Part 9

=Refuse a wife with one fault, and take one with two.=--_Welsh._

"He that has a choice has trouble" (Dutch).[572] "He that chooses takes the worst" (French).[573]

=Of two evils choose the least.=

=Where bad is the best, naught must be the choice.=

A traveller in America, inquiring his way, was told there were two roads, one long, and the other short, and that it mattered not which he took. Surprised at such a direction, he asked, "Can there be a doubt about the choice between the long and the short?" and the answer was, "Why, no matter which of the two you take, you will not have gone far in it before you will wish from the bottom of your heart that you had taken t'other."

="There's ne'er a best among them," as the fellow said of the fox cubs.=

=As good eat the devil as the broth he's boiled in.=

=Out of the fryingpan into the fire.=

To escape from one evil and incur another as bad or worse is an idea expressed in many proverbial metaphors; _e.g._, "To come out of the rain under the spout" (German).[574] "Flying from the bull, I fell into the river" (Spanish).[575] "To break the constable's head and take refuge with the sheriff" (Spanish).[576] "To shun Charybdis and strike upon Scylla" is a well-known phrase, which almost everybody supposes to have been current among the ancients. It is not to be found, however, in any classical author, but appears for the first time in the Alexandriad of Philip Gaultier, a medieval Latin poet. In his fifth book he thus apostrophises Darius when flying from Alexander:--

"Nescis, heu! perdite, nescis Quem fugias: hostes incurris dum fugis hostem; Incidis in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim."

=Go forward, and fall; go backward, and mar all.=

"A precipice ahead; wolves behind" (Latin).[577] "To be between the hammer and the anvil" (French).[578]

=You may go farther and fare worse.=

=To be between the devil and the deep sea.=

=The one-eyed is a king in the land of the blind.=

"A substitute shines brightly as a king Until a king be by."

"Where there are no dogs the fox is a king" (Italian).[579]

=They that be in hell think there is no other heaven.=

=It is good to have two strings to one's bow.=

=It is good riding at two anchors.=

=He is no fox that hath but one hole.=

=The mouse that has but one hole is soon caught.= (Latin)[580]

=Do not put all your eggs in one basket=;

nor "too many of them under one hen" (Dutch).[581] "Hang not all upon one nail" (German),[582] nor risk your whole fortune upon one venture.

=Comparisons are odious.=

FOOTNOTES:

[572] Die keur heeft, heeft angst.

[573] Qui choisit prend le pire.

[574] Aus dem hegen unter die Traufe kommen.

[575] Huyendo del tore, cayó en el arroyo.

[576] Descalabrar el alguacil, y accogerse al corregidor.

[577] A fronte præcipitium, a tergo lupi.

[578] Être entre le marteau et l'enclume.

[579] Dove non sono i cani, la volpe è re.

[580] Mus uni non fidit antro.--_Plautus._

[581] Man moet niet te viel eijeren onder eene hen leggen.

[582] Henke nicht alles auf einen Nagel.

SHIFTS. CONTRIVANCES. STRAINED USES.

=A bad shift is better than none.=

=Better sup wi' a cutty nor want a spune.=--_Scotch._

A cutty is a spoon with a stumpy handle or none at all. It is not a very convenient implement, but it will serve at a pinch.

=A bad bush is better than the open field.=

=A wee bush is better nor nae bield.=--_Scotch._

Bield, shelter. A man's present occupation may not be lucrative, or his connections as serviceable as he could wish, but he should not therefore quit them until he has better.

=Half a loaf is better than no bread.=

=I will make a shaft or a bolt of it.=

A shaft is an arrow for the longbow, a bolt is for the crossbow.

=If I canna do it by might I'll do it by slight.=--_Scotch._

"It's best no to be rash," said Edie Ochiltree--

=Sticking disna gang by strength, but by the guiding o' the gully.=--_Scotch._

A gully is a butcher's knife. There is a knack even in slaughtering a pig.

