Make a virtue of necessity. (Shakespeare: Two Gentlemen of
Verona, iv. 1.)
“Quintilian has laudem virtutis necessitati damus: St. Jerome
(epistle 54 section 6), Fac de necessitate virtutem. In the Roman de la Rose, line 14058, we find S'il ne fait de necessite
virtu, and Boccaccio has Si come savia fatta della necessita.”
Necessity the tyrant's plea. (Milton: Paradise Lost, book iv. verse
393.)
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
