Kings have Long Hands

Do not quarrel with a king, as his power and authority reach to the end of his dominions. The Latin proverb is, “An nescis longas regibus esse manus;” and the German, “Mit grossen herren es ist nicht gut kirschen zu essen” (“It is not good to eat cherries with great men, as they throw the stones in your eyes”).

“There’s such divinity doth hedge alking,

That treason can but peep to what it would.”

Shakespeare: King in Hamlet, iv. 5.

The books of the four kings. A pack of cards.

“After supper were brought in the books of the four kings.”—Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel, i. 22.

The three kings of Cologne. The representatives of the three magi who came from the East to offer gifts to the infant Jesus. Tradition makes them three Eastern kings, and at Cologne the names ascribed to them are Kaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.