partook largely of that of his country; that mantle of gravity, which almost conceals under it a latent facetiousness, and with which he has imbued his style and manner with such untranslateable idiomatic raciness, may be traced to the proverbial erudition of his nation. "Hurtar el puerco y dar los pies Dios,'* is Cervantic nature. To one who is seeking an opportunity to quarrel with another, their proverb runs, "Si quieres dar palos a su muger pidele al sol a bever." To describe persons who live high without visible means, "Los que cabritos venden y cabras no tienen, dedonde los vienen?"‡ Proverbs abounding in sarcastic humour, and found among every people, are those which are pointed at rival countries. They expose some prevalent folly, or allude to some disgrace, which the natives have incurred. In France, the Burgundians have "Mieux vaut bon repas que bel habit;"§ these people are great gormandizers, but shabby dressers. Thus Picardy is famous for "hot heads;" and the Norman for "son dit et son dedit."|| In Italy, the numerous rival cities pelt one another with proverbs: "Chi ha a fare con Tosco non convien esser losco ;"¶ "A Venetia chi vi nasce, mal vi si pasce."** In England, hardly has a county escaped from some popular quip; even neighbouring towns have their sarcasms, usually pickled in some unlucky rhyme. The egotism of man eagerly seizes on whatever serves to depreciate or ridicule his neighbour: nations proverb each other; counties flout counties; obscure towns sharpen their wits on towns as obscure as themselves the same evil principle lurking in poor human nature, if it *Steal a pig and give the trotters for God's sake. Hast thou a mind to quarrel with thy wife, bid her bring water to thee in the sunshine! They that sell kids and have no goats, how came they by them? His saying and his unsaying. ¶ He who deals with a Tuscan must not have his eyes shut. ** Whom Venice breeds, she poorly feeds. cannot always assume predominance, will meanly gratify itself by insult or contempt. There is another source of national characteristics, frequently producing strange or whimsical combinations; a people, from a very natural circumstance, have drawn their proverbs from local objects or allusions to peculiar customs. The Japanese have the proverb, "A fog cannot be dispelled with a fan ;" which could only have occurred to a people who had constantly before them fogs and fans. The Chinese say, "The thunder is heard but seldom; the sun shines every day;"-illustrating the fact, that the instances of Divine beneficence to men are of far more frequent occurrence than those of Divine wrath. It shows also, that a land giving birth to a proverb so beautiful, is not one of Boeotian fogs or Scandinavian frosts, but of zephyrs bland and skies serene. The Spaniards have an odd proverb to describe those who teaze and vex a person before they do him the very benefit they are about to confer-acting kindly but speaking roughly: "Mostrar primero la horca que el lugar;"* alluding to their small towns, which have a gallows placed on an eminence, so that it breaks on the eye of the traveller before he gets a view of the town itself. The Cheshire proverb on marriage, "Better wed over the mixon than over the moor;" mixon alludes to the dung, &c., in the farmyard, while the road from Chester to London is over the moorland in Staffordshire: it is a curious instance of provincial pride to induce the gentry of that county to intermarry. In the Isle of Man, a proverbial expression indicates the object constantly occupying the minds of the inhabitants-herring-fishery. The two Deemsters, when appointed to the chair of judgment, declare they will render justice between man and man "as equally as the herring-bone lies between the two sides." There is a Cornish proverb, "Those who will not be ruled by the rudder must be ruled by the rock" the strands of Cornwall, so often covered with *To show the gallows before they show the town. wrecks, could not fail to impress on the imaginations of its inhabitants the two objects from which they drew this salutary proverb against obstinate wrong-heads. When Scotland, in the last century, felt its allegiance to England doubtful, and when the French sent an expedition to the land of cakes, a local proverb was revived, to show the identity of interests which affected both nations: "If Skiddaw hath a cap, Scruffel wots full well of that." These are two high hills, one in Scotland and one in England, so near, that what happens to one will not be long ere it reach the other. If a fog lodges on the one, it is sure to rain on the other. There are domestic proverbs which originate in incidents known only to the natives. Italian literature is particularly rich in these stores. They apply to a person who, while he is beaten, takes the blows quietly: "Per beato ch' elle non furon pesche !"