Meaning & Analysis
A person who has risen to a higher position forgets their humble beginnings or previous lower status.
Insights
Forgetting One’s Origins
The proverb symbolizes the tendency of individuals, once elevated, to ignore or deny their own past struggles and modest beginnings, losing empathy for those still in lesser positions.
Pride of Upstarts
It also serves as a critique of 'upstarts'—those who, after recent promotion, become proud or disdainful, disregarding the humility that their own journey ought to inspire.
Cycle of Authority
The saying alludes to the cyclical nature of social mobility: those now in power were once subordinate, and forgetting this can breed arrogance and poor leadership.
Historical Symbolism
In early modern England, the parish clerk was an assistant, and the priest was a position of higher authority. The transition from clerk to priest mirrors broader social mobility and the risk of losing touch with one's origins. The proverb was so common that playwrights and moralists used it to critique pride and hypocrisy among the newly powerful.
Literary and Cultural Resonance
Repeated in many 16th and 17th-century works, the phrase is a recurring motif in both English literature and folklore, standing as a warning against arrogance. The universal nature of this sentiment is echoed in global wisdom: 'Do not forget the bridge that carried you over' or 'Remember where you came from.'
Psychological Dimensions
Psychologically, the proverb highlights self-serving amnesia, where people rationalize their success by diminishing their former selves or by undervaluing the difficulties they once faced. This fosters both pride and a lack of compassion.
Rhetorical Devices
Antithesis
Contrasts the priest’s current status with his former role as clerk, heightening the proverb’s warning against pride.
Ellipsis
Leaves unsaid the consequences of forgetting one’s origins, relying on the audience’s shared understanding for rhetorical impact.
Repetition
The recurrence of the proverb in various texts and forms reinforces its social and moral lesson, making it a memorable caution.
Transcription
Quotations
(But nowe I se well the olde prouerbe is treu The)
(that euer he hath been holy water clerke)
(forgeth, he was paryshe clarke)
Shall the olde Prouerbe be verified in thee, that the Priest forgets himselfe that euer he was a clarke?
The Priest forgets that ere he was a Clarke.
[As in 1546 Hey.]
The prouerb old is come to passe, The priest when he begins the masse, Forgets that ever clarke he was.
[As in 1546 Hey.]
(The Priest)
The elder Priest forgets that he was Clerke, When you were young, you did as he now does.
[As in 1616 Dr.]
(forgot that he was ever a Clark)
[As in 1616 Dr.]
The Priest forgets that he was a clerk.
The Priest forgets he was a Clark.
Cross References
- See DÜr., I, no. 947.
Annotations
- This is meant of proud starters up.
- Proud upstarts remember not the meanness of their former condition.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.