and we shall therefore naturally expect to find numerous allusions to this wealth of proverb-lore in the writings of the day. The works of the Elizabethan dramatists are brimming over with them. Such a fund of material as the "Book of Merry Riddles" must have been often drawn upon. The first edition was printed in 1600, and contained, amongst other entertaining material, a collection of "choice and witty proverbs." It was often re-issued, and our last chapter has revealed to us how many other collections of like nature were issued and immediately became available. We propose to devote now some little space to exploring in search of proverbial allusions a little of the literary wealth of our country, and we may say at once that proverbs, like everything else, require discreet use, and it is not difficult to overdo the thing. A person who would be always dragging in these adages would be a terrible nuisance in conversation, and no less so in literature. In such a case "Enough is as good as a feast." One would quickly weary of a page or two of this sort of thing--a brochure during the days of a suggested invasion of England by "Boney"-- "Our foes on the ocean sent plenty of ships, But 'It's not the best carpenter makes the most chips'; They promise to give Britain's sailors a beating, Though 'the proof of the pudding is found in the eating.' The French have big armies, but their threats are but froth, For 'too many cooks do but spoil good broth'; They are welcome Britannia to catch when they get her, But though 'Brag is a good dog yet Holdfast's a better.' For their threats of invasion we ne'er care a rush-- 'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush'; They may think, open-mouthed, to devour us like sharks, But 'Till the sky falls we must wait to catch larks.'" "The pleasant historie of the two angrie women of Abington"[66:A] is, despite its self-assertion of its pleasantness, rendered very tedious by this abuse and superabundance of proverbs--one of the characters in the play, one Nicholas Prouerbes, introducing them _ad nauseam_. To give any notion of the drift of the play is beside our present need. We will content ourselves, therefore, with some few extracts that will suffice to indicate the point before us, the excessive use of these popular adages: "_Nicholas._ O maister Philip forbeare. You must not leape ower the stile before you come to it; haste makes waste; softe fire makes sweet malte; not too fast for falling; there's no hast to hang true men.