Meaning & Analysis
Literally, this proverb describes the typical compensation or 'fare' received by a fiddler (musician): food, drink, and money—basic rewards for entertaining at social gatherings.
Insights
Simple Pleasures
Symbolizes the modest yet satisfying rewards for one’s work or entertainment, emphasizing enjoyment of life’s basic comforts rather than extravagance.
Work and Reward
Represents the fair and expected return for services rendered, especially in social or communal contexts where compensation may be both material and convivial.
Transient Livelihood
Alludes to the itinerant, hand-to-mouth existence of entertainers and laborers, whose earnings are immediate and practical rather than accumulated wealth.
Social Economy of Entertainers
Reflects the traditional payment for musicians in early modern Europe—often paid in kind as much as in coin, showing both the social and economic dimensions of performance.
Cultural Attitude Toward Sufficiency
Embodies a folk ideal: satisfaction with modest gains, provided needs are met, reflecting values of contentment and practical gratitude.
Gaming and Banter
Proverb frequently surfaces in contexts of play or gambling, humorously marking the outcome of having enjoyed oneself with tangible (and consumable) rewards.
Rhetorical Devices
Enumeration
The tripartite list ('meat, drink, and money') provides rhythmic balance and completeness, making the proverb catchy and memorable.
Alliteration
The repeated 'm' and 'd' sounds in 'meat, drink, and money' add musicality, echoing the very music played by the fiddler.
Synecdoche
The phrase uses 'fiddler’s fare' to represent the broader experience of practical, immediate compensation for entertainment or casual work.
Transcription
Quotations
And somewhat into purses besides you haue Fidlers fare, meat, drink and mony.
You have had more than fidler's fare, for you have meat, money, and cloth.
Meate, drinke, and money, a fidlers life.
He was dismissed Fidler-like, with meat, drink, and mony.
To eat and drink stoutly, to lay about one like a Farmer; the English say, Fidlers fare, Meat Drink and Money.
*Spoken often when we have din'd with our Friend, and after won some Money from him at Play.
Did your ladyship play? —Yes, and won; so I came off with fiddler's fare, meat, drink, and money.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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