Obs. Pl. 6–7 statuas, 7 statuaes, statua’s. [a. L. statua: see STATUE sb.]
In mod. edd. of Shaks. the following passages have statua (or pl. statuas) where the reading of the early edd. is statue (or statues): Rich. III., III. vii. 25, Jul. C., II. ii. 76, III. ii. 192, 2 Hen. VI., III. ii. 80. The emendation is prob. right, as a trisyllable is required, and there is no evidence of trisyllabic pronunciation of statue.
= STATUE sb.
c. 1400. Pilgr. Sowle, IV. xxix. (1859), 61. This word statua, whiche that we transumen in to Englysshe, that is to mene an Image.
1451. Capgrave, Life St. Aug., 19. Whech man for grete sciens had a statua rered to his liknesse in þe markette at Rome.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. Ep. Ded. *2 b. With the same intention that the old Romans set vp in wax in their palaces the Statuas or images of their worthy ancestors.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. viii. § 6. 44 b. It is not possible to haue the true pictures or statuaes of Cyrus, Alexander, Cæsar…; for the originals cannot last. Ibid., II. i. § 2. 7 b. Without which the History of the world seemeth to me, to be as the Statua of Polyphemus with his eye out. Ibid. (1625), Ess., Building (Arb.), 552. And let there be a Fountaine, or some faire Worke of Statua’s, in the Middest of this Court.
1646. G. Daniel, Poems, Wks. 1878, I. 12. I stood A verie Statua, dull as my owne Mudde.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., I. 117. A fair Table Monument … with their statua’s from head to foot laying thereon. Ibid., 264. Over his Grave was … the Statua or Bust of the Defunct to the middle part of his body.
