Show how it started by JEAN NEWTON A MISS IS AS GOOD AS A MILE constantly C in ID everyday speech we meet with this flits saying to express t the 11 e fact that to have almost achieved something to have just missed reaching a goal Is no better ns as far as results are arc concerned than eriverto ri noyer verto to have made the attempt it Is a far ar cry from the ot of this saying to t 6 the medieval tale in which ll ii had its origin ands amla et amiles amis and amile Ain llo Is a french lyric dating from the twelfth or thirteenth century consisting of about thirty live five hundred verse s which detail the adventures of the two nohle noble knights the story of their great grear friendship and mutual sacrifice 1 closer than brothers brother sand and resembling each other to a 0 remarkable degree arola abuls and alid amile tire are in the tha service of charlemagne where they buttle battle against and overcome tile the opposition of the treacherous Fl flardie ardre Inri lre end and amis wins for his bride the niece of Cli chirle arle angne agne BeIlle ent the lie emperors daughter loves loes aralles anilleo however so darkest clouds rather gather over the heads bonds of the knights amis saves his friend and obtains tor for film the hand of the princess in the course of hla his extorts efforts on oil behalf of hla his friend ha however wever amis ha fills perjured himself for which he Is punished with leprosy arnele then voluntarily sacrifices his two sons that amis moy may he be cured by their blood by a miracle then the sons are restored to life and they athey all live happily ever after I 1 whether it was in the thought of their resemblance to each other or their great brent attach attachment merit which made them inseparable alint our modern saying had its beginning we do not know we to do know however that there Is little similarity between its original significance and the sense in which we today say A miss Is as good as a mile cop |