Mordre wol out, that see we day by day.1

Canterbury Tales. The Nonnes Preestes Tale. Line 15058.

But all thing which that shineth as the gold
Ne is no gold, as I have herd it told.2

The Chanones Yemannes Tale. Line 16430.

The firste vertue, sone, if thou wilt lere,
Is to restreine and kepen wel thy tonge.

The Manciples Tale. Line 17281

The proverbe saith that many a smale maketh a grate.

Of harmes two the lesse is for to cheese.1

8

Persones Tale.

Troilus and Creseide. Book ii. Line 470.

Right as an aspen lefe she gan to quake.
For of fortunes sharpe adversite,
The worst kind of infortune is this,
A man that hath been in prosperite,
And it remember whan it passed is.

Line 1201

Book iii. Line 1625

1 Murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ.

SHAKESPEARE: Hamlet, act ii. sc. 2.

2 Tyrwhitt says this is taken from the Parabolae of ALANUS DE ÎNSULIS, - Non teneas aurum totum quod splendet ut aurum (Do not hold everything as gold which shines like gold).

who died in 1294,

-

All is not golde that outward shewith bright.-LYDGATE: On the Mutability of Human Affairs.

Gold all is not that doth golden seem SPENSER: Faerie Queene,

book ii. canto viii. st. 14.

All that glisters is not gold.-SHAKESPEARE: Merchant of Venice, act ii. sc. 7. GOOGE: Eglogs, etc., 1563. HERBERT: Jacula Prudentum. All is not gold that glisteneth. — MIDDLETON: A Fair Quarrel, verse 1. All, as they say, that glitters is not gold. - DRYDEN: The Hind and

the Panther.

Que tout n'est pas or c'on voit luire (Everything is not gold that one sees shining). Li Diz de freire Denise Cordelier, circa 1300.

8 Many small make a great. - HEYWOOD: Proverbes part 1. chap. xi. Of two evils the less is always to be chosen.-THOMAS À KEMPIS: Imitation of Christ, book ii. chap. xii. HOOKER: Polity, book v. chap. læææ.. Of two evils I have chose the least. - PRIOR: Imitation of Horace E duobus malis minimum eligendum (Of two evils, the least should be chosen). — ERASMUS Adages. CICERO: De Officiis, iii. 1.

He helde about him alway, out of drede,

A world of folke.

Canterbury Tales. Troilus and Creseide. Book iii. Line 1721. One eare it heard, at the other out it went.1

Book iv. Line 435.

Line 525.

Book v.

Line 146. Line 1798.

Eke wonder last but nine deies never in toun.2
I am right sorry for your heavinesse.
Go, little booke! go, my little tragedie!
Your duty is, as ferre as I can gesse.

The Court of Love. Line 178.

The lyfe so short, the craft so long to lerne,8
Th' assay so hard, so sharpe the conquering.

The Assembly of Fowles. Line 1.

For out of the old fieldes, as men saithe,
Cometh al this new corne fro yere to yere;
And out of old bookes, in good faithe,
Cometh al this new science that men lere.
Nature, the vicar of the Almightie Lord.
O little booke, thou art so unconning,
How darst thou put thy-self in prees for drede ?

Line 22.

Line 379.

The Flower and the Leaf. Line 59.

Of all the floures in the mede,

Than love I most these floures white and rede,

Soch that men callen daisies in our toun.

Prologue of the Legend of Good Women. Line 41

That well by reason men it call may

The daisie, or els the eye of the day,

The emprise, and floure of floures all.

Line 183.

4

For iii may keep a counsel if twain be away.
The Ten Commandments of Love.

1 Went in at the tone eare and out at the tother. - HEYWOOD: Proverb‹s, part ii. chap. ix.

2 This wonder lasted nine daies. - HEYWOOD: Proverbes, part ii. chap. i.

3 Ars longa, vita brevis (Art is long life is brief). — HIPPOCRATES: Aphorism i.

4 Three may keepe counsayle, if two be away. - HEYWOOD: Proverbes, part ii. chap. v.

THOMAS A KEMPIS. 1380-1471.

proposes, but God disposes.1

Imitation of Christ. Book i. Chap. 19.

And when he is out of sight, quickly also is he out of mind.2

Chap. 23.

Of two evils, the less is always to be chosen.

8

Book iii. Chap. 12.

JOHN FORTESCUE. Circa 1395-1485.

Moche Crye and no Wull. De Laudibus Ley. Angliæ. Chap. x. Comparisons are odious.5

Chap. xix.

1 This expression is of much greater antiquity. It appears in the Chronicle of Battel Abbey, p. 27 (Lower's translation), and in The Vision of Piers Ploughman, line 13994. ed. 1550.

