Notes and Queries, Number 187, May 28, 1853 | Page 6

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:
" . . . . . What I am truly Is thine, and my poore countries to command:
Whither indeed before they (thy) heere-approach, Old Seyward with

ten thousand warlike men Already at a point, was setting forth."
Macbeth, Act IV. Sc. 3. 1st Fol.
No profit to give the commentators' various guesses at the import of the
phrase in the above passage, which will be best gathered from the
following instances of its use elsewhere. But, before passing further, I
beg permission to inform MR. KNIGHT that the original suggester of
"sell" for "self," in an earlier part of this play, whose name {522} he is
at a loss for, was W. S. Landor, whose footnote to vol. ii. p. 273.,
Moxon's edit. of his works, is as follows:
"And here it may be permitted the editor to profit also by the
manuscript, correcting in Shakespeare what is absolute nonsense as
now printed:
'Vaulting ambition that o'erleaps itself, And falls on the other side.'
Other side of what? It should be its sell. Sell is saddle in Spenser and
elsewhere, from the Latin and Italian."
A correspondent of "N. & Q."., Vol. vii., p. 404., will be delighted to
find his very ingenious discovery brought home, and corroborated by
Landor's valuable manuscript: but it is an old said saw--"Great wits
jump." Now to our examples:
"Pasquin. Saint Luke also affirmeth the same, saying flatly that he shall
not be forgiuen. Beholde, therefore, how well they interprete the
Scriptures.
Marforius. I am alreadie at a poynt with them, but thou shalt doo me
great pleasure to expounde also vnto me certayne other places, vppon
the which they ground this deceit."--Pasquine in a Traunce, turned but
lately out of the Italian into this tongue by W. P.: London, 1584.
"But look, where malice reigneth in men, there reason can take no place:
and, therefore, I see by it, that you are all at a point with me, that no
reason or authority can persuade you to favour my name, who never
meant evil to you, but both your commodity and profit."--Foxe's Acts

and Monuments, vol. viii. p. 18.
"Not so, my lord," said I, "for I am at a full point with myself in that
matter; and am right well able to prove both your transubstantiation
with the real presence to be against the Scriptures and the ancient
Fathers of the primitive Church."--Id., p. 587.
"Winchester. No, surely, I am fully determined, and fully at a point
therein, howsoever my brethren do."--Id., p. 691.
"Brad. Sir, so that you will define me your church, that under it you
bring not in a false church, you shall not see but that we shall soon be
at a point."--Id., vol. vii. p. 190.
"Latimer. Truly, my lord, as for my part I require no respite, for I am at
a point. You shall give me respite in vain; therefore, I pray you let me
not trouble you to-morrow."--Id., p. 534.
"Unto whom he (Lord Cobham) gave this answer: 'Do as ye shall think
best, for I am at a point.' Whatsoever he (Archbishop Arundel) or the
other bishops did ask him after that, he bade them resort to his bill: for
thereby would he stand to the very death."--Id., vol. iii. pp. 327-8.
"'Et illa et ista vera esse credantur et nulla inter nos contentio remanebit,
quia nec illis veris ista, nec istis veris illa impediuntur.' Let bothe those
truthes and these truthes be beleued, and we shall be at appoinct. For
neither these truthes are impaired by the other, neither the other by
these."--A Fortresse of the Faith, p. 50., by Thomas Stapleton: Antwerp,
1565.
"A poore man that shall haue liued at home in the countrie, and neuer
tasted of honoure and pompe, is alwayes at a poynt with himselfe,
when menne scorne and disdayne him, or shewe any token of contempt
towardes his person."--John Calvin's CVIII. Sermon on the Thirtieth
Chap. of Job, p.