A Spectator article and a reply
by
arltblogger
on Wed 22 Nov 2006 18:13 GMT |
Permanent Link
|
Cosmos
Here is the start of an
article published on 11th November in The Spectator:
And another thing
Remember your Latin? Don't all speak at once!
Paul Johnson
An optimist, listing for me the reasons that the deplorable state of the world is not quite as bad as we think, cited, as one of them, ‘the Latin revival’. Oh, is there one? I haven’t heard anyone saying anything in Latin recently, have you? When Fox was asked for advice about quoting in Parliament, he replied, ‘No modern languages except English. No English poet unless dead. Greek never. Latin as much as you like.’ But when did someone last use a Latin quotation in the Commons? I suspect it was Enoch Powell, or possibly Quintin Hogg. I have heard Latin quoted at lunch in the Beefsteak Club (probably by Harold Macmillan) but not for years. I understand it’s not much used in White’s or Brooks’s or even in the Athenaeum. Children used to hold up objects and say ‘Quis?’ Response: ‘Ego!’ Not any more.
Still, I hope the news is true. I hate having to explain to supposedly educated people what I mean when I say Ultima Thule (Virgil) or Laudator temporis acti (Horace) or even Rus in urbe (Martial). You might just get away with Nil desperandum (Horace again), but if you quote Dulce et decorum est pro..
Brian Bishop has penned this reply, which he was kind enough to copy to me:
For the attention of Mr. Paul Johnson,
'Remember your Latin? ...' in 'The Spectator' 11/11/06, p.32.
======================
Dear Mr. Johnson,
"The Latin revival"?
Thank you for continuing, together with two other items in the same issue,
the flow of regular and occasional article in 'The Spectator' that testify
to the Latin revival.
You enquire about Latin in the House of Commons. Unless I am much
mistaken, Boris Johnson, M.P. used the language there fairly recently. At
least he sent a message of support to the Academia Latinitati Fovendae
meeting this year and is a member of the All-Parliamentary Classics Group.
Mediaeval, Renaissance, Modern and Church Latin are all part of the language
that has already lasted two and a half millennia. Your view on a
realignment of Classical authors is gaining ground. Paul McCartney's 'Ecce
cor meum' joins the choral tradition.
Perhaps you are not aware of the recent busily successful exhibition, led by
the Association for Latin Teaching, at the London Language Show early this
month; or of the uptake of the Cambridge School Classics Project electronic
course in Latin supported with government money; or of the two-to-three
hundred membership of the internet list Grex Latine Loquentium; or of the
vigorous Latinteach teachers' list on the web. Perhaps you have not
subscribed to one of the half-dozen all-in-Latin journals, or listened to
daily 'Nuntii Latini' from Helsinki or other Latin broadcasts, or read the
daily on-line newspaper 'Ephemeris'. Perhaps you have not attended one of
the dozen or so Latin-speaking weeks that take place every Summer. Perhaps
would wish to attend the Circulus Latinus Londiniensis or one of its
equivalents in many other cities. Finland has proposed Latin as the common
language for Europe. For details of all these and more, go to
www.pagina.de/lvpa/ or
http://www.latinitatis.com/latinitas/menu_gb.htm
Whilst indeed we have largely lost a generation of Latin-speakers,
sufficient remain today, and there is sufficient activity to encourage the
expectation that "The Latin revival", to which you are kindly contributing,
is under way.
Yours sincerely,
B.R. Bishop.