W.C. Hazlitt, comp. English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases. 1907.
The devil to The greatest wealth
The devil always leaves a stink behind him.
The devil and his dam.
See Henslowe’s Diary, ed. Collier, p. 169.
The devil and John A’ Cumber.
See Nares, 1859, v. Cumber. The personage here alluded to is probably identical with one of the characters in Munday’s play of John A’ Kent and John A’ Cumber.
The devil gets up to the belfry by the vicar’s skirts.
The devil goes shares in gaming.
The devil hath cast a bone to set strife.
The devil helps his friends.
Civil War Tract of 1641.
The devil is a busy bishop in his own diocese.
Henry VIII. was of opinion that he was a better man of business than the Bishops, whom he advised to take him as a pattern.
The devil is busy in a high wind.
The devil is dead.
A proverbial expression, by which it is intended to say (satirically or ironically) that people have ceased to do wrong. Thus, in Davenport’s City Night-Cap, written in 1624, the Clown says: “Methinks the devil’s dead too” (Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xiii. 141). Dr. Mead in the fourth part of his Diatribæ devotes some space to a theory, that in the time of the Commonwealth England was growing so good, that the Devil went over to America to see what he could do there.
The devil is good to some.
The Irish say, The wicked one is aye kind to his ain.
The devil is good when he is pleased.
Canta Marta despues de harta. Span.—R. In Grim, the Collier of Croydon, 1662, ii. 1, it runs: The devil is mild, &c. This play was written about 1600.
The devil is in the dice.
The devil is never nearer than when we are talking of him.
The devil is not always at one door.
The devil is the father of lies.
Breton’s Court and Country, 1618 (Roxb. Libr., repr. 195).
The devil lies brooding in the miser’s chest.
The devil makes his Christmas-pie of lawyers’ tongues and clerks’ fingers.
The devil of Dowgate.
See Davis, Suppl. Glossary, 1881, p. 200.
The devil on Dun’s back.
The devil owed him a shame.
The devil pay the maltman.
Copland’s Hye Way to the Spyttel Hous (circa 1532), in Hazlitt’s Pop. Poetry, iv. 55, and Note.
The devil rebukes sin.
Clodius accusat mœchos. Aliorum medicus ipse ulceribus scates.—R.
The devil run through thee booted and spurred with a scythe on his back!
This is Sedgely curse. Mr. Howell.—R.
The devil seemeth to be God to somebody.
“For he hath two wings to fly withall, the one having an internall strength from the minde, and the other an externall from the bodie: that of the mind is (as it were) couered with a vaile: but the other is plaine and naked: howbeit both of them are indented with seuerall braunches, wherewith, according to the Adage, the Diuell seemeth to be God to some bodie.”—Saint George for England, by Gerrard de Malynes, 1601, p. 58.
The devil sh—s upon a great heap.
See Mery Tales and Quicke Answeres, ed. Berthelet, No. 28 (Old English Jest-Books, i.)
The devil take the hindmost.
Tuke’s Adventures of Five Hours, 1671, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xv. 302. This play is taken in great measure from the Spanish of Calderon.
The devil will not come into Cornwall, for fear of being put into a pie.
A sneer at Cousin Jockey for his love of pasties, which are usually compounded of any material which comes cheapest or handiest.
The devil will take his own.
De debles vint, a debbles irra. Old Fr.
The devil wipes his tail with the poor man’s pride.
The devil would have been a weaver but for the Temples.
The devil’s behind the glass.
The devil’s children have the devil’s luck.
The devil’s coach-horse.
The cock-tailed beetle.
The devil’s guts.
i.e., The surveyor’s chain.
The devil’s meal is half bran.
La farine du diable n’est que bran, or, s’en va moitie en bran. Fr.—R.
The Devil’s Own.
The jocular designation for the Inns of Court Volunteers.
The difference is wide / that the sheets will not decide.
The diligent spinner has a large shift.
The dirt bird [or dirt owl] sings: We shall have rain.
When melancholy persons are very merry, it is observed that there usually follows an extraordinary fit of sadness, they doing all things commonly in extremes.
