Fox

“Some men there be love not a gaping pig,

Some that are mad if they behold a cat.”

Tycho Brahé would faint at sight of a fox, Marshal dʹAlbret at sight of a pig, Henri III. at sight of a cat. (See Antipathy.)

A wise fox will never rob his neighbour’s hen-roost, because it would soon be found out. He goes farther from home where he is not known.

Every fox must pay his skin to the furrier. The crafty shall be taken in their own wiliness.

“Tutte le volpi si trovano in pellicaria.”—Italian Proverb.

To set a fox to keep the geese. (Latin, “Ovem lupo committere.”) He entrusted his money to sharpers.

Fox (That). So our Lord called Herod Antipas, whose crafty policy was thus pointed at, “Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils” (St. Luke xiii. 32). (B.C. 4—A.D. 39.)

⁂ Herod Agrippa I. (A.D. 41–44.) Herod Agrippa II. (A.D. 52–100.)

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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.