W.C. Hazlitt, comp. English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases. 1907.
The green new broom to The nurse’s tongue
The green new broom sweepeth clean.
The grey mare is the better horse.
Ellis’s Orig. Letters, 1st S., iii. 249; Bansley’s Treatyse, &c. (circa 1547), in Hazlitt’s Popular Poetry, iv. 237. Andrew Borde, in his Breviary of Helthe, 1547, has it: “The white mare is the better horse.” The following extract from The Puisnes Walks about London, in Harl. MS. 3910, fol. 36, verso, 17th cent. (Reliquiæ Antiquæ, ii. 71), is curious enough:
The groat is ill saved that shames the master.
The groundsel speaks not save what it heard at the hinges.
The gull comes after the rain.
The guts uphold the heart, and not the heart the guts.
The haddocks are good / dipped in May flood.
The half is better than the whole.
The hand that gives gathers.
The handsomest flower is not the sweetest.
The hard gives more than he that hath nothing.
The hare starts when a man least expects it.
The hasty bitch bringeth forth blind whelps.
More’s Utopia (1516), transl. by R. Robinson, 1551, The Translator to the gentle reader. “The swiftest bitch brings forth the blindest whelps.”—Gascoigne’s Posies, 1575. “The ouer pregnant dog (we see), bringeth forth blinde puppies.”—Harvey’s Trimming of Thomas Nashe, 1597, sign. F 4 verso.
The hasty man [in wedding] never wanteth woe.
The head and feet kept warm, / the rest will take no harm.
The head grey, and no brains yet!
The head of a snake with garlic is good meat!
Lottery of 1567 (Kempe’s Loseley MSS., 213), of course, in a satirical sense.
The heart’s mirth doth make the face fair.
The Heathen’s fortune is the Christian’s Providence.
Only a question of names.
The herring-man hates the fisherman.
Presumably, because the latter interferes with the herring-fisher’s operations.
The higher the ape goes, the more he shews his tail.
The higher beggars or base-bred persons are advanced, the more they discover the lowness and baseness of their spirits and tempers: for, as the Scripture saith, Prov. xxxvi. 1, “Honour is unseemly for a fool.” Tu fai come la simia, chi piu va in alto piu mostra il culo. Ital. The Italians, I find, draw this proverb to a different sense to signify one who, the more he speaks, the more sport he makes, and the more ridiculous he renders himself.—R.
The higher the fool, the greater the fall.
The higher the hill, the lower the grass.
The highest branch is not the safest roost.
The highest spoke in Fortune’s wheel may soon turn lowest.
The highest tree hath the greatest fall.
Tolluntur in altum ut lapsu graviore ruant. The higher flood hath always the lower ebb. Celsæ graviore casu decidunt turres. Horat.—R. Upon this idea proceeds the story about Raleigh and Q. Elizabeth, “Fain would I climb,” &c.
The highway is never about.
The hindmost dog may catch the hare.
The Hob of Hornchurch.
A story was current, in and about 1575, of a clown who came to London for the first time from Hornchurch, Essex, and who was told that the nearest way to Bartholomew Fair was through Whitechapel.—Acc. of the Quarr. betw. Hall and Mallerie, repr. 1816, p. 106.
The hog never looks up to him that threshes down the acorns.
The hog to the honey pots.
The hole calls the thief.
The honey is sweet, but the bee stings.
The horse next the mill carries all the grist.
The horse that draws his halter is not quite escaped.
Non à scappato chi strascina la catena dietro. Ital. Il n’est pas eschappé qui traine son lien. Fr.—R.
The house shews the owner.
The hunter’s moon.
The moon in October: that in September is the harvest moon.
The ignorant hath an eagle’s wings and an owl’s eyes.
The informer is the worse rogue of the two.
The Isle of Wight hath no monks, lawyers, or foxes.
“The speech hath more mirth than truth in it.”—Speed’s Catalogue of Religious Houses. “That they had monks I know, Black ones at Carisbrook, White ones at Quarrer, in this island. That they have lawyers, they know when they pay them their fees: and that they have foxes, their lambs know. But of all these, perchance fewer than in other places of equal extent.” Fuller (1662).—R.
