Wondrous Jewel

[mikey4444]

I am trying to trace the following quote without success ::

"Silence is a wondrous jewel to adorn a women but not often worn "

Can anyone help ?

[Jennykenny]

Don't know it, but it deserves to be forgotten.

[mikey4444]

Oh I agree Jenny ( fingers crossed behind his back ).... !

[hellywelly4]

I've just googled it Mikey and come up with nothing. Very strange, you can usually put part of a phrase in and find it. Are you sure you didn't dream it???

[Jackdaw33]

As an axiom I couldn't agree more.

[Prudie]

MC Pigg?

[stob]

A similar mention here Mikey http://www.sacred-texts.com/wmn/fow/fow07.htm

[mikey4444]

helly....I don't why I thought of this today, but I felt sure it was Shakespearean....."Taming of the Shrew" perhaps.

I might not have got the wording quite right though.

[Tilly2]

YOU TALKIN' TO ME, MIKEY?

[mikey4444]

From your link Stob....."Silence is a fine jewel for a woman, but it is little worn."

That is more like it, but still no derivation though.

[Tilly2]

Shakespeare would have put it more eloquently than that.

[mikey4444]

Looks like it may be Jewish in origin !

[mikey4444]

Hee hee Tilly !

[Tilly2]

Quoted in 'Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon.'

[DTCwordfan]

I would surmise that it's origins lie in Renaissance literature, Elizabeth Carey, The Tragedy of Mariam.

In it, Herod describes Mariam, his second wife, as 'heaven's model' an 'inestimable jewel'... to my mind' is reduced to a silence characteristic of female modesty. ... out that 'as the looking-glass, howsoever fair and beautifully adorned, is nothing ... Herod thinks of Mariam in these terms: A precious mirror made by wondrous art, ...

[jourdain2]

Don't know, don't like it. My ex was prone to explain his attempts at strangling me and forcing me to my knee as a justifiable reaction because 'I talked too much'. Surprised and disappointed by your answer jackdaw.

[Buenchico]

There seem to be various forms of the wording.

The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations cites "Silence is a woman's best garment' as a mid-sixteenth century proverb.

However it also lists "Silentium mulieri praestat ornatum' ('Silence is a woman's finest ornament') as being included in Auctoritates Aristotelis, which was compiled around 1300:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auctoritates_Aristotelis

That publication was intended to provide a convenient summary of Aristotle's work but it seems to have added to what Aristotle actually wrote in 'Politics' and, even then, he was actually quoting an earlier (unnamed) poet:
"All classes must be deemed to have their special attributes; as the poet says of women, 'Silence is a woman's glory,' but this is not equally the glory of man"

[jno]

Trump couldn't have put it better, Buenchico

[Tilly2]

Anyone want to borrow my scold's bridle?

[woofgang]

I am guessing that anyone who say it or writes it doesn’t live long enough for attribution.