Exeter.
_Call a Spade, a Spade_ (Vol. iv., p. 274.).--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.