A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

BARNABY bright, Barnaby bright, the longest day and the shortest night
St. Barnabas’ Day, 11 June, was reckoned the longest day of the year under the Old Style calendar. Cf. 1595 SPENSER Epithalamion 1. 266 This day the sunne is in his chiefest hight, With Barnaby the bright.

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  1659 J. HOWELL Proverbs (English) 20 Barnaby bright, the longest day and shortest night. 1858 Notes & Queries 2nd Ser. VI. 522 In some parts of the country the children call the lady-bird Barnaby Bright, and address it thus:—‘Barnaby Bright, Barnaby Bright, The longest day and the shortest night.’ 1906 E. HOLDEN Country Diary of Edwardian Lady (1977) 72 Barnaby bright All day and no night. 1978 R. WHITLOCK Calendar of Country Customs vii. Barnaby bright, Barnaby bright, The longest day and the shortest night, is a reminder that, before the change in the calendar in 1752, 11 June was the longest day of the year. “calendar lore
  

basket see don’t put all your EGGS in one basket.
bathwater see don’t THROW the baby out with the bathwater.
battalion see PROVIDENCE is always on the side of the big battalions.
battle see the RACE is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.
BE what you would seem to be
C f . AESCHYLUS Seven against Thebes 1. 592
^(lt _;f[!Kh.!\ forhe fo.r fir. f ..fHJf f_Or he wishes not to appear but to be the best; SALLUST Catilina lv. Esse, quam videri, bonus malebat,he [sc. Cato] preferredto be good, rather than to seem good.

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  c 1377 LANGLAND Piers Plowman B. X. 253 Suche as thow semest in syghte, be in assay [trial] y-founde. 1640 G. HERBERT Outlandish Proverbs no. 724 Bewhat thou wouldst seeme to be. 1721 J. KELLY Scottish Proverbs 68 Be what you seem, and seem what you are. The best way! for Hypocrisy is soon discovered. 1865 ‘L. CARROLL ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland ix. It’s a vegetable. It doesn’t look like one, but it is. .. the moral of that is—‘Be what you would seem to be.’ 1980 G. SIMS in H. Watson Winter Crimes 12 158 The Benningworth family motto Esse quam videri, ‘To be rather than to seem to be’. ■appearance