Proverb Lore Part 7

for instance, we find, "Now, were I a little pot and soon hot," a proverb applied to short-tempered people who on slight cause wax wroth.

The homely pot plays its part in homely conversation. The man whom Fortune has thwarted "goes to pot," waste and refuse metal to be cast into the melting-pot. The man on hospitable thoughts intent may invite his neighbour to pot-luck, to such chance repast, good or bad, as the "pot au feu" may yield. People who deride or scorn others for matters in which they are at least as much concerned are compared to the pot that called the kettle black,[85:A] while the rashness of those who, insufficiently provided with this world's goods, seek to rival others better provided and come to grief in the experiment, are reminded how the brazen and earthen pot swam down together on the swirling flood and collided to the detriment of the pitcher.[85:B] In "King Henry VI." we have "Ill blows the wind that profits n.o.body,"[85:C] and "Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep." In "Hamlet" the familiar adage, "Murder will out," appears as "Murder, though it have no tongue, will speak." "Every dog has his day"; we say: every man his chance, so in "Hamlet" we find--

"Let Hercules himself do what he may, The cat will mew, and dog will have his day."

In "Oth.e.l.lo" we come across an equally well-known proverb, "They laugh that win," so quaintly curtailed by Heywood into "He laugth that winth."

Another familiar adage is that "Use is second nature," and this Shakespeare, in the "Two Gentlemen of Verona," refines into "How use doth breed a habit in a man!" In "As You Like It" another well-known saw presents itself in the lines, "If it be true that good wine needs no bush, 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue." The bush in question was an ivy-bough, the emblem of Bacchus, and the custom of marking the wine-shop by this dates from Roman days. "Vino vendibili hedera non opus est." The custom was continued throughout the Middle Ages; but a good article, the proverb tells us, needs no advertis.e.m.e.nt, or, as the French proverb hath it, "Au vin qui se vend bien il ne faut point de lierre."

In the days of our forefathers the streets were narrow, and there were no pavements; while discharging pipes and running gutters by the sides of the walls made the centre of the road the more agreeable place for the traveller. Wheeled conveyances of divers sorts pa.s.sing and repa.s.sing forced the foot-pa.s.senger to the side of the road, and any tumult or street fight would drive the conquered pell-mell to take refuge in the houses or to the shelter of the wall out of the rush. Hence the proverb, "The weakest goes to the wall." In "Romeo and Juliet" Sampson and Gregory are found in the market-place of Verona, and the former declares, "I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's"; to whom the latter unsympathetically replies, "That shows thee a weak slave, for the weakest goes to the wall."

The wisdom of our ancestors discovered that "He who is born to be hanged will never be drowned," and our readers will recall how in the "Tempest"

Gonzalo comforts himself in the contemplation of the villainous ugliness of the boatswain. "I have great comfort," he says, "from this fellow: methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good fate, to his hanging! Make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage! If he be not born to be hanged our case is miserable."

To make our list of quotations exhaustive, and therefore probably exhausting, is by no means necessary; we give but samples from the bulk, and in conclusion of our present chapter give some few of our commoner saws and one, or at most two, references to some old writer's work where it may be encountered. Naturally, the wording of some of the more ancient quotations is not always quite that of to-day.

"The potte may goo so longe to water that atte the last it is broken" we found in a ma.n.u.script of about the year 1545, ent.i.tled, "The book of the Knight of La Tour." The very ancient proverb, familiar to us in its Biblical garb, about the folly of the blind leading the blind, will be found in Gower's "Confessio Amantis"--

"As the blinde another ledeth, And, till they falle, nothing dredeth."

The constant dropping that wears at length away a stone we found referred to in a ma.n.u.script of the time of Henry VIII. "So long may a droppe fall that it may perse a stone."

"The common proverb, as it is read, That we should hit the nail on the head,"

is a couplet in a little book, "Wit Restor'd," issued in 1568, and we also find Skelton writing, "He hyt the nayle on the hede."

