—a proverbial saying of great antiquity. Mr. Douce[888] cites an account of its origin from a MS. collection of stories in Latin, compiled about the time of Henry III.

“Service is no inheritance.” So, in “All’s Well that Ends Well” (i. 3), the Clown says: “Service is no heritage.”

“Sit thee down, sorrow” (“Love’s Labour’s Lost,” i. 1).

“Sit at the stern.” A proverbial phrase meaning to have the management of public affairs. So, in “1 Henry VI.” (i. 1), Winchester says:

“She has the mends in her own hands.” This proverbial phrase is of frequent occurrence in our old writers, and probably signifies, “It is her own fault;” or, “The remedy lies with herself.” It is used by Pandarus in “Troilus and Cressida” (i. 1). Burton, in his “Anatomy of Melancholy,” writes: “And if men will be jealous in such cases, the mends is in their own hands, they must thank themselves.”

“Small herbs have grace, great weeds do grow apace” (“Richard III.,” ii. 4).

“So wise so young, do ne’er live long” (“Richard III.,” iii. 1).[889]

“So like you, ’tis the worse.” This is quoted as an old proverb by Paulina in the “Winter’s Tale” (ii. 3).

“Something about, a little from the right” (“King John,” i. 1).

“Sowed cockle, reap no corn” (“Love’s Labour’s Lost,” iv. 3).

“Speak by the card” (“Hamlet,” v. 1). A merchant’s expression, equivalent to “be as precise as a map or book.” The card is the document in writing containing the agreement made between a merchant and the captain of a vessel. Sometimes the owner binds himself, ship, tackle, and furniture, for due performance, and the captain is bound to declare the cargo committed to him in good condition. Hence, “to speak by the card” is to speak according to the indentures or written instructions.

“Still swine eat all the draff” (“Merry Wives of Windsor,” iv. 2). Ray gives: “The still sow eats up all the draught.”

“Still waters run deep.” So in “2 Henry VI.” (iii. 1), Suffolk says:

“Strike sail.” A proverbial phrase to acknowledge one’s self beaten. In “3 Henry VI.” (iii. 3), it occurs:

When a ship, in fight, or on meeting another ship, lets down her topsails at least half-mast high, she is said to strike, that is, to submit or pay respect to the other.[890]

“Strike while the iron is hot.” Poins probably alludes to this proverb in “2 Henry IV.” (ii. 4): “My lord, he will drive you out of your revenge, and turn all to a merriment, if you take not the heat.”

Again, in “King Lear” (i. 1), Goneril adds: “We must do something, and i’ the heat.”

“Take all, pay all” (“Merry Wives of Windsor,” ii. 2). Ray gives another version of this proverb: “Take all, and pay the baker.”

“Tell the truth and shame the devil.” In “1 Henry IV.” (iii. 1), Hotspur tells Glendower:

“That was laid on with a trowel.”[891] This proverb, which is quoted by Ray, is used by Celia in “As You Like It” (i. 2). Thus we say, when any one bespatters another with gross flattery, that he lays it on with a trowel.

“The cat loves fish, but she’s loath to wet her feet.” It is to this proverb that Lady Macbeth alludes when she upbraids her husband for his irresolution (“Macbeth,” i. 7):

There are various forms of this proverb. Thus, according to the rhyme:

The French version is “Le chat aime le poisson mais il n’aime pas à mouiller la patte”—so that it would seem Shakespeare borrowed from the French.

“The devil rides on a fiddlestick” (“1 Henry IV.,” ii. 4).

“The galled jade will wince.” So Hamlet says (iii. 2), “let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung.”

“The grace o’ God is gear enough.” This is the Scotch form of the proverb which Launcelot Gobbo speaks of as being well parted between Bassanio and Shylock, in the “Merchant of Venice” (ii. 2): “The old proverb is very well parted between my master Shylock and you, sir; you have the grace of God, sir, and he hath enough.”

“The Mayor of Northampton opens oysters with his dagger.” This proverb is alluded to by Pistol in “Merry Wives of Windsor” (ii. 2), when he says:

Northampton being some eighty miles from the sea, oysters were so stale before they reached the town (before railroads, or even coaches, were known), that the “Mayor would be loath to bring them near his nose.”

