Beggar
. A beggar may sing before a pickpocket. (In Latin, “Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator.”) A beggar may sing before a highwayman because he has nothing in his pocket to lose.
Set a beggar on horseback, and heʹll ride to the deʹil. There is no one so proud and arrogant as a beggar who has suddenly grown rich.
“Such is the sad effect of wealth—rank pride—
Mount but a beggar, how the rogue will ride!”
Latin: “Asperius nihil est humili cum surgit in altum.”
French: “Il nʹest orgueil que de pauvre enrichi.”
Italian: “Il vilan nobilitado non connosce il parentado” (A beggar ennobled does not know his own kinsmen).
Spanish: “Quando el villano está en el mulo, non conoze a dios, ni al mundo” (when a beggar is mounted on a mule, he knows neither gods nor men).
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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.