=There goes reason to the roasting of eggs.=

=Many ways to kill a dog besides hanging him.=

A story told by the African traveller, Richardson, supplies an apt illustration of this proverb. An Arab woman preferred another man to her husband, and frankly confessed that her affections had strayed. Her lord, instead of flying into a passion and killing her on the spot, thought a moment, and said, "I will consent to divorce you if you will promise me one thing." "What is that?" the wife eagerly asked. "You must _looloo_ to me only on your wedding day." This _looloo_ is a peculiar cry with which it is customary for brides to salute any handsome passer-by. The woman gave the promise required, the divorce took place, and the marriage followed. On the day of the ceremony the ex-husband passed the camel on which the bride rode, and gave her the usual salute by discharging his firelock, in return for which she loolooed to him according to promise. The new bridegroom, enraged at this marked preference--for he noticed that she had not greeted any one else--and suspecting that he was duped, instantly fell upon the bride and slew her. He had no sooner done so than her brothers came up and shot him dead, so that the first husband found himself amply avenged without having endangered himself in the slightest degree. "Contrivance is better than force" (French).[583] Lysander of Sparta was reproached for relying too little on open valour in war, and too much on ruses not always worthy of a descendant of Hercules. He replied, in allusion to the skin of the Nemæan beast worn by his great ancestor, "Where the lion's skin comes short we must eke it out with the fox's."

=It is easy to find a stick to beat a dog=; _or_, =It is easy to find a stone to throw at a dog.=

It is easy for the strong to find an excuse for maltreating the weak. "On a little pretext the wolf seizes the sheep" (French),[584] or the lamb, as the fable shows. "If you want to flog your dog say he ate the poker" (Spanish).[585] "If a man wants to thrash his wife, let him ask her for drink in the sunshine" (Spanish),[586] for then what can be easier for him than to pick a quarrel with her about the motes in the clearest water?

=A handsaw is a good thing, but not to shave with.=

Everything to its proper use. In Italy they say, "With the Gospel sometimes one becomes a heretic." Disraeli, and after him Dean Trench, have given to this proverb an erroneous interpretation, founded on a false reading. Their version of it is "Coll' Evangelo si diventa heretico." Here there is no qualifying "sometimes;" the proposition is put absolutely, and the two English writers consider it to be a popular "confession that the maintenance of the Romish system and the study of Holy Scripture cannot go together." It would certainly be "not a little remarkable," if it were true, "that such a confession should have embodied itself in the popular utterances of the nation;" but the fact is that nothing more is meant by the proverb than what the Inquisition itself might sanction. It is only a pointed way of saying that anything, however good, is liable to be used mischievously.[587]

FOOTNOTES:

[583] Mieux vaut engin que force.

[584] À petite achoison le loup prend le mouton.

[585] Para azotar el perro, que se come el hierro.

[586] Quien quiere dar palos á su muger, pidele al sol á bever.

[587] "Con l'Evangelo talvolta si diventa eretico" is the original, as given by Toriano in his folio collection of Italian proverbs, London, 1666. In Giusti's "Raccolta," &c., Firenza, 1853, we read, "Col Vangelo si può diventar eretici," to which the editor appends this gloss, "Ogni cosa può torcersi a male."

ADVICE.

=He that will not be counselled cannot be helped.=

"He who will not go to heaven needs no preaching" (German).[588] "He that will not hear must feel" (German).[589]

=Two heads are better than one.=

"Four eyes see more than two" (Spanish);[590] and "More know the pope and a peasant than the pope alone,"[591] as they say in Venice.

