Meaning & Analysis
A simile describing a state of extreme cheerfulness, comparing it to the lively, festive atmosphere associated with drinking vessels like cups and cans during a social gathering.
Insights
Uninhibited Merriment
The proverb symbolizes a state of carefree, uninhibited joy that is often achieved through social drinking and camaraderie. The 'cup and can' represent the tools that unlock this state of festive abandon.
Conviviality and Fellowship
'Cup and can' together evoke a sense of fellowship and shared experience. The phrase metaphorically points to the joy derived not just from drink itself, but from the act of sharing it with others, reinforcing social bonds.
Simple Pleasures
It represents a form of simple, earthly pleasure. The happiness described is not abstract or intellectual, but grounded in the tangible, communal, and celebratory activities of everyday life.
Historical Social Context
The proverb reflects the central role of taverns and communal drinking in early modern European social life. The 'cup and can' were not just vessels but symbols of fellowship, celebration, and a temporary escape from hardship, making them potent emblems of uninhibited joy.
Cultural Resonance
This phrase belongs to a family of folk similes, like 'as merry as mice in malt', that define happiness in simple, tangible, and often rustic terms. It champions an accessible, unpretentious form of cheerfulness rooted in communal experience rather than solitary or refined pursuits.
Psychological Insight
Psychologically, the proverb captures a state of 'disinhibition,' where social anxieties are dissolved through shared drink, leading to spontaneous and genuine expressions of joy. It highlights a cultural understanding of alcohol as a key facilitator of social bonding and emotional release.
Rhetorical Devices
Simile
The proverb is a direct simile, using 'as...as' to create a vivid comparison between an emotional state (merry) and concrete objects ('cup and can').
Metonymy
The inanimate 'cup and can' stand in for the entire festive, social event of drinking, a form of metonymy where the tools represent the activity and its associated feelings.
Alliteration
The repetition of the hard 'c' sound in 'cup' and 'can' creates a crisp, memorable rhythm, enhancing the proverb's cheerful and energetic tone.
Transcription
Quotations
Mery we were as cup and can coulde holde.
The merye man, with cupp and cann.
(We shall be as).
Where they, as merry as pot and canne passe their time in villany and robbery.
As merry as Cup and Can, as merry as Tinkers, as mice in malt.
(We'l be as).
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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