WOMANHOOD AND PROVERBS.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2599, 5 August 1882, Page 3

WOMANHOOD AND PROVERBS.

That definition of a proverb which Lord John Rossell gave one morning at a pnblic breakfast, “one man’* wit and all ne.i’i .wisdom,” has itself become proverbial. We have no idea of attempting to amplify its exquisite brevity, but the thought has occurred to si that it would be an Btansing and may be even an instructive employment to glance over a few of those expressions of original wit and universal wisdom which have special reference to womanhood. The first and most striking result of this study is the discovery that, although upon the authority of our '• poet’s poet,” we speak of mother wit as a feminine quality, the wit which flashed forth in the form of proverbial expressions appears to have been invariably masculine. And this we gather simply from the internal evidence, that whereas there are hundreds of proverbs abont women, their fascination, vanity, frailty, &0., we have only been able to fix upon a single proverb, and that Spanish, which eeems to have arisen spontaneously out of the experience of a passionate woman’s heart. The expression to which we refer occurs in the accord part of that treasury of proverbial, and well nigh every other sort of wisdom, 11 Don Quixote” ; it may be translated as follows:—“Dove looks through spectacles which make copper look like gold, poverty like lichee, and foul tears like pearls.” Thera is a suppresssd sob of disenchantment, a shade of bitternccs about this proverb which somehow leads us to attribute it to some woman who had laid aside those "spectacles” et last, and known, too late, that she had loved not wisely but too well;

Turning over the pages of that wonderful Spanish story, we meet with many strikingly suggestive proverbs concerning man, his hopes, duties, ideals, and difficulties, but those few which refer especially to women were evidently originated by men, and those moreover Spaniards. Prom the second part wo cull the following :—“ The virtuous maid and the broken leg must stay at home ” “A woman and a hen are soon lost by gadding abroad.” ‘‘The ant has wings to its own hurt,” which latter is no doubt a poetical way of expressing the fact that as the insect is more easily devoured by swallows on the wing, so a woman is not to be trusted, without danger, beyond the paternal roof tree. “ Between a woman’s ‘yea’ and‘nay’l would not venture to stick the point of a pin ” is evidently the personal experience of a Lothario who had never been frowned upon by womankind, la the following, also from the second part, a graver note of suggestivenees is touched. “The dead woman was frightened at her that was beheadedin other words, we are all too prone to criticise severely those errors and frailties which are not exactly ours, forgetting that wo ourselves are worthy of condemnation also, for sins which are not less, but quite as heinous as those others seem to our untempted hearts. But there is one proverb in “ Dan Quixo’e ” wherein all the old high-bred Spanish courtliness (which was quite a different thing from the Teutonic reverence for womanhood) is briefly and charaoteristisally expressed. We cannot resist quoting it in the original ’ “El oonseja de la mujer es poco, y el que no toma es loco.” “ The counsel of a woman is not worth much, but he who does not take it is worth nothing.” In Pntteabam’s “ Arte of English Poetry," a curious and interesting work, published about the end of the sixteenth century, the author, speaking cf the tender-heartedness of the female sex in general, alludes to the common proverb, “A woman will woepa for piiie to see a gosling goo barafoote.” There must have been a touch of real humour about the originator of this ancient proverb, ridiculing, but nevertheless loving, the prodigality of tenderness which caused him so much amusement.

Among the notes to the third chapter of his “ E iatory of England,” Lord Macaulay alludes to the vulgar proverb, “ that the grey mare is the better horse; ” attributing its rise to the preference generally given, in the seventeenth century, to the grey mares of Flanders over the finest coach horses of England. In George Herbert’s “ Jacula Prudcntum ’’ there are many proverbs which are descriptive of the lives and qualities of women. Among ethers we select the following—“ Empty chambers make foolish maids,” a proverb which, of oours , like so many others, only expresses a half truth ; for we are willing to believe that some very wise little maidens have grown into womanhood like moorland blossoms, which only the groure, and the adder, and the humble bea have looked on ; but foolish is no doubt used here in its slighter signification of bashful, iu which case the proverb is of course a true one.