“The more haste the worse speed.” In “Romeo and Juliet” (ii. 6), Friar Laurence says:

The proverb thus alluded to seems to be derived from the Latin adage, “Festinatio tarda est.” It defeats its own purpose by the blunders and imperfect work it occasions.[892] Hence the French say: “He that goes too hastily along often stumbles on a fair road.”

“There is flattery in friendship”—used by the Constable of France in “Henry V.” (iii. 7); the usual form of this proverb being: “There is falsehood in friendship.”

“There was but one way” (“Henry V.,” ii. 3). “This,” says Dyce, “is a kind of proverbial expression for death.” (“Glossary,” p. 494.)

“The weakest goes to the wall.” This is quoted by Gregory in “Romeo and Juliet” (i. 1), whereupon Sampson adds: “Women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall: therefore, I will push Montague’s men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall.”

“There went but a pair of shears between them” (“Measure for Measure,” i. 2). That is, “We are both of the same piece.”

“The world goes on wheels.” This proverbial expression occurs in “Antony and Cleopatra” (ii. 7); and Taylor, the Water-Poet, has made it the subject of one of his pamphlets: “The worlde runnes on wheeles, or, oddes betwixt carts and coaches.”

“Three women and a goose make a market.” This proverb is alluded to in “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (iii. 1):

The following lines in “1 Henry VI.” (i. 6),

allude to the Adonis horti, which were nothing but portable earthen pots, with some lettuce or fennel growing in them. On his yearly festival every woman carried one of them in honor of Adonis, because Venus had once laid him in a lettuce bed. The next day they were thrown away. The proverb seems to have been used always in a bad sense, for things which make a fair show for a few days and then wither away. The Dauphin is here made to apply it as an encomium. There is a good account of it in Erasmus’s “Adagia;” but the idea may have been taken from the “Fairy Queen,” bk. iii. cant. 6, st. 42 (Singer’s “Shakespeare,” 1875, vol. vi. p. 32).

“To clip the anvil of my sword.” “This expression, in ‘Coriolanus’ (iv. 5) is very difficult to be explained,” says Mr. Green, “unless we regard it as a proverb, denoting the breaking of the weapon and the laying aside of enmity. Aufidius makes use of it in his welcome to the banished Coriolanus.”

“To have a month’s mind to a thing.” Ray’s “Proverbs.” So, in the “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (i. 2), Julia says:

“’Tis merry in hall when beards wag all.”[894] This is quoted by Silence in “2 Henry IV.” (v. 3):

“To have one in the wind.” This is one of Camden’s proverbial sentences. In “All’s Well that Ends Well” (iii. 6), Bertram says:

“To hold a candle to the devil”—that is, “to aid or countenance that which is wrong.” Thus, in the “Merchant of Venice” (ii. 6), Jessica says:

—the allusion being to the practice of the Roman Catholics who burn candles before the image of a favorite saint, carry them in funeral processions, and place them on their altars.

“To the dark house” (“All’s Well that Ends Well,” ii. 3). A house which is the seat of gloom and discontent.

“Truth should be silent.” Enobarbus, in “Antony and Cleopatra” (ii. 2), says: “That truth should be silent I had almost forgot.”

“To take mine ease in mine inn.” A proverbial phrase used by Falstaff in “1 Henry IV.” (iii. 3), implying, says Mr. Drake, “a degree of comfort which has always been the peculiar attribute of an English house of public entertainment.”[895]

“Twice away says stay” (“Twelfth Night,” v. 1). Malone thinks this proverb is alluded to by the Clown: “conclusions to be as kisses, if your four negatives make your two affirmatives, why, then, the worse for my friends and the better for my foes;” and quotes Marlowe’s “Last Dominion,” where the Queen says to the Moor:

“Trust not a horse’s heel.” In “King Lear” (iii. 6) the Fool says, “he’s mad that trusts a horse’s health.” Malone would read “heels.”