The Italian is wise before he undertakes a thing, the German while he is doing it, and the Frenchman when it is over.
The Jews spend at Easter, the Moors at marriages, and Christians in suits.
The keys hang not all by one man’s girdle.
The kick of the dam hurts not the colt.
The kid that keeps above is in no danger of the wolf.
The kiln calls the oven burnt-hearth.
The king can make a serjeant, but not a lawyer.
The king must wait while his beer’s drawing.
The King of France with twenty thousand men / marched up the hill, and then marched down again.
The king of good fellows is appointed for the queen of beggars.
The king’s chaff is better than other people’s corn.
The king’s cheese goes half away in parings.
The king’s errand may come in at the cadger’s gate.
The king’s favour is no inheritance.
The king’s word is more than another man’s oath.
“If any euer did try this olde saynge, that a kinges worde was more than another mans othe, I most humbly beseche your Majesty to verefie it in me.”—The Princess Elizabeth to Q. Mary, 1554 (Ellis, O. L., 2nd S., ii. 255).
The kinsman’s ear will hear it.
The labour we delight in physics pain.
The lame goes as far as your staggerer.
The lame post brings the surest news.
The lame returns sooner than his servant.
The lame tongue gets nothing.
The Land of Cakes.
Said of Scotland. But the cake is the oat-cake.
The land of Nod.
Sleep. He’s gone to the land of nod = he’s gone to sleep.
The lapwing cries most farthest from her nest.
The larks fall there ready-roasted.
The lass in the red petticoat shall pay for all.
Young men answer so when they are chid for being so prodigal and expensive; meaning, they will get a wife with a good portion, that shall pay for it.—R.
The last benefit is the most remembered.
The last drop makes the cup run over.
The last evil smarts most.
The last suitor wins the maid.
The Latins call me Porcus.
A thrust at a needless display of erudition, according to N. and Q., 2nd S., x. 350. But it may, on the contrary, refer to the less delicate and conventional meaning of the word, which the Romans, I presume, borrowed from the Greeks.
The laundress washeth her own smock first.
The law groweth from sin, and chastiseth it.
The law is not the same at morning and night.
The lazy man is the beggar’s brother.
The least boy always carries the greatest fiddle.
All lay load upon those that are least able to bear it. For they that are least able to bear are least able to resist the imposition of the burden.
The least foolish is wise.
The least said the soonest mended.
The less the temptation, the greater the sin.
The less wit a man has, the less he knows that he wants it.
The lickorish cat gets many a rap.
The life of a man is a winter’s day / and a winter’s way.
The light is naught for sore eyes.
A l’œil malade la lumière nuit. Fr.—R.
The like, I say, / sitteth with the jay.
The lion is not so fierce as they paint him.
The lion’s share.
There is a kindred Latin saying, Leonina societas.
The lion’s skin is never cheap.
The little cannot be great unless he devour many.
The little wimble will let in the great auger.
The long home.
What we now term the narrow house—i.e., the grave. Speaking of the death of Liberality, the author of A Health to the Gentlemanly Profession of Servingmen, 1598, says. “Though I had been none of his Executors, nor had had any Legasie bestowed vpon mee, yet would I, at my owne charges, haue seene him honestly brought foorth to his long home (as the saying is).” It may be observed that, where a tree is in a poor way, a gardener will say of it, “Ah, he’s going home.”
The Long Hundred.
Five score make the hundred in money computations; but in merchandize six are reckoned, and even 126 and 130.
The longer east, the shorter west.
The longest day hath his end.
Il n’est si grand jour qui ne vienne à vespre. Fr. Non vien di, che non venga sera. Ital.—R.
The longest life is but a parcel of moments.
The lookers-on find surest ground.
Paradyce of Daynty Devyses, 1578, repr. 135.
The Lord Dacre / was slain in North Acre.
