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"Robert the Devil"

A popular thirteenth-century romance legend, known in France in both prose and verse forms as Robert le Diable. The story was printed in England ca. 1502 by Wynkyn de Worde (Caxton's assistant) as Lyfe of Robert the Devyll.

According to the story, Robert was the son of a duke and duchess of Normandy. He was endowed with marvelous physical strength, which he used only for evil. Explaining to him the cause of his wicked impulses, his mother told him that he had been born in answer to prayers addressed to the devil. He sought religious advice and was directed by the Pope to a hermit, who ordered him to maintain complete silence, to take his food from the mouths of dogs, to feign madness, and to provoke abuse from common people without attempting to retaliate.

He became court fool to the Roman emperor, and three times delivered the city from Saracen invasions, having, in each case, been prompted to fight by a heavenly message. The emperor's dumb daughter was given speech in order to identify the savior of the city with the court fool, but he refused his due reward, as well as her hand in marriage, and went back to the hermit, his former confessor.