Meaning & Analysis
People often long for the security of marriage and the maturity of age, but once attained, these same conditions can bring regret or dissatisfaction.
Insights
Irony of Fulfilled Desires
The proverb metaphorically reflects on the ironic nature of human longing: we chase what we believe will bring happiness (age’s wisdom, wedlock’s companionship), only to discover its burdens.
Entanglement and Disillusionment
It captures the theme of entrapment—how both aging and marriage, once pursued as ideals, can lead to a loss of freedom, spontaneity, or satisfaction, creating emotional ambivalence.
Maturity as Double-Edged
Portrays maturity not just as growth, but as a trade-off—where the stability of age and commitment comes at the cost of passion, liberty, or idealism.
Renaissance Reflection on Human Contradiction
The proverb reflects a Renaissance fascination with paradox and contradiction: how the very institutions that promise fulfillment—marriage, aging into wisdom—also provoke sorrow and introspection once attained.
Psychology of Restlessness
It speaks to a deep human trait: the tendency to be dissatisfied with what one has. The cycle of desire and regret forms a psychological loop, highlighting the ephemeral nature of contentment.
Critique of Social Ideals
By equating wedlock and old age, the proverb critiques societal pressures that idealize marriage and aging, suggesting that these life stages are more complex and emotionally ambivalent than cultural norms admit.
Bittersweet Wisdom of Experience
Suggests that real wisdom lies in accepting life’s ambivalence: both age and marriage offer richness and restraint, joy and confinement. Regret does not negate value—it coexists with it.
Rhetorical Devices
Paradox
The proverb hinges on the paradox of desiring what one later regrets, encapsulating a universal tension between aspiration and reality.
Chiasmus
The mirrored structure—'desire and repent'—highlights the reversal of emotional perspective that occurs with time and experience.
Generalization
The use of 'we all' gives the statement a sweeping universality, turning personal disappointment into collective human truth.
Transcription
Quotations
There is no oddes betweene marriage and olde age: because we desire to trie them, and when we are but once entangled with either of them, then have we sought but our own sorrow and discontentment.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.