The Right to Not Cut Our Owne Throats with Our Tongues: Proverbial Roots of the Fifth Amendment

Abstract

As Leonard Williams Levy discussed in Origins of the Fifth Amendment and other works, the expression advising against cutting “our owne throats with our tongues” exemplifies the complex referential matrix of the United States Constitution’s clause against self-incrimination. By tracing the sources of this paradigmatic phrase, it is possible to identify several traditions in which these words have particular significance, while documenting a conceptual drift similar to the unpredictable dynamics at work in the crystallization of proverbs. An appraisal of the poetic, conceptual, and cultural tenets underlying this image allows for the reconstruction of the connections among oral and written references belonging to vernacular, biblical, Arabic, and Greco-Roman traditions. Moreover, this analysis discloses associations relating to childhood, madness, inebriety, and barbershops that facilitate a reassessment of both the roots of the Bill of Rights’ provision against self-incrimination and the legal traditions in which “the Fifth” has been usually framed.

Keywords:

• Fifth Amendment
• clause against self-incrimination
• Leonard W. Levy
• proverbs
• tongue
• Erasmus

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author wishes to acknowledge the following contributions to distinct areas of this article: Luis T. González del Valle for his unwavering care and his meticulous suggestions, Mary Ryan for her keen verbal instinct and her precise understanding, and, finally, Christina Baker for her patience and careful reading of the manuscript. Likewise, he wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Ethan Cohen and Doaa Serag Morsy with Arabic transliterations, as well as with the nuances of Arabic language semantics. Finally, Gordon Witty, and Jamal Ali provided additional insights into the interpretation of the Arabic proverb mentioned in the article.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Levy, Origins of the Fifth Amendment: The Right against Self-Incrimination (Chicago, IL: Ivan R. Dee, 1968).

2 Levy, “Origins of the Fifth Amendment and Its Critics,” Cardozo Law Review 19, no. 3 (1997): 860; Levy, Ranters Run Amok: And Other Adventures in the History of the Law (Chicago, IL: Ivan R. Dee, 2000), 216.

3 Richard H. Helmholz, Charles M. Gray, John H. Langbein, Eben Moglen, Henry E. Smith, and Albert W. Alschuler, The Privilege against Self-incrimination: Its Origins and Development (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1997).

4 Ibid., 5.

5 “Origins of the Privilege against Self-Incrimination: The Role of the European Ius Commune,” New York University Law Review 65 (1990), 964.

6 Levy, Origins, viii and 431. The words belong to Chief Judge Calvert Magruder (1893–1968), in Maffie v. United States, 209 Fed. 2^nd 225 (1^st Cir. 1954).

7 Wigmore on Evidence: Evidence in Trials at Common Law. 4^th ed. (New York: Wolters Kluwer, 2017), §2250.

8 It is not possible to delve into this topic at the moment with the required depth. However, in this regard, Levy’s volume provides various examples in the seventeenth century that invoke the violation of a “Law of Nature” when a self-incrimination is compelled. See, for instance, pages 313, 327–328, and 494–495 (note 41).

9 Levy, Origins, 405–32. See, also, R. Carter Pittman, “The Colonial and Constitutional History of the Privilege against Self-Incrimination in America,” Virginia Law Review 21, no. 7 (May 1935): 763–89.

10 Helmholz, Privilege, 1.

11 Levy, Origins, 18.

12 Origins, 297 (emphasis added).

13 Ibid., 330 (emphasis added).

14 Ibid., 297, 330 (emphasis added).

15 Ibid., 297; Constitutional Opinions: Aspects of the Bill of Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), 29.

16 “Origins,” 848; Ranters Run Amok: And Other Adventures in the History of the Law (Chicago, IL: Ivan R. Dee, 2000), 204.

