Meaning & Analysis
Literally, it depicts an animal (such as a cat or bird of prey) arriving with food in its mouth. This signifies a direct, immediate, and tangible offering of something valuable and life-sustaining.
Insights
Profit and Advantage
The proverb signifies bringing a tangible, profitable, or advantageous offer. It describes a person, idea, or situation that promises immediate material gain, wealth, or benefit.
Immediate Value
It emphasizes the value of immediate and self-evident benefits over mere promises or potential. The 'meat' is not a future prospect but a present reality, making the proposition inherently attractive.
Self-Evident Worth
The saying implies that the value being offered is so obvious and substantial that it requires no explanation or sales pitch. The benefit is immediately apparent, much like seeing food in an animal's mouth.
Source of Sustenance
Metaphorically, 'meat' represents any essential resource—financial backing, critical information, or a powerful connection—that ensures success or survival. The proverb refers to someone who provides this crucial element.
Economic Pragmatism
The proverb reflects the pragmatic, and often transactional, nature of social relations in the 16th and 17th centuries. In a world of patronage and shifting fortunes, a person's immediate utility or financial backing ('meat') was a primary measure of their worth, often superseding other virtues like love or loyalty, as seen in Greene's 1592 quotation.
Social Commentary
The proverb serves as a cynical commentary on human motivation, suggesting that people are primarily attracted to those who offer tangible benefits. The 1671 Kirkman quote explicitly links accepting a suitor to his 'gold in his pocket', illustrating a timeless observation about the power of wealth in social and romantic negotiations.
Psychological Appeal
The imagery taps into a primal psychological response. The sight of 'meat' triggers instincts related to survival, reward, and opportunity. This makes the proverb a powerful expression of immediate, undeniable value that bypasses complex reasoning in favor of a gut-level recognition of benefit.
Rhetorical Devices
Metaphor
The 'meat' is a powerful metaphor for any tangible asset, such as wealth, opportunity, or valuable information. The 'mouth' symbolizes the directness and immediacy of the offering.
Visceral Imagery
The proverb employs strong, almost primal imagery of a predator returning with its catch. This creates a memorable and universally understood picture of provision and success.
Synecdoche
'Meat' acts as a synecdoche, where a specific item (food) represents the broader category of all valuable resources, sustenance, and material advantage.
Transcription
Quotations
The only virtue in effecte in the whole crissecrosse rowe ether of morall or intellectuall vertues that nowe adayes karrieth meate in the mowthe.
The oldest lecher was as welcom as the youngest louer, so he brought meate in his mouth.
A gentleman of so pleasing, and ridiculous a carriage; as euen standing, carries meat in the mouth, you see.
Well, out of that ring we will wring matter that shall carry meat i'th' mouth.
It brings meat i'th' mouth.
To bring meat in its mouth.
He comes with meat in his mouth.
I did not long continue so cold to him, for he bringing meat in his mouth, good store of gold in his pocket .. I permitted him to take all the pleasure he could receive by me.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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