needs must when the devil drives

Originally “needs must he go whom the devil drives”, where needs is an adverb with the sense “of necessity”.

needs must when the devil drives

1. There is sometimes no choice but to do some specific thing.
   • 1664, Charles Cotton, Scarronides; or, Virgile Travestie:

     He needs must goe, the Devil drives.

   • 1623, William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well:

     My poor body, madam, requires it: I am driven on by the flesh; and he must needs go that the devil drives.

   • 1956, Gerald Durrell, “The Talking Flowers”, in My Family and Other Animals, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1959 (1974 printing), →OCLC, page 221:

     I doubt we can make it on foot, laden as we are. Dear me! I think we had better have a cab. An extravagance, of course, but needs must where the devil drives, eh?

• needs must (short form)
• necessity knows no law