“Good king, that must approve the common saw,—
Thou out of heaven’s benediction com’st
To the warm sun.”
“Patience perforce is a medicine for a mad dog.” This proverb is probably alluded to by Tybalt in “Romeo and Juliet” (i. 5):
“Patience perforce with wilful choler meeting,
Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting.”
And again, in “Richard III.” (i. 1):
“Gloster. Meantime, have patience.
Clarence.I must perforce: farewell.”
“Pitch and Pay” (“Henry V.,” ii. 3). This is a proverbial expression equivalent to “Pay down at once.”[886] It probably originated from pitching goods in a market, and paying immediately for their standing. Tusser, in his “Description of Norwich,” calls it:
“A city trim,
Where strangers well may seem to dwell,
That pitch and pay, or keep their day.”
“Pitchers have ears.” Baptista quotes this proverb in the “Taming of the Shrew” (iv. 4):
“Pitchers have ears, and I have many servants.”