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“Morgenstunde Hat Gold im Munde”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2021

Richard Jente
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Extract

This familiar German proverb first made its appearance during the last quarter of the sixteenth century, soon found its way into the popular collections and spread throughout Germany and also to Holland and Scandinavia. By the end of the seventeenth century it had become popular in all these countries, particularly in the schools where it served as a maxim to encourage diligence. Later it appears in literally identical form even outside Teutonic territory.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , December 1927 , pp. 865 - 872
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1927

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References

1 Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte (Leipzig, 1887), I, 71, note 6.

2 Cf. Alfred Gotze, Zeitschrift für deutsche Worlforschung, XIII (1912), 329–334; Slijper, Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift, IV (1913), 607; A. Götze, ibid., V, 170.

3 Deutsche Sprichwörterkunde (München, 1922), pp. 23–25.

4 It is found in F. Latendorf, Michael Neanders deutsche Sprichwörter (Schwerin, 1864), p. 8. These German proverbs were first printed in the 1585 edition of Neander's Ethice vetus et sapiens, pp. 321–351, under the title: Veterum Sapientum Germanorum sapientia, etc. This edition has been inaccessible to me.

5 Both Götze and Seiler contend that our proverb could not have been derived from the Latin proverb: “Aurora Musis arnica,” because, as they say, this proverb is not found until the year 1625. Seiler even imagines that the Latin proverb may have developed out of the German proverb. This, however, cannot be the case for the Latin proverb is much older than the German. Josephus Langius, in the Index to his Loci Communes she Florilegium (Frankfort, 1605), includes the following reference to it: “Aurora Musis arnica. Cam. Emb. 24. cent 2. symb.” (p. 633, s. v. Labor). This reference is to the Emblemata et Symbola, a popular work by the well-known Humanist, Joachim Camerarius (1500–1574). Unfortunately this work has not been accessible to me. There is also a tradition which attributes the Latin proverb to Erasmus. Grubb, in his Penu Proverbiale (1665), p. 532, simply mentions the name of the great parcemiologist, while Benham, in his Book of Quotations (1924), p. 494b, assigns it to Erasmus' De Ratione Studii. The original Latin version of 1511 is not at my disposal. Below, a French form of the proverb is quoted from the year 1557, which shows that the Latin proverb antedates the earliest known appearance of our German proverb.

6 Franck, Sprichwörter, 1541, II, 68a.

7 Cf. Grimm, Deut. Wörterbuch, VI, 2583. My copy of the Vocdbularius, Gemma Gemmarum (Strassburg, 1515) has: “Aurora, die morgenstunde, od(er) morgenroten” (p. ciiib).

8 In view of the late appearance of our proverb the latter word cannot be “munt” (manus), but “Mund” (os). Despite the fact that the Middle High German “munt” (Hand, Schutz), a word of feminine gender, had disappeared from common use several centuries before we find our proverb, there are some who still regard the word “Mund” in our proverb as meaning “Hand.” For example, Tetzner, Deutsches Sprichwörterbuch (Leipzig, Reclam, ca. 1896), p. 329, has the remark: “Aurora, die Gold ausstreut.” This is also the interpretation of Leineweber, Die Weisheit auf der Gasse (Paderborn, 1922, 3rd ed.), p. 112–114.

9 Hermanni Germberg, Carminum proverbialium, etc. (Basel, 1576), p. 25. From the latter verses it may be assumed that the author was not acquainted with any form of our German proverb.

10 Proverbialia Dicteria, Frankfurt 1582, p. 58b.

11 My edition of Gartner is the fifth, “nunc quinto revisa, correcta et aucta.” The first edition appeared in 1570. These older editions, which are not accessible to me, might carry the proverb back a few years earlier. Cf. J. Franck, “Zur Quellenkunde des deutschen Sprichworts,” Archiv fiir neuere Sprachen, XXXIX, 99–100.

12 Sprichwörter-Lexikon, III, 733.

13 In his preface Petri refers to the Ethice Velus of his “lieber alter Praeceptor M. Michael Neander,” whose “Veterum sapientum Germanorum Sapientia” gave him the title of his own work, a collection of over 20,000 proverbs. We may, therefore well assume that the latter proverb was influenced by Neander's book. That it does not appear in the form of his original may perhaps be due to the fact that this form of the proverb had not yet established itself in the “Volksmund.”

14 Selectoria Adagia Latino-Germanica (Nuremberg 1669), p. 42.

15 A possible influence leading to the development or to the retention of the “Brot” type, may be found in Proverbs XX, 13: “Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.”

16 Wander, Sprichwörter-Lexikon, III, 733.

17 Cf. Wander, loc. cit.; A. Götze, loc. cit.

18 Agricola, 1529, no. 406.

19 Florilegium Ethico-Polilicum, etc., Frankfurt 1610–1612.

20 Gruter heads the list in which our proverb stands: “Proverbia Germanica, collecta a I.L.W.” These are the initials of one of Gruter's students, Johann Leonhard Weidner (1588–1655), cf. Deut. Nat. Biographie XLIV, 466. We might also note that Gruter elsewhere has: “Aurora Musis acceptissima est novem” (II, 8), and “L'Aube est amie des Muses” (II, 395). The latter, which is reprinted from J. LeBon, Adages françois (Paris, 1557), shows the early existence of our Latin proverb in France.

21 These later occurrences have been noted by Wander, Sprichwörter-Lexikon, III, 733, and Götze, loc. cit.

22 Götze, loc. cit., mentions some of these dictionaries. It is surprising to note that the only example of our proverb cited in Grimm's Wörterbuch (VI, 2583) is that in Pistorius, Thesaurus parmmiarum germanico-juridicarum (1723), Cent. VI, no. 6, p. 424; “Morgen-Stund hat Gold im Mund.”

23 Cf. Harrebomée, Spreekwoordenboek, I, 253 and III, 453. The proverb was perhaps unknown in Holland in the early part of the seventeenth century since it does not appear in the extensive collection of rhymed proverbs of J. De Brunes (Nievwe Wyn in oude Le'er-zacken. Middelburg, 1636), which contains on pp. 448–449 seven proverbs under the caption “Morghenstond.”

24 Harrebomée cites numerous examples in his Spreekwoordenboek, I, 253, n. 1, and III, lxxvi, xciv, cxxxvii, clxxiv.

25 Quoted from Peder Syvs kjernfidde Ordsprog, ed. R. Nyerup (Copenhagen, 1807), p. 245; cf. also Molbeck, Danske Ordsprog (Copenhagen, 1850), p. 156 and Mau, Dansk Ordsprogsskat (Copenhagen, 1879), II, 38. Here Mau takes “Mund” to mean “Haand.”

26 Cf. Mau, loc. cit. The former might be from Michael Cordesius, Postilla symbolica oder Sprichworter-Postill, 1669, appendix, p. 155: “Morgenstunde hat Gott im Munde.”

27 The proverb is not in F. Bresemann, Danske Ordsprog og Mundheld (Copenhagen, 1843). It has been noted as foreign by J. Aasen, Norske Ordsprog (2nd ed. Christiania, 1881) p. 103 and Finnur Jónsson, Íslenskt Málsháttasafn (Copenhagen, 1920) p. 119, and note, p. 216.

28 F. W. Schuster, Siebenbürgisch-sächsische Volkslieder, Sprichwörter, etc. Hermannstadt, 1865), does not report our proverb among others of similar meaning on p. 251.