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I hold a candle to my shame,' in much the same sense. [From the practice of burning candles before the images of saints, etc.]. Not fit to hold a candle to the devil = a simile of inferiority. To hold a candle to another = to assist in, occupy a subordinate position, or (see quot., 1859) to compare to another.
c. 1461. In Paston Letters, II., 73 (ed. Gairdner). For it is a common proverbe, 'A man must sumtyme set a candel befor the Devyle;' and there-*for thow it be not alder most mede and profytabyl, yet if ij harmys the leste is to be take.
1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, p. 148. Though not for hope of good, Yet for the feare of euill, Thou maist find ease so proffering up a candell to the deuill.
1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, I., i., wks. (1713), 346. You cannot hold a candle to the devil.
1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, Vol. I., pt. III., p. 17. To hold a candle to the devil, Is not the means to stop this evil.
1828. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth, ii., 213. Here have I been holding a candle to the devil, to show him the way to mischief.
1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. xxxii. A Frenchman is conceited enough, but, by George, he can't hold a candle to a Scotchman.
The devil, or the devil and all to pay, phr. (colloquial).—A simile of fruitless effort; awkward consequences to be faced. [Nautical: originally, 'There's the devil to pay and no pitch hot'; the 'devil' being any seam in a vessel, awkward to caulk, or in sailors' language 'to pay.' Hence by confusion the deuce to pay (q.v.).]
1711. Swift, Journal to Stella, 28 Sept. Letter 31. And then there will be the devil and all to pay.
1761. Colman, Jealous Wife, III., in wks. (1777), i., 69. There's the devil to pay in meddling with them.
1762. Foote, Liar, iii., 3. Sir, here has been the devil to pay within.
1836. Michael Scott, Cruise of the Midge. [Ry. ed. 1860], p. 127. Here was the devil to pay with a vengeance.
1837. R. H. Barham. The Ingoldsby Legends. The Execution (ed. 1862). p. 198. Hollo! Hollo! Here's a rum go. Why, Captain!—My Lord!—Here's the devil to pay!—The fellow's been cut down and taken away!
1866. G. Eliot, Felix Holt, ch. xxi. He made a fool of himself with marrying at Vesoul; and there was the devil to pay with the girl's relations.
Talk of the devil and you'll see his horns or tail, phr. (colloquial).—Said of a person who, being the subject of conversation, unexpectedly makes an appearance. Fr., parlez des anges et vous en voyez les ailes.
b. 1664, d. 1721. M. Prior. Hans Carvel. Since therefore 'tis to combat evil, 'Tis lawful to employ the Devil, Forthwith the Devil did appear, For name him and he's always near.
Devil-may-care, adj. (colloquial).—Rollicking; reckless; rash.
1822-36. Jno. Wilson, Noctes Amb. I., 274. [The shepherd has thrown back to the fire a live coal.] Belyve the blisters '11 be rising like foam-bells; but deil may care.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xlix., p. 428. He was a mighty free and easy, roving, devil-may-care sort of person, was my Uncle, gentlemen.
1839. Lever, Harry Lorrequer, ch. xii. There was also a certain devil-may-care recklessness about the self-satisfied swagger of his gait.
1849. Albert Smith, in Gabarni in London (Acrobats). Unsettled, wandering, and devil-may-care as his disposition may be, he cannot be called idle.
1863. Hon. Mrs. Norton, Lost and Saved, p. 33. Treherne had a hot twinge of doubt, in spite of his devil-may-care style of writing, whether Lewellyn would answer him at all.
1865. Punch, vol. XLVIII., p. 106. Fechter's acting [as Robert Macaire] in The Roadside Inn may be described as the devil-may-care style.
