[Love] tyrannizeth in the bitter smarts
Of them that to him buxome are and prone.
Spenser, Fairy Queen, iii. 2, 23.
By. The first clause in the quotation which follows from the Authorized Version of the Bible must often either fail to convey any meaning, or must convey a wrong meaning, to the English reader of the present day. The ‘nil conscire sibi’ is what the Apostle would claim for himself; and the other passages quoted show that this idiomatic use of ‘by,’ as equivalent to ‘concerning’ (it is probably related to ἀμφὶ), but with also a suggestion of ‘against,’ was not peculiar to our Translators.
I think S. Paul spake these words [‘who mind earthly things’] by the clergymen that will take upon them the spiritual office of preaching, and yet meddle in worldly matters too, contrary to their calling.—Latimer, Sermons, p. 529.
Thou hast spoken evil words by the Queen.
No man living upon earth can prove any such things by me.
Foxe, Book of Martyrs; Examination of Elizabeth
Young by Martin Hussie.
This angry prior told the archbishop to his face, in a good audience, concerning what he had preached of the bishop of Rome’s vices, that he knew no vices by none of the bishops of Rome.—Strype, Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer, b. i. c. 8.
For all the wealth that ever I did see,