Meaning & Analysis
A simile describing a state of extreme intoxication by comparing a person's behavior to that of a mouse or rat, implying a complete loss of control and awareness.
Insights
Loss of Control
The proverb metaphorically describes a state of utter helplessness and loss of rational control. The mouse's erratic, scurrying movements symbolize the disoriented and uncoordinated behavior of a deeply intoxicated individual.
Vulnerability and Diminishment
The comparison to a small, often-despised rodent suggests a state of pathetic vulnerability and diminished status. The intoxicated person is rendered as insignificant and helpless as a mouse, stripped of their human dignity.
Animalistic Regression
By likening a human to a rodent, the proverb suggests a regression to a base, animalistic state. It implies that extreme drunkenness strips away higher human faculties, leaving only instinctual, unthinking behavior.
Agricultural and Domestic Symbolism
The choice of a mouse or rat is rooted in the domestic and agricultural life of the early modern period. These rodents were ubiquitous pests in households, granaries, and taverns, where they might consume fermented grain or spilt liquor, making their resulting erratic behavior a familiar, if anecdotal, spectacle.
Folk Humor and Imagery
The simile is a prime example of folk humor, using a common, everyday creature to create a vivid and slightly ridiculous image. This type of animal-based comparison was a staple of colloquial speech, making the expression easily understood and memorable across social classes.
Social Judgment
The proverb carries an implicit social judgment. By comparing a drunk person to a common pest, it frames extreme intoxication not as celebratory but as a state of debasement and social nuisance, stripping the individual of dignity.
Rhetorical Devices
Simile
The proverb is a direct comparison using 'as', linking human intoxication to the behavior of a mouse to create a vivid, easily understood image of extreme drunkenness.
Hyperbole
The expression uses exaggeration to emphasize the degree of intoxication. The image of a completely inebriated mouse serves as a humorous and extreme benchmark for drunkenness.
Animal Imagery
The use of a common, small rodent creates a powerful and slightly demeaning image, suggesting not just intoxication but also helplessness, erratic movement, and a loss of human dignity.
Transcription
Quotations
Som [women] wilbe dronken as a mouse.
Oft hath made me dronke as any mous.
Dronken as a mouse, At the ale house.
[They] cum to mattens as dronck as myss.
Although I wyll be dronken other whyles as a rat.
As if one had . . kept the Tauerne till he had bene as dronke as a Ratte.
Drunk as a mouse.
Thus satte thei swillyng, and carousing one to an other, till thei were bothe as dronke as Rattes.
As drunken as a Rat or Beggar.
Full little would ye wat, when he was drunke as a Rat, how trimly he would trudge it.
He walks about the Country .. Drunk as a Rat.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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