fair speakingn.

a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1869) II. 371 Poetes brouȝte in fables for þre skiles; for likynge of [MS and] talkynge and of fayre spekinge.

a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. viii. xv. 483 Poetis clepin him [sc. Mercury] god of fair spekynge [L. eloquentie].

1483 Vulgaria abs Terencio (T. Rood & T. Hunte) sig. qi^v If it wyll be wyth giffynge and faire spekynge I shall nott be behynde.

1553 J. Brende tr. Q. Curtius Rufus Hist. vi. f. 110 By threating and faire speakyng, he brought him to promise..to kepe his counsaile secrete.

1594 R. Ashley tr. L. le Roy Interchangeable Course f. 96^v To desire glory for his faire speaking..is an act of a base minde.

1628 G. Wither Britain's Remembrancer iv. f. 114^v Perjury, Faire-speaking, and corrupting Bribery, Did wound her much.

1699 J. Williams Warnings to Unclean 23 She..doth not barely hint a desire of the commission of that sin, but useth much fair speaking.

1794 W. Godwin Things as they Are II. 269 Artifice and fair speaking were at an end.

1823 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. July 50/1 He was at last prevailed upon by Master Manente's fair speaking.

1857 Evangelical Mag. & Missionary Chron. Jan. 52/2 They imagined that, with all this fair speaking, there was something behind, some other end in view, which would be discovered by and by.

1901 Educ. Times 1 Feb. 75 No doubt a few graduated prizes offered for fair speaking would soon have effect.

1999 O. D. Edwards in M. Anderson & E. Bort Irish Border 215 They throw off the mask after fair speaking and supposed benevolence.