“ A fair wife and a frontier castle breed quarrels,” reads like the sigh of soma baronial Benedict who fruitlessly thirsted after quietness in the weary ages of warfare. “ Mills and wives ever want ” was no doubt the miserly conclusion of some med'ssval Harpagon; one can almost recognise the snap with which it was uttered in the laoonio brevity of the phrase. “ Who lets his wife go to every feast and his horse drink at every water shall neither have good wife nor good horse” was possibly the self-exculpation of a martinet, who really objected to the extravagance of his help-meet's festal garments, but succeeded in persuading himself and his acquaintances that he waa a very pattern of magnanimity, exercising a judicious rule over the morals of his submissive spouse. ‘‘ln choosing a wife and buying a sword one ought not to trust another.” Here one detects a shade of bitterness ; the proverb was probably spoken by one who had tried the same experiment as Milton (in his third marriage) but without Milton’s good fortune; poasibly owing to tho selection of a less discreet adviser. "In the husband wiedom, in the wife gentleness.” Here we recognise a bachelor’s ideal ; it was evidently composed by a young man who was well assured of hie personal sapience, and desirous of discovering iu his “ better half " the high priestess who should assist him in burning perpetual incense before the shrine of that celestial wisdom.

“Beauty draws more than oxen” may have been the expression of some envious “ proud sister” of real life ; but both proverbs are just as likely to have been originated by men as women; there is nothing distinctively feminine about them. “ Never was bad woman fair” is a beautiful old proverb which sounds so very like tho pure heart of George Herbert himself that one is almost tempted to imagine him its author. “ A hones and a woman suit excellently,” and “the wife is the key to the house” are proverbs to which every reader will agree immediately as true, “A gentle housewife mars the household,” on the other hand, strikes us upon fi-st examination as fallacious. “ Gentle” has however, probably somewhat altered its meaning in modem times. It is possibly used here in the sense of dandified. A housewife who is too fine a lady to superintend her ser- , vants, mars tho household, in which sente of course it still continues true. Such arc a few out of the innumerable multitude of proverbs concerning the life and qualities of women. We think that our readers will not disagree with the opinion already stated, that the generality must have been the expression of masculine rather than feminine witticism. Nevertheless, do not let us bind ourselves to the confession of a halftruth. Turning over tho pages c£ tho “ Jaonla Prudentum” we come upon manydeep sayings, trenchant, simple, and naans worably true, which are applicable not only to men, not only to women, but to human natu’.e ia its joy and sorrow, strife, endurance, victory. Coucerning the authorships of these wo do not pretend to offer an opinion. Over each of them one may think and think, until a story of forgotten lives woven of sunbeams or of lurid thunderclouds arises in imagination from the ordinary little words. It is only in the common, superficial, as it «era objective, proverbs, that we seem to see a glimmer of the every-day experience of ordinary lives—lhe.ee suggest a mixture of sympathy and ridicule—of those others, the deep thoughts of the dead hearts which wore so strong and wise and true, we hold them with undying reverence as the nation's heritage, footprints of tho heroes, wherein by dint of strife and effort, we press on to plaoe our own. “Choose s house made and a wife to moke’ said some strong-minded gentleman, who flattered himself that he had moulded tho character cf the girl whom he had married, who very probably all tho while had gain<-d entire ascendancy over him in essentials by flattering his weak point of moulding her in non-essentials.

“He that tell* his wife news is but newly married,” This is evidently a sorrowful fragment from the experience of a patient individual who had been so unfortunate as to mate with a gossip. One detects the smart of unforgotten scandal in the words. “ A woman conceals whut she Knows not,” was the axiom

of a worldlier prudence, which is more suggestive of the proud reserve of Spanish manhood

“Take heed of a widow thrice married,” was the warning bequeathed by some unrecorded Tony Weller to the race. “ Take heed of a young wench, a prophetess, and a Latinbred woman," ran another whisper of warning. “ A Latin bred woman" was apparently the popular synonym for a learned lady, before the famous blue stocking fraternity gave its expressive epithet to the language, _ The same phrase occurs in another expression of warning. “A morning sun, a wine-bred child, and a Latin-bred woman, seldom end well." Both proverbs are interesting when contrasted with modern ideas npou_ the subject of female education, as marking the revolution which liberality of thought has gradually effected among us. “A poor beauty finds more lovers than husbands ” was perhaps the sorrowful experience of tome pretty but penniless maiden.