...master, King James the First, by writing in an album, in Italy, this sentiment,— " An amhassador is an honest man, sent to lie abroad for the good of his country." — See Wordsworth's " Ecclesiastieal Biograpby,'' ed. 1853, voL ir., p. 90. is FEB.^78s. the faculties...

...peregre missus ad mentiendum Reipublicte causa." Which Sir Henry Wotton could have been content should have been thus Englished : " An Ambassador is an honest...man, sent to lie abroad for the good of his country." Henry thought in English. Yet as it was, it slept quietly among other sentences in this Albo, almost...

...as being a language common to all that erudite company, but the definition was, in English, this — "An Ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country." This sentence was imparted, eight years afterwards, to one of King James's literary opponents, a jealous...

...necessity. To lie, is to reside. Hence Sir Henry 'Wotton's punning definition of an ambassador — 'An honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country.' To lie was, then, the term used for the residence of an ambassador. Wotton's definition might have...

...wrote the best comment 011 this phrase in a passage in one of his letters, first quoted by Heed : " An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country" — a joke which has doubtless converted many a diplomatist to the faith of Dr. Johnson in the matter...

...several embassies, but he lost that monarch's confidence by writing in a friend's album, as a definition, "An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country," which was quoted eight years after by an adversary of the king, as one of the principles on which he...

...in the album of his friend Flecamore, the punning and often quoted definition of an ambassador — an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country. Certainly ambassadors had no good repute for veracity in those days, yet in all probability Wotton's...

...Wootton availed himself of the double meaning of this expression, in his witty definition — '• k, hilt to point, heel to head; and then, to be stopped in, like a strong disti 17. Ajffitcti. Used here for affections, inclinations, propensities. 18. Suggestions. Temptations,...

...either. One of the most venerable of modern puns is Sir Henry Wotton's slur upon an ambassador as " an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country." So pleased with it was the good knight himself, as to try to give it European currency by translating...

...either. One of the most venerable of modern puns is Sir Henry Wotton's slur upon an ambassador as " an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country." So pleased with it was the good knight himself, as to try to give it European currency by translating...