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Cotgrave's World: Book 9 War

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Thoughts, proverbs and Sayings from the 16th Century

Extracts from a French to English dictionary by, R Cotgrave. Published 1611.

'Marchandise n' espargne nuls'
War will deceive anybody,
spares nobody.
There is nothing as powerful
as war,
at bringing people together;
Nothing as powerful as peace,
at tearing them apart.
L.N.

DIANA

Goddess of war

'Bailer la DIANE'
Soldiers to rouse their enemies with a hot mornings allarum, [alarm, rude awakening call, the screams, noises, made by attackers on a sleeping camp to cause panic], to give 'carnisadoe'

'Bouches a feu'
spitfire, artillery ordnance. 'Bouches' =mouth-s, mouths of fire,
thus the 'Spitfire'.> [those who do not learn from history
And doomed to repeat it].
[if my memory serves me well,
did not one of
Hitler's generals said something like
'History! The only thing history proves
is that man learns nothing from it.
]

'A l'or le feu fort, au fort bras la luicte'
The worth of gold is tried by fire,
The strength of an army by war.

'Qui combat avec les armes d'argent est asseure de variocre?
He that doth fight with silver armies,
is sure to overcome.
Soldiers win or lose battles,
but money, wins wars.

'C'est belle bataille de chiens, & de chats, chaseun a des ongles'
The fairest battles are fought
with edged tools
[swords etc.] but that is only when
the combatants are not worth keeping.
[the pen is mightier than the sword],
Not yet, it isn't,
no bible basher ever saved
A single soul, let alone a person from
Hell's gate;
no words ever stopped an intended war].

'Bors ont oreilles, & champs oeillers'
Woods have ears and fields their eyes,
So, apt and able is every place
to detect close villainy;
during the 2nd world War we said. walls have ears. There is no safe place to tell another man anything, or you can trust no one.
hence,
'Walls ont oreilles, et champs oeillets'
Some hear, and see him,
whom he sees and hears not;
but woods have ears and fields eyes.

'Mieux vant servitude ex paix que seigneurie en guerre'
Better a vassal of peace,
than warfare's Marshal.

'A l'or le feu fort, au fort bras la luicte'
The worth of gold is tried by fire,
The strength of an army by war.

'Qui combat avec les armes d'argent est asseure de variocre?
He that doth fight with silver armies,
is sure to overcome.
Soldiers win or lose battles,
but money, wins wars.

'C'est belle bataille de chiens, & de chats, chaseun a des ongles'
The fairest battles are fought
with edged tools
[swords etc.] but that is only when
the combatants are not worth keeping.