Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 92

"Good liquor will make a cat speak." So, in the "Tempest" (ii. 2), Stephano says: "Come on your ways: open your mouth; here is that which will give language to you, cat; open your mouth."

"Good wine needs no bush." This old proverb, which is quoted by Shakespeare in "As You Like It" (v. 4, "Epilogue")-"If it be true that good wine needs no bush, 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue"-refers to the custom of hanging up a bunch of twigs, or a wisp of hay, at a roadside inn, as a sign that drink may be had within. This practice, "which still lingers in the cider-making counties of the west of England, and prevails more generally in France, is derived from the Romans, among whom a bunch of ivy was used as the sign of a wine-shop."

They were also in the habit of saying, "Vendible wine needs no ivy hung up." The Spanish have a proverb, "Good wine needs no crier."[874]

[874] Ibid., 1870, pp. 175, 176.

"Greatest clerks not the wisest men." Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, in his "Handbook Index to Shakespeare" (p. 391), quotes the following pa.s.sage in "Twelfth Night" (iv. 2), where Maria tells the clown to personate Sir Topas, the curate: "I am not tall enough to become the function well, nor lean enough to be thought a good student; but to be said an honest man and a good housekeeper goes as fairly as to say a careful man and a great scholar."

"Happy man be his dole" ("Taming of the Shrew," i. 1; "1 Henry IV.," ii.

2). Ray has it, "Happy man, happy dole;" or, "Happy man by his dole."

"Happy the bride on whom the sun shines." Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, in his "Handbook Index to Shakespeare" (p. 392), quotes, as an ill.u.s.tration of this popular proverb, the following pa.s.sage in "Twelfth Night" (iv.

3), where Olivia and Sebastian, having made "a contract of eternal bond of love," the former says:

"and heavens so shine, That they may fairly note this act of mine!"

"Happy the child whose father went to the devil."[875] So, in "3 Henry VI." (ii. 2), King Henry asks, interrogatively:

"And happy always was it for that son, Whose father, for his h.o.a.rding, went to h.e.l.l?"

[875] See Bohn's "Handbook of Proverbs," p. 100; Kelly's "Proverbs of All Nations," p. 187.

The Portuguese say, "Alas for the son whose father goes to heaven."

"Hares pull dead lions by the beard." In "King John" (ii. 1), the b.a.s.t.a.r.d says to Austria:

"You are the hare of whom the proverb goes, Whose valour plucks dead lions by the beard."

"Have is have, however men do catch." Quoted by the b.a.s.t.a.r.d in "King John" (i. 1).

"Heaven's above all." In "Richard II." (iii. 3) York tells Bolingbroke:

"Take not, good cousin, further than you should, Lest you mistake: the heavens are o'er our heads."

So, too, in "Oth.e.l.lo" (ii. 3), Ca.s.sio says: "Heaven's above all."[876]

[876] Halliwell-Phillipps's "Handbook Index to Shakespeare," p. 392.

"He is a poor cook who cannot lick his own fingers." Under a variety of forms, this proverb is found in different countries. The Italians say, "He who manages other people's wealth does not go supperless to bed."

The Dutch, too, say, "All officers are greasy," that is, something sticks to them.[877] In "Romeo and Juliet" (iv. 2) the saying is thus alluded to:

"_Capulet._ Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks.

_2 Servant._ You shall have none ill, sir; for I'll try if they can lick their fingers.

_Capulet._ How canst thou try them so?

_2 Servant._ Marry, sir, 'tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers: therefore he that cannot lick his fingers goes not with me."

[877] See Kelly's "Proverbs of All Nations," 1870, pp. 196, 197.

"He's mad, that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health, a boy's love, or a wh.o.r.e's oath" ("King Lear," iii. 6).[878]

[878] Halliwell-Phillipps's "Handbook Index to Shakespeare," p. 392.

"Heroum filii noxae." It is a common notion that a father above the common rate of men has usually a son below it. Hence, in "The Tempest"

(i. 2), Shakespeare probably alludes to this Latin proverb:

"My trust, Like a good parent, did beget of him A falsehood, in its contrary as great As my trust was."

"He knows not a hawk from a handsaw." Hamlet says (ii. 2): "When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw."

"He may hang himself in his own garters." So, Falstaff ("1 Henry IV."

ii. 2) says: "Go, hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent garters."

"He that is born to be hanged will never be drowned." In "The Tempest"

(i. 1), Gonzalo says of the Boatswain: "I have great comfort 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." The Italians say, "He that is to die by the gallows may dance on the river."

"He that dies pays all debts" ("The Tempest," iii. 2).

"He who eats with the devil hath need of a long spoon." This is referred to by Stephano, in "The Tempest" (ii. 2): "This is a devil, and no monster: I will leave him; I have no long spoon." Again, in the "Comedy of Errors" (iv. 3), Dromio of Syracuse says: "He must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil."

The old adage, which tells how

"He that will not when he may, When he will he shall have nay,"

is quoted in "Antony and Cleopatra" (ii. 7) by Menas:

"Who seeks, and will not take, when once 'tis offer'd, Shall never find it more."

"Hold hook and line" ("2 Henry IV.," ii. 4). This, says Dyce, is a sort of cant proverbial expression, which sometimes occurs in our early writers ("Glossary," p. 210).

"Hold, or cut bow-strings"[879] ("A Midsummer-Night's Dream," i. 2).

[879] See page 394.

"Honest as the skin between his brows" ("Much Ado About Nothing," iii.

5).[880]

[880] "Handbook Index to Shakespeare," p. 392.

"Hunger will break through stone-walls." This is quoted by Marcius in "Coriola.n.u.s" (i. 1), who, in reply to Agrippa's question, "What says the other troop?" replies:

"They are dissolved: hang 'em!

They said they were an-hungry; sigh'd forth proverbs,- That hunger broke stone-walls," etc.

According to an old Suffolk proverb,[881] "Hunger will break through stone-walls, or anything, except Suffolk cheese."