=Come na to the council unca'd.=--_Scotch._

"Never give advice unasked" (German).[592]

=Every one thinks himself able to advise another.=

"Nothing is given so freely as advice" (French).[593] "Of judgment every one has a stock for sale" (Italian).[594]

=He that kisseth his wife in the market-place shall have people enough to teach him.=

"He who builds according to every man's advice will have a crooked house" (Danish).[595]

=He that speers a' opinions comes ill speed.=--_Scotch._

"If you want to get into the bog ask five fools the way to the wood" (Livonian). "Take help of many, counsel of few" (Danish).[596]

=A fool may put something in a wise man's head.=

It was a saying of Cato the elder, that wise men learnt more by fools than fools by wise men.

FOOTNOTES:

[588] Wer nicht in den Himmel will, braucht keine Predigt.

[589] Wer nicht hören will, muss fühlen.

[590] Mas veen quatro ojos que dos.

[591] Sa più il papa e un contadino che il papa solo.

[592] Rathe Niemand ungebeten.

[593] Rien ne se donne aussi libéralement que les conseils.

[594] Del judizio ognun ne vende.

[595] Hvo som bygger efter hver Mands Raad, hans Huser kommer kroget at staae.

[596] Tag Mange til Hielp og Faa til Rad.

DETRACTION. CALUMNY. COMMON FAME. GOOD REPUTE.

=The smoke follows the fairest.=

The original of this is in Aristophanes: it means that

"Envy doth merit like its shade pursue."

"The best bearing trees are the most beaten" (Italian).[597] "It is only at the tree laden with fruit that people throw stones" (French).[598] "Towers," say the Chinese, "are measured by their shadows, and great men by their calumniators." An old French proverb compares detraction to dogs that bark only at the full moon, and never heed her in the quarter. "If the fool has a hump," say the Livonians, "no one notices it; if the wise man has a pimple everybody talks about it."

=Slander leaves a slur.=

"A blow of a fryingpan smuts, if it does not hurt" (Spanish).[599] The Arabs say, "Take a bit of mud, dab it against the wall: if it does not stick it will leave its mark;" and we have a similar proverb derived from the Latin:[600]--

=Throw much dirt, and some will stick.=

Fortunately

=When the dirt's dry it will rub out.=

=Ill-will never spoke well.=

The evidence of a prejudiced witness is to be distrusted. "He that is an enemy to the bride does not speak well of the wedding" (Spanish);[601] and "A runaway monk never spoke in praise of his monastery" (Italian).[602]

=Give a dog an ill name and hang him.=

="I'll not beat thee, not abuse thee," said the Quaker to his dog; "but I'll give thee an ill name."=--_Irish._

=He that hath an ill name is half hanged.=

A French proverb declares, with a still bolder figure, that "Report hangs the man."[603] The Spaniards say, "Whoso wants to kill his dog has but to charge him with madness."[604]

=All are not thieves that dogs bark at.=

The innocent are sometimes cried down. "An honest man is not the worse because a dog barks at him" (Danish).[605] "What cares lofty Diana for the barking dog?" (Latin).[606]

=Common fame is seldom to blame.=

=What everybody says must be true.=

=It never smokes but there's a fire.=

"There's never a cry of 'Wolf!' but the wolf is in the district" (Italian).[607] "There's never much talk of a thing but there's some truth in it" (Italian).[608] This is the sense in which our droll English saying is applied:--

="There was a thing in it!" quoth the fellow when he drank the dishclout.=

To accept the last half-dozen of proverbs too absolutely would often lead us to uncharitable conclusions; we must, therefore, temper our belief in these maxims by means of their opposites, such as this:--

=Common fame is a common liar.=

"Hearsay is half lies" (German, Italian).[609] "Hear the other side, and believe little" (Italian).[610]

=A tale never loses in the telling.=

Witness George Colman's story of the Three Black Crows.

=The devil is not so black as he is painted.=

Nor is the lion so fierce (Spanish).[611] "Report makes the wolf bigger than he is" (German).[612]

=It is a sin to belie the devil.=

=Give the devil his due.=

=If one's name be up he may lie in bed.=

"Get a good name and go to sleep" (Spanish).[613] So do many. Hence it is often better to intrust the execution of a work to be done to an obscure man than to one whose reputation is established.

