Meaning & Analysis
To be without any money in Mark Lane, a street in London historically known as the center of the city's corn and grain trade.
Insights
Financial Ruin
Symbolizes a state of complete financial ruin or bankruptcy, especially in a context where wealth and opportunity are abundant but inaccessible.
Exclusion from Prosperity
Represents the painful condition of being an outsider to prosperity, forced to witness the flow of commerce and wealth without any means to participate.
The Consequence of Failure
Illustrates the ultimate consequence of being cheated or making a disastrous business decision, resulting in a fall from financial grace to public destitution.
Historical Irony of Place
The proverb's setting in Mark Lane, the historical heart of London's grain trade and home to the Corn Exchange, creates a powerful irony. To be penniless in a place synonymous with wealth and commerce underscores a state of absolute financial desolation and exclusion from prosperity.
Urban Underworld Context
The earliest quotation from Robert Greene's 'conny-catching' pamphlets places the proverb within the world of the Elizabethan underworld. It's not just about being poor, but about arriving at poverty after being 'bitten' or swindled, highlighting the perils of urban life and commerce.
Psychology of Exclusion
The proverb speaks to the psychological state of being an outsider looking in—of being physically present in a world of opportunity while being utterly unable to participate. It captures the shame and helplessness of observing a system from which one has been ejected.
Rhetorical Devices
Situational Irony
The core power of the proverb lies in the stark situational irony between the location, a hub of wealth (Mark Lane), and the individual's condition (penniless).
Metonymy
The phrase uses a specific, well-known location to represent the entire world of commerce and finance, making the abstract concept of financial ruin concrete and culturally specific.
Topographical Allusion
For its original audience, the proverb's reference to a famous London street grounds the idea in a shared geographical and economic reality, making the image more potent.
Transcription
Quotations
Perceieued he was bitten [cheated] of all the bite [money] in his bung, and turned to walke penylesse in Marke lane, as the old prouerbe is.
Annotations
- See Sugden, p. 333.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.