The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (389 page)

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BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs
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NEAR is my shirt, but nearer is my skin
See also the preceding proverb. Cf. early 14th-cent. Fr.
plus pres m'est char que n'est chemise
, my skin is nearer to me than my shirt.
c
1570
in
Old Ballads
(1840) 99
Neerer is my skin then shirte.
1631
Spare Hours of Meditations
63
His charitie beginnes at home, and there it ends; neere is his coat, but neerer is his skinne.
1712
Lewis Baboon
V
.
My Shirt (quoth he) is near me, but my Skin is nearer: Whilst I take care of the Welfare of other Folks, no body can blame me, to apply a little Balsam to my own Sores.
1890
Bondman
II
. x.
‘We can't trust you.’ .. ‘Not your own brother?’ said Jacob. ‘“Near is my shirt, but nearer is my skin,” as the saying is.’
self-preservation
The NEARER the bone, the sweeter the meat
a
1398
tr.
Bartholomew's On Properties of Things
(1975) xix. 1
The nerer the boon the swetter is the flesshe.
a
1661
Worthies
(Wales) 2
As the sweetest flesh is said to be nearest the bones, so most delicious vallies are interposed betwixt these Mountains.
1778
in
Writings
(1906) VIII. 258
We all agree the nearer the bone the sweeter the meat.
1945
Lark Rise
i.
‘The nearer the bone the sweeter the meat,’ they used to say, and they were getting very near the bone … Their children .. would have to depend wholly upon whatever was carved for them from the communal joint.
1979
Shiborni
I
. 38
A little skinny .. for my taste, but, like my ol' daddy used to say: the closer the bone, the sweeter the meat.
1996
Washington Post
27 Nov. B7
He inserts the rib in his mouth. ‘The closer to the bone, the sweeter the meat,’ he notes.
value
The NEARER the church, the farther from God
1303
Handlyng Synne
(EETS) I. 9242
Tharfor men seys, an weyl ys trowed [believed], ‘the nere the cherche, the fyrther fro God’.
1620
tr.
Cervantes' Don Quixote
II
. xlvii.
Eat nothing of all this meat .. for this dinner was presented by Nunnes, and it is an olde saying, The neerer the Church, the farther from God.
1879
Work amongst Working Men
i.
I fear it was a practical comment on the truth of the uncomfortable proverb, ‘The nearer the church, the farther from God,’ that so bad a district should adjoin one of the great head-quarters of the church.
1957
They hanged my Saintly Billy
ii.
‘The nearer the church, the farther from God,’ is a proverb of doubtful truth. But true it is that William Palmer, as a child, had two churches frowning down on him.
Christianity

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