Imatges de pàgina
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The tongue is no edge tool, yet it will cut.

The only soil of his fair virtue's gloss . . .
Is a sharp wit matched with too blunt a will,
Whose edge hath power to cut, whose will still wills,
It should none spare that come within his power.

All dogs bark at him.

As a bear, encompassed round with dogs,

Who, having pinched a few and made them cry,

(L. L. L. ii. 1.)

The rest stand all aloof and bark at him. (3 Hen. VI, ii. 1.)
I... sent before my time into this breathing world . . .

...

And that so lamely and unfashionable

That dogs bark at me as I halt by them. (R. III. i. 1.)

You have him on the hip.

Now, infidel, I have thee on the hip.
I have our Michael Cassio on the hip.

'Tis merry in hall when beards wag all.

Be merry, be merry, my wife has all,

(Mer. Ven. iv. 1.)

(Oth. ii. 1.)

For women are shrews, both short and tall,

'Tis merry in hall when beards wag all. (2 H. IV. v. 3, song.)

A good tale is marred in the telling.

I can mar a curious tale in the telling. (Lear, i. 4.)

He must needs go that the devil drives.

I am driven on by the flesh, and he must needs go that the devil drives. (All's W. i. 3.)

She will lie as fast as a dog licketh a dish.

Let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,

Where thrift may follow fawning. (Ham. iii. 1.)

As merry as a cricket.

As merry as crickets. (1 H. IV. ii. 4.)

A gaggling gander.

You giddy goose. (1 H. IV. iii. 1.)

Nine lives like a cat.

Tyb. What would'st thou with me?

Mer. Good king of cats, nothing but one of thy nine lives.

(Rom. Jul. ii. 6.)

The time is tickle.

The state stands on a tickle point. (2 H. VI. i. 1.)

He has a finger in every man's pie.

No man's pie is freed from his ambitious finger. (H. VIII. i. 1.)

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Do not dull thy palm with entertainment

Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. (Ham. i. 2.)

Will is a good sonne and Will is a shrewde boy,
And wilful shrewde Will hath won thee this toy.

If thy soul check thee that I come so near,
Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy' Will,'
And will, thy soul knows, is admitted there;
Thus far for love my love-suit, sweet, fulfil.
'Will' will fulfil the treasure of thy love,

Ay, fill it full with wills, and my will one. . . .

Make but my name thy love, and love that still,

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And then thou lovest me, for my name is Will.' (Sonnet cxxxvi.) (Compare with Proverb No. 113.)

As angry as a wasp.

Pet. Come, come, you wasp, i' faith you are too angry.

Kath. If I be waspish, best beware my sting. (Tam. Sh. ii. 1.)

Plain fashions are best.

The face of plain old form is much disfigured. (John, iv. 2.)

I speak to thee plain soldier. . . . O dear Kate, nice customs curtsey to great kings. . . . You and I cannot be confined within the weak list of a country's fashions, &c. (Hen. V. v. 2.)

I come to beg nothynge of you, quoth he,
Save your advyse whiche maie my best maie be;
How to win present value for this present sore
I am lyke th' yll surgeon, said I, without store
Of good plaisters.

The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness,
And time to speak it in: you rub the sore

When you should bring the plaister. (Temp. ii. 1.)

Many a good cow hath an evil calf.

Villain, thou might'st have been an emperor,

But where the bull and cow are both milk-white

They never do beget a coal-black calf. (Tit. And. iv. i.)

(And see Wint. Tale, i. 2, 122.)

A little pot is soon hot.

Now were I not a little pot and soon hot, my very lips

Might freeze to my teeth. (Tam. Sh. iv. 1.)

It's evill waking a sleeping dog.

Wake not a sleeping wolf. (2 Hen. IV. i. 2.)

Soon ripe, soon rotten.

The ripest fruit soon falls, and so doth he. (R. II. ii. 1.)

A good mouse-hunt.

Lady Cap. Ay, you have been a good mouse-hunt in your time, but I will keep you from such watching now. (Rom. Jul. iv. 4.)

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Ros. Not one to throw at a dog.

Cel. No, thy words are too precious to be cast away upon curs.

Ryme without reason, and reason without ryme.

(As Y. L. i. 3.)

In the teeth of all rhyme and reason. (Mer. Wiv. v. 5.)
Neither rhyme nor reason. (Com. Er. ii. 3.)

None are so blind as he that will not see.

Who is so gross as seeth not this palpable device?

Yet who's so blind as says he sees it not? (R. III. iii. 6.)

APPENDIX C.

FRENCH PROVERBS APPARENTLY ALLUDED TO IN THE PLAYS, BUT NOT ENTERED IN THE PROMUS.'

Selon ta bourse te maintiens.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy. (Ham. i. 4.)

(Compare the passage with the Essays Of Expense, Of Travel, and Of Ceremonies.)

Les honneurs changent les mœurs.

New-made honour doth forget men's names. (John, ii. 1.)

Be not too sensible or too remembering of thy place in conversation, but let it rather be said, 'When he sits in place he is another man.' (Ess. Of Great Place.)

Un malheur amène son frere.

Un malheur n'arrive guère sans l'autre. (The same in English.) One woe doth tread upon another's heel, so fast they follow.

(See Macb. iv. 3, 175–177.)

(Ham. iv. 7.)

Tous les jours vont a la mort, et le dernier y arrive.

To-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow,

Creeps in this pretty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time. (Macb. v. 5.)

(See Ess. Of Death, 2).

Aux grands maux, les grands remèdes.

Diseases desperate grown, by desperate appliance are relieved.

(Ham. iv. 3.)

ITALIAN PROVERBS APPARENTLY ALLUDED TO IN THE PLAYS, BUT WHICH ARE NOT IN THE PROMUS.'

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Con l'ombra della virtù si dipinge il vizio. (With the tint of virtue vice is painted.)

So smooth he daubed his vice with show of virtue. (Rich. III. iii. 5.)

The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art,

Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it

Than is my deed to my most painted word. (Ham. iii. 1, &c.)

Non dica cosa la lingua che la paghi con la testa. (Do not say with your tongue what you may pay for with your head.)

All love the womb that their first being bred,

Then give my tongue like leave to love my head. (Per. i. 1.)

Chi parla poco gli basta la metà del cervello. (He who speaks little requires only half the amount of brains.)

There are a sort of men. . . that only are reputed wise for saying nothing. (Mer. Ven. i. 2.)

Quando la pera è fatta, convien che caschi. (When the pear is ripe it will fall.)

Purpose... like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree,

But fall unshaken when they mellow be. (Ham. iii. 2.)

Di pochi fidati, di tutti guardati. (Confide in few, guard against all.)

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Chi non ha figliuoli non sa che sia amore. (He who has no children, knows not the love of them.

He has no children. All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop? (Macb. iv. 3.)

Non far ciò che tu puoi ;
Non spender ciò che tu hai;
Non creder ciò che tu odi;
Non dir cio che tu sai.

(Do less than thou can'st,
Spend less than thou hast,
Believe less than thou hearest,
Say less than thou knowest.)

Have more than thou showest,
Speak less than thou knowest,
Lend less than thou owest,
Ride more than thou goest,
Learn more than thou trowest,
Set less than thou throwest;
Leave thy drink and thy whore,
And keep in-a-door,

And thou shalt have more

Than two tens to a score.

(Lear, 1. 4.)

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