1799-1 | ( 
139) 
Oe TaN AL POE TRY. 
THE DEVIL IN BAN: AN IDYLL. 
Originally written in German, by Jonann 
Heinricu Voss. 
LURIAN. 
SLOWER, my goat, no panting; we ie 
reach — 
The Bloxberg* foon enough. By the feven fees 
It yet muft want an hour and more of mid- 
night. 
Fly higher, fool! already twice you’ve finged 
Your beard with fhooting ftars; and *tisefo 
damp 
Here o’er the defart fhores of the Red Sea, 
That from my fhaggy hide and both my horns 
The dew-drops drizzle. Hark! what howls 
below? 
PULIX. 
Boohoo! 
LURIAN. 
That voice is for an owl’s too loud, 
‘But too low for a devil’s, fure— 
PULIX. 
Boohoo! 
LURIAN. 
What, my heart’s brother, Pulix? You look, 
poor fellow, 
Like Belzebub’s own grand-mother laid a 
bleaching 
In fumes of brimftone and vulcanic rays. 
One almoft hears within your fhrivell’d ficin 
The dry bones clatter. Who could wedge 
your tail 
Into the palm-tree fo? 
PULIX. 
The Briftol parfons +, 
Dabs at exorcifm, who might fhame Tobias—~ 
ee what’s your name? 
LURIAN. 
What, know you not poor Lurian, 
Full in whofe face fierce Luther flung his 
ink-ftand ? 
Hence this pitch-plafter covers my left eye. 
BEAK. 
Lurian, mefeems once elfe you got a fcar. 
While yet the pope rul’d undifturb’d at Rome, 
Satan fent us together to that blackfmith, 
Who on his wall had drawn the arch-devil’s 
picture, 
And us’d to pince at it with glowing tongs. 
We knock’d, and afk’d for hovfe-room 5 byt 
the chriftian 
Held on the key-hole a becrofs’d, bebleft, 
Befprinkled bag of holy fackcloth, given him 
By Saint Nepomucene, and Suen us in it3 
Then flung us on his anvil, and with hammer, 
Swingeingly heavy, fo bet eenia dus, 
That had we not dwindled ourfelves to fleas, 
And hopp’d about the ‘creafes of the fack, 
He mutt have done for us. When he untied 

* Bloxberg is a mountain where witches 
hold their fabbath. 
+ Inthe original, Pater Gaffner, of fimilar 
gelebrity, 
His poke, I got away ; but you, poor Lurian! 
He caught by the tail, and held againit his 
grindftone, 
_ Till you had {worn not to come near him 
more. 
You limp’d and jiffled for a long while after 5 
And when old Death met the bowed, hob- 
bling imp, 
He’d lift your tail, and grinning afk—** How 
gees it?” 
LURIAN. 
Sad is the memory of thofe evil days, 
While with the keys of heaven and of hell 
The pope did as he pleas’d. It was provoking, 
Even to a devil, to fee thofe orthodox 
Jump into heaven for aping monks’ grimaces, 
While worthy heathens, and bold heretics, 
Shower’d into heli by fcores! It isno wonder 
Some honeft merry imp fhould flink, at times, 
Far from the eternal fires. and howl of fouls, 
To makea pothier in the pious world 
By noifes, zhoftly hauntings, and pofleffions. 
But fince, at length, an angel of the light 
Flung into the abyfs the keys, and by devrees 
Th’ eternal bonfires lacken-~all’s fo ftill, 
That e’en the priefts grow doubtful if we are 
living. 
‘PULTX: 
Whofe tail’sinacleft-ftick has nofuch doubt. 
Feebly, indeed, but ftill the pope bears fway 3 
And would-be popelings, arm’d with Birm- 
ingham keys, 
Yet roufe-us from the dead repofe we feek. 
But tell me, friend, how comes this double 
chin ? 
You look as fleek as any ftabled ftallion, 
With eyelets, by the gat fleth f{queez’d to- 
gether: | 
You feem half-brother to fome rofy dean. 
LURIAN. 
No marvel! from a girl, who was poffefs’d, 
An Abyflinian bifhop drove me: hence 
Came our acquaintance firft, and next our 
friendihip. - 
And now I dwell the cleifter *, fweeptheailes, 
Cover the kitchen embers, and at night 
Shut up the cells of monks. For this, their 
care 
Feeds me at noon, and lets me fteal at eve 
Down to the cellar with them. What's that 
nofe for? ~. — 
PULIX. 
Lurian, my faithful friend, thefe forty days 
Pye only tafted Say che and honey, 
A ftarveling lizard, and fome fcorpions: 
I fhould have apa an ague on thefe fands, 
Did not a fimoom cheer me now and then. 
LURIAN. 
Poor fend we'll fee what fare the butler’s 
forefight 
Has fkewer’d into my knapfack. 
When thou 
art cheer’d, 

* At Diarbekr, Niebuhr beard a very ce 
lar ftory. 
ri 
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