Produced by Irma Spehar and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) DEVIL STORIES AN ANTHOLOGY SELECTED AND EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND CRITICAL COMMENTS BY MAXIMILIAN J. RUDWIN _“Mortal, mock not at the Devil, Life is short and soon will fail, And the ‘fire everlasting’ Is no idle fairy-tale.”_ --HEINE. NEW YORK ALFRED · A · KNOPF MCMXXI COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA DEVIL LORE ANTHOLOGIES OF DIABOLICAL LITERATURE EDITED BY MAXIMILIAN J. RUDWIN I. DEVIL STORIES [First Series] _In Preparation:_ DEVIL PLAYS DEVIL ESSAYS DEVIL LEGENDS THE BOOK OF LADY LILITH ANTHOLOGY OF SATANIC VERSE BIBLIOGRAPHIA DIABOLICA _BOOKS BY MAXIMILIAN J. RUDWIN_ The Prophet and Disputation Scenes in the Religious Drama of the German Middle Ages. The Devil Scenes in the Religious Drama of the German Middle Ages. The Devil in the German Religious Plays of the Middle Ages and the Reformation. [Hesperia: Johns Hopkins Studies in Modern Philology, No. 6.] The Origin of the German Carnival Comedy. _In Preparation:_ The Devil in Modern French Literature. TO ALL STUDENTS OF THE SUPERNATURAL IN LITERATURE NOTE The preparation of this book would have been out of the question without the co-operation of authors and publishers. Proper acknowledgment has been given on the first page of each selection to the publishers who have granted us permission to reprint it. We take this opportunity to express once more our deep appreciation of the courtesies extended to us by all the parties concerned in the material between the covers of this book. Special thanks are offered to Mr. John Masefield for his permission to republish his story, and to Messrs. Arthur Symons and Leo Wiener and to Miss Isabel F. Hapgood for their permission to use their translations of the foreign stories which we have selected. To Professor Henry Alfred Todd and Dr. Dorothy Scarborough, of Columbia University, who have kindly read portions of the manuscript, the editor is indebted for a number of helpful suggestions. He adds his thanks to Professor Raymond Weeks, also of Columbia University, who called his attention to the Daudet story, and to his former colleague, Professor Otto A. Greiner, of Purdue University, who was good enough to read part of the proofs. THE PUBLISHER. THE EDITOR. CONTENTS THE DEVIL IN A NUNNERY 1 _A Mediaeval Tale By Francis Oscar Mann_ BELPHAGOR, OR THE MARRIAGE OF THE DEVIL (1549) 14 _From the Italian of Niccolò Machiavelli_ THE DEVIL AND TOM WALKER (1824) 28 _By Washington Irving_ FROM THE MEMOIRS OF SATAN (1828) 46 _From the German of Wilhelm Hauff_