Meaning & Analysis
The proverb literally compares a person's flattering behavior to the affectionate, eager, and subservient actions of a spaniel dog trying to please its master.
Insights
Insincere Sycophancy
The comparison implies excessive, obsequious, and insincere praise offered to gain favor or advantage. It suggests a demeaning and groveling form of flattery that lacks dignity.
Servility and Subservience
The image of a fawning spaniel evokes a sense of spineless servility and a lack of self-respect. It describes someone willing to act in a self-debasing manner to appease a person in a position of power.
Calculated Deception
As suggested by the 1611 quotation from Dekker and Middleton, the fawning behavior can be a calculated mask for treachery ('fawne like a Spaniell, and bite like a Mastiue'). The flattery is a strategic tool, not a genuine expression of loyalty.
Historical Courtly Symbolism
In Renaissance England, the spaniel was a common household and courtly dog, making its behavior a universally understood symbol for the sycophantic conduct of courtiers. Shakespeare's phrase 'base spaniel fawning' in 'Julius Caesar' exemplifies how the dog's demeanor was used to critique the degrading pursuit of political favor.
Psychological Dynamics
The proverb critiques a specific power dynamic, targeting not only the flatterer's lack of integrity but also the vanity of those susceptible to such manipulation. It exposes the psychological interplay between servility and the desire for adoration.
Literary and Cultural Trope
The image of the fawning spaniel became a literary trope, used by playwrights like Marlowe and Shakespeare as a powerful shorthand for insincere and self-abasing behavior. The cross-reference, 'The spaniel, that fawns when he is beaten', deepens this by suggesting a pathetic, unbreakable subservience.
Rhetorical Devices
Simile
The proverb is a direct simile, using 'as' to create a vivid and easily understood comparison between a person's behavior and an animal's.
Animal Symbolism
The spaniel serves as a powerful symbol for specific, negative human traits, including obsequiousness, insincerity, and an undignified desire to please.
Pejorative Diction
The use of words like 'flattering' and especially 'fawning' immediately frames the comparison as a criticism, loading the proverb with a strong pejorative and judgmental tone.
Transcription
Quotations
We Jews can fawn like spaniels when we please.
The Parasite .. will fawne on you like a spaniell.
He hath bene brought vp in the Ile of dogges, and can both fawne like a Spaniell, and bite like a Mastiue, as hee finds occasion.
Shakespeare Citations
That which melteth fools—I mean, sweet words, Low-crooked curtsies, and base spaniel fawning.
The hearts That spaniel'd me at heels .. do discandy.
You play the spaniel And think with wagging of your tongue to win me.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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