Sardonic smile. The island of Sardinia, consisting chiefly of marshes or of mountains, has, from the earliest period to the present, been cursed with a noxious air, an ill-cultivated soil, and a scanty population. The convulsions produced by its poisonous plants gave rise to the expression of sardonic smile, which is as old as Homer (Odyss. lib. xx. v. 302).—Mahon, History of England. Vol. i. p. 287. Consistency is a jewel. This is one of those popular sayings, like "Be good, and you will be happy," or "Virtue is its own reward," that, like Topsy, "never was born, only jist growed." From the earliest times it has been the popular tendency to call this or that cardinal virtue, or bright and shining excellence, a jewel, by way of emphasis. For example, Iago says: "Good name, in man or woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls." Shakespeare elsewhere calls "Experience a jewel;" Miranda says her Modesty is the jewel in her dower; and in "All's Well that Ends Well," Diana terms her chastity the jewel of her house. We might go on to quote John Heywood's "Plain dealing 's a jewel," and many others, but we think these examples are enough. R. A. Wight. Dead as Chelsea. To get Chelsea; to obtain the benefit of that hospital. "Dead as Chelsea, by G-d!" an exclamation uttered by a grenadier at Fontenoy, on having his leg carried away by a cannon ball. Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1758, quoted by Brady (Var. of Lit. 1826). PROVERBIAL EXPRESSIONS, FOUND IN THE WORKS OF ENGLISH WRITERS, WHICH ARE OF COMMON ORIGIN. All is fish that cometh to net. Heywood's Proverbs, 1546. Tusser, Five Hun- All that glisters is not gold. Gascoigne's Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, ii. 7. Heywood's Proverbs, 1546. Herbert, Jacula Prudentum. Googe's Eglogs, Epitaphs, &c., 1563. All is not gold that glisteneth. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, v. 1. All thing, which that shineth as the gold Chaucer, The Chanones Yemannes Tale, Line 243. 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. C. 8. St. 14. All, as they say, that glitters is not gold. Dryden, Hind and Panther. Que tout n'est pas ors c'on voit luise. Li Diz de freire Denise cordelier, circa 1300. Another, yet the same. Pope, Dunciad, Book iii. Tickell, From a Lady in England. Johnson, Life of Dryden. Darwin, Botanic Garden, Pt. i. C. 4, 1. 380. Wordsworth, The Excursion, Book ix. Scott, The Abbot, Ch. 1. Horace, Carm. Sec. l. 10. Anything for a quiet life. Title of a play by Middleton. As the case stands. Middleton, The Old Law, Act i. Sc. 1. At my finger's end. Heywood's Proverbs, 1546. Shakespeare, Twelfth At sixes and sevens. Heywood's Proverbs. Middleton, The Widow, i. 2. Beggars should [must] be no choosers. Heywood's Proverbs, 1546. Beaumont and Better late than never. Heywood's Proverbs. Tusser, Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. Bunyan, Pilgrim's By hook or by crook. Wycliffe's Controversial Tracts, circa 1370, Spenser, Faerie Queene, iii. 1, 17. Skelton, Colin Clout, 1520. Heywood's Proverbs. Beaumont and Fletcher, Women Pleased, i. 3. This phrase derives its origin from the custom of certain manors where tenants are authorized to take fire-bote by hook or by crook; that is, so much of the underwood as may be cut with a crook, and so much of the loose timber as may be collected from the boughs by means of a hook. Candle to the sun. Selden, Preface to Mare Clausum. Burton, Anat. Carpet knights. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, Pt. i. Sec. 2. Stirling, Sonnets, S. 6. Burton, Anat. of Mel., The Chip of the old block. Ray's Proverbs. Burke, ante, p. 385. Coast was clear. Drayton, Nymphidia. Compare great things with small. Virgil, Georgics, Book iv. 1. 176. Milton, Par. Lost, Book ii. l. 921. Cowley, The Motto. Dryden, Ovid's Met., Book i. l. 727. Tickell, Poem on Hunting. Pope, Windsor Forest. Comparisons are odious. Don Quixote, Pt. ii. Ch. 1, Ed. Lockhart. Bur- Comparisons are odorous. Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, iii. 5. Dark as pitch. Ray's Proverbs. Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, Pt. 1. Gay, The Shepherd's Week. Wednesday. Deeds, not words. Beaumont and Fletcher, The Lover's Progress, Act iii. Sc. 1. Butler, Hudibras, Pt. i. C. 1, l. 867. Devil take the hindmost. Beaumont and Fletcher, Bonduca, iv. 3. Butler, Prior, Ode on taking Nemur. Pope, Dunciad, Book ii. l. 60. Burns, To a Haggis. Diamonds cut diamonds. Ford, The Lover's Melancholy, Act. i. Sc. 1. Discretion is the better part of valour. Shakespeare, Henry IV., Pt. i. v. 4. Churchill, Discretion the best part of valour. Beaumont and Fletcher, A King, and no King, iv. 3. Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man. healthy, wealthy, and wise. Clarke's Param. 1639. Franklin, Poor Richard. My hour is eight o'clock, though it is an infallible Rule, Sanat, santificat, et ditat surgere mane. A Health to the Gentle. Prof. of Servingmen, 1598, repr. Roxb. lib. p. 121. Eat thy cake and have it too. Heywood's Proverbs, 1546. Herbert, The Size. Enough is good as a feast. Dives and Pauper, 1493. Gascoigne's Memories, Every tub must stand upon its own bottom. Ray's Proverbs. Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress. Macklin, The Man of the World, i. 2. |