- English translation
I married you for that grand mantle of yours, thinking you a man of substance, and now I find you're like a stray dog, making the rounds of every house for a scrap to live on.
- Literal wording
I took you on the size of your mantle, reckoning you a towering man, and here you are like the dogs, going round from every house for something to prop you up.
- Meaning and lesson
A wife complains that she married her husband because his ample mantle, a man's broad outer garment worn to display standing, and his imposing, eye-catching bearing made him look prosperous. Married life showed her the truth: he owns nothing and must scrounge his daily food from house to house, like a dog.
In figurative extension beyond the wife's voice, the saying is aimed at a penniless man who dresses above his means, so that people mistake him for someone wealthy and important. It mocks the gap between costly appearance and real destitution, and warns against trusting finery as a sign of substance.
- When it is used
Say it scornfully of someone who dresses grandly and passes for wealthy but turns out to live off others' handouts, typically once that dependence is exposed. Likening him to dogs is a harsh insult, so it fits frank complaint rather than polite company.
- Register
- Colloquial, scornful, voiced as a disappointed wife