“North Acre is, or was, the name of the spot where Lord Dacre perished at the battle of Towton, in 1461. He is said to have been shot by a boy out of an elder-tree.”—Halliwell.
The love of a harlot, and wine of a flagon, is good in the morning, but naught in the evening.
The low stake standeth long.
The lower millstone grinds as well as the upper.
The lucky pennyworth sells soonest.
The lute is in the hand of him that knows how to play on it.
The luxurious want many things, the covetous all things.
The mackerel’s cry / is never long dry.
The mad dog bites his master.
The maid that soon married is, soon marred is.
Puttenham’s Art of Engl. Poesie, 1589, p. 216.
The maintaining of one vice costeth more than ten virtues.
The majority.
The dead.
The malt is above the water.
Compare Malt is above wheat, &c.
The March sun raises, but dissolves not.
The market is the best garden.
At London they are wont to say, Cheapside is the best garden.—R.
The married man must turn his staff into a stake.
The master’s eye is worth both his hands.
This occurs, slightly varied, in Poor Richard Improved, 1758.
The master’s eye maketh the horse fat.
Herbert (1640) adds:—And his foot the ground.
L’occhio del padrone ingrassa il cavallo. Ital. L’œil du maître engraisse le cheval. Fr. [Greek]—Arist. Œconom. 2. The answers of Perses and Libys are worth observing. The former being asked what was the best thing to make a horse fat, answered, the master’s eye: the other being demanded what was the best manure, answered, the master’s footsteps. Not impertinent to this purpose is that story related by Gellius. A fat man riding upon a lean horse, was asked how it came to pass that himself was so fat and his horse so lean. He answered, Because I feed myself, but my servant feeds my horse.—R.
The mayor of Altringham lies in bed while his breeches are mending. Cheshire.
The mayor of Erith is the best mayor next to the mayor of London.
Fraunce’s Lawyer’s Logike, 4
The mayor of Northampton opens oysters with his dagger.
To keep them at a sufficient distance from his nose. For this town being eighty miles from the sea, fish may well be presumed stale therein. Yet have I heard (saith the Doctor [Fuller]) that oysters, put up with care, and carried in the cool, were weekly brought fresh and good to Althorp [near Northampton], the house of the Lord Spencer, at equal distance: and it is no wonder; for I myself have eaten in Warwickshire, above eighty miles from London, oysters sent from that city, fresh and good; and they must have been carried some miles before they came there.—R.
The memory of happiness makes misery woful.
The merry month of May.
The middle cream.
Crème de la crème. Fr. A bookseller once so described to me his choicest volumes. He had few.
The mill cannot grind with the water that is past.
The mill gets by going.
The miller grinds more men’s corn than one.
Nash’s Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1596, repr. 1869, p. 18.
The miller sees not all the water that goes by his mill.
Burton’s Anatomy, 1621, the Conclusion to the Reader, or my Book of Prefaces, 1874, p. 304.
The miller’s boy said so. E. Anglia.
Said of some matter of common report.
The Mirandula of his age.
Aubrey’s Letters, &c., 1813, ii. 324, allusively to Thomas Allen’s description of Sir Kenelm Digby, and to Giovanni Francesco (or Gian Francesco) Pico, Signore of Mirandola, in Italy, a celebrated scholar (1515–33), whose life was written by Sir T. More.
The mirth of the world dureth but a while.
The mistress’s eye feeds the capon.
The mob has many heads, but no brains.
The mole was once a fine lady. Cornw.
See Notes and Queries, 1st S., ii. 225.
The money you refuse will never do you good.
The moon does not heed the barking of dogs.
The moon is a moon still, whether it shine or not.
The moon is made of green cheese.
Jack Juggler, edit. 1848, p. 46; A Dialogve wherin is plainly layd open the tyranicall Dealing of Lord Bishops against God children (1589), edit. 1640, sign. B 3. This saying is scarcely likely to have in view the green cheese, which is or was a peculiar product of the canton of Glarus in Switzerland.
The moon’s not seen where the sun shines.
The more acquaintance, the more danger.