A caution to those who try and steer a deceitful course between those of opposing interests, treacherously allowing each to think they have exclusive support, has duly been crystallised into a proverb, and Lily introduces it in the following pa.s.sage:--"Whatsouer I speake to men, the same also I speake to women. I meane not to run with the Hare and holde with the Hounde." "By hook or by crook" will be found in Spenser's "Fairie Queene." "Diamond cut diamond" is in Ford's play of "the Lover's Melancholy." "Every tub must stand upon its own bottom" occurs in the "Pilgrim's Progress." "He must have a long spoon that would eat with the devil" is found in Chaucer and Shakespeare, amongst other writers. That "The moon is made of green cheese" is re-a.s.serted by Rabelais and in the pages of "Hudibras."

In Swift's "polite conversation," proverbs are thickly strewn. We find the old statement that "You must eat a peck of dirt before you die," the well-meant impertinence of "teaching one's grandmother to suck eggs,"

the communistic doctrine that "Sauce for the goose is no less sauce for the gander," and many other well-worn sc.r.a.ps of ancestral belief and practice. The wisdom of suiting your position to your circ.u.mstances, of cutting one's garment according to the material available, is emphasised in a "Health to the gentlemanly profession of Serving-Men," a brochure issued in 1598, where these worthies are warned, "You, with your fraternitie in these latter dayes cannot be content to shape your coate according to your cloth." In Marston's play of "What you Will," written in 1607, we have a familiar and homely caution borrowed from the experience of the kitchen--"Faith, Doricus, thy braine boils; keele it, keele it, or all the fatts in the fire," a proverb employed when by some inadvertence a man brings against himself a sudden blaze of wrath.

Proverb-hunting is a very pleasant recreation. We have left a vast field practically untrodden. We cannot do better than conclude in the quaint words of a little pamphlet that we once came across--"a collection of the Choycest Poems relating to the late Times" (1662). "Gentlemen, you are invited here to a feast, and if variety cloy you not, we are satisfied. It has been our care to please you. These are select things, a work of time, which for your sake we publish, a.s.suring you that your welcome will crown the entertainment. Farewell."

FOOTNOTES:

[65:A] "Love me little, love me long" is found in the writings of Christopher Marlowe: "Pray, love me little, so you love me long," in Herrick.

[66:A] "The Pleasant Historie of the two Angrie Women of Abington, with the humerous mirthe of d.i.c.k Coomes and Nicholas Prouerbes, two seruingmen. As it was lately played by the Right Honourable the Earl of Nottingham, Lord High Admirall, his Servants. By Henry Porter, gent.

Imprinted at London for Joseph Hunt and William Farbrand, and are to be solde at the corner of Colman Street, neere Loathburie. 1599."

[72:A]

"Why urge yee me? My hart doth boyle with heate And will not stoope to any of your lures: A burnt child dreads the ffyre."--Timon, c. 1590.

[72:B] Ovid writes: "Tranquillas etiam naufragus horret aquas"--the man who has been wrecked dreads still water. The Portuguese make the cat the subject of their proverb--"Gato escaldado d'agua fria tem medo."

[73:A] We need scarcely point out that any reference to the use of any proverb is not intended to imply that this is the only use of it by that writer. "Yet gold is not that doth golden seem" is equally Shakespeare with the quotation given above. One pa.s.sage will ordinarily suffice, but not because it is the only one available.

[74:A] The story is told by Pausanias: "Multa cadunt inter calicem supremaque labra."--_Horace._

[77:A] "Stones and idle words are things not to be thrown at random."

[82:A] "Pet.i.t a pet.i.t l'oiseau fait son nid."

[83:A]

"What cloke for the rayne so ever yee bring mee, Myselfe can tell best where my shoee doth wring mee."--_Heywood._

[83:B] In "Cymbeline" Shakespeare writes--

"But that you shall not say I yield, being silent, I would not speak."