The disobedience of the patient makes the physician seem cruel.
The dog that fetches will carry. E. Anglia.
“A tale-bearer will tell tales of you as well as to you.”—Forby.
The dog that licks ashes, trust not with meal.
The Italians says this of a cat: Gatto che lecca cenere non fidar farina.—R.
The dog wags his tail not for love of you, but of your bread.
The dog who hunts foulest, hits at most faults.
The drunkard continually assaults his own life.
The dunder clo gally [affright] the beans. Somerset.
Beans shoot up fast after thunderstorms.—R.
The dust raised by the sheep does not choke the wolf.
The Dutchman saith that sedging is good cope.
The Dutchman’s headache.
i.e., Drunkenness.
The early bird catcheth the worm.
The early sower never borrows of the late.
The earth produces all things, and receives all again.
The earthen pot must keep clear of the brass kettle.
The ebb will fetch off what the tide brings in.
The empty leech sucks sore.
The end crowns all.
The end makes all equal.
The end of fishing is catching.
The envious man shall never want woe.
The epicure puts his purse into his belly; the miser his belly into his purse.
The escaped mouse ever feels the taste of the bait.
The evening crowns the day.
Un bel morire tutta la vita honora.
The evil that cometh out of thy mouth flieth into thy bosom.
The evil wound is cured, but not the evil name.
The ewe that doth bleat / doth lose the most of her meat.
The example of good men is visible philosophy.
The eye is a shrew.
The eye is the pearl of the face.
The eye of the master does more than both his hands.
The eye that sees all things else sees not itself.
The eye will have his part.
The fair lasts all the year.
The fairer the hostess, the fouler the reckoning.
Belle hostesse c’est un mal pour la bourse. Fr. El huespeda hermosa, mal para la bolsa. Span.
The fairer the paper, the fouler the blot.
The fairest-looking shoe may pinch the foot.
The fairest rose is soonest withered.
Or, in the end, he elsewhere says.
The fairest silk is soonest stained.
This may be applied to women. The handsomest women are soonest corrupted, because they are most tempted. It may also be applied to good natures, which are most easily drawn away by evil company.—R.
The falsehood of Ferrara.
Gascoigne’s Supposes, 1566 (Works, by Hazlitt, i. 238–9, 250).
The farmer’s foot is the best manure.
Rider Haggard, Winter Pilgrimage, 1901, p. 145. He calls it “an old agricultural saw”—perhaps in his county, Norfolk.
The farther from the sun, the duller wit.
The farther in, the deeper.
The farther you go, the farther behind.
The farthest way about is the nearest way home.
What is gained in the shortness may be lost in the goodness of the way. Compendia plerumque sunt dispendia.—R. “For let the proverb say what it will, the farthest way about is not the nearest way home.”—Stevenson’s Florus Britannicus, 1662, dedic., or my Book of Prefaces, 1874, p. 398.
The farthing is good that maketh the penny bud.
The fat is in the fire.
The fat man knoweth not what the lean thinketh.
The father sighs more at the death of one son than he smiles at the birth of many.
The father to the bough, and the son to the plough.
This saying I look upon as too narrow to be placed in the family of proverbs; it is rather to be deemed a rule or maxim in the tenure of Gavel-kind, where, though the father had judgment to be hanged, yet there followed no forfeiture of his estate, but his son might (a happy man, according to Horace’s description) paterna rura bobus exercere suis.—R. Or, according to the terms of an old charter cited by Lambarde (apud Pegge’s Kenticisms, by Skeat, 99), “Les tiendra par mesmes les seruices et customes sicome ses auncestres les tyndrent.”
The fault of the horse is put on the saddle.
The faulty stands on his guard.
The fewer his years / the fewer his tears.
The fewer the better fare.
The filth under the white snow the sun discovers.
The finest flower will soonest fade.
Ballad printed about 1570 in Ancient Ballads, &c., 1867, 374.
The finger next thy thumb.
“In y
The fire in the flint shows not till it’s struck.
The fire is never without heat.
The fire of London was a punishment for gluttony.
