For Want of a Nail (proverb)

Analysis

This proverb has been around in many variations for centuries (see historical references below), and describes a situation where permitting some small undesirable situation will allow gradual and inexorable worsening. The rhyme is thus a good illustration of the "butterfly effect", and ideas presented in chaos theory, involving sensitive dependence on initial conditions; the initial condition being the presence or absence of the horseshoe nail.^[1] At a more literal level, it summarizes the importance of military logistics throughout the history of human warfare.

An important thing to note is that these chains of causality are only seen in hindsight. Nobody ever lamented, upon seeing his unshod horse, that the kingdom would eventually fall because of it.^[1]

A somewhat similar idea is referred to in the metaphor known as The Camel's nose.

Historical references

The proverb is found in a number of forms, starting as early back as the 14th century:

• "For sparinge of a litel cost, Fulofte time a man hath lost, The large cote for the hod."; For sparing a little cost often a man has lost the large coat for the hoodlum.^[4] (c 1390 John Gower, Confessio Amantis v. 4785-4787)^[5][6]

• The earliest reference to the full proverb may refer to death of Richard III of England at the Battle of Bosworth Field. This short variation of the proverb (shown to the right), was published in "Fifty Famous People" by Richard Baldwin. The story associated with the proverb, describing the unhorsing of King Richard during battle, would place the proverb's origin after the Battle of Bosworth on 22 August 1485. It should be noted that historically Richard's horse was merely mired in the mud.^[7] In the story, the proverb and its reference to losing a horse is directly linked to King Richard famously shouting "A Horse! A Horse! My Kingdom for a Horse!", as depicted in Act V, Scene 4^[8] from the Shakespeare play Richard III, which was written circa 1591. It's interesting to note that Kings are often considered Knights as well, which links the "Knight" variation to this story, and it also explains the "kingdom" reference prevalent in many of the variations. Note the similarities of the French quotation below by Jean Molinet, which is contemporary with this event. Even the later Franklin variations (shown at right) - printed during conflict between England and America, when American culture and politics were shedding any reference to Kings and England^[9] - would have the references to a King stripped out of a popular proverb, further circumstantially enforcing the argument that this story is the source of the original proverb. Either year - 1485 for King Richards death or 1591 for the Shakespeare play - the combined events in the story from "Fifty Famous People" plus the inclusion of the full proverb predate any other reference to a full causal chain of events; nail - shoe - horse - followed by at least one other dependent loss (i.e. rider, knight, battle, kingdom).

• Fr. "Par ung seul clou perd on ung bon cheval; by just one nail one loses a good horse. (c 1507 Jean Molinet, Faictz Dictz D., v768).^[5][10]

• "The French-men haue a military prouerbe; 'The losse of a nayle, the losse of an army'. The want of a nayle looseth the shooe, the losse of shooe troubles the horse, the horse indangereth the rider, the rider breaking his ranke molests the company, so farre as to hazard the whole Army". (1629 Thomas Adams (clergyman), "The Works of Thomas Adams: The Sum Of His Sermons, Meditations, And Other Divine And Moral Discourses", p. 714")^[5][11]

• For want of a naile the shoe is lost, for want of a shoe the horse is lost, for want of a horse the rider is lost. (1640 George Herbert Outlandish Proverbs no. 499)^[5]

• ‘Don't care’ was the man who was to blame for the well-known catastrophe: ‘For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse was lost, and for want of a horse the man was lost.’ (1880 Samuel Smiles, Duty)^[5][12]

• Benjamin Franklin included a version of the rhyme in his Poor Richard's Almanack. (Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richards Almanack, June 1758, The Complete Poor Richard Almanacks, facsimile ed., vol. 2, pp. 375, 377)^[3][13][14]

• You bring your long-tailed shovel, an' I'll bring me navvy [device for excavating earth]. We mighten' want them, an', then agen, we might: for want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse was lost, an' for want of a horse the man was lost—aw, that's a darlin' proverb, a daarlin'.(1925 S. O'casey Juno & Paycock i. 16)^[5]

• During World War II, this verse was framed and hung on the wall of the Anglo-American Supply Headquarters in London, England.^[9][14]

Modern day references

Along with the long history of the proverb listed above, it has continued to be referenced since the mid 20th century in modern culture. Examples include:

Legal

• In his dissent in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, Chief Justice John G. Roberts of the U.S. Supreme Court cites "all for the want of a horseshoe nail" as an example of a possible chain of causation. He claimed that, by contrast, the threshold jurisdictional issue of standing requires a likely chain of causation, which was not satisfied by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency‎'s regulation of new automobile emissions to prevent the loss of Massachusetts coastal land due to climate change.^[15]
  
• In his dissent in CSX Transportation, Inc. v. McBride, Roberts again invokes the proverb, explaining that, in tort law, the doctrine of proximate cause is meant to "limit[] liability at some point before the want of a nail leads to loss of the kingdom."^[16]

