Meaning & Analysis
A 'knight of the post' was a slang term for a person who could be hired to give false testimony or swear to false documents in a court of law. These individuals were professional perjurers, selling their oaths for a fee, as made explicit in the 1592 quotation by Nashe.
Insights
Corruptibility and Mercenary Behavior
The phrase metaphorically describes anyone who sells their integrity, principles, or loyalty for money. It extends beyond legal perjury to represent any mercenary act where honor is traded for financial or material reward.
Deceptive Appearances
The ironic title 'knight'—a symbol of chivalry and honor—is contrasted with the disgraceful reality of the 'post' (pillory). This symbolizes the deceptive gap between a respectable appearance or title and a corrupt, dishonorable character.
The Perversion of Justice
The term functions as a symbol for the subversion of justice itself. It represents the idea that legal and social systems, which rely on truth, can be undermined from within by those who exploit them for profit.
Historical Legal System
The proverb is a product of the 16th-century English legal world, reflecting anxieties about the reliability of testimony in court. The 'post' likely refers to the whipping post or pillory, a common site of public punishment for criminals, including perjurers, thus linking the 'knight's' profession directly to its shameful consequences.
Literary Archetype
The term is a classic example of a rogue or villain stock character in Elizabethan and Jacobean literature, as seen in the works of Nashe and Dekker. It provided a recognizable shorthand for a morally bankrupt individual who subverts the justice system for personal gain.
Psychology of Corruption
The phrase reveals a deep-seated psychological cynicism about human nature, suggesting that honor and truth are commodities that can be bought and sold. It exposes the potential for moral detachment, where an oath—a sacred bond—is reduced to a simple, paid transaction.
Rhetorical Devices
Irony
The central device is the stark irony in conferring the noble title of 'Knight' upon a disreputable, criminal figure. This contrast between honorific and reality creates a powerful, satirical insult.
Metonymy
The 'post' serves as a metonym for public punishment and shame (the whipping post or pillory), effectively symbolizing the ultimate destination and social status of such a perjurer.
Idiomatic Expression
As a fixed, colorful expression, the phrase functions as a derogatory idiom or slang term, encapsulating a complex social role into a memorable and vivid title.
Transcription
Quotations
A knight of the Post, quoth he, for so I am tearmed; a fellowe that will sweare you any thing for twelue pence.
Why how now: two knights of the post. —Ay, master, and we are both forsworn.
Know you are a notable pick-pocket, as the knight of the post here can take his oath.
A cheater a cozening companion, a knight of the poste.
Thou comest .. to be used as a witness .. like a downright knight of the post.
Theirs asmuch truth in us, as in Knightes o' th post.
A false Witness, a Knight of the Post.
A Knight of the Post Is a Retailer of Oaths.
Knight of the Post.
Annotations
- A Mercenary common Swearer .. an Irish Evidence.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.