Meaning & Analysis
To have good fortune with horses, one must engage in the scandalous or taboo act of kissing (or lying with) the parson’s wife—a behavior both socially improper and suggestive of manipulation or cunning.
Insights
Unethical Advantage
The proverb implies that obtaining good fortune—especially in matters like trading valuable animals—often involves questionable or morally dubious actions, such as currying favor through illicit means.
Subverting Social Norms
It suggests that success may require flouting social, religious, or moral conventions—here, humorously targeting the supposedly sacred status of clergy and their families.
Luck Through Connections
Underscores the role of insider connections, favoritism, or personal relationships (even scandalous ones) in achieving practical success.
Satire of Clerical Authority
The proverb satirizes religious figures by implying that even their private spheres are entangled in worldly pursuits like horse trading, reflecting early modern English skepticism about clerical virtue.
Cultural Humor
By using a risqué scenario (the parson’s wife), the proverb leverages bawdy humor to expose underlying truths about hypocrisy, favoritism, and the often earthy realities of rural and small-town life.
Historical Context of Horse Trading
In early modern England, horse trading was notorious for sharp practice and luck. The proverb ties this to sexual and social intrigue, suggesting that genuine 'luck' is often social engineering.
Ambiguity of 'Luck'
Luck here is depicted as less about chance than about knowing how to play the system or manipulate situations—an early form of social commentary on merit, favoritism, and moral compromise.
Rhetorical Devices
Euphemism
The phrase 'kiss the parson's wife' euphemistically points to sexual impropriety or at least transgressive intimacy, softening the directness while preserving the shock value.
Irony
There is strong situational irony in linking religious authority to horse trading through an act of impropriety, reinforcing the proverb’s satirical tone.
Bawdy Humor
The use of sexual innuendo heightens memorability and injects irreverent humor, serving both as entertainment and social critique.
Transcription
Quotations
Youle ha' good lucke to horseflesh o' my life, you plow'd so late with the Vicars wife.
I hope to have good luck to horse flesh, now she is a parson's wife.
If he be a parson And I his wife, I sure shall make my friends Lucky to horse-flesh.
He is well seen in horse-flesh for he hath lain with a Parsons wife.
I have had devilish good luck in horse flesh of late. —Why, then, Sir John, you must kiss a parson's wife.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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