Meaning & Analysis
A person has prioritized malt, the primary ingredient for beer and ale, over wheat or meal, which is used for essential food like bread. This means they have chosen drinking over eating.
Insights
State of Drunkenness
The most direct meaning is that the person is drunk. The influence of the 'malt' (alcohol) has superseded the needs of the body for 'wheat' (food), indicating a state of inebriation where judgment and priorities are disordered.
Indulgence over Necessity
The proverb symbolizes a broader tendency to prioritize indulgence and vice over necessity and virtue. It describes someone who neglects fundamental responsibilities in favor of personal pleasure and escapism.
Loss of Judgment
By placing a luxury or recreational item (malt) above a staple (wheat), the individual demonstrates a severe lack of sound judgment and foresight, often leading to personal and financial ruin.
Social and Economic Inversion
The proverb offers a window into the social and economic life of early modern Europe, where bread from wheat was the fundamental staple of life ('the staff of life'). For malt, the source of ale, to be prioritized over wheat signifies a profound inversion of the natural and moral order, reflecting societal anxieties about drunkenness and its impact on household stability.
Moral Critique of Priorities
Beyond a simple observation of drunkenness, the proverb serves as a moral critique of misplaced priorities. It condemns the elevation of fleeting pleasure and indulgence (ale) over essential sustenance and responsibility (bread), framing excessive drinking not just as a personal failing but as a threat to the social fabric.
Psychology of Intoxication
The phrase captures the psychological state of intoxication, where rational judgment is suspended. When 'malt is above wheat', the mind is clouded by alcohol, leading to decisions that favor immediate gratification over long-term well-being and basic needs.
Rhetorical Devices
Symbolism
The proverb uses 'malt' to symbolize alcohol and 'wheat' to symbolize sustenance and responsibility. This symbolic substitution allows a complex social critique to be delivered in a concise, memorable phrase.
Antithesis
A sharp contrast is drawn between malt (pleasure, intoxication) and wheat (necessity, sobriety). This opposition powerfully illustrates the disordered state of the person being described.
Idiomatic Expression
The expression is highly idiomatic, with its meaning derived from the cultural context of its time. The structure 'X is above Y with him' serves as a compact formula for describing a person's internal state or priorities.
Transcription
Quotations
Sixe daies in a weeke, beside the market daie, Malt is aboue wheate with hym, market men saie.
Where so euer malte is aboue wheate. There in shotte euer drinke is aboue meate.
Take good heede that Malt be not aboue Wheate before you parte.
Malt spairs meall.
The malt is abov the meall.
Malt is now aboue wheat with a number of mad people.
The malt is above the beir.
[As in a.1598 Ferg., no. 1319].
The Malt's above the Meal with you.
Cross References
Annotations
- That is, you are drunk.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.