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THE

EPIGRAMMATISTS:

A SELECTION FROM

THE EPIGRAMMATIC LITERATURE OF ANCIENT,
MEDIAEVAL, AND MODERN TIMES.

itlj l^oies, ©feserfaatkiTS, IHustrations, aai) an
Introbuttion.

THE REV. HENRY PHILIP DOUD, M.A.,

OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE, OXFORDx

SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED.

LONDON : GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET,

COVENT GARDEN.

1876.

LON-DON :

PRINTED BY WILLIAM TLOWES AND ?ONS,

STAMFORD STRV.F.T AND CHARINO CROSS,

CONTENTS.

Preface . . . .• .

Introduction

Greek Epigrammatists, b.c. 690 — a.d. 530

Ancient Latin Epigrammatists, b.c. 54 — a.d. 370 .

Arabian Epigrammatists, a.d. 719 — a.d. 988 .

Medi-eval and Early Modern Latin Epigrammatists,
a.d. 1265— a.d. 1678

Modern Epigrammatist.^, a.d. 1480 — a d. 18—

Anonymous Modern Epigrams ....

Supplement of Modern Epigrammatists

Appendix ........

Index op the Epigrammatists ....

Index of Translators op the Epigrams

Index of Authors whose Works are quoted in the
AND Illustrations

Index of First Lines of the Epigbajis

Notes

xiii

101
166
517
561
641
651
658

660
664

PREFACE.

Before adverting to the object and arrangement of the
present work, it may be proper to mention the principal collec-
tions of epigrams, which have been previously published in
this country. " A Collection of Epigrams : To which is pre-
fixed a Critical Dissertation on this Species of Poetry," 2nd
edition, 1735 (sometimes ascribed, but without sufficient
proof, to Oldys), is stated in the preface to be " the first mis-
cellany of epigrams that has appeared in English." This
is a mistake. A collection, entitled " Skialetheia," was pub-
lished in 1598, and another in 1641. In 1654 appeared a
collection of some importance, entitled, " Eecreation for
Ingenious Head-pieces : or a Pleasant Grove for their Wits
to Walk in." The Collection of 1735 ; "A Collection of
Select Epigrams," by Hackett, 1757; "The Poetical
Farrago," 1794; and the selection iu "Elegant Extracts,"
are without any kind of arrangement. " Recreation for
Ingenious Head-pieces," is divided into epigrams, epitaphs,
fancies, and fantastics. " The Festoon : A Collection of
Epigrams, Ancient and Modem," by Graves, of which the
second and enlarged edition was published in 1767, is
divided into panegyrical, satirical, monumental, and other
sections. " Select Epigrams," 1797, is chronological, with
anonymous epigrams at the end. These collections have a
sprinkling of translations from the Greek, but Ihcy all accept
the Koman type as the favourite. " Select Epigrams," how-

VI PREFACE.

ever, gives, more than the others, the purer epigrams of
modern poets. The Medigeval and Early Modern Latin
Epigrammatists, with the exception of Buchanan and Owen,
are not represented at all in these works. " Eecreation for
Ingenious Head-pieces " contains, as might be expected
from the date of its publication, many specimens of the
writings of the Early English Epigrammatists ; but Sir
John Harington and Ben Jonson are the only writers of
the early period of our literature who are noticed in any of
the later collections. Yet, defective as are these works,
they are of great value, for they have preserved a large
number of epigrams, which would otherwise have been lost,
and many of which could ill be spared. The last of the
old collections is the " Panorama of Wit," 1809, which was
succeeded after a long interval by " Epigrams, Ancient and
Modern," by the Eev. J. Booth. It may be right to state
that not the slightest use has been made of Mr. Booth's
book in the preparation of the present selection.

Among the collections confined to that form of the
epigram, called epitaphs, may be mentioned, " Select Epi-
taphs," edited by Toldervy, 1755 ; " Select and Remarkable
Epitaphs," with accounts of the deceased, by Hackett, 1757 ;
" A Collection of Epitaphs and Monumental Iiscriptions,"
1806; and "Chronicles of the Tombs," by the late Dr.
Pettigrew, 1847.

One of the projected publications of Dr. Johnson was a
"Collection of Epigrams, with Notes and Observations."
Had he carried out his plan, the work would have been
a most valuable addition to our epigrammatic literatuie.
Thoroughly acquainted with the Greek and Eoman Antho-
logies, with the Foreign Mediaeval Poets, and the English
Epigrammatists, guided by a true poetic taste, and gifted
with unusual critical acumen, he would have arranged
a selection which would have displayed the flowers of
epigram-writing of all ages, while his notes and obsoTva-

PREFACE. Vll

tions would have delighted the scholar and instructed the
unlearned.

Dr. Johnson relinquished his design. May the shadow
of his great name rest upon this attempt to make a selec-
tion from the works of the Epigrammatists more interesting
by notes, obsei'vations, and illustrative quotations ! I believe
that no collection of this character has ever been published.
Bare epigrams, following the one upon the other, without
connection and without pause, are apt to weary the reader ;
and I hope that value may be given to many of the pieces,
as well as pleasure in the perusal of them increased, by
showing their soixrces, their parallels, and, when it can be
discovered, their association with historical events and
domestic circumstances. The plan is, in some respects, the
same as that proposed by Dr. Johnson ; but let not the
execution be measured by the standard of what he would
have done ; for, alas ! the ghost of the sage may rise in
wrath, and thunder forth a parody of an epigram of Martial :

Sir, the plan you've adopted is good, for 'tis mine ;
But th' execution 's so bad — let it pass for thine.

The aim of this work is to give a selection of the best
epigrams of various periods ; including mediaeval and early
modern Latin, and early English, epigrams, which have
been neglected by previous collectors. In the modern
section my chief care has been to direct attention to the
Epigrammatists of our own country ; but some of the most
noted of those of France and Germany are also noticed.
Believing the Greek inscriptions to be the best models for
epigrammatic writing, I have inserted many modern pieces
which take that form, although, according to the perverted
ideas of later times, they would scarcely be considered
epigrams. Some pieces, also, which bear an epigrammatic
character will be found, although they cannot be strictlj'
referred to any model. Some of the epigrams are well
known. I have not considered this a reason for omitting

viii PREFACE.

them, except in the case of a few of inconvenient length ;
for our most popular ones are commonly cited incorrectly,
and are often ascribed to wrong authors. It has been my
great anxiety to admit nothing which might render the
collection unfit for the perusal of the young. A few coarse
expressions may be found, which can hardly be avoided in
reproducing the writings of past times ; but none, I trust,
which even border upon real impropriety.

The arrangement is chronological, in order that the
o-radual changes in epigrammatic literature, and the in-
fluence of periods upon that style of writing, may be clearly
displayed ; and that thus the work may be, to some extent,
a histoiy of the species of poetry, which, notwithstanding
the variety of its types, is known under the general name
of epigram.

A selection from the epigrams of each author is placed
under his name ; others are scattered through the work for
iomparison or illustration. All can be readily found by
means of the Index. The epigrams are illustrated by
others, which may be the originals whence they are taken,
or which may be compared with them on account of simi-
larity of thought or language ; and passages from the Poets are
used in the same manner, for the purpose of showing iden-
tity of tone, or as illustrative of the subject of the verses.
Explanations are given of epigrams which depend for
their interest upon circumstances of the day, or events in
the life of the epigrammatist, or of the person upon whom, or
to whom, he writes. Observations and anecdotes are added
whenever the epigrams can be made more interesting by
such means. Slight biographical notices of the authors,
with the exception of those well known to every reader, are
prefixed ; because the pleasure of reading is always in-
creased by some knowledge of the writer, and books where
such information can be obtained are not always at hand.
A separate section is added, consisting of epigrams the

PREFACE. IX

authors of which I have failed to discover. They are
arranged in such chronological order as the repositories
whence they are gleaned, or their own internal evidence,
warrants. Other anonymous pieces are scattered through
the work. Many of these epigrams are of great beauty,
and it is a subject of regret that my efforts to recover the
names of the writers have not been successful. Some,
however, which have hitherto been generally given as
anonymous, I am glad to be able to ascribe to their authors.
The epigrams have been obtained from many sources, but
whenever I could find out the volumes in which they
originally appeared, I have examined them, in order to
ensure correctness. The old spelling is generally modern-
ised, with the exception of that of Spenser and Herrick,
which is preserved to show the orthography of their day.

The translations are by many different writers, whose
names will be found attached to their renderings. Elegance
has been sought, but closeness to the original has always
been considered of greater importance. Many of the
translations from the Greek are by Bland and Merivale, the
•' associate bards " distinguished by Byron ; some are from
the "Anthologia Polyglotta" of the late Dr. Wellesley;
and a few from Major Macgregor's translation of the
Greek Anthology, a work of recent date which should be
consulted by all who take an interest in the subject. For
a considerable number of translations marked C, I am in-
debted to a friend. For the few marked D., I am respon-
sible; but I have never had recourse to my own pen when
I could find renderings by others which faithfully repre-
sented the originals. In some cases I have made slight
alterations in versions which were not sufficiently exact,
but never without stating that change has been made. It
has been difficult to find translations of the epigrams of
the mediaeval and early modern Latin poets ; for these
Epigrammatists, being so little known, have found very

X PBEFACE.

few to array them in an English dress. Use has been
made of about a dozen excellent renderings in the 233rd
No. of the " Quarterly Eeview."

The reference of the Greek Epigrams is to Jacobs'
"Anthologia GrsBca," 1794-1814. The reference of the
Mediaeval and Early Modern Latin Epigrams is, with a few
exceptions, to the Anthology, entitled "DelitiseDelitiarum,"
of Abraham Wright, 1637. General references will, I trust,
be found to be carefully given. This is a point to which 1
have felt it of importance to pay special attention. I have
not, however, considered it necessary to give particular
references, when the epigrams are published in the well-
known works of their authors, or in the editions of the
British poets, known as Bell's, Johnson's, and Chalmers'.

The Introduction conta-ins a brief sketch of epigrammatic
literature from the earliest times. My own views of the
best style of epigram-writing, which have governed me in
the general selection, will be there seen. A list of books,
which may be useful to students in this department of
literature, is added as an Appendix.

It remains to express my earnest thanks to the friend
whose translations, marked C, display so conspicuously the
accurate and the elegant scholar. His encouragement in-
duced me to commence this woik, and gave me energy in
its progress; and the interest he has shown in it has
rendered his advice as agreeable to seek as it has been
valuable to receive. The obligation which I feel is a
pleasure, for it is the evidence of a friendship which I
prize.

ItAJisGATE. JdHuari,', 1870.

PEEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

To this edition a supplement has been added, consisting
chiefly of epigrams of an amusing character. Some
valuable ones have been inserted, which were omitted in
the previous edition.

Alterations have been made in the Greek Section by the
omission of the fragments of Sappho and others, the Odes
of Anacreon, and the Idylls of Bion and Moschus ; and
the insertion in their place of epigrams included by
Jacobs in his " Anthologia."

Similar alterations have been made in the Ancient Latin
Section, where additional epigrams by Martial have been
inserted.

Various minor alterations have been made in the other
Sections.

An Index of First Lines of all the epigrams has been
added.

To many Eeviews, in which " The Epigrammatists "
received praise far greater than I ventured to hope, I am
much indebted for valuable suggestions. Of these I have
gladly availed myself in the present edition ; and also of
several excellent translations of mediaeval Latin epigrams
by the Eev. James Davies, in the " Contemporary Eeview."

For a few spirited renderings of epigrams of Theocritus
I am indebted to Mr. Calverley's translation of that poet ;
and I have again to express my obligation to C, who
has contributed more of his graceful translations from the
Greek for this edition.

RamsGATE, Easter, 1875.

INTRODUCTION.

No FORM of poetic composition is more universally popular
than the epigram. The orator uses it in the Legislature
to point his satire; the conversationalist at the diuner-
table to display his wit ; and the correspondent in his
Letters to enliven his subject. Short, it is easily retained
in the memory ; pithy, it contains in the compass of a few
lines the sum of an argument ; and the result of experience,
it often expresses the wisdom of ages. Changed much iu
its character, it has yet retained its essentials, and, though
shorn of its elegant simplicity, it has gained in the breadth
of its application.

So ancient is the epigram, that its earliest use must be
sought in the unceitain traditions of an age, the literature
of which has descended but in fragments. So varied has
been its form, that at one time largely employed for monu-
mental inscriptions to honour the dead, at another it has
been commonly used for satire to vilify the living. For
example, Artemidorus, the Greek, composed the following
for the tomb of" Theocritus (Jacobs I. 194, i., translated
by Polwhele) :

Theocritus my name — of Syracuse —
I claim no kindred with the Chian Muse.
Praxagoras' and Philinna's son, I scorn
The foreign bays that others' brows adorn.

With this let a well-known and worthless modern epi-
gram be compared, on James Moore, or More, who was not
averse to wear the bays belonging to others :

snv INTRODUCTION.

Moore always smiles whenever he recites ;

He smiles, you think, approving what he writes :

And yet in this no vanity is shown ;

A modest man may like what's not his own.

Both these are epigrams ; yet, except in the number of
lines, there is no similitude. Agreeably to modern phrase-
ology', the former is an epitaph, the latter an epigram.
But the Greeks had not this distinction, nor does the ety-
mology of the word " epigram " warrant it. The epitaph is
only one of the forms of the epigram.

According to its etymology, the epigram is a writing on
— an inscription. The word was first appropriated by the
Greeks to certain short sentences attached to offerino-s in
the temples. It was afterwards more generally used for
all inscriptions on religious and other public edifices ; and
was in time employed to express any record, whether
in prose or verse, which was engraved on statues of gods
and men, and on the wayside tombs of the dead. It was
invariably short, because, being cut in brass or marble, a
long inscription would have been, not only inappropriate,
but inconvenient. A fine example of a short and noble
epigram on the tomb of Plato, by Speusippus, may be
cited (Jacobs I. 109, translated by Merivale) :

Plato's dead form this earthly shroud invests :
His soul among the godlike heroes rests.

In process of time the brevity of the epigram recom-
mended it for other purposes than mere superscriptions.
Striking events in contemporary history, the noble deed.s
of illustrious patriots, and the important decisions of wise
lawgivers, were embodied in a few terse lines, which were
readily fixed in the memory of the people. Nor was this
all. Love breathed forth its tender and impassioned sen-
timents in short thrilling verse, and spoke in the epigram
of the ancients as in the love-sonnet of the moderns. Thus
every subject which kindles the heart of man, — devotion,
affection, patriotism, chivaliy, love, wine, — found its ex-
pression in the epigram ; and the word, which was ori-
ginally confined to an inscription, became the term for
every short poem which expressed one definite idea.

INTRODUCTION. XV

Such was the epigram at the period at which it is first
presented to view in the earliest specimens which the
Greek Anthology contains. For this Anthology we are
indebted to Meleager, the Syrian, who flourished about a
centuiy before the Christian era, and who was the first
collector of epigrams. He gathered into a garland the
scattered fragments, which, engraved on marble or dis-
persed abroad as fugitive pieces, were in danger of being
iiTctrievably lost. This garland, or Anthology, received
subsequent additions, and at a later period sustained severe
loss through the decay of manusciipts, and the indifierence
of librarians in an ignorant age. But a noble store of
Greek epigrams is still extant, gathered together in the
" Anthologia" of Jacobs, 1794-1814, where a collection of
these beautiful pieces is presented, which have defied the
ravages of time, and are preserved as models of simplicity
of thought and elegance of language.

A few examples from the earlier Greek authors will
show the simplicity, and display the character, of the epi-
grams. The first is an inscription by Simonides, which
serves the double purpose of commemorating the deeds of
the dead, and of impressing on the living the glory gained
by the Athenian arms (Jacobs I. 68, xlv., translated by
Merivale) :

Hail, great in war ! all hail, by glory cherish'd !

Athena's sons, in chivalry renown'd !
For your sweet native soil in youth ye perish'd,

When HeUas leagued in hostile ranks was found.

It can well be imagined with what feelings an Athenian
would read these pregnant lines ; how he would cherish
them in his heai't ; act upon their spirit in future Avars ;
and repeat them to his children, when in old age —

He counts his scars, and tells what deeds were done.

The next example, by the poetess Anyte, is of a very
different character. It displays the devotion to their dei-
ties, as the guardian beings who presided over wood and
water, calm and tempest, as well as over every incident of
life, which was so forcibly felt by the Greeks; and which

tVI INTRODUCTION.

made their religion not only a beautiful poetic fiction, bul
a reality to themselves, evidence of which is sought in
vain in the merely voluptuous worship of the Romans.
The epigram is on a statue of Venus on the sea-shore
(Jacobs I. 131, v., translated by Bland) :

Cythera from this craggy steep
Looks downward on the glassy deep,
And hither calls the breathing gale,
Propitious to the venturous sail ;
While Ocean flows beneath, serene.
Awed by the smile of Beauty's Queen.

From Ehianus an example of an impassioned lover's
cry may be selected (Jacobs I. 231, vi., translated by Sir
Charles Elton) :

Dexionica, with a limed thread.
Her snare beneath a verdant plane-tree spread,
And caught a blackbird by the quivering wing :
The struggling bird's shrill outcries piping ring.

God of Love ! O Graces, blooming fair !

1 would that I a thrush or blackbird were ;

So, in her grasp, to breathe my murmur'd cries,
And shed a sweet tear from my silent eyes !

The Greeks, whatever the theme of their epigrams, were
always most happy, when Nature in its varied forms or the
natural objects around them supplied their similitudes, and
pointed their aspirations. The struggling bii'd seeking pity
from Dexionica, affords the illustration of the state of the
lover, enthralled in the chains of beauty. Could he excite
compassion by his tears, as the bird by its cries, he might
have hope, for near akin to pity is love in every maiden's
breast. Such a similitude would be far from the thoughts
of a modern. He would scorn the homely idea, for-
getting that the nearer the writer is to nature the nearer
always he is to truth, and that simplicity is the best
guarantee for fidelity.

The date of the latest of the authors quoted is previous
to B.C. 200. At this early period scarcely any epigrams of
a sarcastic character are to be found. Nothing was re-
quired to constitute a Greek epigram but brevity and
unity of thought. There is no stinging point, as in modern

INTRODUCTION. XVll

times. Hence it is, that these refined verses have gained
little favour with those whose vitiated taste is pleased
with such epigrams as the qxiatrain describes :

The qualities all in a bee that we meet,

In an epigram never should fail :
The body should always be little and sweet,

And a sting should be felt in its tail.

