Meaning & Analysis
The more virtuous, honest, or respectable a person is, the more misfortune or bad luck they tend to experience.
Insights
Injustice of Fate
The proverb suggests a fundamental injustice in the workings of fate or society, where moral goodness is not only unrewarded but actively punished by misfortune.
Vulnerability of Virtue
Honest and straightforward individuals are often more susceptible to exploitation and deceit, making their integrity a practical disadvantage in a world where cunning often prevails.
Critique of Success
It serves as a critique of worldly success, implying that fortune is often built on a foundation of dishonesty. Therefore, 'bad luck' can be re-framed as a sign of one's moral superiority.
Psychological Consolation
This proverb reflects a cynical worldview, challenging the 'just-world' fallacy by suggesting that virtue is often penalized rather than rewarded. It serves as a psychological coping mechanism, attributing personal misfortune to one's own integrity rather than incompetence in a corrupt world.
Historical Disillusionment
Emerging in the early 17th century, the proverb captures a societal disillusionment where traditional virtues like honesty were seen as liabilities in a world of competitive individualism. Shakespeare's 'The plainer dealer, the sooner lost' echoes this sentiment of virtue being a disadvantage.
Folk Cynicism
The proverb aligns with a strong counter-narrative found in folklore, exemplified by cross-references like 'The more knave the better luck'. This body of wisdom acknowledges the frequent, uncomfortable disconnect between moral uprightness and material success.
Rhetorical Devices
Comparative Correlative
The 'The more X, the worse Y' structure creates a powerful and memorable causal link between virtue and misfortune, making the paradoxical idea easy to grasp.
Irony
The proverb is built on situational irony, as it inverts the expected moral outcome where good deeds should lead to good fortune.
Antithesis
It establishes a stark contrast between a positive moral quality ('honester') and a negative outcome ('worse luck'), effectively highlighting the perceived paradox.
Transcription
Quotations
For our loues sister, you may see the properer women, the worse lucke.
The best men (commonly) haue the worst fortune; whereupon we say, The honester man the worse his lucke.
Yt comes to passe after the old prouerb the properer men the worse lucke.
(the worser luck).
The honester man the worser luck.
The properer man (and so the honester) the worse luck.
(honester).
Shakespeare Citations
The plainer dealer, the sooner lost.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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