best of a bad bargain, to make the

To try to turn adversity to good account. Already found in the proverb collection of John Ray (1670), the phrase appears and reappears to the present. By 1790 James Boswell, Samuel Johnson’s biographer, refers to it as “the vulgar phrase.” The related cliché, to make the best of things, also was current in the seventeenth century, but has been traced back much further. The Greek playwright Euripides, as quoted by Plutarch, wrote, “The man who makes the best of everything he lights upon will not fare ill.” See also MAKE THE BEST OF IT. To have the best of both worlds, on the other hand, is to benefit from seemingly opposed circum- stances, for example, living in New England but spending cold winters in Florida. “Make the best of both worlds,” wrote Charles Kingsley in 1855 (Westward Ho!).