“Two may keep counsel, putting one away.” So Aaron, in “Titus Andronicus” (iv. 2), says:

“Ungirt, unblest.” Falstaff alludes to the old adage, in “1 Henry IV.” (iii. 3). “I pray God my girdle break.” Malone quotes from an ancient ballad:

“Walls have ears.” So, in “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream” (v. 1), Thisbe is made to say:

“Wedding and ill-wintering tame both man and beast.” Thus, in “Taming of the Shrew” (iv. 1), Grumio says: “Winter tames man, woman, and beast; for it hath tamed my old master, and my new mistress, and myself.” We may also compare the Spanish adage: “You will marry and grow tame.”

“We steal as in a castle” (“1 Henry IV.,” ii. 1). This, says Steevens, was once a proverbial phrase.

“What can’t be cured must be endured.” With this popular adage may be compared the following: “Past cure is still past care,” in “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (v. 2). So in “Richard II.” (ii. 3), the Duke of York says:

Again, in “Macbeth” (iii. 2) Lady Macbeth says:

“What’s mine is yours, and what is yours is mine” (“Measure for Measure,” v. 1).

“When things come to the worst they’ll mend.” The truth of this popular adage is thus exemplified by Pandulph in “King John” (iii. 4):

Of course it is equivalent to the proverb, “When the night’s darkest the day’s nearest.”

“When? can you tell?” (“Comedy of Errors,” iii. 1). This proverbial query, often met with in old writers, and perhaps alluded to just before in this scene, when Dromio of Syracuse says: “Right, sir; I’ll tell you when, an you’ll tell me wherefore;” occurs again in “1 Henry IV.” (ii. 1): “Ay, when? canst tell?”

“When two men ride the same horse one must ride behind.” So in “Much Ado About Nothing” (iii. 5) Dogberry says: “An two men ride of a horse, one must ride behind.”[896] With this may be compared the Spanish adage, “He who rides behind does not saddle when he will.”

“While the grass grows, the steed starves.” This is alluded to by Hamlet (iii. 2): “Ay, sir, but ‘while the grass grows,’ the proverb is something musty.” See Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 499.

“Who dares not stir by day must walk by night” (“King John,” i. 1).

“Who goes to Westminster for a wife, to St. Paul’s for a man, and to Smithfield for a horse, may meet with a queane, a knave, and a jade.” This proverb, often quoted by old writers, is alluded to in “2 Henry IV.” (i. 2):

“Wit, whither wilt?” This was a proverbial expression not unfrequent in Shakespeare’s day. It is used by Orlando in “As You Like It” (iv. 1): “A man that had a wife with such a wit, he might say—‘Wit, whither wilt?’”

“Will you take eggs for money?” This was a proverbial phrase, quoted by Leontes in the “Winter’s Tale” (i. 2), for putting up with an affront, or being cajoled or imposed upon.

“Words are but wind, but blows unkind.” In “Comedy of Errors” (iii. 1), Dromio of Ephesus uses the first part of this popular adage.

“Worth a Jew’s eye.” Launcelot, in the “Merchant of Venice” (ii. 5), says:

According to tradition, the proverb arose from the custom of torturing Jews to extort money from them. It is simply, however, a corruption of the Italian gióia (a jewel).

“You’ll never be burned for a witch.” This proverb, which was applied to a silly person, is probably referred to in “Antony and Cleopatra” (i. 2) by Charmian, when he says to the soothsayer:

“Young ravens must have food” (“Merry Wives of Windsor,” i. 3).[897] Ray has “Small birds must have meat.”

CHAPTER XX.

THE HUMAN BODY.

It would be difficult to enumerate the manifold forms of superstition which have, in most countries, in the course of past centuries, clustered round the human body. Many of these, too, may still be found scattered, here and there, throughout our own country, one of the most deep-rooted being palmistry, several allusions to which are made by Shakespeare.

According to a popular belief current in years past, a trembling of the body was supposed to be an indication of demoniacal possession. Thus, in the “Comedy of Errors” (iv. 4) the Courtezan says of Antipholus of Ephesus:

and Pinch adds:

In “The Tempest” (ii. 2), Caliban says to Stephano, “Thou dost me yet but little hurt; thou wilt anon, I know it by thy trembling.”

