Meaning & Analysis
The proverb makes a universal statement that all things eventually conclude, then adds a humorous, literal observation that a pudding (in this context, a sausage) has two physical ends where it is tied off.
Insights
Humorous Finality
The proverb uses humor to soften the harsh reality of endings. By juxtaposing a universal truth with a trivial fact, it acknowledges that both great and small things in life are finite, making the concept of finality less daunting.
Duality and Interpretation
The 'two ends' of the pudding serve as a metaphor for duality and ambiguity. It suggests that situations, arguments, or even people can have two sides or interpretations, just as a sausage can be approached from either end.
The Profound and The Profane
The saying contrasts the profound with the profane, highlighting how life is a mixture of grand, philosophical truths and everyday, mundane realities. It grounds an abstract fear (of endings) in a tangible, almost absurd, domestic object.
Historical Culinary Context
The proverb's meaning is critically dependent on the historical definition of 'pudding' as a sausage, typically a long casing of meat tied at both ends. This culinary context, obvious to a 16th or 17th-century audience but lost on modern readers, is the foundation of the joke.
Psychological Bathos
The proverb functions as a classic example of bathos, abruptly shifting from a profound, philosophical statement about universal finality to a mundane, silly observation about a food item. This use of anticlimax serves as a psychological coping mechanism, using humor to render the intimidating concept of mortality or endings more palatable and less threatening.
Metaphor of Ambiguity
The phrase 'two ends' evolved to suggest ambiguity or multiple interpretations. A 1667 quotation explicitly links the two ends of a pudding to 'two handles to their meaning', showing how the proverb was understood not just as a statement of finality, but as a comment on the dual nature of things or arguments.
Literary and Cultural Currency
The proverb's frequent appearance in the works of prominent dramatists like Nashe, Chapman, and Jonson highlights its status as a popular, witty saying in Elizabethan and Jacobean England. It was a piece of folk wisdom used to inject cynical or earthy humor into dialogue.
Rhetorical Devices
Bathos
The proverb's primary rhetorical device is bathos, an abrupt and anticlimactic shift in tone from the serious and universal ('Everything has an end') to the trivial and specific ('a pudding has two').
Juxtaposition
The saying juxtaposes a profound philosophical concept (finitude) with a mundane culinary object (a sausage), creating a humorous and memorable contrast.
Pun
The word 'end' is used as a pun, referring both to a conclusion or termination and to the physical extremity of an object. This wordplay is central to the proverb's wit.
Transcription
Quotations
(All thingis hes ane end but).
(All thingis hes ane end but).
A podding merits double praise, a podding hath two ends.
For as much, Valerius, as everything has time, and a pudding has two [ends].
As Writers say, all things have end, And that we call a Pudding, hath his two.
The politique pudding hath still his two ends.
(and a pudding two).
A pudding hath two ends, but a fool hath none.
All puddings have two ends, and most short sayings Two handles to their meaning.
All things hes an end, a Pudding hes twa.
(All things hes).
(All things have).
Spoken sullenly; signifying that the Power of those who now oppose us, will soon come to an end.
(All things have).
Cross References
Annotations
- sausage
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.