Folk-lore of Shakespeare

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.”

“He’s mad, that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse’s health, a boy’s love, or a whore’s oath” (“King Lear,” iii. 6).877

“Heroum filii noxæ.” 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 himA falsehood, in its contrary as greatAs 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”878 (“A Midsummer-Night’s Dream,” i. 2).

“Honest as the skin between his brows” (“Much Ado About Nothing,” iii. 5).879

“Hunger will break through stone-walls.” This is quoted by Marcius in “Coriolanus” (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,880 “Hunger will break through stone-walls, or anything, except Suffolk cheese.”

“I scorn that with my heels” (“Much Ado About Nothing,” iii. 4). A not uncommon proverbial expression. It is again referred to, in the “Merchant of Venice” (ii. 2), by Launcelot: “do not run; scorn running with thy heels.” Dyce thinks it is alluded to in “Venus and Adonis:”

“Beating his kind embracements with her heels.”

“If you are wise, keep yourself warm.” This proverb is probably alluded to in the “Taming of the Shrew” (ii. 1):

“Petruchio. Am I not wise?Katharina. Yes; keep you warm.”

So, in “Much Ado About Nothing” (i. 1): “that if he have wit enough to keep himself warm.”

“I fear no colours” (“Twelfth Night,” i. 5).

“Ill-gotten goods never prosper.” This proverb is referred to by King Henry (“3 Henry VI.,” ii. 2):

“Clifford, tell me, didst thou never hearThat things ill got had ever bad success?”

“Illotis manibus tractare sacra.” Falstaff, in “1 Henry IV.” (iii. 3), says: “Rob me the exchequer the first thing thou dost, and do it with unwashed hands too.”

“Ill will never said well.” This is quoted by Duke of Orleans in “Henry V.” (iii. 7).

“In at the window, or else o’er the hatch” (“King John,” i. 1). Applied to illegitimate children. Staunton has this note: “Woe worth the time that ever a gave suck to a child that came in at the window!” (“The Family of Love,” 1608). So, also, in “The Witches of Lancashire,” by Heywood and Broome, 1634: “It appears you came in at the window.” “I would not have you think I scorn my grannam’s cat to leap over the hatch.”

“It is a foul bird which defiles its own nest.” This seems alluded to in “As You Like It” (iv. 1) where Celia says to Rosalind: “You have simply misused our sex in your love-prate: we must have your doublet and hose plucked over your head, and show the world what the bird hath done to her own nest.”

“It is a poor dog that is not worth the whistling.” So Goneril, in “King Lear” (iv. 2): “I have been worth the whistle.”

“It is a wise child that knows its own father.” In the “Merchant of Venice” (ii. 2), Launcelot has the converse of this: “It is a wise father that knows his own child.”

“It is an ill wind that blows nobody good.” So, in “3 Henry VI.” (ii. 5), we read:

“Ill blows the wind that profits nobody.”

And, in “2 Henry IV.” (v. 3), when Falstaff asks Pistol “What wind blew you hither?” the latter replies: “Not the ill wind which blows no man to good.”

“It is easy to steal a shive from a cut loaf.” In “Titus Andronicus” (ii. 1), Demetrius refers to this proverb. Ray has, “’Tis safe taking a shive out of a cut loaf.”

“It’s a dear collop that’s cut out of my own flesh.” Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps thinks there may be possibly an allusion to this proverb in “1 Henry VI.” (v. 4), where the Shepherd says of La Pucelle:

“God knows, thou art a collop of my flesh.”

“I will make a shaft or a bolt of it.” In the “Merry Wives of Windsor” (iii. 4) this proverb is used by Slender.881 Ray gives “to make a bolt or a shaft of a thing.” This is equivalent to, “I will either make a good or a bad thing of it: I will take the risk.”

“It is like a barber’s chair” (“All’s Well that Ends Well,” ii. 2).

The following passage, in “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream” (iii. 2):

“Jack shall have Jill;Nought shall go ill;The man shall have his mare again,And all shall be well,”

refers to the popular proverb of olden times, says Staunton, signifying “all ended happily.” So, too, Biron says, in “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (v. 2):

“Our wooing doth not end like an old play;Jack hath not Jill.”

It occurs in Skelton’s poem “Magnyfycence” (Dyce, ed. i. p. 234): “Jack shall have Gyl;” and in Heywood’s “Dialogue” (Sig. F. 3, 1598):

“Come, chat at hame, all is well, Jack shall have Gill.”

