PROVERBIAL MINES

MICHAEL DRAYTON, a poet who lived in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, once penned a poem about two travellers entertaining each other with proverbs.

The stanza is clear as to what happened. The first presented a proverb and the second replied with one which contradicted it. Nine proverbs were put forth and each one was promptly confronted by its opposite.

Drayton said that the travellers met as fools and parted none the wiser.

His point, many will imagine, is that wise men and women don’t live their lives by the words of others. They use those proverbs as guidelines, mining them for the good they can find in them. Then, in their own time and place, they apply that good as befits their situation.