The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (189 page)
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fingers
FIRE is a good servant but a bad master
1615Englands Sickness
20
The world, like fire, may be a good seruant, will bee an ill Master.
1738
Polite Conversation
II. 183
Why, Fire and Water are good Servants, but they are very bad Masters.
1808
Works
(1850–6) VI. 533
Like fire, they [i.e. the aristocracy] are good servants, but all-consuming masters.
1948
Northern Farm
xxxvi.
‘Fire is a good servant but a bad master.’ So runs the proverb.
1973
Murder Remote
XX.
Is not whisky the wonderful thing? But like fire, like fire—a good servant but a bad master.
ways and meansfire
FIRST catch your hare
Commonly thought to originate in the recipe for hare soup in Mrs Glasse's
Art of Cookery
(1747) or in Mrs Beeton's
Book of Household Management
(1851), but not found there (see quot. 1896). Similar in sentiment to
CATCHING'S before hanging
. Cf.
c
1300
BRACTON
De Legibus Angliae
IV. xxi.
vulgariter dicitur
,
quod primo opportet cervum capere
,
& postea cum captus fuerit illum excoriare
, it is commonly said that one must first catch the deer, and afterwards, when he has been caught, skin him.
1801
Spirit of Farmers' Museum
55
How to dress a dolphin, first catch a dolphin.
1855
Rose & Ring
xiv.
‘To seize wherever I should light upon him—’ ‘First catch your hare!’.. exclaimed his Royal Highness.
1896
Daily News
20 July 8
The familiar words, ‘First catch your hare,’ were never to be found in Mrs. Glasse's famous volume. What she really said was, ‘Take your hare when it is cased [skinned].’
a
1961
Miss Marple's Final Cases
(1979) 39
I haven't begun yet. ‘First catch your hare.’
1984
‘’
Harm's Way
iii.
Sloan took his reply straight from the pages of an early cookery book …‘First, catch your hare.’
ways and means
Art of Cookery
(1747) or in Mrs Beeton's
Book of Household Management
(1851), but not found there (see quot. 1896). Similar in sentiment to
CATCHING'S before hanging
. Cf.
c
1300
BRACTON
De Legibus Angliae
IV. xxi.
vulgariter dicitur
,
quod primo opportet cervum capere
,
& postea cum captus fuerit illum excoriare
, it is commonly said that one must first catch the deer, and afterwards, when he has been caught, skin him.
1801Spirit of Farmers' Museum
55
How to dress a dolphin, first catch a dolphin.
1855
Rose & Ring
xiv.
‘To seize wherever I should light upon him—’ ‘First catch your hare!’.. exclaimed his Royal Highness.
1896
Daily News
20 July 8
The familiar words, ‘First catch your hare,’ were never to be found in Mrs. Glasse's famous volume. What she really said was, ‘Take your hare when it is cased [skinned].’
a
1961
Miss Marple's Final Cases
(1979) 39
I haven't begun yet. ‘First catch your hare.’
1984
‘’
Harm's Way
iii.
Sloan took his reply straight from the pages of an early cookery book …‘First, catch your hare.’
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