" CUIRE DANS SON JUS."
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Your readers will doubtless agree with the opinion expressed in a recent number of the Spectator that the words quoted above have of late been repeated " usque ad nauseam," a process hardly needed in order to aggravate their inherent nauseousness. But I have not perceived that any attempt has been made to trace their origin or authorship, or even to settle the question of their originality, or otherwise. Naturally enough, they have been connected with Prince Bismarck—generally, indeed, as their author—nor have sagacious critics failed to point opt the suitableness of the sentiment expressed, at once coarse, and yet vigorous and expressive, to the character, real or imagined, of the bluff German statesman.
On reflection, however, it must have appeared obvious that here was no new " minting of an epigram," but the application of a proverbial saying in familiar use ; and, as a fact, we find it in English form in a great poem written some five hundred years ago, witness the following, from "The Wife of Bath's Prologue," in the " Canterbury Tales " :- " That in his Owen grese I mado him frie,
For anger, and for veray jalousie."
But, in this instance, also, we have evidently a quotation of a popular saying, then familiarly known, and so we are carried further still, to a period even earlier—how much earlier ?—than the time of Chaucer.—I am, Sir, &c., H. J. V.
Previous page
