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 / by J. Ray, M.A. and Fellow of the Royal Society.

Proverbial Phrases and forms of Speech that are not Entire Sentences.

A.

• TO bring an Abbey to a Grange.

  To bring a noble to nine-pence. We speak it of an un∣thrift.

  Ha fatto d'una lanza una spina, & d'una calza una borsetta. Ital.

  He hath made of a lance a thorn, and of a pair of breeches a purse: parallel to ours, He hath thwit∣ten amill-post to a pudding-prick.

• To commit as many absurdities as a clown in eating of an egg.
• Afraid of far enough. Chesh.
• Of that which is never likely to happen.
• Afraid of him that died last year. Chesh.
• Afraid of the hatchet lest the helve stick in's a—Ches.
• Afraid of his own shadow.
• More afraid then hurt.
• ...

• They agree like cats and dogs.
• They agree like harp and harrow.

  This hath the same sense with the precedent. Harp and harrow are coupled, chiefly because they begin with the same letter.

• They agree like bells, they want nothing but hanging.
• He is paced like an Alderman.
• The case is alter'd, quoth Ployden.

  Edmund Plowden was an eminent common Lawyer in Queen Elizabeths time, born at Plowden in Shropshire, of whom Camden gives this character, Vitae integritate inter homines suae professionis nulli secundus. Elizabeth. Ann. 1584. And S^r Edward Coke calls him the Oracle of the common Law. This Proverb is usually applied to such Lawyers or others as being corrupted with larger fees shift sides and pretend the case is altered; such as have bovem in lingua. Some make this the occasion of the Proverb: Plowden being asked by a neighbour of his, what remedy there was in Law against his neighbour for some hogs that had trespassed his ground, answered, he might have very good remedy, but the other replying, that they were his hogs, Nay then neighbour (quoth he) the case is altered. Others more probably make this the originall of it. Plow∣den being a Roman Catholick, some neighbours of his who bare him no good will, intending to entrap him and bring him under the lash of the Law, had taken care to dress up an Altar in a certain place, and provided a Lay-man in a Priests habit, who should do Mass there at such a time. And withall notice thereof was given privately to Mr Plow∣den, who thereupon went and was present at the Mass. For this he was presently accused and indicted. He at first stands upon his defence and would not acknowledge the thing. Witnesses are produced, and among the restone,

• ...

  who deposed, that he himself performed the Mass, and saw Mr Plowden there. Saith Plowden to him, art thou a Priest then? the fellow replied, no. Why then Gentlemen (quoth he) the case is altered: No Priest no Mass. Which came to be a Proverb, and continues still in Shropshire with this addition. The case is altered (quoth Ployden) No Priest no Mass.

• To angle with a silver hook.

  Peschar col hamo d'argento.

  The Italians by this phrase mean, to buy fish in the market. It is also a Latine Proverb,

  Aureo hamo piscari.

  Money is the best bait to take all sorts of persons with.

• If you be angry you may turn the buckle of your girdle behind you.
• To cut large shives of another mans loaf.
• To cut large thongs of another mans leather.

  De alieno corio liberalis.

  Del cuoio d'altri si fanno le corregge largee. Ital.

  Il coupe large courroye du cuir d'autruy. Gall.

  It may pass for a sentence thus, Men cut large shives of others loaves. This should seem to be also a Dutch Proverb: for Erasmus saith,

  Circumfertur apud nostratium vulgus non absimile huic Proverbium, Ex alieno tergore lata secari lora.

• To hold by the Apron-strings.
• i. e. in right of his wife.
• To answer one in his own language.

  Ut salutaris ita resalutaberis.

• A bit and a knock [or bob] as men feed apes.
• ...

• ... Arsy versy. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• She is one of mine Aunts that made mine uncle go a begging.
• A pretty fellow to make an axle-tree for an oven. Chesh.

B.

• HE knows not a B from a battledoor.
• His back is broad enough to bear jests.
• My Lord Baldwin's dead.

  It is used when one tells that for knews which every body knows. A Sussex Proverb, but who this Lord Baldwin was I could not learn there.

• You'll not believe he's bald till you see his brains.
• Never a barrell better herring.
• Bate me an ace, quoth Bolton.

  Who this Bolton was I know not, neither is it worth the enquiring. One of this name might happen to say Bate me an ace, and for the coincidence of the first letters of these two words Bate and Bolton it grew to be a Proverb. We have many of the like originall as v. g. Sup Simon. &c. Stay quoth Stringer, &c. There goeth a story of Queen Elizabeth, that being presented with a Collection of En∣glish Proverbs, and told by the Authour that it contained all the English Proverbs, nay replied she, Bate me an ace quoth Bolton: which Proverb being instantly looked for happened to be wanting in his Collection.

• You dare as well take a bear by the tooth.
• ...

• If it were a bear it would bite you.
• Are you there with your bears.
• To go like a bear to the stake.
• He hath as many tricks as a dancing bear.
• If that the course be fair, again and again quoth Bunny to his bear.
• I bear him on my back.

  That is I remember his injuries done to me with indi∣gnation and grief, or a purpose of revenge.

• To bear away the bell.
• You'll scratch a begger before you die.

  That is, you'll be a begger, you'll scratch your self.

• It would make a begger beat his bag.
• I'll not hang all my bells on one horse.

  That is, give all to one son.

• Better believe it then go where it was done to prove it.

  Voglio piu tosto crederlo che andar a cercarlo. Ital.

• The belly thinks the throat cut.
• To have the bent of ones bow.
• There's ne're a best among them, as the fellow said by the Fox-cubs.
• Between hawk and buzzard.
• To look as big as if he had eaten bull-beef.
• He'll have the last word though he talk bilk for it.

  Bilk, i. e. nothing. A man is said to be bilkt at Cribbets

• ...

  when he gets nothing, when he can make never a game.

• Bill after helve.
• He'll make 19 bits of a bilberry.

  Spoken of a covetous person.

• To bite upon the bridle.

  That is, to fare hardly, to be cut short or suffer want, for a horse can eat but slowly when the bridle is in his mouth. Or else it may signifie to fret, swell and disquiet himself with anger. Froena mordere in Latine hath a different sense, i. e. to resist those who have us in subjection, as an unruly horse gets the bridle between his teeth and runs a∣way with his rider, or as a dog bites the staff you beat him with. Statius useth it in a contrary sense, viz. to submit to the Conquerour and take patiently the bridle in ones mouth.

