A COLLECTION OF English PROVERBS Digested into a convenient Method for the speedy finding any one upon occasion WITH Short ANNOTATIONS Whereunto are added Local Proverbs with their Explications Old Proverbial Rhythmes Less known or Exotick Proverbial Sentences and Scottish Proverbs The Second Edition Enlarged by the Addition of many hundred English and an Appendix of Hebrew Proverbs with Annotations and Parallels By J. Ray M.A. and Fellow of the Royal Society CAMBRIDGE Printed by John Hayes Printer to the University for W. Morden 1678. The PREFACE THe former Edition of this Collection of English Proverbs falling into the hands of divers ingenious persons my worthy friends in several parts of this Kingdom had as I hoped it would this good effect to excite them as well to examine their own memories and try what they could call to mind themselves that were therein wanting as also more carefully to heed what occurred in reading or dropt from the mouths of others in discourse Whereupon having noted many such they were pleased for the perfecting of the work frankly to communicate them to me All which amounting to some hundreds besides not a few of my own observation I present the Reader with in this second Edition I dare not yet pretend it to be a compleat and perfect Catalogue of all English Proverbs but I think I may without arrogance affirm it to be more full and comprehensive then any Collection hitherto published And I believe that not very many of the Proverbs generally used all England over or far diffused over any considerable part of it whether the East West North or midland countreys have escaped it I having had communications from observant and inquisitive persons in all those parts viz. from Francis Jessop Esq of Broom-hall in Sheffield parish Yorkshire M r George Antrobus Master of the free School at Tamworth in Warwickshire M r Walter Ashmore of the same place Michael Biddulph Gent. of Polesworth in Warwickshire deceased M r Newton of Leicester M r Sherringham of Caius College in Cambridge S r Philip Skippon of Wrentham in Suffolk Knight M r Andrew Paschall of Chedsey in Somersetshire and M r Francis Brokesby of Rowley in the East Riding of Yorkshire As for locall Proverbs of lesser extent proper to some Towns or Villages as they are very numerous so are they hard to be procured and few of them could they be had very quaint or significant If any one shall find fault that I have inserted many English Phrases that are not properly Proverbs though that word be taken in its greatest latitude and according to my own definition of a Proverb object that I might as well have admitted all the idioms of the English tongue I answer that to say the truth I cannot warrant all those Phrases to be genuine Proverbs to which I have allowed room in this collection for indeed I did not satisfie my self in many but because they were sent me for such by learned and intelligent persons and who I ought to presume understand the nature of a Proverb better then my self and because I find the like in Collections of forreign Proverbs both French and Italian I chose rather to submit them to the censure of the Reader then my self pass sentence of rejection on them As for the method I have used in the Preface to the former Edition I have given my reasons why I made choice of it which to me doe still appear to be sufficient The method of common places if any man think it useful may easily be supplied by an Index of Common places wherein to each head the Proverbs appertaining or reducible shall be referred by the apposition of the numeral characters of page and line Some Proverbs the Reader may possibly find repeated but I dare say not many I know this might have been avoided by running over the whole book and searching for the Proverbs one by one in all the places where our method would admit them entry But sloth and impatience of so tedious a work enticed me rather to presume upon memory especially considering it was not worth while to be very solicitous about a matter of so small importance In such papers as I received after the Copy was out of my hands when I was doubtful of any Proverb I chose to let it stand resolving that it was better to repeat some then to omit any Now whereas I understand that some Proverbs admitted in the former Edition have given offence to sober and pious persons as savouring too much of obscenity being apt to suggest impure fancies to corrupt minds I have in this omitted all I could suspect for such save only one for the letting of which stand I have given my reason in the Note upon it and yet now upon better consideration I could wish that it also were obliterated For I would by no means be guilty of administring fewel to lust which I am sensible needs no incentives burning too eagerly of it self But though I doe condemn the mention of any thing obscene yet I cannot think all use of slovenly and dirty words to be such a violation of modesty as to exact the discarding all Proverbs