“Kindness will creep where it cannot go.” Thus, in the “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (iv. 2), Proteus tells Thurio how

“loveWill creep in service where it cannot go.”

There is a Scotch proverb, “Kindness will creep whar it mauna gang.”

“Let the world slide” (“Taming of the Shrew,” Induction, sc. i.).

“Let them laugh that win.” Othello says (iv. 1):

“So, so, so, so: – they laugh that win.”

On the other hand, the French say, “Marchand qui perd ne peut rire.”

“Like will to like, as the devil said to the collier.” With this we may compare the following passage in “Twelfth Night” (iii. 4): “What, man! ’tis not for gravity to play at cherry-pit with Satan: hang him, foul collier!” – collier having been, in Shakespeare’s day, a term of the highest reproach.

“Losers have leave to talk.” Titus Andronicus (iii. 1) says:

“Then give me leave, for losers will have leaveTo ease their stomachs with their bitter tongues.”

“Maids say nay, and take.” So Julia, in the “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (i. 2), says:

“Since maids, in modesty, say ‘No’ to thatWhich they would have the profferer construe ‘Ay.’”

In “The Passionate Pilgrim” we read:

“Have you not heard it said full oft,A woman’s nay doth stand for nought?”

“Make hay while the sun shines.” King Edward, in “3 Henry VI.” (iv. 8), alludes to this proverb:

“The sun shines hot; and, if we use delay,Cold, biting winter mars our hop’d-for hay.”

The above proverb is peculiar to England, and, as Trench remarks, could have its birth only under such variable skies as ours.

“Many talk of Robin Hood that never shot in his bow.” So, in “2 Henry IV.” (iii. 2), Justice Shallow, says Falstaff, “talks as familiarly of John o’ Gaunt as if he had been sworn brother to him; and I’ll be sworn a’ never saw him but once in the Tilt-yard, – and then he burst his head, for crowding among the marshal’s men.”

“Marriage and hanging go by destiny.”882 This proverb is the popular creed respecting marriage, and, under a variety of forms, is found in different countries. Thus, in “Merchant of Venice” (ii. 9), Nerissa says:

“The ancient saying is no heresy, —Hanging and wiving goes by destiny.”

Again, in “All’s Well that Ends Well” (i. 3) the Clown says:

“For I the ballad will repeat,Which men full true shall find;Your marriage comes by destiny,Your cuckoo sings by kind.”

We may compare the well-known proverb, “Marriages are made in heaven,” and the French version, “Les mariages sont écrits dans le ciel.”

“Marriage as bad as hanging.” In “Twelfth Night” (i. 5), the Clown says: “Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.”

“Marry trap” (“Merry Wives of Windsor,” i. 1). This, says Nares, “is apparently a kind of proverbial exclamation, as much as to say, ‘By Mary, you are caught.’”

“Meat was made for mouths.” Quoted in “Coriolanus” (i. 1).

“Misfortunes seldom come alone.” This proverb is beautifully alluded to by the King in “Hamlet” (iv. 5):

“When sorrows come, they come not single spies,But in battalions.”

The French say:883 “Malheur ne vient jamais seul.”

“More hair than wit” (“Two Gentlemen of Verona,” iii. 2). A well-known old English proverb.

“Mortuo leoni et lepores insultant.” This proverb is alluded to by the Bastard in “King John” (ii. 1), who says to the Archduke of Austria:

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

“Much water goes by the mill the miller knows not of.” This adage is quoted in “Titus Andronicus” (ii. 1), by Demetrius:

“more water glideth by the millThan wots the miller of.”

“My cake is dough” (“Taming of the Shrew,” v. 1). An obsolete proverb, repeated on the loss of hope or expectation: the allusion being to the old-fashioned way of baking cakes at the embers, when it may have been occasionally the case for a cake to be burned on one side and dough on the other. In a former scene (i. 1) Gremio says: “our cake’s dough on both sides.” Staunton quotes from “The Case is Altered,” 1609:

“Steward, your cake is dough, as well as mine.”

“Murder will out.” So, in the “Merchant of Venice” (ii. 2), Launcelot says: “Murder cannot be hid long, – a man’s son may; but, in the end, truth will out.”

“Near or far off, well won is still well shot” (“King John,” i. 1).

“Needs must when the devil drives.” In “All’s Well that Ends Well” (i. 3), the Clown tells the Countess: “I am driven on by the flesh; and he must needs go, that the devil drives.”