Literary

• For Want of a Nail: If Burgoyne Had Won at Saratoga is an alternate history novel published in 1973 by the American business historian Robert Sobel. The novel depicts an alternate world where the American Revolution was unsuccessful.
• Cannibals And Missionaries by Mary McCarthy quotes on page 199 "No detail... was too small to be passed over....‘For want of a nail,’ as the proverb said.^[5][18]
• JLA: The Nail is a three-issue comic book limited series published by DC Comics in 1998 about a world where the baby Kal-El was never found by Ma and Pa Kent because a nail punctured their truck tire on the day when they would have found his ship; thus the child does not grow up to become Superman. This story uses the English ("Knight") variation of the rhyme as a theme.
• A Wind in the Door is a fantasy/science fiction novel by Madeleine L'Engle which was a sequel to A Wrinkle in Time. The proverb is used in the novel as an explanation of how a microscopic creature can affect the fate of the universe, and is the impetus for much of the action.
• For Want of a Nail (short story) A 2011 Hugo award-winning short story, by Mary Robinette Kowal, explores the choices that an AI and her wrangler must make to solve a seemingly simple technical problem.
• The poem Kiss, found in the collection Full Volume, by Robert Crawford (Scottish poet) is based on this proverb.
• The short story "Gilgul" by Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi (published in the August 15th 2011 issue of The New Yorker) uses the proverb to describe the protagonist's loss of faith: "For want of a nail, he now punned to himself, the kingdom was lost."
• The children's poem "When there was no nail, a horseshoe was lost" by a Russian writer Samuil Marshak describes a situation where an enemy captured a city because a blacksmith shop did not have a nail in stock. The flow of the poem is very similar to that of its English equivalent.

Musical

• Todd Rundgren's song "The Want of a Nail" from his album Nearly Human uses the rhyme as a metaphor for a man who has lived his entire life without love, and how, if you "multiply it a billion times" and "spread it all over the world," things fall apart.

• A cover of Todd Rundgren's song "The Want Of A Nail" is also used in the movie "Camp" as the cast is introduced at the end of the film.

• Aesop Rock's song "No City" from his album None Shall Pass samples a voice reading the proverb, setting the tone for the idiosyncratic rap.

• Tom Waits's song "Misery Is the River of the World" from his album Blood Money includes the line "for want of a nail, a shoe was lost" as well as several other variations on the theme.

• Israeli songwriter Naomi Shemer wrote a translated version of the song called HaKol Biglal Masmer (All Because of a Nail).

• Newsboys song "It's All Who You Know" from the album Take Me to Your Leader is based on variations of the theme

Cinema and television

• The title of the season two episode of M*A*S*H, "For Want of a Boot", is adapted from the proverb. The episode's concept itself is also based on the proverb, with the character of Hawkeye going through a convoluted process involving several camp personnel, in order to get a new boot.

• In the movie The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, the proverb was used by Kamata (Sonny Chiba) to explain to his nephew the result of a small detail being overlooked.

• In the episode of USA's Monk, "Mr. Monk at Your Service",^[19] Monk quotes the proverb after being challenged by an employee that suggest a fork being a centimeter off center wasn't a problem. Monk: "For the want of a nail, the kingdom was lost."

• In the 1982 movie The Verdict, Ed Concannon (James Mason) uses the proverb, "for want of a shoe the horse was lost" to his disciples to describe what the case has become after Frank Galvin turned down the settlement.

• The entire proverbial rhyme is recited by the character Abraham Farlan in the 1946 motion picture A Matter of Life and Death, here it was used to describe the chain of circumstances which formed the life of the main character, Peter Carter.

• In season two, episode three of the television show Sliders, while trying to repair the timer device in a world crippled by 'anti-technology' Professor Arturo exclaims, "For want of a shoe the war was lost."

• In the 50th episode of Dead or Alive, Man On Horseback, Josh Randall, Steve McQueen's character, uses the proverb "For the want of a nail, they lost the shoe. For the want of a shoe, they lost the horse. For the want of a horse, they lost the rider" to justify the reason why he is taking with him four extra horseshoes.

See also

• Butterfly Effect
• Camel's nose
• Causality
• Chaos theory
• Domino effect
• Proverb
• Folklore
• Rhyme
• Alliteration
• Parallelism
• Remoteness in English Law

Bibliography

• Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richards Almanack, June 1758, The Complete Poor Richard Almanacks, facsimile ed., vol. 2, pp. 375, 377
• G. Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs, c. 1640, no. 499
• Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, ed. Iona and Peter Opie, Oxford 1951, pg 324

References

External links

• Famous Quotes UK (Retrieved 14-Feb-2008)
• Rhymes.org.uk "For want of a Nail Rhyme" (Retrieved 14-Feb-2008)
• "For want of a nail" at Everything2.com (Retrieved 14-Feb-2008)
• The Lorenz Butterfly (Retrieved 14-Feb-2008)
• JSTOR:For Want of a Nail, E. J. Lowe, Analysis, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Jan., 1980), pp. 50-52 (Retrieved 14-Feb-2008)
• James S. Robbins on 9/11 Commission published April 09, 2004 by National Review Online "For want of a nail:Lady Condoleezza on the battle of the Saracens." (Retrieved 14-Feb-2008)
• Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), U.S. statesman, writer. Poor Richard’s Almanac, preface (1758). (Retrieved 14-Feb-2008)