Oxford, Aug. 2. 1851.
57. _Tale of a Tub._--What is the origin of this popular phrase? It
dates anterior to the time of Sir Thomas More, an anecdote in whose
chancellorship thus illustrates it. An attorney in his court, named
Tubb, gave an account in court of a cause in which he was concerned,
which the Chancellor (who, with all his gentleness, loved a joke)
thought so rambling and incoherent, that he said at the end of Tubb's
speech, "This is _a tale of a Tubb_;" plainly showing that the phrase
was then familiarly known.