han three more instances and at p.
665. another.
"_Careless._ No, forsooth: I do not know any such, nor have I heard of
him that I wot of.
_Martin._ _No have_, forsooth: and it is even he that hath written
against thy faith."
Then _Martin_ said:
"Dost thou not know one Master Chamberlain?
_Careless._ No forsooth; I know him not.
_Martin._ _No dost!_ and he hath written a book against thy faith
also."--_Id._, vol. iii. p. 164.
"_Lichfield and Coventry._ We heard of no such order.
_Lord Keeper._ _No did?_ Yes, and on the first question ye began
willingly. How cometh it to pass that ye will not now do so?"--_Id._,
p. 690.
"Then said Sir Thomas Moyle: 'Ah! Bland, thou art a stiff-hearted
fellow. Thou wilt not obey the law, nor answer when thou art called.'
'_Nor will_,' quoth Sir John Baker. 'Master Sheriff, take him to your
ward.'"--_Id._, vol. vii. p. 295.
Is it needful to state, that the original editions have, as they ought to
have, a note of interrogation at "Baker?" I will not tax the reader's
patience with more than two other examples, and they shall be fetched from
the writings of that admirable papist--the gentle, the merry-hearted More:
"Well, quod Caius, thou wylt graunte me thys fyrste, that euery thynge
that hath two erys is an asse.--Nay, mary mayster, wyll I not, quod the
boy.--_No wylt_ thou? quod Caius. Ah, wyly boy, there thou wentest
beyond me."--The Thyrde Boke, the first chapter, fol. 84. of Sir Thomas
More's _Dialogues_.
"Why, quod he, what coulde I answere ellys, but clerely graunt hym that
I believe that thyng for none other cause but only bycause the
Scripture so sheweth me?--_No could ye?_ quod I. What yf neuer
Scripture had ben wryten in thys world, should there neuer haue bene
eny chyrch or congregacyon of faythfull and ryght beyleuyng
people?--That wote I nere, quod he. _No do ye?_ quod I."--_Id._, fol.
85.
In taking leave of this idiom, it would not perhaps be amiss to remark,
that "ye can," in Duke Humphey's rejoinder to the "blyson begger of St.
Albonys," is not, as usually understood, "you can?" but "yea can?"
* * * * *
_To be at point_ = to be at a stay or stop, _i.e._ settled, determined,
nothing farther being to be said or done: a very common phrase. Half a
dozen examples shall suffice:
" . . . .
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