APAD:"All's well that ends well"

本帖於 2024-03-07 08:48:04 時間, 由普通用戶 最西邊的島上 編輯
Meaning
- If something has a good result or finally succeeds, previous problems are not important.
- If the outcome of a situation is happy, this compensates for any previous difficulty or unpleasantness.
 
(long and interesting) Origin
It has to be one of the oldest of the well-known proverbs. And it’s older than Shakespeare, who did indeed use it for his ‘problem play’, All’s Well That Ends Well, in the early seventeenth century (although some scholars put the date of composition as early as 1598).
 
But the phrase was already established during Shakespeare’s lifetime. Indeed, if we go back some half a century, we find it in the writings of John Heywood (c. 1497 – c. 1580), who wrote plays for the royal court from the early 1530s onwards, some sixty years before Shakespeare made his way in the Elizabethan theatre.

But even Heywood shouldn’t get the credit for originating the phrase, although his is the first text to use the phrase with the precise wording ‘all’s well that ends well’. In 1381, in J. R. Lumby’s Chronicon Henrici Knighton, we find the line, ‘If the ende be wele, than is alle wele.’

And we can find an even earlier version of ‘all’s well that ends well’ in a poem from around the second half of the thirteenth century in which Hendyng, son of Marcolf, utters a series of proverbial stanzas rhymed aabccb.

Hendyng may have been a persona (the name is thought to mean ‘the clever one’), but we can confidently attribute the first written account of the phrase – or something approximating it – to ‘Hendyng’, whoever he actually was.

This poem offering proverbial wisdom contains the line, ‘Wel is him that wel ende mai’. Hendyng’s poem also has another claim to fame: it is the first written text to use a certain rude four-letter word beginning with c and rhyming with hunt.

 
Source: https://interestingliterature.com/2023/04/alls-well-that-ends-well-meaning-origin/#
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After learning the proverb, the first thought that came to my mind was the 2010 winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.  It started with the tragedy of a Georgian luge athlete's death in pre-game training, then the funny and somewhat embarrassed image of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky standing in the back of a pickup truck and carrying the Olympic torch (see picture below), along with some other not smooth things. But the game went well afterwards.  It was regarded by the Olympic Committee to be among the most successful Olympic games in history, in both attendance and coverage. Approximately 2,600 athletes from 82 nations participated in 86 events in fifteen disciplines.  So All's well that indeed ends well 鬼臉
 
 

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my favorite, origin ain't important 4 such commonsense -移花接木- 給 移花接木 發送悄悄話 移花接木 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/07/2024 postreply 07:57:38

like the end result is more important than the process? ;-) -最西邊的島上- 給 最西邊的島上 發送悄悄話 最西邊的島上 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/07/2024 postreply 09:50:24

but in some cases, the experiences during the process -最西邊的島上- 給 最西邊的島上 發送悄悄話 最西邊的島上 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/07/2024 postreply 09:51:09

are so valuable that they probably should be treasured 2 ;-) -最西邊的島上- 給 最西邊的島上 發送悄悄話 最西邊的島上 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/07/2024 postreply 09:52:29

It ends up OK, all is OK. Forget the unpleasant things befor -盈盈一笑間- 給 盈盈一笑間 發送悄悄話 盈盈一笑間 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/07/2024 postreply 08:40:03

Yes Captain! ;-) -最西邊的島上- 給 最西邊的島上 發送悄悄話 最西邊的島上 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/07/2024 postreply 09:54:12

The proof of luging (or 出溜滑 in Chinese) is in surviving. -7grizzly- 給 7grizzly 發送悄悄話 7grizzly 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/07/2024 postreply 09:14:38

For sure. Kudos to those brave souls! -最西邊的島上- 給 最西邊的島上 發送悄悄話 最西邊的島上 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/07/2024 postreply 09:55:53

好事多磨~Just like a typical Hollywood film~ -妖妖靈- 給 妖妖靈 發送悄悄話 妖妖靈 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/07/2024 postreply 13:23:20

是有這個意思哈!We went downtown for brunch this morning, but -最西邊的島上- 給 最西邊的島上 發送悄悄話 最西邊的島上 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/07/2024 postreply 14:28:29

the egg benedict went to my pants instead of my mouth. ;-) -最西邊的島上- 給 最西邊的島上 發送悄悄話 最西邊的島上 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/07/2024 postreply 14:29:36

I got a new 1 and enjoyed it and was happy afterwards, even -最西邊的島上- 給 最西邊的島上 發送悄悄話 最西邊的島上 的博客首頁 (490 bytes) () 03/07/2024 postreply 14:34:33

哈哈哈,a natural watercolor painting! -妖妖靈- 給 妖妖靈 發送悄悄話 妖妖靈 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/07/2024 postreply 14:51:49

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