Meaning & Analysis
To commit a significant theft, represented by stealing a valuable goose, and then leave behind a worthless token, a single feather, as a form of trivial or insulting compensation.
Insights
Hypocritical Generosity
The proverb illustrates the concept of hypocritical generosity, where a person commits a great harm and then makes a minuscule, showy gesture of atonement that is insulting in its inadequacy.
Insulting Restitution
The act symbolizes adding insult to injury. The feather is not a form of compensation but a deliberate mockery of the victim, highlighting the perpetrator's contempt and lack of genuine remorse.
Rationalizing Harm
It represents a flawed attempt to rationalize a harmful act. By 'giving something back', the thief engages in self-deception, pretending their crime is mitigated by a meaningless token.
Economic Symbolism
The proverb reflects the economic reality of pre-modern life, where a goose was a significant household asset. Stealing it was a major loss, making the act of leaving a single, worthless feather a profound insult that mocks the victim's economic ruin.
Psychology of Exploitation
The act of leaving a feather is a form of cynical self-justification, allowing the wrongdoer to perform a hollow gesture of restitution. It reveals a psychological need to minimize one's own transgression while simultaneously holding the victim in contempt.
Critique of False Piety
This proverb serves as a powerful critique of false piety or performative charity, where a grand harm is masked by a trivial, ostentatious act of 'goodness'. The 1658 quotation explicitly links it to undoing many people and then building a hospital for a few.
Rhetorical Devices
Juxtaposition
The proverb's impact is built on the stark juxtaposition of the 'goose' (a symbol of substantial value) and the 'feather' (a symbol of worthlessness), which effectively dramatizes the theme of inadequate restitution.
Irony
The act of 'sticking down a feather' is deeply ironic, as this gesture of apparent compensation is what transforms the crime from a simple theft into a profound and cynical insult.
Concrete Imagery
The concrete imagery of the theft and the trivial token creates a vivid and memorable scenario that makes the abstract moral lesson—about hypocrisy and injustice—easy to grasp and recall.
Transcription
Quotations
Recompensyng former loytryng lyfe loose, As did the pure penitent that stale a goose, And stak downe a fether.
(Steale a goose, and).
These who, could they steale the goose, would stick the fether.
(and stick a feather).
(and sticke a feather downe).
He stealeth a goose, and sticketh down a feather.
He stole a goose, and stucke downe a feather.
[As in 1616 Withals].
Like those that steal a goose, and stick down a feather, or those that have undone many, then build an hospital for some few.
[As in 1608 Harington].
To lose a Goose, and get a Feather.
To steal the Goose, and leave the feathers, viz. to do it clever, and so as one may not be found out.
Steal my goose, and stick me up a feather.
Steal my goose and stick me down a feather.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.