APAD: Hold with the hare and run with the hounds

7
7grizzly
楼主 (文学城)

Meaning:

    To deceitfully purport to remain on good terms with both sides in a conflict.

 

Background:

   The proverbial saying `hold with the hare...' is first found in John

   Heywood's 1546 glossary ``A Dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the

   Prouerbes in the Englishe tongue'':

 

     There is no mo [more] suche tytifils [scoundrels] in Englands grounde,

     To holde with the hare, and run with the hounde.

 

   When Heywood coined (or more probably, heard and then wrote down) `hold with

   the hare and run with the hounds' hare coursing was a commonplace form of

   hunting for food. In more recent years it was undertaken for the

   entertainment of the onlookers. It is now illegal in the UK, although it

   still takes place. The `holding' refers to the hare's tactic of pressing

   itself low to the ground to avoid being seen, only bolting at the last

   moment.

 

   The notion that one can't legitimately support both sides of an argument is

   graphically illustrated by the hare/hounds imagery as there is no grey area -

   either the hare gets away or it is killed.

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Some Kuomintang officials held with the hare and ran with the hounds by working

for the party on the sides. They did not follow Mr. Chiang to Taiwan and stayed

to suffer and, indeed, few survived the endless political campaigns on the

mainland after 1949.

最西边的岛上
interesting & learned. “1 can't b neutral on a moving train"
最西边的岛上
learned: "Hare & Hounds" was a game popular inEurope til19C

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hare_games

 

移花接木
spies are not protected by Geneva Conventions
最西边的岛上
no one is where Geneva Conventions ain't followed. ;-)
7
7grizzly
Conventions, Geneva or elsewhere,were themselves in danger:)
7
7grizzly
Saw Daisy the terrier chasing a hare in Snatch (a 2000 film)
最西边的岛上
So True!!! Sigh ... ...
暖冬cool夏
A good one. To sit on the fence?
7
7grizzly
Close but less active :-)
最西边的岛上
MyTake:7Gs is 2support bothSides.Urs is refusing 2take sides