[`A l'oeil malade la lumiere nuit:] [Pro.] [An eye distempered cannot brooke the light; sicke thoughts cannot indure the truth.]
[`A l'oeil malade la lumiere nuit:] [Prov.] [Light hurts diseased eyes;] or, a sicke eye is offended with the light.
[Apres la mort le medecin:] [Pro.] [After death drugs; the mischiefe past, a remedie.]
[Apres la mort le medecin:] [Prov.] [After meat mustard; when steed is stolne shut the stable doore.]
[Argent comptant porte medicine:] [Prov.] Readie money is a readie medicine; or, procures any medicine.
[Argent contant porte medicine:] [Prov.] Ready money is a readie medicine.
[Aussi tost meurt vache comme veau:] [Pro.] [The skipping Calfe, and wanton Lambe, are often kill'd before their damme.]
[Aussi tost meurt vache comme veau:] [Prov.] [As soone the young, as old, goes to the pot.]
[Aussi tost meurt veaut comme vache (& le hardi comme le lasche;)] [Pro.] [As soone dyes the yong as the old (the coward as the bold.)]
[Bon est le medecin qui se sç ait guarir:] [Pro.] [He is a right Phisition that can cure himselfe.]
[Bon est le medecin qui se sç ait guarir:] [Prov.] He is a good Physitian that can heale his owne infirmitie.
[Bon est le medicin qui se sç ait guarir:] [Prov.] [He is a good Phisition that can heale himselfe.]
[Bras à la poictrine, iambe en gesine:] [Prov.] Those parts, being hurt, must haue rest; the one in a scarfe; the other in bed, or on a stoole.
[Bras à la poictrine, jambe en gesine:] [Prov.] [Keepe a sore arme to thy bosome, a sore leg in thy bed.]
[C'est grande peine que d'estre vieux, mais il ne l' est pas qui veut:] [Pro.] [A noysome thing it is to be old, yet no man can be so that would.]
[C'est grand'peine que d'estre vieux, mais il ne l'est pas qui veut:] [Prov.] [Though it be painefull to be old, yet each one is not so that would.]
[Contre la mort n'y a nul appel:] [Prov.] Death admits no Appeale; or, none can appeale from death.
[Contre la mort n'y a point d'appel:] [Prov.] [From death there's no appealing.]
[Contre la mort n'y a point de medecine:] [Pro.] [No medicine against death; no remedie for death.]
[Contre la mort n'y a point de medecine:] [Pro.] [No Phisicke can preuaile 'gainst death.]
[Debonnaire mire fait playe puante:] [Prov.] [A courteous Surgeon makes a corrupt sore.]
[Debonnaire mire fait playe puante:] [Prov.] [A gentle Chirurgian makes a stinking sore.]
[Debonnaire Mire fait playe puante:] [Prov.] a tender-harted Surgeon makes a wound to stinke.
[De grande maladie vient on bien en grande santé:] [Prov.] [From a long sicknesse a lasting health.]
[De grande maladie vient on bien en grande santé:] [Prov.] [Much comfort after many crosses; long sicknesse often breeds a lasting health.]
[De grande maladie vient on bien en grande santé:] [Prov.] [Sound health comes after sore diseases.]
[De nouveau medecin cemetiere bossu:] [Prov.] An vnexperienced Physitian fattens the churchyard.
[De nouveau medecin cimitiere bossu:] [Pro.] [A new Phisition makes a Churchyard swell.]
[De nouveau Medecin cimitiere bossu:] [Prov.] [A new Physitian breeds a fat churchyard.]
[De petit enfant petit dueil:] [Pro.] A little mourning serues for little children.
[De petit enfant petit dueil:] [Pro.] [The death of little ones is not much bemoand.]
[Il est bien povre qui ne voit goutte:] [Prov.] [He that sees nothing's poore ynough.]
[Il est bien povre qui ne voit goutte:] [Prov.] [He that wants eyes may well be tearmed poore.]
[Il est bien povre qu'ne voit goutte:] [Prov.] [Hee's verie poore that wants his eye-sight.]
[Il faut laisser son enfant morveux plustost que luy arracher le nez:] [Prov.] [Better an inconuenience then a mischiefe; let the Henne liue although she haue the pip.]
[Il faut laisser son enfant morveux plustost que luy arracher le nez:] [Prov.] Better a snottie child then a noselesse.
[La mort n'a point d'ami, le malade n'a qu'un demi:] [Pro.] The dead haue no friends, the sicke but faint ones; or, when a man is dead his friends forsake him, and while he is sicke they care not greatly for him; or, no man loues death, or fully loues the diseased.
