W.C. Hazlitt, comp. English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases. 1907.
A smiling boy to After this leaf
A smiling boy seldom proves a good servant.
A Smithfield bargain.
Evelyn’s letter to Mrs. M. Tuke, about 1692. In Bohn’s ed., iii. 335. See Hazlitt, Shakespear: Himself and his Work, 1903, p. 18.
A Smithfield horse.
The Passionate Morrice, 1593, repr. 83, 87. Compare Choose a horse, &c.
A snake in the grass.
A snow year, a rich year.
A sober man, a soft answer.
A solitary man is either a brute or an angel.
A Somerton ending. Somerset.
When the difference between two is divided.—R.
A soul in a fat body lieth soft, and is loth to rise.
A sow to a fiddle.
[Greek]. Asinus ad lyram.—R. El asno á la vihnela.—Span.
A sparrow in hand is worth a pheasant that flieth by.
A spot is most seen upon the finest cloth.
A spur in the head is worth two in the heels.
A staff is quickly found to beat a dog.
First Part of Henry IV., 1594, repr. 35.
A still tongue makes a wise head.
A stitch in time saves nine.
A Stockport chaise: / two women riding sideways.
Higson’s MSS. Coll., No. 112.
A stone in a well is not lost.
A stout heart crushes ill luck.
A straight stick is crooked in the water.
A strawberry preacher.
A term applied by Bishop Latimer and others to a person who did not reside on his cure or benefice, and merely visited it occasionally or rather once a year, strawberry-like.
A stroke at every tree, without felling any.
A stumble may prevent a fall.
A successful man loses no reputation.
A suit at law and a urinal brings a man to the hospital.
A Suffolk calveshead.
A Shrove Tvesday Banqvet, 1641.
A summer (or summer’s) bird.
i.e., A Cuckold.—Machyn’s Diary, 399; Old Engl. Jest Books, ii. 171; Hazlitt’s Pop. Poetry, iv. 117.
A sunshiny shower / won’t last half an hour.
A sure card.
“Nowe thys is a sure carde, nowe I maye well saye.”—Interlude of Thersites, about 1550, edit. 1848, p. 87.
A swine over-fat is the cause of his own bane.
A taking hand will never want.
A tale never tines in the telling.
A tale of a cock and a bull.
Wit and Drollery, 1682, p. 20.
A tale of a roasted horse.
A stale, improbable story. At least, so it is to be inferred from Gascoigne’s Poems (Works, by Hazlitt, i. 505). It occurs in the Certayne Notes of Instruction: “far the haughty obscure verse doth not much delight, and the verse that is to easie is like a tale of a rosted horse.”
A tale of a tub.
Bale’s Comedy of Three Laws, 1538; Countrym. New Commonw. 1647; Walker’s Parœm. 1672, 25. See the anecdote of Sir T. More and an attorney called Tubbe in L’Estrange’s Village of Palaces, i. 35. The saying formed the title of one of Jonson’s plays.
A tale twice told, / is cabbage twice sold.
A tall man of his hands, he will not let a beast rest in his pockets.
A tempest in a teapot.
A great stir about a small affair.
A thief knows a thief, as a wolf knows a wolf.
A thief passes for a gentleman when stealing has made him rich.
A thin bush is better than no shelter.
A thin meadow is soon mowed.
A thing is worth what it will fetch.
Compare The worth, &c.
A thistle is a fat salad for an ass’s mouth.
A thousand probabilities do not make one truth.
A thousand years hence, the river will run as it did.
A thread too fine spun will easily break.
A threadbare coat is armour-proof against highwaymen.
A thrush paid for is better than a turkey owing for.
A tinker and a piper / make bad music together.
A tinker’s budget’s full of necessary tools.
A tired traveller must be glad of an ass, if he have not a horse.
A toiling dog comes halting home.
A Tom Prodger’s job.
A clumsy piece of work. See Miss Baker’s North. Gloss. 1854, ii. 137.
A tomboy.
A girl who is a romp. In 1562–3, William Griffith had licence to print a ballad, “Tib will play the Tom-boy.” See Arber’s Transcript, i. 87.
A tongue breaketh bone, / and itself hath none.
Hazlitt’s Popular Poetry, iii. 175 (The Parlament of Byrdes, circa 1550).
A tradesman who gets not, loseth.
A tragical plot may produce a comical conclusion.
A traveller may lie with authority.
But alas, Euphues, what truth can there be found in a trauailer?—Lyly’s Euph. 1579, repr. Arber, p. 77. The proverb is in Randolph’s Aristippus, 1630 (Works, 1668, p. 319). But in the second chapter of the History of Friar Bacon, it is said, that “scholars, old men, and travellers” may lie with authority.
Coryat in his Crudities, 1611, calls this “the old prouerbe.”
A tree is known by its fruit.
A trick worth two of that.