of which they are ingredients The usefull notions which many ill-worded Proverbs doe import may I think compensate for their homely terms though I could wish the contrivers of them had put their sence into more decent and cleanly language For if we consider what the reasons are why the naming some excrements of the body or the egestion of them or the parts employed therein is condemned we shall find them to be either 1. because such excrements being offensive to our sences and usually begetting a loathing in our stomachs the words that signifie them are apt to doe so too and for their relation to them such also as denote those actions and parts of the body by which they are expelled and therefore the mention of them is uncivil and contrary to good manners or 2. because such excrements reflect some dishonour upon our bodies it being reputed disgracefull to lie under a necessity of such evacuations and to have such sinks about us and therefore modesty requires that we decline the naming of them left we seem to glory in our shame Now these reasons to me seem not so weighty and cogent as to necessitate the omission of so many of the most witty and significant of our English Proverbs Yet further to avoid all occasion of offence I have by that usual expedient of putting onely the initial letters for the uncleanly words so veiled them that I hope they will not turn the stomach of the most nauseous For it is the naming such things by their plain and proper appellatives that is odious and offensive when they come lapped up as we say in clean linnen that is expressed in oblique figurative or metaphorical terms or onely intimated and pointed at the most modest can brook them well enough The Appendix of Hebrew Proverbs was collected and
long enough To play the dog in the manger not eat your self nor let any body else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lucian Canis in praescpi E come il cane del ortolano che non mangia de cauoli egli non ne lascia mangiar altri Ital. Like the gardners dog who cannot eat the coleworts himself nor will suffer others Dogs run away with whole shoulders Not of mutton but their own spoken in derision of a misers house We dogs worried the hare To serve one a dog-trick It would make a dog doff his doublet Chesh A dogs life hunger and ease To dote more on 't then a fool on 's bable He 'll not put off his doublet before he goes to bed i. e. part with his estate before he die You need not doubt you are no Doctour A drachm o' th' bottle This is the Seamens phrase for a draught of brandy wine or strong waters To dream of a dry summer One had as good be nibled to death by ducks or pecked to death by a hen To take things in dudgeon or to wear a dudgeon-dagger by his side To dine with Duke Humphrey That is to fast to go without ones dinner This Duke Humphrey was uncle to K. Henry the sixth and his Protectour during his minority Duke of Glocester renowned for hospitality and good house-keeping Those were said to dine with Duke Humphrey who walked out dinner time in the body of S. Pauls Church because it was believed the Duke was buried there But saith Dr Fuller that saying is as far from truth as they from dinner even twenty miles off seeing this Duke was buried in the Church of St Albans to which he was a great benefactour She 's past dying of her first child i. e. she hath had a bastard E. HE dares not for his ears To fall together by the ears In at one ear and out at the other Dentro da un orecchia fuora dal altra Ital. To eat ones words You had as good eat your nails He could eat my heart with garlick That is he hates me mortally So we know some of the Americans feast upon the dead carcases of their enemies There 's as much hold of his word as of a wet cel by the tail 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have eggs o' th' spit I am very busie Egges if they be well roasted require much turning Neither good egg nor bird You come with your five eggs a penny and four of them be rotten Set a fool to roast eggs and a wise man to eat them An egg and to bed Give him the other half egg and burst him To smell of elbow-grease Lucernam olere She hath broken her elbow That is she hath had a bastard another meaning of this phrase see in the letter B at the word broken Elden hole needs filling Darbysh Spoken of a lier Elden hole is a deep pit in the Peak of Darbyshire near Castleton fathomless the bottom as they would perswade us It is without water and if you cast a stone into it you may for a considerable time hear it strike against the sides to and again as it descends each stroke giving a great report To make both ends meet To bring buckle and thong together To have the better end of the staff He 'll have enough one day when his mouth is full of moulds A sleeveless errand Find you without an excuse and find a hare without a muse Vias novit quibus effugit Eucrates This Eucrates was a miller in Athens who getting share in the Government was very cunning in