Meaning & Analysis
Pride leads the way, but is inevitably followed by shame or, in some versions, ambition—implying that arrogance brings about one’s downfall or disgrace.
Insights
Inevitable Downfall
The proverb metaphorically warns that excessive pride or arrogance will lead to negative consequences, often public embarrassment, loss, or disgrace.
Cycle of Ambition and Ruin
Highlights the cyclical pattern whereby pride begets ambition, and unchecked ambition leads to eventual failure or humiliation—a moral arc from hubris to nemesis.
Moral Retribution
Imbues the world with a sense of moral order, where inflated self-regard is always balanced by ensuing humbling experiences.
Historical Symbolism
Rooted in biblical and medieval tradition (see Proverbs 16:18: 'Pride goeth before destruction...'), the proverb has been a staple of moral teaching, reinforcing humility as a cardinal virtue and warning against overreaching.
Literary Resonance
Widely echoed in literature and drama—including Shakespeare—this motif shapes tragic narratives, as characters blinded by pride are inevitably brought low by fate, circumstance, or their own flaws.
Psychological Truth
Reflects an enduring psychological insight: pride often clouds judgment, leading people to overstep their bounds, and only in the aftermath do they realize their error—learning humility through failure.
Rhetorical Devices
Antithesis
The proverb employs sharp contrast between 'pride' and 'shame,' emphasizing the dramatic reversal that follows hubris.
Parallelism
The balanced, sequential structure ('goes before...comes after') aids memorability and rhetorical force.
Personification
Attributes agency to pride and shame, as if they are actors in a procession, dramatizing the inevitability of the sequence.
Transcription
Quotations
Pryde goyth be fore and after comythe shame.
Elation and Pride, no commoditie doth bring, But is often knowen the forerunner of shame.
Elation and Pride, no commoditie doth bring, But is often knowen the forerunner of shame.
Shame followes pride, as we a prouerbe haue, pride goes before, and shame comes after.
Pride went before, Ambition follows after.
Nay, nay, eene let Pride goe afore, Shame wil follow after, I warrant you.
(and shame followeth after).
When Pride marches, Shame followes.
Pride goes before, shame goes after.
(and shame follows after).
(and shame followeth after).
Pride goes before, shame follows after.
[As in 1670 Ray].
Shakespeare Citations
Pride went before, ambition follows him.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.