“HE WILL GIVE THE DEVIL HIS DUE”

“HE WILL GIVE THE DEVIL HIS DUE”

“HE WILL GIVE THE DEVIL HIS DUE” “HE WILL GIVE THE DEVIL HIS DUE” says Prince Hal of Falstaff in Henry the Fourth, Part 1; but even as he says it he calls it a “proverb.” John Lyly uses a version of the phrase in his vituperative pamphlet Pappe with a Hatchet (1589).