John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
30 Geoffrey Chauer 1340-1400 John Bartlett
| NUMBER: | 30 |
| AUTHOR: | Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340–1400) |
| QUOTATION: | I hold a mouses wit not worth a leke, That hath but on hole for to sterten to. 1 |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Canterbury Tales. The Wif of Bathes Prologue. Line 6154. |
| Note 1. Consider the little mouse, how sagacious an animal it is which never entrusts his life to one hole only.—Plautus: Truculentus, act iv. sc. 4. The mouse that always trusts to one poor hole Can never be a mouse of any soul. Alexander Pope: Paraphrase of the Prologue, line 298. [back] |