“So, so, so, so:—they laugh that win.”
On the other hand, the French say, “Marchand qui perd ne peut rire.”
“Like will to like, as the devil said to the collier.” With this we may compare the following passage in “Twelfth Night” (iii. 4): “What, man! ’tis not for gravity to play at cherry-pit with Satan: hang him, foul collier!”—collier having been, in Shakespeare’s day, a term of the highest reproach.
“Losers have leave to talk.” Titus Andronicus (iii. 1) says:
“Then give me leave, for losers will have leave
To ease their stomachs with their bitter tongues.”
“Maids say nay, and take.” So Julia, in the “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (i. 2), says:
“Since maids, in modesty, say ‘No’ to that
Which they would have the profferer construe ‘Ay.’”
In “The Passionate Pilgrim” we read:
“Have you not heard it said full oft,
A woman’s nay doth stand for nought?”
“Make hay while the sun shines.” King Edward, in “3 Henry VI.” (iv. 8), alludes to this proverb: