Post by Neeraj MathurPost by Alan JonesPost by RoggersCan any one out there tell me the correct way to say the following forms
of Grace?
The way I have heard them said is in brackets but this seems illogical.
Help!!!
Benedictus, Benedicat. (Benny Dick Tus, Benny Die Cat)
Benedicto, Benedicator. (Benny Dick Toe, Benny Die Kate Or)
Your versions use the traditional English pronunciation, still preserved in
some Oxbridge and public school forms of Grace (and in some legal
expressions). My own college Grace begins "Nohs mizzerigh homineez et
idgeenigh" (Nos miseri homines et egeni").
It didn't when I read it!
When were you at the House?
1951-55. Even then the Grace was said by some in "classical" pronunciation,
and by a few with the semi-Italianate church pronunciation that comes
naturally to choral singers, but the Old Boys of Eton, Winchester and
Westminster (and we had a great many of those in the 1950s) preferred the
old-fashioned English way. I suppose that those reading Greats confined
their Englishness to the Grace . . . I don't know what I'd have done if the
High Table butler's eye had ever fallen upon me, but suspect that panic
would have automatically produced Church Latin with a strong Shropshire
accent.
Alan Jones