It was a proverb of Ancient Rome, "Qui tacet consentire videtur," and in Modern Italy it reappears as "Chi ta ce confessa." In France it is "a.s.sez consent qui ne dit mot."

[85:A] Or, to quote another expressive and homely English proverb, "The chimney-sweep told the collier to go wash his face." In France they say "La pele se moque du fourgon," the shovel makes game of the poker.

[85:B] "Burden not thyself above thy power, and have no fellows.h.i.+p with one that is mightier or richer than thyself. For how agree the kettle and the earthen pot together? For if one be smitten against the other it shall be broken."--_Ecclesiasticus_ xiii. 2.

[85:C] "An yll wynd that blowth no man good."--HEYWOOD, _Song against Idleness_, 1540.

"It is an old proverb and a true, I sware by the roode, It is an il wind that blows no man to good."

--"Marriage of Wit and Wisdom," 1570.

CHAPTER IV

National Idiosyncrasies -- The Seven Sages of Greece -- Know Thyself -- The Laconic "If" -- Ancient Greek Proverbs -- Roman Proverbs -- The Proverbs of Scotland: Strong Vein of Humour in them -- Spanish and Italian Proverbs -- The Proverbs of France -- The "Comedie des Proverbes" -- The Proverbs of Spain: their Popularity and Abundance; Historic Interest: their Bibliography -- Italian Proverbs: their Characteristics -- The Proverbs of Germany -- Chinese Adages: their Excellence -- j.a.panese Proverbs: their Poetry and Beauty -- Arab Sayings: their Servility: their Humour -- Eastern Delight in Stories -- African Sayings: their pithy Wisdom -- The Proverb-philosophy of the Talmud.

While we find a striking similarity existing between the proverbs of various peoples, many being absolutely identical, and others teaching the same truths under somewhat different external guise; there is also in many cases a certain local and individual colouring that gives added interest.

We see, too, national idiosyncrasies coming to the front in the greater prominence given to proverbs having a bearing in some particular direction. Thus, a poetic and imaginative people will specially dwell on proverbs of a picturesque and refined type, while a thrifty and cautious race will hold in especial esteem the inculcation of saving, of early rising, of steady labour, the avoidance of debt and suretys.h.i.+p. A more impulsive people will care but little for such thraldom, and will teach in its sayings the delights of the present, the pursuit of the pleasures rather than the duties of life, and the wild doctrine of revenge against those who thwart their desires; while an oppressed and downtrodden race will very faithfully reflect the oppression under which they lie by the sayings that find most favour amongst them.

Our English proverbs, like our language, have come to us from many sources; and while we have some little store that we may claim as of home-growth, the greater part has been judiciously borrowed. We may fairly ascribe to our changeable climate such a warning adage as the advice to "Make hay while the sun s.h.i.+nes"; and when a settler on the prairies of the West clothes the excellent doctrine that every man for himself should perform the disagreeable tasks that come in his way, and not seek to transfer them to other people, in the formula, "Every man must skin his own skunk," we feel the sentiment to be redolent of the soil of its birth. The picture it presents to us is so entirely American that it is quite needless to search for its origin in the folk-lore of Wess.e.x or on the banks of the Indus.[91:A]

The greater number of the proverbs of ancient Greece were fraught with allusions to the mythology, poetry, and national history of h.e.l.las, and thus form a valuable testimony to the general high level of intellectual training of this wonderful people. The "Adagia" of Erasmus contains, as the result of the search of many years amongst the literary remains of the cla.s.sical authors, some five thousand of these ancient sayings. Many that, from their Latin dress we ascribe to the Romans, were really derived from Greek or still earlier sources.

