Meaning & Analysis
To obtain an egg from a hen, one must tolerate the noise of its cackling, which is an unavoidable part of the process.
Insights
Reward and Annoyance
To gain something valuable (the egg), one must accept the associated irritations or drawbacks (the cackling). It highlights the necessity of tolerating minor unpleasantness to achieve a greater goal.
The Price of Productivity
Symbolizes that any productive or creative process involves unavoidable 'noise' or friction. The desired outcome cannot be separated from the less pleasant aspects of its creation.
Domestic and Gender Roles
Historically interpreted as advice that a productive household (the egg) requires tolerating a demanding or 'scolding' spouse (the cackling hen), reflecting patriarchal views on domestic management.
Historical Gender Stereotyping
The 19th-century interpretation, 'scolding wives make the best housewives', reveals how the proverb was used to reinforce gender stereotypes, framing female assertiveness as a necessary, albeit annoying, component of domestic efficiency.
Psychology of Goal Acceptance
The proverb serves as a psychological check on unrealistic expectations. It teaches that goals are rarely achieved without friction, forcing a practical cost-benefit analysis: is the reward worth the inevitable annoyance?
European Cultural Roots
Cited by Ray as a Dutch proverb transmitted through Erasmus, its presence in 17th-century English collections highlights a shared European understanding about the relationship between value and its inconvenient sources.
Rhetorical Devices
Cause-and-Effect Logic
The proverb is structured as a conditional statement (if you want X, you must do Y), making its lesson in cause and effect clear and easy to remember.
Auditory Imagery
The word 'cackling' provides strong, onomatopoeic auditory imagery, making the 'cost' of the egg feel tangible and viscerally annoying, thus strengthening the proverb's impact.
Symbolism
The 'egg' serves as a potent symbol for any desired reward or valuable outcome, while the 'hen' symbolizes the often noisy and demanding source of that value.
Transcription
Quotations
(endure the hens cackling).
Erasmus saith, they commonly say, He that would have eggs, must endure the cackling of hens. It is I suppose a Dutch proverb.
If you will have the Hen's Egg; you must bear her Cackling.
If you will have a good Thing, you must bear with the Inconveniences that attend it.
If you would have a Hen lay, you must bear with her cackling.
Explanation
[Robert Forby, in Vocabulary of East Anglia (1830), p. 427, says that this proverb means that scolding wives make the best housewives.]
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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