J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps

Boys have a very curious saying respecting the reflection of the sun's beams from the surface of water upon a ceiling, which they call "Jack-a-dandy beating his wife with a stick of silver." If a mischievous boy with a bit of looking-glass, or similar material, threw the reflection into the eye of a neighbour, the latter would complain, "He's throwing Jack-a-dandy in my eyes."

Metrical proverbs are so numerous, that a large volume might be filled with them without much difficulty; and it is, therefore, unnecessary to say that nothing beyond a very small selection is here attempted. We may refer the curious reader to the collections of Howell, Ray, and Denham, the last of which chiefly relates to natural objects and the weather, for other examples; but the subject is so diffuse, that these writers have gone a very short way towards the compilation of a complete series.

Give a thing and take again,

And you shall ride in hell's wain!

Said by children when one wishes a gift to be returned, a system naturally much disliked. So says Plato, t?? ????? d??e?t?? afa??es?? ??? est?. Ray, p. 113, ed. 1768. Ben Jonson appears to allude to this proverb in the Sad Shepherd, where Maudlin says—"Do you give a thing and take a thing, madam?" Cotgrave, Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, 1632, in v. Retirer, mentions "a triviall proverb:"

Give a thing,

And take a thing,

To weare the divell's gold-ring.

And it is alluded to in a little work entitled Homer À la Mode, a mock poem upon the First and Second Books of Homer's Iliads, 12mo. Oxford, 1665, p. 34:

Prethee for my sake let him have her,

Because to him the GrÆcians gave her;

To give a thing, and take a thing,

You know is the devil's gold-ring!

The proverb sometimes runs thus:

Give a thing, take a thing,

That's an old man's play-thing.

"A lee with a hatchet," as they say in the North, is a circumstantial self-evident falsehood, and so runs the proverb:

That's a lie with a latchet,

All the dogs in the town cannot match it.

Children say the following when one has been detected in any misrepresentation of a mischievous character—

Liar, liar, lick spit,

Your tongue shall be slit,

And all the dogs in the town

Shall have a little bit.

The following versions of the former rhyme are current in the North of England:

That's a lee wi' a latchet,

You may shut the door and catch it.

That's a lee wi' a lid on,

And a brass handle to tak houd on.

In Yorkshire a tell-tale is termed a pleen-pie, and there is a proverb current which is very similar to that given above:

A pleen-pie tit,

Thy tongue sal be slit,

An iv'ry dog i' th' town

Sal hev a bit.

Left and right

Brings good at night.

When your right eye itches, it is a sign of good luck; when the left, a sign of bad luck. When both itch, the above distich expresses the popular belief.

He got out of the muxy,

And fell into the pucksy.

A muxy is a dunghill, and the pucksy a quagmire. This is a variation of the old saying of falling out of the dripping-pan into the fire:

Incidit in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdini.

Those that made me were uncivil,

For they made me harder than the devil!

Knives won't cut me, fire won't sweat me,

Dogs bark at me, but can't eat me!

These proverbial lines are supposed to be spoken by Suffolk cheese, which is so hard that a myth tells us gate-pegs in that county are made with it. The proverb has been long true, and Pepys, writing in 1661, says: "I found my wife vexed at her people for grumbling to eate Suffolk cheese, which I also am vexed at."

Speak of a person and he will appear,

Then talk of the dule, and he'll draw near.

Said of a person who makes his appearance unexpectedly, when he is spoken of.

When Easter falls in our Lady's-lap,

Then let England beware a rap.

That is, when Easter falls on Lady-day, March 25, which happens when the Sunday Letter is G, and the Golden Number 5, 13, or 16. See Aubrey's Miscellanies, ed. 1696, p. 21.

In July

Some reap rye.

In August,

If one won't, the other must.

From Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, given in Hone's Year-Book, col. 1595.

In March

The birds begin to search;

In April

The corn begins to fill;

In May

The birds begin to lay.

From Lancashire. This resembles in its character the cuckoo song we have given at p. 160.

Friday night's dream

On the Saturday told,

Is sure to come true,

Be it never so old.

When it gangs up i' sops,

It'll fall down i' drops.

A North country proverb, the sops being the small detached clouds hanging on the sides of a mountain. Carr, ii. 147.

To-morrow come never,

When two Sundays come together.

This is sometimes addressed to one who promises something "to-morrow," but who is often in the habit of making similar engagements, and not remembering them.