John Mitchell Kemble (2 April 1807 – 26 March 1857) was an English scholar and historian. He was the eldest son of the actor Charles Kemble (belonging to a prominent theatre family) and the actress and singer Maria Theresa Kemble. He is known for his major contribution to the history of the Anglo-Saxons and philology of the Old English language, including one of the first translations of Beowulf.
The Dialogue of Salomon and Saturnus is one of his minor works.
It is made up of the Old English Saturn and Solomon texts in prose and verse, with translation and accompanying commentary, plus other related texts, such as proverbs of AElfred and other proverbs.
I quote from page 248: “It is probable that this is derived from a Saxon original, and AElfred here appears in the traditional character of a teacher; for that there ever was a meeting at Seaford, in which he really delivered the counsels here attributed to him, appears quite out of the question.
The proverbs which are thus put into Alfred's mouth are important from their antiquity, and of the more value to us because some of them correspond to proverbs already alluded to in this introduction. Such of these as I have observed I shall now proceed to note; others of them, again, are found at a later period in other languages of Europe.”
Unfortunately, Kemble doesn't provide English translations of Latin and Old German proverbs (who knows why) and I managed to translate only the Latin ones and a couple of those in Old German. Should any of you be able to translate the proverbs in Old German, please let us know!
Page 247:
Thus quoth Alfred:
Dear son of mine,
choose never for thy mate
a little man, or long, or red,
if thou wilt do after my rede.
Page 248
The red man is a rogue,for he will advise thee ill ;
he is quarrelsome, a thief and whoreling,
a scold, of mischief he is king.
I do not say for all that
that many are not gentlemen.
Through this lore and gentility
he amended a great company.
Page 254
The advice of Alfred to his son, to take neither a short man, a tall man, nor a red-haired man for his friend, because the first will be ambitious and proud, the second without wit or courage, and the third a traitor, is paralleled by a passage in Freidank, p. 85:
Kurzer man demuete
unt roter mit guete,
unt langer man wise,
der lop sol man prise.
(If short men are humble, redheads good, tall men wise, they should be praised)
From the same page:
The same assertion, with additional circumstances, is made in the MS. Harl. 3362, fol.33:
Raro breves humiles, longos vidi sapientes.
Albos audaces, rufos sine prodicione.
Cum fusco stabis, cum nigro tela parabis.
(Rarely I saw an humble short man, a wise tall man, a brave white-haired man, a faithful red-haired man. With the brown-haired man you can stay, with the black-haired man prepare your weapons.)
Page 255:
The faithlessness of red-haired men is known to have been a widely prevailing belief, and to have passed into the proverbs of many European countries: Judas, in the painted cloth, has red hair, allusions to which in the works of all our old dramatic writers are far too numerous to require specific reference. I shall content myself with calling attention to a few notices less commonly accessible in this country.
In rufa pelle vix est animus sine felle. (Gartner, Diet. Prov. 15.)
(In a red skin there is hardly a soul without poison/hate.)
Raro breves humiles uidi, longos sapientes,
albos audaces, nigros rufosque fideles.
(Rarely I saw short humble men, wise tall men, brave white-haired men, faithful black- and red-haired men.)
Die Kleinen Leuth haben höhen muth,
ein lang mann selten wunder thut,
ein bleicher mann hat weiber art,
hut dich vor schwartz und rot bart.
Rot bart nie gut ward, sprach Moses.
(The short have great courage, the tall rarely do wonderful things, the pale have women's manners, beware of black and red beards. The red beard was never good, said Moses)
Per rubram barbam debes cognoscere nequam,
Multi non rubram sed habent cum crimine nigram.
(By the red beard you must know the wicked, many criminals are not red-haired, but black-haired)
Man spricht, Roterbart
selten gut ward.
Aber thue sie nicht allein so schelten,
schwarze Bart gerathen auch selten.
(Rarely Redbeard is said to be good. But don't scold him alone, Blackbeard too is rarely good.)
Des nemen bispel dar an:
und huete sich ein islich man,
daz niemen ze vil truwen sol
dem roten friunt, daz rat ich wol
(So take this as an example:
and every honest man should be careful
that no one trusts too much
in his red-haired friend. I gladly give this advice.)
So among the proverbs which we have already quoted from the Trin. MS. we find,
Rufus habet speciem post Sathanae faciem.
Xts plasmauit rufum Sathanamque vocauit,
Sic laus hic dixit seruus per secula sic sit.
(The redhead looks like Satan. Christ shaped the redhead and called him Satan, Thus the servant said, let it be praised for ever.)
Im was der bart unt daz har
beidiu röt, viurvar,
von den selben boere ich sagen,
daz si valschiu herze tragen.
(Those who have a beard and hair
both red, verily
of them I dare say
they bear a false heart)
Quia rufus esset, quae species malignam naturam designaret,
iuxta hunc versum,
Raro breues humiles uidi, rufos que fideles.
(Because he was red-haired, which appearance denotes a malignant nature, according to this verse, seldom have I seen a humble short man, or a faithful red-haired man)
Raro breves humiles vidi, longos sapientes,
Albos audaces, rufoque colore fideles.
(Rarely I saw short humble men, wise tall men, brave white-haired men, and faithful red-haired men.)
The Spaniards have a proverb to the same effect :
Asno coxo, y hombre roxo, y el demonio, todo es uno.
(A lame ass, and a red-haired man, and the devil, are all one.)
Tons of Italian proverbs about red hair (in dialect too!)
Russian proverbs about redheads and a decree from Peter the Great
European proverbs about red hair
Galician proverbs about red hair
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