This proverb is found in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” (i. 289):

“As thin as a whipping-post” is another proverb of the same kind.

“As mad as a March hare” (“The Two Noble Kinsmen,” iii. 5). We may compare the expression “hare-brained:” “1 Henry IV.” (v. 2).

“As sound as a bell.” So in “Much Ado about Nothing” (iii. 2), Don Pedro says of Benedick: “He hath a heart as sound as a bell.”

“As the bell clinketh, so the fool thinketh.” This proverb is indirectly alluded to in “Much Ado About Nothing” (iii. 2), in the previous passage, where Don Pedro says of Benedick that “He hath a heart as sound as a bell, and his tongue is the clapper; for what his heart thinks, his tongue speaks.”

Another form of the same proverb is: “As the fool thinks, the bell tinks.”[863]

“As true as steel.” This popular adage is quoted in “Troilus and Cressida” (iii. 2):

We may also compare the proverb: “As true as the dial to the sun.”

“At hand, quoth pick-purse” (“1 Henry IV.,” ii. 1). This proverbial saying arose, says Malone, from the pickpurse always seizing the prey nearest him.

“Ay, tell me that and unyoke” (“Hamlet,” v. 1). This was a common adage for giving over or ceasing to do a thing; a metaphor derived from the unyoking of oxen at the end of their labor.

“Baccare, quoth Mortimer to his sow.” With this Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps compares Gremio’s words in the “Taming of the Shrew” (ii. 1):

Mr. Dyce (“Glossary,” p. 23) says the word signifies “go back,” and cites one of John Heywood’s epigrams upon it:

“Barnes are blessings” (“All’s Well that Ends Well,” i. 3).

“Base is the slave that pays” (“Henry V.,” ii. 1).[864]

“Bastards are born lucky.” This proverb is alluded to in “King John” (i. 1), by the Bastard, who says:

Philip wishes his brother good fortune, because Robert was not a bastard.

“Beggars mounted run their horses to death.”[865] Quoted by York in “3 Henry VI.” (i. 4). We may also compare the proverb: “Set a beggar on horseback, he’ll ride to the devil.”

“Begone when the sport is at the best.” Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps quotes Benvolio’s words in “Romeo and Juliet” (i. 5):

To the same effect are Romeo’s words (i. 4):

“Be off while your shoes are good.” This popular phrase, still in use, seems alluded to by Katharina in “Taming of the Shrew” (iii. 2), who says to Petruchio:

“Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit.” Quoted by the clown in “Twelfth Night” (i. 5).

“Better fed than taught.” This old saying may be alluded to in “All’s Well that Ends Well” (ii. 2) by the clown, “I will show myself highly fed and lowly taught;” and again (ii. 4) by Parolles:

“Blessing of your heart, you brew good ale.” Quoted by Launce as a proverb in the “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (iii. 1).

“Blush like a black dog.” This saying is referred to in “Titus Andronicus” (v. 1):

“Bought and sold” (“Troilus and Cressida,” ii. 1). A proverbial phrase applied to any one entrapped or made a victim by treachery or mismanagement. It is found again in the “Comedy of Errors” (iii. 1); in “King John” (v. 4); and in “Richard III.” (v. 3).

“Bring your hand to the buttery-bar, and let it drink” (“Twelfth Night,” i. 3). Mr. Dyce quotes the following explanation of this passage, although he does not answer for its correctness: “This is a proverbial phrase among forward abigails, to ask at once for a kiss and a present. Sir Andrew’s slowness of comprehension in this particular gave her a just suspicion, at once, of his frigidity and avarice.” The buttery-bar means the place in palaces and in great houses whence provisions were dispensed; and it is still to be seen in most of our colleges.

“Brag’s a good dog, but Hold-fast is a better.” This proverb is alluded to in “Henry V.” (ii. 3), by Pistol:

“Bush natural, more hair than wit.” Ray’s Proverbs. So in “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (iii. 1), it is said, “She hath more hair than wit.”

“By chance but not by truth”[867] (“King John,” i. 1).

“Care will kill a cat; yet there’s no living without it.” So in “Much Ado About Nothing” (v. 1), Claudio says to Don Pedro: “What though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care.”

“Come cut and long-tail” (“Merry Wives of Windsor,” iii. 4). This proverb means, “Let any come that may, good or bad;” and was, no doubt, says Staunton, originally applied to dogs or horses.

“Comparisons are odious.” So, in “Much Ado About Nothing” (iii. 5), Dogberry tells Verges: “Comparisons are odorous.”