17 The pamphlet The Mystery of the Two Ivntos Presbyterian and Independent. Or, The Serpent in the Bosome Vnfolded (1647) is followed by The History of Independency with the Rise, Growth, and Practices of that Powerfull and Restlesse Faction (1648). Both tracts appear without publisher’s name, an author’s name, or a pseudonym on the cover, although the first text includes an introduction signed by Theodorus Verax. In 1648—the same year in which the second pamphlet is published—, both texts are brought together not only in the book Relations and Observations, Historicall and Politick, upon the Parliament, Begun Anno Dom. 1640 Divided into II. Bookes: 1. The Mystery of the Two Junto's, Presbyterian and Independent. 2. The History of Independency, &c. Together with an Appendix, Touching the Proceedings of the Independent Faction in Scotland (1648), but also in the first volume of Anarchia Anglicana: or the History of Independency with Observations Historicall and Politique upon This Present Parliament, Begun Anno 16 Caroli Primi Anno Domini, 1640 together with The Rise, Growth, and Practises of That Powerful and Restlesse Faction (1648), which now includes the pseudonym Theodorus Verax on the cover. The second volume of this work is entitled Anarchia Anglicana: or the History of Independency. The Second Part. Being a Continuation of Relations and Observations Historicall and Politique upon this present Parliament Begun Anno 16. Caroli Primi (1649). The third part is called The High Covrt of Justice. Or Cromvvells New Slaughter House in England with the Authority That Constituted and Ordained It, Arraigned, Convicted, and Condemned. For Usurpation, Treason, Tiranny, Theft, and Murder. Being the III. Part of the History of Independency, written by the same Author (1651). The undeniable impact of Walker’s publications can be measured by the fact that a fourth part of the project exists, even though it is not attributed to the original author. Moreover, there are subsequent editions and reeditions of various parts of the work.

18 History, 28 (original italics, bold added). Despite some orthographical and typographical variations, these words remain identical when they appear in page 57 of both Relations and Observations and the first volume of Anarchia Anglicana. Walker’s mention of “the Kings time” would seem to be an allusion to the twelfth-century work Historia regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain) by Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1095–1155).

19 Bartlett Jere Whiting with the collaboration of Helen Wescott Whiting, Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases: From English Writings Mainly before 1500 (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968), 602–03 (bold and italics in original).

20 In a broad assessment of the ways in which juridical systems in Europe include different types of sentences related to the tongue and diverse punishments requiring varying degrees of elinguation, historian Irina Metzler explains the following: “A special punishment was reserved for slander and blasphemy. The ninth-century laws of Wessex had already demanded cutting out the tongue as penalty for slander, unless the perpetrator was wealthy enough to redeem it by paying a fine instead. At Bruges during the second half of the fifteenth century, ‘blasphemy and seditious and evil speaking were punished by piercing the offender’s tongue or cutting off a piece of it.’ In 1484 a woman called Martine was punished for blasphemy by being branded with red-hot irons, bound to a stake and finally a piece of her tongue was cut off, after which she was banished for six years for good measure as well. In 1477 Gisbrecht Wauters had his tongue bored through with a red-hot iron for the same offence. The Castilian Cortes of 1462 imposed amputation of the tongue among a range of penalties for blasphemy. The Estates of Provence announced the following punishments for blasphemy in 1472: a first offence merited a day in the stocks followed by a month in prison, the second offence was punished by the splitting of the upper lip, a third offence caused splitting of the lower lip and in a fourth the entire lower lip was severed, while finally the tongue would be cut out completely.… In Germany, the tongue might be split in punishment for blasphemy. Antecedents were already found in the laws of Alfred, dating from the 890s, which promulgated cutting out the tongue as punishment for slander. Such a ‘telling’ punishment, of course, is meant to reflect the nature of the crime, with that body part being mutilated that the person had employed to commit the crime in the first place. A similar notion seems to have been present in the early thirteenth-century Sachsenspiegel, when cutting out the tongue is promulgated as punishment for not adhering to royal bans and if the culprit is unable to, literally, loosen his tongue with payment of a fine.” Metzler, A Social History of Disability in the Middle Ages: Cultural Considerations of Physical Impairment (London: Taylor & Francis, 2013), 27–28. It would be necessary to comment extensively on this metonymic displacement operating within these juridical frameworks, and how they relate, more generally, to the metaphorical operations of equivalence and substitution in the lex talionis: an eye for an eye. Such matters deserve further attention, but they remain beyond the purview of this article. However, it would be germane to consider the manner in which the tongue is positioned as the origin of the crime and the object of the sentence. In this regard, Trevor Dean, Professor of the University of Roehampton in London, connects the jurisprudence on blasphemy in Medieval Europe with the passions unleashed by gambling: “The great seriousness of blasphemy can be gauged by the nature of the penalties imposed, corporal rather than monetary. In fourteenth-century France, the kings ordained that … for a fifth offence—it is significant of the incorrigibility of blasphemers that there needed to be penalty for a fifth offence—the tongue was to be cut out. … The Castillian Cortes [sic] in 1462 complained of the bold and fearless blaspheming both in and outside the royal court, and asked for the imposition of supplementary penalties including amputation of the tongue and a hundred lashes.” Dean, Crime in Medieval Europe, 1200–1550 (New York: Routledge, 2014), 56–57.

