Meaning & Analysis
An expression of extreme contempt or dismissal, literally suggesting that a person should go and commit suicide using their own garters (stocking-straps).
Insights
Self-Destruction
The proverb signifies a downfall brought about by one's own actions, flaws, or possessions. The 'garters' symbolize personal attributes or habits that ultimately become the instruments of one's ruin.
Ironic Fate
It implies a form of poetic justice where the agent of destruction is an ironic perversion of something personal and supportive. An item meant to hold things up is used for a hanging, symbolizing a fittingly self-inflicted end.
Expression of Contempt
As a vitriolic curse, it communicates a profound desire to be rid of someone, wishing upon them a solitary, self-inflicted, and ignominious end. It is a powerful expression of utter disdain.
Historical Context of Clothing
The proverb's power derives from its use of a mundane, personal item—the garter—as an instrument of self-destruction. In early modern England, this made the curse both vivid and intimate, suggesting a downfall caused by one's own means and vanities.
Literary and Dramatic Use
Shakespeare and his contemporaries, like Jonson and Tourneur, used this phrase to convey extreme contempt, often with dark humor. In '1 Henry IV', Falstaff's addition of 'heir-apparent garters' brilliantly weaponizes the insult against Prince Hal, linking his royal status to his potential downfall.
Psychological Weaponry
The phrase psychologically weaponizes the familiar, turning an everyday object of support and adornment into a tool for suicide. This reflects a deep-seated understanding of how personal pride and possessions can become the very source of one's ruin.
Rhetorical Devices
Irony
The core of the proverb is its situational irony: an article of clothing meant for support and presentation becomes the means of death and disgrace.
Hyperbole and Dark Humor
The visceral and shocking image of suicide by such a flimsy, personal item is a form of hyperbole, used to express the speaker's intense animosity rather than a literal command.
Symbolism
The 'garters' serve as a powerful symbol for personal vanity, pride, or the very means by which a person maintains their social standing, which ironically becomes the source of their undoing.
Transcription
Quotations
Ten sutes of hangings— —I, i’their garters.
And as I ranne (indeede) I bid him hang himselfe in his owne garters.
Off with your Garters: and seek out a Bough, A handsom Bough; (for I would have ye hang like a Gentleman).
I leave your wise signiorships to the mercy of your garters, which is a speedy way, after a little time, to make yourselves invisible indeed.
Live to be Your own vexations, then, till you be mad, And then remove yourself with your own garters.
Well, go hang yourself in your own garters, for I’m sure the gallows groans for you.
Shakespeare Citations
Marry, if he that writ it had played Pyramus and hang’d himself in Bisby’s garter, it would have been a fine tragedy.
Go hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent garters!
These clothes are good enough to drink in, and so be these boots too. An they be not, let them hang themselves in their own straps.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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