=One man may better steal a horse than another look over the hedge.=

"A good name covers theft" (Spanish).[614] "The honest man enjoys the theft" (Spanish).[615]

=A gude name is sooner tint [lost] than won.=--_Scotch._

"Once in folks' mouths, hardly ever well out of them again" (German).[616] "Good repute is like the cypress: once cut, it never puts forth leaf again" (Italian).[617]

FOOTNOTES:

[597] I megliori alberi sono i più battuti.

[598] On ne jette des pierres qu'à l'arbre chargé de fruits.

[599] El golpe de la sarten, aunque no duele, tizna.

[600] Calumniare audacter, aliquid adhærebit.

[601] El que es enemigo de la novia no dice bien de la boda.

[602] Monaco vagabondo non disse mai lode del suo monastero.

[603] Le bruit pend l'homme.

[604] Quien á su perro quiere matas, rabia le ha de levantar.

[605] Ærlig Mand er ei disværre, at en Hund göer ad ham.

[606] Latrantem curatne alta Diana canem?

[607] E' non si grida mai al lupo, che non sia in paese.

[608] Non si dice mai tanto una cosa che non sia qualche cosa.

[609] Hörensagen ist halb gelogen. Aver sentito dire è mezza buggia.

[610] Odi l'altra parte, e credi poco.

[611] No es tan bravo el leon como le pintan.

[612] Geschrei macht den Wolf grösser als er ist.

[613] Cobra buena fama, y échate á dormir.

[614] Buena fama hurto encubre.

[615] El buen hombre goza el hurto.

[616] Einmal in der Leute Mund, kommt man übel wieder heraus.

[617] La buona fama è come il cipresso: una volta tagliato non riverdisce più.

TRUTH. FALSEHOOD. HONESTY.

=A lie has no legs.=

A proverb of eastern origin, meaning that a lie has no stability: wrestle with it, and down it goes. The Italians and Spaniards say, "A lie has short legs;"[618] and in the same sense "A liar is sooner caught than a cripple."[619] He trips up his own heels.

=Liars should have good memories.=

"Memory in a liar is no more than needs," says Fuller. "For, first, lies are hard to be remembered, because many, whereas truth is but one: secondly, because a lie cursorily told takes little footing and settled fatness in the teller's memory, but prints itself deeper in the hearer's, who takes the greater notice because of the improbability and deformity thereof; and one will remember the sight of a monster longer than the sight of an handsome body. Hence come sit to pass that when the liar hath forgotten himself his auditors put him in mind of the lie, and take him therein."

=Fair fall truth and daylight.=

=Speak truth and shame the devil.=

=Truth and honesty keep the crown o' the causey.=--_Scotch._

They march boldly along the middle of the roadway, which was formerly the place of honour for pedestrians in Scottish towns. "Truth seeks no corners" (Latin).[620]

=Truth may be blamed, but shall ne'er be shamed.=

"It is mighty, and will prevail" (Latin).[621] "It is God's daughter" (Spanish).[622] "Truth and oil always come to the surface" (Spanish).[623] "It takes a good many shovelfuls of earth to bury the truth" (German).[624]

=Plain dealing is a jewel, but they that use it die beggars.=

"He that speaks truth must have one foot in the stirrup," say the Turks, who are a people by no means addicted to lying. "People praise truth, but invite lying to be their guest" (Lettish). "My gossips dislike me because I tell them the truth" (Spanish).[625]

=Truth has a good face, but ragged clothes.=

=He that follows truth too near the heels will have dirt kicked in his face.=

Is it Charles Lamb who says that a rogue is a fool with a circumbendibus?

=An honest man's word is as good as his bond.=

And better than what is called "Connaught security: three in a bond and a book oath."

FOOTNOTES:

[618] La mentira tiene cortas las piernas. Le bugie hanno corte le gambe.

[619] Si arriva più presto un bugiardo che un zoppo.