* And to threaten to give a man "Una pesca in un occhio,"† means to give him a thrashing. This proverb originated in a certain droll adventure. The community of the Castle Poggibonsi pay a tribute of peaches to the Tuscan court. It happened one season, in a great scarcity of peaches, that the good people, finding them rather dear, sent, instead thereof, a quantity of fine juicy figs, which was so much disapproved of by the pages, that as soon as they got hold of them, they began in rage to empty the baskets on the heads of the ambassadors of the Poggibonsi, who, in attempting to fly as well as they could from the pulpy shower, half-blinded, and recollecting that peaches would have had stones in them, cried out "Per beato ch' elle non furon pesche!" *Luckily they were not peaches. † A peach in the eye. There are legends and histories which belong to proverbs; and some of the most ancient refer to incidents which have not always been commemorated. The Greek proverb, "He is a man of Tenedos," describes a man of unquestionable veracity. It first originated in a king of Tenedos, who decreed that there should always stand behind the judge a person holding an axe, ready to execute justice on any one convicted of falsehood. A national event is perpetuated in the proverb, "Y vengar quiniento sueldos”*—an odd expression to denote a person being a gentleman. The Spaniards of Old Castile were compelled to pay an annual tribute of five hundred maidens to their masters, the Moors; after several battles, they succeeded in compromising the shameful tribute by as many pieces of coin. At length, they entirely emancipated themselves from the odious imposition. The heroic action was performed by men of distinction, and the event perpetuated in the recollections of the Spaniards, by this singular expression, was applied to characterize all men of high honour, and devoted lovers of their country. PASQUIER observes that a proverb among the common people conveys the result of all his inquiries respecting the periodic changes of ancient families in feudal times; for those noble houses which in a single age declined from nobility and wealth to poverty and meanness, gave rise to "Cent ans bannieres, et cent ans civieres." The Italian proverb, "Con l'Evangilia si diventa heretico," reflects the policy of the court of Rome, and must be dated at the time of the Reformation. The Scotch have "He that invented the maiden first hanselled it :" i. e., got the first of it. The inventor was the EARL OF MORTON. The saw is applied to the artificer of his own destruction. "Testers are gone to Oxford to study at Brazen-nose." HENRY VIII. debased the silver coin, called testers from their having a head stamped on each side; the brass, breaking out in red pimples on * And revenge five hundred pounds. + One hundred years a banner, and one hundred years a barrow. With the gospel we become heretics. the silver faces, provoked the ill-humour of the people to vent itself in this punning proverb, which preserved the popular feeling of fifty years standing, till ELIZABETH reformed the state of the coinage. The Italian history of its own small principalities affords many instances of the timely use of a proverb. Many an intricate negotiation has been contracted through a good-humoured proverb, many a sarcastic one has silenced an adversary; and sometimes they have been applied on more solemn and even tragical occasions. When ALBIZZI was banished by the vigorous conduct f COSMO DE' MEDICI, the former sent COSMO a menace- "La gallina covava !'"* The undaunted COSMO replied by another proverb, that "There was no brooding out of the nest!" When a Frenchman would let us know that he has settled with his creditors, the saying is "J'ai payé tous mes Anglois,"t—which originated when JOHN, the French king, was taken prisoner by the BLACK PRINCE, and ransomed by levies of money. The Italians have a proverb which, formerly at least, was strongly indicative of the travelled Englishman in their country: "Inglese Italianato é un diavolo incarnato." The English were once better famed for merry Christmasses and their pies; and it must have been Italians who had been domiciliated with them who gave currency to "Ha piu du fare che i forni di natale in Inghilterra."§ There seems to be no occurrence in human affairs to which some proverb may not be applied. All knowledge was long aphoristic and traditional, pithily contracting the discoveries which were to be instantly comprehended and easily retained. Whatever be the revolutionary state of man, similar principles and like cccurrences are returning on us; and antiquity, whenever it is justly applicable to our own times, loses its denomination, and becomes the truth of our own age. As the old saying is (1 Sam. xxiv. 13,) goes very far with most men in forming their notions The hen is brooding. + I have paid all my English. The Italianized Englishman is a devil incarnate. |