Proverb Lore

One compensation of poverty is perhaps seen in the adage, "He that is down need fear no fall." We are told, too, that "A threadbare coat is armour against the highwayman"; and Chaucer, in "The Wif of Bathe"s Tale," tells how

"The poure man whan he goth by the way, Before the theves he may sing and play,"

since he has nothing to lose, and therefore nothing to fear.

The sad but just law of retribution finds its due recognition in our proverb lore. The following may be taken as a few examples of this: "He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith"; "Over-reachers most ordinarily over-reach themselves"; "A guilty mind punishes itself"; "He that will not be saved needs no preacher"; "He who sows thorns must not go barefoot"; "He who sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind"; "Hoist with his own petard." Shakespeare tells us how

"Diseases, desperate grown, By desperate appliance are relieved, Or not at all";

and of one elsewhere who cries: "I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part, sir, of myself, and what remains is b.e.s.t.i.a.l." Do we not see again the dread law of retribution in the pa.s.sage:

"Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind: The thief doth fear each bush an officer,"

and Gay tells us how at last all has to be faced, and the responsibility of one"s actions has to be realised--

"Then comes a reckoning when the banquet"s o"er, The dreadful reckoning, and men smile no more."

As an alternative to a picture so sombre, we may quote the declaration, that "Chastis.e.m.e.nt is the knife that tells we still abide in the Vine."

Detraction, hypocrisy, ingrat.i.tude are all scourged by proverbs, but one feels over and over again how very much the proverbial wisdom of our ancestors seemed to dwell on the darker side of things. One may find a dozen adages that have ingrat.i.tude as their theme, but scarcely one that sings the praise of sweet thankfulness, and in like manner pretension, boasting, time-serving, self-interest have their attendant proverbs, while the praise of gentle modesty and sweet self-surrender finds little or no place. It may, perhaps, be said that this latter end is reached practically by the denouncing of the evil, but this is scarcely so--a scathing attack on falsehood is in its time needful, but there is still place and need for the recognition of the spotless beauty of truth.

Denunciation may do much, but sweet persuasiveness yet more.

Shakespeare, in his "Cymbeline," writes of deadly slander--

"Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile";

and again, in "Much Ado about Nothing," we find the line--"Done to death by slanderous tongues"; and yet again warns us that "No might nor greatness in mortality can censure "scape," and that "Back-wounding calumny the whitest virtue strikes." Byron writes in his "Childe Harold"s Pilgrimage" of those whose evil task is "Sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer," and Thomson tells how "Still the world prevailed, and its dread laugh,"--a laugh "which scarce the firm philosopher can scorn."

The following adages may be quoted:--"Envy shoots at others and wounds itself"; "Envy never does a good turn but when it designs an evil one"; "Malice seldom wants a mark to aim at"; ""They say" is a poisoned arrow." The Welsh say--"Faults are thick where love is thin." Other sayings are--"One jeer going forth brings back another"; "Once in people"s mouths, "tis hard to get out of them again"; "Those who have most need of credit seldom get much"; "The evil which issues from thy mouth falls into thy bosom"; "The sting of a reproach is in the truth of it";[253:A] "He that prepares a net for another should not shut his own eyes"; "Respect is better got by deserving than by exacting"; "Little minds, like weak liquors, are soon soured"; "Suspicion, like bats, fly by twilight"; "In a little mind everything is little"; "Despise none and despair of none"; "Faint praise is disparagement"; "A blow from a frying-pan blacks, though it may not hurt"; "Truth is truth, though spoken by an enemy"; "Harm set, harm get"; "Envy never enriched any man."

