The Promus of Formularies and Elegancies

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.)

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 'PROMUS.'

NOT ENTERED IN THE

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.'

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.)

Love all, trust a few. (All's Well, i. 1.)

Chi non ha figliuoli non sa che sia amore.
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, i. 4.)

(He who has no

L'uso è tiranno della ragione. (Custom is the tyrant of reason.) Custom is the magistrate of men's actions. (Ess. Of Custom.)

The tyrant, Custom. (Oth. i. 3.)

Piglia la rosa lascia star la spina. (Gather the rose and leave the thorn.)

When you have our roses, you barely leave our thorns to prick ourselves. (All's W. iv. 2.)

Chi serve al commune ha cattivo padrone. (He who serves the commonwealth has a bad master.)

Men in great place are thrice servants . so as they have no freedom, neither in their persons, nor in their actions, nor in their times, &c. (Ess. Of Great Place.)

(Compare Hen. V. iv. 1.)

Il savio fa della necessità virtù. (The wise man makes a virtue

of necessity.)

Are you content to make a virtue of necessity?

Sol la clemenza a Dio s'aggualia. (Clemency alone is most like God.)

Earthly power then doth show likest God's

When mercy seasons justice. (Mer. Ven. iv. i.)

All precepts concerning kings are comprehended in these remembrances; remember thou art a man; remember thou art God's vicegerent. The one bridleth their power, the other their will. (Ess. Of Empire.)

Pensa di te e poi mi dirai. (Think of thyself, and then tell me.)

Go to your bosom;

Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know
That's like my brother's fault; if it confess

A natural guiltiness such as is his,

Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue
Against my brother's life. (Mea. Mea. ii. 2.)

I primi fatti sono di quegli che li commettono, i secondi, di chi non gli castiga. (The first faults are those which concern the persons who commit them; the second are those of the persons who do not punish them.)

Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it?
Why, every fault's condemned ere it be done:
Mine were the very cipher of a function
To fine the fault..

and let go by the actor. (M. M. ii. 2.) `

Lunga via, lunga bugia. (A long voyage, a long falsehood.)
Travellers ne'er lie,

Though fools at home condemn them. (Temp. iii. 3.)

A mal uso rompigli le gambe. (Of a bad custom break the legs.) A custom more honoured in the breach than the observance.

(Ham. i. 1.)

SPANISH PROVERBS IN THE PLAYS BUT NOT IN THE 'PROMUS.'

De hambre poco vi morir, di mucho comer cien mil. (Of hunger I have seen few die; of surfeits a hundred thousand.) They are as sick that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing. (Mer. Ven. i. 2, and other places.)

Humo y muger parlera echan el hombre de su casa fuere. (Smoke and a chattering wife will drive him out of his house.) O he's as tedious as