Shakespeare’s Henry IV. Part 1, ii. 1.
A trout with four legs.
Clarke (Parœmologia, 1639) has “A trout hamlet with four legs”; but no such passage occurs in the play. The reference may have been to an angler taking an eft in his net or on his hook instead of a trout. Or it might mean a fox. But see my Shakespear: The Man and his Work, 1903, p. 274.
A true reformation must begin at the upper end.
A Tyburn tippet.
A halter. Latimer’s Sermons, 1549, edit. Arber, p. 63.
A tyrant’s breath / is another’s death.
A vicious man’s son has a good title to vice.
A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband.
A wager is a fool’s argument.
A waking dog barks from afar at a sleeping lion.
Lyly’s Endimion, 1591 (Works, 1858, i. 31).
A Walsall whoffler.
A knock-kneed man in the north Midlands is invariably styled a “Walsall whoffler,” because the inhabitants of that place are remarkable in this respect, owing, as the natives themselves facetiously explain, to their having so many steps to ascend to church. Their way of standing to work at the bench is believed to be the real cause of the peculiarity.—Globe Newspaper, 21 Feb. 1890.
A watched pan is long in boiling.
A west wind and an honest man go to bed together.
A Westminster matter.
See Wheatley’s Cunningham, 1891, p. 461. That is, a case for the lawyers. The saying doubtless belongs to the time, when all the courts were concentrated there.
A whet is no let, said the mower.
“You know the baiting of the horse hinders not the journey, and the oyling of the wheel, and the whetting of the sithe, though there be a stop in the work for a time, yet, as our common saying is, ‘a whet is no let,’ and the doing of this is no impediment.”—Preston’s Saint’s Daily Exercise, Third edition, 1629, p. 32.
A whetstone, though it can’t itself cut, makes tools cut.
Notes and Queries, 1st Ser., ii. 223. This appears to be a varia lectio of the well-known French saying: Une poule qui chante le coq, et une fille qui siffle, portent malheur dans la maison. In a literal sense, it is well known that a crowing hen, though a not very common phenomenon, is a reality; it is regarded by country-folks as a bad omen. See Willsford’s Nature’s Secrets, 1658, p. 131.
A white-livered fellow.
A white wall is a fool’s paper.
“Muro bianco carta da matti. Ital. Some put this in rhyme:—
A whole bushel of wheat is made up of single grains.
A wicked book is the wickeder because it cannot repent.
A wicked companion invites us all to hell.
A wicked man is afraid of his own memory.
A wicked man is his own hell.
A wicked man’s gift hath a touch of his master.
A wild goose never laid a tame egg.
A wilful man had need be very wise.
A willing mind makes a light foot.
A Wiltshire farmer can buy a Somersetshire squire.
In reference to the unusual extent of the farms in Wiltshire, sometimes running to 2000 or 3000 acres.
A wise head hath a close mouth.
Le plus sage se tait. Fr.—R.
A wise lawyer never goes to law himself.
A wise look may secure a fool, if he talk not.
A wise man begins in the end; a fool ends in the beginning.
A wise man gets learning from those who have none themselves.
A wise man knows his own.
A wise man may be kind without cost.
A wise man may look ridiculous in the company of fools.
A wise man may sometimes take counsel of a fool.
Conflict of Conscience, 1581, by N. Woodes, edit. 1851, p. 49.
A wise man ought not to be ashamed to alter his purpose.
A wise man turns chance into good fortune.
A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
A wise man will make tools of what comes to hand.
A wise man’s loss is his secret.
A wise man’s thoughts walk within him, but a fool’s without him.
A withered serving-man, a fresh tapster.
In the Merry Wives of Windsor there is this amplified version: An old cloak makes a new jerkin, a withered serving-man a fresh tapster. But in the edit. of 1602, the first portion reads: An old cloake will make a new jerkin. “Chi vive in corte muore à paglia. Ital. A mozedad ociosa, vejez travajosa.” Span.—R.
A wolf in a lamb’s skin.
A woman and a cherry are painted for their own harm.
A woman and a glass are ever in danger.
A woman conceals what she knows not.
A woman is to be from her house three times; when she is christened, married, and buried.
A woman that loves to be at the window, is like a bunch of grapes on the highway.
A woman that paints, puts up a bill to let.
A woman’s counsel is not worth much, but he that despises it is no wiser than he should be.
A woman’s counsel is sometimes good.
A woman’s mind and winter wind change oft.
A woman’s (or lady’s) reason.
i.e., I think so and so, because I do. See Manningham’s Diary, 6 Feb., 1602–3, edit. Bruce, p. 129. “I will not believe it, because I will not, is Tom Scul’s argument, as they say in Cambridge, and a woman’s reason, as they say here.”
“I must onely put them off with this Womans reason, they are so, because they be so.”—A New Booke of Mistakes, 1637, sign. A 4.