  Subiit leges & froena momordit.

• Though I be bitten I am not all eaten.
• What a Bishops wife? eat and drink in your gloves?
• To wash a Blackmore white.

  Aethiopem lavare or dealbare,

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 seu 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Labour in vain. Parallel whereto are many other Latine Proverbs, as

  laterem lavare, arenas arare.

• You cannot say black is his eye [or nail]

  That is you can find no fault in him, charge him with no crime.

• Blind-mans holiday, i. e. twilight, almost quite dark.
• ...

• As the blind man shot the crow.
• He hath good blood in him if he had but groats to it.

  That is, good parentage, if he had but wealth. Groats are great oatmeal of which good housewives are wont to make black puddings.

• To come bluely off.
• He's true blue, he'll never stain.

  Coventry had formerly the reputation for dying blues, in so much that true blue came to be a Proverb, to signifie one that was alway the same, and like himself.

• To make a bolt or a shaft of a thing.
• There's a bone for you to pick.

  Egli m' ha dato un osso da rosegar. Ital.

• To be bought and sold in a company.
• She hath broken her elbow at the Church door.

  Spoken of a housewively maid that grows idle after mar∣riage.

• You seek a brack where the hedge is whole.
• His brains are addle.
• His brains crow.
• His brains will work without barm. Yorksh.
• He knows which side his bread is butter'd on.
• 'Twould make a horse break his bridle, or a dog his halter.
• One may as soon break his neck as his fast there.
• Break my head, and bring me a plaister.

• ...

  Taglia m' il naso & soppi me poi nelle orecchie. Ital.

• Spare your breath [or wind] to cool your pot∣tage.
• You seek breeches of a bare-ars'd man.

  Ab asino lanam.

• His breech makes buttons.

  This is said of a man in fear. We know vehement fear causes a relaxation of the sphincter ani, and unvoluntary dejection. Buttons, because the excrements of some ani∣mals are not unlike buttons or pellets: as of sheep, hares, &c. Nay they are so like, that they are called by the same name; this figure they get from the cells of the Colon.

• As they brew e'en so let them bake.

  Some have it, so let them drink, and it seems to be bet∣ter sence so.

  Tute hoc intrîsti tibi omne exedendum est. Terent. Phorm.

  Ut sementem feceris ita metes. Cic. de Orat. lib. 2.

• To make a bridge of ones nose.

  i. e. to intercept ones trencher, cup, or the like; or to offer or pretend to do kindnesses to one, and then pass him by and do it to another, to lay hold upon and serve himself of that which was intended for another.

• To leave one i'th' briers or suds.
• He hath brought up a bird to pick out his own eyes.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

  Tal nutre il corvo che gli ca∣vera poi gli occhi.

  He brings up a raven, &c. Ital.

• ...

• He'll bring buckle and thong together.
• To build castles in the air.

  Far castelli in aria. Ital.

• He thinks every bush a boggard, i. e. a bugbear or phantasm.
• Bush natural, more hair then wit.
• No butter will stick to his bread.
• To buy and sell and live by the loss.
• To have a breez, i. e. a gad-fly, in his breech.

  Spoken of one that frisks about, and cannot rest in a place.

• The butcher look't for his knife when he had it in his mouth.
• His bread is buttered on both sides.

  i. e. He hath a plentifull estate: he is fat and full.

C.

• I Think this is a butchers horse, he carries a calf so well.
• His calves are gone down to grass.

  This is a jeer for men with over-slender legs.

• His candle burns within the socket.

  That is, he is an old man, Philosophers are wont to com∣pare mans life not ineptly to the burning of a lamp, the vi∣tall heat always preying upon the radical moisture, which

• ...

  when it is quite consumed a man dies. There is indeed a great likeness between life and flame, air being as necessa∣ry to the maintaining of the one as of the other.

• If his cap be made of wooll.

  In former times when this Proverb came first in use men generally wore caps: Hats were a thing hardly known in England, much less hats made of rabbets or beavers furr. Capping was then a great trade and severall statutes made about it. So that, if his cap were made of wooll, was as much as to say most certainly, As sure as the clothes on his back. Dr Fuller.

• They may cast their caps at him.

  When two or more run together, and one gets ground, he that is cast and despairs to overtake commonly casts his hat after the foremost, and gives over the race. So that to cast their caps at one is to despair of catching or over∣taking him.

• He carries fire in one hand and water in the o∣ther.

  Alterâ manu sert aquam, alterâ ignem.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c. Plutarch.

  Il porte le feu & l'eau, Gall.

  Al∣terâ manu sert lapidem, alterâ panem ostentat. Plaut.

• To set a spoke in ones cart.
• To set the cart before the horse.

  Currus bovem trahit.

  Metter il carro inanzi aibuoi. Ital.

  La charrue va devant les boeufs. Gall.

• The cat's in the cream-pot.

  This is used when People hear a great noise and hubbub

• ...

  amongst the good wives of the town, and know not what it means; but suppose that some sad accident is happened; as that the cat is faln into the cream-pot, or the like.

• Before the cat can lick her ear.
• You shall have that the cat left ith' malt-heap.
• They are not catercousins.
• He hath good cellarage.
• That char is char'd (as the good wife said when she had hang'd her husband.)

  A char in the Northern dialect is any particular business, affair or charge, that I commit to or entrust another to doe. I take it to be the same with charge

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

• To go cheek by jowl with one.
• To chew the cud upon a thing.

  i. e. To consider of a thing, to revolve it in ones mind: to ruminate, which is the name of this action, is used in the same sense both in Latine and English.

• The child hath a red tongue like its father.
• Children to bed, and the goose to the fire.

  I cannot conceive what might be the occasion, nor what is the meaning of this saying. I take it to be senseless and nugatory.

• A chip of the old block.

  Patris est silius.

  He is his fathers own son; taken al∣ways in an ill sense.

• Like a chip in a pottage-pot, doth neither good nor harm.
• ...

• It goes down like chop't hay.
• I'll make him know churning days.
• To clip ones wings.

  Pennas incidere alicui.

• He hath a cloak for his knavery.
• He is in the cloth-market, i. e. in bed.
• To carry coals to Newcastle.

  Soli lumen mutuari; coelo stellas; ranae aquam. Crocum in Ciliciam, ubi sc. maximè abundat: Noctuas Athenas.

  Porter de fueilles au bois. Gall.

