Ray was a Master of Arts and a Fellow of the Royal Society. The title of his book is as follows:—"A Collection of English Proverbs Digested into a convenient Method for the speedy finding any one upon occasion: with short Annotations. Wherunto are added Local Proverbs with their Explications, old Proverbial Rhythemes, Less known or Exotick Proverbial Sentences and Scottish Proverbs." The second edition was enlarged by the addition of several hundred more English Proverbs, and by an appendix of Hebrew sayings. The annotations of Ray on various proverbs are often very feeble. Thus to the adage, or saw, or whatever it may be, "I would not trust him though he were my brother," he adds to a thing sufficiently tame in itself the comment, "This is only a physiognomical observation." The truth is, our learned author, or compiler, seems to have heaped together all the old "saws," whether wise or not, and all the "modern instances" that came in his way, and to have strung at random the precious gems in company with the worthless beads.
His "convenient method" was the alphabetical one, based on the leading word of the saying. Thus, under A, for example, we get "Adversity makes a man wise, not rich," "There is no Alchemy like saving," "He that is Angry is seldom at ease," "For that thou canst do thyself rely not on Another," "Make a slow Answer to a hasty question," "The best Armour is to keep out of gun-shot."
Robert Codrington added yet another to the pile of proverb lore in his "Collection of many Select and Excellent Proverbs out of Several Languages." These he declared to be "most useful in all Discourses and for the Government of Life." He gives no preface or any kind of introductory matter, but begins at once with number one, and goes straight on till he gets to fourteen hundred and sixty-five. His adage, "You may not lose your friend to keep your jest," is a curious variant on the familiar present-day assertion that some men would rather lose a friend than a joke. His selection is on the whole a very good one. Such sayings as, "A young man old maketh an old man young," "A drunkard is not master either of his soul or his body," and "Curses prove choke-pears to those that plant them," are thought-compelling, and many such may be encountered.
A book of somewhat different character is the "Parœmiologia Anglo-Latina" of William Walker, B.D. The sub-title was "English and Latin proverbs and proverbial sentences and sayings matched together in a collection of them made out of Plautus, Petronius, Terentius, Horatius, and other authors." The particular copy that came under our notice bore the date of 1676. He concludes his short preface by the following deprecatory passage: "What will be the advantage and benefit hereof to the Commonwealth of learning I leave to others to judge and try, as not willing to show the Sun by the light of a Candle. And so, that I may not set up a great Gate before a little House I commit the Work to You, and You to God, and rest your humble Drudge, W. W."
As the author has himself raised the question as to the benefit of his book to others, one can only reply that the advantage to the Commonwealth would probably not be very great, since the translation of the old classic authors is so exceedingly free that it is practically no translation at all. It gives those who do not know the original writings no adequate idea of them, while the English is of so very colloquial a character that all the dignity of the original is lost, the result being that both the Latin and the English languages suffer in the process.
If we take, for example, "Versutior es quam rota figularis," we find that he cites three so-called equivalents, and none of them at all giving the beautiful image of the original; the first of these being, "You are as inconstant as the wind," the next, "As wavering as the weathercock," and, thirdly, "One knows not where to have you." The "Non habet plus sapientiæ quam lapis" of Plautus he renders fairly enough as "He hath no more wit than a stone," but he adds to this, "No more brains than a burbout. He is a very cod's head"; while "As wise as Solomon" cannot at all be accepted as a rendering of "Plus sapit quam Thales." The striking "Verba fiunt mortuo" has lost all its dignity when we are invited to accept as a translation, "It is of no purpose to talk to him: he'll not hear you speak: you may as well talk to the wall."
