Meaning & Analysis
Young people will inevitably act according to their age, pursuing their desires and impulses as a natural and unstoppable part of their development.
Insights
The Force of Nature
The proverb serves as a metaphor for the irresistible power of natural instincts and developmental stages. It suggests that certain innate human drives, particularly those associated with youth like passion and rebellion, cannot be permanently suppressed or controlled.
Inevitability and Resignation
It implies a philosophy of resignation or acceptance regarding youthful indiscretions. The 'course' is a journey that must be completed, suggesting that attempts to halt or divert it are futile, and it is better to let it run its path.
Justification for Folly
The phrase often functions as a justification for youthful folly or misbehavior. It frames such actions not as moral failures but as predictable outcomes of a particular life stage, thereby lessening the blame on the individual.
A Temporary Phase
'Swing' in particular suggests a period of freedom and unrestrained behavior before settling into the responsibilities of adulthood. It implies a temporary, pendulum-like movement away from convention that will eventually return to a state of equilibrium.
Historical Determinism
The proverb reflects a long-standing societal understanding, evident in Elizabethan and Jacobean literature, that the passions and follies of youth are a natural, unavoidable phase. The cross-reference to 'Nature will have her course' reinforces this deterministic view, treating youthful behavior as an elemental force.
Social Tolerance
This proverb often serves as a social mechanism for tolerance, allowing older generations to frame youthful rebellion not as a personal failing but as a predictable stage of life. It offers a way to manage intergenerational conflict by attributing disruptive behavior to the impersonal force of 'youth' itself.
Psychology of Development
The proverb captures the psychological drive for autonomy and identity formation inherent in adolescence. It acknowledges that risk-taking and testing boundaries are not merely acts of defiance but integral parts of the developmental journey toward adulthood.
Cultural Ambivalence
The existence of a contradictory proverb, 'Youth must not have its will', reveals a deep-seated cultural ambivalence. Society simultaneously recognizes the natural course of youth while also insisting on the need for moral guidance and restraint, highlighting a persistent tension between freedom and discipline.
Rhetorical Devices
Personification
'Youth' is treated as an active, willful entity that demands its own way, emphasizing its power as an uncontrollable force of nature.
Metaphor
The words 'course' and 'swing' are used metaphorically to represent the trajectory of youthful behavior, implying both a determined path and a sense of energetic, sometimes erratic, freedom.
Aphorism
The proverb is a concise and memorable aphorism, making it an easily recalled piece of folk wisdom used to explain or dismiss youthful behavior.
Transcription
Quotations
We haue an olde (Prouerb) youth wil haue his course.
Youth, they say, must haue his swinge: let old age wax holy.
Youth must haue his course.
(his swinge).
Your sons folly .. being naturall, it will haue his course.
Ile serue his youth, for youth must haue his course.
But he is a young man. Let him haue [his] swinge.
(it swinge).
Many returning from forraigne parts .. [having] satisfied their disordinate appetites, by giving youth his swinge (as the Prouerbe is) doe at home cast off their vices.
Troth, uncle, youth will have his swing.
(swing).
Cross References
- See App., p. 721
- Sm., p. 610
- T. 725, p. 343.
- N48 Nature will have her course
- Y45 Youth must not have its will.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.