Threatening. Boasting
The greatest barkers bite not sorest.
Great barkers are nae biters.—Scotch.
Those who threaten most loudly are not the most to be feared. “Timid dogs bark worse than they bite” (Latin),645 was a proverb of the Bactrians, as Quintus Curtius informs us. The Turks say, “The dog barks, but the caravan passes.” “What matters the barking of the dog that does not bite?” (German);646 but “Beware of a silent dog and of still water” (Latin).647 “The silent dog bites first” (German).648 “A fig for our democrats!” Horace Walpole wrote in 1792. “Barking dogs never bite. The danger in France arose from silent and instantaneous action. They said nothing, and did everything. Ours say everything, and will do nothing.”
Threatened folk live long.
“Longer lives he that is threatened than he that is hanged” (Italian).649 “More are threatened than are stabbed” (Spanish).650 “Threatened folk, too, eat bread” (Portuguese).651 “David did not slay Goliath with words” (Icelandic).652 “No one dies of threats” (Dutch).653 “Not all threateners fight” (Dutch).654 “Some threaten who are afraid” (French).655 “A curse does not knock an eye out unless the fist go with it” (Danish).656 “The cat’s curse hurts the mice less than her bite” (Livonian).
Lang mint, little dint.—Scotch.
That is, a blow long aimed or threatened has little force; or, as the Italians and Spaniards say, “A blow threatened was never well given.”657
Silence grips the mouse.
“A mewing cat was never a good mouser” (Spanish).658 “He that threatens warns” (German).659 “He that threatens wastes his anger” (Portuguese).660 “The threatener loses the opportunity of vengeance” (Spanish).661 “Threats are arms for the threatened” (Italian).662
Fleying [frightening] a bird is no the way to grip it.—Scotch.
The way to catch a bird is no to fling your bonnet at her.—Scotch.
“Hares are not caught with beat of drum” (French).663
Let not your mousetrap smell of blood.
Never show your teeth when you can’t bite.
Brag is a good dog, but Holdfast is a better.
A boaster and a liar are cousins german.
“Believe a boaster as you would a liar” (Italian).664 “Who is the greatest liar? He that talks most of himself” (Chinese).
The greatest talkers are always the least doers.
Great boast, small roast.
“Great vaunters, little doers” (French).665 “It is not the hen which cackles most that lays most eggs” (Dutch).666 “A long tongue betokens a short hand” (Spanish).667
Saying gangs cheap.—Scotch.
Saying and doing are two things.
“From saying to doing is a long stretch” (French).668 “Words are female, deeds are male” (Italian).669 “Words will not do for my aunt, for she does not trust even deeds” (Spanish).670
His wind shakes no corn.—Scotch.
Harry Chuck ne’er slew a man till he cam nigh him.—Scotch.
Harry Chuck is understood to have been a vapouring fellow of the Ancient Pistol order, one of those who would give “A great stab to a dead Moor” (Spanish).671 “It is easy to frighten a bull from the window” (Italian).672 “Many are brave when the enemy flees” (Italian).673
It is well said, but who will bell the cat?—Scotch.
“The mice consult together how to take the cat, but they do not agree upon the matter” (Livonian). “Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, a man remarkable for strength of body and mind, acquired the popular name of Bell-the-Cat upon the following remarkable occasion:—When the Scottish nobility assembled to deliberate on putting the obnoxious favourites of James III. to death, Lord Grey told them the fable of the mice, who resolved that one of their number should put a bell round the neck of the cat, to warn them of its coming; but no one was so hardy as to attempt it. ‘I understand the moral,’ said Angus; ‘I will bell the cat.’ He bearded the king to purpose by hanging the favourites over the bridge of Lauder; Cochran, their chief, being elevated higher than the rest.”—(Note to Marmion.)
Self-praise is no commendation.
Self-praise stinks.
Ye live beside ill neebours.—Scotch.
Your trumpeter is dead.
The last two are taunts addressed to persons who sound their own praises.
A man may love his house weel, and no ride on the riggen o’t.—Scotch.
A man does not prove the depth and sincerity of his sentiments by an ostentatious display of them.
Good wine needs no bush.
Gude ale needs nae wisp.—Scotch.
A bunch of twigs, or a wisp of hay or straw hung up at a roadside house, is a sign that drink is sold within. This custom, which still lingers in the cider-making counties of the west of England, and prevails more generally in France, is derived from the Romans, among whom a bunch of ivy, the plant sacred to Bacchus, was appropriately used as the sign of a wine-shop. They, too, used to say, “Vendible wine needs no ivy hung up.”674 “Good wine needs no crier” (Spanish).675 “It sells itself” (Spanish).676 “Bosky” is one of the innumerable euphemisms for “drunk.” Probably the phrase, “he is bosky,” originally conveyed an allusion to the symbolical use of the bush, with which all good fellows were familiar in the olden time.
Footnotes
645 Apud Bactryanos vulgo usurpabant canem timidum vehementius latrare quam mordere.
646 Was schadet das Hundes Bellen der nicht beisst?
647 Cave tibi cane muto et aqua silente.
648 Schweigender Hund beisst am ersten.
649 Vive più il minacciato che l’impiccato.
650 Mas son los amenazados que los acuchillados.
651 Tambem os ameaçados comem paō.
652 Ekks Davith Goliat med ordum drap.
653 Van dreigen sterft men niet.
654 Alle dreigers vechten niet.
655 Tel menace qui a peur.
656 Bande bider ei Öie ud, uden Næven fölger med.
657 Schiaffo minacciato, mai ben dato. Bofetón amagado, nunca bien dado.
658 Gato maullador nunca buen caçador.
659 Wer droht, warnt.
660 Quem ameaça, su ira gasta.
661 El amenazador hace perder el lugar de venganza.
662 Le minaccie son arme del minacciato.
663 On ne prend pas le lèvre au tambour.
664 Credi al vantatore come al mentitore.
665 Grands vanteurs, petits faiseurs.
666 Het hoen, dat het meest kakelt, geeft de meeste eijers niet.
667 La lengua luenga es señal de mano corta.
668 Du dire au fait il y a grand trait.
669 Le parole son femmine, e i fatti son maschi.
670 No son palabras para mi tia, que aun de las obras no se fia.
671 A moro muerto gran lanzada.
672 E facile far paura al toro dalla fenestra.
673 Molli son bravi quando l’inimico frigge.
674 Vino vendibili suspensa hedera non est opus.
675 El vino bueno no ha menester pregonero.
676 El buen vino la venta trae consigo.