PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS.

WOMEN, LOVE, MARRIAGE, ETC.

What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. THIS is an Englishwoman's proverb. The Italian sisterhood complain that "In men every mortal sin is venial; in women every venial sin is mortal." These are almost the only proverbs relating to women in which justice is done to them, all the rest being manifestly the work of the unfair sex.

If a woman were as little as she is good,

A peascod would make her a gown and a hood. This is Ray's version of an Italian slander.2 The Germans say, 66 Every woman would rather be handsome than good; "3 and that, indeed, "There are only two good women in the world: one of them is dead,

1 A gli uomini ogni peccato mortale è veniale, alle donne ogni veniale è mortale.

2 Se la donna fosse piccola come è buona, la minima foglia la farebbe una veste e una corona.

3 Jedes Weib will lieber schön als fromm sein.

and the other is not to be found."1 The French, in spite of their pretended gallantry, have the coarseness to declare that "A man of straw is worth a woman of gold;"" and even the Spaniard, who sometimes speaks words of stately courtesy towards the female sex, advises you to "Beware of a bad woman, and put no trust in a good one.'

"The crab of the wood is sauce very good

For the crab of the sea;

But the wood of the crab is sauce for a drab,
That will not her husband obey."

A spaniel, a woman, and a walnut tree,

The more they're beaten the better they be.

There is Latin authority for this barbarous distich.* The Italians say, "Women, asses, and nuts require rough hands." Much wiser is the Scotch adage, —

Ye may ding the deil into a wife, but ye'll ne'er ding him

out o' her.

Take your wife's first advice, and not her second.

The French make the rule more general "Take a

woman's first advice, etc." There is good reason for this if the Italian proverb is true, "Women are wise

1 Es giebt nur zwei gute Weiber auf der Welt: die Eine ist gestorben, die Andere nicht zu finden.

2 Un homme de paille vaut une femme d'or.

3 De la mala muger te guarda, y de la buena no fies nada.

4 Nux, asinus, mulier simili sunt lege ligata,

Hæc tria nil recte faciunt si verbera cessant.

5 Donne, asini, e noci voglion le mani atroci.

6 Prends le premier conseil d'une femme, et non le second.

992

offhand, and fools on reflection." They have less logical minds than men, but surpass them in quickness of intuition, having, says Dean Trench, "what Montaigne ascribes to them in a remarkable word, l'esprit prime-sautier the leopard's spring, which takes its prey, if it be to take it at all, at the first bound." "Summer-sown corn and women's advice turn out well once in seven years," say the Germans; and the Spaniards hold that "A woman's counsel is no great thing, but he who does not take it is a fool." In Servia they say, "It is sometimes right even to obey a sensible wife;" and they tell this story in elucidation of the proverb. A Herzegovinian once asked a Kadi whether a man ought to obey his wife, whereupon the Kadi answered that he needed not to do so. The Herzegovinian then continued: "My wife pressed me this morning to bring thee a pot of beef suet, so I have done well in not obeying her." Then said the Kadi, "Verily, it is sometimes right even to obey a sensible wife."

It's nae mair ferlie to see a woman greet than to see a guse gang barefit. - Scotch.

That is, it is no more wonder to see a woman cry than to see a goose go barefoot. "Women laugh when they can, and weep when they will.” 4 This is a French proverb, translated by Ray. Its want of rhyme makes it probable that it was never naturalized in England.

1 La donna savia è all' impensata, alla pensata è matta.

2 Sommersaat und Weiberrath geräth alle sieben Jahre einmal. 3 El consejo de la muger es poco, y quien no le toma es loco. 4 Femme rit quand elle peut, et pleure quand elle veut.

The Italians say, "A woman complains, a woman's in woe, a woman is sick, when she likes to be so,"1 and that "A woman's tears are a fountain of craft."2

A woman's mind and winter wind change oft.

“Women are variable as April weather" (German).3 "Women, wind, and fortune soon change" (Spanish).* Francis I. of France wrote one day with a diamond on a window of the château of Chambord,

ness.

"Souvent femme varie :

Bien fou qui s'y fie."

"A woman changes oft:

Who trusts her is right soft."

His sister, Queen Margaret of Navarre, entered the room as he was writing the ungallant couplet, and, protesting against such a slander on her sex, she declared that she could quote twenty instances of man's fickleFrancis retorted that her reply was not to the point, and that he would rather hear one instance of woman's constancy. "Can you mention a single instance of her inconstancy?" asked the Queen of Navarre. It happened that a few weeks before this conversation a gentleman of the court had been thrown into prison upon a serious charge; and his wife, who was one of the queen's ladies in waiting, was reported

1 Donna si lagna, donna si duole, donna s'ammala quando la vuole.

2 Lagrime di donna, fontana di malizia.

8 Weiber sind veränderlich wie Aprilwetter. 4 Muger, viento, y ventura presto se muda.

Certain it was that the

to have eloped with his page. page and the lady had fled, no one could tell whither. Francis triumphantly cited this case; but Margaret warmly defended the lady, and said that time would prove her innocence. The king shook his head, but promised that if, within a month, her character should be reëstablished, he would break the pane on which the couplet was written, and grant his sister whatever boon she might ask. Many days had not elapsed after this, when it was discovered that it was not the lady who had fled with the page, but her husband. During one of her visits to him in prison they had exchanged clothes, and he was thus enabled to deceive the jailer, and effect his escape, while the devoted wife remained in his place. Margaret claimed his pardon at the king's hand, who not only granted it, but gave a grand fête and tournament to celebrate this instance of conjugal affection. He also destroyed the pane of glass, but the calumnious saying inscribed on it has unfortunately survived.

VA woman's tongue wags like a lamb's tail.

Welsh.

A woman's strength is in her tongue.
Arthur could not tame a woman's tongue. - Welsh.

"Three women and three geese make a market," according to the Italians. "Foxes are all tail, and women are all tongue;" at least, it is so in Auvergne.2 "All women are good Lutherans," say the Danes;

1 Tre oche e tre donne fann' un mercato.

2 Les femmes sont faites de langue, comme les renards de queue.