E. S.
Cum Grano Salis (Vol. iii., p. 88.) simply means, with a grain of allowance; spoken of propositions which require qualification. The Cambridge man's explanation, therefore, does not suit the meaning. I have always supposed that salis was added to denote a small grain. I find in Forcellini that the Romans called a small flaw in crystals sal.
C. B.
Hoops (Vol. iii., p. 88.).—The examples given in Johnson's article Farthingale will sufficiently answer the question. Farthingales are mentioned in Latimer with much indignant eloquence:
"I trow Mary had never a verdingale."
If the question had been, not whether they were in use as early as 1651, but whether they were in use in 1651, perhaps there would have been more difficulty, for they do not appear in Hollar's dresses, 1640.
C. B.
Cranmer's Descendants (Vol. iii., p. 8.).—It may be of some interest to C. D. F. to be informed, that the newspapers of the time recorded the death of Mr. Bishop Cranmer of Wivelescombe, co. Somerset, on the 8th April, 1831, at the age of eighty-eight. He is said to have been a direct descendant of the martyred archbishop, to whose portraits he bore a strong personal resemblance.
J. D. S.
Shakspeare's Use of the Word "Captious" (Vol. ii., p. 354.).—Why may not the word have the same meaning as it has now? A captious person is not primarily a deceitful person, but either one who catches at any argument to uphold his own cause, or, more generally, one who catches or cavils at arguments or expressions used by another, and fastens a frivolous objection on them; one who takes exception to a point on paltry and insufficient grounds: