Irritare crabrones

You have brought a nest of hornets about your ears, may be applied to persons who have engaged in dispute with men of greater rank or power than themselves; or who have undertaken any business beyond their ability to execute, and from which they cannot extricate themselves without loss. To the same purport is

«Leonem stimulas».

Why awake the lion who may tear you in pieces? and the following

«Malum bene conditum ne moveris».

When you have escaped an injury, or when any dispute or contest in which you were engaged is compromised, and settled, do nothing that may revive it, you may not come off a second time so well. Non destare il can che dorme, the Italians say, do not wake a sleeping dog. And the French, N'as tu pas tort, de reveiller le chat qui dort? were you not wrong to wake the cat that was sleeping? or, Quando la mala ventura se duerme, nadie la despierte, when sorrow is asleep, do not wake it.