Donne (and Shakespeare) on leading apes in hell

In an early work called Paradoxes and Problems, John Donne wrote:

There is an old Proverb, That, they that dy maids, must lead Apes in Hell. An Ape is a ridiculous and an unprofitable Beast, whose flesh is not good for meat, nor its back for burden, nor is it commodious to heep an house;' and perchance for the unprofitableness of this Beast did this proverb come up; For surely nothing is more unprofitable in the Commonwealth of Nature, than they that dy old maids, because they refuse to be used to that end for which they were only made. The Ape bringeth forth her young, for the most part by twins; that which she loves best, she killeth by pressing it too hard; so foolish maids soothing themselves with a false conceit of vertue, in fond obstinacie, live and die and not only do they kill in themselves the vertue of Virginitie, and of a Vertue make it a Vice, but they also accuse their parents in condemning marriage . . . .  (qtd. in "New Light on Maids 'Leading Apes in Hell'"by Gwendolyn B. Needham, The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 75, No. 296 (Apr. - Jun., 1962), pp. 106-119.)

Shakespeare also mentions this "proverb" twice. In Much Ado about Nothing, Beatrice says:

What should I do with him? dress him in my apparel and make him my waiting-gentlewoman? He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man: and he that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him: therefore, I will even take sixpence in earnest of the bear-ward, and lead his apes into hell.

And in The Taming of the Shrew, Katharina says:

What, will you not suffer me? Nay, now I see
She is your treasure, she must have a husband;
I must dance bare-foot on her wedding-day,
And for your love to her lead apes in hell.
Talk not to me; I will go sit and weep,
Till I can find occasion of revenge.

Comments

[CraigC]

Another good band/album title.