The fire that burneth taketh the heat out of a burn.
The fire that does not warm me shall never scorch me.
The fire which lighteth us at a distance will burn us when near.
The first breath / is the beginning of death.
The first cock of hay / frights the cuckoo away.
The first cut and all the loaf besides.
The first dish pleaseth all.
The first men in the world were a gardener, a ploughman, and a grazier.
The first of May / is Robin Hood’s Day.
Mr. Denham refers to Hone’s ed. of Strutt.
The first of the nine orders of knaves is he that tells his errand before he goes it.
The first pig, but the last whelp of the litter, is the best.
The first point of hawking is Hold fast.
The first step is the only difficulty.
Il n’y a que le premier pas qui coute. Fr. Voltaire quoted this saying in reference to the alleged miracle of St. Denis walking with his head under his arm.
The first year let your house to your enemy; the second, to your friend; the third, live in it yourself.
The fish adores the bait.
The fish may be caught in a net that will not come to a hook.
The fishmonger’s fair.
A period of fasting, such as Lent.
The flower of the frying-pan.
Marriage of Wit and Wisdom (circa 1570). This appears to be a sort of different reading of our saying—The flower of the flock.
The fly that playeth too long in the candle singeth her wings.
The folly of one man is the fortune of another.
The fool asks much, but he is more fool that grants it.
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
As you Like it, v. i. This is rather a maxim.
The fool is busy in every one’s business but his own.
The fool runs away while his house is burning.
The fool saith, Who would have thought it?
The fool wanders; the wise man travels.
The fool will not part with his bauble for the Tower of London.
The foot of the owner is the best manure for his land.
The foot on the cradle and the hand on the distaff.
The sign of a good housewife.
The foremost dog catcheth the hare.
The fork is commonly the rake’s heir.
The Four Eights. New Zealand.
The fowler’s pipe sounds sweet till the bird is caught.
The fox knows much, but more he that catcheth him.
Muito sabe a zaposa, mas mais quem a toma. Port. Mucho sabia el cornudo pero mas quien se los puso. Span. This applies to a man who has a great conceit of himself, but is overreached by another.
The fox may grow grey, but never good.
Vulpes pilos mutat, mores n
mutat.—Polydore Vergil (Prov. Libellus, 1498, edit. 1503, sign. E verso).
The fox never fares better than when he is banned.
“But I pereciue you fare as the fox, the more band the better hap.”—Chettle’s Kind Harts Dreame (1592), repr. 46.
The fox praiseth the meat out of the crow’s mouth.
The friar preached against stealing when he had a pudding in his sleeve.
This proverb is formed out of A C. Mery Talys, No. 66 of ed. without date (1525), Old English Jest-Books, i. 97. Il frate predicava, che non si dovesse robbare, e l’ ui haveva l’ occha nel scapulario. Ital. Herbert has it, but differently; he puts a goose in the place of the pudding, like the Italian version.
The frog / cannot out of her bog.
The frost hurts not weeds.
The frying-pan says to the kettle, Avaunt, Blackbrows!
The full moon brings fair weather.
The Gallants of Fowey. Cornw.
This expression arose from the conspicuous part taken by the mariners and inhabitants of Fowey, on the south coast of Cornwall, in the foreign wars of the Plantagenets, to which they were among the largest contributors of ships and men.
The gallows groans for you.
The gallows will have its own at last.
The game is not worth the candle.
Le ieu ne vaut pas la chandelle.—Montaigne, Essais, livre ii. c. 17.
The Gentle Craft.
Shoemakers are so called. Compare A shoemaker’s son, &c.
The gentle hawk half-mans herself.
The German’s wit is in his fingers.
The glue did not hold.
i.e., You were baulked in your wishes; you missed your aim.—R.
The goat must browse where he is tied.
The golden age was never the present age.
The golden mean.
[Greek].—Cleobulos of Lindos. [char.]e middel weie of mesure is euer guldene.—Ancren Riwle, ed. Morton, p. 336.
The good fellowship of Padstow. Cornw.
Notes and Queries, 3rd S., v. 275.
