Meaning & Analysis
The phrase refers to a boisterous and physically demanding game, popular from the 16th to 18th centuries, often played at festivals. It was a form of seesaw or a similar activity requiring agility and strength, symbolizing chaotic fun.
Insights
Reckless Merriment
The phrase is a euphemism for engaging in wild, unrestrained, and disorderly conduct. It signifies boisterous merrymaking and reckless behavior, often in a social context of drinking and revelry.
Sexual Conquest
Several historical quotations explicitly link the proverb to sexual conquest and debauchery. In this context, 'riding the wild mare' serves as a coarse euphemism for sexual intercourse, implying the taming of a wild or unwilling partner.
Attempting the Impossible
Given the inherent difficulty of handling an untamed horse, the phrase can also symbolize the act of undertaking a dangerous, chaotic, or seemingly impossible task that requires great effort and carries a high risk of failure.
Historical Symbolism
The 'wild mare' serves as a powerful symbol of untamed nature, often representing female energy in folklore. The acts of 'riding' or 'shoeing' it are metaphors for domination and control, reflecting the patriarchal social dynamics of the period where taming the wild, whether in nature or in women, was a celebrated masculine virtue.
Cultural Context
Originating as a name for a boisterous physical game, likely a type of seesaw, the proverb's association with 'Christmas gambuls' places it within the cultural tradition of festive misrule, where chaotic and riotous behavior was temporarily permitted.
Literary Resonance
Shakespeare's use of the phrase in '2 Henry IV' to describe Falstaff's wild antics solidifies its literary connection to youthful profligacy and unrestrained revelry, framing it as a hallmark of a dissolute lifestyle.
Psychological Insight
The proverb captures a psychological fascination with mastering the untamable. It reflects a desire to conquer chaotic or powerful forces, whether through reckless games, sexual conquest, or undertaking seemingly impossible challenges.
Rhetorical Devices
Metaphor
The proverb functions as a powerful metaphor, using the vivid image of taming a wild horse to represent various forms of disorderly conduct, from festive games to sexual encounters.
Imagery
The image of a 'wild mare'—kicking, untamed, and powerful—creates a strong and memorable picture of chaos and untamed energy, making the proverb's meaning immediately palpable.
Euphemism
The phrase's dual application to both a children's game and sexual debauchery makes it a classic example of a double entendre or euphemism, where an innocent surface meaning masks a cruder, more risqué implication.
Transcription
Quotations
Let se who that dare Sho the Mockysshe mare; They make her wynche and keke.
She should ride the wild Mare once a week, she should.
Christmas gambuls, father, shooing the wilde mare.
To unshoe the Asse; wee say, to ride the wild mare.
It is now Christmas . . and the Youth shew their agility in shooing of the wild Mare.
To leap the mare, viz. to use carnal copulation.
With many another stiff and sturdy lout That play at wasters, Shoe the wild mare, and lick the board.
Shooing the wilde Mare, tumbling the young Wenches, Drinking all night, and Sleeping on the Benches.
This person fell to greate debauchery as to woemen and often abroad a night, bragging amongst those of his feather how often that night he had shodd the wild mare.
Shakespeare Citations
And (he) drinks off candles’ ends for flapdragons, and rides the wild mare with the boys.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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