12 OCTOBER 1918, Page 15

BAD LANGUAGE.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] StR,—Your correspondent " Retired " writes

"May one finally raise the question whether there are any instances, in prose or poetry, before our own time, of a mixture of 'thou' and ' you ' in the same sentence, referring to one and the same person?"

Shelley came very near doing this when in 1822 he wrote :— " 0, Love, who bewailest The frailty of all things here, Why choose you the frailest For your cradle, your home and your bier I"