  To carry leaves to the wood.

  Alcinoo poma dare.

• To set cook on hoop.

  This is spoken of a Prodigal, one that takes out the spig∣get and lays it upon the top of the barrel, drawing out the whole vessel without any intermission.

• His cockloft is unfurnished.

  i. e. He wants brains. Tall men are commonly like high houses, in which the uppermost room is worst furnished.

• To have a colis tooth in his head.

  It is usually spoken of an old man that's wanton and pe∣tulant.

• To cut ones comb.

  As is usually done to cocks when gelded; to cool ones courage.

• They'll come again, as Goodyers pigs did, i. e. never.
• ...

• ... Come and wellcome, go by and no quarrel.
• Command your man and do't your self.
• Ask my companion if I be a thief.

  In the North they say, Ask my mother if my father be a thief.

  Demanda al hosto s' egl'ha buon vino. Ital.

  Ask your host if he have good wine.

• To complain of ease.
• To outrun the Constable.

  To spend more then ones allowance or income.

• You might be a Constable for your wit.
• Cook-ruffian, able to scald the devil in's feathers.
• To cool ones courage.
• He's corn-fed.
• A friend in a corner.
• To take counsell of ones pillow.

  La nuict donne conseil. Gall.

  Noctu urgenda consilia. Inde nox

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 dicitur, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

  La notte e madre di pensieri. Ital.

  The night is the mother of thoughts.

• Counsel's as good for him as a shoulder of mut∣ton for a sick horse.
• What is got in the County is lost in the hundred.

  What is got in the whole sum is lost in particular recko∣nings; or in generall, what is got one way is lost another.

• Court holy-water.

  Eau beniste de la cour. Gall.

  Fair words and nothing else.

• ...

• One of the Court but none of the Counsell.
• All the craft is in the catching.
• To speak as though he would creep into ones mouth.
• He hath never a cross to bless himself withall.

  i. e. No money which hath usually a cross on the averse side.

• To have crotchets in ones crown.
• You look as if you were crow-trodden.
• You look as if you would make the crow a pud∣ding, i. e. die.
• I have a crow to pluck with you.
• You need not be so crusty, you are not so hard baked.
• Here's a great cry and but a little wooll (as the fellow said when he shear'd his hogs.)

  Assai romor & poca lana. Ital.

  A sinum tondes. Partu∣riunt montes, &c.

• You cry before you're hurt.
• Let her cry, she'll piss the less.
• To lay down the cudgels.
• His belly cries cupboard.
• To curse with bell, book and candle.
• To be beside the cushion.

  Aberrari a janua.

• To stand for a cypher.

D.

• TO take a dagger and drown ones self.
• To be at daggers drawing.
• To look as if he had suckt his dam through a hurdle.
• To dance to every mans pipe or whistle.
• To burn daylight.
• Dead in the nest.
• To deal fools dole.

  To deal all to others and leave nothing to himself.

• Good to send on a dead bodies errand.
• To work for a dead horse or goose.

  To work out an old debt or without hope of future re∣ward.

  Argent receu le bras rompu. Gall.

  The wages had the arm is broken.

  Chi paga inanzi è servito indietro. Ital.

  He that pays beforehand is served behindhand.

  Chi paga inanzi tratto Trova il lavor mal fatto. Ital.

• If thou hadst the rent of Dee-mills thou would'st spend it. Chesh.

  Dee is the name of the river on which the city Chester stands: the mills thereon yield a great annual rent, the big∣gest of any houses about that city.

• As demure as if butter would not melt in's mouth.

  Some add, And yet cheese will not choke him.

• ...

• To get by a thing as Dickson did by his distress.

  That is, over the shoulders, as the vulgar usually say. There is a coincidence in the first letters of Dickson and di∣stress: otherwise who this Dickson was I know not.

• Hold the dish while I shed my pottage.
• To lay a thing in ones dish.
• He claps his dish at a wrong mans door.
• To play the Devil i'th' bulmong, i. e. corn mingled of pease, tares and oats.
• If the Devil be a vicar thou wilt be his clerk,
• Do and undoe, the day is long enough.
• To play the dog in the manger, not eat your self nor let any body else.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. 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 dudge∣on-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 Pro∣tectour 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 twen∣ty 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.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

• 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 with∣out 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 sto∣ries.

• 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.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

  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,

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

  Self-love makes even a mans vices, infirmities and imper∣fections to please him.

  Suus cui{que} 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.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

  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 get his wife with child.
• He may e'en go write to his friends.

  We say it of a man when all his hopes are gone.

• To fry in his own grease.
• ...

• Out of the frying-pan into the fire.

  Cader dalla padella nelle bragie. Ital.

  Saulter de la poile & se jetter dans les braises. Gall.

  De fume in flam∣mam

  (which Ammianus Marcellinus cites as an ancient Pro∣verb) hath the same sense,

  Evitatâ Charybdi in Scyllam incidere. Nè cinerem vitans in prunas incidas.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Lucian.

• You are never well full nor fasting.

G.

• THe gallows groans for you.
• To gape for a benefice.
• He may go hang himself in's own garters.
• All your geese are swans.

  Suum cui{que} pulchrum.

  Ill suo soldo val tredeci danari. Ital.

  His shilling's worth 13 pence.

• You're a man among the geese when the gander is away.
• What he gets he gets out of the fire.
• To get over the shoulders.
• All that you get you may put in your eye and see never the worse.
• He bestows his gifts as broom doth honey.

  Broom is so far from sweet that it's very bitter.

• I thought I would give him one and lend him another, i, e. I would be quit with him.
• ...

• ... Give a loaf and beg a shive.
• There's a glimmer i'th' touch-box.
• Out of Gods blessing into the warm sun.

  Ab equis ad asinos.

• Go in Gods name, so ride no witches.
• Go forward and fall, go backward and marr all.

  A fronte praecipitium, à tergo lupi.

• I'll go twenty miles on your errand first.
• To give one as good as he brings, or his own.

  Qui quae vult dicit quae non vult audiet. Terent.

  ut sa∣lutaris ita resalutaberis.

• One Yate for another, good fellow. v. in O.
• I am a fool, I love any thing that is good.
• To come from little good to stark naught.

  Ab equis ad asinos. Mandrabuli in morem.

  Mandrabu∣lus finding gold mines in Samos, at first offered and gave to Juno a golden ram, afterward a silver one, then a small one of brass, and at last nothing at all.

