Beaumont and Fletcher’s Law
Beggars must be no choosers.
The line is from The Scornful Lady (ca. 1609), probably the first collaborative effort of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, but the thought is proverbial. John Heywood included “Beggars should be no choosers” in the first edition of his Proverbs (1546). Then there is the story about the English scholar, Sir Maurice Bowra, who told a friend that he had finally decided to get married only to have the friend object to the woman in question “But you can’t marry anyone as plain as that.” To which Sir Maurice replied “My dear fellow, buggers can’t be choosers” (from Francis King, in Hugh Lloyd-Jones Maurice Bowra: a Celebration 1974).
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