The well-known "Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus" is thus Anglicised by Walker, "Great boast, little roast; Great cry and little wool, as the fellow said when he shore his hogs"; and the equally familiar "Ad Græcas calendas" is given as, "At Nevermass, when two Sundays come together." The striking "Leporis vitam vivit" loses much when we are invited to accept as an equivalent, "He is afraid of the wagging of a straw." The absurdity of teaching a fish to swim, "Piscem natare doces," is scarcely adequately rendered by, "Tell me it snows." How pleasant a glimpse of ancient customs we get in the "Stylum invertere." The waxen tablet—the stile at one end sharpened for writing, at the other flattened for erasing—rise before us. But all this is entirely lost when we are invited to accept, in place of the classic allusion, "To turn the cat in the pan," "To sing another tune"; and certainly the pith and rhythm of "A minimo ad maximum" suffers woful deterioration in such renderings of it as "Every mother's son of them, tag and rag, all that can lick a dish."
The refining influences that are associated with a study of good classic writers seem to have rather failed when this ancient schoolmaster came beneath their sway. Such expressions as, "Your brains are addle," "As subtle as a dead pig," "Chip of the old block," "Lean as a rake," "A cankered fellow," "A scurvy crack," scarcely rise to the dignity of his subject. We cannot help wondering how the school prospered in his hands, and what sort of boys he turned out after a year or two under his tuition.
The "Moral Essays on some of the most Curious and Significant English, Scotch, and Foreign Proverbs," of Samuel Palmer,[57:A] "Presbyter of the Church of England," deserves some little notice. The edition before us, we note, is dated 1710. His definition of a proverb strikes one as being an entirely satisfactory one. He tells us that it is "an Instructive Sentence, in which more is generally Design'd than is Express'd, and which has pass'd into Common Use and Esteem either among the Learned or Vulgar. I take this to be its Genuine Definition, for though the Incomparable Erasmus takes Elegance and Novelty into the Character of a Proverb it seems to be an Error: for a Proverb has not only more Honour and Authority from Antiquity, but a Sentence never comes up to that Title till it has pass'd for Sterling some Competent time, and receiv'd its Dignity from the Consent of an Age at least. 'Tisn't in a Single Author's Power to convey this Reputation to any Saying, but the Dignity grows up in the Use of it." This appears excellent common-sense, and the distinction that he draws between the use of a saying by the learned or the vulgar is a very happy one, and one that no other writer appears to regard. A proverb need not, to establish its position, be in use by all classes. There are certain sayings from the classics or elsewhere that find general acceptance amongst the educated, such as the "Ad calendas Græcas," "A la Tartuffe," "Aut Cæsar aut nullus," "Facilis est descensus Averni." These, either in the original tongue or Anglicised, are current, and have a full claim to recognition as proverbial sayings, though four-fifths of the population never heard them; while many homely sayings that come freely to the lips of the carter or the village blacksmith find no welcome or recognition from the professor, the bishop, or the banker, and yet are as truly of proverbial rank.
Our old author goes on to say: "'Tis the Use, not the Critical History or Notion of Proverbs I am concern'd in. To see People throw 'em at each other by way of Jest or Repartee, without feeling their Weight, tasting their Wit, or being better'd by the Reflection, wou'd vex a man of any Spirit, and the Indignation forces him to write somewhat that might Redeem these Fragments of Wisdom from the Contempt and Ill Treatment of the Ignorant. For as they are now us'd they make up more of the Ridiculous Conversation than the Solid and Instructive. To this Abuse some of our Authors of the first Rank have very much contributed: for the Modern Poets and Novelists have put 'em in the Mouths of their lowest Characters. They make Fools and Clowns, little and mean People speak Sentences in Abundance, string 'em like Necklaces and make Sport with 'em, and Ridicule the Remains of our Ancestors. By this Means 'tis esteem'd Pedantry if we find one in the Mouth of a Gentleman, and an Author of Honour and very fine Parts has made the Reciting an Adage or Two the Sign of a Coxcomb. Thus they are condemn'd to the Use of the Mob, thrown out of the Minds of our People of Birth, and the Influence of 'em lost in the Manage of Education."