“Confess and be hanged.” This well-known proverb is probably alluded to in the “Merchant of Venice” (iii. 2):

We may also refer to what Othello says (iv. 1): “To confess, and be hanged for his labour; first, to be hanged, and then to confess. I tremble at it.”

In “Timon of Athens” (i. 2), Apemantus says: “Ho, ho, confess’d it! hang’d it, have you not?”

“Cry him, and have him.” So Rosalind says, in “As You Like It” (i. 3), “If I could cry ‘hem’ and have him.”

“Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool” (“King Lear,” iii. 6). It is given by Ray in his “Proverbs” (1768); see also “Taming of the Shrew” (ii. 1).

“Cucullus non facit monachum.” So in “Henry VIII.” (iii. 1), Queen Katherine says:

Chaucer thus alludes to this proverb:

“Dead as a door-nail.” So, in “2 Henry VI.” (iv. 10), Cade says to Iden: “I have eat no meat these five days; yet, come thou and thy five men, and if I do not leave you all as dead as a door-nail, I pray God I may never eat grass more.”

We may compare the term, “dead as a herring,” which Caius uses in the “Merry Wives of Windsor” (ii. 3), “By gar, de herring is no dead, so as I vill kill him.”

“Death will have his day” (“Richard II.,” iii. 2).

“Delays are dangerous.” In “1 Henry VI.” (iii. 2), Reignier says:

“Diluculo surgere,” etc. (“Twelfth Night,” ii. 3).

“Dogs must eat.” This, with several other proverbs, is quoted by Agrippa in “Coriolanus” (i. 1).

“Dun’s the mouse” (“Romeo and Juliet,” i. 4). This was a proverbial saying, of which no satisfactory explanation has yet been given. Nares thinks it was “frequently employed with no other intent than that of quibbling on the word done.” Ray has, “as dun as a mouse.” Mercutio says: “Tut, dun’s the mouse, the constable’s own word.”

“Empty vessels give the greatest sound.” Quoted in “Henry V.” (iv. 4).

“Every dog hath his day, and every man his hour.” This old adage seems alluded to by Hamlet (v. 1):[868]

“Every man at forty is either a fool or a physician.”[869] This popular proverb is probably referred to in “Merry Wives of Windsor” (iii. 4), by Mistress Quickly, who tells Fenton how she had recommended him as a suitor for Mr. Page’s daughter instead of Doctor Caius: “This is my doing, now: ‘Nay,’ said I, ‘will you cast away your child on a fool, and a physician? look on Master Fenton:’—this is my doing.”

“Familiarity breeds contempt.” So, in the “Merry Wives of Windsor” (i. 1), Slender says: “I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt.”

“Fast bind, fast find.” In “Merchant of Venice” (ii. 5), Shylock says:

“Finis coronat opus.” A translation of this Latin proverb is given by Helena in “All’s Well that Ends Well” (iv. 4):

In “2 Henry VI.” (v. 2), also, Clifford’s expiring words are: “La fin couronne les œuvres.” We still have the expression to crown, in the sense of to finish or make perfect. Mr. Douce[870] remarks that “coronidem imponere is a metaphor well known to the ancients, and supposed to have originated from the practice of finishing buildings by placing a crown at the top as an ornament; and for this reason the words crown, top, and head are become synonymous in most languages. There is reason for believing that the ancients placed a crescent at the beginning, and a crown, or some ornament that resembled it, at the end of their books.” In “Troilus and Cressida” (iv. 5), Hector says:

Prince Henry (“2 Henry IV.,” ii. 2), in reply to Poins, gives another turn to the proverb: “By this hand, thou think’st me as far in the devil’s book as thou and Falstaff, for obduracy and persistency: let the end try the man.”[871]

“Fly pride, says the peacock.” This is quoted by Dromio of Syracuse, in “The Comedy of Errors” (iv. 3).[872]

“Friends may meet, but mountains never greet.” This is ironically alluded to in “As You Like It” (iii. 2), by Celia: “It is a hard matter for friends to meet; but mountains may be removed with earthquakes, and so encounter.”

“Give the devil his due.” In “Henry V.” (iii. 7) it is quoted by the Duke of Orleans.

“God sends fools fortune.” It is to this version of the Latin adage, “Fortuna favet fatuis” (“Fortune favors fools”), that Touchstone alludes in his reply to Jaques, in “As You Like It” (ii. 7):

Under different forms, the same proverb is found on the Continent. The Spanish say, “The mother of God appears to fools;” and the German one is this, “Fortune and women are fond of fools.”[873]

“God sends not corn for the rich only.” This is quoted by Marcius in “Coriolanus” (i. 1).

