Meaning & Analysis
An unwelcome person, much like bad weather or general sorrow, arrives without being invited or wanted.
Insights
Inevitability of Hardship
The proverb serves as a metaphor for the inevitability of hardship. Just as one cannot prevent a storm, one cannot stop the arrival of sorrow, trouble, or other unwelcome experiences in life.
Lack of Control
It highlights a fundamental lack of human control over life's negative events. The comparison to weather underscores the powerlessness individuals feel when confronted by misfortune that seems to arise from external, uncontrollable forces.
Intrusiveness of Negativity
The proverb captures the intrusive and disruptive nature of negativity. Unwelcome people, bad news, or sorrow impose themselves upon one's life, upsetting peace and order without consent.
Psychological Resignation
The proverb reflects a fatalistic worldview, equating personal and social misfortunes with natural, uncontrollable phenomena like weather. This suggests a psychological acceptance of suffering as an inevitable, external force rather than a personal failing.
Social Commentary
As the annotations indicate, this proverb was often used as a direct, if impolite, comment to an unwelcome guest. This reveals its function as a tool for social commentary, allowing the speaker to voice displeasure within a traditional, proverbial framework.
Naturalistic Worldview
The interchangeable nature of 'you', 'sorrow', and 'ill weather' illustrates a pre-modern tendency to conflate emotional distress, social annoyances, and natural events as part of the same fabric of unavoidable hardship.
Rhetorical Devices
Simile
The core of the proverb is a direct simile, using 'like' to explicitly compare an unwelcome person or sorrow to 'ill weather', making the meaning clear and vivid.
Aphoristic Conciseness
The phrase is concise and rhythmically balanced, which makes it memorable and easily repeatable, a key characteristic of effective proverbs.
Personification
By treating 'sorrow' as an agent that 'comes', the proverb personifies the emotion, framing it as an active, independent entity that visits upon people.
Transcription
Quotations
I come like ill weather, vnsent for.
Ye breid of ill weather yow com vnsent for.
Strangers .. are like foule weather, come afore they be sent for.
(sorrow comes).
[As in 1639 Cl.].
Sorrow and ill Weather come unsent for.
(You breed of foul Weather, you).
(You are like foul Weather; you).
Cross References
Annotations
- Spoken when a Person is coming to your House, whose Company you do not care for.
- Spoken to them whose coming you could have excused.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.