Robert Christy, comp. Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1887.
Mother-in-law
A mother-in-law is like the dry rot: far easier to get into a house than to get it out again.Punch.
If my mother-in-law dies, I will fetch somebody to flay her.Portuguese.
Mother-in-law, daughter-in-law,—storm and hail.Italian.
My mother-in-law is dead, my hearth is enlarged.Modern Greek.
Of all the old women that ever I saw,
Surest bad luck to my mother-in-law.
The best mother-in-law is she on whom your geese feed (on the grass that grows on her grave).
The cask full, the mother-in-law drunk.Spanish.
The gude man’s mither is always in the gude wife’s gait (way).
The husband’s mother is the wife’s devil.German.
The mother-in-law does not remember she was once daughter-in-law.Spanish, Portuguese.
The mother-in-law must be entreated and the pot must be let stand.Spanish.
There is no good mother-in-law, but she that wears a green gown (the turf of the church-yard).(Kelly’s Proverbs.) German.