Meaning & Analysis
To enter a house or building through an improper opening like a window or a service hatch rather than the main door.
Insights
Illegitimate Birth
The phrase is a euphemism for being born illegitimate. The 'window' represents an illicit union, and the child 'enters' the family through this unsanctioned, secret route rather than the legitimate 'door' of marriage.
Adultery and Cuckoldry
It refers to the act of adultery, where an illicit lover enters secretly ('through the window'), leading to cuckoldry and the potential for illegitimate offspring.
Dishonest or Improper Methods
More broadly, the proverb signifies achieving any status, position, or advantage through dishonest, underhanded, or unconventional means, bypassing the proper and accepted channels.
Architectural Metaphor for Social Order
The proverb's power lies in its architectural metaphor for social legitimacy. The 'door' symbolizes the sanctioned, public entry into a family and society via marriage, while the 'window' or 'hatch' represents a clandestine, illicit, and dishonorable entry, reflecting deep-seated anxieties about lineage and inheritance in patriarchal societies.
Literary Euphemism for Bastardy
The phrase was a common euphemism for illegitimacy in Elizabethan and Jacobean literature, notably used by Shakespeare in 'King John' to question a character's parentage. This highlights its cultural currency for addressing sensitive themes of bastardy, honor, and identity.
Psychology of Legitimacy and Shame
The proverb reveals a profound cultural anxiety surrounding paternity and the stability of the family line. The 'child that came in at the window' was a source of shame and social disruption, carrying a stigma that affected inheritance, status, and family honor.
Rhetorical Devices
Metaphor
The physical act of entering through a window serves as a powerful and enduring metaphor for social and moral transgression, particularly illegitimate birth.
Symbolism
The 'window' symbolizes secrecy, dishonor, and illegitimacy, while the implied 'door' represents openness, honor, and legitimacy.
Euphemism
The phrase functions as a discreet, almost coded way to refer to the socially sensitive and taboo subjects of adultery and bastardy.
Implied Antithesis
The proverb's meaning is built on the implied contrast between the illegitimate entry (window/hatch) and the legitimate one (door), creating a strong moral and social binary.
Transcription
Quotations
And youe were gladde to take them in, Bycause you knewe that they dyd knowe That youe came in by the wyndowe.
Away, let him alone; though he came in at the window he sets the gates of your honour open, I can tell you.
This wit taking of long iourneys: Kindred that comes in ore the hatch, and sailing to Westminster makes a number of Cuckolds.
Woe worth the time that ever I gave suck to a child that came in at the window.
Then you keep children in the name of your own, which she suspects came not in at the right door.
It appeares then by your discourse, that you came in at the window.
I would have you thinke I scorne like my Granams Cat to leape over the Hatch.
He hath confest himselfe to be a Bastard.
I came in at the wicket, Some call it the window.
And so she came in at the window.
Shakespeare Citations
Something about, a little from the right, In at the window, or else o'er the hatch.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.