Meaning & Analysis
Having companions during times of trouble or unhappiness provides comfort and makes the hardship easier to bear.
Insights
Validation through Shared Struggle
The proverb signifies the power of empathy and shared identity. Knowing that others have endured or are enduring similar struggles validates one's own experience, transforming personal agony into a universal human condition and thus lessening its psychological weight.
Diffusion of Sorrow
It illustrates the principle that emotional and psychological burdens are lightened when distributed. The 'company' acts as a vessel, diffusing the intensity of individual sorrow across a group, making it more manageable for each person.
Human Need for Connection
The proverb highlights the fundamental human need for connection, especially during adversity. It suggests that isolation is a secondary punishment that compounds misery, while fellowship provides the emotional resources needed to persevere.
Classical and Renaissance Roots
Rooted in classical wisdom, as shown by the Erasmus citation and the recurring Latin phrase 'Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris', this proverb was a staple of Renaissance thought, used by authors like Marlowe and Shakespeare to explore the psychological dimensions of suffering and solidarity.
Psychology of Shared Experience
The proverb reveals a core psychological truth: shared suffering feels diminished. This phenomenon, known as social comparison, suggests that seeing others in a similar plight normalizes the experience, reducing feelings of isolation and personal failure. As Shakespeare's King Lear notes, 'Who alone suffers suffers most i' th' mind'.
Ambiguity of Consolation
The 'good' in having company can be ambiguous. While it often points to noble solidarity and mutual support, some quotations hint at a darker comfort derived from seeing that one is not uniquely unfortunate, bordering on schadenfreude. This duality reflects the complex and sometimes contradictory nature of human consolation.
Rhetorical Devices
Aphorism
The proverb is an aphorism, a concise and direct statement of a perceived truth. Its power lies in its simplicity and declarative certainty, making it a memorable piece of wisdom.
Alliteration and Consonance
The core concepts are linked through alliteration and consonance in 'Company' and 'Comfort' (a word frequently used in the citations), which creates a pleasing phonetic link that reinforces the proverb's meaning.
Parallelism
Many historical expressions of the proverb, such as 'The more companie the more comfort', use parallelism to create a balanced, memorable structure that emphasizes the direct relationship between the two elements.
Transcription
Quotations
Societas miseriae levat.
A prysoner lyenge longe in payne and wo Hath consolacion and great confort certayne To haue many mo be partnes of his payne.
It is comfort of the wretched to haue company.
But notwithstanding the comfort by other men's calamity be miserable, yet it doth me good to think that other have been as sluttishly served by women as myself.
In miserie Euphues is it a great comfort to haue a companion.
I suppose (Philotimus) thou thinkst it a comfort in thy miserie, to haue a companion in extremitie.
Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris.
The more companie the more comfort.
The comfort of the vnluckie, is to haue for fellowes many vnluckie.
When men disgraces share, The lesser is the care.
If that which is commonly spoken be true, that to haue companions in misery is a lightner of it, you may comfort me.
(Good it is).
To be glad to haue companyons in misery; the Latin says, solamen miseris, socios habuisse doloris.
Company in Misery makes it light.
Shakespeare Citations
Friends should associate friends in grief and woe.
Fellowship in woe doth woe assuage.
In love, I hope—sweet fellowship in shame.
Dumain, thy love is far from charity, That in love's grief desire's society.
Sour woe delights in fellowship.
Who alone suffers suffers most i' th' mind.
There have been .. cuckolds ere now .. there's comfort in't.
Cross References
- See St., no. 388.
- F295 I am not the first and shall not be the last.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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