Meaning & Analysis
Anyone who spends a significant amount of time exposed to the sun will eventually get a tan as a natural consequence.
Insights
The Power of Association
This suggests that prolonged exposure to any powerful influence, environment, or company will inevitably and often unintentionally alter a person's character, habits, or beliefs.
Unavoidable Consequences
The proverb highlights that actions and choices have unavoidable, cumulative consequences. Just as tanning is a natural outcome of being in the sun, other outcomes are the direct result of one's consistent behaviors.
Gradual Transformation
The phrase 'at last' emphasizes that significant transformation is not immediate but a gradual process. Repeated exposure to an influence slowly builds until a noticeable change has occurred.
Moral and Environmental Influence
The proverb's frequent pairing in 16th-century texts with the more sinister 'He that touches pitch shall be defiled' reveals its role as a versatile moral warning. While 'pitch' implies corruption, being 'tanned' is more ambiguous, suggesting that any powerful, consistent influence—good or bad—will inevitably leave its mark on a person's character.
Psychology of Gradual Change
Psychologically, the proverb illustrates the concept of habituation and subconscious assimilation. The change ('tanning') occurs gradually and often without conscious intent, highlighting how our environment, habits, and associations shape our identity over time, whether we are aware of it or not.
Cultural and Intellectual Assimilation
The proverb serves as a timeless metaphor for the power of cultural and intellectual immersion. As E.K. notes in his dedication to Spenser, being steeped in the works of 'auncient Poetes' naturally leads one to adopt their style, just as walking in the sun naturally leads to a tan. It speaks to the inescapable nature of influence in creative and intellectual pursuits.
Rhetorical Devices
Metaphor
The sun serves as a powerful, universal metaphor for any constant, external influence, while tanning symbolizes the resulting, often indelible, change in a person.
Cause and Effect
The proverb is structured as a clear cause-and-effect statement, which lends it an air of inescapable logic and certainty, reinforcing the theme of inevitability.
Natural Imagery
The tangible, everyday imagery of walking in the sun and getting a tan makes the abstract concept of environmental influence easily understandable and memorable.
Transcription
Quotations
Who that toucheteth Pitch shall be filed with it, and he that goeth in the Sunne shall bee Sunne burnt, although he thinke not of it. So they that wil reade this or such like bookes, shall in the ende be as the bookes are.
We walke in the Sun many times for pleasure, but our faces are tanned before we returne: though you go to theaters to se sport, Cupid may catch you ere you departe.
How could it be . . but that walking in the sonne . . he mought be sunburnt; and, having the sound of those auncient Poetes still ringing in his eares, he mought . . hit out some of theyr tunes.
(They that walk much i'th' sun).
They that walk in the Sun, must be content to be tan'd.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.