome Stories)": Paris, Charles Carrington, 1899 (?): 82nd story. The editors of Anthologica Rarissima have taken slight liberties with Mr. Douglas' translation, deeming archaic phraseology more fitting to the atmosphere of the narrative.
- ↑ The phrase has passed into use as an accepted slang term for the sexual act.
95
