"SPLENDIDE MENDAX."
[To rum EDITOR or ram "Srrerrror."1
SIR,—In the article entitled "More Howlers" published in the Spectator of April 18th occur the words "And we are suspicious of that delightful mistranslation of splendide mendax, 'lying in state.'" If Tuckwell's Reminiscences of Oxford can be relied on, the Latin phrase is a translation of the English one. Speaking of one Arthur Ridding, of New College, Mr. Tnckwell says "When everyone was celebrating in Latin verse the Duke of Wellington's funeral, he was asked how to render ' lying in state." Splendide mendax,' was the answer." Of the "lying in state" as a mistranslation of splendide mendax you do well to be sus.
[Our correspondent takes us back sixty years, but we have to go back over nineteen hundred to Horace, who was originally responsible for the Latin. We can publish no more letters on the subject.—ED. Spectator.]
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