De Mortuis Nihil Nisi Bene

The Latin phrase (also ) "Of the dead, aynothing but good", abbreviated as , is a mortuary aphorism, indicating that it is socially inappropriate to speak ill of the dead as they are unable to justify themselves.

The full sentence () translates to "Of the dead nothing but good is to be said". Freer translations into English are often used as aphorisms, these include: "Speak no ill of the dead", "Of the dead, speak no evil", and "Do not speak ill of the dead".

The aphorism is first recorded in Greek, as (, "Of the dead do not speak ill"), attributed to Chilon of Sparta (), one of the Seven Sages of Greece, in the ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' (Book 1, Chapter 70) by Diogenes Laërtius, published in the early 4th century AD.

The Latin version dates to the Italian Renaissance, from the translation of Diogenes' Greek by humanist monk Ambrogio Traversari (, published 1433).

Usages

Literary

Novels

* In '' The Last Chronicle of Barset'' (1867), by Anthony Trollope, after the sudden death of the Bishop's wife, the Archdeacon describes as a proverb "founded in humbug" that only need be followed in public and is unable to bring himself to adopt "the namby-pamby every-day decency of speaking well of one of whom he had ever thought ill."
* In ''The Power-House'' (1916), by John Buchan, after destroying the villain, Andrew Lumley, the hero, Sir Edward Leithen, says , an abbreviated version of the phrase, in reference to the dead Lumley.
* In '' Player Piano'' (1952), by Kurt Vonnegut, the phrase is used by the narrator after describing individuals "with nothing to lose anyway, men who had fallen into disfavor one way or another, who knew they had received their last invitation" to the Meadows.
* In '' Deus Irae'' (1976), by Philip K. Dick and Roger Zelazny, Father Handy thinks of the phrase in reference to millions of people killed by nerve gas. He then subverts the phrase to in blaming them for complacently voting in the politicians responsible.
* In ''McNally's Dilemma (1999) by awrence Sanders and Vincent Lardo McNally the narrator uses the phrase 'De mortuis nil nisi bonum' when a married with a step-daughter playboy George is found murdered. George's reputation was well known in West palm beach Florida and many including his wife would've argued that he got what he deserved.

Short stories

* In "De Mortuis" (1942), by John Collier, after an unwitting cuckold is accidentally informed of his wife's infidelities, he plans an opportunistic revenge; the titular phrase, , implies the murderous ending of the story.
* In " EPICAC", by Kurt Vonnegut, after the demise of his friend/project, EPICAC, the supercomputer, the protagonist states the phrase in a memoir of someone who has done great for him.

Poetry

* In "Sunlight on the Sea" (The Philosophy of a Feast), by Adam Lindsay Gordon, the mortuary phrase is the penultimate line of the eighth, and final, stanza of the poem.

Philosophy

* In ''Thoughts for the Times on War and Death'' (1915), Sigmund Freud denounced the cultural stupidity that was the First World War (1914–18); yet, in the essay "Our Attitude Towards Death", recognised the humanity of the participants, and the respect owed them in the mortuary phrase .

Cinema

* In the war–adventure film ''Lawrence of Arabia'' (1962), the phrase is cautiously used at the funeral of T. E. Lawrence, officiated at St Paul's Cathedral; two men, a clergyman and a soldier, Colonel Brighton, are observing a bust of the dead "Lawrence of Arabia", and commune in silent mourning. The clergyman asks: "Well, . But did he really deserve . . . a place in here?" Colonel Brighton's reply is a pregnant silence.

Theatre

* In ''The Seagull'' (1896), by Anton Chekhov, a character mangles the mortuary phrase, conflating it with the maxim ("About taste there is no disputing"), which results in the mixed mortuary opinion: ("Let nothing be said of taste, but what is good").
*In ''Julius Caesar'' (1599) by William Shakespeare, Mark Antony uses what is possibly a perverted form of the phrase , when he says: "The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones..."

In other languages

Other languages have expressions that have a similar meaning. For example, in Hebrew, one might use (''Aḥare mot k'doshim emor''), which may be translated into: "After the death, say 'they were holy'". The expression is formed by names of three consecutive sedras in Leviticus: Acharei Mot, Kedoshim and Emor, and has been taken to mean that one should not speak bad of the dead.

References

{{Reflist

Latin quotations
Death