Meaning & Analysis
A person is foolish if he leaves his inheritance to his doctor, thereby giving the physician a motive not to preserve his life.
Insights
Conflict of Interest
The proverb symbolizes the folly of placing trust in those whose interests may run counter to one's own well-being—especially when life, health, or fortune are at stake.
Naivety and Misplaced Trust
It warns against naively trusting others with one’s welfare when they stand to gain from one’s misfortune, highlighting the danger of being oblivious to self-interest and motive.
Historical Suspicion
Historically, doctors were often viewed with suspicion, especially when money or inheritance was involved. The proverb reflects longstanding anxieties about medical ethics and the temptation to exploit the vulnerable.
Broader Application
Beyond literal medicine, the saying applies to any situation where one empowers another to benefit from one’s demise—whether in business, law, or personal affairs. It critiques the lack of prudence in safeguarding one’s own interests.
Literary and Cultural Resonance
This theme appears frequently in Renaissance drama and satire (e.g., Jonson's 'Volpone'), where unscrupulous heirs or caretakers scheme to inherit from the sick or dying, turning the proverb into a plot device and a cultural warning.
Rhetorical Devices
Irony
The phrase is deeply ironic: the one entrusted with healing is given the ultimate incentive not to heal, subverting expectations.
Metonymy
The 'physician' stands for any person or agent whose interest could be at odds with one's own, broadening the application of the warning.
Aphorism
Its concise, proverbial structure delivers a sharp, memorable lesson with universal resonance.
Transcription
Quotations
If one be sick, what wouldest thou haue him do? —Be sure that he make not his Phisition his heire.
I often haue Heard him protest, that your physitian Should neuer be his heire.
Others [think it unfit] to make him a physician; but then, being my heir, I'm afraid he would make me away.
A man must not make a wolfe his Executor.
([It is Folie] to make).
He knowes he must of Cure despaire, Who makes the slie Physitian his Heire.
To make his Phisician his heir.
Never make any Physitian thy heir.
Make not thy Physician thine Heir.
That Patient is not like to recover, who makes the Doctor his Heir.
(makes his doctor his heir).
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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