re is flattery in friendship"--used by the Constable of France in
"Henry V." (iii. 7); the usual form of this proverb being: "There is
falsehood in friendship."

"There was but one way" ("Henry V.," ii. 3). "This," says Dyce, "is a
kind of proverbial expression for death." ("Glossary," p. 494.)

"The weakest goes to the wall." This is quoted by Gregory in "Romeo and
Juliet" (i. 1), whereupon Sampson adds: "Women, being the weaker
vessels, are ever thrust to the wall: therefore, I will push Montague's
men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall."

"There went but a pair of shears between them" ("Measure for Measure,"
i. 2). That is, "We are both of the same piece."

"The world goes on wheels." This proverbial expression occurs in "Antony
and Cleopatra" (ii. 7); and Taylor, the Water-Poet, has made it the
subject of one of his pamphlets: "The worlde runnes on wheeles, or,
oddes betwixt carts and coaches."

"Three women and a goose make a market." This proverb is alluded to in
"Love's Labour's Lost" (iii. 1):

"thus came your argument in;
Then the boy's fat _l'envoy_, the goose that you bought;
And he ended the market."

The following lines in "1 Henry VI." (i. 6),

"Thy promises are like Adonis' gardens
That one day bloom'd, and fruitful were the next,"

allude to the _Adonis horti_, which were nothing but portable earthen
pots, with some lettuce or fennel growing in them. On his yearly
festival every woman carried one of them in honor of Adonis, because
Venus had once laid him in a lettuce bed. The next day they were thrown
away. The proverb seems to have been used always in a bad sense, for
things which make a fair show for a few days and then wither away. The
Dauphin is here made to apply it as an encomium. There is a good account
of it in Erasmus's "Adagia;" but the idea may have been taken from the
"Fairy Queen," bk. iii. cant. 6, st. 42 (Singer's "Shakespeare," 1875,
vol. vi. p. 32).

"To clip the anvil of my sword." "This expression, in 'Coriolanus' (iv.
5) is very difficult to be explained," says Mr. Green, "unless we regard
it as a proverb, denoting the breaking of the weapon and the laying
aside of enmity. Aufidius makes use of it in his welcome to the banished
Coriolanus."

"here I clip
The anvil of my sword; and do contest
As hotly and as nobly with thy love,
As ever in ambitious strength I did
Contend against thy