Meaning & Analysis
Engaging with women and consuming wine can cause men to lose their rational judgment and behave foolishly.
Insights
Power of Temptation
The proverb serves as a metaphor for the power of sensual and intoxicating pleasures to overwhelm reason. 'Women and wine' symbolize earthly desires that can lead to a loss of self-control, moral clarity, and intellectual focus.
Corrupting Influences
It metaphorically frames women and wine not just as pleasures, but as inherently dangerous and corrupting influences that actively undermine a man's virtue and stability.
Vulnerability of Reason
The saying implies an inherent vulnerability within men, suggesting that their reason ('wits') is fragile and easily overthrown by the temptations of lust and intoxication.
Historical Misogyny and Symbolism
Historically, wine is linked to Dionysian revelry, symbolizing the loss of rational control. Women, in many historical and religious traditions, have been cast as temptresses, from Eve to sirens, who lead men away from virtue. The proverb taps into this deep-seated cultural misogyny, presenting both as external corrupting forces.
Literary and Cultural Trope
This proverb reflects a long-standing trope in Western literature and moral philosophy where feminine charm and intoxication are depicted as twin threats to masculine reason and societal order. Robert Burton's 1621 quote, calling them 'two main plagues', powerfully illustrates this enduring cultural anxiety.
Psychological Projection
The proverb reveals a psychological tendency to externalize blame. Rather than acknowledging a man's own lack of self-control or poor judgment, it assigns agency to 'women and wine', framing them as active agents of ruin. This absolves the man of personal responsibility for his actions.
Rhetorical Devices
Alliteration
The repetition of the 'w' sound in 'women', 'wine', and 'wits' creates a memorable, rhythmic link between the cause and effect, reinforcing their connection.
Parallelism
The proverb uses a balanced structure, equating 'women' and 'wine' as parallel forces acting upon men, which gives the statement a sense of definitive, almost axiomatic, authority.
Hyperbole
The phrase 'out of their wits' is an exaggeration that dramatizes the extent of the loss of judgment, emphasizing the perceived danger of these influences.
Transcription
Quotations
Women and wine doe make a man, A doting foole all that they can.
Those two main plagues, and common dotages of human kind, Wine and Women, which have infatuated and besotted myriads of people. They go commonly together.
(make a man swarve from his judgement).
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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