Who said "You’d be so lean that blasts of January would blow you through and through"?
William Shakespeare used the phrase, "You’d be so lean that blasts of January would blow you through and through" in his play "The Winter’s Tale", Act 4, scene 4. This line has been interpreted to mean, "Oh, stop it! You'd starve to death in that case."
Perdita is the one who uses the words while she was in a discussion with friends (Polixenes, Camillo, and Florizell). Their focus was on cross-breeding flowers. She said at the time:
Out, alas!
You’d be so lean that blasts of January
Would blow you through and through. (To
Florizell.) Now, my fair’st friend,
I would I had some flowers o’ th’ spring, that might
Become your time of day,
and yours, and yours,
That wear upon your virgin branches yet
Your maidenheads growing.
In most of the scene, Perdita is concerned with being the mistress of a big feast. She has been greeting the guests as they enter and handing out flowers. She has been talking with a disguised Polixenes regarding flowers, when a disguised Camillo (Polixene's servant) compliments Perdita that he would leave off grazing her flowers and only live by gazing at them if he were part of her flock.
More Info:
shakespeare.mit.edu
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