150
NOTES AND QUERNS. [i2s.ii. AUG. 19, uie.
"NOSE OF WAX."
(10 S. viii. 228, 274, 298 ; x. 437 ; 11 S. v. 7.)
SEVERAL communications on the origin and use of this expression have appeared in ' X. & Q.' during the last few years, but no real addition has been made, so far, to what can be learnt from the ' N.E.D.' and the ' General Index to the Publications of the Parker^ Society,' 1855. The Dictionary, a.v. ^ Nose,' I. 4, after defining a " nose of wax " as " a thing easily turned or moulded in any way desired ; a person easily in- fluenced, one of a weak character," says that the phrase is very common c. 1580-1700, " especially in allusions to wresting the Scriptures." The earliest quotation is dated 1532, from Tyndale's ' Expositions and Notes on Sundry Portions of the Holy Scriptures,' Matt. vi. 23 : " If the Scripture be contrary, then make it a nose of wax and wrest it this way and that way, till it agree." A further example is given/ of 1589, from Thomas Cooper's ' Admonition to the People of England ' (ed. Arber, p. 58) : " Affirming
that the Scriptures are darke because
they may be wrested euery way, like a nose of waxe, or like a leaden Rule."*
Henry Cough's index to the Parker Society's publications gives under " Nose of Wax ; the Scriptures so called (by A. Pighius, q.v.) " references to William Fulke, Roger Hutchinson, and Tyndale ; and, under
Pighius (Alb.) : calls the Scriptures a nose of wax," references to Fulke, Hutchinson, Jewel, Thomas Rogers, Tyndale, and Whit- gift. A passage from Jewel may be quoted :
"Neither do we so scornfully call God's holy word a nose of wax,' ' a shipman's hose,' or ' a dead letter,' as sundry of that side have delighted to call it. --< The Defence of the Apology of the Church of England,' part ii. Parker Soc. edit, of Jewel s ' Works,' vol. iii. p. 431.
So much for the English form of the expression. An extract from Albertus Pighius (Pigghe, c. 1490-1542) is quoted by the editor of the ' Works of Roger Hutchin- son, Parker Society, p. 34 :
" Sunt enim illae (ut non minus vere, quam
stive dixit quidam) velut nasus cereus, qui se
rsum, zllorsum, et in quam volueris partem,
rani, retrahl, flngique facile permittit : et tenquam
plumbeae quaedam Lesbiae aedificationis regula,
quam non sit difficile accommodare ad quidvis
For "leaden Rule" see Aristotle, ' Nico-
machean Ethics,' 5, 10, 7, and ' N. & Q.,' 10 S. vii.
256, a. " Lesbian Lead."
volueris." ' Hierarchiae ecclesiasticae assertio,"
lib. iii. cap. 3, folio 80, edit. 1538.
It will be observed that Pighius in this passage professes to be borrowing the application of the phrase " cereus nasus." Another reference to Pighius, ' Explicatio cathol. cont rovers.,' contr. 3, the preface being dated Jan. 5, 1542, where the Scriptures are called " muti judices " and " velut cereus quidam nasus," is supplied by the editor of Jewel's ' Works,' Parker Soc., vol. iv. p. 748.
But the metaphorical " cereus nasus " was applied not solely to the Scriptures, but also to other documents and authorities, such as texts in philosophy and law, that could be " wrested " to the special purpose of an argument. Examples can be quoted from earlier writings than those of Pighius. Vives in his ' De causis corruptarum artium,' lib. i., about twelve-thirteenths through, has:
" Ut jam etiamuulgo inter eos non omnino, ut solent, inscite Aristoteles dicatur habere nasum cereum, quern quilibet quo uelit, flectat pro libito." P. 61 of the 1538 Cologne ed. of the ' De disciplines libri xx.'
Erasmus, ' Encomium moriae,' about two- thirds through, p. 101 in Levden edition of 1851, has :
" lam illud quantae felicitatis esse putatist dum rearms litteras, perinde quasi cereae sint pro libidine formant ac reformant, dum con- clusiones suas, quibus iam aliquot scholastic! subscripserunt, plusquam Solonis leges videri postulant."
" Cereus nasus " is used with reference to laws in the Latin lines ' De conditionibus hominum eius temporis,' by Filippo Vagnone, printed at the end of Nevisanus's ' Sylva nuptialis.' Vagnone died in 1499, according to Tiraboschi, ' Storia della lett. ital.,' tomo vi. parte iii. p. 1445 (ed. 1824) :
Sportula iudicium totiens recidiua perennat, Legibus et nasus cereus esse solet.
LI. 17, 18.
To pass to a much earlier writer : that the metaphorical use of " cereus nasus " was not unknown in mediaeval days is shown by a passage in Alain of Lille (ob. c. 1203) :
" Sed quia auctoritas cereum habet nasum, id est in diversum potest flecti sensum, rationibus roborandum est. ' Contra haereticos,' lib. i. cap. xxx., ' Quibus auctoritatibus gentilium philosophorum probatur quod anima humana sit imniortalis.'
For the knowledge that the phrase " cereus nasus " was to be found in connexion with " auctoritas " in Alain of Lille, I am in- debted to M. de Wulf s ' Introduction a la Philosophie Neo-scolastique,' pt. ii. chap. iii. (p. 260 of P. Coffey's Eng. transl.), but no reference wsa given.
