phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

Macedon and Monmouth

Posted by Lotg on November 24, 2004

In Reply to: Macedon and Monmouth posted by Doug on November 24, 2004

: : : : : : Does anyone know where the saying "As different as Macedon and Monmouth" originated from?

: : : : :
: : : : : I've found it! It's from Shakespeare's Henry V.

: : : : Thanks for posting and letting us know.

: : : Pardon me for being a dunce, but lacking a copy at hand of Henry V, I don't know whether there's any significance in this choice of place names. Is it just that both start with M, but are very far apart geographically? SS

: : does it mean the same as "as different as mastedon and mammoth".

: I suppose it might to an archaeologist. However, most lay folk would not know the difference between a mastodon and a mammoth, so it might tend suggest similarity. What is the source of this phrase?

Smokey, there does appear to be significance in the choice of place names in Henry V. Although rather than the comparison indicating how different they are - as I would have expected given you can't get much more different than Macedon (as in Macedonia) and Monmouth (as in the UK), it appears to me that Shakespeare is using the example to indicate how alike they are. Which if taken in context, does make sense. Here's a passage that might clarify:

"I tell you, captain, if you look in the maps of the 'orld, I warrant you shall find, in the comparisons between Macedon and Monmouth, that the situations, look you, is both alike. There is a river in Macedon, and there is also moreover a river at Monmouth: it is called Wye at Monmouth; but it is out of my prains what is the name of the other river; but 'tis all one, 'tis alike as my fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in both. If you mark Alexander's life well, Harry of Monmouth's life is come after it indifferent well; for there is figures in all things."
(Captain Fluellen to Captain Gower, King Henry V, Act IV Scene VII)

© 1997 – 2024 Phrases.org.uk. All rights reserved.