A woman’s strength is in her tongue.
A woman’s tongue wags like a lamb’s tail.
A woman’s work and washing of dishes is never at an end.
A wonder lasteth but nine days.
Sometimes they add, And then the puppy’s eyes are open. “The Italians say, La maraviglia è figliola del ignoranza. Wonder is the daughter of Ignorance.”—R. There is a saying in the country, “Write a wonder in the chimney-back,” referring of course to the large open chimneypieces formerly in use.
A wooden leg is better than no leg.
A wool-seller knows a wool-buyer.
A word and a blow.
A word before is worth two after.
A word hurts more than a wound.
A word is enough to the wise.
Compare Verbum sap.
A word spoken is an arrow let fly.
A work ill done must be twice done.
A wounded reputation is seldom cured.
A Yarmouth capon.
That is, a red herring; more herrings being taken than capons bred here. So the Italian friars (when disposed to eat flesh on Fridays) call a capon piscem è corte: a fish out of the coop.—R.
A yeoman upon his legs is higher than a prince upon his knees.
A Yorkshire fritter.
A Shrove Tvesday Banqvet, 1641.
A Yorkshire way-bit.
That is, an overplus not accounted in the reckoning, which sometimes proves as much as all the rest. Ask a countryman how many miles it is to such a town, and he will return commonly. So many miles and a way-bit. Which way-bit is enough to make the weary traveller surfeit of the length thereof. But it is not way-bit, though generally so pronounced, but wee-bit, a pure Yorkshirism, which is a small bit in the northern language.—R. This is akin to a Kentish mile, and a Scotish mile and a bittock. In fact, the idea is general, for, in walking from Ringwood to Bournemouth, when I thought that I was near my destination, each person informed me that it was only one-half mile. I was told so a dozen times. Comp. Davis, Suppl. Glossary, 1881, p. 715.
A young barber and an old physician.
Booke of Meery Riddles, 1629, No. 5.
A young courtier, an old beggar.
Heywood’s Edward IV., 1600, repr. 30. The Booke of Meery Riddles, 1629, No. 91, says: “He that liveth in court, dyeth upon straw.” “The thirde sorte [of courtiers] are the children of Phao, who for want of wit, will imagine they bee euer young, neuer knowinge what becomes them, but still stay in Courte without countenaunce, not to aspire to any thinge, but to eate and drinke among the Lords. For them was the Florentyne Prouerbe deuised, which saith: Chi s’inuecchia in Corte in paglia more.” [sic]—The English Courtier and the Countrey Gentleman, 1586, sign. L 3.
A young French lady, an old French gentleman.
Supposed to be the most agreeable type of either.
A young prodigal an old mumper.
[A] young saint, [an] old devil.
Viz., “When they apostasize, as the Turkish Janisaries.”—Clarke’s Parœm. 1639, p. 83. “De jeune angelote vieux diable. Fr. A Tartesso ad Tartarum. Buon papero, e cattivo oca. Ital. Some reverse the proverb, and say, A young saint, an old saint; and, A young devil, an old devil.—R. Di moza adevina y de muger Latina libera nos.—Span. The saying occurs in the Interlude of Youth (1554), edit. 1849, p. 84.
A young servingman, an old beggar.
The origin of this proverb, which belongs to the same class or family as one just mentioned (A young Courtier, &c.), seems to be traceable to the uncertainty of service in former times, and to the disqualifying nature of the vocation for any other business. The serving-man enjoyed under the old system so large a share of his employer’s luxury and comfort, that when he was discharged as no longer fitted by his years to fulfil the duties of an attendant upon his master’s person at all times and places, he was ill disposed to transfer himself to any laborious and ill-paid berth. See A Health to the Gentl. Prof. of Servingmen, 1598 (Roxb. Lib., repr. 117).
A young trooper should have an old horse.
A young twig is easier twisted than an old tree.
A Yule feast may be quit at Pasch.
A Christmas feast may be paid again at Easter.—D.
Ab ovo usque ad mala.
From first to last, in allusion to the order in which a Roman banquet was served. We sometimes use it proverbially.
Ab uno disce omnes.
An abridgment of the passage in Juvenal:—
Abingdon law.
i.e., with needless or impetuous haste. “I shew’d my Papers in Manuscript to divers, who I presumed were Intelligent and Learned, desiring them to try them, and pass judgment, and execute them who deserved not to live: To work they went, with Abbingdon law.”—Pearson’s Raptures of a Flaming Spirit, 1682, b 2 verso.
Above board.
Honestly, straightforwardly. The phrase was, doubtless, derived from the card or dicing-table, where a cheating player might endeavour to tamper with his pack or pair (as it was formerly termed) of cards beneath the table or board, by marking, shuffling, &c.
Above the salt.
