Anything for a quiet life. Title of a play by Middleton. As the case stands. Middleton, The Old Law, Act i. Sc. 1. At my finger's end. Heywood's Proverbs, 1546. Shakespeare, Twelfth At sixes and sevens. Heywood's Proverbs. Middleton, The Widow, i. 2. Beggars should [must] be no choosers. Heywood's Proverbs, 1546. Beaumont and Better late than never. Heywood's Proverbs. Tusser, Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. Bunyan, Pilgrim's By hook or by crook. Wycliffe's Controversial Tracts, circa 1370, Spenser, Faerie Queene, iii. 1, 17. Skelton, Colin Clout, 1520. Heywood's Proverbs. Beaumont and Fletcher, Women Pleased, i. 3. This phrase derives its origin from the custom of certain manors where tenants are authorized to take fire-bote by hook or by crook; that is, so much of the underwood as may be cut with a crook, and so much of the loose timber as may be collected from the boughs by means of a hook. Candle to the sun. Selden, Preface to Mare Clausum. Burton, Anat. Carpet knights. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, Pt. i. Sec. 2. Stirling, Sonnets, S. 6. Burton, Anat. of Mel., The Chip of the old block. Ray's Proverbs. Burke, ante, p. 385. Coast was clear. Drayton, Nymphidia. Compare great things with small. Virgil, Georgics, Book iv. l. 176. Milton, Par. Lost, Book ii. 1.921. Cowley, The Motto. Dryden, Ovid's Met., Book i. l. 727. Tickell, Poem on Hunting. Pope, Windsor Forest. Comparisons are odious. Burton, Anat. of Mel., Pt. iii. Sec. 3. Heywood, A Woman killed with Kindness, i. 1. El. 8. Herbert, Jacula Prudentum. Comparisons are odorous. Donne, Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, iii. 5. Comparisons are offensive. Don Quixote, Pt. ii. Ch. 1. Dark as pitch. Ray's Proverbs. Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, Pt. 1. Gay, The Shepherd's Week. Wednesday. Deeds, not words. Beaumont and Fletcher, The Lover's Progress, Act iii. Sc. 1. Butler, Hudibras, Pt. i. C. 1, 7. 867. Devil take the hindmost. Beaumont and Fletcher, Bonduca, iv. 3. Hudibras, Pt. i. Canto 2, l. 633. Butler, Prior, Ode on taking Nemur. Pope, Dunciad, Book ii. l. 60. Burns, To a Haggis. Diamonds cut diamonds. Ford, The Lover's Melancholy, Act. i. Sc. 1. Discretion is the better part of valour. Shakespeare, Henry IV., Pt. i. v. 4. Churchill, Discretion the best part of valour. Beaumont and Fletcher, A King, and no King, iv. 3. Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. Clarke's Param. 1639. Franklin, Poor Richard. My hour is eight o'clock, though it is an infallible Rule, Sanat, santificat, et ditat surgere mane. A Health to the Gentle. Prof. of Servingmen, 1598, repr. Roxb. lib. p. 121. Eat thy cake and have it too. Heywood's Proverbs, 1546. Herbert, The Size. Enough is good as a feast. Dives and Pauper, 1493. Gascoigne's Memories, Every tub must stand upon its own bottom. Ray's Proverbs. Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress. Macklin, The Man of the World, i. 2. Every why hath a wherefore. Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, ii. 2. Butler, Facts are stubborn things. Smollett, Trans. Gil Blas, Book x. Ch. 1. Elliot, Faint heart ne'er won fair lady. Britain's Ida, Canto v. St. 1. Ballad by W. Elderton, 1569. Rock of Regard, 1576. King, Orpheus and Eurydice. Burns, To Dr. Blacklock. Colman, Love Laughs at Locksmiths, Act i. Fast and loose. Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, Act i. Sc. 1. Fast bind, fast find. Heywood's Proverbs, 1546. Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, ii. 5. Jests of Scrogin, 1565. Fish nor flesh, nor good red herring. Heywood's Proverbs, 1546. Sir H. Sheers, Satyr on the Sea Officers. Tom Brown, Æneus Sylvius's Letter. Dryden, Epilogue to the Duke of Guise. Fret and fume. Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, ii. 1. Give an inch he 'll take an ell. Heywood's Proverbs. John Webster, Sir Thomas Give ruffles to a man who wants a shirt. Sorbière (1610-1670). Tom Brown, Laconics. Give the devil his due. Shakespeare, Henry IV. Pt. i. i. 2. Dryden, Epilogue to the Duke of Guise. God helps those who help themselves. Sidney, Discourses concerning Government, Vol. i. Heaven ne'er helps the men who will not act. Help thyself, and God will help thee. Aide tor et le ciel t'aidera. La Fontaine, Book vi. Fable 18. God sends meat, and the Devil sends cooks. Ray's Proverbs. Garrick, Epigram on Goldsmith's Retaliation. Golden mean. Horace, Book 2, Ode x. 5. My Mind to me a King- Good to be merry and wise. Heywood's Proverbs, 1546. Eastward Hoe, 1605. Gray mare will prove the better horse. Heywood's Proverbs, 1546. Pryde and Abuse of Prior, Mr. Macaulay thinks that this proverb originated in the preference generally given to the gray mares of Flanders over the finest coach-horses of England. - History of England, Vol. i. Ch. Macaulay is writing of the latter half of the seventeenth century, while the proverb was used a century earlier. 3. |