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There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip

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There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip is an English proverb. It implies that even when a good outcome or conclusion seems certain, things can still go wrong, similar in meaning to "don't count your chickens before they hatch".

The modern proverb dates to the late 18th century, with English-language predecessors dating back to the 16th century, based on Latin and Greek templates reaching back to at least the 2nd century.

Origin

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There is a reference to the many things that can intervene between cup and lip already in an iambic verse by Lycophron (3rd century BC).[citation needed] Erasmus noted in his Adagia that the Greek and Latin versions of the proverb had been recorded by the Carthaginian grammarian Sulpicius Apollinaris (fl. 2nd century C.E.), as quoted in Aulus Gellius's Attic Nights:[1] "πολλὰ μεταξὺ πέλει κύλικος καὶ χείλεος ἄκρου" ("much takes place between the (wine) cup and the upper lip") and "multa cadunt inter calicem supremaque labra" ("many things fall between the chalice, and the upper lips").[2]

There is a slight similarity between the wording of the proverb and that of an unattributed Greek iambic trimeter verse quoted by Cicero in one of his letters Ad Atticum (51 BC), but here refers to the geographical distance between Cicero and his correspondent.[3]

The Greek verse is attributed to Palladas in The Greek Anthology (X, 32), but that is manifestly erroneous, since Palladas lived in the 4th century, two centuries after Aulus Gellius. The Loeb Classical Library edition of the Anthology says that the verse is "a very ancient proverb, by some attributed to Homer".[4]

The Greek proverb is mentioned in a scholium on the Argonautica. In this account, the verse was a comment by a seer who told Ancaeus, who was setting out on the perilous enterprise of the Argonauts, that he would never taste wine from his newly planted vineyard. On his safe return, Ancaeus filled a cup with the first wine from his vineyard and reproached the seer for what appeared to be a false prophecy. The seer responded with the verse and just then an alarm was raised that a wild boar was destroying the vineyard. Without tasting the wine, Ancaeus rushed out and was killed by the boar. Hence, the prophecy came to be true.[5][6]

The proverb is referenced in the anonymous 13th-century French work De l'oue au chapelain,[7]

The Latin proverb is quoted in Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621).[8]

English proverb

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Look up there's many a slip twixt cup and lip in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

An English translation of Erasmus's 1523 work by Richard Taverner in 1539 rendered the proverb as "Many thynges fall betwene the cuppe and the mouth ... Betwene the cuppe and the lyppes maye come many casualties".[9][10]

The proverb appears in English also in William Lambarde's A Perambulation of Kent in 1576: "[M]any things happen (according to the proverbe) betweene the Cup and the Lippe".[11] In the same year, George Pettie added to it: "Many things (as the saying is) happens betweene the cup and the lip, many thinges chaunce betweene the bourde and the bed" in Petite Palace.[7] The version "many thinges fall betweene the cup and the lip" appears in 1580 in John Lyly's Euphues and His England.[12] In Ben Jonson's play, A Tale of a Tub (1633) the Latin proverb is partly mentioned, then explained: "But thus you see th' old Adage verified, / Multa cadunt inter—you can guess the reſt. / Many things fall between the Cup and Lip: / And though they touch, you are not sure to drink."[13]

The Macmillan Book of Proverbs erroneously states that Miguel de Cervantes referenced the proverb in Don Quixote in 1605.[7] However, although some English translations use the proverb,[14] what is in the original text is a different, though similar, proverb: "Del dicho al hecho hay gran trecho" (More easily said than done).[15]

The modern form of the English proverb where the word slip is used to rhyme with lip developed in the late 18th and early 19th century.[16] For example, an early record is in Catharine Maria Sedgwick's The Linwoods: or, "Sixty Years Since" in America (1835), in the form "there is many a slip between the cup and the lip".[17] The proverb is also alluded to in the voice of one of the characters earlier in the novel – the leader of a group of banditti drops a bottle of brandy while ransacking a house; it shatters and he says, "Ah, my men! there’s a sign for us—we may have a worse slip than that ‘’tween the cup and the lip:’ so let’s be off— [...]".[18]