“Good goose, do not bite.” This proverb is used in “Romeo and Juliet” (ii. 4):

“Good liquor will make a cat speak.” So, in the “Tempest” (ii. 2), Stephano says: “Come on your ways: open your mouth; here is that which will give language to you, cat; open your mouth.”

“Good wine needs no bush.” This old proverb, which is quoted by Shakespeare in “As You Like It” (v. 4, “Epilogue”)—“If it be true that good wine needs no bush, ’tis true that a good play needs no epilogue”—refers to the custom of hanging up a bunch of twigs, or a wisp of hay, at a roadside inn, as a sign that drink may be had within. This practice, “which still lingers in the cider-making counties of the west of England, and prevails more generally in France, is derived from the Romans, among whom a bunch of ivy was used as the sign of a wine-shop.” They were also in the habit of saying, “Vendible wine needs no ivy hung up.” The Spanish have a proverb, “Good wine needs no crier.”[874]

“Greatest clerks not the wisest men.” Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, in his “Handbook Index to Shakespeare” (p. 391), quotes the following passage in “Twelfth Night” (iv. 2), where Maria tells the clown to personate Sir Topas, the curate: “I am not tall enough to become the function well, nor lean enough to be thought a good student; but to be said an honest man and a good housekeeper goes as fairly as to say a careful man and a great scholar.”

“Happy man be his dole” (“Taming of the Shrew,” i. 1; “1 Henry IV.,” ii. 2). Ray has it, “Happy man, happy dole;” or, “Happy man by his dole.”

“Happy the bride on whom the sun shines.” Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, in his “Handbook Index to Shakespeare” (p. 392), quotes, as an illustration of this popular proverb, the following passage in “Twelfth Night” (iv. 3), where Olivia and Sebastian, having made “a contract of eternal bond of love,” the former says:

“Happy the child whose father went to the devil.”[875] So, in “3 Henry VI.” (ii. 2), King Henry asks, interrogatively:

The Portuguese say, “Alas for the son whose father goes to heaven.”

“Hares pull dead lions by the beard.” In “King John” (ii. 1), the Bastard says to Austria:

“Have is have, however men do catch.” Quoted by the Bastard in “King John” (i. 1).

“Heaven’s above all.” In “Richard II.” (iii. 3) York tells Bolingbroke:

So, too, in “Othello” (ii. 3), Cassio says: “Heaven’s above all.”[876]

“He is a poor cook who cannot lick his own fingers.” Under a variety of forms, this proverb is found in different countries. The Italians say, “He who manages other people’s wealth does not go supperless to bed.” The Dutch, too, say, “All officers are greasy,” that is, something sticks to them.[877] In “Romeo and Juliet” (iv. 2) the saying is thus alluded to:

“He’s mad, that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse’s health, a boy’s love, or a whore’s oath” (“King Lear,” iii. 6).[878]

“Heroum filii noxæ.” It is a common notion that a father above the common rate of men has usually a son below it. Hence, in “The Tempest” (i. 2), Shakespeare probably alludes to this Latin proverb:

“He knows not a hawk from a handsaw.” Hamlet says (ii. 2): “When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.”

“He may hang himself in his own garters.” So, Falstaff (“1 Henry IV.” ii. 2) says: “Go, hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent garters.”

“He that is born to be hanged will never be drowned.” In “The Tempest” (i. 1), Gonzalo says of the Boatswain: “I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good Fate, to his hanging! make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage! If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable.” The Italians say, “He that is to die by the gallows may dance on the river.”

“He that dies pays all debts” (“The Tempest,” iii. 2).

“He who eats with the devil hath need of a long spoon.” This is referred to by Stephano, in “The Tempest” (ii. 2): “This is a devil, and no monster: I will leave him; I have no long spoon.” Again, in the “Comedy of Errors” (iv. 3), Dromio of Syracuse says: “He must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil.”

The old adage, which tells how

is quoted in “Antony and Cleopatra” (ii. 7) by Menas:

“Hold hook and line” (“2 Henry IV.,” ii. 4). This, says Dyce, is a sort of cant proverbial expression, which sometimes occurs in our early writers (“Glossary,” p. 210).

“Hold, or cut bow-strings”[879] (“A Midsummer-Night’s Dream,” i. 2).

“Honest as the skin between his brows” (“Much Ado About Nothing,” iii. 5).[880]

“Hunger will break through stone-walls.” This is quoted by Marcius in “Coriolanus” (i. 1), who, in reply to Agrippa’s question, “What says the other troop?” replies:

According to an old Suffolk proverb,[881] “Hunger will break through stone-walls, or anything, except Suffolk cheese.”

