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

[Joel S. Berson]

My only excuses:

1)  Downie writes in his endnote as though Defoe originated this,
although he doesn't actually claim so explicitly;

2)  I don't have the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs on my bookshelf.

Joel

At 3/31/2011 11:41 AM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
>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;
>
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