It will be recalled that those who, from their pre-eminent wisdom, were ent.i.tled, the Seven Sages of Greece, each inscribed in the Temple of Apollo one sentence of concentrated wisdom. The best known and most freely quoted of these was the "Know thyself," the contribution of Solon of Athens; and the more we reflect on this the more we realise its profundity. To know thyself--to know, for example, thy possibilities of health and strength for strenuous bodily or mental labour, to know thy worldly status, and what of influence is there open to thee or closed against thee; to know thyself, not as the crowd regards thee, but in all the secret workings of thy heart, controlling thy actions, bia.s.sing thy thoughts, influencing thy motives; to step aside out of the bustle of life and quietly take stock of thyself; to know how thou standest in view of eternity--that is wisdom. The maxim of Chilo of Sparta was "Consider the end," and that of Bias of Priene the sad indictment, "Most men are bad." Thales of Miletos declared, and the yet greater and wiser Solomon was in accord--"Who hateth suretys.h.i.+p is sure." Periander of Corinth sang the praise of honest work in "Nothing is impossible to industry";[92:A] and Pittacos of Mitylene warned his hearers and pupils to "Seize Time by the forelock." The seventh, Cleobulos of Lindos, pinned his faith on the golden mean, "Avoid extremes." These maxims pa.s.sed into general circulation and adoption, and thus became of proverbial rank. They do not strike one as being of at all equal value, but there is no doubt that a man who was fortified, not only by the knowledge of these precepts, but, more important yet, by their practice, would be equipped to face unscathed all the possibilities of life.

In our ordinary English word "laconic" is preserved a curious little allusion. The Lacones or Spartans were noted amongst the other Greeks for their brusque and sententious speech, the practice of expressing much in little. Hence our word laconic, meaning concise, pithy. Plato wrote that "If anyone desires converse with a Lacedaemonian he will at first sight appear to him wanting in thought, in power of utterance, but when the opportunity arrives, this same man, like a skilful hurler of the javelin, will hurl a sentence worthy of the greatest consideration."

A good example of this trait of the Spartans will be seen in their reply to Philip of Macedon when he threatened them, "If I enter Laconia I will level your city to the dust." Their rejoinder was, "If"!

The prostrate Saul was warned that it was hard for him to "kick against the p.r.i.c.ks," to resist the Higher Power, to rebel against the guiding goad, and the utterance was a very familiar one in his ears. It will be found in the Odes of Pindar, the tragedies of Euripides and aeschylus, and in the writings of Terence. Another familiar Biblical text is that "One soweth and another reapeth."[93:A] This, too, would appeal at once to the hearers as a piece of their own proverbial lore. It is at least as ancient as Hesiod, who wrote his "Theogony," and introduced this proverb therein, some nine hundred years before the Christian era.

It is in all countries an accepted belief that the Higher Powers, under whatever name wors.h.i.+pped, help those who help themselves. Thus, the Spaniards say, "Pray to G.o.d and ply the hammer," while the Greeks taught, "Call on Athene but exert yourself as well." Another very expressive Greek proverb was "A piped-out life," as applied to one who, in rioting and dissipation, in feasting and drunkenness, had carried out that grim ideal, "A short life and a merry one," who to lulling siren song, the harp, the tabret, and the viol, sailed swiftly down the stream of Time. A graphic picture again is this--"You have burst in upon the bees," applied to one who causelessly, needlessly meddled with matters that were no concern of his, and thereby brought swift retribution on himself.

The proverbs born on Roman soil were considerably fewer in number than those of Greek birth, and this is a result that we should naturally antic.i.p.ate, since the Romans had not the strong religious feeling, nor the poetic afflatus, nor the subtle thought of the Greeks. The Romans in this, as in much else, were borrowers rather than producers. At the same time the sterling common-sense and energy of the Roman people is seen in their proverbs. They are business-like and practical, inculcating patience, perseverance, independence, and frugality; dealing in a wise spirit with the affairs of life, marriage, education, agriculture, and the like. How true, for instance, to all experience is the "Aliquis in omnibus est nullus in singulis," while in some, heathen as they were in origin, a high moral sense is reached, as, for example, "Conscientia, mille testes."