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Still waters run deep
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<h2 id="the-fable">The fable</h2> <p>In about 1490 the Italian writer <a href="/facts/Laurentius_Abstemius/yNRYjEGK">Laurentius Abstemius</a> expanded the proverb into a short fable in Latin titled <i>De rustico amnem transituro</i><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> in his <i>Hecatomythium</i> and this was subsequently included in European collections of Aesop's fables. In 1692 <a href="/facts/Roger_L%27Estrange/1B4BBCV1">Roger L'Estrange</a> included an outline of the Abstemius version in his edition of the fables under the title of <i>A Country-man and a River</i>, along with the interpretation that men of few words are dangerous: </p> A Country-man that was to pass a River, sounded it up and down to try where it was most fordable: and upon Trial he made this Observation on't: Where the Water ran Smooth, he found it Deepest; and on the contrary, Shallowest where it made most Noise. <i>There's More Danger in a Reserv'd and Silent, than in a Noisy, Babbling Enemy.</i><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> <p>Slightly earlier than L'Estrange's translation, there was an amplified version of the story in <a href="/facts/La_Fontaine%27s_Fables/b6PTQj3V">La Fontaine's Fables</a> under the title "The torrent and the river" (<i>Le torrent et la rivière</i>, VIII.23). It tells of a man trying to escape a robber who easily fords a turbulent stream but drowns in a smooth-flowing river, ending on the caution that 'Silent folk are dangerous'.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> The French proverb that is the nearest equivalent to the English 'still waters run deep' also emphasizes this danger: 'no water is worse than quiet water' (<i>Il n'est pire eau que l'eau qui dort</i>). When the caricaturist <a href="/facts/Jean_Ignace_Isidore_G%C3%A9rard/yVIL4Cog">J. J. Grandville</a> illustrated La Fontaine's fable, he further underlined this meaning by transposing it into a seduction scene. In the background a capering donkey and a shrew are advancing along the road, watched by a woman whose hands are clasped by a sleek cat. Unnoticed at her feet, a snake is slithering through the grass. </p> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>3.i.53–57 <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni, VII. iv. 13 <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, "STILL waters run deep", p. 307 in the 2003 e-edition <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Laura Gibbs site, AESOPUS: Latin Via Fables <a href="http://aesopus.pbworks.com/w/page/1471382/abstemius005" target="_blank">http://aesopus.pbworks.com/w/page/1471382/abstemius005</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Mythfolklore.net <a href="http://mythfolklore.net/aesopica/lestrange_abstemius/5.htm" target="_blank">http://mythfolklore.net/aesopica/lestrange_abstemius/5.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>An English version <a href="http://oaks.nvg.org/fonta8.html#setorriv" target="_blank">http://oaks.nvg.org/fonta8.html#setorriv</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>