58 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[July 28. 1855. 



england the boasted land of freedom the nursery of the 

 arts and sciences that her sons are obliged to go to a 

 foreign countrj' to obtain that recompense to which they 

 are justly entitled 



In conclusion I beg to contradict an assertion you made 

 to the effect that " there is not nor ever was any reward 

 offered by the government of this country for the dis- 

 covery of the quadrature of the circle," I beg to inform 

 you that there was but that it having been deemed an 

 impossibility the government has withdrawn it, I do 

 this upon no less an authority than the Marquis of 

 Northampton 



D'' Morgan I am Sir Yours 



The last paragraph probably arises from the 

 reward, now withdrawn, for the improvement of 

 means for finding longitude. Nothing is more 

 common than confusion between the longitude 

 problem and that of squaring the circle. 



I might make a small book of correspondence 

 of the following tenor. The first letter is from 

 A. B. to me, setting forth that I am a great au- 

 thority, and that knowledge and candour come as 

 natural to me as beef and mutton ; whence an 

 opinion from me would be of the greatest benefit 

 to A. B. aforesaid, who ends by apologising for 

 intruding his humble ideas upon so busy a lu- 

 minary. The second letter is from me to A. B., 

 setting forth why I differ from him (the case 

 above printed was a hopeless one). The third and 

 last is from A. B. to me, either recapitulating the 

 case of Galileo, or quoting Dugald Stewart or 

 somebody else against all mathematicians, or 

 telling me that it is not for such persons in their 

 closets to decide upon &c. &c. ; or explaining to 

 me the whole matter didactically, and ending with 

 *' Si quid novisti," &c. Sometimes, as in the case 

 above, bad motives are put into my mind. 



A. De Morgan. 



"A SLEEVELESS EERAND. 



Of this popular phrase, which, as it was used by 

 Warburton, can hardly yet be said to be obsolete, 

 and of which every one knows the meaning, no 

 one hitherto appears to have perceived the origin. 

 Mr. N ares justly observes, "All the conjectures 

 respecting its derivation seem equally unsatis- 

 factory, even that of Home Tooke ; " who says, 

 *' Sleeveless metaphorically means, without a cover 

 or pretence." The definition in Todd's Johnson 

 is — 



" Sleeveless, a. Wanting sleeves ; having no sleeves ; 

 wanting reasonableness; wanting propriety; without a 

 cover or pretence." 



All this is nothing to the purpose, and, however 

 startling it may be, it is certain that the expression 

 sleeveless in this phrase, and in many other old 

 instances, had nothing to do with the sleeve of a 

 garment. 



Mr. Nares has also observed, — 



" It is plain that sleeveless had the sense of useless be- 

 No. 300.] 



fore it was applied to an errand. Thus Bishop Hall has 

 'sleeveless rhymes,' and even Milton ' a, sleeveless reason.' "" 



It seems strange that this observation had not 

 led the learned glossarist to the meaning of a 

 sleeveless errand. It may be as well to cite a few 

 old examples of the use of the word : thus 

 Chaucer, in the Testament of Love, fo. 343. re- 

 verse, edit. 1533 : 



"Good chyld (quod she) what echeth such renome to- 

 the conscience of a wyse man, that loketh and measureth 

 his goodnesse, not by sleevelesse wordes of y^ people, but 

 by sothfastnesse of conscience : by God, nothyng." 



Again, in ReliquicB Antiquce, vol. i. p. 83. : 



" Syrrus, thynke not lonke, and I schall tell vow a. 

 sleveles reson." 



And in Taylor the Water-poet's Works, ii. 111. r 



" .... a neat laundresse or a hearbwife can 

 Carry a sleevelesse message now and th an." 



So Fairefax, Godfrey of Boulogne, bk. vi. st. 89. :. 



" . . . . For she had sent 

 The rest on sleevelesse errands from her side." 



It will be recollected that Shakspeare has the- 

 phrase in his Troilus and Cressida, where he 

 seems to play upon the word sleeve ; and this may' 

 have misled many. 



Now the fact is, that there was an old English' 

 verb, to sleeve, signifying to divide or separate; 

 and to sleeve silk was to separate and prepare it 

 for weaving by passing it through the slay of a 

 weaver's loom, sometimes called a sled; hence 

 sleeved, sleaved, or sleided silk : and sleeve, or 

 sleave, was that tangled coarse part left by the. 

 operation. Which explains in Macbeth, — 

 " Sleepe that knits up the raveVd sleeve of care." 



That to sleeve meant to divide or separate, will 

 be obvious from the following passage in Lord. 

 Brooke : 



" For th' object which in grosse our flesh conceives,. 

 After a sort, yet when light doth beginne 

 These to retaile and subdivide, or sleeves 



Into more minutes ; then growes sense so thinne;. 

 As none can so refine the sense of man, 

 That two or three agree in any can." 



Of Humane Learning, p. 24. 



And the word is still in use in the north for fo- 

 split, cleave, or separate ,- so that the root is evi- 

 dently the A.-S. rhp-an. 



I suspect that the word sleeve was anciently 

 applicable to the coarse separated portions of wool 

 or flax, as well as of silk, which was thrown aside 

 as refuse that could not be divided into threads, 

 or unravelled by passing it through the slay of the 

 weaver, or the comb of the wool-worker or flax- 

 spinner, and hence sleeveless, useless, profitless, 

 like a sleeveless errand. S. W. Singer. 



Mickleham. 



