Meaning & Analysis
To successfully counter or outwit a cunning and deceitful person, one must employ someone who possesses an even greater degree of cunning. The phrase 'and a half' idiomatically signifies a superior measure of the same quality.
Insights
Fighting Fire with Fire
The proverb serves as a strategic maxim for conflict, advising that one must not only match an opponent's tactics but decisively surpass them. It suggests that in any competitive field, from business to politics, success requires outmaneuvering the competition on their own terms.
A Warning Against Overconfidence
It functions as a warning against hubris. A crafty person might believe they are invincible in their cleverness, but the proverb reminds them that there is always someone with superior cunning who can become their undoing.
The Hierarchy of Cunning
The proverb implies a competitive hierarchy of deceit. In a world populated by 'knavery', victory does not go to the virtuous but to the most skilled practitioner of the craft, creating a cynical arms race of deception.
Renaissance Realpolitik
The proverb reflects a cynical and pragmatic worldview prevalent in the Renaissance and early modern period, where outwitting rivals was often a matter of survival. The frequent use of terms like 'knaue', 'traitor', and 'cony catch' in early citations grounds the proverb in a world of tangible threats, not just clever business dealings.
Strategic Escalation
The proverb endorses a form of 'asymmetrical escalation', suggesting that merely matching a foe's cunning is insufficient. One must surpass it. This principle is mirrored in political and military strategy, where victory often requires not just parity but overwhelming superiority in a key domain.
Pragmatic Morality
Psychologically, the proverb justifies a suspension of conventional ethics when dealing with an unscrupulous opponent. It suggests that to defeat a 'devil', one must become 'a devil and a half', framing the adoption of a foe's tactics not as a moral failing but as a necessary, pragmatic response.
Rhetorical Devices
Idiomatic Hyperbole
The phrase 'and a half' is a colloquial exaggeration that idiomatically emphasizes a superior degree of a quality, making the advice more forceful and memorable than a simple statement like 'more crafty'.
Repetitive Parallelism
The repetition of the word 'crafty' creates a parallel structure that effectively isolates and emphasizes the central quality being discussed, making the proverb's logic clear and rhythmic.
Ellipsis
The proverb is a condensed, elliptical phrase, omitting words like 'one must apply' for conciseness. This brevity gives it the punchy, authoritative tone of a timeless rule or formula.
Transcription
Quotations
To one traitor, two traitors, i. To ouer reach one craftie knaue, set two craftie knaues to him and they will cony catch him.
A trompeur trompeur et demy: Applyable vnto a knaue, ouer-raught, or ouer-matched by a knaue.
For a Deceiuer, a Deceiuer and a halfe. *He who goes about to deceiue, ought to be deceiued with a greater deceiuer then himselfe.
It is a iust preuention, to one traitor to apply two Traitors; and to ouer-reach one craftie knaue, apply two craftie knaues, for they will conycatch him.
To a crafty man send a crafty and a half to deal with him.
A knave must have a knave and a half to deal with him.
So we say again, Popolo matto, Prete Spiritato, if the People of the Parish be mad, the Priest must be possest, that is, madder than they, to deal with them in their own coyn.
With a devil, one must be a devil and a half.
Don't think so much of your own Cunning, as to forget other Men's: A Cunning Man is overmatched by a cunning Man and a Half.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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