Essays by Sir William Cornewallys the Younger, ed. 1606, sign. H 3. The grand salt cellar was placed on the table in former times at a point marking the division between the two grades of guests.
Abroad, like a f—t in a bowl of cream.
This saying may never have been general; but it was a favourite one in the mouth of an auctioneer named W. W. Simpson, who was a sort of smaller Robins.
Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it.
Abundance maketh poor.
“At Skenegravo [Co. York] the old proverb is veryfied, that abundance maketh them poore, for albeyt they take such abundance of fysh, that often they are forced to throwe greate parte of theire purchase over boarde, or make their greater sort of fish of lighter carriage and shorter by the heads, neverthelesse for the moste part what they have they drink, and howsoever they reckon with God yt is a familiar maner to them to make even with the worlde at night, that pennilesse and carelesse they maye go lightly to their labour on the morrow morninge.”—Account of Gisborough, Co. York, in Cotton MS., Julius, F.C. fol. 455 (Antiq. Repert., 1807, iii. 311).
According to Cocker.
A common and familiar expression derived from the Vulgar Arithmetic of Edward Cocker, the schoolmaster, 1678. Cocker instructed pupils in arithmetic and writing, but popularly survives in this adage only.
Accusing is proving, where malice and force sit judges.
Accusing the times is but excusing ourselves.
Ad Græcas Calendas.
Advantage is a better soldier than rashness.
Adversity flattereth no man.
Adversity is easier borne than prosperity forgot.
Adversity makes a man wise, not rich.
New Help to Discourse, 1721, 134. The French say—
Advice to all, security for none.
Æthiopem lavare.
i.e., To wash a blackamoore white, to attempt an impossibility.—Health to the Gentl. Prof. of Servingmen, 1598 (Inedited Tracts, Roxb. Lib. p. 138).
Affairs, like salt fish, ought to be a good while a soaking.
Affairs that are done by due degrees, are soon ended.
Affinity in hearts is the nearest kindred.
Affrica semper aliquid oportet novi.
Stephen Gosson, 1579. “It is said that Africa bringeth forth euery yeare a new monster.”—My Ladies Looking-Glasse, by Barnaby Rich, 1616, sign. B 3 recto. See Polydori Vergilii Proverbiorum Libellus, 1498, ed. 1503, sign G 3, and Rabelais, i. xvi. I suppose this is the old English translator’s form. Bacon (Sylva Sylvarum, ed. 1635, p. 121) has: “Africa semper aliquid monstri parit.”
Bacon ascribes the saying to the general habit of wild animals in Africa coming down to water, and to the promiscuous intercourse arising; but surely it is more likely to have proceeded from the ignorance which prevailed of this vast region in and very long after his day, and from the marvels which travellers occasionally reported in books or otherwise.
Afraid of far enough. Cheshire.
Of that which is never likely to happen.—R.
Afraid of him that died last year. Cheshire.
Espantise la muerta dela degollada. Span.—R.
Afraid of his own shadow.
After a delay / comes a stray.
After a dream of a wedding comes a corpse.
After a great getter comes a great spender.
After a lank / comes a bank.
Said of breeding women.—R.
After a storm comes a calm.
Doppo il cattivo ne vien il buon tempo. Ital. Apres la pluie vient le beau temps. Fr.—R.
After black clouds, clear weather.
After Christmas comes Lent.
After cheese comes nothing.
After death the doctor.
Countryman’s New Commonw. 1647. “This is a French proverb: Apres la mort le medicin; parallel to that ancient Greek one, [Greek]. Post bellum auxilium. We find it in Quintilian’s Declam.—Cadaverib. pasti; with another of the like import, Quid quod medicina mortuorum sera est? Quid quod nemo aquam infundit in cineres? After a man’s house is burnt to ashes, it is too late to pour on water.”—R
After dinner sit awhile; / after supper walk a mile.
After having cried up their wine, they sell us vinegar.
After kissing comes greater kindness.
See Wright’s Domestic Manners and Sentiments, 1862, p. 275, where he quotes La Chastoiement des Dames by Robert de Blois, a fabliau of the 13th cent.
After-Lammas corn ripens as much by night as by day.
After meat, mustard.
Life and Pranks of Long Meg of Westminster, 1582, ed. 1635, c. 18. Walker’s Parœmiologia, 1672, p. 10. “When there is no more use for it.”—R. “Moustarde apres disner.”—Montaigne.
After melon, / wine is a felon.
After pear, wine or the priest.
After rain comes fair weather.
After the greatest danger is the greatest pleasure.
After the house is finished, leave it.
After the school of Oxford.
Said by Chaucer in the Miller’s Tab, in a similar sense to the French of Stratford-at-Bow, of a bad or clumsy dancer.
After the wren hath veins, man may let blood.
See Hazlitt’s Popular Poetry, 1864, i, 187.
After this leaf another grows.