“Hold hook and line” (“2 Henry IV.,” ii. 4). This, says Dyce, is a sort of cant proverbial expression, which sometimes occurs in our early writers (“Glossary,” p. 210).
“Hold, or cut bow-strings”[879] (“A Midsummer-Night’s Dream,” i. 2).
“Honest as the skin between his brows” (“Much Ado About Nothing,” iii. 5).[880]
“Hunger will break through stone-walls.” This is quoted by Marcius in “Coriolanus” (i. 1), who, in reply to Agrippa’s question, “What says the other troop?” replies:
“They are dissolved: hang ’em!
They said they were an-hungry; sigh’d forth proverbs,—
That hunger broke stone-walls,” etc.
According to an old Suffolk proverb,[881] “Hunger will break through stone-walls, or anything, except Suffolk cheese.”
“I scorn that with my heels” (“Much Ado About Nothing,” iii. 4). A not uncommon proverbial expression. It is again referred to, in the “Merchant of Venice” (ii. 2), by Launcelot: “do not run; scorn running with thy heels.” Dyce thinks it is alluded to in “Venus and Adonis:”
“Beating his kind embracements with her heels.”
“If you are wise, keep yourself warm.” This proverb is probably alluded to in the “Taming of the Shrew” (ii. 1):
“Petruchio. Am I not wise?