Meaning & Analysis
Holding a slippery, writhing eel by its tail is an almost impossible task, as it will inevitably squirm and escape one's grasp.
Insights
Inherent Unreliability
The proverb serves as a misogynistic warning about the perceived untrustworthiness and fickleness of women, suggesting they are inherently unreliable, deceptive, and impossible to control or secure in a relationship.
Elusiveness and Inconstancy
The metaphor highlights the elusiveness and inconstancy attributed to women, implying that any attempt to 'possess' or maintain a stable hold on a woman's affection or loyalty is futile and bound to end in failure.
Precarious Control
It illustrates the precarious and frustrating nature of trying to exert control over another person, framing relationships with women not as partnerships but as a futile struggle for dominance over an uncontainable force.
Historical Misogyny
This proverb reflects deep-seated patriarchal anxieties of the early modern period regarding female autonomy and fidelity. The eel, a creature known for its slipperiness and ability to escape, becomes a symbol for a woman who cannot be possessed or controlled, revealing a cultural fear of female agency.
Psychology of Control
The act of trying to hold an eel 'by the tail'—its most slippery and least controllable part—suggests a fundamentally flawed approach. Psychologically, this framing reveals an anxiety about losing control, projecting the 'fault' of elusiveness onto the woman rather than questioning the desire for possession itself.
Literary and Cultural Trope
The proverb's frequent appearance in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, including works by Lyly, Beaumont and Fletcher, and in a Shakespearean collaboration, highlights its role as a cultural shorthand for female inconstancy and the perceived folly of trusting women.
Rhetorical Devices
Metaphor
The core of the proverb is the powerful metaphor comparing a woman to an eel, transferring the physical quality of slipperiness to the abstract concepts of fidelity and trustworthiness.
Analogy
The proverb functions as an analogy, drawing a parallel between the physical challenge of grasping an eel and the emotional and social challenge of maintaining a relationship with a woman, framing it as an impossible task.
Hyperbole
The statement uses hyperbole to create a memorable and dramatic image, exaggerating the difficulty of a relationship to the point of near-impossibility to underscore its warning.
Transcription
Quotations
You are . . an Ele which as soone as one hathe holde of hir taile, will slippe out of his hand.
Who so euer hath her, hath but a wette Eele by the taile.
Is not an Eles tayle a most slippery hold? whence comes the prouerbe that's as true as old. Y'are even as good hold a wette Ele by the tayle as to repose a trust in Women fraile.
I will end with the wise man, and say; He that holds a Woman, has an Eel by the tail.
Women like to wet Eeles.
An eel by the tail's held surer than a woman.
Lay hold on her, And hold her fast, She'll slip thorow your fingers like an Eel else.
But I see a woman and a wet eel have both slippery tails.
He that hath a Woman by the waste, hath a wet Eel by the tail.
He that has holt on a young Woman has got a slippery Eel by the Tail.
Shakespeare Citations
An eel and woman, A learned poet says, unless by th' tail And with thy teeth thou hold, will either fail.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.