Meaning & Analysis
One should not praise or boast about one's most valuable possessions—specifically a wife, personal wine collection, or a fine horse (or house)—to others.
Insights
Averting Envy and Desire
The proverb is a warning against provoking envy and desire in others. Praising valuable things makes them targets for being borrowed, stolen, or coveted, potentially leading to loss or social friction.
Caution Against Hubris
It serves as a lesson in humility and the dangers of arrogance. Boasting about one's good fortune is presented as a form of foolishness that invites scrutiny, criticism, and potentially, a reversal of fortune (hubris).
Guarding the Private Sphere
The items listed are deeply personal and central to domestic life. The proverb advises that one's private sources of happiness and security should be kept private, as publicizing them makes them vulnerable to external interference and judgment.
Preventing Unwanted Scrutiny
By praising something, you invite others to evaluate it, and they may find flaws you are blind to. The proverb suggests that silence prevents others from critically judging your most cherished assets.
Patriarchal Asset Protection
The triad of 'wife, wine, and horse' represents the foundational assets of a man's status in pre-modern society: lineage and family (wife), wealth and hospitality (wine), and power and mobility (horse). The proverb encapsulates a worldview where a man's worth is tied to these possessions, which must be guarded.
Psychology of Envy
The proverb operates on a deep-seated psychological fear of envy. It suggests that broadcasting one's good fortune doesn't inspire admiration but rather covetousness and the 'evil eye', a superstitious belief common across many cultures where praise can attract misfortune by drawing the attention of malevolent forces or jealous neighbors.
Social Prudence
This cautionary advice reveals a cynical but pragmatic view of social relationships, where neighbors and friends are seen as potential threats to one's property and domestic harmony. The warning implies that true security lies in discretion, not in seeking validation from others.
Rhetorical Devices
Imperative Mood
The proverb uses a commanding, negative imperative ('Commend not') to establish a clear and forceful rule of conduct.
Parallelism
The rhythmic list of 'wife, wine, nor horse' creates a memorable and balanced structure (a tricolon), reinforcing the equal importance of keeping these different categories of possessions private.
Symbolism
Each noun—wife, wine, horse, house—symbolizes a different domain of personal wealth and happiness: domestic, material, and social. This makes the advice broadly applicable to any cherished possession.
Transcription
Quotations
Nor wife, nor wine, nor horse ought to be praised.
He is a fool that brags of four things; Good wine, a handsome Wife, a handsome Horse, and good store of money.
Thy wife, horse, arms, or wine, never commend unless thou hast a mind to lend them out.
(House).
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.