Phraseology and Culture in English

 
Collections of proverbs and proverb dictionaries
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Ray explicitly regarded his collection not as a textbook for fledgling 
rhetoricians but rather as a reference work – in which users of the book could 
locate specific sayings and the commentaries that frequently accompany 
them. He emphasized the facility with which readers might “look up” a 
proverb, explaining in the preface, “When I thought I had a sufficient stock 
[of proverbs], I began to consider of a convenient Method to dispose them 
in, so as readily and easilie to find any proverb upon occasion, for that I 
had observed wanting in all former Collections.” The title page emphasized 
the same ideal of utility: “A Collection of English Proverbs. Digested into a 
convenient Method for the speedy finding any one upon occasion.” 
Concerning the plan of presentation, Ray noted in the preface: “Two 
presently occurd to my thoughts, both already practised by others, 1. The 
Alphabetical order. 2. The way of heads or common places.” He rejected the 
second approach, in which either the compiler will select a limited number 
of “heads,” so that many proverbs will necessarily be placed under “im-
proper heads,” or else he must introduce an unwieldy multitude of heads, 
with many proverbs appearing repetitiously under each of several heads, 
with some heads having “only one or two Proverbs under them.” Categori-
zation under heads, then, “is no way for finding any Proverb upon occa-
sion.” So, Ray opted for the alphabetical sequencing, but with a departure 
from the customary procedure, “not taking, as others heretofore have done, 
the first Letter of any though Syncategorematical particle that might happen 
to stand foremost in the Sentence, and which is both removeable and vari-
able without any prejudice to the sense; but the first Letter of the most ma-
terial Word, or if there be more words equally material, of that which usu-
ally stands formost.” Those key (and foremost) “material” words he “caused 
[…] to be Printed in different Character, that so with the least cast of an eye 
any man may find any Proverb.” 
That plan very much resembles the manner of presentation adopted for 
the best proverb “dictionaries” published in the last half of the twentieth 
century – except that Ray employed several separate alphabetical sequences 
for different categories of expressions, rather than compiling all the entries 
into a single sequence. First are listed about 500 “proverbial sentences” that 
were no longer in use. There follow three other categories of sayings that 
Ray seems to have regarded as possessing only minor interest: “Proverbs 
and Proverbial Observations belonging to Health, Diet and Physick”; “Prov-
erbs and Proverbial Observations concerning Husbandry, Weather and the 
Seasons of the year”; and “Proverbs and Proverbial Observations referring 
to Love, Wedlock and Women” (those three sections mix true proverbs with 

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188
Charles Clay Doyle 
formularized superstitions or rules of conduct, and their contents are not 
alphabetized). In the somewhat expanded edition of 1678, there is inserted 
at this point a short miscellaneous section labeled “An Alphabet of Jocula-
tory, Nugatory and Rustick Proverbs”; followed by a “Miscellany of Prov-
erbiall Sayings” with several subsections, such as 24 “Proverbiall Periphra-
ses of one [who is] drunk” and 14 for “A Whore.” Then comes, in both the 
1670 and 1678 editions, what must be regarded as the main body of the 
collection: over a thousand “Proverbs that are entire Sentences”; several 
hundred “Proverbial Phrases and forms of speech that are not entire Sen-
tences”; several dozen proverbial comparisons, first “Proverbial Similes, in 
which the quality and subject begin with the same letter” (“As bare as a 
bird’s arse,” “As blind as a beetle or bat,” “To blush like a black dog,” “As 
bold as blind bayard,” etc.); then “Others” (that is, non-alliterating prover-
bial similes); and a handful of “Proverbial Rhythmes [that is, rhymes], and 
old saws.” There follow 39 pages of additional sayings that refer to the 
various counties of England; then 38 pages of Scottish proverbs, alphabet-
ized not by key word but by first word, for which Ray cited Fergusson as 
the source; then a number of “adagia Hebraica,” printed in Hebrew. 
So, in the central section headed “Proverbs that are entire Sentences,” in 
the enlarged 1678 edition, the alphabetical sequence begins (with the key 
words italicized), “Long absent, soon forgotten”; “Adversity makes a man 
wise, not rich”; “He that’s afraid of every grass must not piss in a meadow”; 
and so on. The section devoted to “Proverbial Phrases” commences with “To 
bring an Abbey to a grange”; “To commit as many absurdities as a clown in 
eating an egg”; “Afraid of far enough”; and so on. 
Although he may not have thought of it as a useful citation system, Ray 
employed another device that would become standard in the major proverb 
dictionaries of the twentieth century: beneath each letter in his alphabetical 
presentation, he numbered the individual proverbs. Therefore, a user of the 
book in its 1670 edition – if he wished to, or needed to – could cite the 
proverb “A man cannot live by air” as A8; “You can’t make a horn of a 
pigs tail” as H51; “After a storm comes a calm” as S91. Regrettably, per-
haps, the numbering was abandoned for the 1678 edition and subsequent 
ones. The insertion of additional proverbs would have rendered that system 
of citation clumsy anyhow, since the edition would have to be specified 
with each citation. 
Ray’s strategy of alphabetizing proverbs by their key terms had been an-
ticipated by Giovanni Torriano’s Piazza universale de proverbi Italiani; or, 
A Common Place of Italian Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, 1666 (Torri-

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Collections of proverbs and proverb dictionaries
189
ano’s earlier and smaller Select Italian Proverbs, 1642, had alphabetized in 
the “old” way, by initial word). The compiler explained, “In each Alphabet 
[that is, ‘proverbs’ and ‘proverbial phrases,’ grouped separately] I make 
some main significant word to lead, usually the first Substantive, seldom 
the Verb, unless taken substantively […]. The Italian leading word hath an 
[*] Asterism to it, and the English Interpretation just opposite [that is, in a 
facing column] with the same Asterism.” There is no evidence that Ray was 
aware of Torriano’s massive collection; otherwise, Ray might have pon-
dered the advantage of not employing so many different categories of prov-
erbs, with separate alphabetizing; Torriano had just the two, “proverbs” and 
“proverbial phrases.” In any case, Torriano’s book is a dictionary of Italian 
proverbs, with English translations (few of which resemble English prov-
erbs), for the use of Englishmen seeking to learn the language and the ways 
of Italy. Although it was published in London, it does not really belong to a 
survey of ways in which English proverbs have been compiled.