``Theese thre were upbotching, not shapte, but partlye wel onward,
   A clapping fierbolt (such as oft, with rownce robel-hobble,
   Jove to the ground clattreth) but yeet not finished holye.’’

M. Guyot, translating some Latin epigrams under the title of Fleurs, Morales, et E’pigrammatiques_, uses the singular forms Monsieur Zoi:le and Mademoiselle Lycoris.  The same author, when translating the letters of Cicero (1666), turns Pomponius into M. de Pomponne. p 60

Pitt’s friend, Pepper Arden, Master of the Rolls, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and Lord Alvanley, was rather hot-tempered, and his name was considered somewhat appropriate, but to make it still more so his friends translated it into ``Mons. Poivre Ardent.’’

This reminds one of the Frenchman who toasted Dr. Johnson, not as Mr. Rambler, but as Mr. Vagabond.

Tom Moore notices some amusing mis-translations in his Diary.  Major Cartwright, who was called the Father of Reform (although a wit suggested that Mother of Reform would have been a more appropriate title), supposed that the Brevia Parliamentaria of Prynne stood for ``short parliaments.’’ Lord Lansdowne told Moore that he was with Lord Holland when the letter containing this precious bit of erudition arrived.  Another story of Lord Lansdowne’s is equally good.  His French servant announced Dr. Mansell, the Master of Trinity, when he called, as ``Mai^tre des Ce’re’monies de la Trinite’.’’

Moore also relates that an account p 61having appeared in the London papers of a row at the Stock Exchange, where some strangers were hustled, it appeared in the Paris papers in this form:  ``Mons. Stock Exchange e’tait e’chauffe’,’’ etc.

There is something to be said in favour of the humorous translation of Magna est veritas et prevalabit—­``Great is truth, it will prevail a bit,’’ for it is probably truer than the original.  He who construed Caesar’s mode of passing into Gaul summa diligentia, ``on the top of the diligence,’’ must have been of an imaginative turn of mind.  Probably the time will soon come when this will need explanation, for a public will arise which knows not the dilatory ``diligence.’’

The translator of Inter Calicem supremaque labra as Betwixt Dover and Calais gave as his reason that Dover was Angli suprema labra.

Although not a blunder nor apparently a joke, we may conclude this chapter with a reference to Shakespeare’s remarkable translation of Finis Coronat opus.  Helena remarks in All’s well that Ends well (act iv., sc. 4):—­ p 62 ``All’s well that ends well:  still the fine’s the crown.’’

In the Second Part of King Henry VI. (act v., sc. 2) old Lord Clifford, just before he dies, is made to use the French translation of the proverb:—­