• Some good some bad, as sheep come to the fold.

  Sunt bona, sunt quaedam mediocria, sunt mala plura Quae legis, &c. Mart.

• I'll do my good will, as he said that thresht in's cloak.

  This was some Scotchman, for I have been told, that they are wont to do so: my self have seen them hold plough in their cloaks.

• ...

• He did me as much good as if he had pist in my pottage.
• To brag of many goodmorrows.
• A goose cannot graze after him.
• He hopes to eat of the goose shall graze on your grave.
• Steal my goose and stick me down a feather.
• He cannot say shooh to a goose.
• You're a pretty fellow to ride a goose a gallop through a dirty lane.
• You find fault with a fat goose.
• You'll be good when the goose pisseth.
• All is not Gospel comes out of his mouth.
• He must have his grains of allowance.
• A knave or a rogue in grain.

  That is of a scarlet dye, The Alkermes berry where-with they dye scarlet is called in Greek, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. that is granum in Latine, and in English grain.

• It goeth against the grain.

  The grain, Pecten ligni, longways the wood, as the fi∣bres run. To go transversly to these fibres is to go against the grain.

• Teach your grandame to grope her ducks.
• Teach your grandameto sup sowre milk.

  Aquilam volare, Delphinum natare doce.

  Il ne faut ap∣prendre aux poissons à nager. Gall.

  You must not teach fish to swim. Teach me to do that I know how to do much better then your self. Teach your father to beget children.

  Sus Minervam.

• ...

• He's gray before he is good.
• To grease a fat sow on the A—

  On ne doit pas à gras porceau le cul oindre. Gall.

• To grease a man i'th' fist.

  That is to put money into his hand; to fee or bribe him.

• I'll either grind or find.
• All brings grist to your mill.
• To grow like a cows tail, i. e. downwards.
• He has no guts in's brains.

  The anfractus of the brain, look'd upon when the Dura mater is taken oft, do much resemble guts.

• He has more guts then brains.
• Out of gunshot.

H.

• TO be hail fellow well met with one.
• It goes against the hair.

  The hair of most animals lies one way, and if you stroke them down that way the hair lies, your hand slides smooth∣ly down; but if you stroke the contrary way, the hair rises up and resists the motion of your hand.

• To take a hair of the same dog.

  i. e. To be drunk again the next day.

• To cut the hair.

• ...

  i. e. To divide so exactly as that neither part have ad∣vantage.

• You halt before you're lame.
• To make a hand of a thing.
• To live from hand to mouth.

  In diem vivere,

  or as

  Persius, Ex tempore vivere.

• Hand over head, as men took the Covenant.
• Two hands in a dish and one in a purse.
• To have his hands full.

  I' ay assez á faire environ les mains. Gall.

• I'll lay my hand on my halfpenny e're I part with it.
• To hang ones ears.

  Demitto auriculas ut iniquae mentis ascllus. Horat.

• They hang together like burs, or like pebbles in a halter.
• To catch a hare with a tabret.

  On ne prend le lievre au tabourin. Gall.

  One cannot catch a hare with a tabret.

  Bove venari leporem.

• You must kiss the hares foot, or the cook.

  Spoken to one that comes so late that he hath lost his dinner or supper. Why the hares foot must be kist I know not; why the cook should be kist there is some reason, to get some victuals of her.

• Set the hares head against the goose giblets.

• ...

  i. e. Ballance things, set one against another.

• It's either a hare or a brake-bush.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

  Aut navis, aut galerus.

  Something if you knew what.

• To be out of harms way.

  Ego ero post principia. Terent.

• To harp upon the same string.

  Eandem cantilenam recinere; & eâdem chordâ aberrare. Horat.

• He is drinking at the harrow when he should be following the plow.
• To make a long harvest of a little corn.
• To hear as hogs do in harvest, or with your harvest ears.
• He is none of the Hastings.

  Spoken of a slow person. There is an aequivoque in the word Hastings which is the name of a great family in Lei∣cestershire, which were Earls of Huntington. They had a fair house at Ashby de la zouch, now much ruined.

• Too hasty to be a parish Clerk.
• He knows not a hawk from a hand-saw.
• To be as good eat hay with a horse.
• To have his head under ones girdle.
• He cannot hear on that ear.
• He may be heard where he is not seen.
• His heart fell down to his hose or heels. Ani∣mus in pedes decidit.
• ...

• He is heart of oak.
• Hell is broken loose with them.
• Harrow [or rake] hell, and scum the devil.
• To help at a dead lift.
• To throw the helve after the hatchet.

  To be in despair.

  Ad perditam securim manubrium ad∣jicere.

• To fish for a herring, and catch a sprat.
• To be high in the instep.
• To hit the nail o'th' head.

  Toucher au blanc. Gall.

  To hit the white.

• To hit the bird o'th' eye.
• Hobsons choice.

  A man is said to have Hobsons choice, when he must ei∣ther take what is left him, or chose whether he will have any part or no. This Hobson was a noted Carrier in Cam∣bridge in K. James his time, who partly by carrying, part∣ly by grazing raised himself to a great estate, and did much good in the Town; relieving the Poor, and build∣ing a publick Conduit in the Market-place.

• To make a hog or a dog of a thing.
• To bring ones hogs to a fair market.
• To hold with the hare and run with the hound.

  Not much unlike hereto is that Latine one,

  Duabus sellis sedere,

  i. e.

  incertarum esse partium, & ancipiti fide ambabus servire velle, v. Erasm.

  Liberius Mimus chosen into the Senate by Caesar, coming to sit down by Cicero, he refu∣sing him, said, I would take you in did we not sit so close

  [nisi angustè sederemus]

  reflecting upon Caesar, who chose so many into the Senate that there was scarce room for

• ...

  them to sit. Liberius replied, but you were wont to sit upon two stools

  [duabus sellis sedere]

  meaning to be on both sides.

• He'll find some hole to creep out at.
• He's all honey or all t—
• As honest a man as ever brake bread.
• As honest a man as ever trode on shooe leather.
• An honest man and a good bowler.
• By hook or by crook.

  Quo jure, quâ{que} injuriâ. Terent.

  Soit à droit ou à tort. Gall.

• You'll ride on a horse that was foal'd of an acorn.

  That is the gallows.

