=When the dirt's dry it will rub out.=
=Ill-will never spoke well.=
The evidence of a prejudiced witness is to be distrusted. "He
that is an enemy to the bride does not speak well of the wedding"
(Spanish);[601] and "A runaway monk never spoke in praise of his
monastery" (Italian).[602]
=Give a dog an ill name and hang him.=
="I'll not beat thee, not abuse thee," said the Quaker to his dog;
"but I'll give thee an ill name."=--_Irish._
=He that hath an ill name is half hanged.=
A French proverb declares, with a still bolder figure, that "Report
hangs the man."[603] The Spaniards say, "Whoso wants to kill his dog
has but to charge him with madness."[604]
=All are not thieves that dogs bark at.=
The innocent are sometimes cried down. "An honest man is not the worse
because a dog barks at him" (Danish).[605] "What cares lofty Diana for
the barking dog?" (Latin).[606]
=Common fame is seldom to blame.=
=What everybody says must be true.=
=It never smokes but there's a fire.=
"There's never a cry of 'Wolf!' but the wolf is in the district"
(Italian).[607] "There's never much talk of a thing but there's some
truth in it" (Italian).[608] This is the sense in which our droll
English saying is applied:--
="There was a thing in it!" quoth the fellow when he drank the
dishclout.=
To accept the last half-dozen of proverbs too absolutely would often
lead us to uncharitable conclusions; we must, therefore, temper our
belief in these maxims by means of their opposites, such as this:--
=Common fame is a common liar.=
"Hearsay is half lies" (German, Italian).[609] "Hear the other side,
and believe little" (Italian).[610]
=A tale never loses in the telling.=
Witness George Colman's story of the Three Black Crows.
=The devil is not so black as he is painted.=
Nor is the lion so fierce (Spanish).[611] "Report makes the wolf bigger
than he is" (German).[612]
=It is a sin to belie the devil.=
=Give the devil his due.=
=If one's name be up he may lie in bed.=
"Get a good name and go to sleep" (Spanish).[613] So do many. Hence it
is often better to intrust the execution of a work to be done to an
obscure man than to one whose reputation is established.
=One man may better steal a horse than another look over the
hedge.=
"A good name covers theft" (Spanish).[614] "The honest man enjoys the
theft" (Spanish).[615]
=A gude name is sooner tint [lost] than won.=--_Scotch._
"Once in folks' mouths, hardly ever well out of them again"
(German).[616] "Good repute is like the cypress: once cut, it never
puts forth leaf again" (Italian).[617]