A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

phrase to jouk and let the jaw go by is also found.

1721 J. KELLY Scottish Proverbs 189 Juck [stoop], and let the jaw [rush of water]

go o’er you. That is, prudently yield to a present Torrent. 1817 SCOTT Rob Roy II. xii.

Gang your ways hame, like a gude bairn—jouk and let the jaw gae by. 1927 J. BUCHAN

Witch Wood xv. A man must either jouk and let the jaw go bye, as the owercome

[common expression] says, or he must ride the whirlwind. prudence; self-preservation

journey see the LONGEST journey begins with a single step.

JOVE but laughs at lovers’ perjury

C f. HESIOD frag. 124 (M-W),
since that time he [sc. Zeus] attached no penalty for men to an
oath taken in the secret works of Aphrodite; TIBULLUS Elegies III. vi. 49 periuria ridet
amantum Iuppiter, Jupiter laughs at lovers’ perjuries; a 1500 in W. W. Skeat Chaucerian &
Other Pieces (1897) 311 Your [lovers’] othes laste No lenger than the wordes ben ago! And
god, and eke his sayntes, laughe also.

c 1550 tr. A. S. Piccolomini’s Lady Lucres E4V Pacorus.. confesseth the faut asketh

forgeuenes and.. ryghte well knewe he that Jupyter rather laughethe, then ta-keth

angerlye the periuringe of louers. c 1595 SHAKESPEARE Romeo & JulietII. ii. 92 At

lovers’ perjuries, They say Jove laughs. 1700 DRYDEN Poems (1958) IV. 1487 Love

endures no Tie, And Jove but laughs at Lovers Perjury! 1922 Evening Standard 17 Oct. 5

Perjury in the Divorce Court has been openly permitted to the upper classes for many

years, following the maxim..that ‘Jove but laughs at lovers’ perjury.’ 1973 I. MURDOCH

Black PrinceIII. 299 Zeus, they say, mocks lovers’ oaths. love

No one should be JUDGE in his own cause

Cf. the Latin legal maxim: nemo debet esse iudex in propria causa, no one should be judge
in his own cause; also 1604 SHAKESPEARE Measure for Measure v. i. 166 In this I’ll be
impartial; be you judge Of your own cause.

c 1449 R. PECOCK Repressor of Blaming of Clergy (1860) II. 381 Noman oughte be

iuge in his owne cause which he hath anentis [against] his neighbour. 1775 WESLEY

Letter 3 Nov. (1931) VI. 186 No man is a good judge in his own cause. I believe I am

tolerably impartial. 1928 Times 22 Aug. 9. The principle that no judge could be a judge in