The Book of Delight, and Other Papers | Page 5

how it was that he became a reformed character.
This devil quotes the Rabbis, and is easily convinced that it is unwise
for him to wed an ignorant bride. It would seem as though Zabara were,
on the one hand, hurling a covert attack against some one who had
advised him to leave Barcelona to his own hurt, while, on the other
hand, he is satirizing the current beliefs of Jews and Christians in evil
spirits. More than one passage is decidedly anti-Christian, and it would
not be surprising to find that the framework of the romance had been
adopted with polemic intention.
The character of the framework becomes more interesting when it is
realized that Zabara derived it from some version of the legends of
which King Solomon is the hero. The king had various adventures with
a being more or less demoniac in character, who bears several names:
Asmodeus, Saturn, Marcolf, or Morolf. That the model for Zabara's
visitor was Solomon's interlocutor, is not open to doubt. The Solomon
legend occurs in many forms, but in all Marcolf (or whatever other
name he bears) is a keen contester with the king in a battle of wits. No
doubt, at first Marcolf filled a serious, respectable rôle; in course of
time, his character degenerated into that of a clown or buffoon. It is
difficult to summarize the legend, it varies so considerably in the
versions. Marcolf in the best-known forms, which are certainly older
than Zabara, is "right rude and great of body, of visage greatly
misshapen and foul." Sometimes he is a dwarf, sometimes a giant; he is
never normal. He appears with his counterpart, a sluttish wife, before
Solomon, who, recognizing him as famous for his wit and wisdom,
challenges him to a trial of wisdom, promising great rewards as the
prize of victory. The two exchange a series of questions and answers,
which may be compared in spirit, though not in actual content, with the
questions and answers to be found in Zabara. Marcolf succeeds in
thoroughly tiring out the king, and though the courtiers are for driving
Marcolf off with scant courtesy, the king interposes, fulfils his promise,
and dismisses his adversary with gifts. Marcolf leaves the court,
according to one version, with the noble remark, Ubi non est lex, ibi
non est rex.

This does not exhaust the story, however. In another part of the legend,
to which, again, Zabara offers parallels, Solomon, being out hunting,
comes suddenly on Marcolf's hut, and, calling upon him, receives a
number of riddling answers, which completely foil him, and tor the
solution of which he is compelled to have recourse to the proposer. He
departs, however, in good humor, desiring Marcolf to come to court the
next day and bring a pail of fresh milk and curds from the cow. Marcolf
fails, and the king condemns him to sit up all night in his company,
threatening him with death in the morning, should he fall asleep. This,
of course, Marcolf does immediately, and he snores aloud. Solomon
asks, "Sleepest thou?"--And Marcolf replies, "No, I think."--"What
thinkest thou?"--"That there are as many vertebrae in the hare's tail as
in his backbone."--The king, assured that he has now entrapped his
adversary, replies: "If thou provest not this, thou diest in the morning!"
Over and over again Marcolf snores, and is awakened by Solomon, but
he is always thinking. He gives various answers during the night: There
are as many white feathers as black in the magpie.--There is nothing
whiter than daylight, daylight is whiter than milk.--Nothing can be
safely entrusted to a woman.--Nature is stronger than education.
Next day Marcolf proves all his statements. Thus, he places a pan of
milk in a dark closet, and suddenly calls the king. Solomon steps into
the milk, splashes himself, and nearly falls. "Son of perdition! what
does this mean?" roars the monarch. "May it please Your Majesty,"
says Marcolf, "merely to show you that milk is not whiter than
daylight." That nature is stronger than education, Marcolf proves by
throwing three mice, one after the other, before a cat trained to hold a
lighted candle in its paws during the king's supper; the cat drops the
taper, and chases the mice. Marcolf further enters into a bitter abuse of
womankind, and ends by inducing Solomon himself to join in the
diatribe. When the king perceives the trick, he turns Marcolf out of
court, and eventually orders him to be hanged. One favor is granted to
him: he may select his own tree. Marcolf and his guards traverse the
valley of Jehoshaphat, pass to Jericho over Jordan, through Arabia and
the Red Sea, but "never more could Marcolf find a tree that he would
choose to hang on." By this device, Marcolf escapes