Meaning & Analysis
The crime of murder is of such a severe nature that it will inevitably be discovered, regardless of how carefully it is concealed.
Insights
The Inevitability of Truth
The proverb asserts that truth, especially concerning grave injustices or significant secrets, cannot be permanently suppressed. Like murder, profound truths have an inherent force that will eventually bring them to light.
Restoration of Moral Order
Murder represents the ultimate transgression against a moral or cosmic order. The proverb suggests that such a profound disruption creates an imbalance that the universe itself will conspire to correct, ensuring that justice is eventually served.
The Uncontainable Nature of Evil
The act of 'murder' symbolizes any profound evil or wrongdoing. The proverb suggests that evil is not a passive secret but an active force that, by its very nature, cannot remain hidden and will manifest itself through its consequences. As Webster's 1623 quote states, 'Murder shreikes out.'
Justice and Divine Providence
The proverb reflects a pre-modern legal and social framework where, lacking forensic science, there was a profound belief in divine intervention to expose heinous crimes. The discovery of a murderer was often interpreted as an act of God, reinforcing a worldview where a moral order would inevitably assert itself against profound evil.
Literary and Dramatic Trope
This proverb became a cornerstone of Renaissance and Jacobean revenge tragedies, notably in the works of Shakespeare and Kyd. It functions as a powerful dramatic engine, assuring the audience that the central, hidden crime will ultimately be revealed, thus guaranteeing a climactic and just resolution.
Psychology of Guilt
The proverb speaks to the psychological weight of guilt. It implies that the secret of the crime is an unbearable burden that eventually causes the perpetrator to make a mistake or confess. It externalizes an internal process, suggesting that the crime itself, not just the criminal, actively seeks exposure.
Rhetorical Devices
Personification
The proverb imbues 'murder' with agency, as if the crime itself actively seeks to be revealed. Shakespeare personifies this idea memorably in Hamlet: 'For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak / With most miraculous organ.'
Brevity and Force
The stark, two-word structure delivers its message with absolute certainty and force. Its conciseness makes it sound like an irrefutable law of nature, enhancing its authority and memorability.
Hyperbole
By using the most extreme example of a secret crime, murder, the proverb makes a powerful statement about all secrets. It functions as a form of hyperbole, suggesting that if even the ultimate crime cannot be hidden, then lesser secrets stand no chance.
Transcription
Quotations
I shal knowe who it was, though I shold renne thurgh al the world to seke hym. ffor murdre abydeth not hyd.
I drede mordre wolde come oute.
The heauens are iust, murder cannot be hid.
I fear'd as much; murther cannot be hid.
Murder I see cannot be hid.
Murder will peepe out of the closest huske.
Other sinnes onely speake; Murther shreikes out.
Murder from heauens eye cannot be conceal'd.
I'll leave the felon with your lordship. —Farewell, good constable: murder, I see, will out.
'Tis an old saying Murder will out.
No sin is so close, but may be detected.
The English say, Murther will out.
*This is observed very often to fall out in the immediate sense, as if the Providence of God were more then ordinarily manifested in such discoveries, It is used also to signifie, that any knavery or crime or the like will come to light.
*Spoken jocosely when some-thing is like to be discovered, which we would gladly have conceal'd.
Shakespeare Citations
How easily murder is discovered!
Truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long.
Well, I'll go hide the body in some hole . . And when I have my meed, I will away, For this will out.
Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.
For murther, though it have no tongue, will speak With most miracu-lous organ.
A murd'rous guilt shows not itself more soon Than love that would seem hid.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.