Meaning:
To be aware of which side of a conflict it is in your interests to be on.
Background:
This proverbial saying is first found in John Heywood's 1546 glossary A
Dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the Prouerbes in the Englishe
tongue:
Thou farest to well (quoth he) but thou art so wood [crazy],
Thou knowst not who doth ye harm, who doth ye good
Yes yes (quoth she) for all those wyse words vttred,
I knowe on whiche syde my breade is buttred.
Heywood spent most of his working life at the court of the Tudor monarchs of
England. The factionalism between the Protestant and Catholic supports was
intense. It was certainly a time to be clear where one's interests lay and
which horse to back - getting it wrong could be fatal. No better time to coin
a phrase like `I know which side my bread is buttered'.
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
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I guess schizophrenia must be common in espionage circles, i.e., a good mole
must struggle often with where they belong and which side their loyalty lies.
In Ha Jin's novel "A Map of Betrayal," Gary Shang, the top Chinese spy,
graduated Tsinghua, followed the U.S. Army as a translator, then worked for the
CIA, had a second family in Virginia, and delivered vital intelligence to Mao
and Zhou throughout the Cold War before being exposed, a career spanning almost
40 years. Ditched by the motherland and facing an American court, he pleaded
that he loved both countries. Some might say he tried to have his bread buttered
on both sides. He was condemned and, 63 years old, killed himself in jail.
