The antecedent of "Hell is where the English are the chefs"?

[Garson O'Toole]

Joel S. Berson wrote:
> Daniel Defoe's "The Great Law of Subordination Consider'd [etc. etc.]
> In Ten Familiar Letters" (1724) begins Letter I with:
>
> Dear Brother,
> It was formerly said of _England_, by way of Proverb, That it was the
> _Hell of Horses, the Purgatory of Servants and the Paradise of_ Women ... .
>
> In _Religious and Didactic Writings of Daniel Defoe_, Vol. 6: _The
> Poor  Man's Plea (1698) / The Great Law of Subordination Consider'd
> (1724)_, ed. J. A. Downie (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2007), p. 43.
>
> See also p. 199, note 4.

The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs has a version of this:

1591 J. Florio Second Fruits 205 She takes her ease, and followes her
busines at home. ..England is the paradise of women, the purgatory of
men, and the hell of horses.

There is an earlier version in French for Paris:

1558 Bonaventure Des Periers Nouvelles Recreations N1V Paris..c'est le
paradis des femmes, l'enfer des mules, et le purgatorie des
soliciteurs;

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org