The game is not worth the candle involves an unexplained allusion, perhaps to some game in which a candle was the stake or forfeit, or, as is more plausibly suggested, it refers to the fact that gamblers were required to pay for the candles to light the gambling rooms, and obviously the game was no longer worth the candle when the stakes became small. The variant The flame is not worth the candle illustrates a change arising in oral transmission; it cannot serve to explain the origin. Tace is Latin for candle, a proverbial admonition to silence, must contain a pun or allusion.