[La mort n'a point d'ami, le malade n'a qu'un demy:] [Prov.] [Death hath no friend, the sicke man but an halfe one.]
[La mort n'a point d'ami, le malade n'a qu'un demy:] [Prov.] [The dead man hath no friends, the sicke no true ones.]
[La mort n'espargne ny petit ny grand:] [Pro.] [Death baulkes no creature, spares nor small nor great.]
[L'amour, la tousse, & la galle ne se peuvent celer:] [Pro.] We say, Loue, and the Cough cannot be hidden.
[L'Amour, la tousse, & la galle ne se peuvent celer:] [Prov.] Loue, scabs, and coughing will not bee concealed.
[L'amour, la tousse, & la galle ne se peuvent celer:] [Pro.] We say, Loue, and the Cough cannot be hidden.
[Les maladies viennent a cheval, & s'en retournent à pied:] [Pro.] [Diseases come a horsebacke, and returne on foot.]
[Les maux terminez en ique (comme Hydropique, Hectique, Paralytique, & c. font au medecin la nique:] [Prov.] [Because they be hardly cured.]
[Les maux terminez en ique font au medecin la nique:] [Prov.] [Such be Hydropique, Hectique, Paralitique, Apoplectique, Lethargique, & c. because they are hardly, or neuer, cured.]
[Les vieilles gens qui font gambades, à la mort sonnent des aubades:] [Prov.] Old peoples frisking doth presage their ending.
[L'herbe qu'on cognoist on la doit lier à son doigt:] [Prov.] [Those, or that, which a man knowes best, he must vse most.]
[L'herbe qu'on cognoist on la doit lier à son doigt:] [Prov.] (For it is most vnsafe to deale with vnknowne medicines.)
[L'un meurt dont l'autre vit:] [Pro.] [That whereof one dyes, another liues; that which is beneficiall to one, is banefull to another.]
[L'un meurt dont l'autre vit:] [Prov.] [That which preserues one man poysons another.]
[Mal dessus mal n'est pas santé:] [Prov.] [Ayle vpon ill cannot be health.]
[Mal dessus mal n'est pas santé:] [Prov.] [Ill vpon ill is no health.]
[Mestier n'avons de pastissier roigneux:] [Prov.] [Better no pies then pies made with scabd hands.]
[Oncques vieil singe ne fit belle mouë:] [Pro.] [Th'old Monkey neuer made well-fauored mowe.]
[Oncques vieil Singe ne fit belle mouë:] [Prov.] [An old-bred clowne was neuer mannerlie.]
[Oncques vieil singe ne fit belle mouë:] [Prov.] [Old age cannot be gracious, comelie, louelie.]
[On n'aura ia bon asne vieil:] [Pro.] A slugg, or dullard growne old is worse then naught.
[On n'aura ja bon asne vieil:] [Prov.] [An old Asse is good for nothing.]
[On s'advise tard en mourant:] [Prov.] [Too late one takes aduise when he must leaue the world.]
[On s'avise tard en mourant:] [Prov.] When death approches, had-I-wist comes too late.
[Petite pluy abat grand vent:] [Prov.] [(So sayd a mad fellow, who, lying in bed, bepist his farting wiues backe.)] {needsdef}
[Point ne faut demander à malade s'il veut santé:] [Prov.] [An answer for those busie bodies, that cast many doubts, and make many questions, in cases alreadie resolued on.]
[Point ne faut demander de malade s'il veut santé:] [Prov.] [Aske not a sicke man if he would be sound; make not a question of things questionlesse; doubt not of that which is alreadie resolued.]
[Quand les biens viennent les corps faillent:] [Prov.] Most mens liues are neere spent before they haue got any thing to spend.
[Quand les biens viennent les corps faillent:] [Pro.] When goods encrease the body decreases; most men ere they grow rich are old.
[Qui a du bugle, & du Sanicle, fait au Chirurgien la nique:] [Prov.] So excellent are those hearbes in the closing, and curing of wounds.
[Qui bien veut mourir bien viue:] [Prov.] He that would die well had need to liue well.
[Qui bien veut mourir bien vive:] [Prov.] [He that desires to dye, let him liue, well.]
[Qui bien vuet mourir bien vive:] [Prov.] [He that would dye well must liue well; an honest life ends in a peacefull death.]
[Qui garde son disner il a mieux à souper:] [Pro.] [He that keepes his dinner hath the more to his supper; he that spares while he's young may the better spend when hee's old.]
[Qui garde son disner, il a mieux à souper:] [Pro.] He that keepes his dinner hath the more to sup withall; youth preserued breeds an able old-age.]