• They cannot set their horses together.
• He hath good skill in horse-flesh to buy a goose to ride on.
• See how we apples swim quoth the horse-t—
• To throw the house out of the windows.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

• He is so hungry he could eat a horse behind the saddle.

I.

• TO be Iack on both sides.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

  A turn-coat, a weathercock.

• ...

• To play the Iack with one.
• To break the ice.

  Romper il giaccio. Ital.

  Scindere glaciem.

  To begin any hazardous or difficult thing.

• Sick o'th' idles.
• Sick o'th' idle crick, and the belly-wark i'th' heel.

  Belly-wark, i. e. belly-ake. It is used when People complain of sickness for a pretence to be idle upon no ap∣parent cause.

• You'll soon learn to shape idle a coat.
• Give him an inch and he'll take an ell.
• He hath no ink in's pen, i. e. no money in his purse, or no wit in his head.

K.

• TO lay the key under the threshold.
• To kill with kindness.

  So the Ape is said to strangle her young ones by em∣bracing and hugging them. And so may many be said to do, who are still urging their sick friends to eat this and that and t'other thing, thereby clogging their stomacks and adding fewel to their diseases. fondly imagining that if they eat not a while they'll presently die.

• ...Kim kam.
• It comes by kind, it costs him nothing.
• ...

• A man of a strange kidney.
• Whosoever is king thou'lt be his man.
• I'll make one, quoth Kirkham, when he danc't in his clogs.
• You'ld kiss my a—before my breeches are down.
• She had rather kiss then spin.
• Kit after kind.

  A chip of the old block.

  Qui naist de geline il aime à grater. Gall.

  He that was born of a hen loves to be scraping.

• Kit careless, your a—hangs by trumps.
• As very a knave as ever pist.
• Knit my dog a pair of breeches and my cat a codpiece.
• He hath tied a knot with his tongue that he can∣not untie with all his teeth. Meaning matri∣mony.
• It's a good knife; it will cut butter when 'tis melted.
• A good knife, it was made fives miles beyond Cutwell.
• You say true, will you swallow my knife?
• It does me Knights service.
• He got a knock in the cradle.
• To know one from a black sheep.
• To know one as well as the begger knows his dish.
• To know one no more then he does the Pope of Rome.
• Better known then trusted.

L.

• To have nothing but ones labour for ones pains.

  Avoir l'aller pour le venir. Gall.

  To have ones going for ones coming.

• You'll go up the ladder to bed, i. e. be hang'd. At latter Lammas.

  Ad Graecas calendas,

  i. e. never.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉

  .

  Cùm muli pariunt. Herodot.

• Help the lame dog over the stile.
• He was lap't in his mothers smock.
• The lapwing cries most furthest from her nest.
• To laugh in ones face and cut his throat.

  As bottled Ale is said to do.

  Da una banda m' onge, da l'altra me ponge. Ital.

• He can laugh and cry both in a wind.
• To laugh in ones sleeve.
• More like the devil then S. Laurence.
• He'll goe to Law for the wagging of a straw.
• To have the Law in ones own hand.
• She doth not leap an inch from a shrew.
• To leap over the hedge before you come at the stile.
• She hath broken her leg above the knee, i. e. had a bastard.
• ...

• He's on his last legs.
• To have the length of ones foot.
• To lick ones self whole again.
• To lick honey through a cleft stick.
• To lie as fast as a dog can lick a dish.
• That's a lie with a latchet, All the dogs i'th' town cannot match it.
• To tell a man a lie, and give him a reason for it.
• To stand in ones own light.
• Like me, God bless the example.
• If the Lions skin cannot the Foxes shall.

  Si leonina pellis non satis est, assuenda vulpina.

  Coudre le peau de regnard à celle du lion. Gall.

  To attempt or compass that by craft which we cannot obtain or effect by force.

  Dolus an virtus quis in hoste requirit.

• If he were as long as he is lither, he might thatch a house without a ladder. Chesh.
• To send by Tom Long the carrier.
• He looks as if he had neither won nor lost.
• He stands as if he were mop't, in a brown study, un∣concern'd.

  To lose ones longing.

• He'll not lose the droppings of his nose.
• He'll not lose the paring of's nails.

  Egli scortarebbe un pedocchio per haverne la pelle. Ital.

  He would flay a louse to get the skin.

  Aquam plorat cùm lavat fundere. Plaut.

• Ware skins, quoth Grubber when he flung

• the louse into the fire.
• There's love in a budget.
• To love at the door and leave at the hatch.
• See for your love, and buy for your money.
• I could not get any neither for love nor money.
• To leave one i'th' lurch.

M.

• MAdge good cow gives a good pail of milk, & then kicks it down with her foot.
• To correct or mend the Magnificat.

  i. e. To correct that which is without any fault or er∣rour. Magnificat is the Virgin Mary's hymn Luke 1. So called from the first word of it, which is Magnificat. As the other hymns are called Benedictus, Nunc dimittis, Te Deum, &c. For the same reason. Nodum in scirpo quae∣rere.

• She's a good maid but for thought, word and deed.
• There are never the fewer maids for her.

  Spoken of a woman that hath maiden children.

• For my peck of mault set the kiln on fire.

  This is used in Cheshire and the neighbour Countries. They mean by it, I am little concerned in the thing men∣tioned: I care not much come on it what will.

• One Lordship is worth all his manners.

• ...

  There is an aequivoque in the word manners, which if written with an e signifies mores, if with an o manneria; howbeit in the pronunciation they are not distinguished; and perhaps in writing too they ought not.

• You know good manners, but you use but a few.
• To miss his mark.

  Aberrare a scopo, non attingere scopum,

  or

  extra scopum jaculare.

• She hath a mark after her mother.

  That is, she is her mothers own daughter.

  Patris est filius.

• The gray mare is the better horse.

  i. e. The woman is master, or as we say wears the breeches.

• I'll not go before my mare to the market.

  I'll do nothing preposterously: I'll drive my mare be∣fore me.

• All is well, and the man hath his mare again.
• Much matter of a wooden platter.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

  Mira de len••e.

  A great stir about a thing of nothing.

• One may know your meaning by your gaping.
• You measure every ones corn by your own bushel.

  Tu misuri gli altri col tuo passetto. Ital.

• ...

