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A proverbial phrase or expression is a type of conventional saying similar to a proverb and transmitted by oral tradition. The difference is that a proverb is a fixed expression, while a proverbial phrase permits alterations to fit the grammar of the context. [1] [2] In 1768, John Ray defined a proverbial phrase as:
The first mention of beggars is in John Ray's Collection of English Proverbs in 1670, in the form "If wishes would bide, beggars would ride". [4] The first versions with close to today's wording was in James Kelly's Scottish Proverbs, Collected and Arranged in 1721, with the wording "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride". [4]
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An English tradition holds that a single magpie be greeted with a salutation in order to ward off the bad luck it may bring. A greeting might be something like "Good morning, Mr Magpie, how are Mrs Magpie and all the other little magpies?", [ 7 ] and a 19th century version recorded in Shropshire is to say "Devil, Devil, I defy thee!
Gray observes that the mother cat's disciplinary measures and the kittens' need to report their movements to her are also indicators of a bourgeois status. "Three Little Kittens" is attributed to Bostonian Sunday school teacher and abolitionist, Eliza Lee Cabot Follen (1787–1860), a member of a prominent New England family and the author of ...
Pussy Cat Pussy Cat: United Kingdom 1805 [82] The earliest record of the rhyme is publication in Songs for the Nursery. Rain Rain Go Away 'Rain, Rain Go Away, come again another day' England 1659 [83] James Howell in his 1659 collection of proverbs noted "Raine, raine, goe to Spain: faire weather come againe". Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross
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Like many nursery rhymes, "Jack Sprat" may have originated as a satire on a public figure. History writer Linda Alchin suggests that Jack was King Charles I, who was left "lean" when parliament denied him taxation, but with his queen Henrietta Maria he was free to "lick the platter clean" after he dissolved parliament—Charles was a notably short man.