ORIGIN OF ‘ BLUE BLOOD.’

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VI, Issue 23, 7 June 1890, Page 10

ORIGIN OF ‘ BLUE BLOOD.’

T hi* term comes from the Spanish expression s-iuscrre ozwf applied to the aristocracy of Castile and Aragon. After the Moors were driven out of Spain, the aristocracv was held to consist of those who traced their lineage back to the time before the M-»>ri*h conquest, and especiallv to the fair-haire-i and light-romplexione-i Gotha Their vein* naturally appear through their skin of a blue colour, while the ‘ blnod of the masses, contaminated by the Moorish infusion and to a lesser de-re*- bv miscegenation with negroes and Ba* t ues. showed dark up-ij their hands and faces. So the white Spaniards -.fold rare came to declare that their blo.i was blue, while that of the common people wa« black. Owing to intermarriage, there is very little genuine blue blood left in Spain, but a Spanish family remaining perfectly fair an-i purefv G-thic. and holding position an-i rank for centuries, t* to be found in \ u-ratan at the present day. In England, however it was anciently held that the thick an-i dark blood wa* the lest. • Thtn-blood ' or • pale-blood ’ means weak and cowardly. Shakespere never loaded wools more heavilv with -ignificance than when he made Lucia .-all Angelo. i' n • Measure tor Measure ’— A man bl«»l *DOw-bcoch: one who never feefe The wanton and motion.- of the sense.