• To measure his cloth by anothers yard.
• To bring meat in its mouth.
• Meddle with your old shoes.
• I'll neither meddle nor make, said Bill Heaps when he spil'd the butter-milk.
• To mend as sowre ale does in summer.
• I cry you mercy, I took you for a joyn'd stool.
• To spend his Michaelmas rent in Midsummer moon.
• You'd marry a midd••n for muck.
• Either by might or by sleight.
• I can see as far into a milstone as another man.
• A Scotch mist, that will wet an English man to th' skin.
• Mock not (quoth Montford) when his wife called him cuckold.
• To have a moneths mind to a thing.

  In ancient wills we find often mention of a moneths mind and also of a years mind and a weeks mind: they were lesser funerall solemnities appointed by the deceased at those times, for the remembrance of him.

• Tell me the moon's made of a green cheese.

  Quid si coelum ruat?

• You may as soon shape a coat for the moon.
• To make a mountain of a molehill.

  Areem ex cloaca sacere, ex elephanto museam.

• To speak like a mouse in a cheese.
• Your mouth hath beguil'd your hands.
• ...

• You'st have his muck for his meat. Yorksh.
• He hath a good muckhill at's door, i. e. he is rich.

N.

• HE had as good eat his nails.
• You had not your name for nothing. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• I took him napping, as Moss took his mare.

  Who this Moss was is not very materiall to knew: I suppose some such man might find his mare dead, and ta∣king her to be only asleep might say, have I taken you napping?

• I'll first see thy neck as long as my arm.
• To seek a needle in a bottle of hay.
• I may see him need, but I'll not see him bleed.

  Parents will usually say this of prodigal or unduti∣full children; meaning I will be content to see them suffer a little hardship, but not any great misery or calamity.

• As much need on't as he hath of the pip, or of a cough.
• Tell me news.
• More nice then wise.
• Nichils in nine pokes or nooks. Chesh. i. e. no∣thing at all.
• To bring a noble to ninepence, and ninepence to nothing.

• ...

  Il fait de son teston six sols. Gall.

  To bring an Abby to a Grange.

• He hath a good nose to make a poor mans sow.

  Il seroit bon truy à pauvre homme. Gall.

• To hold ones nose to the grindstone.
• To follow ones nose.
• To lead one by the nose.

  Menar uno per il naso, Ital.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

  This is an ancient Greek Proverb. Frasmus saith the metaphor is taken from Buffles, who are led and guided by a ring put in one of their nostrills, as I have often seen in Italy: so we in England are wont to lead Bears.

• To put ones nose out of joint.
• You make his nose warp.
• It will be a nosegay to him as long as he lives.
• It will stink in his nostrils, spoken of any bad matter a man hath been engaged in.

O.

• TO cut down an Oak and set up a Straw∣berry.

  Cavar un chiodo & piantar una cavicchia. Ital.

  To dig up a nail and plant a pin.

• To have an oar in every mans boat.
• Be good in your office, you'll keep the longer on.
• ...

• To give one a cast of his office.
• He hath a good office, he must needs thrive.
• To bring an old house on ones head.
• To rip up old sores.
• To cast up old scores.
• Once at a Coronation.
• Never but once at a Wedding.
• Once and use it not.
• One yate for another, Good fellow.

  They father the originall of this upon a passage between one of the Earls of Rutland and a Countrey-fellow. The Earl riding by himself one day overtook a Countrey-man, who very civily open••d him the first gate they came to, not knowing who the Earl was. When they came to the next gate the Earl expecting he should have done the same again, Nay soft, saith the Countrey-man, One yate for another, Good fellow.

• A man need not look in your mouth to know how old you are.

  Facies tua computat annos.

• To make orts of good hay.
• Over shoes over boots.

  This hath almost the same sense with that,

  Ad perdi∣tam securim manubrium adjicore.

• A shive of my own loaf.
• A pig of my own sow.
• To outshoot a man in his own bow.
• The black ox never trode on his foot.

  i. e. He never knew what sorrow or adversity meant.

P.

• MAke a page of your own age.

  That is▪ Do it your self.

• To stand upon ones pantofles.
• To pass the pikes.
• He is pattring the Devils Pater noster.

  When one is grumbling to himself and it may be cursing those that have angred or displeased him.

• To pay one in his own coyn.
• He is going into the pease-field, i. e. falling asleep.
• To be in a peck of troubles.
• To take one a peg lower.
• Penny-wise and pound foolish.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,

  i. e.

  Ad mensuram aquam bibunt, sinc mensura offam comedentes.

  He spares at the spiggot and lets it out at the bung-hole.

• He thinks his penny good silver.
• To take pepper in the nose.
• To take physick before one be sick.
• To pick a hole in a mans coat.
• He knows not a pig from a dog.
• Pigs play on the Organs.

  A man so called at Hogs Norton in Leicestershire, or Hocks Norton.

• ...

• ... Pigs fly in the air with their tails forward.
• To shoot at a pigeon and kill a crow.
• Not to high for the pie, nor to low for the crow.
• If there be no remedy then wellcome Pillvall.
• To be in a merry pin.

  Probably this might come from drinking at pins. The Dutch, and English in imitation of them, were wont to drink out of a cup marked with certain pins, and he ac∣counted the man that could nick the pin; whereas to go above or beneath it was a forseiture. D^r Fuller Eccles. Hist. lib 3. p. 17.

• As surly as if he had pist on a nettle.
• To piss in the same quill.
• To stay a pissing-while.
• He'll play at small game rather then stand out.

  Auloedus sit qui citharoedus esse non potest.

• Let the plough stand to catch a mouse.
• To be tost from Post to Pillory.
• To go to pot.
• I know him not should I meet him in my pot∣tage dish.
• To prate like a Parrot.
• To say his prayers backward.
• To be in the same Predicament.
• To have his head full of proclamations.
• Provender pricks him.
• To come in pudding time.
• Her pulse beats matrimony.
• To no more purpose then to beat your heels

• against the ground or wind.
• To as much purpose as the geese slurr on the ice. Chesh.
• To as much purpose as to give a goose hay. Chesh.

Q.

• TO be in a quandary.
• To pick a quarrel.
• Ha'll be Quartermaster where e're he comes.
• To touch the quick, or to the quick.

R.

• TO lie at rack and manger.
• If it should rain pottage he would want his dish.
• He is better with a rake then a fork, & vice versâ.

  Most men are better with a rake then a fork, more apt to pull in and scrape up then to give out and com∣municate.

• No remedy but patience.
• Set your heart at rest.
• You ride as if you went to fetch the midwise,
• You shall ride an inch behind the tail.
• He'll neither do right nor suffer wrong.
• ...

• Give me roastmeat, and beat me with the spit or run it in my belly.
• You are in your roastmeat when others are in their sod.

  Priusquam mactaris excorias.

• To rob the spittle.
• To rob Peter to pay Paul.

  Il oste à S. Pierre pour donner à S. Pol. Gall.

• He makes Robin Hoods pennyworths.

  This may be used in a double sense; either he sells things for half their worth: Robin Hood afforded rich pen∣nyworths of his plunder'd goods; or he buyes things at what price he pleases: The owners were glad to get any thing of Robin Hood, who otherwise would have taken their goods for nothing.

• To have rods in piss for one.
• You gather a rod for your own breech.

  Tel porte le baston dont à son regret le bat on. Gall.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Hesi∣od.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

  In tuum ipsius caput lunam deducis.

• Right Roger, your sow is good mutton.
• To twist a rope of sand.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

• A rope and butter, if one slip the other may hold.
• I thought I had given her rope enough, said Ped∣ley when he hang'd his mare.
• ...

• He rose on his right side.
• To give one a Rowland for an Oliver.

  That is Quid pro quo, to be even with one.

  Je lui ba∣illeray Guy contre Robert. Gall.

• To run through thick and thin.
• His shooes are made of running leather.
• To run the wild goose chase.
• To row one way and look another.

  As skullers do,

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Aristoph. apud Suidam.

  Altera manu fert lapi∣dem, panem ostentat alterâ. Plaut.

S.

• MOre sacks to the mill.
• To come sailing in a sows ear.
• To scape a scowring.
• You make me scratch where it doth not itch.
• The sea complains it wants water.
• That would I fain see said blind George of Hol∣lowee.
• To set up ones staff.

  i. e. To resolve to abide in a place.

• To set up his sail to every wind.

  Faire voile à tout vent. Gall.

  Evannare ad omnem au∣ram. Nazianzen.

• ...

• ... Share and share like, some all, some never a whit.

  Leonina Societas.

• To cast a sheeps eye at one.
• To cast an old shooe after one.
• Not worth shooe-buckles.
• To make a fair show in a Countrey Church.
• Good to fetch a sick man sorrow and a dead man woe. Chesh.
• To pour water into a sieve.

  Cribro aquam haurire.

• To sing the same song.

  Cantilenam candem canere. Terent.

  Phorm. Crambe bis cocta.

  Nothing more troublesome and ungratefull then the same thing over and over.

• Thou singest like a bird call'd a swine.
• Sink or swim.
• To call one Sir and something else, i. e. Sirrah.
• To set all at six and seven.
• To sit upon ones skirts.
• To slander one with a matter of truth.
• To sleep dogs sleep.
• Slow and sure. This might have been put among the Sentences.
• I smell a rat.
• To drive snails: A snails gallop.

  Testudineus gradus. Plaut.

  Vicistis cochleam tarditate. Idem.

• ...

• Tell me it snows.
• To take a thing in snuff.
• To have a soft place in's head.
• Fair and softly, as Lawyers goe to Heaven.
• As softly as foot can fall.

  Suspensos pedes ponere. Quintil.

  Suspenso gradu ire. Terent.

• To take a wrong sow by the ear.
• A sow to a fiddle.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

  Asinus ad lyram.

• To sow his wild oats.
• As they sow so let them reap.

  Ut sementem seceris ita metes.

• To be tied to the sowre apple-tree. i. e. To be married to an ill husband.
• To call a spade a spade.
• You never speak but your mouth opens.
• Spick and span new.

  From spica an ear of corn, and the spawn of fishes, saith M^r Howel: but rather as I am informed by a bet∣ter authour; Spike is a sort of nail, and spawn is a chip of a boat; so that it is all one as to say, Every chip and nail is new.

• Spare at the spigget and let it out at the bung∣hole.

  E tien su dalla spina & spande dal coccone. Ital.

• ...

• He hath spit his venome.
• Spit in your hand and take better hold.
• You would spy faults if your eyes were out.
• To make one a stalking horse.
• What starve in a cooks shop?

  Endurer la soif aupres d'une fontaine. Gall.

  Mourir de faim aupres de mestier. Gall.

  This may be made a sentence by putting it imperatively. Never starve, &c.

• To go through stich with a business.
• To stick by the ribs.
• He hath swallowed a stake, he cannot stoop.
• The more you stir the worse you stink.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

  Plus foetent stercora mo∣ta.

  Quanto piu si ruga tanto piu puzza il stronzo. Ital.

  The more you stir a t—&c.

• To strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
• To stumble at a straw, and leap over a block.

  These two Proverbs have the same sense: the former is used by our Saviour. Matth. 23. 24.

• When two Sundays meet, i. e. never. Ad Grae∣cas Calendas.
• To swallow an ox, and be choak't with the tail.

  It hath the same sense with the two last save one.

• He'll swear through an inch board.
• He'll swear dagger out of sheath.
• He'll swearthe devil out of hell.

T.

• TO thrust his feet under another mans' table.

  Alienâ vivere quadrâ.

• To take from ones right side, to give to ones left.
• To take one up before he is down.
• Tell you a tale, and find you ears.
• A tale of a tub.
• To tell tales out of school.
• To talk like an Apothecary.
• Tenterden steeple's the cause of Goodwins sands.

  This Proverb is used when an absurd and ridiculous rea∣son is given of any thing in question: an account of the original whereof I find in one of Bishop Latimers ser∣mons in these words. M^r Moore was once sent with com∣mission into Kent, to try out, if it might be, what was the cause of Goodwins sands, and the shelf which stopped up Sandwich haven. Thither cometh M^r Moore, and calleth all the Countrey before him, such as were thought to be men of experience, and men that could of likelihood best satisfie him of the matter concerning the stopping of Sandwich haven. Among the rest came in before him an old man with a white head, and one that was thought to be little less then an hundred years old. When M^r Moore saw this aged man, he thought it expedient to hear him say his mind in this matter (for being so old a man, it was likely that he knew most in that presence, or com∣pany) So M^r Moore called this old aged man unto him and said, Father (said he) tell me if you can, what is the cause of the great arising of the sands and shelves here

• ...

  about this haven, which stop it up, so that no ships can ar∣rive here. You are the oldest man I can espie in all this company, so that if any man can tell any cause of it, you of all likelyhood can say most to it, or at leastwise more then any man here assembled. Yea forsooth, good M^r Moore, quoth this old man, for I am well nigh an hun∣dred years old, and no man here in this company any thing near my age. Well then (quoth M^r Moore) how say you to this matter? What think you to be the cause of these shelves and sands, which stop up Sandwich haven? For∣sooth sir (quoth he) I am an old man, I think that Ten∣terton-steeple is the cause of Goodwin's sands. For I am an old man sir (quoth he) I may remember the building of Tenterton-steeple, and I may remember when there was no steeple at all there. And before that Tenterton-steeple was in building, there was no manner of talking of any flats, or sands that stop't up the haven; and therefore, I think that Tenterton-steeple is the cause of the decay and destroying of Sandwich haven. Thus far the Bishop.

