He'll go to law for the wagging of a straw.

He wears the horns.

The notion of Cuckolds wearing horns prevails through all the mo dern European languages, and is of four or five hundred years standing. Dr. Burn traces this "crest of cuckoldom" to horns worn, as crests, by those who went to the Crusades, as their armorial distinctions, and the infidelity of their consorts during their absence: after the husband had been away three or four years, and came home in his martial habiliments, it might be no impossible supposition that the man who wore the horns was a cuckold. This agrees with some of the witticisms in our old Plays:

Why, my good father, what should you do with a wife?
Would you be crested? Will you needs thrust your head
In one of Vulcan's helmets? Will you perforce
Weare a city cap, and a court feather?

Ram Alley, or Merry Tricks, Lond. 1636.

Another conjecture is, that some mean husbands, availing themselves of the beauty of their wives, have turned it to account by prostituting them, obtaining, by this means, the Cornu copiæ, or, in the language of modern gallantry, tipping the horns with gold! Shakspeare and Ben Jonson seem to have both considered the Horns in this light:

"Well may he sleep in security, for he hath the horn of abundance, and the lightness of his wife shines through it: and yet he cannot see, though he hath his own lanthorn to light him."

K. Hen. IV. 2nd Part. A. i. Sc. 4.

"What! never sigh,

Be of good cheer, for thou art a cuckold.

"Tis done, 'tis done! nay, when such flowing store,
Plenty itself, falls in my wife's lap,

The Cornu Copic will be mine, I know."

Every Man in his Humour, A. iii. Sc. 6.

Another derives the word "horns" from the custom of blowing horns in the streets, on occasions of extraordinary news or procla mation made by sound of trumpet; and supposes the horns are only public opinion, spreading abroad the infamy of the husband.

He looks as if he had neither won nor lost.

The grey mare is the better horse.

You measure every one's corn by your own bushel.

I can see as far into a mill-stone as another man.

To make a mountain of a mole-hill.

It will be a nosegay to him as long as he lives."

It will stink in his nostrils.

To rip up old sores.

The lady in the straw.

An expression signifying the lady brought to bed; and, according to Brand, derived from the circumstance, that all beds were aneiently stuffed with straw, so that it is synonimous with saying "the lady in bed," or that is confined to her bed.

Penny wise, and pound foolish.

He is put to bed with a shovel :-i. e. buried.

She is like a Waterford heifer, beef to the heels.-Irish.
You shall ride an inch behind the tail.

To rob Peter to pay Paul.

To have rods in pickle for one.

Riding Skimmington.

A ludicrous procession in ridicule of a man beaten by his wife. It consists of a man riding behind a woman, with his face to the horse's tail, holding a distaff in his hand, at which he seems to work, the woman all the while beating him with a ladle: a smoek, displayed on a distaff, is carried before them, as an emblematical standard, denoting female superiority: the whole accompanied by the matrimonial musie of bull's horns, fryingpans, marrow-bones and cleavers. Skimmington is the name of an arrant scold, most probably from some one famous in that line.

You gather a rod for your own breech.

To row one way and look another.

Fair and softly, as lawyers go to heaven.

To spare at the spigot and let out at the bung-hole.
Abraham-men, or Tom of Bedlam's Men, or Bedlam Beggars.
A set of vagabonds who wandered about the country soon after the
dissolution of the religious houses; the provision for the poor

in those days being cut off, and no other substituted. Hence,
probably, the phrase of shamming Abraham, still extant
among sailors.-Nares's Glossary.

To sow his wild oats.

To make a stalking horse.

To strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.

You must take the fat with the lean.

Peter-man.

In the old plays, a familiar term for a fisherman on the Thames;

from the occupation of St. Peter.

A tale of a tub.

To stand upon thorns.

Your tongue runs before your wit.

I would not touch him with a pair of tongs.

Raw-head and Bloody-bones.

Like Bogle-boe, or other nursery bug-bear, two imaginary monsters, used to frighten children.

He is up to trap.

I'll trust him no farther than I can fling him.

To kill two birds with one stone.

To wipe a person's nose.

To cheat him:

"'Sfoot, Lieutenant, wilt thou suffer thy nose to be wip'd of this great heir."-May Day.

To carry two faces under one hood.

To have two strings to one's bow.

What wind blew you hither?

God send you more wit, and me more money.

To have the wolf by the ear.

A man having a doubtful business in hand, which it is equally hazardous to pursue or abandon; as it is to hold, or let go, a wolf we have by the ears.

You cannot see wood for trees.

She wears the breeches.

That is, assumes the place and authority of the husband:

"Children rule, old men go to school, women wear the

breeches.."

Words may pass, but blows fall heavy.

He's Yorkshire.

Anatomy of Melancholy.

The Italians say, "E' Spoletino." He is of Spoleto; he is a cunning blade.

As lazy as Ludlam's dog, that leaned his head against a wall to bark.

As mad as a March hare.

As nice as a nun's hen.

As plain as a pike-staff.

As seasonable as snow in summer.

As deep drinks the goose as the gander.

As demure as if butter would not melt in her mouth.

As slender in the middle, as a cow in the waist.

As spiteful as an old maid.

As the wind blows, you must set your sail:

He stands like Mump-hazard, who was hung for saying nothing.-Cheshire.

Like the parson of Saddleworth, who could read in no bock

but his own.-Cheshire.

As lawless as a town bull.

As like as two peas.

As love thinks no evil, so envy speaks no good.

As nimble as a cow in a cage.

As often as we do good, we sacrifice.

As often as thou doest wrong, justice has thee on the score.

As true as the dial to the sun.

As virtue is its own reward, so vice is its own punishment. As wary as a blind horse.

As welcome as water in one's shoes,

As wilful as a pig that will neither lead nor drive.

As a cat loves mustard.

As brisk as a bee in a tar pot.

As wise as Waltham's calf, that ran nine miles to suck a bull.

As busy as a hen with one chicken.

As fine as a lord's bastard.

As full as an egg is of meat.

To go out as a snuff.

As green as grass.

As hungry as a church-mouse.

As good beg of a naked man, as a miser.

As good do nothing, as to no purpose.

As good eat the devil, as the broth he is boiled in.

To look on me, as the devil looked over Lincoln.

When Lincoln Minster was finished, the devil is said to have looked over it with a terrific and malicious grin, as envying, saith Fuller, man's "costly devotion."

To love it as the devil loves holy water.

As merry as a cricket.

As good have no time, as make no good use of it.

As good water goes by the mill, as drives it.

As grave as an old gate post,

As grey as grannum's cat,

As kind as a kite; all you can't eat you hide.

As plain as the nose on a man's face.

As poor as Job.

To strut like a crow in a gutter,

As tender as Parnell, that broke her finger in a posset curd.

As white as the driven snow.

PROVERBIAL RHYMES.

When Adam delv'd, and Eve span,
Where was then the gentleman?

With a red man read thy read;
With a brown man break thy bread;
At a pale man draw thy knife,
From a black man keep thy wife.