Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 96

[892] Kelly's "Proverbs of All Nations," p. 80.

"There is flattery in friendship"-used by the Constable of France in "Henry V." (iii. 7); the usual form of this proverb being: "There is falsehood in friendship."

"There was but one way" ("Henry V.," ii. 3). "This," says Dyce, "is a kind of proverbial expression for death." ("Glossary," p. 494.)

"The weakest goes to the wall." This is quoted by Gregory in "Romeo and Juliet" (i. 1), whereupon Sampson adds: "Women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall: therefore, I will push Montague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall."

"There went but a pair of shears between them" ("Measure for Measure,"

i. 2). That is, "We are both of the same piece."

"The world goes on wheels." This proverbial expression occurs in "Antony and Cleopatra" (ii. 7); and Taylor, the Water-Poet, has made it the subject of one of his pamphlets: "The worlde runnes on wheeles, or, oddes betwixt carts and coaches."

"Three women and a goose make a market." This proverb is alluded to in "Love's Labour's Lost" (iii. 1):

"thus came your argument in; Then the boy's fat _l'envoy_, the goose that you bought; And he ended the market."

The following lines in "1 Henry VI." (i. 6),

"Thy promises are like Adonis' gardens That one day bloom'd, and fruitful were the next,"

allude to the _Adonis horti_, which were nothing but portable earthen pots, with some lettuce or fennel growing in them. On his yearly festival every woman carried one of them in honor of Adonis, because Venus had once laid him in a lettuce bed. The next day they were thrown away. The proverb seems to have been used always in a bad sense, for things which make a fair show for a few days and then wither away. The Dauphin is here made to apply it as an encomium. There is a good account of it in Erasmus's "Adagia;" but the idea may have been taken from the "Fairy Queen," bk. iii. cant. 6, st. 42 (Singer's "Shakespeare," 1875, vol. vi. p. 32).

"To clip the anvil of my sword." "This expression, in 'Coriola.n.u.s' (iv.

5) is very difficult to be explained," says Mr. Green, "unless we regard it as a proverb, denoting the breaking of the weapon and the laying aside of enmity. Aufidius makes use of it in his welcome to the banished Coriola.n.u.s."

"here I clip The anvil of my sword; and do contest As hotly and as n.o.bly with thy love, As ever in ambitious strength I did Contend against thy valour."

"To have a month's mind to a thing." Ray's "Proverbs." So, in the "Two Gentlemen of Verona" (i. 2), Julia says:

"I see you have a month's mind to them."[893]

[893] See page 385.

"'Tis merry in hall when beards wag all."[894] This is quoted by Silence in "2 Henry IV." (v. 3):

"Be merry, be merry, my wife has all; For women are shrews, both short and tall; 'Tis merry in hall when beards wag all, And welcome merry shrove-tide.

Be merry, be merry."

[894] See Bohn's "Handbook of Proverbs," p. 115.

"To have one in the wind." This is one of Camden's proverbial sentences.

In "All's Well that Ends Well" (iii. 6), Bertram says:

"I spoke with her but once, And found her wondrous cold; but I sent to her, By this same c.o.xcomb that we have i' the wind, Tokens and letters which she did re-send."

"To hold a candle to the devil"-that is, "to aid or countenance that which is wrong." Thus, in the "Merchant of Venice" (ii. 6), Jessica says:

"What, must I hold a candle to my shames?"

-the allusion being to the practice of the Roman Catholics who burn candles before the image of a favorite saint, carry them in funeral processions, and place them on their altars.

"To the dark house" ("All's Well that Ends Well," ii. 3). A house which is the seat of gloom and discontent.

"Truth should be silent." En.o.barbus, in "Antony and Cleopatra" (ii. 2), says: "That truth should be silent I had almost forgot."

"To take mine ease in mine inn." A proverbial phrase used by Falstaff in "1 Henry IV." (iii. 3), implying, says Mr. Drake, "a degree of comfort which has always been the peculiar attribute of an English house of public entertainment."[895]

[895] "Shakespeare and his Times," vol. i. p. 216.

"Twice away says stay" ("Twelfth Night," v. 1). Malone thinks this proverb is alluded to by the Clown: "conclusions to be as kisses, if your four negatives make your two affirmatives, why, then, the worse for my friends and the better for my foes;" and quotes Marlowe's "Last Dominion," where the Queen says to the Moor:

"Come, let's kisse.

_Moor._ Away, away.

_Queen._ No, no, sayes I, and twice away sayes stay."

"Trust not a horse's heel." In "King Lear" (iii. 6) the Fool says, "he's mad that trusts a horse's health." Malone would read "heels."

"Two may keep counsel, putting one away." So Aaron, in "t.i.tus Andronicus" (iv. 2), says:

"Two may keep counsel, when the third's away."

"Ungirt, unblest." Falstaff alludes to the old adage, in "1 Henry IV."

(iii. 3). "I pray G.o.d my girdle break." Malone quotes from an ancient ballad:

"Ungirt, unblest, the proverbe sayes; And they to prove it right, Have got a fashion now adayes, That's odious to the sight; Like Frenchmen, all on points they stand, No girdles now they wear."

"Walls have ears." So, in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (v. 1), Thisbe is made to say:

"O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans, For parting my fair Pyramus and me."

"Wedding and ill-wintering tame both man and beast." Thus, in "Taming of the Shrew" (iv. 1), Grumio says: "Winter tames man, woman, and beast; for it hath tamed my old master, and my new mistress, and myself." We may also compare the Spanish adage: "You will marry and grow tame."

"We steal as in a castle" ("1 Henry IV.," ii. 1). This, says Steevens, was once a proverbial phrase.

"What can't be cured must be endured." With this popular adage may be compared the following: "Past cure is still past care," in "Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 2). So in "Richard II." (ii. 3), the Duke of York says:

"Things past redress are now with me past care."

Again, in "Macbeth" (iii. 2) Lady Macbeth says:

"Things without all remedy Should be without regard: what's done is done."

"What's mine is yours, and what is yours is mine" ("Measure for Measure," v. 1).

"When things come to the worst they'll mend." The truth of this popular adage is thus exemplified by Pandulph in "King John" (iii. 4):

"Before the curing of a strong disease, Even in the instant of repair and health, The fit is strongest; evils that take leave, On their departure most of all show evil."