him; for which cause he afterwards takes her into favour and entreats her as his wife. Neifile narrates this tale, which was written first by the Sanskrit dramatist and poet Kālidāsa in his The Recognition of Śakuntalā. The time of Kālidāsa's life is uncertain, but some scholars think that he lived in the 5th century. Boccaccio may have taken the tale from an 11th-century French version. This tale is the basis for Shakespeare's play All's Well That Ends Well. Tenth tale (III, 10) Alibech, a non-Christian girl of Gafsa, turns hermit, and is taught by Rustico, a monk, how the Devil is put in hell. She is afterwards conveyed thence, and becomes the wife of Neerbale. Dioneo narrates what is by far the most obscene and bawdy tale in the Decameron. Alibech, a naive young woman, wanders into the desert in an attempt to become closer to God. She happens upon the monk Rustico, and he deflowers her under the pretense of teaching her how to better please God. Alibech becomes more enthusiastic about putting the Devil back into Hell than Rustico, almost to the point of his ruin. Meanwhile, her family and family home are incinerated, leaving her the only heir. Neerbale kidnaps her, much to Rustico's relief and Alibech's displeasure, and Alibech is made to marry Neerbale. The night before the wedding, she is questioned by other women as to how Alibech served God in the desert, and upon explaining to her ladies how the Devil is put back into Hell, is informed that Neerbale will surely know how to help her serve God once more. Because of its "graphic" nature, this tale has at times been translated incompletely, as in John Payne's translation, where Alibech's sexual awakening is left untranslated and is accompanied with this footnote: "The translators regret that the disuse into which magic has fallen, makes it impossible to render the technicalities of that mysterious art into tolerable English; they have therefore found it necessary to insert several passages in the original Italian." No known earlier versions of it exist. Fourth day Boccaccio begins this day with a defense of his work as it is thus far completed. Although he says that portions of the earlier days were circulating among the literate citizens of Tuscany while the work was in progress, this is doubtful. Instead, Boccaccio is probably just shooting down potential detractors. The reader