[620] Veritas non quærit angulos.

[621] Magna est veritas et prævalebit.

[622] La verdad es hija de Dios.

[623] La verdad, como el olio, siempre anda en somo.

[624] Zum Begräbniss der Wahrheit gehören viel Schaufeln.

[625] Mal me quieren mis comadres, porque les digo las verdades.

SPEECH. SILENCE.

=Speech is silvern, silence is golden.=

"Be silent, or say something that is better than silence" (German).[626] "Better silence than ill speech" (Swedish).[627] "Talking comes by nature, silence of understanding" (German).[628] "Who speaks, sows; who keeps silence, reaps" (Italian).[629]

=Silence seldom does harm.=

=Least said, soonest mended.=

The principle applies still more forcibly to writing. "Words fly, writing remains" (Latin).[630] A man's spoken words may be unnoticed, or forgotten, or denied; but what he has put down in black and white is tangible evidence against him. Therefore "Think much, say little, write less" (Italian).[631] Give Cardinal Richelieu two lines of any man's writing and he needed no more to hang him. Fabio Merto, an archbishop of the seventeenth century, has oddly remarked, "It is nowhere mentioned in the Gospels that our Lord wrote more than once, and then it was on the sand, in order that the wind might efface the writing." "Silence was never written down" (Italian);[632] and "A silent man's words are not brought into court" (Danish).[633] "Hear, see, and say nothing, if you wish to live in peace" (Italian).[634]

=A fool's tongue is long enough to cut his own throat.=

"Let not the tongue say what the head shall pay for" (Spanish).[635] "The sheep that bleats is strangled by the wolf" (Italian).[636] "He that knows nothing knows enough if he knows how to be silent" (Italian).[637]

=A fool's bolt is soon shot.=

"A foolish judge passes quick sentence" (French).[638] "He who knows little soon sings it out" (Spanish).[639]

=When a fool has spoken he has done all.=

"It is always the worst wheel that creaks" (French, Italian).[640] The shallowest persons are the most loquacious. "Were fools silent they would pass for wise" (Dutch).[641]

=Silence gives consent.=

"Silence answers much" (Dutch).[642]

=A man may hold his tongue in an ill time.=

"Amyclæ was undone by silence" (Latin).[643] The citizens having been often frightened with false news of the enemy's coming, made it penal for any one to report such a thing in future. Hence, when the enemy did come indeed, they were surprised and taken. There is a time to speak as well as to be silent.

=Spare to speak and spare to speed.=

"If the child does not cry the mother does not understand it" (Russian). "Him that speaks not, God hears not" (Spanish).[644]

FOOTNOTES:

[626] Schweig, oder rede etwas das besser ist denn Schweigen.

[627] Bättre tyga än illa tala.

[628] Reden kommt von Natur, Schweigen von Verstunde.

[629] Chi parla, semina; chi tace, raccoglie.

[630] Verba volant, scripta manent.

[631] Pensa molto, parla poco, scrivi meno.

[632] Il tacere non fu mai scritto.

[633] Tiende Mands Ord komme ei til Tinge.

[634] Odi, vedi, e taci, se vuoi viver in pace.

[635] No diga la lengua por do paque la cabeza.

[636] Pecora che bela, il lupo la strozza.

[637] Assai sa, chi non sa, se tacer sa.

[638] De fol juge brève sentence.

[639] Quien poco sabe, presto lo reza.

[640] C'est toujours la plus mauvaise roue qui crie. E la peggior ruota quella che fa più rumore.

[641] Zweegen de dwazen zij waren wijs.

[642] Zwijgen antwoordt veel.

[643] Amyclas silentium perdidit.

[644] A quien no habla, no le oye Dios.

THREATENING. BOASTING.