In a curious ma.n.u.script of the fifteenth century may be found "the answere which G.o.d gave to a certyn creture that desired to wit whate thinge was moost plesure to hym in this worlde." The answer is a very full one, fuller than we can quote, but it includes the following precepts:--"Suffre noysous wordis with a meke harte, for that pleseth me more than thow beate thy body with as many roddys as growen in an hundred wodys. Have compa.s.sion on the seeke and poore, for that pleaseth me more than thow fasteth fifty wynter brede and water. Saye no bakbyting wordis, but shon from them and love thy nayghber and turne alle that he saithe or dothe to good, me onely love and alle other for me, for that pleseth me more than if thowe every daye goo upon a whele stikking fulle of nayles that shulde prik thy bodye." Another ma.n.u.script of the same date that has come under our notice, in the Library of Jesus College, Cambridge, introduces a personification of the deadly sins, and each is treated with much graphic power, thus, under the heading of "Invidia" we find--

"I am full sory in my hert Of other mens welefare and whert: I ban and bakbyte wykkedly, And hynder all that I may sikerly."

The sneaking treachery of the envious man, grieved to the heart at the welfare of others, and doing them what evil he can safely compa.s.s, is very forcibly painted, and this of "Ira," in its picture of downright brutality, is as graphic--

"I chide and feght and manas fast; All my fomen I wylle doun kast, Mercy on thaym I wylle none haue But vengeance take, so G.o.d me saue."

Revenge, however sweet it may appear, always costs more than it is worth, so that to be of this mind is to scourge oneself with one"s own flail. Thus the adage says truly enough, "To be angry is to revenge the faults of others on ourselves." Another useful hint is that "Anger is danger, and even the anger of the righteous is not always righteous anger." How full, too, of wisdom the precept that "Anger should set with the sun but not rise with it," carrying on with vindictive perseverance into the present and the future the evil of the past. Other proverbs are:--"Anger begins with folly and ends with repentance"; "Anger makes a rich man hated, and a poor man scorned"; "Anger is more hurtful than the injury that caused it"; "A man in a pa.s.sion rides a horse that runs away with him"; "Anger may glance into the breast of a good man, but rests only in the bosom of fools"; "An angry man opens his mouth and shuts his eyes"; and to these many others bearing on the subject might be added.

Other excellent wisdom chips are these:--"Religion is the best armour in the world, but the worst cloak"; "Imitate good but do not counterfeit it"; "Roguery with pretext is double roguery"; "Better the blame of the just than the praise of the wicked." Of all the virtues it has been said that grat.i.tude has the shortest memory--"Eaten bread is soon forgotten."

The Spaniards have, too, a very graphic proverb: "Cria el cuervo y sacarte ha los ojos"--breed up a crow and he will tear out your eyes; while the French say: "Otez un vilain, du gibet, il vous y mettra"--save a thief from the gallows and he will place you there.

Pretension is exposed in many proverbs. An excellent one is this: "The best horseman is always on his feet." This is sometimes varied into "The man on the wall is the best player." It is in either version an obvious satire on the looker-on, who always tells how he could have done the thing better. Other good saws are these: "In a calm all can steer"; "Vainglory blossoms but does not bear"; "All his geese are swans"; "We cannot all do everything"; "Not even the youngest is infallible"; "Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works"; "Presumption blinds a man and then sets him running"; "Vanity has no greater foe than itself"; "A small mind has usually still room for pride"; "Insolence is pride with her mask pulled off"; "Arrogance is a weed that grows on poor soil."

Sir Thomas More reminds us that "Pride, as the proverb is, must needs have a shame," while a yet older writer declares that "Loste and deignouse pride and ille avis.e.m.e.nt mishapnes oftentide," and centuries even before this we find the warning that "A haughty spirit goes before a fall." Shakespeare puts the matter very pithily--"Who knows himself a braggart (let him fear this: for it will come to pa.s.s), That every braggart shall be found an a.s.s." "Brag is a good dog, but hold-fast is a better," we are told; a less familiar version found in old collections of proverbs being, "Brag is a good dog, but dares not bite." A very quaint old saw against boasting and pretension is this, "We hounds killed the hare, quoth the lap-dog"; while another good doggy adage is the warning that "A snappish cur must be tied short." "Great boasters,"

we are told, "are little doers,"[256:A] even as "Great promisers are bad paymasters." It is equally true, the statement that "One sword keeps another in its sheath." A quaint proverb hath it that "My father"s name was Loaf, and I die of hunger," a Spanish satire on those who, in poorest circ.u.mstances, yet boast of their kindred,[256:B] while a very true Italian saw is that "Many are brave when the enemy is running." On the other hand, "A brave retreat is a brave exploit." Throughout our pages we have made but slight reference to Biblical sayings since these are so readily accessible to all, and are, we may presume, so well known, but we cannot here quite forbear, for the counsel--"Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off"--seems so particularly happy a termination to our proverbs on pretension and boasting. Having thus broken through our procedure, we are tempted to add yet one more reference from the same source, the splendid irony on the man, "Wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason"--a race not yet extinct.

