rclay's Ship of Fools and Eclogues
thoroughly expressive of the unhappy, discontented, poverty-stricken,
priest-ridden, and court-ridden condition and life, the bitter sorrows and
the humble wishes of the people, their very texture, as Barclay himself
tells us, consists of the commonest language of the day, and in it are
interwoven many of the current popular proverbs and expressions. Almost all
of these are still "household words" though few ever imagine the garb of
their "daily wisdom" to be of such venerable antiquity. Every page of the
"Eclogues" abounds with them; in the "Ship" they are less common, but still
by no means infrequent. We have for instance:--

"Better is a frende in courte than a peny in purse"--(I. 70.)
"Whan the stede is stolyn to shyt the stable dore"--(I. 76.)
"It goeth through as water through a syue."--(I. 245.)
"And he that alway thretenyth for to fyght
Oft at the prose is skantly worth a hen
For greattest crakers ar nat ay boldest men."--(I. 198.)
"I fynde foure thynges whiche by no meanes can
Be kept close, in secrete, or longe in preuetee
The firste is the counsell of a wytles man
The seconde is a cyte whiche byldyd is a hye
Upon a montayne the thyrde we often se
That to hyde his dedes a louer hath no skyll
The fourth is strawe or fethers on a wyndy hyll."--(I. 199.)
"A crowe to pull."--(II. 8.)
"For it is a prouerbe, and an olde sayd sawe
That in euery place lyke to lyke wyll drawe."--(II. 35.)
"Better haue one birde sure within thy wall
Or fast in a cage than twenty score without"--(II. 74)
"Gapynge as it were dogges for a bone."--(II. 93.)
"Pryde sholde haue a fall."--(II. 161).
"For wyse men sayth ...
One myshap fortuneth neuer alone."
"Clawe where it itchyth."--(II. 256.) [The use of this, it occurs again in
the Eclogues, might be regarded by some of our Southern friends, as
itself a sufficient proof of the author's Northern origin.]

The following are selected from the Eclogues as the most remarkable:

"Each man for himself, and the fende for us all."
"They robbe Saint Peter therwith to clothe Saint Powle."
"For might of water will not our leasure bide."
"Once out of sight and shortly out of minde."
"For children brent still after drede the fire."
"Together they cleave more fast than do burres."
"Tho' thy teeth water."
"I aske of the foxe no farther than the skin."
"To touche soft pitche and not his fingers file."
"From p