finding out shifts and pretences to excuse himself from doing his duty I was by quoth Pedley when my eye was put out This Pedley was a natural fool of whom go many stories To cry with one eye and laugh with the other F. TO set a good face on a thing Faire bonne mine Gall. I think his face is made of a fiddle every one that looks on him loves him To come a day after the fair 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Post festum venisti Plat. in Gorg. It will be fair weather when the shrews have dined He pins his faith on another mans sleeve To fall away from a horse-load to a cart-load Fall back fall edge Farewell and be hang'd friends must part Farewell frost Nothing got nor nothing lost He thinks his fart as sweet as musk He farts frankincense This is an ancient Greek Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Self-love makes even a mans vices infirmities and imperfections to please him Suus cuique crepitus bene 〈◊〉 He makes a very fart a thunderclap All the fat 's i' th' fire To feather ones nest well To go to heaven in a featherbed Non est è terris mollis ad astra via Better fed then taught All fellows at foot-ball If Gentlemen and Persons ingeniously educated will mingle themselves with rusticks in their rude sports they must look for usage like to or rather courser then others Go fiddle for shives among old wives Fight dog fight bear Nè depugnes in alleno negotio To fight with ones own shadow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To fight with shadows to be afraid of his own fancies imagining danger where there is none To fill the mouth with empty spoons To have a finger i' th' pie He had a finger i' th' pie when he burnt his nail off He hath more wit in 's little finger then thou in thy whole body To put ones finger i' th' fire Prudens in flammam nè manum injicito Hieron Put not your finger needlesly into the fire Meddle not with a quarrel voluntarily wherein you need not be concern'd Prov. 26. 17. To foul ones fingers with To have a thing at his fingers ends Scire tanquam ungues digitósque His fingers are lime-twigs spoken of a thievish person All fire and tough To come to fetch fire To go through fire and water to serve or do one good Probably from the two sorts of Ordeall by fire and water To add fewell to the fire Oleum camino addere All is fish that comes to net You fish fair and catch a frog Neither fish nor flesh nor good red herring I have other fish to fry By fits and starts as the hog pisseth To give one a flap with the foxes tail i. e. to cozen or defraud one He would flay a flint or flay a groat spoken of a covetous person To send one away with a flea in his ear Lo gli ho messo un pulce nel orecchio Ital. It 's not easie to conceive by them who have not experienced it what a buzzing and noise a flea will make there It 's the fairest flower in his crown or garden To fly at all game More fool then fidler The vicar of fools is his ghostly father To set the best foot forward He hath a fair forehead to graft on Better lost then found Too free to be fat He 's free of Fumblers hall Spoken of a man that cannot
or guard to adorn them as also to matters easie and obvious to be found out without any difficulty or direction Such this road being broad and beaten as the confluence of many leading to London from the North and North-west-parts of this land I conceive besides this there is an allusion to the first syllable of this name Dunstable for there are other roads in England as broad plain and well beaten as this As crooked as Crawley brook This is a nameless brook arising about Wobourn running by Crawley and falling immediately into the Ouse a river more crooked and Maeandrous then it running above eighty miles in eighteen by land The Bayliff of Bedford is coming The Ouse or Bedford river is so called in Cambridgeshire because when swoln with rain c. in the winter time it arrests the Isle of Ely with an inundation bringing down suddenly abundance of water Buckinghamshire BUckinghamshire bread and beef The former as fine the latter as fat in this as in any other County Here if you beat a bush it's ods you 'll start a thief No doubt there was just occasion for this Proverb at the original thereof which then contained a Satyrical truth proportioned to the place before it was reformed whereof thus our great Antiquary It was altogether unpassable in times past by reason of trees until Leofstane Abbot of St. Albans did cut them down because they yielded a place of refuge for thieves But this Proverb is now antiquated as to the truth thereof Buckinghamshire affording as many maiden Assizes as any County of equal populousness Cambridgeshire CAntabridgia petit aequales or aequalia That is as Doctour Fuller expounds it either in respect of their Commons all of the same mess have equal share or in respect of extraordinaries they are all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 club alike or in respect of Degree all of the same degree are fellows