Subsequently, "there is many a slip 'tween the cup and the lip" appears in David Macbeth Moir's The Life of Mansie Wauch (new edition, 1839).[19] The variant reading using ’twixt in place of ’tween is recorded in 1828: "There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip."[20] James F. O'Connell (1836) has "many a slip 'twixt cup and lip",[21] while R. H. Barham's The Ingoldsby Legends: Lady Rohesia (1840) has "There is many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip".[7]

The proverb became very popular from the 1840s onward and throughout the later 19th century. Slight variants in wording persist into current usage; this concerns mainly alteration between 'twixt, betwixt, 'tween and between on one hand, and optional use of the definite articles, the cup and the lip vs. cup and lip, on the other. From the earliest days of its popularity, the proverb was often described as old and somewhat trite. One of the earliest attestations of its modern form, in 1835, already describe it as "somewhat musty".[17] The Encyclopædia Americana of 1847 cites it as an example for the triteness of proverbs in general: "a public speaker could not use the proverb "'Twixt cup and lip is many a slip," at least, not without some apology for its triteness".[22]

Usage since 1850

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References

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  1. ^ Aulus Gellius mentions the proverbs in his comment on the Latin phrase inter os atque offam (between the mouth and the morsel) used by Cato the Elder: Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 13:18
  2. ^ See, for example, Erasmus of Rotterdam (September 1520). "Chiliadis Primae Centuria Quinta" [First Thousand, Fifth Century]. Erasmi Roterodami Adagiorum Chiliades Quatuor, Centuriaeque Totidem. Quibus Etiam Quinta Additur Imperfecta. [Erasmus of Rotterdam's Four Thousand Adages, and as Many Centuries. To which is also Added a Fifth Imperfect [Thousand].]. Venice: In aedibus Aldi, et Andreae Soceri. paragraph I, folio 56, recto. OCLC 1055918022.
  3. ^ Cicero, Ad Atticum, 6.3
  4. ^ The Greek Anthology with an English translation by W.H Paton, vol. IV, p. 21
  5. ^ Jennifer R. March, Dictionary of Classical Mythology (Oxbow Books 2014) Ancaeus (son of Poseidon)
  6. ^ Titelman, Gregory (1996) Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings. New York: Random House. ISBN 0679445544
  7. ^ a b c d Stevenson, Burton. (1948) The Macmillan Book of Proverbs, Maxims, and Famous Phrases, New York: Macmillan. pp.2139-40
  8. ^ Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton] (1621). "[Part 2, Section 3, Member 3] Against Pouerty and Want, with Such Other Adversity". The Anatomy of Melancholy, What It Is. With All the Kindes, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, and Seuerall Cures of It. In Three Maine Partitions, with Their Seuerall Sections, Members, and Subsections. Philosophically, Medicinally, Historically, Opened and Cut Up. By Democritus Iunior. With a Satyricall Preface, Conducing to the Following Discourse. Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps. p. 406. OCLC 216894069. Multa cadunt inter calicem ſupremaꝙ, labra, beyond all hope and expectation many things fall out, and who knowes what may happen?{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ Erasmus (10 August 1545). "Multa cadunt inter calicem supremaq[ue] labra". Proverbes or Adagies with Newe Addicions Gathered out of the Chiliades of Erasmus by Richard Tauerner. Hereunto be also Added Mimi Publiani. Translated by Richard Taverner. Imprinted at Lo[n]don in Fletstrete: At the sygne of the Whyte Harte [by] Ricardum Bances. folios xv, recto – xv, verso. OCLC 844791605.
  10. ^ Jennifer Speake, ed., Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford University Press 2015), p. 202
  11. ^ 1826 printing, p. 422