21 Sheneman, “The Tongue as a Sword: Psalms 56 and 63 and the Pardoner,” The Chaucer Review 27, no. 4 (1993): 396–400.

22 Geoffrey Chaucer, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, ed. Fred Norris Robinson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961), 24; A 712–13.

23 Ibid., 149; C 413.

24 Psalms 57:4, 64:3, and 140:3. All quotations from the Bible come from King James Version. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New: Newly Translated out of the Originall Tongues: & with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Reuised by his Maiesties Speciall Comandement (London: Robert Barker, 1611). There are other biblical references that employ the abovementioned vocabulary related to sharp objects and tongues. In this regard, even though the King James Translation of the Bible appears in 1611 and falls outside of the historical demarcation established in Whitling’s compilation, the following verses may serve as a point of orientation for further consideration: “Thy tongue deviseth mischiefes; like a sharpe razor, working deceitfully” (Psalms 52:2); “There is that speaketh like the pearcings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health” (Proverbs 12:18); “A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour, is a maule, and a sword, and a sharp arrow” (Proverbs 25:18); “And he hath made my mouth like a sharpe sword” (Isaiah 49:2); and “Their tongue is as an arrowe shot out” (Jeremiah 9:8). Aside from the third chapter of the Epistle of James whose relevant examples will be discussed in a subsequent note, Hebrews could also be cited from the New Testament: “For the word of God is quicke, and powerfull, and sharper than any two edged sword” (4:12). Even the description of the King of Kings’ speech in Revelation belongs to this metaphorical field: “And out of his mouth goeth a sharpe sword, that with it hee should smite the nations: and he shal rule them with a rod of yron” (19:15). In contrast with the examples cited from the Old Testament, in these verses from the New Testament, God’s Word is the origin of justice.

25 Sheneman, 397–98; Chaucer, Works, 600; B 3812.

26 Juan Luis Vives, De Ratione Dicendi, ed. David J. Walker (Boston: Brill, 2017), 419. The Latin text between brackets appears on page 418.

27 Vives, De Ratione 2.

28 Whiting, Proverbs, 602 (bold and italics in original).

29 As previously indicated, other books of the Bible include paradoxical imagery similarly related to the tongue. Specifically, Ecclesiasticus contains maxims that warn about the consequences of speaking without caution: “Honour and shame is in talke; and the tongue of man is his fall” (5:13); “He that can rule his tongue shall liue without strife, and he that hateth babbling, shall haue lesse euill” (19:6); “Who shall set a watch before my mouth, and a seale of wisedome vpon my lippes, that I fall not suddenly by them, & that my tongue destroy me not?” (22:27); “Foure maner of things appeare: good and euill, life and death: but the tongue ruleth ouer them continually” (37:18). Although it does not contain the metaphor of the blade, the third chapter of the Epistle of James includes examples in which the tongue exemplifies various paradoxical tensions comparable to those present in Proverbs 18:21: “the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how a great matter a little fire kindleth!” (3:5); “Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing” (3:10); and “Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter” (3:11).

30 Bruce K. Waltke renders the proverb into English in a subtly different manner: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, [/] and those who love it, each will eat its fruit.” Bruce K. Waltke, trans., The Book of Proverbs, Chapters 15–31 (Grand Rapid, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2005), 68. By contrast, Michael V. Fox translates the text as “Life and death are held by the tongue, [/] and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Michael V. Fox, trans., Proverbs 10–31: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009), 645.

31 Simon Patrick, The Proverbs of Solomon Paraphrased With the Arguments of Each Chapter Which Supply the Place of a Commentary (London: M. Flesher for R. Royston, 1683), 290 (emphasis added). The same words appear in the 1694 edition: The Proverbs of Solomon Paraphrased With the Arguments of Each Chapter Which supply the place of a Commentary (London: J.H. for Luke Meredith, 1694), 179.

