Whether or not that heaven is ever found on earth is a question which each man must decide from his own experience. "He that has a wife has strife,"[94] say the French, and the Italian proverb-mongers take an unhandsome advantage of the fact that in their language the words "wife" and "woes" differ only by a letter.[95] St. Jerome declares that "Whoever is free from wrangling is a bachelor."[96]
A smoky chimney and a scolding wife are two bad companions.
The Scotch couple together "A leaky house and a scolding wife," in which they follow Solomon: "A continual dropping on a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike."[97] "It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house."[98]
A house wi' a reek and a wife wi' a reerd [scolding noise] will sune mak a man run to the door.—Scotch.
Of the continental versions of this proverb the Spanish[99] seems to me the best, and next to it the Dutch.[100]
It's a sair reek where the gude wife dings the gude man.—Scotch.
"A man in my country," says James Kelly, "coming out of his house with tears on his cheeks, was asked the occasion. He said 'there was a sair reek in the house;' but, upon further inquiry, it was found that his wife had beaten him." "It is a sad house where the hen crows and the cock is mute" (Spanish).[101] Though we have not this proverb in English, we have its spirit embodied in one word, HENPECKED, which is peculiar to ourselves.
The grey mare is the better horse.
The wife wears the breeches. "A hawk's marriage: the hen is the better bird" (French).[102]
Marry above your match and you get a master.