Call me a pedant but this really irks me every time I pass by.
This statue is in Southwark Street just behind the Tate Modern.
The man wears loose clothing that flaps in the breeze and carries a paintbrush in one hand.
The statue is somehow animated also, the arms and legs move around mechanically and it takes different poses, as can be seen from this older photo.
Beneath him on the plinth are the words:
“Non plaudite modo pecuniam jacite.”
I believe it is meant to be a rueful commentary on crowds who admire street artists and performers but never pay them, and appears to say
“Don’t just applaud, chuck me some money too”
However this – like the scene from the Life of Brian, is BAD LATIN.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_ite_domum
It was drummed into me at an early stage of my Latin lessons that for a negative imperative, you don’t stick NON in front of the verb form, you use the word NOLI or NOLITE for plural and then use the infinitive form.
In this case it should therefore read
“Nolite plaudire modo pecuniam jacite”
I feel like making the artist scrub it out and write it 100 times over the plinth instead.
Very annoying – it really gets my goat – or my capra.
Now I could be completely wrong about this, any classicists willing to argue the toss let me know…
