A view of society in Europe, in its progress from rudeness to refinement; or, inquiries concerning the history of law, government, and manners / By Gilbert Stuart.

  • Gilbert Stuart
Date:
1778
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A view of society in Europe, in its progress from rudeness to refinement; or, inquiries concerning the history of law, government, and manners / By Gilbert Stuart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tnitted the infidelities of his wife, c Proprie arga 4 is dicitur,’ lays Du Cange, 4 cujus uxor moecha- 4 tur, et ille tacetf Glojf. vol 1. p. 319. Spelm. p. 40. A perfon of this kind was infamous in the extreme, and generally of the vileft condition. The word cucurbita had alfo this fenfe; and hence the French coucourd, and our cuckold. Each of thefe terms, accordingly, in its enlarged acceptation, came naturally enough to fignify a mean, cowardly, and Jlupid fellow. To have a caput cucurbitinum, was to be a block-head. And, from the confufion of the proper fenfe of cucurbita, and its enlarged one, the infamy feems to have arifen which, to this hour, conftantly attends even an involuntary cuckold. It is thus, that even words operate upon manners. The point of honour in Sweden, in early times, is well illuftrated by the following law, which I give in the words of Stiernhook, whofe book is not commonly to be met with. 4 Si dicat vir viro probofum verbum : Non es 4 vir viri compar, aut virili pectore: Ego vero fum 4 vir [inquit alter] quails tu. Hi in trivio conve- 4 niunto. Si comparet provocans, nec provoca- 6 tus ; talis eilo [provocatus] fequior ut didlus fuit, 4 ut qui nec pro femina nec viro facramentalis efle 4 queat, inteftabilis: Si vero comparet provocatus, 4 nec provocans, quam vehementiffime trino im- f mani clamore exclamet, et fignum in terra radat, 4 et
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