The following proverbs, dealing with various phases of self-interest, have more or less of worldly wisdom in them, and are worth quotation:--"Better go round than fall in the ditch"; "Better say here it is than here it was"; "Better cut the shoe than pinch the foot"; "If you wish a thing done--go; if not--send"; "Light not a blaze that you cannot extinguish"; "A hook"s well lost to catch a salmon"; "Buyers want a hundred eyes; sellers, two"; "All is lost that is poured into a cracked dish"; "Those who put on livery must put on patience"; "Of two evils choose the less"; "Better one"s house too little one day than too large all the year beside"; "Sometimes it is better to give your apple than to eat it yourself"; "Venture not all in one bottom"; "A man"s gift makes room for him"; "An a.s.s laden with gold overtakes everything"; "If you grease a cause well it will stretch"; "Praise the bridge by which you pa.s.s over"; "It is wit to pick a lock, but wisdom to let it alone"; "Those disposed for mischief will never want occasion"; "A pet.i.tioner that spares his purse angles without his bait."

In "The Ship of Fools," 1570, we find the line, "Aungels worke wonders in Westminster Hall," the angel being a coin of that period, and the Hall the great seat of Justice, or at all events, of Law. The Romans had a proverb--"Bos in lingua"--an ox on the tongue. As some of the ancient money was stamped with the device of an ox, the proverb was a delicate way of saying that a man had been bribed to be silent. We are told that Demosthenes, having received a present from some who wished to obtain a privilege that they were fearful he would oppose, appeared in the court with his throat m.u.f.fled up, pretending that he had so violent a cold as to be incapable of speaking; but one of the members of the court suspected the matter, and quoted this proverb, intimating that it was not the cold but the bribe that had debarred him from speech. Another of these old Roman proverbs was, "Argenteis hastis pugna et omnia expugnabis"--if only one fights with silver spear they will be all-conquering. A similar cynical maxim appreciative of the power of bribery and corruption is that, "Where gold avails argument fails."

Another old Roman adage was, "Oleum et operam perdere"--to lose both oil and labour. This was applied to those who had spent much time, given much labour, made considerable pecuniary sacrifice, to attain some object, and had, after all, failed in doing so. Those who contended in the public games freely anointed their limbs with oil to make them supple ere entering on the contest, and so if, after all, they were conquered they lost both oil and labour. In like manner, the student poring over his books and burning the midnight oil, if he failed in the acquisition of knowledge, lost oil and labour. The ancients tell how a man, having a suit at law, sent to the judge a present of a vessel of oil, but his antagonist sent a fatted pig, and this turned the scale in his favour, and he gained his cause. Justice may well be represented as blind when such proceedings are possible. The first man complained and reminded the judge of his gift, but the judge told him that a great pig had rushed in and overturned the oil, so that it and his labour in bringing it had been lost. Whether the proverb grew out of the story or the story out of the proverb it is now impossible to p.r.o.nounce any opinion upon.

Other keen proverbs are:--"He that finds a thing steals it if he restores it not"; "What will not make a pot may make a lid"; "The best patch is off the same cloth"; "Break not eggs with a hatchet"; "Ease and honour are seldom bedfellows"; "Stretch your legs according to your coverlet"; "Pin not your faith on another"s sleeve"; "As a man is finded so the law is ended"; "Live and let live"; "An ill agreement is better than a good judgment"; "Misreckoning is no payment"; "Name not a rope in his house that hanged himself." A very marked example of this delicacy of feeling is seen in the saying, "Father disappeared about a.s.sizes-time, and we asked no questions!" "Take away fuel and you take away fire"; "No man is impatient with his creditors"; "Command yourself and you may command much else."

