Meaning & Analysis
Do not place good food into a dirty container, as the container's filth will contaminate the food, rendering it spoiled and wasted.
Insights
Wasted Wisdom
It is futile to offer valuable knowledge, wisdom, or advice to a person with a corrupt or unreceptive mind. The recipient's character will taint or reject the wisdom, making the effort a complete waste.
Unworthy Recipient
Valuable resources, virtues, or affections (like honesty, love, or trust) should not be bestowed upon individuals who are morally corrupt or ungrateful, as they will inevitably devalue and spoil the offering.
Corrupting Environments
A good concept, project, or even a virtuous person will be ruined if placed within a corrupting environment. The surrounding 'uncleanness' of the system or culture will inevitably tarnish the quality of what is placed within it.
Hygiene as Moral Metaphor
The proverb draws on the universal and visceral concept of food contamination to illustrate an abstract moral lesson. The early, cruder translations referencing a 'pyspot' (chamber pot) reveal a raw, almost shocking, initial imagery that was later sanitized to 'unclean dish', yet the core idea of spoilage remains potent.
Classical and Biblical Resonance
Its strong parallel with the biblical 'Cast not pearls before swine' and its citation from classical sources like Plutarch and Erasmus highlight a deep-rooted theme in Western thought: the idea that valuable things (wisdom, virtue) should be reserved for worthy recipients.
Psychology of Worthiness
The proverb carries an implicit psychological judgment, assuming a clear distinction between 'worthy' (clean) and 'unworthy' (unclean) individuals. This reflects a worldview where discernment is key, but it can also mask social or intellectual elitism, suggesting that profound truths should not be shared with the 'unfit'.
Rhetorical Devices
Metaphor
The core of the proverb is a powerful metaphor where 'meat' represents anything of value (wisdom, virtue, effort) and the 'unclean dish' symbolizes a corrupt or unworthy recipient, mind, or environment.
Imperative Mood
The use of a command, 'Put not...', gives the proverb the weight of a direct and urgent moral instruction, framing it as a piece of actionable advice rather than a mere observation.
Symbolism
The 'unclean dish' serves as a potent symbol of contamination and corruption. It powerfully conveys the idea that the container's nature defines the fate of its contents, highlighting how an unworthy recipient inevitably spoils what it receives.
Transcription
Quotations
Cibum in matellam ne immittas.
Put not thy meate in a traye, put not good sentences and virtuous lernynges, into a foule and corrupte mynde.
[As in Eras.] Put not meate into a pyspot.
Plutarche expouneth thys sayng thus. Cast not good sentencies in to the mynde of a wycked person, So that it is al one in effecte with that sayenge of Christ. Cast not perles afore swyne.
Shakespeare Citations
Truly, and to cast away honesty upon a foul slut were to put good meat into an unclean dish.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.