Читать книгу Proverbs of All Nations, Compared, Explained, and Illustrated онлайн

21 страница из 49

A smoky chimney and a scolding wife are two bad companions.

The Scotch couple together "A leaky house and a scolding wife," in which they follow Solomon: "A continual dropping on a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike."ssss1 "It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house."ssss1

A house wi' a reek and a wife wi' a reerd [scolding noise] will sune mak a man run to the door.

Of the continental versions of this proverb the Spanishssss1 seems to me the best, and next to it the Dutch.ssss1

It's a sair reek where the gude wife dings the gude man.

"A man in my country," says James Kelly, "coming out of his house with tears on his cheeks, was asked the occasion. He said 'there was a sair reek in the house;' but, upon further inquiry, it was found that his wife had beaten him." "It is a sad house where the hen crows and the cock is mute" (Spanish).ssss1 Though we have not this proverb in English, we have its spirit embodied in one word, HENPECKED, which is peculiar to ourselves.