It was formerly supposed that our bodies consisted of the four elements—fire, air, earth, and water, and that all diseases arose from derangement in the due proportion of these elements. Thus, in Antony’s eulogium on Brutus, in “Julius Cæsar” (v. 5), this theory is alluded to:

In “Twelfth Night” (ii. 3) it is also noticed:

In “Antony and Cleopatra” (v. 2), Shakespeare makes the latter say:

This theory is the subject, too, of Sonnets xliv. and xlv., and is set forth at large in its connection with physic in Sir Philip Sidney’s “Arcadia:”

This notion was substantially adopted by Galen, and embraced by the physicians of the olden times.[898]

Blood. In old phraseology this word was popularly used for disposition or temperament. In “Timon of Athens” (iv. 2), Flavius says:

In the opening passage of “Cymbeline” it occurs in the same sense:

the meaning evidently being that “our dispositions no longer obey the influences of heaven; they are courtiers, and still seem to resemble the disposition the king is in.”

Again, in “Much Ado About Nothing” (ii. 3): “wisdom and blood combating in so tender a body, we have ten proofs to one, that blood hath the victory.”

Once more, in “King Lear” (iv. 2), the Duke of Albany says to Goneril:

Again, the phrase “to be in blood” was a term of the chase, meaning, to be in good condition, to be vigorous. In “1 Henry VI.” (iv. 2), Talbot exclaims:

—the expression being put in opposition to “rascal,” which was the term for the deer when lean and out of condition. In “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (iv. 2), Holofernes says: “The deer was, as you know, sanguis,—in blood.”

The notion that the blood may be thickened by emotional influences is mentioned by Polixenes in the “Winter’s Tale” (i. 2), where he speaks of “thoughts that would thick my blood.” In King John’s temptation of Hubert to murder Arthur (iii. 3), it is thus referred to:

Red blood was considered a traditionary sign of courage. Hence, in the “Merchant of Venice” (ii. 1), the Prince of Morocco, when addressing himself to Portia, and urging his claims for her hand, says:

Again, in the same play, cowards are said to “have livers as white as milk,” and an effeminate man is termed a “milk-sop.” Macbeth, too (v. 3), calls one of his frighted soldiers a “lily-liver’d boy.” And in “King Lear” (ii. 2), the Earl of Kent makes use of the same phrase. In illustration of this notion Mr. Douce[900] quotes from Bartholomew Glantville, who says: “Reed clothes have been layed upon deed men in remembrance of theyr hardynes and boldnes, whyle they were in theyr bloudde.”

The absence of blood in the liver as the supposed property of a coward, originated, says Dr. Bucknill,[901] in the old theory of the circulation of the blood, which explains Sir Toby’s remarks on his dupe, in “Twelfth Night” (iii. 2): “For Andrew, if he were opened, and you find so much blood in his liver as will clog the foot of a flea, I’ll eat the rest of the anatomy.”

We may quote here a notion referred to in “Lucrece” (1744-50), that, ever since the sad death of Lucrece, corrupted blood has watery particles:

Brain. By old anatomists the brain was divided into three ventricles, in the hindermost of which they placed the memory. That this division was not unknown to Shakespeare is apparent from “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (iv. 2), where Holofernes says: “A foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, revolutions: these are begot in the ventricle of memory.” Again, Lady Macbeth (i. 7), speaking of Duncan’s two chamberlains, says:

The “third ventricle is the cerebellum, by which the brain is connected with the spinal marrow and the rest of the body; the memory is posted in the cerebellum, like a warder or sentinel, to warn the reason against attack. Thus, when the memory is converted by intoxication into a mere fume,[902] then it fills the brain itself—the receipt or receptacle of reason, which thus becomes like an alembic, or cap of a still.”[903]

A popular nickname, in former times, for the skull, was “brain-pan;” to which Cade, in “2 Henry VI.” (iv. 10) refers: “many a time, but for a sallet, my brain-pan had been cleft with a brown bill.” The phrase “to beat out the brains” is used by Shakespeare metaphorically in the sense of defeat or destroy; just as nowadays we popularly speak of knocking a scheme on the head. In “Measure for Measure” (v. 1), the Duke, addressing Isabella, tells her:

The expression “to bear a brain,” which is used by the Nurse in “Romeo and Juliet” (i. 3),

denoted “much mental capacity either of attention, ingenuity, or remembrance.”[904] Thus, in Marston’s “Dutch Courtezan” (1605), we read: