5 AUGUST 1978, Page 15

Not Wilde, Walpole

Sir: The editorial in the Spectator of 29 July was its usual masterly and elegantly written self: this made its unusual lapse from accuracy all the more astonishing — Wilde did not say that life is comedy to those who think, etc. Horace Walpole wrote it in 1776 and he wrote 'this world is a comedy, etc.' And it was repeated with the Wilde provenance on the World Service of the BBC! P. Martin-Smith 28 Vicar's Close, Victoria Park, London E9