well met The same degree levels although of different age Cambridgeshire camels I look upon this as a nickname groundlesly fastned on this countrey men perhaps because the three first letters are the same in Cambridge and camel I doubt whether it had any respect to the Fen men stalking upon their stilts who then in the apparent length of their legs do something resemble that beast An Henry-sophister So they are called who after four years standing in the University stay themselves from commencing batchelours of Arts to render them in some Colleges more capable of preferment That tradition is senseless and inconsistent with his Princely magnificence of such who fancy that King Henry the eighth coming to Cambridge stayed all the Sophisters a year who expected that a year of grace should have been given to them More probable it is that because that King is commonly conceived of great strength and stature that these Sophistae Henriciani were elder and bigger then others The truth is this in the reign of King Henry the eighth after the destruction of Monasteries learning was at a loss and the University thanks be unto God more scared then hurt stood at a gaze what would become of her Hereupon many students staid themselves two three some four years as who would see how their degrees before they took them would be rewarded and maintained Twittle twattle drink up your posset-drink This proverb had its original in Cambridge and is scarce known elsewhere Cheshire CHeshire chief of men It seems the Cestrians have formerly been renowned for their valour v. Fuller She hath given Lawton gate a clap Spoken of one got with child and going to London to conceal it Lawton is in the way to London from several parts of Cheshire Better wed over the Mixon then over the Moor. That is hard by or at home the Mixon being that heap of compost which lies in the yards of good husbands then far off or from London The road from Chester leading to London over some part of the Moor-lands in Staffordshire The meaning is the gentry in Cheshire find it more profitable to match within their own County then to bring a bride out of other shires 1. Because better acquainted with her birth and breeding 2. Because though her portion may chance to be less the expence will be less to maintain her Such intermarriages in this County have been observed both a prolonger of worshipful families and the preserver of amity between them Every man cannot be vicar of Bowden Bowden it seems is one of the greatest livings near Chester otherwise doubtless there are many greater Church-preferments in Cheshire The Maior of Altringham lies in bed while his breeches are mending The Maior of Altringham and the Maior of Over The one is a that cher the other a dauber These are two petty Corporations whose poverty makes them ridiculous to their neighbours Stopford law no stake no draw Neither in Cheshire nor Chawbent That is nither in Kent nor Christendome Chawbent is a town in Lancashire The Constable of Oppenshaw sets beggers in Stocks at Manchester He feeds like a Freeholder of Maxfield or Macklesfield who hath neither corn nor hay at Michaelmas Maxfield is a market town and burrough of good account in this County where they drive a great trade of making and selling buttons When this came to be a Proverb it should seem the inhabitants were poorer or worse husbands then now they are Maxfield measure heap and thrutch i. e. thrust Cornwall BY Tre Pol and Pen You shall know the Cornish men These three words are the Dictionary of such sirnames as are originally Cornish and though Nouns in sense I may fitly term them Prepositions 1. Tre signifieth a Town hence Tre-fry Tre-lawney Tre-vanion c. 2. Pol signifieth an head hence Pol-wheel 3. Pen signifieth a Top. hence Pentire Pen-rose Pen-kevil c. To give one a Cornish Hug. The Cornish are masters of the Art of wrestling Their hug is a cunning close with their fellow combatants the fruit whereof is his fair fall or soil at the least It is figuratively appliable to the deceitful dealing of such who secretly design their overthrow whom they openly embrace Hengsten down well ywrought Is worth London town dear ybought In respect of the great quantity of tin to be found there under ground Though the gainful plenty of metal this place formerly afforded is now fallen to a scant-saving-scarcity As for the Diamonds which Doctour Fuller fancieth may be found there I believe they would be little worth He is to be summoned before the Major of Halgaver This is a joculary and imaginary court wherewith men make merriment to themselves presenting such persons who go slovenly in their attire where judgement in formal terms is given against them and executed more to the scorn then hurt of the persons When Dudman and Ram-head meet These are two forelands well known to sailers nigh twenty miles asunder and the Proverb passeth for the Periphrasis of an impossibility He doth sail into Cornwall without a bark This is an Italian