32 John Mayer, A Commentary upon the Holy Vvritings of Job, David, and Solomon, That Is, These Five, Job, Psalmes, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs, Being Part of Those Which by the Antients Were Called Hagiographa: Wherein the Diverse Translations and Expositions, both Literall and Mysticall, of All the Most Famous Commentators, both Ancient and Modern, Are Propounded, Examined and Censured, and the Texts from the Originall Much Illustrated, for the Singular Benefit of All That Bee Studious of the Holy Scriptures (London: Printed for Richard Ibbitson and Thomas Roycroft, 1653), 680.

33 Trapp, Solomonis Panaretos: Commentarie upon the Books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs (London: T.R. and E.M., 1650), 220 (original italics).

34 Ibid., 128.

35 Ibid., 140 (emphasis added).

36 Plantevit de La Pause, Florilegium biblicum, complectens omnes Utriusque Testamenti sententias Hebraïce & Graece, cum Versione Latina, & brevi juxta literalem sensum Commentario illustratas. Auctore Joanne de Plantevit de La Pause Lodovensium in Gallia Narbonensi Episcopo & Domino. Montisbruni Comise. Magno Reginae Catholicae in Hispania Elecmosynario & S. Martini Ruricurtani Bollovacensis Abbate (Lodovae: Typis Arnaldi Colomerii, 1645), 547 (original italics).

37 Franciscus Raphelengius, Kitābu ʾl-amṯāli Sev Proverbiorvm Arabicorvm Centuriae duæ: Ab anonymo quodam Arabe collectæ & explicatæ: cum interpretatione Latina & Scholiis Iosephi Scaligeri I. Cæs. F. Et Thomæ Erpenii (Leidae: Officina Raphelengiana, 1614), 49 (original italics).

38 The Swiss explorer John Lewis Burckhardt (1784–1817) documents in the early nineteenth century an Arabic proverb closer to Walker’s image: “اللسان عدّو القفا “ is translated as “The tongue is the neck’s enemy” and paraphrased as “Bad language is retorted upon the neck of him who uses it, with a blow.” The saying appears as number 119 in the work posthumously published in 1830 and demonstrates the oral and cultural resilience of such motifs. John Lewis Burckhardt, Arabic Proverbs: Or, The Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, ed. William Ouseley (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 31 (original italics).

39 Pliny the Elder, The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, the Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. Translated into English by Philemon Holland Doctor in Physicke. The first [-second] tome (Impensis G.B., 1601), 427 (emphasis added). The 1634 edition includes the same text on the same page, with only minor orthographic variations. The Historie of the Vvorld: Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. Translated into English by Philemon Holland Doctor of Physicke. The first [-second] tome (London: Adam Islip, 1634), 427. Harris Rackman (1868–1944), member of Christ’s College, Cambridge, translates this fragment for the Loeb Classical Library Collection as follows: “then it is that the secrets of the heart are published abroad: some men specify the provisions of their wills, others let out facts of fatal import, and do not keep to themselves words that will come back to them through a slit in their throat [rediturasque per iugulum voces non continent]—how many men having lost their lives in that way!” Pliny the Elder, Natural History. Vol. IV, Libri XII–XVI, trans. Harris Rackman (Harvard University Press, 1960), 279. The Latin text within brackets appears on page 278.