Turning our attention awhile in other directions, we find the Spaniard"s warning, "Cada cuba bucele al vino que tiene"--the cask smells of the liquid it held; a man"s surroundings stamp him, and he is known by the company he keeps. Self-interest is blatant in the Spanish saying that "People don"t give black puddings to those who kill no pigs"; and the same cynical teaching is found in the French adage, "To one who has a pie in the oven you may give a piece of your cake."[259:A] The French version of "To him that hath shall be given," is, "He who eats chicken gets chicken."[259:B] The Spanish proverbs, as we have seen, have a strong tinge of mocking sarcasm in them; here are two more examples: "Give away for the good of your soul what you cannot eat"; "Steal the pig but give away the feet in alms." There is a delightful touch of human nature in the French saying, "No one is so open-handed as he who has nothing to give," or its Scotch equivalent, "They are aye gudew.i.l.l.y o" their horse that hae nane." Another canny Scotch experience is that "He that lacks (disparages) my mare would buy my mare." Self-interest degenerates into self-abas.e.m.e.nt in the Arab counsel, "If the king at noon-day says it is night, behold the stars." The Persian warning, "It is ill sport between the cotton and the fire," is very graphic. The old Roman, "Aliam querc.u.m excute," the advice to go and shake some other tree, since enough has been gathered here, is expressive. It is equivalent to telling one"s importunate neighbour that he must really try fresh ground at last; to advise one"s friend to cease from the pursuit they have been following, since they have reaped from it all the advantage it is likely to yield to them. A dignified and n.o.ble saying is this, "Deridet sed non derideor"--he laugheth, but I am not laughed at; the impertinence is suffered, is pa.s.sed unregarded, and falls flat and dead.

Custom and habit exercise their influence on our proverb lore; thus we are told, wisely enough, that "Custom is the plague of wise men, the idol of fools." Kelly tells a good story, in ill.u.s.tration of this bowing to custom, of a captain"s wife whose husband the South Sea Islanders had eaten, being consoled by a friend; "Mais, madame, que voulez-vous?

Chaque peuple a ses usages." The power of habit is immense; an old saying tells us that "Habit is overcome by habit," but ordinarily the habit in possession fights hard, and is not readily dispossessed. Hence it is of solemn warning to "Kill the c.o.c.katrice while yet in the egg."

It is one of the most familiar of truisms that "Habit becomes second nature," and that "What is bred in the bone will never come out of the flesh." To check at the beginning may be difficult, but to overcome in the end may be impossible. "Can the Ethiopian," asks the prophet, "change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good that are accustomed to do evil." As the bough of a tree bent from its usual direction returns to its old position so soon as the temporary force to which it yielded is removed, so do men return to their old habits so soon as the motives, whether of interest or fear, which had influenced them, are done away. "Nature," says Lord Bacon, "is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished. Let not a man trust his victory over his nature too far; for nature will be buried a great time and yet revive upon the occasion or temptation, like as it was with aesop"s damsel, turned from a cat to a woman, who sat very demurely at the board"s end till a mouse ran before her." The same philosopher gives the following admirable caution: "A man"s nature runs either to herbs or weeds: therefore let him seasonably water the one and destroy the other." The Spaniards say: "Mudar costumbre a par de muerte"--to change a habit is like death.

"Ill habits gather by unseen degrees, As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas."

And Shakespeare, in the "Two Gentlemen of Verona," exclaims: "How use doth breed a habit in a man!" The ancient Romans declared: "Fabricando fit faber," which we find in French as "En forgeant ou devient forgeron"; in Spanish, as "El usar saca oficial"; in German, as "Uebung macht den meister"; and in English, as "Use makes the craftsman."

Boys catch the habit of stammering if thrown with those who stammer, and the Dutch declare: "Die bij kreupelen woont, leert hinken"--he that lives with cripples learns to limp. Fortunately, there are good habits as well as bad ones; hence the Romans taught: "Boni principii finis bonus," and the French say, "De bon commencement bonne fin"--we insensibly imitate what we habitually admire.

