Minor Queries Answered.
Call a Spade, a Spade.
—What is the origin of the common saying to call a spade, a spade? Is it an old proverb or a quotation? In a letter of Melancthon's to Archbishop Cranmer respecting the formularies of the Anglican Church, dated May 1st, 1548, the following sentence occurs, which seems to be another form of it:—
"In Ecclesiâ rectius, scapham, scapham dicere; nec objicere posteris ambigua dicta."
Is scapham, scapham dicere, I would also ask, a classical quotation, or a modern Latin version of the other expression?
W. FRASER.
[Mr. Halliwell, in his Dictionary, says, "The phrase To call a spade a spade is applied to giving a person his real character or qualities. Still in use." "I am plaine, I must needs call a spade a spade, a pope a pope."—Mar-Prelate's Epitome, p. 2.]
Prince Rupert's Drops.
—At the risk of being thought somewhat ignorant, I beg for enlightenment with regard to the following passage extracted from a late number of Household Words:—
"Now the first production of an author, if only three lines long, is usually esteemed as a sort of Prince Rupert's Drop, which is destroyed entirely if a person make on it but a single scratch."
If you, or some of your correspondents, would not think this too trivial a matter to notice, and would inform me what the allusion to "Prince Rupert's Drop" refers to, I should be very much obliged.
YRAM.
[For the history of Prince Rupert's Drops our correspondent is referred to our 100th Number, p. 234. These philosophical toys, which exhibit in the most perfect manner the effects of expansion and contraction in melted glass, are made by letting drops of melted glass fall into cold water. Each drop assumes an oval form with a tail or neck resembling a retort; and possesses this singular property, that if a small portion of the tail is broken off the whole bursts into powder with an explosion, and a considerable shock is communicated to the hand that grasps it.]
"Worse than a Crime."
—Who first remarked, with reference to the murder of the Duc D'Enghien by Napoleon, "It was worse than a crime, it was a blunder?"
T. ALLASON.
Furnival's Inn, Oct. 3. 1851.
[This saying has always been attributed to Talleyrand; and it is so clearly the remark of a clever politician, but lax moralist, that we have little doubt it has been very justly appropriated to that distinguished sayer of good things.]
Arbor Lowe, Stanton Moor, Ayre Family.
—Can any of your readers oblige me with information respecting the Druidical remains at Arbor Lowe and Stanton Moor, in the Peak of Derbyshire? I am unable to find any but meagre notices; and in one or two so-called histories of Derbyshire, they are only casually mentioned. Also any particulars concerning the old family of the Ayres, who formerly lived at Birchever, and whose house still stands in a very ruinous condition at the foot of the Routor Rocks?
I have heard that some very singular histories are connected with the family.
H.
[Arbor Lowe and Stanton Moor will be found very fully described by that indefatigable Derbyshire antiquary Mr. Bateman, in his Vestiges of the Antiquities of Derbyshire, published in 1848.]
Bishop of Worcester "On the Sufferings of Christ."
—Who was the Bishop of Worcester about the year 1697? I have a book by him On the Sufferings of Christ, and it only states by Edward Bishop of Worcester. I presume it is Dr. Stillingfleet.
Σιγμα.
[This work is by Bishop Stillingfleet; the first edition was published in 1696, and Part II. in 1700, the year following the Bishop's death.]
Lord Clifford.
—Is the present Lord Clifford lineally descended from the Lord Clifford who was Lord High Treasurer temp. Charles II., or whether he derives through any collateral branch?
CLERICUS.
[The present Lord Clifford, the eighth baron, is lineally descended from Thomas first Baron Clifford of Chudleigh, who was so created 22nd April, 1672.]
Latin Translation of Sarpi's Council of Trent.
—Can any one inform me who translated this into Latin? I have a copy of an early edition, without printer's name or place of publication, and with the fictitious name Petri Suavis Polani; an anagram, though not an accurate one, of Pauli, Sarpis, Veneti. The date is 1622, and over it is the device of a man under a tree, round which a vine twines, with "non solus" on a scroll. At the foot of the title-page is a MS. note in the handwriting of Rev. Francis Boult, who was a dissenting minister in Shrewsbury about a hundred years ago. It would enable those who have access to public libraries (which I have not) to answer the question above proposed. Si scire cupias quis interpres hanc historiam ex Italico in Latinum sermonem verterit, consula opusculum Degorii Wheare, Relectiones Hyamales vocatum pag. 219 et 220.
E. H. D. D.
[This is the first edition of the very inaccurate Latin translation of Sarpi's Council of Trent. The first two chapters were translated by Sir Adam Newton, and the last two by William Bedell, afterwards Bishop of Kilmore.]
Livery Stables.
—What is the meaning of livery stables, and when were they first so called?
J. C. W.
[Livery, i.e. delivery, from the French livrer, to deliver. To the origin of this word (says Junius) these words of Chaucer allude, "that is the conisance of my livery, to all my Servants delivered." Richardson also gives the following quotation from Spenser explanatory of it:—"What livery is, wee by common use in England know well enough, namely, that it is allowance of horse-meate, as they commonly use the word in stabling, as to keepe horses at livery:—the which word, I guesse, is derived of livering or delivering forth their nightly foode. So in great houses the livery is said to be served up for all night, that is, their evening's allowance for drinke. And livery is also called the upper weede which a serving man weareth, so called (as I suppose) for that it was delivered and taken from him at pleasure."—Spenser on Ireland.]