Page images
PDF
EPUB

hanged, and then burned, after having his tongue cut out. (Gramont, Hist. Gal., iii, 211). Imperatorem stantem mori oportere. (An Emperor should die standing. .). VESPASIAN, Roman Emperor (979)-Last words. He died in making the effort to raise himself. (Suetonius, Twelve Caesars : Vespasianus, 24). Cf.

"Un amiral francais doit mourir sur son banc de quart. (A French admiral should die at his post)-Dying words of ViceAdmiral Francois Paul de Brueys d'Aigalliers (1753-98) on board L'Orient at the battle of the Nile, Aug. 1, 1798. See Un roi de France peut mourir &c.; A Bishop ought to die on his legs; and While there is life there is will.

Imperium et libertas (Empire and liberty).

BENJAMIN DISRAELI [Earl of Beaconsfield] (1804-81)—in a speech at the Guildhall, Nov. 9, 1879. "One of the greatest of Romans, "when asked what were his politics, "replied, Imperium et Libertas. "That would not make a bad pro"gramme for a British ministry." Cf. Tacitus, Agricola, ch. 3, in which he says of Nerva :

.. res olim dissociabiles miscuerit, principatum ac libertatem (.. he combined two things hitherto incompatible-empire and liberty).

Disraeli had previously made use of the phrase, in his speech on Agricultural Distress, Feb. 11, 1851. Ingrata patria, ne ossa quidem

habebis! (Ungrateful country, thou shalt not possess even my bones!)

Words uttered by SCIPIO AFRICANUS, MAJOR (c. 234-183 B.C.) to be placed on his tomb in Campania. He had left Rome in disgust, after his trial for having received bribes, although he had been acquitted (Valer. Maximus, De Dictis Factisque, bk. v., ch. 3. § 2. Luis de Camoens (c. 1525-79), the Portuguese poet, on leaving his

native country, is credited with having said:

Ingrata patria, non possidebis ossa mea! (Ungrateful country, thou shalt not possess my bones!)-Percy Anecdotes, iii, p. 135. In hoc signo vinces. (In this sign thou shalt conquer).

These words (in their Greek original, TOUT vika) inscribed by CONSTANTINE THE GREAT (272337) on his standards, &c. He is Isaid to have seen in the heavens a luminous cross with the inscription, when marching against Maxentius (Eusebius, Vita Constantini, i, 28). In manus, Domine, tuas com

mendo animam meam. (Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit).

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS (154287)-Last words (Froude, History of England).

[ocr errors]

"

'Domine, in manus tuas commendo spiritum meum' were also said to be the dying words of Charlemagne (742-814); and "In manus, Domine, commendo spiritum' were the last words of Louis XIII (1601-43), according to the Memoirs of Mlle. de Montpensier (p. 20). See Lord into thy hands &c. Ipse dixit-See avròs &pa. Ista quidem vis est. (This indeed is compulsion).

JULIUS CAESAR (100-44 B.C.)—on being assassinated (Suetonius, Twelve Casars, 82). According to Mérimée (Mélanges Historiques) Cæsar uttered his last words in Greek. See Kal σÙ TÉKVOV. Jacta alea esto. (Let the die be cast).

JULIUS CAESAR (100-44 B.C.)-as he crossed the river Rubicon on his return from Gaul (Suetonius, Twelve Cæsars, 32). The phrase 'to cross the Rubicon' is commonly used in English to indicate the taking of some decisive step. Plutarch, Lives: Pompeius, 60) also quotes the saying : 'Ανερρίφθω κύβος. (Let the die be cast!) which occurs also in Menander (fl. B.C. 322), Arrephoros,

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

'Twas for the good of my country that I should be abroad-G. Farquhar, The Beaux Stratagem, act iii, sc. 2.

True patriots all; for be it understood We left our country for our country's good.-Prologue written for the Opening of the Play-house at New South Wales, Jan 16, 1796. (G. Barrington, New South Wales, p. 152); And bold and hard adventures t'undertake leaving his country for his country's sake-Fitzgeffray, Life of Drake (1600).