“I scorn that with my heels” (“Much Ado About Nothing,” iii. 4). A not uncommon proverbial expression. It is again referred to, in the “Merchant of Venice” (ii. 2), by Launcelot: “do not run; scorn running with thy heels.” Dyce thinks it is alluded to in “Venus and Adonis:”

“If you are wise, keep yourself warm.” This proverb is probably alluded to in the “Taming of the Shrew” (ii. 1):

So, in “Much Ado About Nothing” (i. 1): “that if he have wit enough to keep himself warm.”

“I fear no colours” (“Twelfth Night,” i. 5).

“Ill-gotten goods never prosper.” This proverb is referred to by King Henry (“3 Henry VI.,” ii. 2):

“Illotis manibus tractare sacra.” Falstaff, in “1 Henry IV.” (iii. 3), says: “Rob me the exchequer the first thing thou dost, and do it with unwashed hands too.”

“Ill will never said well.” This is quoted by Duke of Orleans in “Henry V.” (iii. 7).

“In at the window, or else o’er the hatch” (“King John,” i. 1). Applied to illegitimate children. Staunton has this note: “Woe worth the time that ever a gave suck to a child that came in at the window!” (“The Family of Love,” 1608). So, also, in “The Witches of Lancashire,” by Heywood and Broome, 1634: “It appears you came in at the window.” “I would not have you think I scorn my grannam’s cat to leap over the hatch.”

“It is a foul bird which defiles its own nest.” This seems alluded to in “As You Like It” (iv. 1) where Celia says to Rosalind: “You have simply misused our sex in your love-prate: we must have your doublet and hose plucked over your head, and show the world what the bird hath done to her own nest.”

“It is a poor dog that is not worth the whistling.” So Goneril, in “King Lear” (iv. 2): “I have been worth the whistle.”

“It is a wise child that knows its own father.” In the “Merchant of Venice” (ii. 2), Launcelot has the converse of this: “It is a wise father that knows his own child.”

“It is an ill wind that blows nobody good.” So, in “3 Henry VI.” (ii. 5), we read:

And, in “2 Henry IV.” (v. 3), when Falstaff asks Pistol “What wind blew you hither?” the latter replies: “Not the ill wind which blows no man to good.”

“It is easy to steal a shive from a cut loaf.” In “Titus Andronicus” (ii. 1), Demetrius refers to this proverb. Ray has, “’Tis safe taking a shive out of a cut loaf.”

“It’s a dear collop that’s cut out of my own flesh.” Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps thinks there may be possibly an allusion to this proverb in “1 Henry VI.” (v. 4), where the Shepherd says of La Pucelle:

“I will make a shaft or a bolt of it.” In the “Merry Wives of Windsor” (iii. 4) this proverb is used by Slender.[882] Ray gives “to make a bolt or a shaft of a thing.” This is equivalent to, “I will either make a good or a bad thing of it: I will take the risk.”

“It is like a barber’s chair” (“All’s Well that Ends Well,” ii. 2).

The following passage, in “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream” (iii. 2):

refers to the popular proverb of olden times, says Staunton, signifying “all ended happily.” So, too, Biron says, in “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (v. 2):

It occurs in Skelton’s poem “Magnyfycence” (Dyce, ed. i. p. 234): “Jack shall have Gyl;” and in Heywood’s “Dialogue” (Sig. F. 3, 1598):

“Kindness will creep where it cannot go.” Thus, in the “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (iv. 2), Proteus tells Thurio how

There is a Scotch proverb, “Kindness will creep whar it mauna gang.”

“Let the world slide” (“Taming of the Shrew,” Induction, sc. i.).

“Let them laugh that win.” Othello says (iv. 1):

On the other hand, the French say, “Marchand qui perd ne peut rire.”

“Like will to like, as the devil said to the collier.” With this we may compare the following passage in “Twelfth Night” (iii. 4): “What, man! ’tis not for gravity to play at cherry-pit with Satan: hang him, foul collier!”—collier having been, in Shakespeare’s day, a term of the highest reproach.

“Losers have leave to talk.” Titus Andronicus (iii. 1) says:

“Maids say nay, and take.” So Julia, in the “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (i. 2), says:

In “The Passionate Pilgrim” we read:

“Make hay while the sun shines.” King Edward, in “3 Henry VI.” (iv. 8), alludes to this proverb:

The above proverb is peculiar to England, and, as Trench remarks, could have its birth only under such variable skies as ours.

“Many talk of Robin Hood that never shot in his bow.” So, in “2 Henry IV.” (iii. 2), Justice Shallow, says Falstaff, “talks as familiarly of John o’ Gaunt as if he had been sworn brother to him; and I’ll be sworn a’ never saw him but once in the Tilt-yard,—and then he burst his head, for crowding among the marshal’s men.”