The good horse must carry drink. S. Devon.
The good horse must not cocky to a gally-whacker. S. Devon.
i.e., not start at a scarecrow.—Shelly.
The good horse must smell to a pixy. S. Devon.
i.e., must know by smelling where the pixy (ignis fatuus), and therefore, the bog, is.—Shelly.
The good-man is the last who knows what’s amiss at home.
The good mother saith not, Will you? but gives.
The good wife would not seek her daughter in the oven, unless she had been there herself.
“See him and see him not I will, about that his meazild invention of the good wife my mothers finding her daughter in the oven, where she would never have sought her, if she had not been there first her selfe; a hackney proverb in mens mouths ever since K. Lud was a little boy, or Belinus, Brennus’ brother, for the love hee bare to oysters, built Billingsgate.”—Nash’s Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1596, repr. 1869, p. 143.
The gown is hers that wears it, and the world is his who enjoys it.
The grace of God is enough.
“Lanc.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.”—Merchant of Venice, 1600, ii. 2.
The grapes are sour.
Said of anything we fail to obtain. De ere sure, sagde Ræven, da han ikke kunde naae Rönnebœrrene.—Dan.
The grave is the general meeting-place.
The grave’s good rest, when women go first to bed.
Rowley’s Woman Never Vext, 1632 (Dilke, v. 347).
The great and the little have need of one another.
The great cab and the little cab go down to the grave.
The great pond.
The Channel, or perhaps the British sea. The phrase occurs in the Lamentable Complaints of Hop the Brewer and Kilcalfe the Butcher, &c., 1641. We call the Channel the Silver Streak.
The great thieves punish the little ones.
The greater the right the greater the wrong.
Summum ius summa iniuria.—Polydore Vergil (Proverbiorum Libellus, 1498, edit. 1503, sign. D iii).
The greatest barkers bite not sorest.
Or, Dogs that bark at a distance bite not at hand. Cane chi abbaia non morde. Ital. Chien qui aboye ne mord pas. Fr. Canes timidi vehementiùs latrant. Ca que muito ladra nunca bom pera caça. Port.—R.
The greatest boasters are not the greatest doers.
Interlude of Thersites, about 1550 (part of title).
The greatest burdens are not the gainfullest.
The greatest calf is not the sweetest veal.
The greatest clerks be not the wisest men.
Return from Parnassus, 1606 (Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ix.); Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale (ed. Wright, roy. 8vo, p. 48). See Reynard the Fox, Thoms’ repr. of Caxton’s ed. p. 184. Our universities swarm with learned individuals, who have all the narrowness and self-complacency of poor Dominie Sampson without his bonhomie. Unlike Chaucer’s scholar who loved to teach, and eke to learn, your Academic issues from his Alma Mater armed cap-à-pie in his own conceit. It is a comfort to know where even more ignorant than oneself may be had for the seeking; and these are the seminaries, to which certain wonder that one does not commit one’s child, when parcel-man, to complete his education!—and whence emerge the governors and legislators of this great nation—are to emerge for all time, unless reform intervenes to destroy the execrable system of government by my friend and my friend’s friend. At present we seem to be culminating toward the great calamity anciently predicted for 1884.
The greatest crabs be not all the best meat.
Great and good are not always the same thing; though our language often makes them synonymous terms, as when we call a great way a good way, and a great deal a good deal, &c., in which, and the like phrases, good signifies somewhat less than great, viz., of a middle size or indifferent. Bonus, also, in Latin, is sometimes used in the same sense as in that of Persius, Sat. 2. Bona pars procerum. Les grands bœufs no font pas les grandes journées. Fr.—R.
The greatest expense we can be at is that of our time.
The greatest favourites are in the most danger of falling.
The greatest hate springs from the greatest love.
The greatest learning is to be seen in the greatest plainness.
The greatest mischief you can do the envious is to do well.
The greatest oaks have been little acorns.
The greatest step is that out of doors.
The greatest talkers are the least doers.
The greatest things are done by the help of small ones.
The greatest vessel hath but its measure.
The greatest wealth is contentment with a little.