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"The Devil and Daniel Webster" is a short story by Stephen Vincent Benét. This Faustian tale was inspired by Washington Irving's short story "The Devil and Tom Walker." Benet's story centers on a New Hampshire farmer who sells his soul to the Devil and is defended by Daniel Webster, a fictional version of the famous statesman, lawyer, and orator. The story appeared in ''The Saturday Evening Post'' (October 24, 1936) and was later published in book form by Farrar & Rinehart, 1937. That same year, it won the O. Henry Award. The author also adapted it in 1938 into a folk opera with music by Douglas Stuart Moore, a fellow Yale University alumnus, member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and winner of a Pulitzer Prize. Benét and Dan Totheroh co-authored the film adaptation All That Money Can Buy (RKO, 1941). ==Plot== Farmer Jabez Stone, from the small town of Cross Corners, New Hampshire, is plagued with unending bad luck, causing him to finally swear "it's enough to make a man want to sell his soul to the devil!" Stone is visited the next day by a stranger, who later identifies himself as "Mr. Scratch," and makes such an offer in exchange for seven years of prosperity. Stone agrees. After seven years, Stone bargains for an additional three years. After the additional three years, Mr. Scratch refuses any further extension. Wanting out of the deal, Stone convinces famous lawyer and orator Daniel Webster to accept his case. At midnight of the appointed date, Mr. Scratch arrives and is greeted by Webster, presenting himself as Stone's attorney. Mr. Scratch tells Webster, "I shall call upon you, as a law-abiding citizen, to assist me in taking possession of my property," and so begins the argument. It goes poorly for Webster, since the signature and the contract are clear, and Mr. Scratch will not compromise. In desperation Webster thunders, "Mr. Stone is an American citizen, and no American citizen may be forced into the service of a foreign prince. We fought England for that in '12 and we'll fight all hell for it again!" To this Mr. Scratch insists on his citizenship, citing his presence at the worst events of the US, concluding, "though I don't like to boast of it, my name is older in this country than yours." Webster demands a trial as the right of every American. Mr. Scratch agrees after Daniel says that he can select the judge and jury, "so it is an American judge and an American jury." A jury of the damned then enters, "with the fires of hell still upon them." They had all done evil, and had all played a part in the formation of the United States: *Walter Butler, a Loyalist *Simon Girty, a Loyalist *King Philip (Wampanoag chief Metacomet) *Governor Thomas Dale *Thomas Morton, a rival of the Plymouth Pilgrims *The pirate Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard *Reverend John Smeet〔Anderson, Charles R. ''Puzzles and Essays from'' ''"The Exchange" - Trick Reference Questions,'' p. 122: "In 'The Devil and Daniel Webster' by Stephen Vincent Benét, there is a character named the Reverend John Smeet. Was this a real person? : Mrs. Stephen Vincent Benét (1960), in a letter to the ''New York Times Book Review'', claimed that the good reverend was entirely imaginary. Mrs. Benét explained that her husband occasionally used to insert imaginary people into his writings. Benét even quoted from a made-up person named John Cleveland Cotton. He went so far as to write an apocryphal biographical note about Cotton that found its way into Marion King's ''Books and People'' (King, 1954). In this Benét anticipated authors Tim Powers and James Blaylock, who created a poet named William Ashbless."〕 After five other unnamed jurors enter (Benedict Arnold being out "on other business"), the judge enters last – John Hathorne, the infamous and unrepentant executor of the Salem witch trials. The trial is rigged against Webster. He is ready to rage, without care for himself or Stone, but he catches himself: he sees in the jurors' eyes that they want him to act thus. He calms himself, "for it was him they'd come for, not only Jabez Stone." Webster starts to orate on simple and good things – "the freshness of a fine morning...the taste of food when you're hungry...the new day that's every day when you're a child" – and how "without freedom, they sickened." He speaks passionately of how wonderful it is to be human and to be an American. He admits the wrongs done in the course of American history but points out that something new and good had grown from them and that "everybody had played a part in it, even the traitors." Mankind "got tricked and trapped and bamboozled, but it was a great journey," something "no demon that was ever foaled" could ever understand. The jury announces its verdict: "We find for the defendant, Jabez Stone." They admit, "Perhaps 'tis not strictly in accordance with the evidence, but even the damned may salute the eloquence of Mr. Webster." The judge and jury disappear with the break of dawn. Mr. Scratch congratulates Webster, and the contract is torn up. (A point sometimes not appreciated by the reader is that by agreeing to a jury trial, the Devil has also agreed to be bound by the Common Law rule that a jury is the exclusive judge of the law and the facts. It can do what it likes in favor of the defendant. Webster, as an experienced lawyer, would know that; presumably the Devil would as well, but is confident in his hand-picked jury.) Webster then grabs the stranger and twists his arm behind his back, "for he knew that once you bested anybody like Mr. Scratch in fair fight, his power on you was gone." Webster makes him agree "never to bother Jabez Stone nor his heirs or assigns nor any other New Hampshire man till doomsday!" Mr. Scratch offers to tell Webster's fortune in his palm. He foretells Webster's failure to become President, the death of Webster's sons, and the backlash of his last speech, warning "Some will call you Ichabod" (as in John Greenleaf Whittier's poem in reaction to Webster's controversial Seventh of March Speech supporting the Compromise of 1850 that incorporated The Fugitive Slave Act). Scratch predicts actual events of Daniel Webster's life: he did have ambitions to become President, his sons died in war, and as a result of the Seventh of March Speech, many in the North considered Webster a traitor. Webster takes the predictions in stride and asks only if the Union will prevail. Scratch reluctantly admits that although a war will be fought over the issue, the United States will remain united. Webster then laughs, "And with that he drew back his foot for a kick that would have stunned a horse. It was only the tip of his shoe that caught the stranger, but he went flying out of the door with his collecting box under his arm." It is said that the Devil never did come back to New Hampshire. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Devil and Daniel Webster」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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