Meaning & Analysis
It is preferable to endure one significant, damaging event (a mischief) that resolves an issue, rather than tolerating a persistent, lesser problem (an inconvenience) that never ends.
Insights
Decisive Action vs. Passive Suffering
Advocates for strategic, decisive action over passive endurance. It is better to face a single, difficult confrontation or make a tough choice to permanently solve a problem than to constantly suffer from its lingering effects.
Short-Term Pain for Long-Term Gain
Emphasizes the wisdom of accepting a significant, one-time cost—be it financial, emotional, or physical—in order to secure a future free from a nagging, draining, and perpetual issue.
Critique of Avoidance
The proverb serves as a powerful argument against procrastination and avoidance. It suggests that allowing a problem to fester (the inconvenience) is ultimately more destructive than the 'mischief' of addressing it head-on.
Psychology of Problem-Solving
The proverb champions decisive, even painful, action to resolve a persistent issue. It reflects a psychological insight into the human tendency to tolerate chronic low-level stress to avoid a single, acute confrontation, advocating for the courage to choose short-term pain for long-term relief.
Contextual and Contradictory Wisdom
The existence of a contradictory proverb, 'Better an inconvenience than a mischief' (I62), highlights that proverbial wisdom is situational. This proverb applies when a recurring problem is debilitating, while its opposite cautions against drastic measures for minor irritations.
Timeless Practicality
Rooted in practical dilemmas, like the 1642 quotation about a smoky chimney, the proverb's wisdom is highly adaptable. It translates from domestic problems to modern strategic decisions in business, medicine, and relationships, such as undergoing painful surgery to cure a chronic ailment.
Rhetorical Devices
Antithesis
The proverb's structure is built on the direct contrast between 'mischief' (a severe, acute event) and 'inconvenience' (a mild, chronic state), which clarifies the choice being presented.
Temporal Contrast
The temporal framing of 'once' versus 'always' starkly contrasts a finite, singular event with a perpetual, unending condition, making the former appear far more desirable.
Hyperbole
The use of 'always' exaggerates the duration of the inconvenience, making the one-time 'mischief' seem like a more reasonable and manageable alternative by comparison.
Transcription
Quotations
Better ane misheiff nor ane Inconvenience.
Worse, and worse still, you embrace a mischiefe, to preuent an ill.
(than ever).
Redeeme a perpetuall inconvenience, although by a present mischiefe (as the Proverb saith) pulling down a bad chimney with some cost, rather than enduring a perpetuall smoky house.
Better a mischief, then an inconvenience.
That is, better a present mischief that is soon over, then a constant grief and disturbance.
Praestat semel malum, quam semper incommodum.
(then always inconvenience).
A short Mischief is better than a long Inconveniency.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.