The author of the " Dissertation on Epigrammatic Writing,"
in the "Collection of Epigrams," 1735, says of the Greek
epigrams : " They are only capable of giving pleasure to
very delicate tastes, by a natural and elegant expression ;
now and then a pleasing hyperbole, or an ingenious anti-
thesis, may be found in them, which is the most they can
ever pretend to : we are not to seek for point in them ;
good sense, and pure language, somewhat raised above
ordinary conversation, are all that are necessary to con-
stitute a Greek epigram. But the moderns will not allow
these any share of perfection ; the French wits call any
insipid copy of verses, ' Epigramme a la Grecque.' " This
cold praise suited the days in which it was written. But
even the French wits, if they had deigned to examine the
Anthology with any attention, might have found some
epigrams more to their taste in the latter part. Lucian
and Lucillius and those who came after them, though they
penned many pieces which show all the grace and beauty
of an earlier period, fell often into sarcasms and strained
conceits, which contrast unfavourably with the simple
style of their predecessors. Even the worst of modern
epigrams is scarcely inferior to one by Lucian (Jacobs III.
2)3, X., translated by Bland) :

You feed so fust — and run so very slow —

Eat with your legs, and with your grinders go !

Aramianus lowered himself by writing with silly humour
on long noses (Jacobs III. 95, xv., translated by Major
Macgiegor) :

Proclus' liand can never wipe his nose ;
Short of the end its utmost tension goes.
Sneezing (Ids nose too distant from his cars).
He ne'er says " Bless you," for no sound he hears.

^^.[\[ INTRODUCTION.

Yet the same author could compose as beautiful an epi-
irVm as any of those of an earlier date. So, Palladas could
le Tathical upon women (Jacohs III. 115, vi., translated
by Merivale) :

All wives are bad— yet two blest hours they give,
Maien tirst they wed, and when they cease to live.

And yet he penned some of the finest and most touching
epigrams in the Anthology. Witness the foUowmg on
Life (Jacobs III. 141, cxxviii., translated by Bland) .

Waking, we burst, at each return of morn.
From death's dull fetters and again are born;
No longer ours the moments that have past.
To a new remnant of our lives we haste.
Call not the years thine own that made thee gi-ay.
That left their wrinkles and have iled away ;
The past no more shall yield thee ill or good,
Gone tu the silent times beyond the flood.

Unfortunately the noblest and purest epigrams of the
Greek writers exercised very little influence on the Roman
Eni-rammatists. Refined simplicity was unsuited to the
court of the Caesars. Flattery and satire were necessary
to the satiated palates of the emperors, who set the iashion
to their subjects, and thus caused a change t« be wrought
in the character of the ancient epigram Many pieces of
aieat beauty are found in the Latin Anthology, but few of
these are original ; they are translations from the Greek
Of the small number of Latin Epigrammatists of any note
Martial is the chief. So great an effect have his writings
had on modern authors, that it is of importance to examine
the character of his epigrams, and the cause and result ot
his influence. , , .

Martial wrote for bread, and he consequently formed his
style in accordance with the tastes of those, whose patron-
Jg was in a pecuniary sense the most valuable. 1 lattery
of the Emperor Domitian and of the wealthy men of Rome,
satirical abuse of those who were out of favour at court,
and indecent pandering to the vile lusts of an unchaste
people, form the staple of his writings. There are lett
'-about a fifth part only," remarks the "Quarterly Review

INTliODUCTION. S:X

(Xo. 233), " out of some sixteen hundred epigrams un-
objectionable on the score of vice and immoralit5\" This
may be a slight exaggeration, but, even when not im-
mural, many are nauseating descriptions of ilia's teeth,
Ntevia's cough, or Nestor's breath. Avoiding grosser ex-
amples, the following will serve to show the character of
a large number of the epigrams with which Martial pleased
his patrons and amused the Koman people. The first is a
specimen of his gross flattery of Domitian (Book VIII. 54,
translated by Elphinston) :

Mucli tho' thou still bestow, and promise more;

Tbo' lord of leaders, of thyself, thou be :
The jieople thee, not for rewards adore ;

But the rewards adore for love of thee.

Gellia is scurrilously aspersed in several epigrams, as in
the following (Book I. 34, translated by Hay):

Her father dead ! — Alone, no grief she knows ;
Th' obedient tear, at every visit flows.
No mourner he, who must with praise be fee'd !
But he who mourns in secret, mourns indeed !

Puerility reaches its climax in the next (Book I. 29,
translated by Eelph) :

Of yesterday's debauch he smells, you say :
'Tis false — Acerra plied it till to-day.

But Martial, when it pleased him, could compose e\n-
grams in a very different strain, which show how nobly
he might have followed in the steps of the Greeks, had
he preferred high poetic fame to mere popular applause.
Some of his pictures of Koman life ; his descriptions of
scenery ; his humorous, and occasionally pathetic, ad-
dresses to his friends; and his tender epitaphs on children,
are amongst the most beautiful of ancient epigrams. Many,
too, of his piecL'S, tliough less Greek in tone, express truths
80 accurately, and display the phases of human nature so
clearly, that they are not less valuable to the moralist
than interesting to the general reader; whilst some, again,
of his lighter epigrams are so terse and brilliant, that our
greatest writers have imitated and u.sed them to point a

XX rS-TEODrCTIOIi.

moral or adorn a tale. The followins: may be taken as
examples of the higher class of epigrams. The first, to
Fanstians, on the death of the daughter of his neighbour
Fienius. is tender and pathetic (Book I. 115, translated by
Elphinston, altered) :

Near thy domam, Faustinus. Faenius lires,
Where a moist plot of gronnd contentment gives :
Here o'er Antolla's um he makes his moan.
Her name inserib'd where ought to rest his own :
The sire, as just, had woo'd the Stygian shade,
But sad survives, to see her honours paid.

The next, on the portrait of Camomis, touchingly
illnstrates the fathers grief i^Book TX. 75, translated by
Elphinston, altered) :

This picture gives the semblance of the child.
And thus in early life the infant siml'd :
His manhood's blooming looks no pencil drew,
The voiceless lips the father would not view.

In the following there is mnch wisdom, applicable to
many things besides books (Book IX. 82, translated by
Sir John Harington) :

The readers and the hearers like my books.
But yet some writers cannot them digest.
But what care I ? For when I make a feast,
I would my guests should praise it, not the coo^.

By comparing Martial's different styles, we find that
his wi-itings display no principle, and that for truth and
purity he had no care. Though at times he wrote with
grac-e and tenderness, with refined wit and genial humoui\
he more often prostituted his talents to the most unworthy
purposes. He thus set an example of pandering to the
low tastes of the vulgar and the depraved, which has been
greedily followed by those who are incapable of reaching
the higher style, either of his pathetic and elegant pieces.
or of those which are pregnant with sound sense and in-
offensive wit.

The stinging point and personal satire of the majority
of Martial's epigrams may be considered the chief cause of
the influence which he ha^ exercised over modem epigram-

INTBODUCTION. m

Tnatista The wit of a point is attractive to men of refined
taste, but if sting be added to it, lower tastes aie grati-
fied. Satire is fascinating to men of cultivated intellect,
but if it take the form of personal invective, vulgar minds
appreciate it. Consequently, Martial became popular as a
writer of epigrams, in which the characteristics of stinging
point and satirical personality are developed. His nobler
and purer epigrams were neglected, partly on account of
the great length of some of them, which almost deprive
them of a right to the title, but chiefly because lively but
harmless humour, and tender sentiments appear tame and
uninteresting, when contrasted by the mass of mankind
with grossness and coarsely-pointed satire.

It is possible, however, that had the pure and delicate
Greek models been befoie modem epigrammatists, they
might have chosen the good and refused the evil. But
the choice lay only between the good and the evil of 31 ar-
tial, and the latter largely preponderated. The Greek
Anthology was not only unread, but was well-nigh un-
known, for at the period at which Martial's manner most
strongly affected epigrammatic literature, the few and in-
ferior editions were t^o scarce as to be difficult to obtain.
The study of Greek, too, was much neglected, and many of
those who could read Martial were unable to translate the
Greek epigrams. Thus it came to pass that, from want of
acquaintance with the purest style of epigram as displayed
by the Greek writers, Martial was looked upon as tiie true
model, and his prevailing rnd inferior, instead of his best,
style was accepted as the correct pattern for epigram
writing.

The injurious effect of Martial's influence upon our epi-
grammatic literature may be seen in the popular collec-
tions of the last century. Eough satire, unchaste wit,
and stinging point take the place of the elegant simplicity,
the guileless humour, and the inoffensive point which
were held in estimation among the Greeks. Thus, the
character of the modern epigram has been so lowered, that
critics have not hesitated to speak of it as unworthy of a
place in our literature, and as fit only to be the vehicle for
party malice and private spite. Happily, however, there

XXll INTRODUCTION.

have never been wanting epigrammatists who scorned to
imitate either the grossness or the folly of Martial, who
copied him in his virtues and not in his vices ; and a few,
too, who knew and appreciated the Greek models, and
studied to reproduce their beauties. Of late years the
inferior character of the majority, and also the delicate
humour and beauty of many, of Martial's epigrams have
been more clearly discerned, and it may be hoped that the
deleterious influence of his lower style, as a pattern for
epigram writers, is no longer paramount.

We now come to the period when the Gothic arms had
driven literature from the West ; and when at the Byzan-
tine court the last uncertain sounds of the Grecian lyre
were struggling with victorious barbarism. But whilst
darkness for centuries hung over Europe, and the light of
learning was so feeble that it was lost in the gloom, far
away in the East the Muses were courted, and monarchy
and courtiers vied for the bays. Epigrammatic literature
flourished among the votaries of Mahomet. Arabian poetry
is little known in England, and even translations are rarely
to be found. At the close of the last century, however,
Mr. Carlyle, Cambridge Professor of Arabic, published a
volume of great interest, " Specimens of Arabian Poetry
from the Earliest Time to the Extinction of the Khaliphat."
This work contains translations of Arabian poetry of
various kinds, but a very considerable number of the
pieces are of an epigrammatic character, not in the style of
the Roman, but rather approximating towards the Greek,
epigram, though a few are more humorous than was usual
among the earlier Greek writers, and the majority are
longer than the terse inscriptions of that people. The
following example displays the character of many of these
Arabian pieces. The author is Abou Teman, who was
born in the year of the Hegira 190 ; i.e., a.d. 812. He ad-
dresses his mistress, who had found fault with him for
profusion (" Specimens of Arabian Poetry," 1796, 64) :

Ungenerous and mistaken maid,
To scorn me thus because I'm poor !

Canst thou a liberal hand upbraid

For dealing round some worthless ore ?

INTRODUCTION. XXIU

To spare 's the ^s"ish of little souls.

The great but gather to bestow ;
Yon current down the mountain rolls,

And stagnates in the swamp below.

Tmning again to the West, the revival of learning in
Europe, and the resumption of epigram-writing, claims
attention. The commencement of the fifteenth century is
the period generally assigned as that at which the first
marked attempts were made to dispel the darkness, and to
rekindle the flame of literature. But, as in all revivals, it
is usually one man who takes the lead, and directs the
efforts of others, so, at this time, Lorenzo de Medici, the
munificent patron of men of letters, stands prominently
forward as the centre whence emanated the exertions for
the restoration of learning. Succeeding to the chief place
in the Eepublic of Florence, at the death of his father in
1469, Lorenzo the Magnificent bent all his energies to his
favourite project — the revival of literature. He it was
who employed learned men to discover and purchase the
valuable relics of antiquity ; who despatched John Las-
caris (the editor of the first printed edition of the Greek
Anthology) into the East to collect manuscripts ; and who
directed the labours of Italian scholars in collating the
remains of ancient avithors, for the purpose of disseminating
them by means of the newly-invented art of piinting.
He was greatly aided in his efforts by learned Greeks,
who, at the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in
1453, had taken refuge in Italy, and who gladly resorted
to a city which was graced by one so noble in rank and
in mind as Lorenzo. The result was the establishment
of an academ}- at Florence for the cultivation of the Greek
language and literature, under the direction of Greeks
and Italians, by moans of which the study of that tongue
was extended throughout a great part of Europe, though it
was afterwards unfortunately allowed to fall much into
desuetude.

From this period may be dated the restoration of Latin
epigrammatic literature. But, though Latin was the lan-
guage, the ancient Latin writers were not the models. The
Anthology of John Lascaris, and the study of the Greek

XXIV INTRODUCTION.

tougue, gave a tone to the authors which removes them
far from the style of Martial and his compeers. The
Mediaeval and Early Modern Latin Epigrammatists com-
prised Italian, German, Belgian, French', and English
writers. The subjects of their epigrams are as various as
tho.se of the Greeks. Love is, perhaps, the predominating
theme, but treated generally with remarkable cbastity.
Many caustic epigrams are to be found, but rarely per-
sonal bitterness ; and many witty ones in which the
humour is delicate, and, although the conceit is sometimes
strained, as in our metaphysical poets, it very seldom sinks
into puerilit3\ The influence of country is scarcely per-
ceptible in these Epigrammatists. They took no part in
wars or political combinations, and did not seek to stir up
their countrymen to patriotic deeds. They were actuated
by love of learning rather than of nationality, and were
consequently homogeneous in their thoughts and writings.
Their rank or their profession had little effect on their
poetry, and their productions may be studied without dis-
covering a clue to their history. Popes and cardinals,
high dignitaries and their secretaries, lawyers and phy-
sicians, are found in the roll of these authors, whose pure
latinity and graceful sentiments display classic polish and
refined mental cultivation. An Anthology, containing a
large number of the epigrams of these writers, was pub-
lished in 1637 by Abraham Wright, a Fellow of S. John's
College, Oxford, entitled " Delitise Delitiarum," a volume
which it is impossible to peruse without pleasure or to
study without improvement. The only fault of the work
is the absence of chronological or other definite arrange-
ment.

But these Epigrammatists have fallen into unaccountable
neglect. They were well known to Pope and a few of our
greater poets, and have exercised a most important influ-
ence over those who were acquainted with them, by dis-
playing a style of epigram- writing, pure as the Greek, but
more humorous, and lively as Martial, but generally free
from the coarseness and personality of his inferior epigrams.
That they have been neglected is another evidence of the
debasing ascendency which the Poman school has acquired ;

INTRODUCTION. XXV

and it is curious to observe in some of the collections of the
last century, translations and imitations of a few of tlie epi-
grams of these writers, given generally without any hint of
their foreign origin, and almost invariably the very worst
specimens which could be selected, evidently chosen because
in accordance with the Martial type. As, for instance, the
following, given as an original English epigram in the
" Poetical Farrago " :

How fitly join'd the lawyer and his wife !
He moves at bar, and she at home, the strife.

Which is a translation from the Latin of Petrus ^gidius,
or Giles, a native of Antwerp (" Delitise Delitiarum," 165).

Wright does not include in his " Delitige Delitiarum "
any of the epigrams of Sir Thomas More, or of John Owen,
the Cambro-Briton. The latter was one of the most
voluminous of the Latin Epigrammatists, and had he
written less, he would, perhaps, have been even more
famous than he is, for he is apt to reproduce himself, and
to allow his wit to wear itself out by too much exercise.
His epigrams are not of the Greek type, for his vein of
satire was far too strong to be subdued ; but his thorough
knowledge of human nature, his rough good sense, quaint
wit, and genjerally kindly feeling, make them pleasing,
though they seldom attain much beauty or elegance. But
the writing of Latin epigrams never gained a firm hold in
Great Britain. When to More and Owen have been added
Buchanan, Ninian Paterson, Crashaw, and Herbert, and,
at a later period, Vincent Bourne, the Usher of Westmin-
ster, the list is complete of those who obtained any great
eminence as Latin Epigrammatists. Our countrymen pre-
ferred their own language, and to English writers our
attention shall now be given.

Many names of note, during the period previous to the
Restoration, at once occur. Of these it is only necessary
to mention Ben Jonson and Kobert Herrick. As an Epi-
grammatist, the style of the former is very varied. Ho
well understood the Greek manner, and when ho strays
from it, as he too often does, into scurrilous and coarse
language, he shows at once that he is doing violence to his

XXVI INTRODUCTION.

own taste and principles. Not so, when he is simply
humorous— a style in which he is thoroughly at home ; and
which, though it be not the highest, is yet a legitimate
type of epigram. His skit " On Play-wright," may be taken
as an example (Ep. 100) :

Play-wright, by chance, hearing some toys I'd writ,
Cried to my face, they were th' elixir of wit ;
And I must now believe him ; for, to-day,
Five of my jests, then stol'n, past him a Play.

But it is upon his monumental inscriptions that Jonson's
fame as an Epigrammatist must chiefly rest. These are
exquisitely pure and beautiful. If they have a fault it is
in the matter of length, which is beyond that of the
earlier Greek epitaphs ; yet who would wish such perfect
pieces to be curtailed ?

In Herrick's " Hesperides " there are a large number of
epigrams, specially so designated, which are absolutely
worthless, and the majority quite unpresentable. They are
of the worst Eoman type. One of the least objectionable,
but quite after Martial's manner, is " Upon Urles " :

Urles had the gout so, that he could not stand ;
Then from his feet, it shifted to his hand :
When 'twas in 's feet, his charity was small ;
Now 'tis in 's hand, he gives no alms at all.

But, although the pieces which Herrick particularly styles
epigrams are thus valueless, he nobly vindicates his claim
to be considered one of the ver}^ best Epigrammatists, by
numberless epigrams to which he does not give that name,
apparently because they are free from stinging point. He
w-as well acquainted with the Greek writers, as is shown
by the translations and imitations from the Anthology,
which are found in his Works, and he sufficiently appre-
ciated them to write much in their manner. As, for ex-
ample, an epigram on the decay of all things :

All things decay with time : the forest sees
The growth and down-fall of her aged trees ;
That timber tall, which threescore lustres stood
The proud dictator of the state-like wood :
I mean the sovereign of all plants, the oak.
Droops, dies, and falls without the cleaver's stroke.

INTEODUCTION. XXVll

Again, an address " To the Western \\ind " ;

Sweet Western "Wind, whose luck it is,

Made rival with the air,
To give Perenna's lip a kiss.

And fan her wanton hair.
Brino; me but one, I'll promise thee,

Instead of common showers.
Thy wings shall be embalm'd by me,

And all beset with flowers.

But it is in epitaphs that Herrick, like Ben Jonson, excels
more than in any other kind of epigrammatic poetry, though
there is little similarity in the character of their inscrip-
tions. This, for the tomb of a young mother of many chil-
dren, has all the terseness and the pathos of the purest
Greek type :

Let all chaste matrons, when they chance to see
My nimi'rous issue, praise and pity me.
Praise me, for having such a fruitful womb ;
Pity me too, who found so soon a tomb.

Again, this " Epitaph upon a Virgin " is singularly

touching :

Here a solemn fast we keep,
While all beauty lies asleep,
Husht be all things ; no noise here,
But the toning of a tear :
Or a sigh of such as bring
Cowslips for her covering.

A different class of writers now demands consideration.
The period from the reign of Mary to the Restoration was
prolific in Epigrammatists ; men who, not content to throw
off only occasional epigrams, wrote volumes containing
hundreds, under every possible name which that species of
poetry could assume. Among these authors are found
Heywood the dramatist, and one or two more of note ;
but the majority are unknown to fame, and their epigrams,
having never been reprinted, are very scarce. It is diffi-
cult to refer their productions to either a Greek or Koman
type. There is an absence of the elegant simplicity of the
one, and of the fulsomeness and scurrility of the other.

XXVlll INTRODUCTION.

There is much satire, but little uukindness ; a great deal of
sound common sense and knowledge of human nature ; and
a flow of quaint humour, which is irresistibly amusing.
Coarseness there is, but generally rather of language than
of feeling ; and in some, a religious and pathetic tone re-
calls the manner of the Greeks. The poetry is, for the
most part, rough, but it is forcible, and the sentiments are
commonly expressed with singular terseness. The efiect
of writing whole volumes of epigrams is seen in the wit
often degenerating into forced conceits, and in exhaustion
of thought causing the reproduction of the same ideas in
different language. There is, however, abundance of origin-
ality, and the richness of fancy is strikingly apparent. It
is remarkable how entirely these Epigrammatists have been
neglected. They are unnoticed in any of the collections of
epigrams of the last and present centuries. An occasional
piece is here and there found, but given as an anonymous
production : and a wide field, from which many flowers
may be culled, has thus been abandoned, and its very ex-
istence ignored. A few examples will show that these
authors had merit of various degrees. John Heywood
writes of "Two, Arm in Arm " (Ep. 19) :

One said to another taking his arm,
By license friend, and take this for no harm.
No, Sir, quoth the other, I give you leave
To hang on my arm, but not on my sleeve.

John Heath has an epigram on blind Love (Second Cen-
tury, 93) :

Love through our eyes doth first an entrance find ;
How is it, then, they say that Love is blind ?
Know ye not how both these may well agree ?
Though he be blind, yet can his mother see.

Henry Parrot is more witty than any of his contem-
poraries, but his volume, " Laquei Eidiculosi," is marked
by such coarseness of thought and language, that the
greater number of his epigrams are unpresentable. The
following is humorous, and might be justly applied to
many young men of the present day (Book II. 161) :

INTEODUCTION. XXIX

Sir. can you tell where young Pandorus lives,
That was surnamed here the prodigal :
He that so much for his silk stockings gives,
Till nought is left to buy him shoes withal ?
Oh blame him not, to make what show he can,
How should he else be thought a Gentleman ?

Thomas Bancroft writes of the Spheres (Book [. 5) :

What are those ever-turning lieavenly spheres,
But wheels that, from our cradles to our urns,
Wind up our threads of life that hourly wears r
And they that soonest die have happiest turns.

Samuel Sheppard thus addresses Cupid (Book 111. 19) :

God of hearts, prithee begone,
Forsake my homely mansion,
Thy deity is all too great
On parsley for to make thy meat.
Such as to my Lares I
Offer up nocturnally ;
Lucullus doth not harbour here,
But Cato with his beard austere.

Although the Epigrammatists who flourished at the
period of the Rebellion wrote little on politics, it is
evident that they were affected by the events of the times.
With scarcely an exception they were on the royal side,
and their loyal and poetic temperament made them despise
the irreverence and sourness of Puritanism. This gave
warmth to their satire, which in the case of some seems to
have been contrary to their natural feelings. The poet
Di-ummond may be taken as an instance. No writer of
epigrams of that age was so much imbued with the Greek
tone and manner, or so successfully caught the ancient
spirit. Witness the following invocation to sleep :

How comes it, Sleep, that tliou

Even kisses me afiord

Of her, dear licr, so far who's absent now?

How did 1 hear tliost; words,

Which rocks niij^ht move, and move the pines to bow?

Ah me ! before half day

Why didst thou steal away ?

Ketiu-n ; I thine for ever will remain,

If tiiou wilt bring with tliee that guest again.

XXX » INTRODUCTION.

And yet so greatly did Pym and the other rebels raise
his wrath, that he could, pen an epigram more cutting iu
its satire than can perhaps be found in any other author :

When lately Pym descended into hell,
Ere he the cups of Lethe did carouse,
What place that was, he called aloud to tell ;
To whom a devil — '' This is the Lower House."

But the Eestoration produced a great change in epigram-
matic literature. The revulsion from Puritanism was
carried to excess. Love-sonnets became the fashion ; many
of them were of an epigrammatic character, and the stricter
epigrams took the same tone. The influence of the theme
of love on this style of literature becomes immediately
apparent. The language is softened, the poetry smoother,
the sentiments more refined. And whilst, as we have
seen, the Epigrammatists had been hitherto, for the most
part, a separate class — men who as general poets are un-
known — we now find that the great poets are the writers of
epigrams, which they polished with as much care as they
bestowed upon longer poems. They wrote but few, it is
true, but these were of higher character, and from this
period, as is well remarked in an admirable article on
epigrams in the 233rd No. of the " Quarterly Keview," " it
will be found that the greater the poet, the more marked is
his addiction to the Greek pattern ; while the coarser style,
more akin to the Latin, is chiefly met with in the off-hand
wit of the mere man of pleasure, who wrote because it was
the fashion, and because he had a gift, if indeed that be a
gift, which confers the power of being personal, or severe.
in as large, if not larger, measure than brilliant and terse."
This applies fully to Waller, Dryden, and others who came
after them; but there is one marked exception to the
general rule. Prior ranks among the greater poets, but his
epigrams are, with a few exceptions, of the very lowest
type. He knew well, and translated some of the Greek
epigrams, but he chiefly delighted iu taking Martial as his
pattern, lowered into more foolish puerility through French
sources. False hair and eyes, rouge and enamel, the age of
Phillis, and the tropes of Lysander, form the staple of his
epigrams. He wrote some of considerable elegance, it must

INTRODUCTION. XXX!

be granted, but scarcely any of a very high character, and
there is a sense of disappointment in the examination of his
productions. Not so with Pope. In his writings we per-
petually discover some elegant epigrammatic turn ; satire
so polished, that it cannot otfend ; and humour so delicate,
that it satisfies the most fastidious. But epitaphs may be
considered Pope's speciality. He was celebrated in his
own day for this style of composition, and has retained his
fame to the present. He has perhaps been overrated in
this respect. It is necessary that a few remarks should be
made upon epitaphs as a particular form of epigrammatic
poetry, and it may be convenient to do so at this point,
in order that a just judgment may be formed of his p(.)wers
as a writer of monumental inscriptions.

The chief intention of an epitaph is to perpetuate the
memory and character of the person on whose tomb it is
placed, as an example of virtue. For this purpose the
name must be given, and such account of his work in life
as is requisite for the object in view. The more remark-
able have been a man's actions, the less need there is for
description; and the fewer the words, the higher the
encomium. This was felt by Simonides, when he wrote
the epitaph on Adeimantus (Jacobs I. Q6, xxxv., translated
by Merivale) :

Here Adeimantus rests — the same was he

Whose counsels won for Greece the crown of liberty.

But grand simplicity suffices only for the few — for such
men as Columbus and Shakespeare, Newton and Wellington.
The majority require a longer epitaph to pre^serve the
memory of their existence, their deeds, and their virtues.
To keep the just mean between fulsome adulation and
insufficient commemoration, constitutes the chief difficulty
in the composition of sepulchral memorials. liecourse
may again be had to Simonides fur an example of an ancient
epitaph, which in few and simple lines tells the name of tho
dead, her history, and her character. It is on Archedice,
the daughter of Hippias (Jacobs I. 6S, xlvii., translated
l)y Merivalej ;

XXXU INTRODUCTION.

Daughter of him who rul'd th' Athenian plains,
This houour'd dust Arehedice contains.
Of tyrants, mother, daughter, sister, wife —
Her mind was modest, and unstain'd her life.

Again, an epitaph should not be raerel}^ general in praise.
The particular characteristics of the dead should be clearly
stated, so that the inscription may be suitable to that
individual alone on whose tomb it is engraved ; otherwise
no certain idea of the deceased is gained by the reader, and
nothing definite is impressed on the memory. As an
example, a Greek epitaph on Euphemius by S. Gregory
Nazianzen may be cited (translated by H. S. Boyd) :

Euphemius slumbers in this hallow'd ground.
Son of Amphilochus, by all renown'd :
He whom the Graces to the Muses gave,
Tuneful no more, lies mouldering in the grave ;
The minstrels came to chaunt the bridal lay,
But swifter Envy bore her prize away.

Here some certain information is given. We learn the
man's name and that of his father, that he was beautiful in
person, with the soul of a poet, and that he died young upon
the eve of marriage.

Now, in what respect do Pope's epitaphs display or fall
short of the requirements of this style of composition ?
First, with reg^ird to the name of the dead. His inscrip-
tions have been satirically called " Epitaphs to be let,"
because he constantly omits all mention of the person
whom he is praising. And, secondly, with regard to dis-
tinctive characteristics, the same satire is aiDplicable ; for in
many cases his epitaphs are so indefinite that they would
suit as well other persons as those for whom they are
intended. In that on Simon Harcourt, the second fault is
very conspicuous, for in eight lines we learn nothing but
that he was Pope's friend, a good son, and that his death
o-ave his father and his friend much concern. The first
fault is not, however, found ; for " this epitaph," says Dr.
Johnson, "is principally remarkable for the artful intro-
duction of the name, which is inserted with a peculiar
felicity, to which chance must concur with genius, which

INTRODUCTION. XXxiii

no man can hope to attain twice, and which cannot be
copied but with servile imitation " :

To this sad shrine, whoe'er thou art, draw near,
Here lies the friend most lov'd, the son most dear :
Who ne'er knew joy, but friendship might divide,
Or gave his father grief but when he died.

How vain is reason, eloquence how weak !
If Pope must tell what Harcourt cannot speak.
Oh ! let thy once-lov'd friend inscribe thy stone,
And with a father's sorrows mix his own.

Pope's finest epitaph, because the noblest memorial of
God-given intellect in the fewest words, is that on Sir
Isaac Newton ; but most of his monumental inscriptions
are on men who were not of sufficient celebrity to be ex-
empt from the necessity of some particulars of theii" history
being recorded on their tombs. It is in these he fails.
He either gives no details, or is fulsome in his praise.
Of the latter character is the one on Craggs, who was a
respectable statesman, but not the all-perfect man described
by Pope :

Statesman, yet friend to truth ! of soul sincere.

In action faithful, and in honour clear !

Who broke no promise, serv'd no private end,

Who gain'd no title, and who lost no friend :

Ennobled by himself, by all approv'd,

Prais'd, wept, and honour'd by the Muse he lov'd.

To these lines cannot be denied the praise of much beauty ;
but they have the effect (which should never be the case
in an epitaph) of unreality— of bestowing the flattery of
affection, rather than the impartial justice of truth.

During the eighteenth century many Epigrammatists of
considerable note flourished, a few accepting the Greek
type, but the majority the Roman, though in the writings of
most of them some pieces may be found which have all the
elegance and simplicity of the former, whilst but a small
section ventured upon the imitation of the worst specimens
of the latter. Aaron Hill and Garrick were men who
thoroughly understood epigram-writing. Both abound in
humour, especially the latter. Both could be tender, and,
throwing aside satire, write with grace of diction and

XXXIV INTRODUCTION.

sentiment. Take the following lines on the power of love
by Hill as an example (Hill's " Works," 1753, III. 38) :

Oh ! forbear to bid me slight her,

Soul and senses take lier part;
CouLi my life itself delight her.

Life should leap to leave my heart.
Strong, though soft, a lover's chain,
Charm'd with woe and pleas'd with pain.

Though the tender flame were dying,

Love would light it at her eyes ;
Or, her tuneful voice applying,

Through my ear, my soul surprise.
Deaf, I see the fate I shun,
Blind, I hear I am undone.

The epigrams of Lord Lyttelton and of Horace "Walpole
deserve particular attention as models of chaste taste. The
former never degenerates into coarse satire; the latter,
though sometimes satirical, is never common-place. How
pi-egnant is this distich by Lord Lyttelton as an " Inscrip-
tion for a bust of Lady Suffolk in a wood at Stowe ":

Her wit and beauty for a court were made :
But truth and goodness fit her for a shade.

And how elegant this address of Horace Walpole " To
Madame du Chatelet, when on a visit at Strawberry Hill ":

When beauteous Helen left her native air,
Greece for ten years in arms reclaim'd the fair,
Th' enamour'd boy withheld his lovely prize,
And stak'd his country's ruin 'gainst her eyes.
Your charms less baneful, not less strong appear :
We welcome any peace that keeps you here.

Of ver}' different character are the epigrams of Samuel
Bishop, head-master of Merchant Taylors' School, who de-
serves some notice on account of the celebrity which he
obtained in his day as an Epigrammatist. He took Martial
for his pattern, but avoided his scurrility and coarseness.
His epigrams are full of humour, and he often exposes a
gi'ievance with good-natured wit. The following, written
in Latin as well as English, is a specimen. It is applic-
able to other times besides those in which it was written
(Bishop's " Works," 1796, L 311):

rNTEODUCTION. XXXV

♦* Do this," cries one side of S. Stephen's great hall,

" Do just the reverse," the minority bawl :

As each has obtain'd, or desires to obtain,

Or envies the station he wish'd for in vain.

And what is the end of this mighty tongue- war ?

— Nothing's done for the State — till the State is done for!

The last line displays a form of epigrammatic wit to
which some consideration must be given — play upon words.
This is scarcely ever found in the epigrams of the best
writers. It came much into vogue in the decadency of the
literature, but has always been protested against. In the
dissertation prefixed to the Collection of 1735, the authoi-
says : " We have already observed that a gay conceit, or a
o-ood sentence, will sometimes serve for points : but what
else ? nothing so properly as what can be truly called wit ;
no jingle of words, pun, quibble, conundrum, mixed wit,
or false wit, ought ever to be used, though they have all
very often appeai-ed in this kind of poetry." It is not to
be denied that a few ancient examples may be found of
wit of this kind, nor that punning epigrams are often
amusing and show much pleasant humour. The follow-
ing is from the Greek of Callicter (Jacobs III. 8, ii). The
translation, by Graves, is not literal, but brings out well
the character of the Greek distich :

Celsus takes off by dint of skill

Each bodily disaster :
But takes ofi' spoous without a pill ;

Your plate without a plaster.

Kg man of taste would imitate such poor wit with any
intention of letting his fame rest upon it. A writer of
established reputation may, however, in a joking way,
throw off such trifles. Shenstone, for instance, addressed
the following to a voluminous poet of Kidderminster :

Thy verses, friend, are Kidderminster stuff,
And I must own you've measur'd out enough.

But what can bd thought of the writer who could perpe-
trate so absurd a distich as Ihis^ It is addressed to Father
Williams, and Is found in Amhurst's "Terrae Filius :"

Thy verses are immortal, O, my friend !

For he who reads them, roads them to no end.

XXXVl INTRODUCTION.

But tliougli, as a rule, all play upon words is to be con-
demned as false wit, yet epigrams are occasionally found,
in which a pun is introduced with so much elegance, that
the impropriety is forgotten in the pleasure which the
perusal gives. Such instances occur in the Latin writers
of medigeval and of more modern times, but it is seldom
that the wit can be rendered with any success in English.
An epigram, by an unknown author, on a clergyman who
preached the published sermons of Archdeacon Hare, is a
case in point :

Ne lepores vendas alienos : prome leporem
Nativum : melior syllaba longa brevi.

A play upon a person's name is not uncommon among
modern writers. An epigram by Henley, on the assistance
which Broome gave to Pope in the translation of Homer,
is good of its kind :

Pope came off clean with Homer ; but they say
Broome went before, and kindly swept the way.

But, perhaps, the most elegant distich of this character is
Lord Erskine's compliment to Lady Payne :

'Tis true I am ill ; but I need not complain ;

For he never knew pleasure, who never knew Payne.

It is among the professed wits that punning epigrams
are chiefly found. Theodore Hook and Thomas Hood have
many of them, and though trifling they are humorous.
One of the best is by James Smith, " A Father to his
Daughter, who asked him for money ":

Dear Bell, to gain money, sure, silence is best,
For dumb Bells are fittest to open the chest.

But all wit of this kind, amusing though it may be for the
moment, gives very little lasting pleasure. A fine epigram
may be read and read again with ever-increasing satisfac-
tion, but few of those, which for their worth depend upon
a quibble or a pun, exercise any influence upon the feelings
or the intellect, and therefore they produce no enjoyment be-
yond the passing trivial gratification. They are epigrams

INTRODUCTION. XXXVll

in name, but they have not the ancient mark of epigram-
matic writing. Allowable if sparingly used, play upon
words, if generally adopted, would ruin this style of poetry.
Towards the close of the eighteenth century epigram-
wi'iting declined. The finer ancient models had been
gradually more and more neglected. Loose satire and
personal invective had become its chief characteristics ;
and men of taste saw in its modern style nothing that was
noble, everything that was debasing. Sunk into vicious
imbecility, it lost all claim to respect. Fallen from respect,
even the few who strove to retain for it a position of
honour, were powerless to save it from degradation. One
man stands prominently forward, to whom must be ac-
corded the unenviable distinction of doing more than any
other to debase our lighter poetic literature. With the
knowledge and the power which enabled him to vie with
some of the best epigram-writers, as is shown by a few
of his pieces. Dr. Wolcot (Peter Pindar) prostituted his
talents to the most virulent satire and the lowest lam-
poons. The following personal epigram, published in his
Works, 1812, is a specimen of his gross vulgarit3^ " To
Lady Mount Edgcumbe, on the Death of her Pig, Cupid :"

Oh, dry that tear, so round and big ;

Nor waste in sighs your precious wind !
Death only takes a single pig :

Your lord and son are still behind.

Men, however, there have always been who, even in the
worst times, have written with purity and taste, and to
their epigrammatic writings' the appeal must Ibe made
against any general denunciation of that style of literature.
In the present day there are signs of a reaction. Satire is
no longer considered necessary to the epigram, nor are
Martial's inferior pieces now accepted as models. Trans-
lations of the purest Greek epigrams are becoming popu-
lar, and the national taste is showing satisfactory evidence
that it appreciates the beauty of the ancient inscriptions.
Supply will follow the demand, and Epigrammatists may
be expected to arise, who will follow in the steps of those
who in past times made Simonides and Plato, Leonidas
and Meleager, their models.

XXXVm INTRODUCTION.

The declension of epigram- writing is muclito be lamented.
For two reasons in particular.

First, as a loss in a literary point of view. There is no
class of poetry which displays more prominently the taste
and skill of the poet. It is far from being an easy style
in which to gain proficiency ; and therefore it is one which
tests the merit of the writer. It is, moreover, a style which
requires peculiar adaptation to the work ; one in which
many a true poet may fail, while another, incapable of
producing a continuous poem, may admirably succeed.
Cowper was a man of real poetic power, but he was a poor
Epigrammatist. Dr. Jortin takes no rank as a poet, but the
few epigrams he has left are of singular beauty. A talent
is thus lost ; powers which exist are untried ; and the world
is deprived of enjoyment, which might be conferred by the
development of a capacity for epigram-writing. Again,
the terseness required in an epigram is of great use for the
acquisition of elegance in general literature and conver-
sation. This is well put by Graves in his essay in the
"Festoon": "Young people might receive the same ad-
vantage to their style in writing, and to their manner of
expressing themselves in conversation, from being ac-
customed to the force and conciseness peculiar to an
epigram, as it is allowed they generally do, to their way of
thinking and reasoning, from the close method of argumen-
tation essential to mathematical writings." The composi-
tion of Latin epigrams is retained as an exercise in some of
our schools, Westminster in particular ; and the prizes
established at Cambridge by the eccentric physician and
scholar, Sir William Browne, for Greek and Latin epigrams,
keep up the habit in that University. If it be advantageous
for boys and young men to write graceful Latin epigrams
for the promotion of terse classical composition, it must be
also advantageous to write English epigrams with the
same object in reference to their native language. English
epigram- writing was formerly common among school-
boys, and many of our greatest poets and wits tried their
powers as Epigrammatists, whilst they played at Eton or at
Westminster, or musingly sauntered on the banks of the
Isis or the Cam.

INTEODUCTION. XXXIX

Secondl}-, the decleusion of epigram-writing is to be
lamented as a loss in an historical and national point of
view. Epigrammatic literature displays national history.
The various turns of events, as they quickly pass, are
caught and, as it were, photographed in the epigi'ams of the
day : and minor circumstances, which may eventually enable
the historian to discover the small causes of great changes,
are chronicled in a serious distich or a witty quatrain. It
reflects, too, the national mind. The characteristics of the
time ; the temperament, manners, and habits of the people are
portrayed. " The great writer of each particular period,"
says the author of an article on the " Life of Bentley," in the
46th volume of the " Quarterly Review," " is the image and
representative of the state of the public mind during
his own age. The popular poet embodies the passions
and feelings of his time ; he is the perpetual record
of the tone of thought, of taste, of imaginative excitement
prevalent in his own country and during his own day.
.... There is always a strong reciprocal action and re-
action of the popular mind on the literature, as well as of
the literature on the public mind ; it is at once an exciting
cause and the living expression of the events, the manners,
the character of each separate period of history." True as
this is of poets in general, especially is it true of Epigram-
matists. Authors of this class have, from the earliest times,
not only been affected by the passions and feelings of the
people, but have worked upon those feelings, and directed
their course. This is seen most distinctly in the Greek
epigram-writers. The warlike character of his countrymen
is reflected in the soul-stirring inscriptions of Siraonides,
and none can doubt the effect which those burning words
must have had in rousing the martial spirit of the people
to yet greater deeds of glory. In later times we view the
decay of Greek prowess in the silence of the Epigram-
matists on warlike themes. Love and wine are the subjects
of their verse, as marrying and giving in marriage and con-
vivial entertainments were the chief care of the people in
the days of their national humiliation. So, in lioman times,
when, amidst excessive luxury and effeminate pleasures, the
ruin of the empire was slowly but surely advancing, we see

xl INTRODUCTION.

in the conviviality and the lewdness of the epigrams of the
Latin writers, a rejection of the manners of their country-
men, sunk in debauchery and sloth ; and we cannot doubt
that the vices were aided by the vicious teaching of the
poet. In modern times the same effects may be ob-
served. The reaction from Puritanism is displayed in the
epigrams of the reign of Charles II., and the passions ex-
cited by the Eevolution are strongly reflected in those of
the reign of William III. The decline of epigrammatic
literature at the time when Napoleon was devastating
Europe, makes any reference to that period of more doubtful
import ; but even the inferior epigrams written during the
war, which may be found in abundance in such works as
the " Spirit of the Public Journals," display decided evi-
dence of the influence of popular feeling on these productions,
though it can hardly be supposed that epigrams of so low a
class, and of such halting numbers, can have had much
effect on the passions of the people. But if epigrammatic
literature should rise again from its low estate, and take
once more its place in the high ranks of poetry, we may
expect that it will again exercise a legitimate power, and
stir the public sentiment. The purer its character, the
holier will be its influence ; the nobler its sentiments, the
more beneficial will be its results. Should domestic troubles
come, it will inspire loyal and patriotic aspirations. Should
war be sent to scourge us, it will incite to valour.

THE EPIGRAMMATISTS.

GEEEK EPIGEAMMATISTS.

B.C. 690— A.D. 530.

AECHILOCHUS.

Flourished b.c. 690. He was boru in the Isle of Paros, and in his
youth emigrated to Thasos. It is said that the Lacedaemonians laid a
proliibition on his verses on account of their immorality. His humour
was malevolent, and his habit of raillery and abuse made liim many
enemies.

ON THE LOSS OF HIS SHIELD (Jacobs I. 41, iii.).
Translated by Merivale.

The foeman glories in my shield —

I left it on the battle-field ;

I threw it down beside the wood,

Unscath'd by scars, unstain'd with blood.

And let him glory ! Since, from death

Escap'd, 1 keep my forfeit Ijreath,

I soon may find, at little cost,

As good a shield as that I've lost.

Archilochus, who threw away his shield, and thus endeavours to put a
*air face upon his cowardice, seems to have held the view of the man uf
peace, whom Massinger makes to say (" Tlie Picture,' Act I. sc. 2) :

This military art
I grant to be the noblest of professions ;
And yet il thank ray stars for it) I was never
Incliii'd to learn it, since tliis bubble honour
(Which is, indeed, the nothing soldiers fight for.
With the loss of limbs or life) is in my judgment
'' -^ Too dear a purchase.

2 GREEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

The epigram recalls the satire of Butler in " Hudibras " (Part III.
Canto iii. line 243) :

For those that fly may fight again,
Which he can never do tliat's slain.

This is taken from a Greek saying found in Aulus Gellius (" Noctes
Atticse " Lib. XVII. c 21), who says that when Philip conquered the
Athenians in a battle at Chajronea, Demosthenes sought safety m flight,
and when accused of cowardice, answered thus : —

'Avijp 6 (pevywv Koi iraMv ;uaX'^o'«T"ai.
Bishop Jeremy Taylor quotes the saying in " The Great Exemplar,"
Part I Ad. Section vi.4. (The Flight into Egypt), and, curiously enough,
amongst other examples, gives that of the flight of Demosthenes from
a lost field, to illustrate the statement that Christians "may fly from
their persecutors, when the case is so that their work is not done, that is,
thevmav glorify God with their lives more than with their deatli. '

.Joi-tinC' Tracts, Philological, &c." 1790, 1. 441) quotes the Greek line,
and amusingly says : " But it should rather have been,
May live to run another day.
'Ai/Tjp 6 ipevyiav Ka\ iraKiv ye 4>€u|€Ta(."
From the saying of Demosthenes, the Italians perhaps borrowed their
proverb : " It is better it should be said, here he ran away, than here
he was slain" (Gray's note to passage in " Hudibras ").

Archilochus was so much addicted to raillery and abuse, that he did
not even spare himself, as in the epigram on his own cowardice. Much
less did he spare others, as in his lampoon on the family ot Lycambes,
caused, it is said, by Lycambes not keeping his word with regard to one
of his daughters, whom he had promised in marriage to Archilochus.
Meleager has a fine epigram on the daughters of Lycambes, referring
to the treatment they received at the hands of their traducer (Jacobs 1.
35, cxix.), thus translated by C. :

By Pluto's hand, by sacred Hecate's bed.
We swear, fair spotless lives on earth we led.
Altho' Archilochus's verse with shame
And bitter taunts, would blight our virgin fame.
What, tho' his tuneful numbers sweetly flow.
Dishonour marks a woman's coward foe !
And how could ye, say how, Pierian Choir,
Favour his Muse, and string a slanderer's Lyre ?

That the Pierian Choir greatly favoured Archilochus' muse is evident
from the high estimation in which he was held, as Theocritus bears
witness in an epigram (Jacobs I. 199, xviii.), thus translated by
Oalvjrley:

Pause, and scan well Archilochus the bard of elder days.
By east and west
Alike's confest
The mighty lyrist's praise.

ARCHILOCHUS.

Delian Apollo loved him well, and well the sister-choir :
His songs Were fraught
With subtle thought,
And matchless was his lyre.

CONTENTMENT (Jacobs I. 42, x.).
Translated by the late Colonel Mure, of Caldwell.

What's Gjges or his gold to me !
His royal state or rich array ?
From envy's taint my breast is free,
I covet no proud tyrant's sway.
I envy not the gods in heaven !
The gods to me my lot have given.
That lot, for good or ill, I'll bear.
And for no other man's I care.

Archilochus was contemporary with Gyges, whose wealth, like that
of Croesus, early passed into a proverb.

Spenser in a single line expresses much (" Faerie Queene,'" Book I.
Canto ii, 35):

The noblest mind the best contentment has.

Cowley, in a portion of his epitaph for himself (translated from the
Latin by Addison), describes his own happiness in his retirement :

With decent poverty content,
His hours of ease not idly spent ;
To fortune's goods a foe profest,
And hating wealth by all carest.

This agrees well with Martial's epigram to Julius Martialis on a
happy life (Book X. 47, translated by Sir Richard Fanshawe) :

The things that make a life to please
(Sweetest Martial), they are these :
Estate inlierited, not got :
A tliankful field, hearth always hot :
City seldom, law-suits never :
Equal friends agreeing ever :
Health of body, i)cace of mind :
Sleeps that till the morning bind :
Wise simplicity, plain fare:
' Not drunken nights, yet loos'd from care :

A sober, not a sullen spouse :
Clean strengtli, not such as his that plows ;
Wish only what thou art, to be ;
Death neither wish, nor fear to see.

4 GREEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ADDRESS TO HIS SOUL (Jacobs I. 43, xiv.).
Translated by the late Colonel Mure, of Caldwell.

My sonl, my soul, by cares past all relief
Distracted sore, bear up ! with manly breast,
And dauntless mien, each fresh assault of grief
Encountering. By hostile weapons pressed,
Stand firm. Let no unlooked-for triumph move
To empty exultation ; no defeat
Cast down. But still let moderation prove
Of life's uncertain cup the bitter ^nd the sweet.

Philemon shows that an equable frame of mind is the possession of a
wise man. Cumberland thus translates the epigram in the " Obser\'er "
(No. 139) :

Extremes of fortune are true wisdom's test,
And he's of men most wise, who bears them best.

Agathias in an amusing epigram (Jacobs IV. 25, Ixiv.) shows the
result of unexpected good fortune. The translation is by Philip
Smyth :

Euseia, rich in gold and land.

To a poor fisher gave her hand,

Ophion, dazzled vnth his gain.

Grew haughty, petulant, and vain.

Venus, says Fortune, looking sly,

Who play'd this trick, pray — you or I ?

SAPPHO.

This poetess flourished B.C. 610. She was a native of Mitylene in
tlie island of Lesbos. She married, but was early left a widow. She is
said to have fixed her affections on a youth named Phaon, who, liow-
ever, did not return her love. In consequence of this she cast herself
into the sea from a promontory in Acarnauia, called Leucate ; the belief
being that those who survived the leap would be cured of hopeless love.
She perished in the experiment. Unfortunately little more than frag-
ments of the beautiful poetry of Sappho have come down to us, and only
three epigrams by her are preserved in Jacobs' Anthologia. Her
celebrity, however, is attested by many Greek epigrams. This, by
Antipater of Sidon (Jacobs 11. 19, xlvi.), is translated by Dr.
Wellesley :

Amazement seized Mnemosyne

At Sappho's honey'd song :
" What, does a tenth Muse, then," cried she,

" To mortal men belong !"

SAPPHO. O

And a joyous epigram by an uncertain author (;Jacobs IV. 227, dxxi.)
is thus translated by C. :

Come, Lesbian maids, to blue-eyed Juno's shrine,
And with light soundless feet the dance begin.
Your own lov'd l^appho with her golden lyre
Shall sweep the strings, and lead the laughing choir;
And as she plays your joyous bands among
You'll deem you hear the very Muse of Song.

EPITAPH ON A PRIESTESS OF DIANA (Jacobs I. 49, i.).
Translated in Merivales Edition of Bland's Collections.

Does any ask ? I answer from the dead :

A voice that lives is graven o'er my head :

To dark-ey'd Dian, ere my days begun,

Arit^to vow'd me, wife of Saon's son :

Then hear thy piiestess, hear, O Virgin power !

And thy best gifts on Saon's lineage show'r.

EPITAPH ON A FISHERMAN (Jacobs I. 50, ii.).
Translated by Elton.

This oar, and net, and fisher's wicker'd snare,
Themiscns plac'd above his buried son —

^Memorials of the lot in life he bare.
The hard and needy life of Pelagon.

It was the custom of the ancients to carve on the tombs of their
friends, devices emblematic of tlie proftssion or trade whicli they
exercised when alive ; of this we have many examples in the Anthology,
and in the works of Homer and Virgil. In tbe case of the clergy tlie
custom has extendcxl to mudcrn times, as it was, and is again becoming,
usual to engrave on their tombs a chalice, to denote their Priesthood.
Granger (Biog. Hi.st. 1779, I. 81) mentions a picture in the Lexington
Collection, with a device which seems to be borrowed from the Greek.
It is traditionally supptised to be a portrait of a daughter of Sir Thumas
More. It represents a femalt; standing on a tortoise, with a bunch of
keys by her side, licr finger on her lips, and a dove on iier head. On
the frame is a Latin inscriptiim, believed to be by Sir Thomas More,
which has been thus translated :

Be frugal, ye wives, live in silence and love.

Nor abroad ever gossip and roam !
This harn from tlie k( ys, thu lips, and the dovs,

And tortoise still dwelling at iiome.

6 GREEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

This inscription seema to have been suggested, not only by the
general custom of tlie Greeks, but particularly by an epitaph on
Lycidice by Antipater of 8idon, thus translated by C. (Jacobs II. 31,
Ixxxvii., from which four lines are omitted ii> the translation in accord-
ance with other authorities. See Jacobs' Notes, and Potter's " Anti-
quities of Greece," Book IV. Chap, vii.).-

Tell me. Lycidice, what meanings have

These sculptur'd emblems on thy piUar'd grave? —

The Owl, my labours at the wool doth tell :

The Bridle that I rul'd my household well :

The Muzzles fitted for the mouth express

The silent lip and soul's reservedness.

EEINNA.

Flourished B.C. 610. She was contemporary with Sappho, to whom
she is said to have been as superior in hexameters as she was inferior in
lyrics. She was celebrated as well for her beauty as for her genius, and
was tenderly mourned by the poets on account of her early death, as in
the following epigram by Antipater of Sidon, translated by Major
Macgregor (Jacobs II. 19, xlvii.):

Few were Erinna's words, and brief her lays.
Yet these obtained for her the deathless bays :
Therefore she is not from our memory swept,
Nor under the dark wing of black night kept :
But we the myriad minstrels of to-day.
Waste in oblivion, insect-like away.
Thus of one swan more joy the soft notes bring
Than thousand jackdaws clamorous in spring.

ON A PORTRAIT (Jacobs I. 50, i.).
Translated by Major Macgregor.

Skill'd hands these traits, best Prometheus! drew —
E'en men may match in cleverness with yuu —
So like to life, whoe'er has painted her,
Had she but voice, this Agatharcis were.

It is doubtful whether this epigram can be riglitly ascribed to Erinna
at a date so early. The conceit embodied in it is Ibreign to the extreme
simplicity of her age.

That men could match Prometheus was a thought often adopted
by the Epigrammatists at a later period, as, for instance, by Antipater
of Sidon in one of the many epigrams on Myron's Cow (Jacobs II.
21, Iv.):

ERINNA. 7

This heifer sure will low :
Prometheus, 'tis not thou,
That only makes things live.
For Myron life can give.

A modern epigram describes a portrait, which, unlike that of
Agatharcis, would not have represented the original, had voice been
added :

A lord of senatorial fame

Was by his portrait known outright ;

For so the painter play'd his game,

It made one even yawn at sight.

" 'Tis he — the same — there's no defect.

But want of speech," exclaim'd a flat.

To whom the limner — " Pray, reflect,

'Tie surely not the worse for that."

EPITAPH ON A DECEASED COMPANION (Jacobs I. 50, ii).
Translated by Major Macgregor.

Cold pillars ! Sirens mute ! and thon, sad urn !
Who boldest my poor dust for Hades stern.
Bid those all hail ahout my tomb who stand.
Or countrymen, or from another land ;
Say that a virgin 1 lie here, by name
Baucis — my father call'd me so — who came
Of Tenian race, and let them know my friend
Erinna for my tomb these verses penn'd.

Erinna wrote another epitaph on Baucis, from which we learn that
she died on her marriage day. On the similarly mournful fate of an-
other maiden, Meleager wrote an epigram (Jacobs I. 38, cxxv.), thus
translated by Archdeacon Wrangham :

Her virgin zone unloosed, CleEera's charms
Death clasps — stern bridegroom — in his iron arms.
Hymns at the bridal valves last night were sung —
Last night the bridal roof with revels rung —
This moru the wail was raised, and, hushed and low.
The strains of joy were changed to moans of woe ;
And the bright torch to Hymen's hall which led.
With mournful glare now lighted to the dead.

Other epigrams on this subject will bo found under Philipi)us.

A fragment in Athena;us gives tiie information that Erinna herself
died in early youth and unmarried, which adds much to the interest of
th(; epitaph which she wrote on her youn^ companion, wlo died pro-
bably a very short time before her.

8 . GEEEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

CLEOBULUS.

Flourished B.C. 586. He was Tyrant of Lindus, aud one of the Seven

Sages of Greece.

INSCRIPTION ON THE TOMB OF MIDAS (Jacobs I. 52, i.).

Translated by the late Colonel Mure, of Caldwell.

A maid of bronze am I, and here will stand
On Midas' tomb, as long as on the strand
The sea shall beat ; as long as trees shall grow,
Sun rise, moon shine, or liquid waters flow ;
So long by this sad tomb I'll watch and cry,
Midas lies here ! to every passer by.

Simonides has an epigram (Jacobs I. 59, x.) in which he severely
ridicules the idea of the maid of bronze enduring as long as the earth
itself. It is too long for insertion, but the last few lines of Merivale's
translation may be given :

. The sculptur'd tomb is but a toy
Man may create, and man destroy.
Eternity in stone or brass ? —
Go, go ! who said it, was — an ass.

But Cleobulus delighted in conundrums, and it is very probable, as
Colonel Mure points out, that the inscription is of that character, re-
quiring for its interpretation a knowledge of circumstances connected
with its composition, which Simonides did not possess. It is not likely
that Cleobulus seriously put forward such an extravagant assertion.
If he did so, he might be answered in the words of Spenser in " The
Kuines of Time " :

In vaine doo earthly princes then, in vaine

Seeke with pyramides, to heaven aspired ;

Or huge colosses, built with costlie paine ;

Or brasen pillours, never to be fired ;

To make their memories for ever live :

For how can mortal 1 immortalitie give ?
* * * * ♦

All such vaine moniments of earthlie masse,
Devour'd of Time, in time to nought doo passe.

On the destructive power of Time, Plato has a distich of much beauty
(Jacobs I. 106, xix.), thus translated by C. :

Time changes all things ; and beneath his sway
Names, beauty, wealth, e'en Nature's powers decay.

ANACEEON.

Flourished B.C. 559. He was born at Teos, a seaport of Ionia, and
spent many years of his life at the courts of Polycrates, Tyrant of
Samos, and Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus, Tyrant of Athens. He divd
in extreme old a,2;e at Abdera in Thrace, whither, many years before,
the Teians had emigrated and built a new city.

A STATUE OF MERCURY (Jacobs I. 56, x.).
Translated hy Major Macgregor.

Pray to the Herald of the Gods, that, to Timonax, he

Be kind, who in his lov'd porch plac'd, in fairest marble, me :

Pray Hermes, too, who rules the games, that all who will

may come.
Stranger or citizen alike, to this gymnasium.

A statue of Mercury or Hermes, as the protector of learning, was
usually placed by the ancients in their libraries, and in the porticoes of
their academies.

Hermes, called also Cyllenius from the place of his birth, was the
messenger of Jupiter, the patron of learning, the god of thieves and
all dishonest persons, and presided over highways. There are some
amusing epigrams in the Anthology in reference to his various duties.
The following by Philippus (Jacobs II. 206, xli.) is translated by the
Rev. G. C. Swayne in Dr. Wellesley's " Anthologia Polyglotta " :

Hermes the volatile, Aroady's president,

Lacquey of deities, robber of herds,
In this gymnasium constantly resident,

Liglit-fiugcred Aulus bore cif with these words :
" Many a scholar, by travelling faster

On learning's high-road, runs away with his master."

The same author ''Jacobs II. 210, Iv.) has the following dialogue,
translated by the same :

A. May I just take a cabbage-plant,

Cyllenius? B. No, sir, you shan't.
A. What gruilge a cabbage? B. 'Tis not grudge,

But there's a law the thief to judge.
A. Oh miracle beyond belief,

When Hermes preaches down a thief.

Prior imitated an epigram by Antipater of Sidon (Jacobs II. 13,
xxviii.) on the robbcr-di ity Hercules, who demanded half the tlock for
preserving the rest, which ends thus :

Though, troth ! to me there seems but little odds.
Who prove the greatest robbers, wolves or gods I

10 GREEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ON AGATHON (Jacobs I. 56, xiii.).

Translated by Major Macgregor.

When fell strong Agathon, Abdera here
As with one voice bewail'd his early bier ;
Blood-loving \\'ar, in whirlwind of the fight,
Never his equal slew in main and might.

After the Teians had settled in Abdera, the Thracians, jealous ol
their new neighboiirs, attacked them, and some conflicts took place.
Auacreon has several epigrams on those who fell in battle, which pro-
bably refer to the war with the Thracians.

Simonidea has an epigram on Cleodemus, who, rather than fly, fell
into an ambush of the Thracians during a war with that people
(Jacobs I. 76, xc). The translation is by Sterling :

By shame of flight was Cleodemus led

At deep Theserus' mouth to mournful doom.

Surprised by ambushed Thracians ; so he spread
His fame to Diphilus, his father's tomb.

On such warriors as Agathon and Cleodemus, and all who bravely
die for their country, Simonides has a fine epigram (Jacobs I. 64, xxvii.),
thus translated by C. :

For Greece and glory they who lie beneath
Wreath'd their pale temples in the shroud of death.
They died, yet Uve ! For Virtue from the grave
T' immortal worlds above conducts the Brave.

So, Spenser makes Britomart say (" Faerie Queene," Book Til.,
Canto xi. 19) :

" Life is not lost," said she, " for which is bought
Endlesse renown."

And Collins' celebrated Ode may be compared :

How sleep the brave who sink to rest,
By all their country's wishes blessed !
When spring, with dewy lingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallowed mould,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than fancy's feet have ever trod.
By faii-y hands their knell is rung ;
By forms unseen their dirge is sung ;
There honour comes, a pilgrim grey.
To bless the turf that wraps their clay ;
And freedom shall awhile repair.
To dwell a -weeping hermit there !

ANACREON. 11

ON THE SON OF CLEENOR. DROWNED IN A VOYAGE TO
HIS NATIVE COUNTRY IN WINTER (Jacobs I. 56, xiv.).

Translated in the " Saturday Review " of April 30, 1S70.

Yearnings for home, Cleenor's venturous son,
Urged thee the risks of wintry South to run :
And faithless weather trapped thee to thy grave,
Where o'er thy loved form heaves for aye the wave.

In the infancy of navigation, those who made voyages out of season
were specially "liable to clanger ; and as the Greek mind attached a
peculiar sadness to shipwreck, many epigrams were written on friends
lost at sea. The following is by Theocritus (Jacobs 1. 197,viii.), trans-
lated by Calverley :

Man, husband existence : ne'er launch on the sea

Out of season : oui tenure of life is but frail.
Think of poor Cleonicus : for Phasos sailed he

From the valleys of Syria, with many a bale :
With many a bale, ocean's tides he would stem
When the Pleiads were sinking, and he sank with them.

Leonidas of Tarentum wrote an epigram on the cenotaph of one who
had been shipwrecked (Jacobs I. 173, Ixxiv.), which is thus translated
l.vC. :

Why o'er Timareon's bark, no wealthy prey,
Eoll'd thy wild waves, thou ever-sounding sea?
The wintry tempest round his temples curl'd.
And to the whelming deeps his treasures hurl'd.
Far on the solitary waste he lies.
Above the sea-gull swoops, the bittern cries :
Whilst the fond parent vainly mourns his doom.
And weeps and watches o'er this empty tomb.
The following by Euphorion, who flourished B.C. 235 (Jacobs L
189, ii.), is translated by Goldwin Smith :

No native Trachis, land of many stones,
Nor rock with dark inscription shrouds his bones;
Tall Drepaniun, thy promontoried steep
Beneath, he welters in th' Icarian deep,
And I his cenotaph by friendship's hand
Upreared 'mid parch'd Dryopian pastures stand.
Herrick gives a warning against trusting to the sea :

What though the sea be calme ? Trust to the shore :
Ships have been drown'd where late they danc't before.

And Wordsworth, also, in one of his " Inscriptions " :
The smrwthest seas will .sometimes prove,
To the confiding bark, untrue ;
And, if she trust the stars above,
They can be treacherous too.

12 GREEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

SIMONIDES.

Flourished b.o. 525. He was a native of Cos. He lived to a great age,
and at eighty obtained the prize in poetry at the public games.

ON MEGISTIAS THE SEER (Jacobs I. 64, xxv.).
Irranslated by Sterling.

Of famed Megistias here behold the tomb,
Him on this side Spercheus slew the Medes;

A seer who well foresaw his coming doom,
But would not lose his share in Sparta's deeds.

The seer, Megistias, had predicted the event of the battle of Ther-
mopylae, but refused to leave the army, preferring certain, death with
Leonidas to life when his country was ruined.

ON THOSE WHO FELL AT THEBMOPYL^
(Jacobs I. C4, xxvi.).

Translated by Sterling.

If well to die be valour's noblest part,
In this with us no mortal men can vie :

Freedom for Greece we sought with fearless hear',
And here in undecaying fame we lie.

Simonides has many patriotic epigrams of a similar character, in
which he celebrates the glory of the warrior's death in defence of his
native land. An inscription on a column erected at Thermopylae
(translated by Sterling) gives in the fewest words the noblest eujogium,
and is a fine example of Grecian simplicity, and Grecian nobility of
sentiment (Jacobs I. 63, xxiv.) :

To those of Lacedsemon, stranger, tell.
That, as their laws commanded, here we fell.

The close of another epigram on Spartan courage shows the spirit
which animated the soldiers, and led them on to victory or death (Jacobs
I. 63, XX.) :

"We count it death to falter, not to die.

The glorious courage which these epigrams display, recalls the noltle
speech which Campbell puts into the mouth of Locluel, at the close of
his interview with the wizard :

Though my perishing ranks should be strew'd in their gore.
Like ocean-weeds heap'd on the surf-beaten shore,
Lochiel, untainted by flight or by chains.
While the kindling of life in his bosom remains,

SIMONIDES. 13

PUall victor exult, or in death be laid low.

With his back to the field, and his feet to the foe !

And, leaving in battle no blot on his name,

Look proudly to Heaven from the death-bed of fame.

Southey, in " The Poet's Pilgiimage : The Field of Battle," refers
to the inscription at Thermopylse, when describing the valour of the
Higldanders at La Haye Sainte :

And fitly here, as in that Grecian straight.
The funeral stone might say. Go, traveller, tell
Scotland, that in our duty here we fell.

THE SHIPWRECKED MARINER (Jacobs I. 76, xxxvi.).

Translated in Merivale's Edition of Bland's Collections.

cloud-capt Geraneia, rock unblest !

Would thou hadst reared far hence thy haughty crest,

By Tanais wild, or wastes where Ister flows ; •

Kor looked on Sciron from thy silent snows!

A cold, cold corpse he lies beneath the wave.

This tomb speaks, tenantless, his ocean grave.

The dread which the ancients had of lying unburied, and of losing
ftnieral rites, is well known. Shipwreck was to tliem, therefore, the
most terrible form of death, and hence the mournful character of the
epigrams which treat of that subject. Callimachus has a very touching
one, wliich, like that of Simonides, bewails the empty tomb of a sailor
(Jacobs I. 225, Ivii.):

Would God, no ships had ever crost the sea,
Then, Sopolis, we had not wept for thee :
Then no wild waves had tost thy breathless frame,
Nor we on empty tombs engrav'd thy name.

THE YOUNG GREEK EXILE'S GRAVE (Jacobs I. 7C, xxxix.).

Tranelated by C.

A foreign land enwraps its dust around thee.

And foreign waves, by Euxine's strand, surround theo :

No more for thee thy home, thy native shore ;

To Chios' sea-girt ible thou'lt come no more.

Pope, in one of his most beautiful poems, the " Elegy to the Memory
of an Unfortunate Lady," describes tlie exile's death :

What can atone (oh ever iiijur'd shade !)
Thy fate uiii)ilied, and thy rites unpaid?

14 GREEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

No friend's complaint, no kind domestic tear,
Pleas'd thy pale ghost, or grac'd thy mournful bier.
By foreign hands thy dying eyes were clos'd,
By foreign hands thy decent limbs compos'd,
By foreign hands thy humble grave adom'd,
By strangers honour'd, and by strangers mourn'd !

AEIPHEON OF STCYON.

Of this poet no particulars are known ; and even the date at which
he flourished is very uncertain ; that it was early is all that can be

TO HEALTH (Jacobs I. 92, xxiii.).

Translated by Cowper.

Eldest born of powers divine !
Bless'd Hygeia ! be it mine
To enjoy what thou canst give,
And henceforth with thee to live :
For in power if pleasure be,
Wealth or numerous progeny,
Or in amorous embrace,
"Where no spy infests the place ;
Or in aught that Heaven bestows
To alleviate human woes,
When the wearied heart despairs
Of a respite from its cares ;
These and every true delight
Flourish only in thy sight ;
And the Sister Graces three
Owe themselves their youth to thee ;
Without whom we may possess
Much, but never happiness.

Dr. Johnson, in No. 48 of " The Rambler," speaks in high praise of
this exquisite ode. His criticism, which is too long for insertion here,
cannot fail to please those who peruse it.

An epigram by Simonides probably suggested to Aripliron tiie idea
of his ode. The translation is by Sterling (Jacobs I. 60, xi.).

Good health for mortal man is best,

And next to this a beauteous form ;
Then riches not by guile possessed.

And. lastly, youth, with friendships warm.

SIMMIAS. 15

Pope may possibly have remembered Simonides' epigram when lie
wrote in the '' Essay on Man " :

Know all the good that individuals find,
Or God and Nature meant to mere mankind,
Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in three words — health, peace, and competence.

SIMMIAS OF THEBES.

This author is supposed to be the intimate friend of Socrates, who was
present at the philosopher's death, b.c. 399.

ON SOPHOCLES (Jacobs I. 100, ii.).

Translated in the ^^ Spectator," No. 551.

Wind, gentle evergreen, to form a shade
Around the tomb where Sophocles is laid ;
Sweet ivy, wind thy boughs, and intertwine
With blushing roses and the clustering vine.
Thus will thy lasting leaves, with beauties hung.
Prove grateful emblems of the lays he sung.
Whose soul, exalted like a god of wit.
Among the Muses and the Graces writ.

In the " Spectator " this epigram is ascribed to Simonides. But it
cannot be given to the native of Cos without a glaring anachronism ;
it is possible that it might be the work of a younger Simonides, a
nephew of the elder.

In an epigram by an uncertain author (Jacobs IV. 285, dlx.), trans-
lated in the same number of the " Spectator," the Muses and the
Graces are similarly represented in connection with another poet —
Menander :

The very bees, sweet Menander, hung
To taste the Muses' spring upon thy tongue ;
The very Graces made the scenes you writ
Tlieir happy point of fine expression hit.
Thus still you live, you make your Athens shine,
And raise its glory to the skies in thine.

16 GREEK EPIQIIAMMATISTS.

PLATO.

The celebrated philosopher. Ho was bora in the island of ^gina, and

flourished B.C. 395.

A LOVERS WISH (Jacobs I. 102, i.).
Translated by Moore.

WJiy dost tliou gaze upon the sky ?

Oh. that I were yon spangled sphere !
Then every star should be an eye,

To wander o'er thy beauties here.

A conceit of a similar kind occurs in Shakespeare's " Romeo and
Juliet," where Eomeo says (Act II. so. 2) i

Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.

And again, Juliet passionately cries (Act HI. sc. 2) :

Give me my Romeo : and when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so line.
That all the world will be in love with night.
And pay no worship to the garish sun.

Steevens notices a similar passage in a play called " The Wisdom ot
Doctor Dodypoll," which was acted before the year 1596 :

The glorious parts of faire Lucilia,

Take them and joiiie tiiem in the heavenly spheres ;

And fixe them there as an eternal light,

For lovers to adore and wonder at.

"Eomeo and Juliet" was written, Malone conjectures, in 1596.
Shakespeare may have taken the conceit from " The Wisdom of Doctor
Dodypoll," and unless the similarity of sentunent with Plato was acci-
dental, the unknown author of that play must have been acquainted
with the Epigram of the Greek writer.

S. T. Coleridge must have had Plato's epigram in mind when he
wrote his " Lines on an Autmnnal Evening," in which the following
passage occurs :

On seraph wing I'd float' a dream by night,
To soothe my love with shadows of delight ;
Or soar aloft to be the spangled skies,
And gaze upon her with a thousand eyes.

PLATO. 17

THE THIEF AND THE SUICIDE (Jacobs I. 106, xviii.).

Jack, finding gold, left a rope on the ground ;

Bill, missing his gold, used the rope which he found.

This translation of a Greek distich was made, we are told, by
S. T. Coleridge ("Literary Remains," 1836, I. 337), impromptu,
to controvert an assertion that the compression and brevity of the
original was unattainable in any other language. As a close translation,
elegance being put out of the question, it is admirable. As an excellent
paraphrase of the same distich, in which there is no attempt at close
translation, Shelley's rendering is much to be admired :

A man was about to hang himself.
Finding a purse, then threw away his rope ;
The owner, coming to reclaim his pelf.
The halter found and used it. So is Hope
Changed for Despair — one laid upon the shelf,
We take the other. Under heaven's high cope
Fortune is God — all you endure and do
Depends on circumstance as much as you.

THE LIGHT OF BEAUTY UN QUENCHED IN DEATH
(Jacobs I. 106, xxi.).

Translated by Shelley.

Thou wert the morning star among the living

Ere thy fair light had fled ;
Now, having died, thou art, as Hesperus, giving

New splendour to the dead.

Ausonius has a very pretty imitation of this epigram (Ep. 144) :

As Lucifer once, fair star of the morn.

You gave for the living your light ;
Now shrouded in death, you, as Vesper, adorn

The regions of shadow and night.

ON CUPID SLEEPING IN A GROVE (Jacobs I. 108, xxix.).

Translated by C,

Deep in a grove we found th' unconscious boy,
Glowing like redden'd fruit, Cythera's joy.
Above him on a bough his arms wore hung,
The quiver empty, and the bow unstrung :

18 GREEK EPIGEAMMATISTS.

Tranquil he lay on clust'ring roses wild,
And gently in his dreams the sleeper smil'd :
Bees dropp'd around the sweet balm of the south,
Adding fresh fragrance to his dewy mouth.

Hughes may have known and remembered this description of the
Sleeping Cupid when, in his " Greenwich Park," he wrote :

The sportful nymph, once in a neighbouring grove,

Burpris'd by chance the sleeping god of love ;

His head reclin'd upon a tuft of green,

And by him scatter'd lay Ms arrows bright and keen.

CRATES OF THEBES.

Flourished about B.C. 330. He was a celebrated philosopher of the

Cynic sect.

TEE CUBE OF LOVE (Jacobs I. 118, i.).
Translated by Sliepherd.

Sharp hunger is the cure of love,
Or time the mischief may remove :
If time and fasting give no hope,
Go ! — end thy miseries with a rope.

Tennyson has an exceedingly good epigram on hanging, as the
hopeless lover's relief, entitled, " The Skipping-rope :"

Sure never yet was Antelope

Could skip so lightly by.
Stand off, or else my skipping-rope

Will hit you in the eye.
How lightly whirls the skipping-rope !

How fairy-like you fly !
Go, get you gone, you muse and mope ;

I hate that silly sigh.
Nay, dearest, teach me how to hope,

Or tell me how to die.
There, take it, take my skipping-rope,

And hang yourself thereby.

We may compare an epigram, translated from the French by Ijeigh
Hunt, on hanging — as a cure for disappointment :

'Tis done ; I yield ; adieu, thou cruel fair !

Adieu, th' averted face, th' ungracious check

I go to die, to finish all my care,
To hang. — To hang ? — Yes, — round another's neck.

MNASALCUS.

The age of this author is not known with certainty. He probably
flourished about B.C. 325.

ON THE SHIELD OF ALEXANDER (Jacobs I. 123, ii.).

Translated by Merivale.

A holy offering at Diana's shrine.
See Alexander's glorious shield recline ;
Whose golden orb, through many a bloody day
Triumphant, ne'er in dust dishonour'd lay.

This epigram oresthes very much the spirit of Simonides. and one
by that patriotic poet may fitly be compared with Mnasalcus'. • It is
on a soldier's spear dedicated to Jove (Jacobs I, 67, xliv.). The trans-
lation is by Sterling :

Against this pillar tall thou taper spear
Repose, to Jove oracular offered here ;
For now thy brass is old, and worn at length
By warlike uses, thou hast lost thy strength.

ON A DEAD LOCUST (Jacobs I. 125, x.).
Translated by Merivale.

No more shalt thou, by fruitful furrows sitting,
Make with resounding wings glad minstrelsy !

Nor with loud chirps, my merry mood befitting,
Soothe me reclin'd beneath the forest tree.

This epigram illustrates a marked feature amongst the Greeks — their
aptitude for making all things beautiful, whether animate or inanimate,
conducive to their simple pleasures. There are many other epigrams
in the Anthology expressive of love for the sportive insect tribe, who,
while enjoying their little span of life, added to the charms of the leafy
retreats and shadowy pools in which the Greeks delighted. The fol-
lowing, on a wounded grasshopper, is by Nicius (Jacobs I. 183, viii.),
the translation by C. :

No more, no more, on leafy spray
Shall my shrill pinions sound their lay :
For as I sat, loud carolling,
A boy's hand seiz'd and tore my wing.
Little such fate imagining.

