[35:A] Quick is here used in its original sense of having life. These therefore were lively sayings. In the Apostle's creed the quick and the dead are referred to, and a quick set hedge is one of growing plants as contrasted with a mere fencing or line of palings. [39:A] "It is a comon sayinge, ware there is no ryceyver there shoulde be no thefe." "A Christian exhortation unto customable swearers," 1575. [39:B] A more modern utterance shrewdly says, "There is a scarcity of friendship, but none of friends." [47:A] Somewhat similar proverbs to this are, "If you play with boys you must take boy's play," and if you "play with a fool at home he will play with you abroad." [49:A] "The messenger (one of those dogs who are not too scornful to eat dirty puddings) caught in his hand the guinea which Hector chucked at his face."--"The Antiquary." [57:A] Our author must not be confused with a namesake, Charles Palmer, who was Deputy Serjeant of the House of Commons, and who published "A Collection of Select Aphorisms and Maxims extracted from the most Eminent Authors." He gives eighteen hundred and thirteen of these: the copy that came into our hands was dated 1748. [61:A] "For a flying foe Discreet and provident conquerors build up A bridge of gold."--MASSINGER, _The Guardian_. "Ouuerez tousiours a voz ennemys toutes les portes et chemins et plustost leur faictes ung pont d'argent, affin des les renvoyer."--RABELAIS, _Gargantua_. See also the Italian proverb--"A nemico che fugge un ponte d'oro." "Le Comte de Pitillan en parlant de la guerre soulouit dire quand ton ennemy voudra fuir, fais luy un port d'or."--Extract from _Les divers propos memorables des Nobles et Illustres Hommes_."--Gilles Corrizot. Paris, 1571. "Press not a falling man too far."--SHAKESPEARE, _King Henry VIII._ CHAPTER III "The Book of Merry Riddles" -- Introduction of Proverbs in our Literature -- A Surfeit of Proverbs -- "The two Angrie Women of Abington" -- Fuller on the Misuse of Proverbs -- The Sayings of Hendyng -- Proverbs in Works of Chaucer, Lydgate, Spenser, Dryden, Shakespeare, and other Writers -- The "Imitation of Christ" -- Glitter is not necessarily Gold -- The Cup and the Lip -- Comparisons odious -- The Rolling-Stone -- The "Vision of Piers Plowman" -- Guelph and Ghibelline -- Dwellers in Glass Houses -- A Spade is a Spade -- Chalk and Cheese -- Silence gives Consent -- A Nine Days' Wonder -- The little Pot soon Hot -- Weakest to the Wall -- Proverb-Hunting through our old Literature. Throughout the Middle Ages a great use was made, as we have seen, of these popular adages on tapestries, rings, and in fact wherever they could be employed. Shakespeare, it will be recalled, writes of a but moderately good poetaster as one "whose poetry was For all the world like cutler's poetry Upon a knive, 'Love me, and leave me not,'"[65:A]