“To have a month’s mind to a thing.” Ray’s “Proverbs.” So, in the “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (i. 2), Julia says:
“I see you have a month’s mind to them.”[893]
“’Tis merry in hall when beards wag all.”[894] This is quoted by Silence in “2 Henry IV.” (v. 3):
“Be merry, be merry, my wife has all;
For women are shrews, both short and tall;
’Tis merry in hall when beards wag all,
And welcome merry shrove-tide.
Be merry, be merry.”
“To have one in the wind.” This is one of Camden’s proverbial sentences. In “All’s Well that Ends Well” (iii. 6), Bertram says:
“I spoke with her but once,
And found her wondrous cold; but I sent to her,
By this same coxcomb that we have i’ the wind,
Tokens and letters which she did re-send.”
“To hold a candle to the devil”—that is, “to aid or countenance that which is wrong.” Thus, in the “Merchant of Venice” (ii. 6), Jessica says:
“What, must I hold a candle to my shames?”
—the allusion being to the practice of the Roman Catholics who burn candles before the image of a favorite saint, carry them in funeral processions, and place them on their altars.
“To the dark house” (“All’s Well that Ends Well,” ii. 3). A house which is the seat of gloom and discontent.