• I'll thank you for the next, for this I am sure of.
• There's a thing in't (quoth the fellow) when he drank the dish-clout.
• I'll not pull the thorn out of your foot and put it into my own.
• To stand upon thorns.
• Thrift and he are at a fray.
• When thrift's in the field, he's in town.
• He strook at Tib, but down fell Tom.
• His tongue's no slander.
• Your tongue runs before your wit.

  This is an ancient form of speech; I find it in

  Isocrates his oration to Demonicus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

• ...

• His tongue runs on wheels [or at random.]
• To have a thing at ones tongues end, or at the tip of ones tongue.
• Tooth and nail.

  Manibus pedibúsque. Remis velisque.

• To have an aking tooth at one.
• From top to toe.
• Topsie turvie.
• I'de not touch him with a pair of tongs.
• To it again, no body comes.

  Nemo nos infequitur aut impellit, Erasmus è Platone

  ; who tells us that this Proverb continues to this day in com∣mon use (among the Dutch I suppose) to signifie that it is free for us to stay upon any business [immorari in re aliqua.]

• To drive a subtill trade.
• To put one to his trumps.
• I'll trust him no further then I can fling him, or, then I can throw a millstone.
• You may trust him with untold gold.
• To turn with the wind, or tide.
• To turn over a new leaf.
• To turn cat in pan.
• In the twinkling of an eye.
• To stop two gaps with on bush.
• To stop two mouths with one morsel.

  Duas linit parietes eâdem sideliâ. Unicâsiliâ duos parare ge∣neros:

  This is a modern Proverb, but deserves (saith Eras∣mus) to be numbred amongst the ancient ones. I find it a∣mong the French,

  D'une fille deux gendres.

  To get himself two sons in law with one daughter.

• ...

• To kill two flies with one flap.
• To kill two birds with one shaft [or stone.]

  D'une pierre faire deux coups, Gall.

  Di un'dono far duoi amici, Ital.

  To make two friends with one gift.

  Pigliar due colombe con una fava, Ital.

  To take two pigeons with one bean.

• To carry two faces under one hood.

  Il a une face à deux visages, Gall.

  Due visi sotto una beretta, Ital.

• To have two strings to ones bow.

  Il fait bien avoir deux chordes en son are, Gall.

  This may be made a sentence by adding to it, It is good, or such like words.

  Duabus ancoris fultus.

• Two hands in a dish, and one in a purse.
• To have thwitten a mill-post to a pudding prick.
• She's cured of a tympany with two heels.

U.

• TO nourish a viper in ones bosom.

  Tu ti allevi la biscia in seno, Ital.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Theocr. in hodoep.

  Colubrum in sinu fo∣vere.

  Est apud Aesopum Apologus de rustico quodam in hanc rem.

• Nothing but up and ride?
• To be up the Queen apple-tree.
• No sooner up, but the head in the Aumbrey, and nose in the cup.

W.

• A warrant seal'd with butter.
• To look to ones water.
• To cast water into the Thames.

  Lumen soli mutuari, &c.

• You cant't see green cheese, but your teeth must water.
• I'll not wear the wooden daggar, i. e. lose my winnings.
• Wear a horn, and blow it not.
• To come home by weeping cross.

  This weeping cross which gave occasion to this phrase, is about two miles distant from the town of Stafford.

• You may make as good musick on a wheel∣barrow.
• Without welt or guard.
• All shall be well, and Jack shall have Jyll.
• With a wet finger.

  Levi brachio & molli trachio.

• But when, quoth Kettle to his mare? Chesh.
• Whist whist, I smell a birds nest.
• You'll make an end of your whistle though the cart overthrow.
• Whist and catch a mouse.
• To let leap a whiting.

  i. e. To let slip an opportunity.

• ...

• Shee's neither wife, widow nor maid.
• Your windmill dwindles into a nut-crack.
• All this wind shakes no corn.
• Either win the horse or lose the saddle.

  Aut ter sex aut tres tesserae.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉

  . The ancients used to play with three dice, so that thrice six must needs be the best, and three aces the worst chance. They called three aces simply three dice, because they made no more then the number of the dice. The ace side was left empty without any spot at all, because to count them was no more then to count the dice. Hereupon this chance was called, Jactus inanis, the empty chance.

• Wind and weather doe thy worst.
• To goe down the wind.
• Win it and wear it.
• To have one in the wind.
• To have windmills in's head.
• Keep your wind, &c. v breath.
• You may wink and chuse.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉

  .

  Thrax ad Thracem compositus▪

• He shews all his wit at once.
• God send you more wit, and me more money.
• You were born when wit was scant.
• Your wits are on wooll gathering.
• You have wit enough to drown ships in.
• You give the wolf the weather to keep.

  Ha dato la pecora in guardia al lupo, Ital.

  Ovem lupo commisisti.

• ...

• To have a wolf by the ears.

  This is also a Latine Proverb,

  Lupum auribus tenere.

  When a man hath a doubtful business in hand, which it is equally hazardous to pursue or give over; as it is to hold or let go a wolf which one hath by the ears.

• To be in a wood.
• You cannot see wood for trees.

  In mari aquam quaeris.

• To make woof or warp of any business.
• A word and a blow.
• When he should work, every finger is a thumb.
• If any thing stay let work stay.
• The world is well amended with him.
• To have the world in a string.
• He has a worm in's brain.
• Not worthy to carry his books after him.
• Not worthy to be named the same day.
• Not worthy to wipe his shooes.

  Indignus qui illi matellam porrigat. Dispeream si tu Pyladi praestare matellam Dignus es, aut porcos pascere Pirithoi. Martial.

• Not worthy to carry guts after a Bear.