The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-08-24
OFT QUOTED PHRASES.
THEIR ORIGIN TRACED BACK TO
GOOD OLD DAYS OF YORe,

They Didn't Spell Then just ss We Do
Now. but They Did Some Good Think
iny-A Record That VIII He Useful Ia
Settling Disputes That Are Frequent
Some Of the commonest sayings we hear
every day have been handed down to us,
from father to son, for more than thousand
years; and even long before these proverbs
are thought to have been in use among our
English forefathers in their old homeland, IN
north Germany, before they conquered anu
settled the island they afterward called Eng
land. Many Of them are common to the
whole Aryan race
As King Alfred, who lived In the Ninth
century, was a good and wise man. our an
cestors in the middle ages attributed to him
many of these wise sayings, and there is
tradition that this proverbial philosophy was
delivered by him to his Witanagemot, or old
English parliament
An OLD MANUSCRIPT.
There is manuscript Of the Thirteenth
century containing many of these proverbs,
which have been printed just as it was writ
ten, in the style and spelling Of 900 years ago.
The specimens that follow will be recognized
at once, in spite of their old fashioned Eng
lish dress:
Brend child fur dredeth.
He Il fire. OF hors that ner made non
Wei fyht that vel hyth.
God beginning maketh god endyng.
Sottes bolt In son shote
Fer from eye, for from herte
When the cope lcupl is fullest theme Der hir
feyrest.
When the bale Is hest highest, theme Il the
bote boot remedy nest lnighestl.
Coming down to the Fourteenth century,
we find many Of our common proverbs In
"Piers Plowmau" and Chaucer. The author
Of ''Piers Plowman" says that faith without
work is
. Ded as dore nayle.
Wisdom and witte now is nought worth carse.
This survives in our mot worth a curse, y
or don't care a curse" where curse stands
for cress. In Turner's book on the "Names
of Herbes' Q5iS) both forms are in Use. crosse
and kerse. An old alliterative poem contains
this line:
Anger gaynex [gansl thee not cresse
And Chaucer has:
he raught [recked) he not kers.
In the Canterbury Tales" one would nat
urally expect to find many of our common
bywords, such as:
Nordre will out that Sc We day by day
Than Is ii wisdom, as it thinketh me,
To maken vertu Of pecessite.
Hyt is not al golde that glareth.
Upright as bolt
Bet than never is late.
than never
Besy as bees; piping hot, etc.
To curry favor is a corruption of middle
English-to curry favell-that is, to rub down
a horse. Favell was common name for
horse in the Fourteenth century.
Specimens of proverbs found in the Fiji
tenth century literature are:
know not an from the wynd-mylne, ne B
from boe foot.-Jack Upland.
We have a craw to pulle-Townly Mysteries
Odyous Of olde been ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS S
Poems
AFTER THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. \
As we reach the Sixteenth century many
proverbs appear for the first time. Tyndale,
the translator of the Bible, says that Iii the
porridge be burnt, or when thing speedeth
not WELL we say: The bishop hath put his
foot in the pot"
This is partly revived in our day:
Put his foot in It,
Lyle's "Euphues:"
AS lyke as one pease Is to another.
Fainth hart neither winneth castell nor lady.
Trusser's Five Hundredth Pointes Of Good
Husbandrie:"
Christmas comes but once year.
VINO goeth borrowing goeth a-sorrowing.
Haywood Proverbs" published in 1916:
No man ought to look given horse in the
mouth.
Two heads are better than one.
Beggars should be no choosers.
Rome was not built In one day.
New broom swepth cleene
No fire without some smoke.
Leape out Of the frying pan into the tyre.
know on which side my bread Is buttered.
When give you IN inch you take an ell
She looketh as butter will not melt In her
mouth.
A penny for your thought.
You can not see the wood for the trees.
The gray mare. is the better horse.
You might have gone further and Jared worse
Hit the nail on the head.
"Rule the roost" is corruption Of "rule
the roast" a genuine English proverb. 1t is
found in Gascoigne's ''Steel Glns" Q576), but
its appearance in literature is several cen
turtles earlier.
Forsooth, good sir, the lawyer leapeth In;
Nay, rather leapes both over hedge and ditch,
And rules the rost but few men rule by right.
The literature Of the Seventeenth century
abounds in our every day proverbs.
"Abbott's Account Of His Trials" Q620
A fool and his money is soon parted.
Mobiles translation of "Life Of Guznan'
Q623):
Make the best OF a bad bargain.
Az merry Is the day Is long.
Dead as O herring.
"Wycherley's Comedies" Q650-7D:
- damn with fantpraises, Dealer.
Dreams 20 by contraries.
Forewarned is forearmed - The Gentleman
Dancing Master.
Familiarity breeds contempt
Walls have ears.-IOve IN q Wood.
Plain as pike static.
Fetch them over the coals-Merry Drollery
Congreve's Plays Q693-1700:
Cut diamond with dlamond.-Old Bachelor
Chip Of the old block.-Love for Love.
turn my wife to grass.-Way Of the
World
This is perhaps the origin Of our grass
widow.
Buffers "Hudibras" Q67S:
ring the changes
Jeremy Golfers "Short View Of English
Stage" 1898:
% come off with flying colors