—I have found two early, but unauthenticated, instances of the use of this saying, in a note by J. Scaliger on the Priapeia, sive Diversorum Poetarum in Priapum Lusus:—
"Simplicius multo est, ——, latinè Dicere, quid faciam? crassa Minervæ mea est."
Carmen, ii. 9, 10.
"Ἄγροικός εἰμι· τὴν σκάφην σκάφην λέγω;" Aristophanes.—"Unde jocus maximi Principis, Philippi Macedonis. Quum ii, qui prodiderant Olynthum Philippo, conquestum et expostulatum ad ipsum venissent, quod injuriosè nimis vocarentur proditores ab aliis Macedonibus: οἱ Μακεδόνες, inquit, ἀμαθεῖς καὶ ἄγροικοί εἰσι· τὴν σκάφην σκάφην λέγουσι."—J. Scaliger.
For which note see the "Priapeia," &c., at the end of an edition of Petronius Arbiter, entitled, Titi Petronii Arbitri Equitis Romani Satyricon. Concinnante Michaele Hadrianide. Amstelodami. Typis Ioannis Blaeu. M.DC.LXIX.
As I cannot at this moment refer to any good verbal index to Aristophanes, I cannot ascertain in what part of his works Scaliger's quotation is to be found. Burton, in his preface to the Anatomy of Melancholy ("Democritus Junior to the Reader"), repeats the saying twice, i.e. in Latin and English, and presents it, moreover, in an entirely new form:
"I am aquæ potor, drink no wine at all, which so much improves our modern wits; a loose, plain, rude writer, ficum voco ficum, et ligonem ligonem, and as free as loose; idem calamo quod in mente: I call a spade a spade; animis hæc scribo, non auribus, I respect matter, not words," &c.—Democritus Jr. to the Reader, Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, Blake, MDCCCXXXVI. one vol. 8vo. p. 11.
C. FORBES.
Temple.