Experience teaches, and we propose to quote some few of the proverbial lessons that are of value in the conduct and wear and tear of life, and we commence with the homely bit of wisdom that, if realised, would save so much of worry and heartache: "What can"t be cured must be endured."[262:A] Another good saying is: "Well begun is half done"--poetically rendered by the Italians in the counsel, "Begin your web, and G.o.d will find you thread." "Procrastination is the thief of time," is another well-worn and excellent adage. How valuable, again, are these: "Teaching of others teacheth the teacher"; "He teaches ill that teaches all"; "He that seeks trouble rarely misses it"; "He that is surety is not sure"; "Look before you leap"; "The horse that draws is most whipped"; "Blow first and sip after"; "At open doors dogs come in"; "He that is angry without cause must be pleased without amends"; "It is but lip-wisdom that lacks experience"; "Fetters, though of gold, are fetters still"; "Without danger, danger cannot be overcome"; "Experience is a dear school, but fools learn in no other"; "Some advice at fourpence is a groat too dear"; "The counsel that we favour we most scrutinise"; "He that sits to work in the market-place shall have many teachers"; "Valour that parleys is near surrender"; "As you salute you will be saluted"; "Responsibility must be shouldered, you cannot carry it under your arm"; "One eye-witness is better than ten hear-says"; "If you pity knaves you are no friend to honest men"; "Every man is a pilot in a calm sea"; "Plant the crab-tree where you will it will never bear pippins"; "Wide will wear, but narrow will tear." This last, homely as it sounds, is excellent in its counsel in praise of a wise liberality.

The ancient Roman, "Bis dat qui cito dat," that is so often quoted in advocacy of prompt aid, re-appears in modern Italy in the version, "A gift long waited for is not given, but sold." "Say not to your neighbour, Go, and come again, and to-morrow I will give, when thou hast it by thee." "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick,"[263:A] and ready help at the critical moment might have averted a catastrophe. Another very true cla.s.sic adage is, "Beneficium accipere, libertam est vendere"--accept a favour and you sell your freedom. Excellent counsel is in the twin proverbs, "Deliberating is not delaying," and "That is a wise delay which maketh the road safe." An old writer[263:B] very sagely puts it thus: "When we are in a strait that we know not what to do, we must have a care of doing we know not what," and thus save time by giving time.

Advice for the conduct of life is freely bestowed on us by our proverbial wisdom. We may well head the examples we propose to give with the caution, "In vain does he ask advice who will not follow it."

"Few things," says Dr Johnson, "are so liberally bestowed, or squandered with so little effect, as good advice." Another reading is that "He that will not be counselled cannot be helped." Some few specimens of counsel tendered are these: "At great bargains pause awhile"; "The best throw of the dice is to throw them away"; "Raise up no spirits that you cannot lay"; "Rather suffer a great evil than do a little one"; "Agree, for the law is costly"; "Avoid the pleasure that will bite to-morrow"; "Let the shipwrecks of others be your beacons"; "Let every man praise the bridge he goes over." Speak not ill of him who hath done you a courtesy, or whom you have made use of to your benefit.

The Arabs in like spirit teach, "A well from which thou drinkest throw not a stone into it." An Italian saw sarcastically says, "Does thy neighbour annoy thee? lend him a zechin"--he will then keep out of the way. A Danish proverb wisely advises to "Take help of many, and counsel of few"; while a homely German proverb--"Henke nicht alles auf einen Nagel"--warns us not to hang all on one nail; or, as our equally homely English proverb has it, "Do not carry all your eggs in one basket"--have not all your ventures in one vessel.

The weather in this our changeable climate has supplied abundant store for popular lore; it would indeed suffice in itself to yield material for a goodly volume, and the result would be a collection of great literary and antiquarian interest.

One very familiar adage is the comforting statement that "It is an ill wind that blows no one any good." Shakespeare quotes it more than once; in one case it is rendered as "Ill blows the wind that profits n.o.body,"

and elsewhere, "Not the ill wind which blows no man good," while Tusser gives us the rhyming version--

"Except wind stands as never it stood, It is an ill wind turns none to good."

Another old saw teaches that "Ill weather is seen soon enough when it comes," but this is indefensible, for while it is a wise counsel not to meet troubles half way, to exercise no forethought at all is mere lunacy. Such a proverb, again, as this, "Though the sun shine leave not your coat at home," is much too rigid in its insistence, and the advice, whether taken literally or metaphorically, would be at times absurd. If we try it, for instance, in this guise--Though surrounded by loving friends carry suspicion ever with you--we feel that the tension is needless. A much truer saying is this, "When the sun shines n.o.body minds him, but when he is eclipsed all consider him," and we realise at last on the withdrawal of the benefit of how great value it had been to us.

A wise and helpful Latin proverb is, "Sequitur Ver Hyemem"--spring succeeds winter, and sunshine follows rain. "After a storm, calm," or, as the French have it, "Apres la pluie vient le beau temps."

"What, man, plucke up your harte, bee of good cheere, After cloudes blacke wee shall have wether clere."

"Heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning," is no discovery of yesterday.

"March winds and April showers bring forth the May flowers," and the French recognise the welcome a.s.surance in their version, "Mars venteux, Avril pluvieux, font le Mai gai et gracieux," while across the Rhine the saying is again, "Marzen Wind and Aprilen Regen verheissen im Mai grossen segen." The value of dry weather at sowing time is indicated in the saying that "A bushel of March dust is worth a king"s ransom"; while "February fill-d.y.k.e" is a testimony to the abundant rain that is ordinarily characteristic of that month; in France it is said that "Fevrier remplit les fosses: Mars les seche." This rain is of great value, and "All the months of the year curse a fair Februeer," and "If the gra.s.s look green in Janiveer "twill look the worser all the year."

The exigencies of rhyme are responsible for the miscalling of these month-names. A great many of these rustic weather proverbs are thrown into more or less, and ordinarily more, uncouth rhyme, no doubt as an aid to memory; thus we are told that "No weather"s ill if the wind be still," that it is well should "September blow soft till the fruit"s in the loft," and that "If the first of July be rainy weather, "twill rain more or less four weeks together." We are taught again that "In February if thou hearest thunder thou wilt see a summer"s wonder." Undoubtedly a thunderstorm in February might well be regarded as one of the least likely things to happen in July, while the hearing of its sonorous peals would certainly be a remarkable feat of vision. As the literal acceptance is so impossible we must perforce look a little below the surface, and when we recall that our ancestors were great at prognostics we see that we are expected to regard this ill-timed storm as an omen of coming events of startling nature. Thus Willford, in his "Nature"s Secrets," teaches that "Thunder and lightning in winter is held ominous, portending factions, tumults, and b.l.o.o.d.y wars, and a thing seldome seen, according to ye old adigy, Winter"s thunder is ye Sommer"s wonder."[266:A]

The countryman has abundant opportunity of studying the varying aspects of Nature, hence he has discovered that "An evening red and morning grey will set the traveller on his way";[267:A] though he seems to have also observed that "If the sun in red should set, the next day surely will be wet." The two statements appear to directly contradict each other. On the other hand we are told that when the reverse happens, "The evening grey and morning red make the shepherd hang his head"; and that "If the sun should set in grey the next will be a rainy day"; the sun setting in a bank of clouds--the west in this country being the direction in which we ordinarily look for wet weather--the result on the morrow will probably be rain. Hence, "A rainbow in the morning is the shepherd"s warning, a rainbow at night is the shepherd"s delight"; or in Germany, "Regenborgen am Morgen macht dem Schafer sorgen: Regenborgen am Abend ist dem Schafer labend."

The statement that "The moon is made of green cheese" may be mentioned in pa.s.sing. Shacklock, in the "Hatchet of Heresies," written in 1565, says, "They may make theyr blinde brotherhode, and the ignorant sort beleeve that the mone is made of grene chese," and many old writers introduce this venerable belief in their plays and other works. We now-a-days a.s.sociate the idea with age, the green suggesting mouldiness, but the word here means the very opposite, and refers really to a cheese not matured; the moon being new every month, the material of which it was composed never got beyond the green or unripe stage.