CONSIDERING that the Church has a literature of its own, there is no reason why the great enemy of the Church should not. Nevertheless, I was not aware that Satan owned so extensive a library specially dedicated to himself till I came upon an old-time catalogue of "the most valuable books relating to the Devil, his origin, greatness and influence." This catalogue covers forty pages with print, including over five hundred volumes, and does not profess to be anything like complete. It is introduced by the motto, "Fools deride—Philosophers investigate," and by four motto verses, including the fine epigram by Defoe:
Bad as he is, the Devil may be abused.
Be falsely charged and causelessly accused,
When men unwilling to be blamed alone,
Shift off those Crimes on Him which are their own.
A series of introductory illustrations show the Devil as he has been variously delineated by various races. The Egyptian Devil seems to have been a cross between a dog and a hog, walking on his hind legs with the assistance of a staff. The Assyrian has a lion's body with, wings, a scaly neck and a dragon's head with horns. The Cingalese Satan has two heads with tusks, four arms, sits on a colt and has venomous snakes climbing all over him. The French is the first of the old Devils to exhibit the combined traits so familiar to us now. He has horns, the ears of an ass, a goat's tail and rooster's claws, but his body and head are human, with bat's wings growing from the shoulders. This enemy of man is shown in the cut to be grinning in a most malignant and diabolical manner, and scattering gold around to tempt his victims within the clutches of his claws.
But Beelzebub has been represented in other and far more polite forms. There is a print from the illustrations of Goethe's "Faust," which shows him as a courtly gentleman, elegant in dress and polished in manners. It seems as if mankind, as it advanced in refinement, improved its great foe as it has improved, or at least refined, the vices with which it pays him tribute. Thus, in the thirteenth century, the English Devil was a horrible monster, with the distorted body of a man, the horned head of a bull, a docked tail like a hackney horse, only three fingers and toes on each extremity, spikes at its knees and shins like the spurs of a gamecock.
By Thomas Landseer's time, however, the artist had elevated him to a quite genteel sort of person, with a sardonic leer, but good clothes and an unblemished anatomy. Landseer—the brother of Sir Edwin, it should be stated—once made ten etchings, called "The Devil's Walk," which are very rare and valuable. The most industrious and extensive of all artistic glorifiers of his Satanic Majesty, however, has been George Cruikshank. That ingenious draughtsman has pictured him in every conceivable form, as long as it was hateful, for he has always been too conscientious to paint the Devil as an attractive being. "The True Legend of St. Dunstan and the Devil" is one of Cruikshank's most humorous works, and his "Gentleman in Black" is almost inimitable, as far as the unique grotesqueness of the plates is concerned.
The catalogue contains a choice assortment of proverbs applying to the ruler of the infernal regions. All are quaint and some are very curious indeed. Thus, one tells us "The Devil is good when he is pleased," another that "Satin is all Christianity," and another still that "the Devil is ever God's ape." "Tis a sin to belie the Devil," "An idle brain is the Devil's workshop," "Idle men are the Devil's playfellows," "What is gotten over the Devil's back is spent under his belly," "It's an ill battle when the Devil carries the colors," "He must have a long spoon that must eat with the Devil," "Where God builds a church, there the Devil builds a chapel," and "Hell and chancery are always open," are some odd sayings. Odder still are: "The Devil's meal is half bran," "Seldom lies the Devil dead in a ditch," and "Hell is useless to the sages, but necessary to the blind populace;" which latter is a very true and philosophic statement indeed.
These are only a few of their kind. "Hell's prince, sly parent of revolt and lies," is one of many names applied to him. "Fear made the Devils, and weak hope the gods," and "The Devil tempts all, but the idle tempt the Devil," are among the statements laid down in these wise saws. One tells us, "Resist the Devil and he will flee from you;" and another, "He that takes the Devil into his boat must carry him over the sound." It is unpleasant to reflect that "Hell is wherever heaven is not," but the proverb says it is, and of course it must be so. A verse by an old English writer tells us
The Devil
Is civil
And mighty polite,
For he knows
That it pays,
And he judges men right;
So beware
And take care
Or your hair he will singe;
And moil you,
And soil you,
And cause you to twinge.
Better poetry, though no better sense, is the following by Hone:
Good people all, who deal with the Devil,
Be warned now by what I say!
His credit's long and his tongue is civil,'
But you'll have the Devil to pay,
"The Devil, Satan, demons, hell, hell torments, magic, witchcraft, sorcery, divination, superstitions, angels, ghosts, etc.," form the subject matter of this diabolical catalogue.
The literature of the Devil includes probably some of the most curious book titles ever put in print. Imagine a drama called "Harrowing of Hell." Yet it is a miracle play, written in the reign of Edward II. It is a piece regularly constructed, with a sort of prologue and epilogue. After the prologue Christ enters and states his sufferings and design in descending into hell. Satan hears him and inquires who it is, lest he should "fonden how we pleyen here." The Saviour declares himself, and Satan argues with him on the injustice of depriving him of what he had acquired, and so they go on, Christianity of course triumphing in the end.
Other mystery plays are "The Descent into Hell," "The Divil Madde to Daunce," and "The Devil's Wife; or, Sin Wedded to Sin." A very curious work is "Letters from Hell," supposed to describe the suffering of a wicked victim in the red-hot Presbyterian inferno.
A satire, published in 1580, is George Gascoigne's "The Wyll of the Deuill, with his Detestable Commandementes, directed to his Obedient and Accursed Children." The most interesting part of this is its minute description of the vices of the time. If Gascoigne is a reliable witness, the Devil's children of his day must have been first-class devils themselves.
"The Diabe Lady; or, a Match in Hell," is a poem, "dedicated to the worst woman in Her Majesty's Dominions." Another poem is "The Tavern Hunter; or, a Drunken Ramble from the Crown (a tavern) to the Devil (another)." This latter effusion bears as a motto the following verse:
Not Vertue, or Wit, but more prevalent wine,
Does mankind in friendly Societies join:
We chuse not our friends now by honest behaviour,
Or love 'em because they are Wiser or Braver.
Other works of a mirthful character are "A Sure Guide to Hell," by Beelzebub; "The Praise of Hell—or a View of the Infernal Regions; its antiquity, situation and stability, manners, customs, etc.;" "The Devil in America; a dramatic Satire;" "The Devil's Mushrooms," which a Pope is alleged to have eaten; "A Pleasant Historie; How a Devil (named Rush) came to a Religious House to Seeke a Service"—which is described as "being full of pleasant mirth and delight for the people," and an appendix to the "Sure Guide to Hell," "being a vindication of the common practice of cursing and swearing, by Belial." "The Devil's Memorandum Book" was published in London in 1832. It had eighty illustrations, mostly caricature portraits of public characters. In 1831 was published "The Devil's Walk," a poem by S. T. Coleridge and Robert Southey, the first verse in which reads:
From his brimstone bed at break of day,
A-walking the Devil is gone,
To visit his snug little farm on earth,
And see how his stock goes on.
This, by the way, was the work illustrated by Landseer.
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