Meaning & Analysis
It is as impossible to get a fart from a dead man (or horse) as it is to obtain something else being discussed—implying that the task in question is utterly futile or hopeless.
Insights
Futility
The proverb uses absurd imagery to convey the utter hopelessness or impossibility of extracting something from someone or something entirely incapable of producing it.
Intransigence
It can also describe a person who is so stubborn, unyielding, or ungenerous that getting anything out of them (a word, a favor, or money) is as hopeless as the proverb’s task.
Historical Symbolism
In early modern English humor, bodily functions and death were often combined for comic or emphatic effect. The phrase’s shock value lies in its grotesque impossibility, making the point memorably and unambiguously.
Cultural Resonance
Numerous variants appear in literature—substituting 'dead man,' 'dead horse,' or 'dead ass'—showing the phrase’s popularity as a marker of absolute unlikelihood or stubbornness.
Psychological and Social Use
The saying is especially applied to those who cannot be persuaded or compelled except by the most extreme means, critiquing both passivity and obstinacy.
Rhetorical Devices
Grotesque Imagery
The jarring combination of death and bodily function creates a forceful, memorable image that exaggerates futility.
Hyperbole
The proverb uses extreme exaggeration to emphasize impossibility or stubbornness, heightening its comic and rhetorical impact.
Simile
The construction ('as soon may you get…') is a classic simile, making the comparison vivid and relatable.
Transcription
Quotations
I shall get a fart of a dead man as soone, As a farthyng of him.
We shall assoone get a fart from a dead man, as a farthing of court'sie here.
(I would as soone vndertake to get).
O, Call me home againe, deare Chiefe, and put me To . . drawing farts Out of dead bodies.
They write from Libtzig (reuerence to your eares) The Art of drawing farts out of dead bodies, Is by the Brotherhood of the Rosie Crosse, Produc'd vnto perfection.
One may gett a fart from a dead horse, as soon as a farthing from him.
'Tis easier to draw a fart from a dead ass.
As free as a dead horse is of farts.
He may as soon get a fart of a dead man, as a word out of him.
(You may as soon, and with as little difficulty get).
I draw it from you, like a Fart from a dead Mare.
Cross References
Annotations
- Spoken of them who will not do, or say, a Thing but with Force, and Constraint.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.