A Good Beginning Makes a Good Ending

It is sometimes said that the proverb is going out of fashion, or that it has degenerated into the cliché. Such views overlook the fact that while the role of the proverb in English literature has changed, its popular currency has remained constant.

In medieval times, and even as late as the seventeenth century, proverbs often had the status of universal truths and were used to confirm or refute an argument. Lengthy lists of proverbs were compiled to assist the scholar in debate; and many sayings from Latin, Greek, and the continental languages were drafted into English for this purpose. By the eighteenth century, however, the popularity of the proverb had declined in the work of educated writers, who began to ridicule it as a vehicle for trite, conventional wisdom.

In Richardson's Clarissa Harlowe (1748), the hero, Robert Lovelace, is congratulated on his approaching marriage and advised to mend his foolish ways. His uncle writes: 'It is a long lane that has no turning. --- Do not despise me for my proverbs.' Swift, in the introduction to his Polite Conversation (1738), remarks: 'The Reader must learn by all means to distinguish between Proverbs, and those polite Speeches which beautify Conversation:..As to the former, I utterly reject them out of all ingenious Discourse.'

It is easy to see how proverbs came into disrepute. Seemingly contradictory proverbs can be paired - Too many cooks spoil the broth with Many hands make light work; Absence makes the heart grow fonder with its opposite Out of sight, out of mind. Proverbs could thus become an easy butt for satire in learned circles, and are still sometimes frowned upon by the polished stylist. The proverb has none the less retained its popularity as a homely commentary on life and as a reminder that the wisdom of our ancestors may still be useful to us today. This shift is reflected in the quotations which accompany the entries in the dictionary: recent quotations are often taken from the works of minor writers, or from newspapers and magazines, while earlier quotations are more frequently from the works of major writers.

It is a reflection of the proverb's vitality that new ones are continually being created as older ones fall into disuse. Surprisingly, A trouble shared is a trouble halved is not recorded before the twentieth century, and A change is as good as a rest apparently dates only from the last decade of the nineteenth; the popular saying A watched pot never boils first occurs as late as 1848. The computer world has recently given us a potential classic, Garbage in, garbage out, and economics has supplied us with There's no such thing as a free lunch. Proverbs continue - as the early collectors never tired of stating - to provide the sauce to relish the meat of ordinary speech.

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