- Elizabeth herself, says Spenser, 'to mine open pipe inclined her ear'.—J.R. GREEN. (oaten)
- He could join the crew of Mirth, and look pleasant on at a village fair, 'where the jolly rebecks sound to many a youth and many a maid, dancing in the chequered shade'.—J.R. GREEN. (jocund)
- Heathen Kaffirs, et hoc genero, &c: ... —Daily Mail.( genus omne)
- If she takes her husband au pied de letter.—Westm. Gaz. (de la lettre)
13. MISQUOTATION OF LESS FAMILIAR PASSAGE
But the greatest wrong is done to readers when a passage that may not improbably be unknown to them is altered.
- It was at Dublin or in his castle of Kilcoloman, two miles from Doneraile, 'under the fall of Mole, that mountain hoar', that he spent the memorable years in which ...—J.R. GREEN. (foot)
- Petty spites of the village squire.—Spectator. (pigmy : spire)
14. MISAPPLIED AND MISUNDERSTOOD QUOTATIONS AND PHRASES
Before leading question or the exception proves the rule is written, a lawyer should be consulted before cui bono, Cicero; before more honoured in the breach than the observance, Hamlet. A leading question is one that unfairly helps a witness to the desired answer; cui bono has been explained on p. 35; the exception, &c., is not an absurdity when understood, but it is as generally used : more honoured, &c., means not that the rule is generally broken, but that it is better broken. A familiar line of Shakespeare, on the other hand, gains by being misunderstood: 'one touch of nature makes the whole world kin' merely means 'In one respect, all men are alike'.
- But cui bono all this detail of our debt? Has the author given a single light towards any material reduction of it? Not a glimmering.—BURKE.
- A rule dated March 3, 1801, which has never been abrogated, lays it down that, to obtain formal leave of absence, a member must show some sufficient cause, such as ... but this rule is more honoured in the breach than in the observance.—Times.
- Every one knows that the Governor-General in Council is invested by statute with the supreme command of the Army and that it would be disastrous to subvert that power. But 'why drag in Velasuez'? If any one wishes us to infer that Lord Kitchener has, directly or indirectly, ...