Meaning & Analysis
Starvation is so compelling that it forces even a wild wolf to abandon the safety and cover of the forest to seek food in dangerous, open territory.
Insights
Necessity overrules safety
Desperation compels individuals to take risks they would otherwise avoid; when basic needs are unmet, the instinct for self-preservation takes precedence over caution or comfort.
Economic coercion
Financial distress forces people to accept unfavorable terms or sell assets below value. The 'wolf' coming out is the proud or private person forced into the open market by poverty.
Involuntary exposure
Crisis forces hidden problems or reclusive figures into the light; one cannot remain detached or neutral when resources are exhausted.
Commercial application
John Florio (1591) applies this proverb explicitly to commerce, using it to explain why a merchant might sell goods 'dog cheape.' It illustrates the loss of leverage in negotiation: the hungry seller cannot afford to haggle, just as the wolf cannot afford to stay hidden.
Moral inversion
Burgh (1483) uses the proverb as a structural analogy for spiritual cleansing: just as hunger chases the wolf from the wood, 'sobrete [sobriety] chaseth the deuyl fro the man.' This elevates a brutal observation of nature into a theological argument for asceticism.
The Wolf archetype
In European folklore, the wolf in the woods represents the ultimate wild, lurking danger. For the wolf to leave the woods signifies a disruption of the natural boundary between the wild and the civilized, emphasizing that hunger disturbs the fundamental order of the world.
Risk vs. Need
The proverb captures the biological calculus of survival. The woods offer shelter (safety from man), but the open offers food (sustenance). Hunger tips the scale, making the danger of the open preferable to the certainty of starvation.
Rhetorical Devices
Personification
Hunger is portrayed as an active agent (a driver/chaser) that exerts control over the wolf, stripping the predator of its agency and turning it into a fugitive of circumstance.
Alliteration
The repetition of 'w' sounds in 'wolf' and 'wood' (and often 'works' or 'wants' in variations) gives the phrase a cohesive, fable-like quality.
Imagery
The contrast between the dark, enclosed 'wood' and the implied open space where the wolf is driven creates a visual narrative of exposure and vulnerability.
Transcription
Quotations
For thus as hunger chaceth the wolfe out of the wode thus sobrete chaseth the deuyl fro the man.
Now I well perceiue that Hunger forceth the Woulf oute of his Denne.
It is hunger driues the wolfe out of the wood, if I had not great neede of monie, you should neuer haue them so dog cheape.
Hunger drawes a Wolf out of the Forrest.
(out of the forest).
Hunger fetches the Wolf out of the Woods.
Cross References
- See Dür., I, no. 773.
- H811 Hunger breaks down (pierces) stone walls.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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