“Neither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring.”884 Falstaff says of the Hostess in “1 Henry IV.” (iii. 3): “Why, she’s neither fish nor flesh; a man knows not where to have her.”

“One nail drives out another.” In “Romeo and Juliet” (i. 2), Benvolio says:

“Tut, man, one fire burns out another’s burning,One pain is lessen’d by another’s anguish;Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning;One desperate grief cures with another’s languish:Take thou some new infection to thy eye,And the rank poison of the old will die.”

The allusion, of course, is to homœopathy. The Italians say, “Poison quells poison.”

“Old men are twice children;” or, as they say in Scotland, “Auld men are twice bairns.” We may compare the Greek Δἱς παῖδες οἱ γεροντες. The proverb occurs in “Hamlet” (ii. 2): “An old man is twice a child.”

“Out of God’s blessing into the warm sun.” So Kent says in “King Lear” (ii. 2):

“Good king, that must approve the common saw, —Thou out of heaven’s benediction com’stTo the warm sun.”

“Patience perforce is a medicine for a mad dog.” This proverb is probably alluded to by Tybalt in “Romeo and Juliet” (i. 5):

“Patience perforce with wilful choler meeting,Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting.”

And again, in “Richard III.” (i. 1):

“Gloster. Meantime, have patience.Clarence. I must perforce: farewell.”

“Pitch and Pay” (“Henry V.,” ii. 3). This is a proverbial expression equivalent to “Pay down at once.”885 It probably originated from pitching goods in a market, and paying immediately for their standing. Tusser, in his “Description of Norwich,” calls it:

“A city trim,Where strangers well may seem to dwell,That pitch and pay, or keep their day.”

“Pitchers have ears.” Baptista quotes this proverb in the “Taming of the Shrew” (iv. 4):

“Pitchers have ears, and I have many servants.”

According to another old proverb: “Small pitchers have great ears.”

“Poor and proud! fy, fy.” Olivia, in “Twelfth Night” (iii. 1), says:

“O world, how apt the poor are to be proud!”

“Praise in departing” (“The Tempest,” iii. 3). The meaning is: “Do not praise your entertainment too soon, lest you should have reason to retract your commendation.” Staunton quotes from “The Paradise of Dainty Devises,” 1596:

“A good beginning oft we see, but seldome standing at one stay.For few do like the meane degree, then praise at parting some men say.”

“Pray God, my girdle break”886 (“1 Henry IV.,” iii. 3).

“Put your finger in the fire and say it was your fortune.” An excellent illustration of this proverb is given by Edmund in “King Lear” (i. 2): “This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, we make guilty of our disasters, the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains on necessity; fools, by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion,” etc.

“Respice finem, respice furem.” It has been suggested that Shakespeare (“Comedy of Errors,” iv. 4) may have met with these words in a popular pamphlet of his time, by George Buchanan, entitled “Chamæleon Redivivus; or, Nathaniel’s Character Reversed” – a satire against the Laird of Lidingstone, 1570, which concludes with the following words, “Respice finem, respice furem.”

“Seldom comes the better.” In “Richard III.” (ii. 3), one of the citizens says:

“Ill news, by’r lady; seldom comes the better:I fear, I fear, ’twill prove a troublous world”

– a proverbial saying of great antiquity. Mr. Douce887 cites an account of its origin from a MS. collection of stories in Latin, compiled about the time of Henry III.

“Service is no inheritance.” So, in “All’s Well that Ends Well” (i. 3), the Clown says: “Service is no heritage.”

“Sit thee down, sorrow” (“Love’s Labour’s Lost,” i. 1).

“Sit at the stern.” A proverbial phrase meaning to have the management of public affairs. So, in “1 Henry VI.” (i. 1), Winchester says:

“The king from Eltham I intend to steal,And sit at chiefest stern of public weal.”

“She has the mends in her own hands.” This proverbial phrase is of frequent occurrence in our old writers, and probably signifies, “It is her own fault;” or, “The remedy lies with herself.” It is used by Pandarus in “Troilus and Cressida” (i. 1). Burton, in his “Anatomy of Melancholy,” writes: “And if men will be jealous in such cases, the mends is in their own hands, they must thank themselves.”

“Small herbs have grace, great weeds do grow apace” (“Richard III.,” ii. 4).

“So wise so young, do ne’er live long” (“Richard III.,” iii. 1).888

“So like you, ’tis the worse.” This is quoted as an old proverb by Paulina in the “Winter’s Tale” (ii. 3).

