in 
Literature 
and Art. 
61 
iii 
CHAPTER 
THE DIABOLICAL IN CARICATURE.ZMEDI1EVAL LOVE OF THE LUDICROUS. 
'_CAUSES WHICH MADE IT INFLUENCE THE NOTIONS OF DEMONS? 
STORIES OF THE PIOUS PAINTER AND THE ERRING MONK.iDARKNESS 
AND UGLINESS CARICATURED._THE DEMONS IN THE MIRACLE PLAYS. 
iTHE DEMON OF NOTRE DAME. 
S I have already ltated in the laft chapter, there can be no doubt that 
A the whole fyitem of the demonology of the middle ages was derived 
from the older pagan mythology. The demons of the monkith legends 
were {imply the elves and hobgoblins of our forefathers, who haunted 
Woods, and fields, and waters, and delightedxin rnifleading or plaguing  
mankind, though their mifchief was ufually of a rather mirthful character. 
They were reprefented ID. claflical mythology by the fauns and fatyrs, 
who had, as we have feen, much to do with the birth of comic literature 
among the Greeks and Romans; but thefe Teutonic elves were more 
ubiquitous than the fatyrs, as they even haunted men's houfes, and played 
tricks, not only of a rnifchievous, but of a very familiar character. The 
Chriltian clergy did not look upon the perfonages of the popular fuper- 
Ititions as fabulous beings, but they taught that they were all diabolical, 
and that they were fo many agents of the evil one, conftantly employed 
in enticing and entrapping mankind. Hence, in the Inediaaval legends, 
we frequently find demons prefenting themfelves under ludicrous forms 
or in ludicrous fituations ; or performing acts, fuch as eating and drinking, 
which are not in accordance with their real character; or at times even 
letting themfelves be outwitted or entrapped by mortals in a very 
undigniiied manner. Although they affurned any form they pleafed, 
their natural form was remarkable chieily for being extremely ugly; one 
of them, which appeared in a Wild wood, is defcribed by Giraldus 
Cambrenfis, who wrote at the end of the twelfth century, as being hairy, 
 fhaggv.