Proverb Lore Part 23

[230:B] "A little wealth will suffice us to live well, and still less to die well." "Seek not proud riches, but such as thou mayest get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly."

[231:A] "But then their saving pennie proverbe comes."--"Two Angry Women of Abington," 1599.

[231:B] "Who so fyndeth an honest faythfull woman she is moch more worth than perles. The hert of her husband maye safely trust in her, so that he shall have no nede of spoyles. She wyll do hym good and not euill all the dayes of her lyf. Strength and honoure is her clothynge and in the latter daye she shall reioyce. She openeth her mouth with wysdome, and in her tonge is the lawe of grace. She loketh well to the wayes of her housholde, and eateth not her bred with ydelnes. Her children aryse and call her blessed: and her husband maketh moche of her."--"Matthew's Version of Bible," 1537.

[232:A]

"La beaute du visage est un frele ornement, Une fleur pa.s.sagere, un eclat d'un moment."--_Moliere._

[232:B] "But admitting your body's finer, all that beauty is but skin-deep."--"The Female Rebellion," 1682. "All the beauty of the world, 'tis but skin-deep, a sunne-blast defaceth it."--"Orthodoxe Paradoxes,"

1650.

[233:A]

"Daughter, in this I can thinke none other But that it is true thys prouerbe old, Hastye loue is soone hot and soone cold."

--"Play of Wyt and Science," c. 1540.

[233:B] "Whosoever lives unmarried lives without joy, without comfort, without blessing. Love your wife like yourself, honour her more than yourself. It is woman alone through whom G.o.d's blessings are vouchsafed to a house. She teaches the children, speeds the husband, and welcomes him when he returns, keeps the house G.o.dly and pure, and G.o.d's blessings rest upon these things."--_Talmud._

[234:A] "You see marriage is destinie, made in heaven, though consummated on earth."--LELY, _Mother Bombie_, 1594. Shakespeare, too, in the "Merchant of Venice," declares that "hanging and wiving go by destiny." In "The Cheats," written by Wilson in 1662, Scruple remarks, "Good sir, marriages are made in heaven." Many similar pa.s.sages to these might be cited.

[235:A]

"He is a fool who thinks by force or skill To turn the current of a woman's will."

TUKE, _Adventures of Five Hours_, 1673.

[236:A] The following, from Wycombe Church, is an agreeable variation:

"Here lies one, whose rest Gives me a restless life, Because I've lost a good And virtuous wife."

In Milton Abbot Church we find a memorial to one Bartholomew Doidge and Joan, his wife. The wife was buried on the 1st of February 1681, and the husband on the 12th, and the inscription goes on to say:

"She first deceased: he a little tried To live without her, liked it not, and died."

[237:A] "By thys tale ye may se that the olde prouerbe ys trew that yt is as gret pyte to se a woman wepe as a gose to go barefoote."--"Mery Tayls," c. 1525. Puttenham, in "The Arte of English Poesie," 1589, gives a rather different rendering, a satire on feminine gush and misplaced sympathy, "By the common prouerbe a woman will weepe for pitie to see a gosling goe barefoote."

[239:A]

"The shuddering tenant of the frigid zone, Boldly proclaims the happiest spot his own, Extols the treasures of his stormy seas, And his long night of revelry and ease.

The naked savage, panting at the line, Boasts of his golden sands, and palmy wine, Basks in the glare, or stems the tepid wave, And thanks his G.o.ds for all the good they gave.

Nor less the patriot's boast, where'er he roam, His first, best country, ever is at home."

--GOLDSMITH, _The Traveller._

[241:A] The Book of Proverbs is no less rich in wisdom than the Book of Ecclesiasticus, but the latter being somewhat less familiar to many readers we prefer to draw upon its pages in ill.u.s.tration of our English adages.

[242:A]

"To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow; To feed on hope, to pine with feare and sorrow; To fret thy soule with crosses and with cares; To eate thy heart through comfortlesse dispaires."

--_Spenser._

[243:A] In the following pa.s.sage Bacon shows us hope as a veritable life-preserver. "Hope, being the best of all the affections and pa.s.sions, is very powerful to prolong life, if, like a nodding muse, it does not fall asleep and languish, but continually feeds the fancy: and therefore such as propose certain ends to be compa.s.sed, thriving and prospering therein according to their desire, are commonly long-lived; but having attained to their highest hopes, all their expectations and desires being satisfied, live not long afterwards."

[244:A] In Cotgrave's Dictionary defined as "store, plentie, abundance, great fulnesse, enough."

[245:A] "Babel's projectors, seeking a name, found confusion; and Icarus, by flying too high, melted his waxen wings and fell into the sea." "_Grey cap for a green head._" Gray express the idea very forcibly:

"Ambition this shall tempt to rise, Then hurl the wretch from high, To bitter scorn a sacrifice, And grinning infamy!"

[246:A] "Life is like wine, he that would drink it pure must not drain it to the dregs."--_Sir William Temple._

[246:B] _Coleridge._

[249:A] CHAUCER, _The Marchaunt's Tale_.

[249:B] "Men at some time are masters of their fates."--SHAKESPEARE, _Julius Caesar_.

[253:A] The friends of a Roman patrician condemned by Tiberias to death, dwelt strongly on the injustice of the sentence. "That," said he, "my friends, is my greatest consolation, you do not surely wish that I had been guilty!"

[256:A]

"But did this boaster threaten, did he pray, Or, by his own example, urge their stay?

None, none of these, but ran himself away."

--DRYDEN, _Ovid's Metamorphoses_, Book xiii.

[256:B] The Spanish revel in these proverbs of sarcastic nature.

Another, for instance, is, "Praise me, friends, I love my daughters,"

applied to those who expect commendation for fulfilling the most obvious duties.

[259:A] In Germany they say, "Siedet der Topf, so bluhet die Freundschaft"--while the pot boils the friendship blooms.

[259:B] In Welsh proverb lore, "Have a horse of your own and then you can borrow another."

[262:A]

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

_Macbeth._

[263:A] "Is not a patron," says Dr Johnson to the Earl of Chesterfield, "one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached the land enc.u.mbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours had been kind: but it has been delayed until I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it."

[263:B] One Richard Nichols, of Warrington, writing in 1670 or thereabouts. Many of his sayings are admirable; here are half-a-dozen of them: "Self-denial makes a poor condition easy, and a rich one safe"; "A good intention will not justify a bad action"; "Though time be not lasting, yet what depends upon time is everlasting"; "The weak, when watchful, are more safe than the strong when secure"; "He that has all his religion in his prayers has no religion at all"; "The best way to wipe off reproaches is to live so that none will believe them."

[266:A] "Sondayes thundre should bryng ye death of learned men, judges, and others: Mondayes thundre ye death of women: Tuesdayes thundre plentie of graine: Wednesdayes thundre ye death of ye wicked: Thursdayes thundre plentie of sheepe and corne: Fridaies thundre ye slaughter of a great man and other horrible murders: Sat.u.r.dayes thundre a generall plague and grate deathe."--LEONARD DIGGES, _A Prognostication Everlasting of Ryght Good Effecte_, 1556.