40 Taverner, Prouerbes or Adagies with Newe Addicions Gathered Out of the Chiliades of Erasmus by Richard Tauerner. Hereunto be also added Mimi Publiani (London: In Fletstrete at the sygne of the whyte Harte. Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum solum, 1539), Fol. xxxi^r–xxxi^v (emphasis added). The edition cited has two consecutive pages with the number “xxxi.” The same paraphrase of this adage is repeated verbatim in the expanded editions of 1545 and 1552 (Fol. xxx^v in both instances), as well as in the 1569 edition (28^v–29^r) with only small orthographic variations. Prouerbes or Adagies appears in the same year as The Garden of Wysdom and its continuation The Second Booke of the Garden of Wysedome (1539). In “the thyrde boke” of the latter work, there is a list of adages, including “Quod in animo sobrii est, id est in lingua ebrii” (n.p.). Aside from slight orthographic differences, the content is identical. Prouerbes or adagies gathered out of the Chiliades of Erasmus by Richarde Tauerner. With newe additions as well of Latyn prouerbes as of Englysshe (London: Edwardus Whytchurche excudebat, 1545); Prouerbes or Adagies, Gathered oute of the Chiliades of Erasmus by Rycharde Tauerner, with Newe Addicions as well of Latin Prouerbes as Englyshe (London: by Abraham Uele, dwellynge in Poules churche yarde at ye sygne of the Lambe, 1552); Prouerbes or adagies, gathered out of the Chiliades of Erasmus by Richard Tauerner. With newe addicions as well of Latin prouerbes as of English (London: In Fleetestreete, by William Hovv, 1569); The Garden of Wysdom Wherin Ye Maye Gather Moste Pleasaunt Flowres, That Is to Say, Proper Wytty and Quycke Sayenges of Princes, Philosophers, and Dyuers Other Sortes of Men. Drawen Forth of Good Authours, as well Grekes as Latyns, by Richard Tauerner (London: Solde in Lomberdstrete at the signe of the Lamb by Iohn Haruye, 1539); The Second Booke of the Garden of Wysedome Wherin Are Conteyned Wytty, Pleasau[n]t, and Nette Sayenges of Renoumed Personages Collected by Rycharde Tauerner anno. M.D.XXXIX. Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum solum (London: printed by R. Bankes, 1539).

41 Prouerbes or adagies, lxi^v–lxii^r (emphasis added). The same pagination of the 1545 edition is repeated in 1552: lxi^v–lxii^r. The 1569 version includes the words in page 58^r.

42 Prouerbes or Adagies, Fol. iv (original italics).

43 Grant, “Erasmus’ Adages,” Prolegomena to the Adages, vol. 30 of Collected Works of Erasmus (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017), 15.

44 Rummel, “The Reception of Erasmus’ Adages in Sixteenth-Century England,” Renaissance and Reformation 18, no. 2 (1994): 19.

45 Ibid., 23.

46 Erasmus, Adages II i 1 to II vi 100, trans. and annot. R.A.B. Mynors, vol. 33 of Collected Works of Erasmus (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982), 217. The translations of Adages into English proceed from the volumes of the Collected Works of Erasmus, published by the University of Toronto Press. This edition of Adages comprises volumes 30 to 36 of the series. In the quotation, the italicized text in Latin between brackets refers to the second volume of Erasmus’ works published posthumously. Des[irerii] Erasmi Rot[erodami] Secvndus Tomvs Adagiorvm Chiliades Qvatvor cvm Sesqvicentvria Complectens, ex postrema ipsius autoris recognitione accuratissima, quibus non est quòd quicquam imposte rum uereare accessurum (Basileae: Ex Oficina Frobeniana, 1540), 475 [II iv 52]. The corresponding numeration of the adage appears between brackets to facilitate its localization across different editions.

47 Adages II i 1, 218; Secvndus Tomvs, 475.

48 Adages II i 1, 49; Secvndus Tomvs, 374 [II i 55].

49 Adages II i 1, 49; Secvndus Tomvs, 375.

50 Erasmus. Adages I vi 1 to I x 100, trans. and annot. R.A.B. Mynors, vol. 32 of Collected Works of Erasmus (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982), 75; Secvndus Tomvs, 233 [I vii 17].

51 Adages I vi 1, 75; Secvndus Tomvs, 233.

52 Erasmus, Adages I i 1 to I v 100, trans. Margaret Mann Phillips, annot. by R.A.B. Mynors, vol. 31 of Collected Works of Erasmus (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982), 236; Secvndus Tomvs, 97 [I iii 3].

53 Adages I vi 1, 49; Secvndus Tomvs, 218. Plutarch’s words may be found in “Concerning Talkativeness.” Plutarch, “Concerning Talkativeness,” Plutarch’s Moralia in Fifteen Volumes, vol. VI, 439A–523B, trans. W. C. Helmbold (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962), 433–35 [508F–509A].

54 Adages I vi 1, 48; Secvndus Tomvs, 218 [I vi 70].

55 Adages I vi 1, 49; Secvndus Tomvs, 218 (original italics). The adage “A dog’s dinner [Caninum prandium]” also references this motif: “Plutarch in his ‘Table-talk’ was accustomed humorously to call barbers’ shops ‘teetotal drinking-parties,’ as I have pointed out elsewhere.” Adages I vi 1, 252; Secvndus Tomvs, 332 [I x 39].

