Meaning & Analysis
Porpoises or dolphins are observed to frolic near the surface of the sea shortly before an approaching storm.
Insights
Premonition of Trouble
The proverb signifies that certain behaviors or signs can foreshadow coming difficulties or upheavals, much as the porpoise’s playfulness signals an impending storm.
Warning Signs
It metaphorically suggests that apparent joy, activity, or disruption in everyday life may precede challenges, hinting that moments of excitement or disturbance often herald deeper turmoil.
Nature as Prognosticator
The saying reflects the broader idea that nature provides subtle clues—if observed closely—about imminent changes, paralleling the human tendency to sense or anticipate shifts in personal or social circumstances.
Historical Symbolism
Throughout early modern literature and maritime lore, the porpoise or dolphin was viewed as a natural barometer, believed to possess an instinctive knowledge of coming storms. Their playful leaps were treated as omens, making them a potent symbol of premonition and warning.
Literary and Cultural Resonance
Writers such as Nashe, Grange, and Shakespeare evoke the image of the playful porpoise to foreshadow emotional or narrative turbulence. The motif appears alongside other omen-creatures, like the raven or the gull, in European proverbs, reinforcing a cultural fascination with animal augury.
Psychological Insight
Psychologically, the proverb reflects the human urge to find patterns and anticipate adversity. It acknowledges how visible disruptions or anxieties—whether in nature or in human behavior—often serve as signals for deeper, less obvious disturbances on the horizon.
Rhetorical Devices
Imagery
The vivid description of the porpoise leaping before a storm conjures a memorable and dynamic image, making the proverb both visually striking and easy to recall.
Symbolism
The porpoise becomes a symbol for warnings and omens, turning animal behavior into a metaphor for human intuition and foreboding.
Allusion
Frequent allusions to porpoises in storms throughout literature and folklore lend the proverb layered resonance, connecting it to a tradition of interpreting natural phenomena as messages or portents.
Transcription
Quotations
I seeme to prognosticate thereby (as doth the Dolphin) that some storme or tempest approcheth at hande.
Give mee leaue, with the sportiue Sea Porposes, preludiatelie a little to play before the storme of my Teares.
Or Porpisces, Made to all fatal uses.
There was a Porcpisce, euen now seene at London bridge, which is alwaies the messenger of tempests, he sayes.
If thou swimest against the Stream of . . Providence . . every Wave turns the over like a Porkpisce before a Tempest.
That Cardinal . . lifts up's nose, like a fowle Porpisse before A storme.
The dolfin appears, we shall have rain.
Like a porpus before a storm.
Shakespeare Citations
Alas, poor souls! It grieved my heart to hear what pitiful cries they made to us to help them . . --Nay, master, said not I as much when I saw the porpas, how he bounc'd and tumbled?
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.