Mocking pitilessly the unfortunate whom he destroys, the Devil,
     prowling, runs about.

     He makes goodness ridiculous and the old man futile.  Hell’s
     a-burning, burning, burning.

     At the home of the priest or sceptic, whose soul or body he wishes,
     the Devil, prowling, runs about.

     Beware of him to whom he toadies, and whom he calls “my dear sir.” 
     Hell’s a-burning, burning, burning.

     Friend of the tarantula, darkness, the odd number, the Devil,
     prowling, runs about.

     —­My clock strikes midnight.  If I should go to see Lucifer?—­Hell’s
     a-burning, burning, burning; the Devil, prowling, runs about.

[Footnote A:  A few translated verses may give an idea of the original rhythm: 

    Hell’s a-burning, burning, burning. 
    Cackling in his impish play,
    Here and there the Devil’s turning,

    Forward here and back again,
    Zig-zag as the lightning’s ray,
    While the fires burn amain.

    In the church and in the cell
    In the caves, in open day,
    Ever prowls the fiend of hell.

But in the original the first and last lines of the first verse are used as refrains in the succeeding verses, recurring alternately as the last line.  In the final verse they are united.—­The prose translation is by Philip Hale.]

In the maze of this modern setting of demon antics (not unlike, in conceit, the capers of Till Eulenspiegel), with an eloquent use of new French strokes of harmony, one must be eager to seize upon definite figures.  In the beginning is a brief wandering or flickering motive in furious pace of harp and strings, ending ever in a shriek of the high wood.  Answering

[Music:  Presto (il piu possibile)
(Woodwind)
(Strings with rhythmic chords in the tonic)
(With opposite descending chords)]

is a descending phrase mainly in the brass, that ends in a rapid jingle.

[Music:  (Brass with quicker figures in strings and wood)]

There are various lesser motives, such as a minor scale of ascending thirds, and a group of crossing figures that seem a guise of the first motive.  To be sure the picture lies less in the separate figures than in the mingled color and bustle.  Special in its humor is a soft gliding or creeping phrase of three voices against a constant trip of cellos.

After a climax of the first motive a frolicking theme begins (in English horn and violas).  If we were forced to guess, we could see here the dandy devil, with pointed mustachios, frisking about.  It is probably another guise of the second motive which presently appears in the bass.  A little later, dolce amabile in a madrigal of wood and strings, we may see the gentlemanly devil, the gallant.  With a crash of chord and a roll of cymbals re-enters the first motive, to flickering harmonies of violins, harp and flutes, taken up by succeeding voices, all in the whole-tone scale.  Hurrying to a clamorous height, the pace glides into a Movimento di Valzer, in massed volume, with the frolicking figure in festive array.