Meaning & Analysis
Literally, the proverb claims that when lovers quarrel or fall out, their reconciliation renews or strengthens their love.
Insights
Strength Through Adversity
Suggests that conflict, when followed by reconciliation, can deepen intimacy and emotional bonds, making love more resilient and vivid.
Cyclical Nature of Affection
Highlights the ebb and flow in relationships—discord followed by renewal reflects the natural cycles of passion, testing and reaffirming connection.
Affectionate Discord
Implies that a certain degree of quarrelling is intrinsic to strong relationships, as it provides an opportunity for reaffirmation and renewed appreciation.
Historical Symbolism
Rooted in classical wisdom (Erasmus cites 'Amantium irae, amoris redintegratio est'), the proverb reflects ancient and Renaissance beliefs in the restorative power of reconciliation and the paradoxical closeness produced by conflict.
Literary and Cultural Resonance
Widely echoed in Renaissance literature, from Terence to Shakespeare, who dramatizes this theme in 'Troilus and Cressida' and his sonnets. It reflects cultural fascination with the emotional drama of lovers’ quarrels and reunions.
Psychological Dimensions
Psychologically, the proverb touches on the cathartic value of emotional release and repair, the importance of forgiveness, and the dynamic by which tension and its resolution heighten intimacy.
Rhetorical Devices
Paradox
The apparent contradiction—that discord produces renewed love—provokes thought and makes the proverb memorable.
Metaphor
Frames the quarrel as a 'falling-out' and its resolution as a 'renewing,' using physical imagery for emotional processes.
Ellipsis
The concise statement omits the process of reconciliation, inviting the listener to imagine the narrative arc from quarrel to reunion.
Transcription
Quotations
Amantium irae, amoris redintegratio est.
The variaunce of louers (sayth Terence) is the renuyng of loue.
A Prouerbe olde I beare in my mynde, The whiche I hope will be full true: The fallyng out of louers kynde, Is fayned wrath loue to renewe.
Let the falling out of frinds be a renewing of affection.
What, yf shee cast thee of? The falling out Of louers doth renewe and strength-then loue.
She would . . pick quarrels upon no occasion, because she would be reconciled to him again. As the old saying is, the falling out of lovers is the renewing of love.
The anger of Lovers is the sawce of love.
Shakespeare Citations
Falling in after falling out, may make them three.
Now I find true That . . ruin'd love, when it is built anew, Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater.
Cross References
Annotations
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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