Note E403 — 64.*
Reading edition
"To hold a candle to the devil is to assist in a bad cause or an evil matter."—Ray. Hazlitt (English Proverbs, p. 407) gives "'Tis good sometimes to hold a candle to the devil." Thus we find an anonymous correspondent writing to John Paston: "for howr Lords love, goo tharow with Wyll Weseter, and also plese Chrewys as ye thynke in yow hert best for to do; for it is a comon proverbe, 'A man must sumtyme set a candel befor the Devyle;' and therfor thow it be not alder most mede and profytabyl, yet of ij harmys the leste is to be take."—Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, ii. 73.