“Marriage and hanging go by destiny.”[883] This proverb is the popular creed respecting marriage, and, under a variety of forms, is found in different countries. Thus, in “Merchant of Venice” (ii. 9), Nerissa says:

Again, in “All’s Well that Ends Well” (i. 3) the Clown says:

We may compare the well-known proverb, “Marriages are made in heaven,” and the French version, “Les mariages sont écrits dans le ciel.”

“Marriage as bad as hanging.” In “Twelfth Night” (i. 5), the Clown says: “Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.”

“Marry trap” (“Merry Wives of Windsor,” i. 1). This, says Nares, “is apparently a kind of proverbial exclamation, as much as to say, ‘By Mary, you are caught.’”

“Meat was made for mouths.” Quoted in “Coriolanus” (i. 1).

“Misfortunes seldom come alone.” This proverb is beautifully alluded to by the King in “Hamlet” (iv. 5):

The French say:[884] “Malheur ne vient jamais seul.”

“More hair than wit” (“Two Gentlemen of Verona,” iii. 2). A well-known old English proverb.

“Mortuo leoni et lepores insultant.” This proverb is alluded to by the Bastard in “King John” (ii. 1), who says to the Archduke of Austria:

“Much water goes by the mill the miller knows not of.” This adage is quoted in “Titus Andronicus” (ii. 1), by Demetrius:

“My cake is dough” (“Taming of the Shrew,” v. 1). An obsolete proverb, repeated on the loss of hope or expectation: the allusion being to the old-fashioned way of baking cakes at the embers, when it may have been occasionally the case for a cake to be burned on one side and dough on the other. In a former scene (i. 1) Gremio says: “our cake’s dough on both sides.” Staunton quotes from “The Case is Altered,” 1609:

“Murder will out.” So, in the “Merchant of Venice” (ii. 2), Launcelot says: “Murder cannot be hid long,—a man’s son may; but, in the end, truth will out.”

“Near or far off, well won is still well shot” (“King John,” i. 1).

“Needs must when the devil drives.” In “All’s Well that Ends Well” (i. 3), the Clown tells the Countess: “I am driven on by the flesh; and he must needs go, that the devil drives.”

“Neither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring.”[885] Falstaff says of the Hostess in “1 Henry IV.” (iii. 3): “Why, she’s neither fish nor flesh; a man knows not where to have her.”

“One nail drives out another.” In “Romeo and Juliet” (i. 2), Benvolio says:

The allusion, of course, is to homœopathy. The Italians say, “Poison quells poison.”

“Old men are twice children;” or, as they say in Scotland, “Auld men are twice bairns.” We may compare the Greek Δἱς παῖδες οἱ γεροντες. The proverb occurs in “Hamlet” (ii. 2): “An old man is twice a child.”

“Out of God’s blessing into the warm sun.” So Kent says in “King Lear” (ii. 2):

“Patience perforce is a medicine for a mad dog.” This proverb is probably alluded to by Tybalt in “Romeo and Juliet” (i. 5):

And again, in “Richard III.” (i. 1):

“Pitch and Pay” (“Henry V.,” ii. 3). This is a proverbial expression equivalent to “Pay down at once.”[886] It probably originated from pitching goods in a market, and paying immediately for their standing. Tusser, in his “Description of Norwich,” calls it:

“Pitchers have ears.” Baptista quotes this proverb in the “Taming of the Shrew” (iv. 4):

According to another old proverb: “Small pitchers have great ears.”

“Poor and proud! fy, fy.” Olivia, in “Twelfth Night” (iii. 1), says:

“Praise in departing” (“The Tempest,” iii. 3). The meaning is: “Do not praise your entertainment too soon, lest you should have reason to retract your commendation.” Staunton quotes from “The Paradise of Dainty Devises,” 1596:

“Pray God, my girdle break”[887] (“1 Henry IV.,” iii. 3).

“Put your finger in the fire and say it was your fortune.” An excellent illustration of this proverb is given by Edmund in “King Lear” (i. 2): “This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, we make guilty of our disasters, the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains on necessity; fools, by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion,” etc.

“Respice finem, respice furem.” It has been suggested that Shakespeare (“Comedy of Errors,” iv. 4) may have met with these words in a popular pamphlet of his time, by George Buchanan, entitled “Chamæleon Redivivus; or, Nathaniel’s Character Reversed”—a satire against the Laird of Lidingstone, 1570, which concludes with the following words, “Respice finem, respice furem.”

“Seldom comes the better.” In “Richard III.” (ii. 3), one of the citizens says: