What is the origin of the idiom every cloud has a silver lining?

I have been having a lot of trouble with this one.

Also, are there any good sites for idioms and their origins in general?What is the origin of the idiom every cloud has a silver lining?
"Silver lining" comes from a proverb often heard, "Every cloud has a silver lining," which refers literally to the storm clouds described just above and is extended to the situations described above that.



: EVERY CLOUD HAS A SILVER LINING - "John Milton's masque (dramatic entertainment) 'Comus' (1634) gave rise to the current proverb with the lines, 'Was I deceiv'd, or did a sable cloud/ Turn forth her silver lining on the night?' Charles Dickens, in his novel 'Bleak House' (1852), recalled the lines with 'I turn my silver lining outward like Milton's cloud,' and the American impresario Phineas T. Barnum first recorded the wording of the modern saying in 'Struggles and Triumphs' (1869) with 'Every cloud,' says the proverb, 'has a silver lining.'" From "Wise Words and Wives' Tales: The Origins, Meanings and Time-Honored Wisdom of Proverbs and Folk Sayings Olde and New" by Stuart Flexner and Doris Flexner (Avon Books, New York, 1993).



Optimists see it that way. But we all know people who take the half-empty position, and they would remind us that every silver lining is surrounded by a big black cloud.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/index.htmlWhat is the origin of the idiom every cloud has a silver lining?
I think that this is one of hundreds of idioms that have their origin in someone noticing a natural phenomenon and using it as a symbol or metaphor for human circumstances. Other people hear the observation, accept its validity, and use it themselves. That's how language grows, and nobody remembers who was the innovator.

As for the saying itself. Clouds have silver linings because of the sunshine behind them. It means nothing. But if you think of clouds as symbols of adversity, then the silver lining may mean opportunities that come from them. Similarly, "It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good."