Meaning & Analysis
A pot or pitcher that is repeatedly taken to the well for water will eventually get broken—persistent or repeated use inevitably leads to damage.
Insights
Inevitability of Consequence
Warns that repeated exposure to risk or the same perilous behavior will, sooner or later, result in harm or failure.
Limits of Endurance
Highlights the finite resilience of people or things, suggesting that no matter how robust, all are vulnerable to wear and eventual breakdown.
Reckoning for Repeated Offense
Used to imply that someone who continually engages in risky, dishonest, or dangerous actions will eventually face consequences, echoing the idea that 'the law of averages catches up.'
Historical Symbolism
In everyday life, the pot or pitcher was a humble but essential household item—often made of clay and easily breakable. The proverb draws on this common experience to teach a lesson about the risks of overuse and fate.
Cultural and Literary Resonance
The proverb is found across European languages, reflecting a universal human awareness of mortality and the inevitability of change or retribution. Its use in early literature and folk wisdom marks it as a deeply embedded cultural caution.
Psychological Dimensions
The phrase appeals to a sense of justice and inevitability—invoking both fatalism and a warning against complacency, whether in vice or merely in taking things for granted.
Rhetorical Devices
Personification
Attributing intention and agency to the pot or pitcher ('goes' to the well), the proverb heightens its narrative vividness and emotional resonance.
Repetition
The motif of repeated action ('so long goes...') stresses inevitability, building suspense before the ultimate breaking point.
Irony
There is an implicit irony in the fact that what is meant to sustain (fetching water) eventually causes destruction, suggesting a paradox at the heart of persistence.
Transcription
Quotations
A pot may goo so longe to water that at the laste it cometh to broken hoom.
(The pot so longe to the water gothe Tyll at the laste it).
It is a true saying that oft hath bin spoken, The pitcher goeth so longe to the water, that he commeth home broken.
So oft goeth the pitcher to the well, that at last it commeth broken home.
So long went the pot to the wel that at last it cam broken home.
(to the water, at).
(The pot so long to the water goth, tyl at last it).
For the earthen pitcher goes so oft to the water, I will say no more.
(it commeth broken home).
The pot goeth so long to the water that at length it commeth broken home.
The pot goes so often to the water, that at last it comes broken home.
Often goes the pitcher to the well, but at last it comes broken home.
But theirs an ancient adage, Oft used in this mad age, the Pitcher goes so often to the Well; That it comes broken home at last.
The Pot that goes often to the Well comes broken home at last.
(The English say, The Pitcher goes so oft to the Well, that at last it).
The pitcher does not go so often to the water, but it comes home broken at last.
The Pitcher, that goes often to the Well, comes home broken at last.
Cross References
- See St., no. 1290.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.