Τοῖς ἄρχουσι δὴ τῆς πόλεως, εἴπερ τισὶν ἄλλοις, προσήκει ψεύδεσθαι ἢ πολεμίων ἢ πολιτῶν ἕνεκα ἐπ ̓ ὠφιλείᾳ τῆς πόλεως.

(The rulers of the state are the only persons who ought to have the privilege of lying, either at home or abroad; they may be allowed to lie for the good of the state.-Jowett). Socrates, in Plato, Republic, iii, 3.

See Ever speak the truth &c. .. Mirari se. . quod non rideret haruspex, haruspicem cum vidisset. (.. he wondered that one soothsayer did not laugh when he saw another soothsayer).

CATO (234-149 B.C.)-(Cicero, De Divinatione, ii, 24, 51).

Mitis depone colla Sicamber : adora quod incendisti, incande quod adorasti. (Bend thy neck, meek Sicambrian ; adore what thou hast burnt, burn what thou hast adored). Attributed to ST. REMY (437533)-when baptizing Clovis in 496. (Gregory of Tours, Hist. ecclesiastica Francorum, bk. ii, ch. 31). Multa agendo nihil egi. (By undertaking many things I have accomplished nothing.) HUGO GROTIUS (1583-1645)— Dying words (quoting Phaedrus, Fabulae, ii, 3): contradicted, however, by P. Bayle in his Dict. Historique (1720, 3rd edition, vol. ii, p. 1324):

[ocr errors]

"Qu'on a inséré un mensonge dans un petit Livre Anglais [a note says: Sentimens de quelques Théologiens de Hollande p. 402], lorsqu'on y a mis que Grotius dit en mourant, multa agendo nihil egi,' en entreprenant beaucoup de choses je n'ai rien avancé.' "(That a lie has been inserted in a little English book, when it has been said in it that Grotius said, when dying, multa agendo nihil egi,' in undertaking many things I have not advanced at all).

Another version is:-Ah, vitam perdidi operose nihil agendo (I have spent my life laboriously doing nothing.) Cf. Strenua nos exercet inertia (Busy idleness wearies us)— Horace, Epist. I. xi, 28; and Seneca, De Tranquillitate, xii, 2 (inquieta inertia), De Brevitate, xi, 3` (desidiosa occupatio). Bayle gives the last words as, "Vocem tuam audio, sed quæ singula dicas difficulter inteiligo (I hear your voice, but I scarcely understand all that you say).

Nec pluribus impar. (A match for many).

LOUIS DOUVRIER-Motto composed for Louis XIV (1638-1715) (le Roi Soleil). The emblem accompanying it was a sun throwing its rays on a globe. The words had been adopted more than a century previously by Philip II of Spain.

Nemo ante mortem beatus. (No-
body before death is happy)—
See Πρὶν δ ̓ ἂν τελευτήσῃ &c.
Ne supra crepidam sutor judica-

ret. ([The cobbler] should
not venture an opinion beyond
his last).

APELLES, Greek painter (c. 330 B.C.) to a shoemaker who had already criticised a sandal and who was venturing to find fault with something else (Pliny, Hist. Nat., bk. xxxv, ch. x, § 36). A similar story is told by Lucian of Phidias, the Greek sculptor (c. 490-432 B.C.). The phrase is often misquoted, "Ne sutor ultra crepidam." See Faites des perruques.

Nolite confidere in principibus, in

filiis hominum, in quibus non est salus. (Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help). Thomas Wentworth, EARL OF STRAFFORD (1593-1641) when condemned to death, alluding to his master Charles I. Cf. Book of Psalms cxlvi, 3. See, Put not your trust in princes, &c.

Non Angli, sed Angeli! (Not

Angles, but Angels!)

POPE GREGORY I (c. 550-604), before he was made pope (c. 574)— on seeing some English children in the slave-market at Rome. The full sentence was "Non Angli sed Angeli forent si fuissent Christiani" (They would be Angels, not Angles, if had they been Christians).

Non expedit. (It is not expedient). Words usually employed be the Cancelleria Apostolica to any pressing demand when refusing compliance. A decree of the Holy Office June 3, 1886, threw light on the phrase by adding that non expedit implies prohibition.

Non olet. (It [gold] has no smell).

THE EMPEROR VESPASIAN (9-79) -to his son Titus, who was blam

ing him for having imposed an unpopular tax on urinals. The emperor raised the money received from the tax to his nose, and inquired"Num odore offenderetur " (whether he was offended by the smell). On Titus, saying "No," he added "Atqui e lotio est" (And yet it comes out of urine). (Suetonius, Twelve Caesars, xxiii). There is thus no classical authority for the phrase as commonly quoted "non olet." Cf.:

Lucri bonus est odor ex re Qualibet (Gain smells sweet, from what soe er it springs) — JUVENAL, Satires, XIV., 204.

Non possumus. (We are unable to do so).

POPE CLEMENT VII (d. 1534)— in reply to the demand of Henry VIII for his consent to the divorce from Queen Catherine of Aragon. Since that time these words have been the regular formula of refusals by the supreme pontiff. Cf. "Non enim possumus nos quæ vidimus et audivimus, non loqui" (For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard).—Acts iv, 20).

Nulla dies sine linea. (No day without its line.)

Form in which a habit of Apelles (A. c. 332 B.C.) is now expressed.

[ocr errors]

Apelli fuit alioquin perpetua con"suetudo nunquam tam occupatam "diem agendi, ut non lineam "ducendo exerceret artem." (It was Apelles' constant habit never to allow a day to be so fully occupied that he had not time for the exercise of his art, if only to the extent of one stroke of the brush). Pliny, Hist. Nat., bk. xxxv, ch. x, 36. In recent times Emile Zola (1840-1902) adopted the words as his motto. . . nullum esse librum tam malum ut non aliqua parte prodesset. (No book is so bad

but benefit may be derived from some part of it.) PLINY THE ELDER (23-79)—a saying of his (Pliny the Younger, Epistolae, iii, 5.)

Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit.

(He touched nothing which he did not adorn).

DR. JOHNSON (1709-84)-a line from his epitaph on Oliver Goldsmith (Boswell's Life of Johnson, 1888 ed., vol. ii, p. 153). Usually quoted "Nihil tetigit quod non ornavit," both being equally bad Latin. Cf.

"Il embellit tout ce qu'il touche." (He embellishes all that he touches). --Fénelon, Lettre sur les occupations de l'Acad. franç. iv.

nunquam se minus otiosum

esse, quam cum otiosus, nec minus solum, quam cum solus esset. ([he used to say that] he was never less idle than in idleness, or less alone than in solitude).

SCIPIO AFRICANUS MAJOR (234183 B.C.)-(Cicero, De officiis, iii, 1, 1). Plutarch (Apophthegmata: Scipio Presb.) reports this saying at less length: Οποτε σχολάζοι πλεονα πράττειν ([he used to say that] when he was at leisure he did most work.)

A wise man is never less alone than when he is alone-Swift. Essay on the Faculties of the Mind.

In solitude where we are least aloneByron, Childe Harold, iii, 90. Then, never less alone than when aloneRogers, Human Life.

Nutrimentum spiritus. (Food of

the spirit).

The (unclassical) inscription of the Berlin Royal Library (finished in 1780). Derived from a lecture by Frederick the Great (1712-86). Omnia mea porto mecum. (All

my property is with me). BIAS, the Greek philosopher (fl. 550 B.C.)-in reply to those who fled

from the town of Priene (besieged by Cyrus's generals) taking that which they valued most with them, and expressing their astonishment at his calmness and want of preparation for his flight (Cicero, Paradoxa, i. 8). Quoted by Carlyle (French Revolution, p. 250). Seneca (De Constantia Sapientis, v, 6) says that when STILPO, the Greek philosopher (fl. 310 B.C.), was asked, at the taking of Megara, whether he had lost anything, he replied "Nihil: omnia namque mea mecum sunt ("nothing for everything I own is with me").

