Meaning & Analysis
A 'clout' is an old term for a piece of cloth or a rag. The proverb literally means that a person's face has turned as white as a piece of white fabric, implying a complete draining of color due to a strong emotional or physical reaction.
Insights
Extreme Fear or Shock
The most common interpretation, where extreme paleness signifies a visceral reaction to terror, shock, or sudden fright. The body's physiological response—blood draining from the face—is used as a direct metaphor for the intensity of the fear experienced.
Overwhelming Anger
The simile can also describe the paleness resulting from intense anger or 'wrath', as noted in the 1489 Caxton quotation. Here, the lack of color signifies a powerful, consuming rage rather than fear.
Illness and Frailty
A pale complexion is often associated with sickness or poor health. The proverb can be used to describe someone who looks deathly ill or frail, suggesting a state of physical vulnerability.
Domestic Symbolism
The use of a 'clout'—a common, domestic piece of cloth—as the standard for whiteness grounds the simile in everyday reality. Unlike more poetic comparisons (e.g., 'pale as a lily'), this proverb links extreme emotion to the mundane, making the description more visceral and relatable to a general audience.
Literary Convention
This simile is a stock phrase in English literature, employed by influential writers like Caxton, Bunyan, and Shakespeare. Its frequent appearance demonstrates a deep-seated cultural understanding of paleness as an undeniable physical signifier of intense emotional states like fear, wrath, or shock.
Psychological Manifestation
The proverb captures a primal, physiological 'fight-or-flight' response where blood drains from the face in moments of terror. It externalizes an internal state, making a psychological condition physically manifest and immediately understood by an observer.
Rhetorical Devices
Simile
The proverb is a direct comparison using the structure 'as...as' to liken the color of a person's face to that of a white cloth.
Visual Imagery
The comparison to a stark, white 'clout' creates a powerful and immediate visual of a colorless, drained face, effectively conveying the extremity of the subject's condition.
Hyperbole
By comparing a human face to an inanimate object known for its lack of color, the proverb exaggerates the degree of paleness to emphasize the intensity of the underlying emotion or illness.
Transcription
Quotations
He .. becam pale as a white cloth for the grete wrathe that he had at his herte.
To be as wan as a clout new wash'd .. the English say the like, Pale as a clout.
At this, Little-faith looked as white as a clout, and had neither power to fight nor fly.
Shakespeare Citations
When I say so, she looks as pale as any clout in the versal world.
Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other.
O ill-starr'd wench! Pale as thy smock!
Fresh lily, And whiter than the sheets!
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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