Meaning & Analysis
Literally, the proverb refers to licking residual fat from one’s own beard or lips after a meal, implying that one enjoys the last traces of a rich or savory food.
Insights
Self-serving Gain
Symbolizes reaping personal benefit from a situation, especially after others have already contributed or taken part. The act of licking the fat—considered the tastiest and most desirable part—suggests securing the choicest reward for oneself, often with little regard for others.
Profiting at Another's Expense
Evokes the image of someone seizing the final, most valuable scraps, often by exploiting others' efforts or neglect. The proverb thus warns against those who maneuver to enjoy unearned advantages or profit from situations after the hard work is done.
Opportunistic Resourcefulness
Can be read as admiring (or satirizing) cleverness in making the most of every opportunity, even down to the smallest advantage, reflecting resourcefulness or cunning.
Historical Symbolism
In early modern England, 'fat' signified wealth, luxury, or the richest portion, and beards (or lips) suggested personal consumption. To 'lick the fat' thus connotes securing the last—and best—of a shared resource. Contemporary usage in mercantile and courtly contexts (as found in the 16th-century quotations) reflects anxieties about exploitation, favoritism, and profit-seeking.
Cultural Parallels
Similar proverbs exist across cultures—such as 'to cream off the top' or 'to take the lion’s share'—underscoring a universal wariness toward those who seek the best for themselves, especially at communal expense.
Psychological Dimensions
The proverb implicitly critiques envy and the human tendency to resent those who appear to gain undue advantage. It reveals social suspicion toward opportunism and the psychological discomfort surrounding unequal division of rewards.
Satirical Undertone
The vivid physicality of licking one’s beard evokes a satirical tone—lampooning the greed or smug satisfaction of those who profit from others' efforts. The act is both comic and critical, reinforcing communal norms about fairness and modesty.
Rhetorical Devices
Metaphor
The phrase uses the literal image of licking fat from a beard as a metaphor for appropriating the best or last advantage from a situation.
Imagery
The proverb conjures a tactile, sensory image—greasy lips, a contented gesture—making the moral lesson both memorable and mildly comic.
Synecdoche
Beard or lips stand in for the whole person, encapsulating the individual's act of self-indulgence and selfish gain.
Irony
There is an implicit irony in the satisfaction of 'licking the fat'—a seemingly trivial act that exposes deeper social and ethical implications about greed.
Transcription
Quotations
And thereby the fat cleane flyt fro my berde.
Other .. marchantes .. sore abhorryng the Italian nacion, for lickyng the fat from their beardes, and takyng from them their accustomed lyuing.
He wyll licke all the fatte from my lippes.
But they that shooten neerest the pricke Sayne, other the fat from their beards doen lick.
It is he Philautus that will fleete all the fat from thy bread [for beard].
Philotimus had wiped all the fat from his bearde.
Let not therefore curiousnes licke the fat from your fingers.
O leave the company of such as lick the fat from your beards (if you haue any) and come hether.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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