Omnia mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis ;

Illa vices quasdam res habet, illa vices. (All things are changed, and with them we, too, change; Now this way and now that turns fortune's wheel).

LOTHAIR I OF GERMANY (c. 795855)-(Matthias Borbonius, Delicia Poetarum Germanorum, I, 685. Generally quoted "Tempora mutantur," &c.

Optime olere occisum hostem et melius civem. (An enemy killed always smells good, especially when it is a citizen). AULUS VITELLIUS (c. 15-69)— when visiting the battle-field of Bedriacum, April, 69. (Suetonius, Twelve Casars: Vitellius, x). See Vous avez la plaie &c.

O sancta simplicitas! (O holy simplicity!)

JOHN HUSS (1373-1415)—at the stake, an old woman busying herself in heaping up the wood (Milman, Latin Christianity, bk. 13, ch. 9, 1864 ed., vol. viii, p. 296). Cf. The Death of Huss, a poem by Alfred Austin. Büchmann, Geflügelte Worte, 16th ed., p. 395, states that one of the faithful at the Council of Nice silenced a pertinacious

[blocks in formation]

dignitate otium.

Pæte, non dolet. (This [wound] hurts me not, Pætus).

ARRIA (42), wife of Cocina Pætus after stabbing herself, presenting the dagger to her husband, who then followed her example. Martial's epigram (i, 13) is:

Casta suo gladium cum traderet Arria Pato,

Quem de visceribus strinxerat ipsa suis, 'Si qua fides, vulnus quod feci non dolet, inquit,

'Sed quod tu facies, hoc mihi, Pæte, dolet.'

(When to her husband Arria gave the steel,

Which from her chaste, her bleeding breast she drew;

She said- My Pætus, this I do not feel, But, oh the wound that must be given by you!")

.. pater patriae. (.. the father

of his father-land.)

Title conferred by CATO (234-149 B.C.) upon Cicero, who is said to be the first person so styled (Plutarch, Lives: Cicero, xxiii), "Tатéра πατρίδος.” Cf.

66

64 , our father -the friend, I may say the father of his country "-Sir W. Scott, The Pirate, ch. 38 (Brenda Troil). "Madam," he said, remember that you are a Queen Queen of England-mother of your people."-Sir W. Scott, Kenil worth, ch. xl (Burleigh, to Queen Elizabeth).

Peccavi! (I have sinned [Scinde]!)

SIR CHARLES NAPIER (17821853)-in a dispatch announcing the victory of Hyderabad in 1843, after he had entered upon the war without official sanction.

Perdicca interrogante quando

cælestes honores haberi sibi vellet, dixit tum velle cum ipsi felices essent. Suprema

[blocks in formation]

castigat, irritat. (The prince who does not punish informers encourages them).

EMPEROR DOMITIAN (52-96)— (Suetonius, Twelve Caesars; Domitianus, viii, 9).

Pro lege, rege, grege.

(For law,

king, and people). WILLIAM OF ORANGE, surnamed "the Silent," (1533-84)-motto. Provocarem ad Philippum, sed

sobrium. (I would appeal to Philip, but when he is suber).

A MACEDONIAN WOMAN - to Philip of Macedon (382-336 B.C.), who had condemmed her when he was intoxicated after leaving a feast. She was successful in her appeal. (Valerius Maximus, vi, 2, Externa 1). The passage runs :

Inserit se tantis viris mulier alienigeni sanguinis, quae a Philippo rege temulento immerenter damnata, Provocarem ad Philippum, inquit, sed sobrium. (Among these great men, there is also a woman o foreign origin, who, on being unjustly condemmed by King Philip in his cups said, 'I would appeal to Philip, but when he is sober').

Qualis artifex pereo! (What an artist the world is losing in me!)

EMPEROR NERO (37-68) —shortly before his death (Suetonius, Twelve Caesars: Nero, vi, 49).

Quam vellem me nescire literas! (How I wish that I did not know my letters !)

« PreviousContinue »