20 GREEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

And this, of similar cliaracter, is by Pamphilus (Jacobs I. 190, ii.),
the translation by the late Rev. E. Stokes, in Dr. Wellesley's " Antho-
logia Polyglotta " :

No longer, nestling the green leaves among,
Dost thou trill forth a sweet melodious song,
Tuneful cicada ! Thee, despite thy strain.
Some wanton urchin's out-spread palm hath slain.

Of the soothing effect of the hum of insect life, our own Thomson,
the poet of nature, thus writes in the " Seasons " (" Summer,"
line 281):

Resounds the living surface of the ground :

Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum,

To him who muses through the woods at noon :

Or drowsy shepherd, as he lies reclin'd.

With half-shut eyes, beneath the floating shade

Of willows grey, close-crowding o'er the brook.

EPITAPH ON lOLE (Jacobs I. 127, xviii.)
Translated by G.

Fair lole ! Unknown the nuptial rite,
Thy Spirit wanders in the realms of night.
Tears are thy mother's portion : her sad doom
To bend, with drooping head, above thy tomb.

Palladas has an epigram on the sorrows of life which cause tears
to be our portion (Jacobs III. 135, cii.). The translation is by
Shepherd :

In tears I came into this world of woe ;

In tears I sink into the shades below ;

In tears I pass'd through life's contracted span —

Such is the hapless state of feeble man :

Crawling on earth, his wretched lot he mourns.

And, thankful, to his native dust returns. j

So, Spenser, in " The Teares of the Muses," makes Melpomene say :

For all man's life me seemes a tragedy,
FuU of sad sights and sore catastrophes ;
First coming to the world with weeping eye,
Where all his dayes, like dolorous trophees,
Are heapt with spoyles of fortune and of feare,
And he at last laid forth on balefuU beare.

But Landor gives the consolation that tears shed over a child's grave
are not lost ;

N088IS. 21

That mortal has imperfect trust
In God who thinks Him only just.
God writes among his chosen few
Those who have loved and wept like you.
He numbers every tear they shed
Upon his last-born children dead.

NOSSIS.
A poetess born at Locri, in Italy. She flourished about B.C. 320.

ON THE STATUE OF A DAUGHTER (Jacobs I. 128, vii.).

Translated hy 1).

'J'his breathing image shows Melinna's grace,
Her own sweet fonn I see — her speaking face ;
The mother's youth's recall'd,— the father blest
Beholds his honour in his child confest.

Bishop Wordsworth of Lincoln, in his "Pompeian Inscriptions,''
1846, gives the following from a wall in Pompeii, a painful reverse of
the p'icture which the epigram presents :

Zetema

Mulier ferebat filium simulem sui,

Nee mens est, nee mi simulat, sed vellem esset mens,

Et ego volebam ut mens esset.

Which requires, adds Dr. Wordsworth, no other explanation than the

epigram of Nossis, or the

Laudantur simili prole puerpera)
of Horace (Odes IV. 5, 21).

We may compare Shakespeare in "A Winter's Tale" (Act II. sc. 3);

Behold, my lords.
Although the print be little, the whole matter
And copy of the father : eye, nose, lip.
The trick of his frown, his forehead ; nay, the valley.
The pretty dimples of his chin, and cheek ; his smiles ;
The very mould and frame of hand, nail, finger.

In the 3rd of his sonnets Shakespeare has :

Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime.

22 GREEK EPIQKAMMATISTS.

ANYTE.

A native of Tegea. Called by Antipater, "The Female Homer."
Flourished about B.C. 280.

THE WOODLAND GROT (Jacobs I. 131, vii.).
Translated by C.

Stranger, by this worn rock thy limbs repose,
Soft thro' the verdant leaves the light wind blows :
Here drink from the cool spring. At noon-day heat
Such rest to way-worn traveller is sweet.

There is another epigram in the Anthology, -which may be compared
with this. The author is unknown. The translation is by Shepherd
(Jacobs IV. 194, ccclxiii.) :

In yonder thicket springs the secret rill.
Whose streams perennial my green margin fill ;
O'er my clear waters, bubbling cool below,
Laurels and elms theii- dusky shadows throw.
When fierce at noontide glows the summer's heal,
Here, way-worn traveller ! rest thy weary feet :
Here quench thy thirst, in listless luxury laid,
And court sweet slxmibers in the grateful shade.

A pretty description of a woodland scene, such as these epigrams
bring before the eye, was " Inscribed on the back of a landscape, drawn
by the Rev. William Bree," by Anna Seward :

Here, from the hand of genius, meets your eye
The tangled foliage of a shadowy dell ;
Meets it in Nature's truth ; — and see, the brook
Thro' yon wild thicket work its way oblique.
Hurrying and dashing thro' the lonely wood.

EPITAPH ON A YOUNG GIRL (Jacobs I. 134, xxii.).
' Translated by Bishop Blomfield in " Museum Criticum."

I mourn Antibia — whose paternal gate

Unnumber'd suitors throng'd, her love to gain ;

For she was fair and wise — but envious Fate
Forbade ; and all their amorous hopes are vain.

Marullus, a learned Greek of the 16th century, who was celebrated
for his Latin poetry, has an epitaph in that language, which has
much resemblance in thought, though not in expression, to that by

LEONIDAS OF TAEENTUM. 23

Anyte. It is on Albina, translated by Whaley in his " Collection of
Original Poems and Translations," 1745, p. 293 :

Here fair Albina lies, yet not alone ;
That was forbid by Cytherea's son :
His quiver, arrows, and his bcfw lie here,
And Beauty's self lay lifeless on her bier.
Strew roses then, and violets round her shower,
She that's now dust, was yesterday a flower.

LEONIDAS OF TAEENTUM.

Flourished B.C. 280. An epitaph, which he composed for himself,
shows that he was an exile from his native land, and it is conjectured
that he was carried away captive by Phyrrhus, King of Epirus.

ON TEE PICTURE OF VENUS ANADYOMENE
(Jacobs I. 164, xli.).

Translated by C.

Fresh rising from the ocean foam,
Her mother's breast, her native home,
Apelles saw Love's queen display
Her matchless form bedash'd with spray.
Each grace he saw, and drawing near,
On breathing canvas fix'd them here.
See, from her hair her slender fingers
Press out the salt dew where it lingers ;
See, in those mild, love-breathing eyes,
Her soft glance languishingly dies ;
Whilst shews each gently-swelling breast,
Like the ripe apples of the west :
And Juno weeps, and Pallas sighs —
She's lovelier far ! We yield the prize.

This celebrated picture was painted for the temple of ^sculapius
at Cos. It is said that Campaspe, the most beautiful woman of her
time, sat for Venus, and tliat, while painting, Apelles fell in love with
the model, whom he afterwards married.

Praxiteles in sculpture rivalled Apelles in painting. His statue of
Venu.s at Cuidoa, was one of his mo.'<t celebrated works, and, according
to the story, surprised even the goddess herself. There is a well-
known Greek epigram upon it by an unknown author. The following

24 GREEK EPIGRAM3IATISTS.

translation is found in Addison's " Remarks on Several Parts of Italy."
Florence. — Ed. 1765 (Jacobs IV. 168, ccxlvii.j:

Anchises, Paris, and Adonis too,
Have seen me naked and exposed to view :
All these I frankly own without denying ;
But where has this Praxiteles been prying ?

These epigrams, without doubt, suggested to Prior his lines on Cloe's
Picture, entitled " Venus Mistaken : "

When Cloe's picture was to Venus shown,
Surpris'd, the goddess took it for her own.
And what, said she, does this bold painter mean?
AVhen was I bathing thus, and naked seen ?
Pleas'd Cupid heard, and check'd his mother's pride ;
And who's blind now, mamma ? the urchin cried.
'Tis Cloe's eye, and cheek, and lip, and breast ;
Friend Howard's genius fancied all the rest.

ON A FBAIL BARK (Jacobs I. 166, xlviii.).
Translated by C.

They tell me I am slight and frail,
Unskill'd to breast the waves and gale :
'Tis true ; yet many a statelier form
Than mine, has founder'd in the storm.
It is not size, it is not power,
But Heav'n, that saves in danger's hour ; —
Trust, helmsman, to your spars ; but see ?
God, 'midst the tempest, saved e'en me I

Sir George Wheler, who travelled in Greece towards the end of the
17th century, found an inscription on the wall of a house at Chaloedon,
which proved to be a votive tablet set up by Philo, a Christian, in
gratitude for a prosperous voyage. It was restored and translated by
Theobald, and forms an interesting comparison with the latter part of
Leonidas' epigram. (Nichols' "Illustrations of Literary History,"
II. 739) :

Invoke who will the prosp'rous gale behind,

Jove at the prow, while to the guiding wind

O'er the blue billows he the sail expands,

Where Neptune with each wave heaps hills of sands :

Then let him, when the surge he backward plows,

Pour to his statue-god unaiding vows :

But to the God of gods, for deaths o'erpast.

For safety lent him on the wat'ry waste.

To native shores return'd, thus Philo pays

His monument of thanks, of grateful praise.

LEONIDAS OF TAEENTUM. 25

Oowper, in language which has much similarity to the epigram of
Leonids, beautifully expresses the necessity of Heavenly aid in the
Toyage of life (" Human Frailty," last two stanzas) :

Boimd on a voyage of awful length,

And dangers little.known,
A stranger to superior strength,

Man vainly trusts his own.

But oars alone can ne'er prevail

To reach the distant coast ;
The breath of Heaven must swell the sail.

Or all the toil is lost.

HOME (Jacobs I. 168, Iv.).
Translated by Bland.

Cling to thy home ! If there the meanest shed
Yield thee a hearth and shelter for thy head,
And some poor plot, with vegetables stored,
Be all that Heaven allots thee for thy board,
Unsavoury bread, and herbs that soatter'd grow
Wild on the river-brink or mountain-brow ;
Yet e'en this cheerless mansion shall provide
More heart's repose than all the world beside.

This description of a poor man's home, forcibly recalls Virgil's
nccount, in the fourth Georgic, of the old Corycian peasant, which
Dryden thus translates :

Some scattering pot-herbs here and there he found,

Which, cultivated with his daily care,

And bruis'd with vervain, were his frugal fare.

Sometimes white lilies did their leaves aiford,

With wholesome poppy-flowers to mend his homely board :

For late returning home he supp'd at ease,

And wisely deem'd the wealth of monarchs less

Than little of his own, because his own did please.

And the general thought of the epigram has been finely reproduced
by Goldsmith, in " The Traveller," in the description of the Swiss :

Thus every good his native wilds impart.
Imprints the patriot passion on his heart ;
And e'en those ills, that round his mansion rise,
Enhance the bliss liis scanty fund supplies.
Dear is that slied to which his soul conforms,
And dear tliiit hill which lifts him to the storms*
And as a child, when scaring sounds molest,
Cliiigs close and closer to the mother's bveast.

26 GREEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

So the loud torrent, and the whirlwind's roar,
But bind him to his native mountains more.

DIOTIMUS.

Chronologically placed by Brunck and Jacobs, between Leonidas of
Tarentum and Theocritus.

A WINTER THUNDER-STORM IN GREECE (J&cohs I. 186, x.).

Translated by C.

The gentle herd return'd, at evening close,
Untended from the hills, and white with snows ;
For ah ! Therimachus beneath the oak,
Sleeps his long sleep, touch'd by the lightning-stroke.

The death of a shepherd is pathetically pictured by Ambrose Philips,
in his third Pastoral :

In yonder gloomy grove out-stretch'd he lay,
His lovely limbs upon the dampy clay ;
On his cold cheek the rosy hue decay'd,
And, o'er his lips, the deadly blue display'd :
Bleating around him lie his plaintive sheep.
And mourning shepherds came in crowds to weep.

But effective as is this description, how far more touching is the
Greek, where there is no description, — where the sheep returning "un-
tended," suffices to tell the tale of death, and " the lightning-stroke "
to explain the havoc of dissolution.

THEOCRITUS.

Flourished B.C. 272. He was born at Syracuse, but, not meeting
with encouragement in his native country, went to reside at Alex-
andria, where Ptolemy Philadelphus, the great patron of learning, then
reigned.

TO THYRSIS ON THE DEATH OF HIS KID (Jacobs I. 196, vi.).

Translated by C.

Ah ! Why sad Thyrsis, blind both your eyes
With those salt tears ? Will comfort thence arise ?
Your goat, the young, the beautiful, is dead.
To a fell wolf's relentless jaws betray'd.

THEOCRITUS. 27

The wild dogs howl ! Fear not, they howl in vain,
Nor bones, nor dust of your late friend remain.

C. has also translated an epigram, by an unknown author, on a gem
representing a goat giving suck to a wolf-cub (Jacobs IV. 208,
pcccxxii) :

With my own dugs this wolfish cub I feed ;
Not willingly, the goatherd is obey'd.
Full-grown, he'll tear me ; for tho' kind my part,
No kindness changes an unfeeling heart.

This epigram, remarks Bland, is the very reverse of the common pro-
verb, " One good turn deserves another."

Shakespeare, in the " Merchant of Venice " (Act IV. sc. 1.), looks
upon tlie heart of a wolf and the Jew Shylock as equal in hardness : —

You may as well go stand upon the beach,
And bid the main flood bate his usual height;
You may as well use question with the wolf,
Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb;
You may as well forbid the mountain pines
To wag their high tops, and to make no noise,
When they are fretted with the gusts of heaven ;
You may as well do anything most hard,
As seek to soften that (tlian which what's harder ?)
His Jewish heart.

EPITAPH ON EUBYMEDON (Jacobs I. 198, xiii.).
Translated hy C. 8. Calverley.

Thou hast gone to the grave, and abandoned thy son
Yet a babe, thy own manhood yet scarcely begun.
Thou art throned among gods : and thy country will take
Thy child to her heart, for his brave father's sake.

A similar srntiment is expressed at the close of a poem by Johu
Duncombe, " On the Deatli of Frederick Prince of Wales " (NichoJa'
•' Select Collection of Poems," 1782, viii. 229) :—

Then 'Britain shall with grateful joy embrace
The durliiig youths, and view licr Frederick's race
I'o all their great furcfatlierH' fame aspire.
Nor, when she views the sons, forget the sire.

Theocritus has another epitaph on Eurymedon (Jacobs I. 198, xiv.),
also translated by Calverley : —

28 OBEEE EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Prove, traveller, now, that you honour the brave
Above the poltroon, when he's laid in the grave,
By murmuring, " Peace to Eurymedon dead."
The turf should lie light on so sacred a head.

That the tiirf should lie light on the bones of the deceased, is an
expression which constantly occurs amongst the poets. An epigram by
Meleager on this subject will be found under Ben Jonson ; and it was
from the Greeks probably that Martial took the idea in liis pretty
epitaph on Erotion (Book V. 34:), thus translated by R. Fletcher in his
" Ex Otio Negotium,' 1656 :

Ye parents Fronto and Flocdla here,
To you I do commend my girl, my dear.
Lest pale Erotion tremble at the shades,
And the foul dog of hell's prodigious heads.
Her age fulfilling just six winters was,
Had she but known so many days to pass.
'Mongst you, old patrons, may she sport and play.
And with her lisping tongue my name oft say.
May the smooth turf her soft bones hide, and be,
O Earth, as light to her as she to thee 1

Occasionally, however, the poets were satirical on this subject, and
wished the earth to lie light on the dead, with a feeling quite opposite
to that which influenced Theocritus and Martial, as in the following
epigram by Ammianus (Jacobs III. 95, xiii.), thus translated by
Merivale :

Light lie the earth, Nearchus, on thy clay.
That so the dogs may easier find their prey.

ON EPICHABMUS (Jacobs I. 199, xvi.).
Translated hy Dr. Chapman.

We Dorian Epicharmus praise in Dorian,

Who fiist wrote comedy, but now, alas !
Instead of the true man, the race Pelorian,

Bacchus, to thee presents him wrought in brass.
Here stands he in their wealthy Syracuse,

Known for his wealth and other service too —
To all he many a saw of practic use

Declared, and mighty honour is his due.

Epicharmus was a poet and philosopher, who flourished B.C. 468.
He was not a native of Syracuse, but went to reside there in very early
life, and there invented comedy. All his works are lost.

THEOCRITUS. 29

The close of an epigram by Thomas Freeman, in " Runne and a
Great Cast " (Ep. 92), addressed to Shakespeare, expresses the same
thou£rht, of the honour due to the author of wise works, as the last
two lines of Theocritus' epigram :

Then let thine own works thine own worth upraise.
And help to adorn thee with deserved bays.

And Akenside, in an " Inscription for a Monument of Shakespeare,"
t-xpresses the value of his teaching ; —

This was Shakespeare's form ;
Who walked in every path of human life,
Felt every passion ; and to all mankind
Dotli now, will ever, that experience jdeld
Which his own genius only could acquire.

ON A BANK (Jacobs I. 200, xxi.).
Translated iy Dr. Chapman.

With stranger and witli citizen the same
I deal : your own deposit take away,

Paying the charge : excuse let others frame.
His debts Caicus e'en at night will pay.

A writer in the " Quarterly Eeview," No. 233, quoted this epigram,
and remarked that it " might be a good motto for the establishment of
a poetic private banker, if such a person exist." It would have suited
Lim who taught the world that banking and poetry were not incom-
patible — the poetic banker, Rogers, on whose death Charles Townsend
wrote these elegant lines (Townsend's " Few Leaves Collected together
in the Autumn of 1860 ") :

All Memory's Pleasures his choice book contains,
But leaves unsung its Sufferings and its Pains,
Death, the great teacher, the defect supplied.
And gave ns Memory's Sorrows when he died.

ORTEG'S JDFJC^ (Jacobs I. 174, Ixxv.).
Translated by C. S. Calverley.

Friend, Ortho of Syracuse gives thee this charge.
Never venture out drunk on a wild winter night ;

I did Ko and died. My possessions were large.

Yet the turf that I'm clad in is strange to me quite.

30 GEEEK EPIGEAMMATIST8.

Jacobs gives this epigram to Leonidas of Tarentum. As, however, it
is ascribed to Theocritus in Mr. Calverley's translation of that poet, it
is inserted here under his name.

The danger of drunkenness is not confined to wild winter nights.
Stairs are a source of trouble, as Martial shows in an epigram (Book
XI. 82), thus translated by Hay :

At Bristol, Tom from the Mayor's feast was led :
And home return'd was going up to bed :
From the stair-head he like Elpenor fell :
And, like Elpenor, almost dropp'd to hell.
My sober friend ! reflect upon this matter !
How safe are you, who drink but Bristol water !

The waters commemorated in the original are those of Sinuessa, a
city of Campania, which were famous for producing soberness.

A modern epigram, perhaps founded upon that of Martial, amusingly
sets forth the habit of a drunken man of never allowing himself to be
in fault when he meets with an accident :

A lover once of the Septembrian juice,
Had of the aforesaid made such copious use.