  12. ^ John Lyly (1580). "Thine or Not His Owne, Philautus". Euphues and His England. Containing His Voyage and His Aduentures, Myxed with Sundrie Pretie Discourses of Honest Loue, the Discription of the Countrye, the Court, and the Manners of that Isle. Delightful to be Read, and Nothing Hurtfull to be Regarded: Wher-in there is Small Offence by Lightnesse Giuen to the Wise, and Lesse Occasion of Looseness Proffered to the Wanton. Imprinted at London: [Thomas East] for Gabriell Cawood, dwelling in Paules Church-yard. folio 129, recto. OCLC 222529688.
  13. ^ Ben Jonson (1692). "A Tale of a Tub. A Comedy Composed by Ben: Johnson". The Works of Beniamin Jonson, which were Formerly Printed in Two Volumes, are Now Reprinted in One. To which is Added a Comedy, Called The New Inn. With Additions Never before Published. Vol. 3rd folio. London: Printed by Thomas Hodgkin, for H[enry] Herringman, E. Brewster, T. Bassett, R[ichard] Chiswell, M. Wotton, G. Conyers. Act III, scene vii, page 521. OCLC 960101342.
  14. ^ Don Quixote, 308
  15. ^ El Ingenios Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha, segunda parte
  16. ^ For an 18th-century example, see Thomas Browne (1797). "ANCÆUS". A New Classical Dictionary for the Use of Schools, containing under Its Different heads, Every Thing Illustrative and Explanatory of the Mythology, History, Geography, Manners, Customs, &c. Occurring in the Greek and Roman Authors, Generally Read in All Public Seminaries, and Intended as a Medium between the Scanty and Defective Description of Proper Names Subjoined to Latin Dictionaries, and a More Voluminous Work of the Same Kind. London: Printed for G[eorge] G[eorge] and J[ohn] Robinson, Paternoster-Row; and E[lizabeth] Newbery, corner of St. Paul's. signature D, recto, column 1. OCLC 745212793. Multa cadunt inter calicem supremaque labra. [...] There is many a slip between the cup and the lip.
  17. ^ a b Catharine Sedgwick (1835). "Chapter XXIX". The Linwoods; or, "Sixty Years since" in America. Vol. II. New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, No. 82 Cliff-Street. p. 139. OCLC 2293590. That "there is many a slip between the cup and the lip" is a proverb somewhat musty; but it pithily indicates the sudden mutations to which poor humanity is liable.
  18. ^ Sedgwick. "Chapter XVII". The Linwoods. Vol. I. p. 269.
  19. ^ Mansie Wauch [pseudonym; David Macbeth Moir] (1839). "The June Jaunt". The Life of Mansie Wauch, Tailor in Dalkeith. Written by Himself (new ed.). Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons; London: Thomas Cadell. p. 270. OCLC 457989785.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. ^ J. Cumberland (1828). Cumberland's Minor Theatre: With Remarks Biographical and Critical. Vol. 2. p. 18.
  21. ^ James F. O'Connell (1836). "Chapter XVIII". A Residence of Eleven Years in New Holland and the Caroline Islands: Being the Adventures of James F. O'Connell. Edited from the Verbal Narration. Boston, Mass.: B. B. Mussey. p. 246. OCLC 220284018.
  22. ^ "Proverbs" in Encyclopædia Americana Volume 10 (1847), p. 382
  23. ^ William Makepeace Thackeray (1850). "Mr. and Mrs. Sam. Huxter". The History of Pendennis, His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy. Vol. II (1st collected ed.). London: Bradbury and Evans. p. 332. OCLC 2057953.
  24. ^ Oxford Dictionaries (2008) Concise Oxford English Dictionary (11th ed.) New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199548412
  25. ^ See, for example, Anthony Trollope (April 1864). "Mrs. Dale's Little Party". The Small House at Allington. Vol. I. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 65, Cornhill. p. 87. OCLC 1167609828.
  26. ^ Howard Pyle (1883). "The Chase of Robin Hood". The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood. New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 240. OCLC 22773434.
  27. ^ Twentieth-Century Analytic Philosophy by Avrum Stroll (2001), p. 181.

Further reading

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