A man's heart deviseth his way; but the Lord directeth his

steps. Proverbs xvi. 9.

2 Out of syght, out of mynd.

GOOGE: Eglogs. 1563.
And out of mind as soon as out of sight.

Lord BROOKE: Sonnet lot.

Fer from eze, fer from herte,

Quoth Hendyng.

HENDYNG: Proverbs, MSS.

Circa 1320.

I do perceive that the old proverbis be not alwaies trew, for I do finde that the absence of my Nath. doth breede in me the more continuall

remembrance of him.

· Anne Lady Bacon to Jane Lady Cornwallis, 1613. On page 19 of The Private Correspondence of Lady Cornwallis, Sir Nathaniel Bacon speaks of the owlde proverbe, "Out of sighte, out of

mynde."

8 See Chaucer, page 5.

All cry and no wool. - BUTLER: Hudibras, part i. canto i. line 852. CERVANTES: Don Quixote (Lockhart's ed.), part ii. chap. i. LYLY: Euphues, 1580. MARLOWE: Lust's Dominion, act iii. sc. 4. BURTON: Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii. sec. 3. THOMAS HEYWOOD: A Woman killed with Kindness (first ed. in 1607), act i. sc. 1. DONNE Elegy, viii. HERBERT Jacula Prudentum. GRANGE: Golden Aphrodite.

Comparisons are odorous. -- SHAKESPEARE: Much Ado about Nothing act iii. sc. 5.

JOHN SKELTON. Circa 1460-1529.

There is nothynge that more dyspleaseth God,
Than from theyr children to spare the rod.1

1 He that spareth the rod hateth his son. — - Proverbs xiii. 24. They spare the rod and spoy? the child. — RALPH VENNING: Mysteries and Revelations (second ed.), p. 5. 1649.

Spare the rod and spoil the child. — BUTLER: Hudibras, pt. ii. c. i. l. 843. 2 Rule the rost. - -HEYWOOD: Proverbes, part i. chap. v.

Her that ruled the rost.

THOMAS HEYWOOD: History of Women.

Rules the roast. -JONSON, CHAPMAN, MARSTON: Eastward Ho, act ii. sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE: 2 Henry VI. act i. sc. 1.

8 In spite of my teeth. - MIDDLETON: A Trick to catch the Old One, act i. sc. 2. FIELDING: Eurydice Hissed.

4 He knew what 's what.

BUTLER: Hudibras, part i. canto i. line 149.

5 In hope her to attain by hook or crook. book iii. canto i. st. 17.

6 It is a foule byrd that fyleth his owne nest. HEYWOOD: Proverbes, part ii. chap. v.

7 The Proverbes of John Heywood is the earliest collection of English colloquial sayings. It was first printed in 1546. The title of the edition of 1562 is, John Heywoodes Woorkes. A Dialogue conteyning the number of the effectuall proverbes in the English tounge, compact in a matter concernynge two maner of Maryages, etc. The selection here given is from the edition of 1874 (a reprint of 1598), edited by Julian Sharman.

Let the world slide,1 let the world go;
A fig for care, and a fig for woe!

If I can't pay, why I can owe,

And death makes equal the high and low.

1 Let the world slide.-Towneley Mysteries, p. 101 (1420). SHAKESPEARE: Taming of the Shrew, induc. 1. BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER: Wit without Money, act v. sc. 2.

A common exclamation of regret occurring in Spenser, Harrington,
An earlier instance of the phrase occurs in the

and the older writers.

Towneley Mysteries.

'Tis good to be merry and wise.-JONSON, CHAPMAN, MARSTON: Eastward Ho, act i. sc. 1. BURNS: Here's a health to them that's awa'.

4 don fust

C'on kint souvent est-on batu.

(By his own stick the prudent one is often beaten.)

Roman du Renart, circa 1300. Look ere thou leap. — In Tottel's Miscellany, 1557; and in Tusser's Fire Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. Of Wiring an l Thriving. 1573. Thou shouldst have looked before thou hadst leapt.-JONSON, CHAPMAN, MARSTON: Eastward Ho, act v. sc. 1.

Look before you ere you leap. - BUTLER : Hudibras, pt. ii. c. ii. l. 502.
He that will not when he may,

When he will he shall have nay.

BURTON: Anatomy of Melancholy, pt. iii. sec. 2, mem. 5, subs. 5.

He that wold not when he might,

He shall not when he wolda.

The Baffled Knight. PERCY: Reliques

All the fatt's in the fire. - MARSTON: What You Will. 1607.