Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 91

"Comparisons are odious." So, in "Much Ado About Nothing" (iii. 5), Dogberry tells Verges: "Comparisons are odorous."

"Confess and be hanged." This well-known proverb is probably alluded to in the "Merchant of Venice" (iii. 2):

"_Ba.s.sanio._ Promise me life, and I'll confess the truth.

_Portia._ Well then, confess, and live."

We may also refer to what Oth.e.l.lo says (iv. 1): "To confess, and be hanged for his labour; first, to be hanged, and then to confess. I tremble at it."

In "Timon of Athens" (i. 2), Apemantus says: "Ho, ho, confess'd it!

hang'd it, have you not?"

"Cry him, and have him." So Rosalind says, in "As You Like It" (i. 3), "If I could cry 'hem' and have him."

"Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool" ("King Lear," iii. 6). It is given by Ray in his "Proverbs" (1768); see also "Taming of the Shrew"

(ii. 1).

"Cucullus non facit monachum." So in "Henry VIII." (iii. 1), Queen Katherine says:

"All hoods make not monks."

Chaucer thus alludes to this proverb:

"Habite ne maketh monk ne feere; But a clean life and devotion Maketh G.o.de men of religion."

"Dead as a door-nail." So, in "2 Henry VI." (iv. 10), Cade says to Iden: "I have eat no meat these five days; yet, come thou and thy five men, and if I do not leave you all as dead as a door-nail, I pray G.o.d I may never eat gra.s.s more."

We may compare the term, "dead as a herring," which Caius uses in the "Merry Wives of Windsor" (ii. 3), "By gar, de herring is no dead, so as I vill kill him."

"Death will have his day" ("Richard II.," iii. 2).

"Delays are dangerous." In "1 Henry VI." (iii. 2), Reignier says:

"Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends."

"Diluculo surgere," etc. ("Twelfth Night," ii. 3).

"Dogs must eat." This, with several other proverbs, is quoted by Agrippa in "Coriola.n.u.s" (i. 1).

"Dun's the mouse" ("Romeo and Juliet," i. 4). This was a proverbial saying, of which no satisfactory explanation has yet been given. Nares thinks it was "frequently employed with no other intent than that of quibbling on the word _done_." Ray has, "as dun as a mouse." Mercutio says: "Tut, dun's the mouse, the constable's own word."

"Empty vessels give the greatest sound." Quoted in "Henry V." (iv. 4).

"Every dog hath his day, and every man his hour." This old adage seems alluded to by Hamlet (v. 1):[868]

"The cat will mew, and dog will have his day."

[868] Bohn's "Handbook of Proverbs," p. 86.

"Every man at forty is either a fool or a physician."[869] This popular proverb is probably referred to in "Merry Wives of Windsor" (iii. 4), by Mistress Quickly, who tells Fenton how she had recommended him as a suitor for Mr. Page's daughter instead of Doctor Caius: "This is my doing, now: 'Nay,' said I, 'will you cast away your child on a fool, and a physician? look on Master Fenton:'-this is my doing."

[869] Ray gives another form: "Every man is either a fool or a physician after thirty years of age;" see Bohn's "Handbook of Proverbs," 1857, p. 27.

"Familiarity breeds contempt." So, in the "Merry Wives of Windsor" (i.

1), Slender says: "I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt."

"Fast bind, fast find." In "Merchant of Venice" (ii. 5), Shylock says:

"Well, Jessica, go in: Perhaps I will return immediately: Do as I bid you; shut doors after you; Fast bind, fast find; A proverb never stale in thrifty mind."

"Finis coronat opus." A translation of this Latin proverb is given by Helena in "All's Well that Ends Well" (iv. 4):

"Still the fine's the crown."

In "2 Henry VI." (v. 2), also, Clifford's expiring words are: "La fin couronne les uvres." We still have the expression _to crown_, in the sense of _to finish_ or _make perfect_. Mr. Douce[870] remarks that "_coronidem imponere_ is a metaphor well known to the ancients, and supposed to have originated from the practice of finishing buildings by placing a crown at the top as an ornament; and for this reason the words _crown_, _top_, and _head_ are become synonymous in most languages.

There is reason for believing that the ancients placed a crescent at the beginning, and a crown, or some ornament that resembled it, at the end of their books." In "Troilus and Cressida" (iv. 5), Hector says:

"The fall of every Phrygian stone will cost A drop of Grecian blood: the end crowns all; And that old common arbitrator, Time, Will one day end it."

[870] "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," p. 199.

Prince Henry ("2 Henry IV.," ii. 2), in reply to Poins, gives another turn to the proverb: "By this hand, thou think'st me as far in the devil's book as thou and Falstaff, for obduracy and persistency: let the end try the man."[871]

[871] See Green's "Shakespeare and the Emblem Writers," 1870, pp. 319, 323.

"Fly pride, says the peac.o.c.k." This is quoted by Dromio of Syracuse, in "The Comedy of Errors" (iv. 3).[872]

[872] Halliwell-Phillipps's "Handbook Index to Shakespeare," p. 391.

"Friends may meet, but mountains never greet." This is ironically alluded to in "As You Like It" (iii. 2), by Celia: "It is a hard matter for friends to meet; but mountains may be removed with earthquakes, and so encounter."

"Give the devil his due." In "Henry V." (iii. 7) it is quoted by the Duke of Orleans.

"G.o.d sends fools fortune." It is to this version of the Latin adage, "Fortuna favet fatuis" ("Fortune favors fools"), that Touchstone alludes in his reply to Jaques, in "As You Like It" (ii. 7):

"'No, sir,' quoth he, 'Call me not fool till heaven hath sent me fortune.'"

Under different forms, the same proverb is found on the Continent. The Spanish say, "The mother of G.o.d appears to fools;" and the German one is this, "Fortune and women are fond of fools."[873]

[873] Kelly's "Proverbs of All Nations," 1872, p. 52.

"G.o.d sends not corn for the rich only." This is quoted by Marcius in "Coriola.n.u.s" (i. 1).

"Good goose, do not bite." This proverb is used in "Romeo and Juliet"

(ii. 4):

"_Mercutio._ I will bite thee by the ear for that jest.

_Romeo._ Nay, good goose, bite not."