What does "gilding the lily" mean and what is its origin?

dcpddc478

To apply unnecessary ornament - to over embellish. http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/gild-the-lily.html Jan 15 10, 2:06 PM

looney_tunes

As the above link shows, the origin is Shakespeare (where else!). The original wording comes from a speech in the play "King John", in which the second, and completely unnecessary, coronation of the king is being discussed. Amongst other unnecessary actions, the character lists "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,To throw a perfume on the violet ... Is wasteful and ridiculous excess." "The use of Shakespeare's text to denote unnecessary ornamentation is fairly straightforward. After all, 'to gild' is to cover with a thin layer of gold, so 'gilding refined gold' is obviously unnecessary. Unfortunately, remembering text from Shakespeare isn't everyone's forte and the quotation has become rather garbled. As the quotation above shows, 'gild the lily' doesn't appear in the original." Jan 15 10, 2:58 PM