Meaning & Analysis
A person who visits a brothel (bawdy-house, signified by 'straw') is likely to end up in the hospital ('spittle'), implying that immoral or reckless behavior leads to illness or ruin.
Insights
Consequences of Vice
The proverb warns that indulging in vice or immoral pleasure carries inevitable consequences, such as disease, shame, or social downfall.
Interconnection of Actions and Outcomes
It highlights the close and often unavoidable link between risky behavior and its repercussions—one action (stepping into vice) almost guarantees the next (falling into suffering).
Historical Symbolism
'Straw' is a traditional sign of the brothel, where fresh straw covered floors, and 'spittle' (from 'hospital' or 'spital') represents the medieval hospital, especially those treating venereal diseases. The proverb starkly encapsulates contemporary anxieties about sexual health and morality.
Cultural Resonance
Variants of this warning appear across early modern Europe, reflecting widespread fears of the social and physical dangers associated with sexual promiscuity, particularly before modern medicine.
Psychological Perspective
The saying functions as both cautionary tale and social control, evoking fear and shame to enforce norms of chastity and prudent conduct, and playing upon anxieties about hidden, delayed consequences.
Rhetorical Devices
Metonymy
Uses 'straw' for brothel and 'spittle' for hospital, allowing the proverb to speak indirectly but vividly about taboo subjects.
Parallelism
The structure—'one foot in... another in...'—mirrors the inexorable progression from reckless choice to its dire result.
Ellipsis
Omitting explicit detail about disease or ruin, the proverb’s brevity and indirectness intensify its warning and lend it an aphoristic punch.
Transcription
Quotations
Who hath one foot in a baudy house, hath the other in the Hospital.
He who sets one Foot in a Bawdy-house, claps t'other in an Hospital.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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