dots-menu
×

Home  »  Familiar Quotations  »  Page 9

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

Page 9

 
 
John Heywood. (1497?–1580?) (continued)
 
72
    Let the world slide, 1 let the world go;
A fig for care, and a fig for woe!
If I can’t pay, why I can owe,
And death makes equal the high and low.
          Be Merry Friends.
73
    All a green willow, willow,
All a green willow is my garland.
          The Green Willow.
74
    Haste maketh waste.
          Proverbes. Part i. Chap. ii.
75
    Beware of, Had I wist. 2
          Proverbes. Part i. Chap. ii.
76
    Good to be merie and wise. 3
          Proverbes. Part i. Chap. ii.
77
    Beaten with his owne rod. 4
          Proverbes. Part i. Chap. ii.
78
    Look ere ye leape. 5
          Proverbes. Part i. Chap. ii.
79
    He that will not when he may,
When he would he shall have nay. 6
          Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iii.
80
    The fat is in the fire. 7
          Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iii.
 
Note 1.
Let the world slide.—Towneley Mysteries, p. 101 (1420). William Shakespeare: Taming of the Shrew, induc. 1. Beaumont and Fletcher: Wit without Money, act v. sc. 2. [back]
Note 2.
A common exclamation of regret occurring in Spenser, Harrington, and the older writers. An earlier instance of the phrase occurs in the Towneley Mysteries. [back]
Note 3.
’T is good to be merry and wise.—Ben Jonson, George Chapman, Marston: Eastward Ho, act i. sc. 1. Robert Burns: Here ’s a health to them that ’s awa’. [back]
Note 4.
don fust
C’on kint souvent est-on batu.
(By his own stick the prudent one is often beaten.)
Roman du Renart, circa 1300. [back]
Note 5.
Look ere thou leap.—In Tottel’s Miscellany, 1557; and in Tusser’s Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. Of Wiving and Thriving. 1573.

Thou shouldst have looked before thou hadst leapt.—Ben Jonson, George Chapman, Marston: Eastward Ho, act v. sc 1.

Look before you ere you leap.—Samuel Butler: Hudibras, pt. ii. c. ii. l. 502. [back]
Note 6.
He that will not when he may,
When he will he shall have nay.
Robert Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy, pt. iii. sec. 2, mem. 5, subs. 5.

He that wold not when he might,
He shall not when he wolda.
The Baffled Knight. Thomas Percy: Reliques. [back]
Note 7.
All the fatt ’s in the fire.—Marston: What You Will. 1607. [back]