=The greatest barkers bite not sorest.=

=Great barkers are nae biters.=--_Scotch._

Those who threaten most loudly are not the most to be feared. "Timid dogs bark worse than they bite" (Latin),[645] was a proverb of the Bactrians, as Quintus Curtius informs us. The Turks say, "The dog barks, but the caravan passes." "What matters the barking of the dog that does not bite?" (German);[646] but "Beware of a silent dog and of still water" (Latin).[647] "The silent dog bites first" (German).[648] "A fig for our democrats!" Horace Walpole wrote in 1792. "Barking dogs never bite. The danger in France arose from silent and instantaneous action. They said nothing, and did everything. Ours say everything, and will do nothing."

=Threatened folk live long.=

"Longer lives he that is threatened than he that is hanged" (Italian).[649] "More are threatened than are stabbed" (Spanish).[650] "Threatened folk, too, eat bread" (Portuguese).[651] "David did not slay Goliath with words" (Icelandic).[652] "No one dies of threats" (Dutch).[653] "Not all threateners fight" (Dutch).[654] "Some threaten who are afraid" (French).[655] "A curse does not knock an eye out unless the fist go with it" (Danish).[656] "The cat's curse hurts the mice less than her bite" (Livonian).

=Lang mint, little dint.=--_Scotch._

That is, a blow long aimed or threatened has little force; or, as the Italians and Spaniards say, "A blow threatened was never well given."[657]

=Silence grips the mouse.=

"A mewing cat was never a good mouser" (Spanish).[658] "He that threatens warns" (German).[659] "He that threatens wastes his anger" (Portuguese).[660] "The threatener loses the opportunity of vengeance" (Spanish).[661] "Threats are arms for the threatened" (Italian).[662]

=Fleying [frightening] a bird is no the way to grip it.=--_Scotch._

=The way to catch a bird is no to fling your bonnet at her.=--_Scotch._

"Hares are not caught with beat of drum" (French).[663]

=Let not your mousetrap smell of blood.=

=Never show your teeth when you can't bite.=

=Brag is a good dog, but Holdfast is a better.=

=A boaster and a liar are cousins german.=

"Believe a boaster as you would a liar" (Italian).[664] "Who is the greatest liar? He that talks most of himself" (Chinese).

=The greatest talkers are always the least doers.=

=Great boast, small roast.=

"Great vaunters, little doers" (French).[665] "It is not the hen which cackles most that lays most eggs" (Dutch).[666] "A long tongue betokens a short hand" (Spanish).[667]

=Saying gangs cheap.=--_Scotch._

=Saying and doing are two things.=

"From saying to doing is a long stretch" (French).[668] "Words are female, deeds are male" (Italian).[669] "Words will not do for my aunt, for she does not trust even deeds" (Spanish).[670]

=His wind shakes no corn.=--_Scotch._

=Harry Chuck ne'er slew a man till he cam nigh him.=--_Scotch._

Harry Chuck is understood to have been a vapouring fellow of the Ancient Pistol order, one of those who would give "A great stab to a dead Moor" (Spanish).[671] "It is easy to frighten a bull from the window" (Italian).[672] "Many are brave when the enemy flees" (Italian).[673]

=It is well said, but who will bell the cat?=--_Scotch._

"The mice consult together how to take the cat, but they do not agree upon the matter" (Livonian). "Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, a man remarkable for strength of body and mind, acquired the popular name of Bell-the-Cat upon the following remarkable occasion:--When the Scottish nobility assembled to deliberate on putting the obnoxious favourites of James III. to death, Lord Grey told them the fable of the mice, who resolved that one of their number should put a bell round the neck of the cat, to warn them of its coming; but no one was so hardy as to attempt it. 'I understand the moral,' said Angus; 'I will bell the cat.' He bearded the king to purpose by hanging the favourites over the bridge of Lauder; Cochran, their chief, being elevated higher than the rest."--(_Note to Marmion._)

=Self-praise is no commendation.=

=Self-praise stinks.=

=Ye live beside ill neebours.=--_Scotch._

=Your trumpeter is dead.=