John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
Page 5
| Geoffrey Chaucer. (c. 1340–1400) (continued) |
| 39 |
| Mordre wol out, that see we day by day. 1 |
| Canterbury Tales. The Nonnes Preestes Tale. Line 15058. |
| 40 |
| But all thing which that shineth as the gold Ne is no gold, as I have herd it told. 2 |
| Canterbury Tales. The Chanones Yemannes Tale. Line 16430. |
| 41 |
| The firste vertue, sone, if thou wilt lere, Is to restreine and kepen wel thy tonge. |
| Canterbury Tales. The Manciples Tale. Line 17281. |
| 42 |
| The proverbe saith that many a smale maketh a grate. 3 |
| Canterbury Tales. Persones Tale. |
| 43 |
| Of harmes two the lesse is for to cheese. 4 |
| Troilus and Creseide. Book ii. Line 470. |
| 44 |
| Right as an aspen lefe she gan to quake. |
| Line 1201. |
| 45 |
| For of fortunes sharpe adversite, The worst kind of infortune is this,— A man that hath been in prosperite, And it remember whan it passed is. |
| Troilus and Creseide. Book iii. Line 1625. |
| Note 1. Murder, though it have no tongue, will speak With most miraculous organ. William Shakespeare: Hamlet, act ii. sc. 2. [back] |
| Note 2. Tyrwhitt says this is taken from the Parabolae of Alanus de Insulis, who died in 1294,—Non teneas aurum totum quod splendet ut aurum (Do not hold everything as gold which shines like gold). All is not golde that outward shewith bright.—Lydgate: On the Mutability of Human Affairs. Gold all is not that doth golden seem.—Edmund Spenser: Faerie Queene, book ii. canto viii. st. 14. All that glisters is not gold.—William Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, act ii. sc. 7. Googe: Eglogs, etc., 1563. George Herbert: Jacula Prudentum. All is not gold that glisteneth.—Thomas Middleton: A Fair Quarrel, verse 1. All, as they say, that glitters is not gold.—John Dryden: The Hind and the Panther. Que tout n’est pas or c’on voit luire (Everything is not gold that one sees shining).—Li Diz de freire Denise Cordelier, circa 1300. [back] |
| Note 3. Many small make a great.—John Heywood: Proverbes, part i. chap. xi. [back] |
| Note 4. Of two evils the less is always to be chosen.—Thomas à Kempis: Imitation of Christ, book ii. chap. xii. Richard Hooker: Polity, book v. chap. lxxxi. Of two evils I have chose the least.—Matthew Prior: Imitation of Horace. E duobus malis minimum eligendum (Of two evils, the least should be chosen).—Erasmus: Adages. Cicero: De Officiis, iii. 1. [back] |