Book-bot.com - Literary Blunders by Wheatley, Henry Benjamin, 1838-1917

Literary Blunders by Henry Benjamin Wheatley
page 55 of 211 (26%)

rarebit, as it is sometimes spelt) into _un
lapin du pays de Galles_. Walpole states
that the Duchess of Bolton used to divert
George I. by affecting to make blunders,
and once when she had been to see Cibber's
play of _Love's Last Shift_ she called it _La
dernire chemise de l'amour_. A like
translation of Congreve's _Mourning Bride_ is
given in good faith in the first edition of
Peignot's _Manuel du Bibliophile_, 1800,
where it is described as _L'pouse de
Matin_; and the translation which Walpole

attributes to the Duchess of Bolton the
French say was made by a Frenchman
named La Place.

The title of the old farce _Hit or Miss_
was turned into _Frapp ou Mademoiselle_,
and the _Independent Whig_ into _La
Perruque Indpendante_.

In a late number of the _Literary
World_ the editor, after alluding to the
French translator of Sir Walter Scott
who turned ``a sticket minister'' into
``le ministre assassin,'' gives from the
_Bibliothque Universelle_ the extraordinary
translation of the title of Mr. Barrie's
comedy, _Walker, London_, as _Londres qui
se promne_.