Re: All
that glitters is not gold - correction
Posted
by TheFallen on January 04, 2003 In Reply to: Re:
All that glitters is not gold posted by ESC on January 04, 2003
: : : Hi,
: : : Can anyone give me the explanation of the following and what
it means:
: : : All that glitters is not gold.
: : : Thanks
: : : Best
Regards.
: : One of the most frequently misquoted phrases. The original phrase
is "All that GLISTERS is not gold" and comes from Shakespeare's Merchant Of Venice.
The majority of people now misuse it, replacing the archaic verb glister with
the much more understandable glitter, and since the two mean near enough the same
thing, one can see why.
: : The phrase simply means that just because something
may look valuable, desirable or attractive, it does NOT mean that it definitely
will be worth having once you discover its true nature. So basically, don't rely
on the superficial.
: ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD - "The appearance of a thing
or person can be deceptive. This proverb is similar to the L*tin: Non omne quod
nitet aurum est. ('Not all that shines is gold.') The proverb was used by Chaucer
(c. 1374-87), by Cervantes in 'Don Quixote' (1605-15), and by Shakespeare in 'The
Merchant of Venice' in 1596. First attested in the United States in the 'Winthrop
Papers' (1636)." From "Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings"
by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996).
Agreed that the proverb
has been around a long time in various forms, but it was Shakespeare who most
famously gave us the generally accepted form. Chaucer's version differed.
It's
clear from a little research that Shakespeare used or adapted a long-known proverb
of the time. As can be seen below, it had already started to be misquoted less
that 100 years later by the late C17th.
Alanus De Insulis (c. 1280) "Non teneas
aurum totum quod splendet ut aurum." (Do not hold everything as gold which shines
like gold)
Freire Cordelier (c. 1300) "Que tout n'est pas or c'on voit luire."
(Everything is not gold that one sees shining)
Chaucer (c. 1380) "But all thing
which that schyneth as the gold / Ne is no gold, as I have herd it told."
Chaucer
again "Hyt is not al golde that glareth."
Lydgate (c. 1430) "All is not golde
that outward shewith bright."
Spenser (c. 1580) "Gold all is not that doth golden
seem."
Googe (1563), Shakespeare (1596) "All that glisters is not gold."
Bacon
(1596) "All is not gold that glisters."
Cervantes (1615) "All is not gold that
glistreth."
Middleton (c. 1616) "All is not gold that glisteneth."
Herbert
(c. 1630) "All is not gold that glisters."
Dryden (1687) "All, as they say,
that glitters is not gold."
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