s black.

_Proteus._ But pearls are fair; and the old saying is,
Black men are pearls in beauteous ladies' eyes."

In "Titus Andronicus" (v. 1) there is a further allusion to this
proverb, where Lucius says of Aaron,

"This is the pearl that pleas'd your empress' eye."

"A beggar marries a wife and lice." So in "King Lear" (iii. 2), Song:

"The cod-piece that will house,
Before the head has any,
The head and he shall louse;
So beggars marry many."

Thus it is also said: "A beggar payeth a benefit with a louse."

"A cunning knave needs no broker." This old proverb is quoted by Hume,
in "2 Henry VI." (i. 2):

"A crafty knave does need no broker."

"A curst cur must be tied short." With this proverb we may compare what
Sir Toby says in "Twelfth Night" (iii. 2), to Sir Andrew: "Go, write it
in a martial hand; be curst and brief."

"A drop hollows the stone," or "many drops pierce the stone." We may
compare "3 Henry VI." (iii. 2), "much rain wears the marble," and also
the messenger's words (ii. 1), when he relates how "the noble Duke of
York was slain:"

"Environed he was with many foes;
And stood against them, as the hope of Troy
Against the Greeks, that would have enter'd Troy.
But Hercules himself must yield to odds;
And many strokes, though with a little axe,
Hew down and fell the hardest-timber'd oak."

"A finger in every pie." So, in "Henry VIII." (i. 1), Buckingham says of
Wolsey:

"no man's pie is freed
From his ambitious finger."

To the same purport is the following proverb:[858] "He had a finger in
the pie when he burnt his nail off."

[858] Bohn's "Handbook of Proverbs," p. 159.

"A fool's bolt is soon shot." Quoted by Duke of Orleans in "Henry V."
(iii. 7). With this we may compare the French: "De fol juge breve
sentence."[859]

[859] Ibid. p. 94.

"A friend at court is as good as a penny in the purse." So, in "2 Henry
IV." (v. 1), Shallow says: "a friend i' the court is better than a penny
in purse." The French equivalent of this saying is: "Bon fait avoir ami
en cour, car le proces en est plus court."

"A little pot's soon hot." Grumio, in "Taming of the Shrew" (iv. 1),
uses this familiar proverb: "were not I a little pot, and soon hot, my
very lips might freeze to my teeth," etc.

"A pox of the devil" ("Henry V.," iii. 7).

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