WIST Quotations

Heywood, John -- Proverbes, Part 1, ch. 2 (1546)

Dave — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 15:41:42 +0000

Better one byrde in hand than ten in the wood.

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbes, Part 1, ch. 2 (1546)

Heywood, John -- Proverbes, Part 1, ch. 3 (1546)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

And while I at length debate and beate the bush,
There shall steppe in other men and catch the burdes.

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbes, Part 1, ch. 3 (1546)
(Source)

Heywood, John -- Proverbes, Part 1, ch. 4 (1546)

Dave — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 11:50:14 +0000

When the skie falth we shall have Larkes.

[When the sky falls, we shall have larks.]

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbes, Part 1, ch. 4 (1546)
(Source)

See Howell (1659).

Heywood, John -- Proverbes, Part 1, ch. 9 (1546)

Dave — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 12:13:47 +0000

The neer to the church, the further from God.

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbes, Part 1, ch. 9 (1546)
(Source)

Heywood, John -- Proverbes, Part 1, ch. 9 (1546)

Dave — Wed, 04 May 2011 13:57:47 +0000

It hurteth not the toung to give faire words.

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbes, Part 1, ch. 9 (1546)
(Source)

Heywood, John -- Proverbes, Part 1, ch. 11 (1546)

Dave — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:33:52 +0000

By hooke or crooke.

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbes, Part 1, ch. 11 (1546)
(Source)

The phrase most likely derives from English tenant rights to gather firewood "by hook or by crook" -- as much loose timber as could be pulled down from branches by a (shepherd's) crook, or cut with from underbrush by a (pruning) billhook. The phrase first appears in the 14th Century.

Heywood, John -- Proverbes, Part 1, ch. 11 (1546)

Dave — Wed, 11 May 2011 12:40:35 +0000

But he was at home there, he might speake his will,
Every cocke is proud on his owne dunghill.

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbes, Part 1, ch. 11 (1546)
(Source)

Heywood, John -- Proverbes, Part 1, ch. 11 (1564)

Dave — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:04:58 +0000

Nought venter nought have.

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbes, Part 1, ch. 11 (1564)
(Source)

More commonly rendered, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

Heywood, John -- Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 2 (1546)

Dave — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 19:25:09 +0000

Some things that provoke yong men to wed in haste,
Show after wedding that haste maketh waste.

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 2 (1546)
(Source)

Heywood, John -- Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 5 (1546)

Dave — Wed, 25 May 2011 08:58:09 +0000

Many hands make light warke.

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 5 (1546)
(Source)

Heywood, John -- Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 5 (1546)

Dave — Sat, 06 Sep 2025 19:14:44 +0000

Much water goeth by the mill
That the miller knoweth not of.

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 5 (1546)
(Source)

See Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act 2, sc. 7 (1588-1593): "More water glideth by the mill, / Than wots the miller of."

Heywood, John -- Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 9 (1546)

Dave — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 13:39:45 +0000

Would yee both eat your cake, and have your cake?

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 9 (1546)
(Source)

Heywood, John -- Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 9 (1546)

Dave — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:07:13 +0000

Who is so deafe, or so blynde, as is hee,
That wilfully will nother heare nor see?

[Who is so deaf, or so blind, as is he,
That willfully will neither hear nor see?]

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 9 (1546)
(Source)

Heywood, John -- Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 11 (1546)

Dave — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:12:56 +0000

Enough is as good as a feast.

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 11 (1546)
(Source)

Heywood, John -- Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 11 (1546)

Dave — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 12:18:12 +0000

This hitteth the naile on the hed.

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 11 (1546)
(Source)

Heywood, John -- Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 9 (1546)

Dave — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:37:20 +0000

Love me, love my dog.

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 9 (1546)
(Source)

Earlier noted as a common proverb by Bernard of Clairvaux in the 11th Century: "Qui me amat, amet et canem meum [Who loves me will love my dog also] in his First Sermon on the Feast of St Michael.

Heywood, John -- Proverbs, Part 2, ch. 5 (1546)

Dave — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 19:14:04 +0000

A cat may looke on a King.

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbs, Part 2, ch. 5 (1546)
(Source)

Revised spelling from the 1874 edition. Original editions had it, "A cat maie looke on a kyng." This is the earliest text found with this recorded as an English proverb.

Thomas Fuller included the phrase ("A Cat may look upon a King") in his Gnomologia, # 35 (1732).

For more information on this phrase and its history, see: meaning and origin of the phrase ‘a cat may look at a king’ – word histories.

Heywood, John -- Ballad (1576), “Be Merry Friends,” st. 17

Dave — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 19:46:29 +0000

Let the world slide, 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!

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Ballad (1576), “Be Merry Friends,” st. 17
(Source)

Collected in John Payne Collier (ed.), A Book of Roxburghe Ballads (1847), which includes more history about it.

This quote from the final stanza of the ballad (as reconstructed) was popularized when quoted in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 5th Ed. (1870) and subsequent editions.

The ballad also shows up in a collection of James Orchard Halliwell (ed.), The Moral Play of Wit and Science (1848) for the Shakespeare Society. This has an earlier version of the ballad, which does not include this stanza. (It also wavers in spelling between "mery" / "merye" and "frends" / "freendes.") This is in turn endnoted with five contemporary English stanzas, replacing the last two given, which includes that quoted above.

"Let the world slide" is used by the Beggar (Sly) in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, Induction, sc. 1 (c. 1590).