That ways and means to him were wanting
An easy staircase to ascend ;
When, after many steps now round, now slanting,
That led him further from his journey's end,
With an unlucky stair his foot engages.

He fell, and with a hiccough swore,

Proud as a patriarch of yore.
They built most scurvily in former ages.

MOSCHUS

Was probably younger than, but contemporary with, Theocritus,
who flourished B.C. 272. He was born at Syracuse. His most cele-
brated poem is that in which, in pathetic strains, he mourns the death
of the poet Bion.

CUPID TURNED PLOUGHMAN (Jacobs I, 201).

Disguis'd like a ploughman. Love stole from the sky,
His torch, and his bow, and his quiver thrown by ;
And with his pouch at his shoulder, and goad in his hand,
Began with yok'd oxen to furrow the land :

0AU,IMA0HU8. 31

And, " Jove, be propitious," he cried, " or I vow.
That I'll yoke thee, Em-opa's fam'd bull, to my plough."

There is a translation, or rather paraphrase, of this capital epigram
by Prior, which may be found in his works.

It is thought that Tibullus alludes to this epigram in one of his
elegies (Book II. El. 3) :

Now Cupid joys to learn the ploughman's phrase,
And, clad a peasant, o'er the fallows strays.

CALLIMACHUS.

Flourished B.C. 256. He was bom at CjTene, the famous city ot
ancient Lybia, and declared himself to be descended from King Battus.
its founder, whence probably he derived his appellation, Battiades.

THE CHASE (Jacobs I. 214, xi.).

Translated in the " Qimrterly Review," No. 233.

O'er the hills, Epicydes, the hunter will go

In pursuit of a hare or on track of a roe.

No stranger to frost or to snow-storm. But say,

" Hold ! here is our game dead ! He recks not his prey."

So the fair one, who shuns it, my love will pursue,

Disdaining all charms within reach and in view.

So Hoi-ace says (Odes, Book I. 1) :

The hunter does his ease forego,
And lies abroad in frost and snow,
Unmindful of his tender wife.
And all the soft delights of life.

And in another place (Satires, Book I. 2), the same poel closeiy
imitates the language of Callimachus.

That the last two lines of the epigram expresskthe general feeling of
men, Shakespeare well knew, when he made Cressida say in soliloquy
(« TroUua and Cressida," Act I. sc. 2) :

Yet hold I off. Women are angels, wooing :
Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the -doing :
That she belov'd knows nought that knows not this, —
Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is ;
That she was never yet, that ever knew
Love got so sweet, aa when desire did sue :
Therefore this maxim out of love I teach, —
Achievement is command ; inigain'd, beseech :
Then though my heart's content firm love doth bear,
Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear.

32 GEEEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Waller, at the close of his address " To the Mutable Fair," expresses
very happily the point of Callimachus' epigram ;

For still to be deluded so,
Is all the pleasure lovers know ;
Who, like good falconers, take delight,
Not in the quarry, but the flight.

ON THE DEATH OF A FRIEND (Jacobs I. 223, xlvii.).
Translated by Henry Nelson Coleridge.

They told me, Heraclitus, thon wert dead ;
And then I thought, and tears thereon did shed,
How oft we two talked down the sun : but thou,
Halicarnassian guest ! art ashes now.
Yet live thy nightingales of song ; on those
Forgetfulness her hand shall ne'er impose.

So George, Lord Lyttelton, in a monody on the death of his wife,
says of their happy social intercourse :

Where oft we us'd to walk.
Where oft in tender talk
We saw the summer sun go down the sky.
And Kogers in his " Human Life :"

How oft from grove to grove, from seat to seat,
With thee converaiug in thy loved retreat,
I saw the sun go down !

ON THE DEATH OF A BROTHER AND SISTER
(Jacobs I. 225, lix.).

Translated by Cowper.

At morn we placed on his funeral bier

Young Melanippus ; and at eventide,

Unable to sustain a loss so dear,

By her own hand his blooming sister died.

Thus Aristippus mourn 'd his noble race.

Annihilated by a double blow,

Nor son could hope, nor daughter, more to embrace,

And all Cyrene sadden'd at his woe.

There is a touching epitaph in the " Poetical Register " for 1804, p.
236, translated from the Latin of Bellay, on the death of a daughter,
tlie last of her race :

CALLIMACHUS, 33

I weep upon thy grave — thy grave, my child !

Who shouki'st have wept on mine ! we deck thy tomb ;

This for thy bridal bed. Thy parents thouglit

To see thy marriage day ; thy father hopd

From thee the grandsire's name. Alas — my child !

Death has espous'd thee now, — and he who hop'd,

Mary, O dearest yet ! the grandsire's name

From thee, has ceas'd to be a father now.

So, in " Hamlet " (Act V. so. 1), the Queen says at Ophelia's grave :

I hop'd, thou should'st have been my Hamlet's wife ;
I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid,
And not have strew'd thy grave.

DESIBE OF IMMORTALITY (Jacobs IV. 226, Ix.).
Translated by Merivale.

"0 sun, farewell !" — from the tall rampart's height,
Cleombrotus exclaiming, plung'd to night !
Nor wasting care, nor fortune's adverse strife
Chill'd his young hopes with weariness of life ;
But Plato's godlike page had fix'd his eye.
And made him long for immortality.

This epigram is remarkable, as an almost unique instance among ti a
Greek epigrammatists, of the expression of that natural hope of immor-
tality, which caused Cleombrotus, though enjoying every earthly
blessing, voluntarily to cast off this mortal coil. The general doctrine
of the epigrammatists was, " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we
die," and they seem to have had no hope, that even eartiily pleasures
would be granted them after death. Thus the idea of dissolution was
more painful to the civilized Greeks than to the wild Indians of the far
West, who die with the hope of increased enjoyment in the celestial
hunting-grounds of the Great Spirit, in the beautiful land of the
hereafter.

The famous soliloquy of the hero in Addison's " Cato " (Act V. sc. 1 ,
adds interest to the epigram of Callimachus :

It must be so — Plato, thou reason'st well —

Else whence this pleasing liope, this fond desire,

This longing after immortality ?

Or whence tliis eocret dread, and inward horror,

Of falling int<^) nought ? Why shrinks the soul

Back on l.ersi.lf, and starlhs at destruction?

'Tis the Divinity that stirs within us ;

'Tis Ilfuven itself that points out an liereafter,

And intimates eternity to man.

Eternity ! tliou pleasing, dreadful thought I

34 GKEKK EPIGKAMMATI8TS.

ANTIPATER OF SIDON.
A stoic philosopher. Floui'ished b.c. 127.

ON ORPHEUS (Jacobs II. 24, Ixvii.).
Translated in the " Spectator," No. 551.

No longer, Orpheus, shall thy sacred strains
Lead stones, and trees, and beasts along the plains :
No longer soothe the boisterous winds to sleep,
Or still the billows of the raging deep :
For thou art gone. The muses mourn thy fall
In solemn strains, thy mother most of all.
Ye mortals, idly for your sons ye moan.
If thus a goddess could not save her own.
Milton, in " Lycidas," speaks of Calliope's inability to save her son :

Where were ye, nymphs, when the remorseless deep
Clos'd o'er the head of your loved Lycidas?

Up ^f * * in

*****

Ay me ! I fondly dream,

Had ye been there : for what could that have done ?

What could the Muse herself that Orpheus bore,

The Muae herself for her enchanting son,

Whom universal nature did lament,

When, by the rout that made the hideous roar.

His gory visage down the stream was sent,

Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore ?

ON ANACREON (Jacobs II. 26, Ixxii.).
Translated in the " Spectator," No. 551.

This tomb be thine, Anacreon ! All around
Let ivy wreathe, let flow'rets deck the ground ;
And from its earth, enrich'd by sucb a prize,
Let wells of milk and streams of wine arise :
So will thine ashes yet a pleasure know,
If any pleasure reach the shades below.

There is an epigram by Astydamas, who flourished B.C. 398, on the
subject of pleasure reaching the shades below, which is refreshing as a
break in that gloomy view of deatli, which is generally found in these
writers. The translation is by Merivale :

ANTIPATER OF SIDON. 35

Joy follow thee ; if joy can reach the dead,
And, or my mind misgives me, it sm'ely wilJ .

For when the miseries of life are fled,
How sweet the deep forgetfiiluess of ill !

OX A MOTHER AND DAUGHTER WHO KILLED THEM-
SELVES AT THE SIEGE OF CORINTH TO AVOID
CAPTIVITY (Jacobs II. 30, Ixxxiv.).

Translated hy Bland.

Here sleeps a daughter by her mother's side ;
Nor slow disease nor war our fates allied :
When hostile banners over Corinth waved,
Preferring death, we left a land enslaved;
Pierced by a mother's steel, in yoiith I bled,
She nobly join'd me in my gory bed :
In vain ye forge your fetters for the brave,
Who fly for sacred freedom to the grave.

Suicide was common among the ancients to avoid captivity or dis-
honour, and those who committed it were held up to vcnerutiou.
Some protests, however, against the practice are found, and especially
by Martial, who, upon the true ground that it is more noble to suffer
than to fly, thus severely condemns those who despise life. Th»;
translation by Dr. George Sewell is very free, but the sense is well
jjreserved (Book XI. close of Ep. 56) :

When all the blandishments of life are gone,
The coward sneaks to death — the brave lives on.

The question, whether the man who voluntarily dies, or he who
endures involuntary evils, be the more noble, is finely put in the well-
known soliloquy of Hamlet (" Hamlet,' Act III. sc. l) :

To be, or not to be, that is the question : —
"Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune ;
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles.
And, by opposing, end them V
The ordinary ancient view of the courage of those " who fly for
s;icred freedom to the grave," is shown in Ca3s;ir's words ujion the
ilealh of Cleopatra (" Antony and Cleopatra," Act V. sc. 2) :

Bravest at the last :
She levell'd at our purposes, and, being royal.
Took her own way.

Massinger supplit;s a good answer to Hamlet's solilo(juy "TliO
Maid of Honour," Act TV. sc. H) :

36 GREEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

He
That kills himself to avoid misery, fears it,
And, at the best, shows but a bastard valour.
This life's a fort committed to my trust,
Which I must not yield up till it be forced :
Nor will I. He's not valiant that dares die,
But he that boldly bears calamity.

So, Beaumont and Fletcher (" The Honest Man's Fortune,'" Act IV.
bc. 1) :

Who doubting tyranny, and fainting under
Fortune's false lottery, desperately run
To death, for dread of death ; that soul's most stout,
That, bearing all mischance, dares last it out.

MELEAGER.

Flourished b.c. 95. His country and parentage are unknown. He
is celebrated as the first collector of the numerous fragments of
Grecian poetry, which were engraved on tablets, or scattered as fugitive
pieces. This collection, with many epigrams of his own composition,
he wove into an anthology, which was afterwards enlarged by later
writers. As an acknowledgment of his services in thus preserving
these beautiful fragments, Brunck and Jacobs place his own epigrams
before those of all other writers.

THE MUBMUB OF LOVE (Jacobs I. 17, iiii.).

Translated hy Shepherd.

The voice of love still tingles in my ears ;

Still from my eyes in silence flow my tears ;

By night, by day, no respite do I find ;

One dear idea fills my anxious mind.

Say, winged lovelings ! round my aching heart

Still will ye flutter — ^ never to depart ?

Shakespeare paints the troubles of love in the '* Two Gentlemen of
Yerona " (Act I. sc. 1) :

To be in love where scorn is bought with groans,

Coy looks, with heart-sore sighs ; one fading moment's mirth,

With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights.

MELEAGER. 37

CUPID PROCLAIMED BY VENUS (Jacobs 1. 27, xci.}.
Translated by Fawkes.

I'm in seavcli of a Cupid that late went astra}',
And stole from my bed with the dawn of the day.
His aspect is bold, his tongue never lies still,
And yet he can whine, and has tears at his will.
At human misfortunes he laughs and he sneers ;
On his shoulders a quiver and pinions he wears :
'Tis unknown from what sire he deduces his birth :
'Tis not from the air, nor the sea, nor the earth ;
For he's hated by all— but, good people, beware ;
Perhaps for a heart he's now laying a snare —
Ha, ha, cunning Cupid, 1 see where you lie,
AVith your bow ready bent :— In Zenophila's eye.

The original of this beautiful epigram is an Idylliura of Moschus.
Spenser has imitated it in the " Faerie Queene," Book III. Canto vi.
11, 12, but the passage is too long for insertion. Yirgil, in his eighth
Eclogue, tells something of Cupid's birth and infancy :

I know t'nee. Love ; on mountains thou wast bred,
And Thracian rocks thy infant fury fed :
Hard-soul'd. and not of human progeny.

And S!iake.speare, in "Love's Labour's Lost" (Act III. sc, 1), giv.-o
a ijuaint description of the character of the god :

This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy;
This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid;
Kegent of h)ve-rhymes, lord of folded arms,
The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,
Liege of all loiterers and malcontents.
Dread prince of plackets, king of codpieces.
Sole im])erator, iiud great general
Of trotting paritors.

Congreve in his lines to "Amynta" has reproduced so'exactly, tluit
he must probably have remembered, the last few lines of Meleagcr's
epigram :

Cruel Amynta, can you see

A heart thus torn, which you betray'd?
Love of himself ne'er vamjui-h'd me.

But tlu()u;<h your eyes the conquest made.
In :iinbusli there the traitor lay,

Wht're I was led by faithless smiles ;
No wretches are so lost as th(y
Wiiom much security beguiles.

38 GREEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

BEAUTY COMPARED WITH FLOWERS ^Jacobs I. 27, xcii.).

Translated by Shepherd.

The snowdrop peeps from e >^ery glade,
The gay narcissus proudly glows,

The lily decks the mountain shade,

Where blooms my fair — a blushing rose.

Ye meads ! why vainly thus display
The buds that grace your vernal hour ?

For see ye not my Zoe stray

Amidst your sweets, a sweeter flower ?

A sentiment of similar character is expressed by Herrick, in a piece
entitk^d, " The Parliament of Eoses to Julia " :

I dreamt the roses one time went
To meet and sit in Parliament :
The place for these, and for the rest
Of flowers, was thy spqtlesse breast :
Over which a state was drawne
Of tiffauie, or cob-web lawne ;
Then in that Parly, all those powers
Voted the rose, the queen of Howers,
But so, as that herself should be
The maide of honour vmto thee.

ON A BEE THAT SETTLED ON THE NECK OF HIS
MISTRESS Jacobs I. 31, cviii.).

Translated by C.

Thou flower- fed bee ! Why leave the buds of spring
And to my lov'd-one's breast thy fond flight wing?
Is it to warn us, that Love tips his dart
With gall and honey for his victim's heart ?
It is, it is ! But go, light wanton, go !
The bitter truth you teach too well I know.

That love mingles gall with honey, Spenser tells us in the "Faerie
Queene,'' Book IV. Canto x. 1 :

True he it said, whatever man it sayd,
That love with gall and hony doth abound :
But if the one be with the other wayd.
For every dram of hony therein found,
A pound of gall doth over it redound :
That I too tnie by triall have approved.

MELEAGER. 39

William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, a poet nearly contemporary
with Spenser, expresses the same truth in a line in his first madrigal :

feweet hony love with gall doth mixe.

A modern anonymous epigram, in Hackett's '• Collection of Select
Epigrams," 1757, Ep. (i'2, tells of the sting as well as the sweets of love :

To heal the wound a bee had made

Upon my Delia's face,
Its honey to the part she laid,

And bade me kiss the place :
Pleas'd, I obey'd, and from the wound

Suek'd both the sweet and smart ;
The honey on my lips I found.

The sting within my heart.

ON THE PEDESTAL OF THE MARBLE STATUE OF NIOBE

(Jacobs I. 34, cxvii.).

Translated by C.

Hail, Niobe ! Unbind thy braided hair !

To thee I come, the prophet of despair.

I see thy sons, a manly offspring, lie

Pierc'd by th' avenging archers of the sky.

All, all are dead. — Yet darker visions rise.

Young, blood-stain'd virgins scathe these aching eyes.

One at thy feet, a guiltless daughter, falls ;

One on thy knees death's withering shaft appals :

E'en she thy late-born dies, untimely slain.

She at thy breast, thy last ! for none remain.

Amaz'd, and mute the grief-struck mother stood,
Erewhilo too fond of speech, but now subdued.
Benumbing horror froze the starting tear.
And fix'd her lovely fuim in marble here.

Niobe's children were destroyed by Apollo and Diana, in revenge for
insults which she offered to their mother Latona. Struck at the
suddenness of her misfortunes, slie was changed into a btone. The
marble statue, on the pedcsfcil of which these noble lines were written,
was executed by Praxiteles, and was so perfect as a work of art, that
Niobe seemed to be again alive. This gave occasion to the following
epigram by an unknown author (Jacobs IV. 181, ccxcviii.):

To stone the gods had chang'd her— but in vain ;
The sculptor's art has made her breathe again.

40 GREEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Tlie story of Niobe is given in the 24th Book of Homer"s Iliad. The
reference to the rock-cut monument of her in the valley of the Hermus
is thus translated by Pope :

There high on Sipylus's shaggy brow,
She stands her own sad monument of woe ;
The rock for ever lasts, the tears for ever flow.

PHILODEMUS.

Flourished about B.C. 80. He was by birth a Gadarene, but
migrated to Athens, and thence to Rome.

MUSIC AND LOVE (Jacobs H. 73, xiii.).

Translated by Merivale.

The strains that flow from young Aminta's Ijrre,
Her tongue's soft voice, and melting eloquence,
Her sparkling eyes, that glow with fond desire,
Her warbling notes, that chain the admiring sense,
Subdue my soul — I know not how nor whence.
Too soon it will be known when all my soul's on fire.

So, Herrick " Upon Sapho sweetly playing, and sweetly singing " :

When thou do'st play, and sweetly sing,
Whetlier it be tlie voice or string,
Or both of them, that do agree
Thus to en-trance and ravish me :
This, this I know, I'm oft struck mute ;
And die away upon thy lute.

The epigram of Philodemus may perhaps be the original of Hughes
pretty lines, " Beauty and Music ' ;

Ye swains, whom radiant beauty moves,
Or music's art with sounds divine.
Think how the raptiu'ous charm improves,
Where two such gifts celestial join.
Where Cupid's bow and Phoebus' lyre.
In tlie same powerful hand are found,
Where lovely eyes inflame desire,
While trembling notes are taught <o wound.
Inquire not who's the matchless fair.
That can this double death bestow ;
If young Harmonia's strains you hear.
Or view her eyes too well you'll know.

ARCHIAS. 4.1

A LAMENT (Jacobs II. 78, xxx.).

Translated by C.

The bean-flower is in blossom, and the rose,
The spring-kail gather'd, the crisp parsley blows ;
The crackling shell-fi,sh serv'd, the salt cheese prest,
And cut the milky lettuce for the feast. —
Yet tread we not the shore, th' accustom'd hill,
And mountain heights miss our known fuotstei3s still.
Two babes, last morn, who play'd in life's young bloom.
On this, we bore for burial to the tomb.