[Qui garde son disner il a mieux à souper:] [Prov.] He that keepes his dinner hath the better supper.
[Qui mieux ne peut à sa vieille retourne:] [Prov.] [He that can get no yong, falls backe to his old, stuffe.]
[Qui mieux ne peut à sa vieille retourne:] [Prov.] [He that can haue no young, makes much of his old, stuffe; old serues the turne where young will not be had.]
[Qui mieux ne peut à sa vieille retourne:] [Pro.] [When all is done home's homelie.]
[Qui n'a qu'un oeil bien le garde:] [Pro.] [Let him that hath but one eye keepe it well; let him that hath but one helpe striue to preserue it.]
[Qui n'a qu'un oeil bien le garde:] [Prov.] He that hath but one eye had need make much of it, had best looke well to it.
[Qui n'a santé il n'a rien, qui a santé il a tout:] [Pro.] [He that hath health, hath all things, he that wants it, nothing.]
[Qui n'a santé n'a rien:] [Prov.] [He that wants health wants all things.]
[Qui plus vit plus a à souffrir:] [Pro.] [The longer life the greater griefe.]
[Qui plus vit plus a à souffrir:] [Prov.] [The longer life the more affliction.]
[Qui plus vit plus a à souffrir:] [Prov.] [The longer we liue the more we haue t'indure.]
[selon la iambe la seigné e:] [Prov.] [Ratably, proportionably, with effort answerable to force, according to the measure of his meanes.]
[Selon la jambe la saigné e:] [Prov.] [Let bloud according to the bodies fullnesse, or strength; subiects, or tenants would not be drawne too dry.]
[Si ieunesse sç avoit, & vieillesse pouvoit, iamais povreté n'auroit:] [Prov.] [If youth knew what to doe, and age could doe what it knowes, no man would euer be poore.]
[Si ieunesse sç avoit, & vieillesse pouvoit, iamais povreté n'auroit:] [Prov.] [If youth were cunning, and age able, poorenesse would soone be but a fable.]
[Si jeunesse sç avoit, & vieillesse pouvoit, iamais povreté n'auroit:] [Prov.] [If age had strength, and youth experience, none could for want alledge one iust pretence.]
[Tard medecine est appresté e a maladie enraciné e:] [Prov.] [Grounded diseases are incurable.]
[Tard medicine est appresté e à maladie enraciné e:] [Prov.] [Sicknesse once rooted, all Phisicke comes too late.]
[Telle vie telle fin:] [Prov.] [Such as his dealing was his death.]
[Telle vie telle fin:] [Prov.] Such as his life such was his end.
[Tout estat est viande aux vers:] [Prov.] Euerie creature is wormes meat.
[Tout estat est viande aux vers:] [Prov.] [Wormes prey, by times, on all Estates.]
[Trop grater cuict, trop parler nuict:] [Prov.] [Excesse, in scratching breedeth smart, in speaking mightie scathe.]
[Trop grater cuict, trop parler nuit:] [Prov.] Too much scratching paines, too much talking plagues.
[Trop grater cuit trop parler nuit:] [Prov.] [Too much scratching hurts the skin, too much talking the whole bodie.]
[Veau mal cuict, & poulets cruds font les cimitieres bossus:] [Prov.] [Young meat raw-drest makes churchyards grow hulch-backt.]
[Veau mal cuict, & poules creuds font les cemetieres bossus:] [Prov.] Raw veale, and chickens make fat churchyards.
[Veau mal cuict, & poules cruds font les cimitieres bossus:] [Pro.] Raw Veale, and Chickens make fat churchyards.
[Veau mal cuict, & poulets cruds, font les cimitieres bossus:] [Prov.] [Raw veale, and chickens, make swelling Churchyards.]
[Veau mal cuit, & poulets cruds font les cimitieres bossus:] [Prov.] [Raw veale, and chickens fill churchyards.]
[Vne fois faut compter à l'hoste:] [Prov.] Our account must be made, our reckoning paid; (our liues examined, our vices censured) one time or other.
[Vne fois faut compter à l'hoste:] [Prov.] [Our reckoning must be made one time or other.]
[Vne pilure formentine vne, dragme sarmentine, & la iourné e d'une geline, est la meilleure medecine:] [Prov.] [A manchet, cup of wine, and hennes dayes taske, is the best Physicke a sicke man can aske.]
[vn piteux medecin fait vne mortelle playe:] [Prov.] [A pitifull Chirurgian makes a pitifull sore.]
[Vn piteux medecin fait vne playe mortelle:] [Prov.] [A pitifull Surgeon spoileth a sore.]
Return to French Proverbs from 1611