A Polyglot of Foreign Proverbs

While engaged in editing my Handbook of English Proverbs, it occurred to me that a Collection of Foreign Proverbs, arranged in monographs, and brought as far as possible into juxta-position by a General Index, would be an interesting volume, as well to the ordinary reader as to the linguist. And it happened that more than one public writer, in reviewing my Handbook, suggested nearly the same idea, which determined me to realise it as speedily as other engagements would permit.

After a lapse of more than two years, and much patient labour, during intervals of business or hours snatched from repose, I am enabled to present my gleanings to the public, and hope they will not be found deficient of grain.

It will be seen that many of the proverbs are quite new to the English reader, and that others, hitherto supposed to be essentially, if not exclusively, English, are common to several other languages.

A task so various and complicated could not well be executed without aid, nor do I pretend to be master of all the languages included. Accordingly, I sought the assistance of competent scholars, and have great pleasure in here proclaiming my acknowledgments to them. After the groundwork of the volume had been laid by selections from a great variety of sources, an operation in which Mr. W. K. Kelly was my principal collaborateur, I was aided in correcting the Italian by Signor Pistrucci, the Spanish by Señor Yrazoqui and the Chevalier Francisque Michel, the Portuguese by Senhôr Guerra, the Danish by Miss Rowan, and the Dutch by Mr. John van Baalen, of Rotterdam. It seemed to me advisable, to secure all possible accuracy, that each foreign language should be read over by a native of the country.

For the English translations (excepting those from the Danish) I am myself mainly responsible, as, where those already existing did not satisfy me, I generally substituted others. I have, however, been very forbearing towards some pleasant bits of doggerel and alliteration found in early volumes, and have occasionally indulged in similar playfulness of my own. One so deeply immersed in Proverb-lore may, perhaps, be forgiven for having imbibed such a tendency.

In the Index, a single line is often made to represent a whole group, although the several translations may not be exactly the same. That adopted as the key, being the last thought, ought to be the best. The running lines at the top indicate the pages of each of the several languages, so that by a comparison of them with the figures of reference below, it will be easy to see what monograph a proverb belongs to, without actually turning to the page.

August 30, 1857.