33 8 PROVERBS. 



" Jeu qtii trop dure ne vaut rien . . . 



II convient quo trop parlcr nui-ic. . . . 

 Chose qui plaist cat a moilie vendue." . . . 



"When in the fifteenth century French literature began to abound with 

 tales, stories, joycux den's, moms propos, paradoxes, and other works known 

 under the general title of facet ies. proverbs naturally took their place in the 

 list as being quite in harmony with the genius and tendencies of the people : 

 so much so, that skilful prose-writers became rather too fond of embodying 

 proverbs in their works, and many of these adages are enshrined in Antoine 

 de la Sale's novel, " Jehan dc Saintre," and in the " Cent Nouvelles nouvelles," 



Fig. 2S5. Shoemaker fitting a Shoe. Copied after one of the Stalls called Misericordes in the 

 Choir of Rouen Cathedral (Fifteenth Century). 



by King Louis XI. In the taste for proverbs the sixteenth century was not 

 behind its predecessors, and poets such as Clement Marot and Antoine de 

 Baif, narrators such as Rabelais and Noel Dufail, polemical writers such as 

 Henry Estienne, and satirists like the author of the " Satyre Menippee," were 

 very well versed in this science. The proverb, in fact, may be termed the 

 passport of all true ideas, which, expressed as a proverb, assumed, as it was 

 thought, a more striking and vivid shape, and became better impressed upon 

 the memory. 



