John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
Page 15
| John Heywood. (1497?–1580?) (continued) |
| 137 |
| Better one byrde in hand than ten in the wood. 1 |
| Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi. |
| 138 |
| Rome was not built in one day. |
| Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi. |
| 139 |
| Yee have many strings to your bowe. 2 |
| Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi. |
| 140 |
| Many small make a great. 3 |
| Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi. |
| 141 |
| Children learne to creepe ere they can learne to goe. |
| Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi. |
| 142 |
| Better is halfe a lofe than no bread. |
| Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi. |
| 143 |
| Nought venter nought have. 4 |
| Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi. |
| 144 |
| Children and fooles cannot lye. 5 |
| Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi. |
| 145 |
| Set all at sixe and seven. 6 |
| Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi. |
| 146 |
| All is fish that comth to net. 7 |
| Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi. |
| 147 |
| Who is worse shod than the shoemaker’s wife? 8 |
| Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi. |
| 148 |
| One good turne asketh another. |
| Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi. |
| 149 |
| By hooke or crooke. 9 |
| Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi. |
| Note 1. An earlier instance occurs in Heywood, in his “Dialogue on Wit and Folly,” circa 1530. [back] |
| Note 2. Two strings to his bow.—Richard Hooker: Polity, book v. chap. lxxx. George Chapman: D’ Ambois, act ii. sc. 3. Samuel Butler: Hudibras, part iii. canto i. line 1. Churchill: The Ghost, book iv. Henry Fielding: Love in Several Masques, sc. 13. [back] |
| Note 3. See Chaucer, Quotation 42. [back] |
| Note 4. Naught venture naught have.—Thomas Tusser: Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. October Abstract [back] |
| Note 5. ’T is an old saw, Children and fooles speake true.—John Lyly: Endymion. [back] |
| Note 6. Set all on sex and seven.—Geoffrey Chaucer: Troilus and Cresseide, book iv. line 623; also Towneley Mysteries. At six and seven.—William Shakespeare: Richard II. act ii. sc. 2. [back] |
| Note 7. All ’s fish they get that cometh to net.—Thomas Tusser: Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. February Abstract. Where all is fish that cometh to net.—Gascoigne: Steele Glas. 1575. [back] |
| Note 8. Him that makes shoes go barefoot himself.—Robert Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader. [back] |
| Note 9. This phrase derives its origin from the custom of certain manors where tenants are authorized to take fire-bote by hook or by crook; that is, so much of the underwood as may be cut with a crook, and so much of the loose timber as may be collected from the boughs by means of a hook. One of the earliest citations of this proverb occurs in John Wycliffe’s Controversial Tracts, circa 1370.—See Skelton, Quotation 5. Francis Rabelais: book v. chap. xiii. Du Bartas: The Map of Man. Edmund Spenser: Faerie Queene, book iii. canto i. st. 17. Beaumont and Fletcher: Women Pleased, act i. sc. 3. [back] |