The more cooks, the worse pottage.
Hooker’s Life of Sir Peter Carew, 1514–75, by Maclean, p. 33.
The more countrymen the worse.
MS. 15th cent., ap. Retr. Rev., 3rd S., ii. 309.
The more danger, the more honour.
The Spaniards used to say, The more Moors, the better victory, “to express their contempt of them when they went to battle; considering, that the greater their superiority in point of numbers, the greater would be their booty by the conquest.”—R.
The more haste, the less speed.
“With safest haste.”—Shakespeare. Festina lenté. Come s’ ha fretta non si fa mai niente che stia bene. Ital. Qui trop so hâte en cheminant, en beau chemin so fourvoye souvent. Fr. Qui nimis properè minùs prosperè et nimiùm properans seriús absolvit. Presto e bene non si conviene. Ital.—R.
The more knave, the better luck.
The more laws, the more offenders.
The more light a torch gives, the shorter it lasts.
The more riches a fool hath, the greater fool he is.
The more the carle riches, he wretches.
Comp. The more you heap, &c., infra.
The more thy years, the nigher thy grave.
The more wit, the less courage.
The more women look in their glass the less they look to their house.
The more worship, the more cost.
The more you heap, / the worse you cheap.
The more you rake and scrape, the worst success you have; or the more busy you are, and stir you keep, the less you gain.—R.
The more you rub a cat on the rump, the higher she sets her tail up.
The more you stir a turd, the worse it will stink.
The morning for speed.
You must begin early, if you wish to get through.
The morning sun never lasts a day.
The morning to the mountain, / the evening to the fountain.
The most dangerous of wild beasts is a slanderer; of tame ones, a flatterer.
The most exquisite folly is made of wisdom too fine-spun.
The most lasting monuments are paper monuments.
The mother-in-law remembers not that she was a daughter-in-law.
The mother knows best whether the child be like the father.
The motions of passion and of conscience are two things.
The mountains have brought forth a mouse.
Merely a paraphrase of Horace: Parturiunt montes, &c.
The mouse lordships where a cat is not.
MS. of 15th cent., cited in Retrosp. Rev., 3rd S., ii. 309.
The mouse that hath but one hole is easily taken.
Tristo è quel topo, che non ha ch’ un sol pertuggio per salvarsi. Ital. La souris qui n’a qu’une entrée est incontinent happée. Fr. Raton que ne sabe mas de un horado, presto le coge el gato. Span. Mus non uni fidit antro. This sentence came originally from Plautus in Truculento; v. Erasm. Adag.—R.
The muffled cat is never a good mouser.
The multitude of offenders is their protection.
The Muses love the morning.
The musician keeps his shop in his throat.
Ray calls this a Spanish saying.
The nature of things will not be altered by our fancies of them.
The near love by craft maketh the far love loathed.
The nearer the bone the sweeter is the flesh.
The near[er] to the church, the further from God.
Coeval MS. memorandum by W. P., in a copy of An Endightment agaynst Mother Messe, 1548; A New Help to Discourse, 1721, 134. “This is also a French proverb: Près de l’église loin de Dieu.”—R.
The nigher kin, / the further in.
Varchi’s Blazon of Jealousie, 1615, transl. by R. Tofte, p. 28. Chi non tocca parentado, tocca mai, o rado. Ital.
The night will give you counsel.
The nightingale and the cuckoo sing both in one month.
The cuckoo does not sing at all, and ordinarily is not heard much after sunset, whereas the nightingale chiefly sings at night and in the very early morning. Yet in 1882 it was heard a good deal here-about (Barnes) in the daytime also.
The nimblest footman is a false tale.
The noisiest drum hath nothing in it but air.
The noisy fowler catches no birds.
The north wind doth blow, / and we shall have snow.
The nun of Sion with the friar of Sheen.
According to vulgar tradition, these two monasteries had a subterraneous communication.—R. So, in later times, had, according to report, two similar institutions at Roehampton.
The nurse is valued till the child has done sucking.
The nurse’s tongue is privileged to talk.