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John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

Page 15

 
 
John Heywood. (1497?–1580?) (continued)
 
137
    Better one byrde in hand than ten in the wood. 1
          Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
138
    Rome was not built in one day.
          Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
139
    Yee have many strings to your bowe. 2
          Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
140
    Many small make a great. 3
          Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
141
    Children learne to creepe ere they can learne to goe.
          Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
142
    Better is halfe a lofe than no bread.
          Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
143
    Nought venter nought have. 4
          Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
144
    Children and fooles cannot lye. 5
          Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
145
    Set all at sixe and seven. 6
          Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
146
    All is fish that comth to net. 7
          Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
147
    Who is worse shod than the shoemaker’s wife? 8
          Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
148
    One good turne asketh another.
          Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
149
    By hooke or crooke. 9
          Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
 
Note 1.
An earlier instance occurs in Heywood, in his “Dialogue on Wit and Folly,” circa 1530. [back]
Note 2.
Two strings to his bow.—Richard Hooker: Polity, book v. chap. lxxx. George Chapman: D’ Ambois, act ii. sc. 3. Samuel Butler: Hudibras, part iii. canto i. line 1. Churchill: The Ghost, book iv. Henry Fielding: Love in Several Masques, sc. 13. [back]
Note 3.
See Chaucer, Quotation 42. [back]
Note 4.
Naught venture naught have.—Thomas Tusser: Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. October Abstract [back]
Note 5.
’T is an old saw, Children and fooles speake true.—John Lyly: Endymion. [back]
Note 6.
Set all on sex and seven.—Geoffrey Chaucer: Troilus and Cresseide, book iv. line 623; also Towneley Mysteries.

At six and seven.—William Shakespeare: Richard II. act ii. sc. 2. [back]
Note 7.
All ’s fish they get that cometh to net.—Thomas Tusser: Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. February Abstract.

Where all is fish that cometh to net.—Gascoigne: Steele Glas. 1575. [back]
Note 8.
Him that makes shoes go barefoot himself.—Robert Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader. [back]
Note 9.
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. One of the earliest citations of this proverb occurs in John Wycliffe’s Controversial Tracts, circa 1370.—See Skelton, Quotation 5. Francis Rabelais: book v. chap. xiii. Du Bartas: The Map of Man. Edmund Spenser: Faerie Queene, book iii. canto i. st. 17. Beaumont and Fletcher: Women Pleased, act i. sc. 3. [back]