Meaning & Analysis
Dogs escaping from a house do so with their own shoulders intact because there is nothing else for them to take, not even a scrap of meat. It is a sarcastic commentary on the extreme stinginess of the household, implying it is so barren that a scavenger can find no food to steal.
Insights
Unrewarding Environments
The proverb serves as a metaphor for any unrewarding or fruitless endeavor. To 'run away with whole shoulders' is to leave a situation or relationship with nothing more than what one started with, gaining no benefit, knowledge, or reward for one's efforts.
Absolute Scarcity
It symbolizes a state of absolute scarcity and lack of generosity. The miser's house represents a system or person so parsimonious that they offer no value or sustenance to others, leaving them to depart empty-handed.
Deceptive Emptiness
The proverb satirizes false expectations. A house is expected to contain some measure of sustenance, just as a venture is expected to yield some return. The image of the dog leaving with only itself mocks situations that promise opportunity but deliver nothing.
Critique of Miserliness
The proverb offers a window into social attitudes towards miserliness, a common object of scorn in 17th-century literature and culture. The 1670 annotation by Ray, explaining it is said 'in derision of a misers house', confirms its use as a satirical tool to critique extreme stinginess, which was seen as a moral failing.
Linguistic Wit
The proverb's effectiveness hinges on a clever linguistic pun. The listener initially assumes 'shoulders' refers to a stolen joint of meat, a common prize for a scavenging dog. The twist reveals the 'shoulders' are the dog's own, transforming an image of plenty into one of utter barrenness. This verbal wit makes the insult sharper and more memorable.
Psychology of Scarcity
Psychologically, the proverb illustrates how a miser's stinginess creates an environment so devoid of resources that it defies natural expectations. Even a creature known for scavenging can find nothing of value, highlighting the unnatural and complete sterility of the miser's domain.
Rhetorical Devices
Sarcasm
The proverb's primary device is sarcasm. It presents an image that sounds like abundance (a dog getting a 'whole shoulder') to ironically signify its complete opposite: a total lack of anything to take.
Pun
The humor and bite of the proverb come from the ambiguous meaning of 'shoulders'—punning on a cut of meat versus the dog's own body part. This ambiguity creates a clever and cutting insult.
Hyperbole
The image is an exaggeration used to emphasize the extreme degree of the miser's stinginess. A house containing absolutely no scraps for a dog is a hyperbolic scenario meant to ridicule.
Transcription
Quotations
Ranke misers now, doe sparing shun . . And dogs, thence with whole shoulders run.
*Not of mutton, but their own, spoken in derision of a misers house.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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