“Something about, a little from the right” (“King John,” i. 1).

“Sowed cockle, reap no corn” (“Love’s Labour’s Lost,” iv. 3).

“Speak by the card” (“Hamlet,” v. 1). A merchant’s expression, equivalent to “be as precise as a map or book.” The card is the document in writing containing the agreement made between a merchant and the captain of a vessel. Sometimes the owner binds himself, ship, tackle, and furniture, for due performance, and the captain is bound to declare the cargo committed to him in good condition. Hence, “to speak by the card” is to speak according to the indentures or written instructions.

“Still swine eat all the draff” (“Merry Wives of Windsor,” iv. 2). Ray gives: “The still sow eats up all the draught.”

“Still waters run deep.” So in “2 Henry VI.” (iii. 1), Suffolk says:

“Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep.”

“Strike sail.” A proverbial phrase to acknowledge one’s self beaten. In “3 Henry VI.” (iii. 3), it occurs:

“now MargaretMust strike her sail and learn awhile to serve,Where kings command.”

When a ship, in fight, or on meeting another ship, lets down her topsails at least half-mast high, she is said to strike, that is, to submit or pay respect to the other.889

“Strike while the iron is hot.” Poins probably alludes to this proverb in “2 Henry IV.” (ii. 4): “My lord, he will drive you out of your revenge, and turn all to a merriment, if you take not the heat.”

Again, in “King Lear” (i. 1), Goneril adds: “We must do something, and i’ the heat.”

“Take all, pay all” (“Merry Wives of Windsor,” ii. 2). Ray gives another version of this proverb: “Take all, and pay the baker.”

“Tell the truth and shame the devil.” In “1 Henry IV.” (iii. 1), Hotspur tells Glendower:

“I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devilBy telling truth: tell truth, and shame the devil.”

“That was laid on with a trowel.”890 This proverb, which is quoted by Ray, is used by Celia in “As You Like It” (i. 2). Thus we say, when any one bespatters another with gross flattery, that he lays it on with a trowel.

“The cat loves fish, but she’s loath to wet her feet.” It is to this proverb that Lady Macbeth alludes when she upbraids her husband for his irresolution (“Macbeth,” i. 7):

“Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’Like the poor cat i’ the adage.”

There are various forms of this proverb. Thus, according to the rhyme:

“Fain would the cat fish eat,But she’s loath to wet her feet.”

The French version is “Le chat aime le poisson mais il n’aime pas à mouiller la patte” – so that it would seem Shakespeare borrowed from the French.

“The devil rides on a fiddlestick” (“1 Henry IV.,” ii. 4).

“The galled jade will wince.” So Hamlet says (iii. 2), “let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung.”

“The grace o’ God is gear enough.” This is the Scotch form of the proverb which Launcelot Gobbo speaks of as being well parted between Bassanio and Shylock, in the “Merchant of Venice” (ii. 2): “The old proverb is very well parted between my master Shylock and you, sir; you have the grace of God, sir, and he hath enough.”

“The Mayor of Northampton opens oysters with his dagger.” This proverb is alluded to by Pistol in “Merry Wives of Windsor” (ii. 2), when he says:

“Why, then the world’s mine oyster,Which I with sword will open.”

Northampton being some eighty miles from the sea, oysters were so stale before they reached the town (before railroads, or even coaches, were known), that the “Mayor would be loath to bring them near his nose.”

“The more haste the worse speed.” In “Romeo and Juliet” (ii. 6), Friar Laurence says:

“These violent delights have violent endsAnd in their triumph die; like fire and powder,Which, as they kiss, consume: the sweetest honeyIs loathsome in his own deliciousness,And in the taste confounds the appetite:Therefore, love moderately; long love doth so;Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.”

The proverb thus alluded to seems to be derived from the Latin adage, “Festinatio tarda est.” It defeats its own purpose by the blunders and imperfect work it occasions.891 Hence the French say: “He that goes too hastily along often stumbles on a fair road.”

“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’ gardensThat 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 ‘Coriolanus’ (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 Coriolanus.”

“here I clipThe anvil of my sword; and do contestAs hotly and as nobly with thy love,As ever in ambitious strength I didContend 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.”892

“’Tis merry in hall when beards wag all.”893 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.”

“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 coxcomb 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.” Enobarbus, 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.”894

“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 “Titus 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 God my girdle break.” Malone quotes from an ancient ballad: