Meaning & Analysis
The Devil literally bakes a Christmas pie using the tongues of lawyers and the fingers of clerks as the primary ingredients, creating a macabre and infernal feast.
Insights
Critique of Professional Corruption
The proverb is a harsh satire on the perceived corruption of the legal and administrative professions. Lawyers' 'tongues' symbolize their capacity for lies, sophistry, and verbal manipulation, while clerks' 'fingers' represent their ability to forge documents and create binding, often exploitative, paperwork.
Instruments of Evil
It suggests that the very tools of these professions—persuasive speech and meticulous writing—are the raw materials for evil. Their daily work is seen as directly contributing to the Devil's 'feast,' implying that their skills are inherently diabolical in nature.
Condemnation of Systemic Injustice
The proverb serves as a populist condemnation of a legal and bureaucratic system seen as fundamentally unjust. It portrays these institutions as a source of societal suffering, whose functionaries are destined for damnation.
Historical Distrust of Professions
The proverb reflects a deep-seated historical animosity toward the legal and administrative professions. In early modern Europe, lawyers and clerks were often perceived as parasitic, profiting from disputes and using complex, inaccessible language to exploit the common person.
Blasphemous Symbolism
The specific mention of a 'Christmas pie' creates a powerful, sacrilegious inversion. By having the Devil feast on the 'sins' of lawyers and clerks during a sacred Christian festival, the proverb frames their perceived corruption not just as a social evil, but as a demonic perversion of holiness.
Psychology of Bureaucratic Fear
The proverb taps into a profound psychological fear of being ensnared by incomprehensible rhetoric and manipulative paperwork. The 'tongues' and 'fingers' become symbols of the abstract legal and bureaucratic forces that can dispossess individuals of their rights and property.
Poetic Justice and Damnation
The grotesque imagery is characteristic of late medieval and Renaissance depictions of Hell, where punishments often poetically fit the crime. It suggests that lawyers and clerks, who use their words and hands for deceit, will have those same parts consumed by the Devil.
Rhetorical Devices
Grotesque Imagery
The shocking and visceral image of a pie made from human body parts is designed to provoke disgust and make the proverb's anti-legal sentiment highly memorable.
Symbolism
The 'tongues' and 'fingers' are potent symbols for the professional tools of speech and writing, while the 'Christmas pie' symbolizes a perversion of sacredness.
Hyperbole
The entire premise is an extreme exaggeration intended to underscore the depth of popular contempt and distrust for the legal and clerical professions.
Metaphor
The proverb functions as a dark metaphor where the sins of professionals (lies, deceitful contracts) become literal food for the Devil, illustrating their role in sustaining evil.
Transcription
Quotations
Of three things the Deuill makes his messe, Of Lawyers tongues, of Scriueners fingers, you the third may gesse.
(his Christmas-pyes).
(pies of Clerks fingers and Lawyers toungs).
Of three things the Devil makes a Salad, Advocates tongues, Notaries fingers, and the third is understood.
Sir Robert Pye, attorney of the court of words . . happened to dye on Christmas day: the newes being brought to the serjeant, said he The devil has a Christmas pye.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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