The weather is traditionally wild at the beginning of March, but fair by the end.
‘I would chuse March, for I would come in like a Lion.’‥‘But you'd go out like a Lamb when you went to hanging.’
[a 1625 J. Fletcher Wife for Month (1717) ii. i.]
March hack ham [hackande = annoying] comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb.
[1670 J. Ray English Proverbs 41]
Charming and fascinating he resolved to be. Like March, having come in like a lion, he purposed to go out like a lamb.
[1849 C. Brontë Shirley II. iv.]
March has come in like a lamb with a warm wind‥from the South-west.
[1906 E. Holden Country Diary of Edwardian Lady (1977) 25]
‘When March comes in like a lion, it goes out like a lamb’ goes the old folklore saying‥The reverse, however, is also true, and the saying continues: ‘When March comes in like a lamb, it goes out like a lion,’ which does not bode well for us this year.
[2002 Times 2 Mar. 26]
Related to: weather lore
Bibliography of major proverb collections and works cited from modern editions is available here.