56 Erasmus, The Tongue / Lingua, trans. Elaine Fantham, vol. 29 of Collected Works of Erasmus (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989), 253.

57 Marcel Bataillon, Erasmo y el erasmismo, trans. Carlos Pujo (Barcelona: Crítica, 1978), 40. In England, the influence of this work by Erasmus is evident on Lingva, or the Combat of the Tongue and the Fiue Senses for Superiority (1607), a play attributed to Thomas Tomkys (c. 1581–1679) that, judging by its multiple editions and stagings, seems to have enjoyed noteworthy success in the beginning of the seventeenth century. Other treatises from the period relevant to this discussion include the following: the widely reedited A Direction for the Government of the Tongue according to Gods worde (1593) by the theologian William A. Perkins (1558–1602); the less influential The Araignement of an Unruly Tongue (1619) by George Webbe (1581–1642); and A Treatise of the Good and Evell Tounge (c. 1592), an incomplete and apparently anonymous translation of Traicté de la bonne et mavaise langue by the French writer Jean de Marconville (c. 1520-c. 1580), which is based on Erasmus’ Lingua. These three texts have been published together. Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin, ed., The Unruly Tongue in Modern England: Three Treatises (Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2012). Perkins’ text includes the following remarks on throat-cutting as an act of betrayal, although without the autotelic dynamic characterizing other iterations of the image that is found in Walker’s words: “And of all kinds of Flatterie, that is the worst when a man shal speake faire to his neighbours face, and praise him; but behinde his backe, speake his pleasure, and even cut his throat.” Unruly, 59.

58 The Tongue, 312. Compare with the Latin version: Erasmus, Lingua, Des[irerii] Erasmi Rot[erodami] Opervm Qvartvs tomvs qvae ad morvm institvtionem pertinent complectens, quorum catalogum uersa pagina docet (Basileae: Ex Oficina Frobeniana, 1540), 530.

59 The Tongue, 333; Lingua, 541.

60 Ibid.

61 Clarke, Paroemiologia anglo-latina in usum scholarum concinnata. Or proverbs, English, and Latine, methodically disposed according to the common-place heads, in Erasmus his adages. Very use-full and delightfull for all sorts of men, on all occasions. More especially profitable for scholars for the attaining elegancie, sublimitie, and varietie of the best expressions (London: Printed for R.M. and are to be sold by Samvel Man, dwelling at the Swan in Pauls Church-yard, 1646), no page number (original italics).

62 Ibid., 132–33 (original italics).

63 Ibid., 132 (original italics).

64 Ibid., 290, 65–66 (original italics). This last proverbial expression can be connected to the words of the Puritan theologian and fellow of Christ’s College William A. Perkins (1558–1602), who, as already noted in note 57, seems to be especially concerned with these issues. In A Discovrse of Conscience (1596), Perkins observes that “An euill conscience . . . makes a man to be his owne enemie, in that it doth cause him to lay violent hands vpon himself, and become his owne hangman, or his owne cut-throat.” Perkins, A Discovrse of Conscience: Wherein is Set Downe the Nature, Properties, and Differences Thereof: as Also the Way to Get and Keepe Good Conscience ([N.p.]: Iohn Legate, Printer to the Vniversitie of Cambridge, 1596), 165. If the abovementioned proverb included by Clarke is compared with Perkins’ expression, the paradox of conscience is analogous to the functioning of the tongue in Proverbs 18:21, as both participate in a similar dialectic.

65 Levy, Origins, 329.

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Notes on contributors

José Manuel Pereiro Otero

José Manuel Pereiro Otero is Professor of Spanish, Latin American Studies, and Global Studies at Temple University. He has written and published articles on 17^th, 18^th, 19^th and 20^th century Spanish and Spanish-American writers, including the Covarrubias brothers, Manuel José Quintana, José Cadalso, María Rosa Gálvez, Andrés Bello, Vicente García de la Huerta, Mariano José de Larra, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, José Zorrilla, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Rubén Darío, Ramón María del Valle-Inclán, Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, Jacinto Benavente, Miguel de Unamuno, and Gonzalo Torrente Ballester. Pereiro Otero is the general editor of the scholarly journal Anales de la Literatura Española Contemporánea. His most recent book is La abolición del tormento: El inédito Discurso sobre la injusticia del apremio judicial (c. 1795), de Pedro García del Cañuelo (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Department of Romance Studies, 2018).