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Puttenham, George, -1590

"The Arte of English Poesie"

The
same translatour when he came to these words: _Insignem pietate virum tot
voluere casus tot adire labores compulit._ Hee turned it thus, what moued
_Iuno_ to tugge so great a captaine as _AEneus_, which word tugge spoken in
this case is so vndecent as none other coulde haue bene deuised, and tooke
his first originall from the cart, because it signifieth the pull or
draught of the oxen or horses, and therefore the leathers that beare the
chiefe stresse of the draught, the cartars call them tugges, and so wee
vse to say that shrewd boyes tugge each other by the eares, for pull.
Another of our vulgar makers, spake as illfaringly in this verse written
to the dispraise of a rich man and couetous. Thou hast a misers minde
(thou hast a princes pelfe) a lewde terme to be spoken of a princes
treasure, which in no respect nor for any cause is to be called pelfe,
though it were neuer so meane, for pelfe is properly the scrappes or
shreds of taylors and of skinners, which are accompted of so vile price as
they be commonly cast out of dores, or otherwise bestowed vpon base
purposes: and carrieth not the like reason or decencie, as when we say in
reproch of a niggard or vserer, or worldly couetous man, that he setteth
more by a little pelfe of the world, than by his credit or health, or
conscience.


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