The curate's egg

Episcopus: "I'm afraid you've got a bad egg, Mr Jones." Vicarius: "Oh, no, my Lord, I assure you that parts of it are excellent!"
"True Humility" a Georgio du Maurier die 9 Novembris 1895 in libellis Punch picta
Locutio Anglica "The curate's egg" (scil. "vicarii ovum"), e pictura lineari orta quam Georgius du Maurier anno 1895 titulo "True Humility" in libellis Punch divulgandam depinxit, rem denotat partim vitiatam.

 True Humility 
Pictura convivas monstrat qui ientaculum sumunt, videlicet mulieres duas, episcopum (qui et hospitem), vicarium: ille, "Mi paenitet," ait, "te ovum putidum habere;" hic, "Minime, domine," inquit, "mihi crede, partim optimum!" Omnes ovum sentire intellegendumst et tale ovum omnino reiciendum scire; vicarius autem timidus reicere haud valet. 

 Usus locutionis 
In litteris Anglicis locutio the curate's egg, ad hanc picturam referens, anno fere 1905 introducitur; quo anno de modis vestimentorum scriptor quidam libellorum Minister's Gazette of Fashion taliter adseveravit: "The past spring and summer season has seen much fluctuation. Like the curate's egg, it has been excellent in parts.The New Oxford Dictionary of English (Oxonii: Oxford University Press, 1998) p. 449 De libro quodam legitur in libellis Oxford Magazine (1962): "All the same it is a curate's egg of a book. While the whole may be somewhat stale and addled, it would be unfair not to acknowledge the merits of some of its parts."

 Notae 

Categoria:Locutiones Anglicae