This beautiful lament was addi-essed by some bereaved parents to
one Sosulus, giving the reason for their absence from a festivity on the
sea-shore, for which everything had been prepared.

AECHIAS.

Flourished about B.C. 80. He was the preceptor and friend of Cicero.

THRACIAN VIEW OF LIFE AND DEATH (Jacobs II. 88, xxxi.).

Translated by Bland.

Thracians ! who howl around an infant's birth,
And give the funeral hour to songs and mirth !
\Vell in your grief and gladness are express'd,
That life is labour, and that death is rest.

So, iEsop, the Fabulist, as early as the middle of the sixth century
before the Cliristian era, wrote (Jacobs I. 52, first part of Epigram,
translated by Bland^ :

Who, but for death, could find repose
From life, and life's unnumber'd woes.
From ills that mock our art to cure,
As hard to £iy as to endure ?

Owen, the Cambro-Briton, argues that death is better than life
(Book III. 192). The Latin is thus translated by Hayman :

"We cry, being born ; from thence thus argue I,
If to be born be bad, 'tis good to die.

Lear says (" King Lear," Act IV. sc. 6) :

When we arc born, we cry, that wo are come
To this great stage of fools.

42 QEEEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ON ALEXANDER OF MACEDON (Jacobs II. 89, xxxv.).

Translated hy Br. Croly.

Troy fell witli Hector, and no champion's spear,
From that o'erwhelming hour, taught Greece to fear.
With Alexander perished Pella's name ;
Thus one great mind is life and power and fame.

Homer makes Achilles thus exult at Hector's death (Iliad, Book
XXII. 475, Pope's Translation) :

Since now at length the powerM will of heav'n

The dire destroyer to our arm has giv'n,

Is not Troy fallen already ? Haste, ye pow'rs !

See, if already their deserted tow'rs

Are left unmann'd ; or if they yet retain

The soids of heroes, their great Hector slain ?

So, of Napoleon's destruction at Waterloo, Sir Walter Scott says
(" The Field of Waterloo ") :

On the dread die thou now hast thrown.
Hangs not a single field alone.
Nor one campaign — thy martial fame,
Thy empire, dynasty, and name.
Have felt the final stroke.

ANTIPATEE OF THESSALONICA.

Flourished a.d. 50.

THE DYING FA THER TO HIS DA UGHTER (Jacobs II. 107, xlvi.)

Translated hy C.

Antigenes of Gela, when oppress'd
By death's cold hand, his daughter thus address'd ■
My own, my sweet-faced child ! thy distaff's aid
Will earn, for humble life, enough of bread :
And, for thy dower, if led to Hymen's shrine.
Be thy Greek mother's saintly manners thine.

LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDEIA.

Flourished a.d. 60.

UPON VENUS PUTTING ON TEE ARMS OF MARS
(Jacobs II. 179, xxiv.).

Translated by Crashaw.

What ? Mars his sword ? fair Cytherea sa}',
Why art thou arm'd so desp'rately to-day ?
Mars thou hast beaten naked, and, oh then,
What need'st thou put on arms against poor men ?

This translation, by a poet of the 17th century, is more concise than
elegant, but it is interesting as a link in the chain of evidence whicJi
may be adduced, to show the esteem in which the Greek epigrams have
been held in every age by scholars and poets.

There is another epigram in the Antliology, by an unknown author,
which has also been translated by Crashaw (Jacobs IV. 168, ccxlix.).

Pallas saw Venus arm'd, and straight she erifd,
'• Come if thou dar'st, thus, thus let us be tried."
" Why fool !" says Venus, " thus provok'st thou me,
That being naked, thou know'st could conquer thee ?"

Beattie has an Ode, addressed " To Lady Charlotte Gordon ; dressed
in a Tartan Scotch Bonnet with Plumes, &c.," the last stanza of which
may be compared with these Greek epigrams :

The plumy helmet and the martial mien,
Might dignify Minerva's awful charms ;

But more resistless far th' Idalian queen —
Smiles, graces, gentleness, her only arms.

THE MOTHER AND CHILD (Jacobs II. 180, xxix.\
Translated by C,

Lysippe's infant near'd the steep cliff's brow,
And instant would have past to depths below ;
But the fond, love-taught mother bared her breast,
And back he sprung to that safe home of rest.

This beautiful epigram has been paraphrased in such graceful
numbers by Rogers, that his rendering, though wide of the original,
cannot be omitted :

44 GREEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

While on the cliff witli calm delight she kneels.
And the blue vales a thousand joys recall,
See, to the last, last verge her infant steals !
O fly — yet stir not, speak not, lest it fall.

Far better taught, she lays her bosom bare.
And the fond boy springs back to nestle there.

PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA.

Flourished about a.d. 60. He is usually styled " the second col-
lector," as he carried on the work, which had been commenced by
Meleager, of gathering together the fragments of Grecian poetry, and
combining them in one collection.

XEBXES AND THE BEAD LE0NIDA8 (Jacobs II. 212, Ix.).

Translated hy C.

When Xerxes saw prond Spai'ta's chieftain dead,
Who then for Greece self-sacrific'd had bled,
He o'er the corse his purple mantle spread.

When from the hollow earth a voice was heard,
" 1 scorn thy gift, a ti-ai tor's gift abhorr'd !
My shield's my burial-place : Down ! Persia's pride :
1 pass to Hades ; but, as Spartan, died."

When Alexander saw the body of the unfortunate Darius Codomanus,
he wept, and taking off his military cloak threw it over the corpse, but
no voice was heard to scorn the gift, for Darius, sensible that his royal
enemy was more noble than his own faithless followers, had just before
his death delivered a message for Alexander full of sentiments of
admiration. (EoUin's " Ancient History.")

ON A BRIDE WHO DIED ON HER MARRIAGE-DAY
(Jacobs II. 218, Ixxix.).

Translated by C.

The hymns were sung upon thy bridal day,

The mellow flutes and pipes did sweetly play ;

But Sorroiv in her sable garb and state.

Unseen and silent at the banquet sat.

O'er the pale brow of the yet virgin-bride

Dim shadows pass'd : she bow'd her head, and died.

Oh Death! stern ravisher! who could'st dispel

The dawning joys of those who lov'd so well !

PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA. 45

This subject is a favourite one with the Greek epigrammatists ; and
as the death of young ma-'dens was considered peculiarly sad. the
epitaphs on them are almost invariably couched in langxiage of thi'
most touching tenderness. Sappho, who flourished b.c. 610, gives one
of the earliest examples of a monumental inscri|ition on the tomb of a
mnid, and of the custom of cutting oft', and consecrating, the hair in
honour of the deceased (Jacobs I. 50, iii.). The translation is by the
Rev. James Davies in the " Contemporary Review," XIV. 620 :

This dust was Timas, who, or ere she wed,
For Death's dark couch exchanged the bridal bed.
In keen regret for whom each virgin mate
Her loveliest locks doth shear aud consecrate.

Eriuna, whose date is the same as Sappho's, has an epitaph on a
bride, in which the following lines occur (Jacobs I. 51, iii.), translated
l)y Merivale :

The very torch that laughing Hymen bore
To light the virgin to the bridegroom's door,
With that same "torch the bridegroom lights the fire
That dimly glimmers on her funeral pyre.

Meleager, too, has a fine epigram on the same subject (Jacobs I. 38,
cxxv.) ; and Herrick, with the Greek originals as his guides, has
produced one of much beauty :

That morne which saw me made a bride,

The ev'niug witnest that I dy'd.

Those holy lights wherewith they guide

Unto the bed the bashful! bride,

SerVd but as tapers, for to burne,

And light my reliques to their urne.

This Epitaph, which here you see,

Supply'd the Epithalamie.

Shakespeare expresses the same ideas in " Eomeo and Juliet"
Act IV. sc. 5), when Capulet, in answer to the friar's question, ' Is
the bride ready to go to church? ' says :

Ready to go, but never to return :
*****

Death is my ,on-in-law, death is my heir :
My daughter l.e hath wedded.

Aud again :

All things, that we ordained festival,
Turn from their office to black funeral.
Our instruments, to melancholy bills ;
Our wc<lding cheer, to a sad buiiul feast ;
Our .solemn hymns to sullen dirges change ;
Our bridal flowers servo for a buried corse.
And all things change them to the contrary.

4G GREEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

The terrible idea, that Death carries off tlie young and beautiful for
the purpose of marriage, seems in ancient times to have been peculiar
to the Greeks. It occurs in the above epigram by Philippus; in that by
Meleager (though not expressed in Herrick's imitation) ; and in the one
by Sappho.

Among the Latins it is not found, unless it may be thought Tibullus
alludes to it in the following Ime (Book I. iii. 65 ) :

Illic est, cuicumque rapax mors venit amauti.

And Ovid, in an elegy on the death of Tibullus (Amor III. ix. 19) :

Scilicet omne sacrum mors impoi'tuna profanat ;
Omnibus obscuras injicit ilia manus.

It is found, however, where it might be least expected, in a religions
poem by Balde, a German Jesuit, born in 1G03, who, speaking of the
death of the young Queen Leopoldina, says (Trench's " Sacred Latin
Poetry ") :

Ubi cervix et manus eburna ?
Heu funebri jacent in urna !
Atra nives imminuit sors
Colla pressit tarn Candida mors.

And again, we find it in an English writer, Henry Chettle, wlio, in
"England's MoUmiug Garment," 1603, writes of the death of Queen
Elizabeth in strains as though she were young, which she was not, and
beautiful, which she thought herself to be :

Nor doth the silver-tongued Melicert

Drop from his honied muse one sable tear

To mourn her death that graced his desert,
And to his lays open'd her royal ear.

Shepherd, remember our Elizabeth,

And sing her rape, done by that Tarquin, Death.

JEMILIANUS.

Nothing is known of this author's history. He is supposed to have
flourished in the first century after Christ.

TEE DEAD MOTHER AND HER INFANT (Jacobs II. 25], i.).

Translated by C.

Take, take, poor babe ! the last warm stream that now,
Pierc'd by their swords, thy mother can bestow ;
All ! still she gives, unconscious though she be,
From her dead breast, the source of life to thee.

LUCIANUS.

This touching epigram was occasioned by a celebrated painting by
Aristides, who lived about 300 years before Christ, representing a
slain mother, whose infant was still sucking her breast. Translators,
the exact Grotius excepted, generally represent the mother as dying,
not dead ; and Fuseli, in one of his lectures, describes the picture as
showing " the Imlf-slain mother shuddering lest her eager babe should
suck the blood from her palsied nipple." But if jEmilianus is to be
trusted, who had probably seen the picture, the mother was repre-
sented as actually dead, for the Greek must be forced to make it bear
any other construction.

Perhaps equally affecting are some lines by Langhorne in " The
Justice of the Peace ":

Cold on Canadian hills, or Minden's plain.

Perhaps, that parent mourn'd her soldier slain ;

Bent o'er her babe, her eye dissolv'd in dew.

The big drops mingling with the milk he drew.

Gave the sad presage of his future years,

The child of misery, baptiz'd in tears !

LUCIANUS.

Floiu'ished a.d. 160. He was a rhetorician at Antioch, and in his
old age was made registrar of Alexandria.

ON THE DEATH OF AN INFANT (Jacobs III. 26, xxvi.).

Translated hy Cowper.

Bewail not much, my parents ! me, the prey
Of ruthless Ades, and sepulchred here.
An infant in my fifth scarce finish'd year,
He found all sportive, innocent, and gay.
Your young Callimachus ; and if I knew
Not many joys, my griefs were also few.

Herrick has a pretty epitaph on a child, which has some resemblance
to this :

But borne, and like a short delight,
I glided by my parents' sight.
That done, the harder fates deny'd
My longer stay, and so I dy'd.
If pittying my sad parents' teares,
You'l spill a tear or two with theirs ;
And with some Uowr.s my grave bestrew,
Love and they'l thank you for't. Adieu.

48 GREEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

FALSE FRIENDS (Jacobs III. 28, xxxiv.).

Translated by Cowper.

No miscliief worthier of our fear

In nature can be found,
Than friendship, in ostent sincere,

But hollow and unsound ;
Per, lull'd into a dangerous dream,

We close infold a foe
Who strikes, when most secure we seem.

The inevitable blow.

Timothy Kendall, who published epigrams in 1577, has one in which
he enumerates every evil under the sun, and then ;ays :

Of these I reck not of a rush.
An ill there is which doth remain,
That troiibles more and puts to pain : —
A fawning friend most mischief is
Which seeks to kill, yet seems to kiss.

Lord Lansdo^Tie, in an ode " On the Present Corruption of Man-
kind," has a stanza very similar to Lucian's epigram :

Friendship's a cloak to hide some treacherous end ;
Your greatest foe is your professing friend ;
The soul resign'd, unguarded, and secui-e.
The wound is deepest, and the stroke most sure.

LUCILLIUS.

Flourished in the second century.

A MISER'S DREAM (Jacobs III. .50, ciii.).

Translated by C.

Flint dream'd he gave a feast, 'twas regal fare.
And hang'd himself in 's sleep in sheer despair.

The ancients and the moderns have alike delighted in sathizing
misers. Martial has a severe distich on one of the fraternity (Book II.
78). Hay translates : ''

What place to keep your fish in I approve;,

You ask : — Your kitchen chimney, or your stove.

LUCILLIUS. 49

A good modem epigram describes a miser's feast, in the form of
" Grace after dinner," ascribed to both Rochester and Swift : —

Thanks for this miracle ! it is no less

Than finding manna in the -wilderness.

In midst of famine we have had relief,

And seen the Monder of a chine of beef ;

Chimneys have smok'd that never smok'd before,

And we have din'd— where we shall dine no more.
But how poor are both Martial's and the modern epigram in com-
parison with the Greek, which in the compass of two lines contains so
much : — the obligation which the miser felt he was under to give
a feast, possibly to some rich man's heir, to whom he lent money at
usurious interest ; — the horror of the expense, which took such hold
upon him, that it followed him even into sleep ; — the despair with
which the dream of utter ruin filled his soul, and the dread influence
of which was so great, that while yet asleep he adjusted the rope, and
hurried himself to the shades below.

In reference to Martial's distich, may be quoted the following pas-
sage from Dryden's " Absalom and Achitophel " on a well-known
character of the day :

Chaste were his cellars, and his shrieval board

The grossness of a city feast abhorr'd :

His cooks with long di.*iuse their trade forgot ;

Cool was his kitchen, tJiough his brain was hot.
The satire is on Slingsby Bethel, an Independent and a Republican,
one of the most active of the party who wished to exclude the Duke
of York from the throne. Parsimony was habitual to him, and when
sheriiF of London, in 1680, the frugality of his entertainments was
generally censured. (See Granger's "Biog. Hist, of England," 1779,
HI. 409.)

TEE MISER AND THE MOUSE (Jacobs IH. 50, civ.).
Translated by Dr. Jortin.

" Thou little rogue, what brings thee to my house ?"
Said a starv'd miser to a straggling mouse.
" Friend," quoth the mouse, " thou hast no cause to fear ;
I only lodge with thee, I eat elsewhere."

This humorous epigram recalls a modern anonymous one, said to
ave been presented to the learned Dr. Bentham, Regius Professor of
Divinity at Oxford, who was famous for treating his horses much as
Lucillius's miser treated the mouse — gave them lodging, but no corn.
For some trifling olfence he had ordered an undergraduate to write
verses on the subject, " Ignotum omne pro magnilico." The arch youtt
gave up the following ("Select Epigrams," II. 1G3, notf ; and Kett'u
- Flowers of Wit," II. 139) :

50 GRKEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Averse to pamper 'd and high-mettled steeds,
His own upon chopt straw Avaro feeds :
Bred in his stable, iu his paddock born,
What vast ideas they must have of com I

THE FEAR OF DEATH (Jacobs III. 54, cxxiii.).

Translated by Cowper.

Far happier are the dead, methinks, than they
Who look for death, and fear it every day.

Shakespeare has the same sentiment in several places. In " Measure
For Measuie " (Act IU. so. 1) :

Dar'st thou die ?
The sense of death is most in apprehension.

Again, in " Julius Csesar " (Act II, sc. 2), Caesar says :

Cowards die many times before their deaths ;

The valiant never taste of death but once.

Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,

It seems to me most strange that men should fear ;

Seeing that death, a necessary end,

Will come, when it will come.

PLUTO AND THE PHYSICIAN (Jacobs III. .54, cxxiv.).

Translated by C.

When Magnus pass'd below, Dis, trembling said,
He comes, and will to life restore my dead.

The very contrary of this compliment to an eminent physician, is
given in the form of an epitaph on a quack, in " Nugse Canorae, or
Epitaphian Mementos, &c.," 1827, by William Wadd, a London surgeon
of celebrity in his day (E2:>itaph 55) :

This quack to Charon would his penny pay :
The grateful ferryman was heard to say — ■
" Return, my friend ! and live for ages more.
Or I must haul my useless boat ashore."
Of a similar turn to Lucillius' epigram, is an anonymous one on
Marshal Sflxe (" Poetical Farrago," I. 153) :
Th' eternal ferryman of fate.
When Saxe, unconquerably great,

Approach'd within his ken,
Scowl'd at his freight, a trembling crowd,
And, " Turn out ghosts," he roar'd aloud,
" Here's Hercules agen."

N10AB0HU8. 51

The "Magnus" of Lucillius' epigram is in a translation among
" Epigrams from the German of Lessing," published in 1825, changed to
•' Mead." Hackett (the editor of a volume of Epigrams, in 1757) has an
epigram equally complimentary to that celebrated physician of the
reigns of George I. and 11., but with a different point (Ep. 17) :

Mead's not dead then, you say ; only sleeping a little —
Why, egad ! sir, youve hit it off there to a tittle.
Yet, friend, his awaking I very much doubt,
Pluto knows who he's got, and will ne'er let him out.

NICARCHUS.

Flourished in the second century. He was, by birth, a Samian,

THE GREAT CONTENTION (Jacobs III. 62, xvi.).
Translated by C.

Three dwarfs contended by a state decree,
Which was the least and lightest of the three.
First, Hermon came, and his vast skill to try,
With thread in hand leap'd through a needle's eye.
Forth from a crevice Uemas then advanc'd,
And on a spider's web securely danc'd.
What feat show'd Sospiter in this high qimrrel ? —
No eyes could see him, and he won the laurel.

With this amusing epigram, where a dwarf is too small to be seen,
may be compared a more modern one, where a poet is too spiritiml to
be seen. Thcophile, a French poet, born about 1590, was obliged to
leave France on accoimt of his impiety and debaucheries, and came to
England, where he solicited an audience of King James I., which the
monarch refused. Theophile turned the affront to his own glory in an
epigram, which has been thus translated by Lovelace (Lovelace's I'oems) :

If James, the king of wit.
To see me thought not fit,

Sure this the cause hath been.
That, ravish'd with my merit,
He thought I was all sijirit,

And 80 not to be seen.

Compare alao Sir Thomas More :

A cobweb serv'd ft tiny elf,
Despising life, to hang himself.

52 GREEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

A VOICE FROM THE GRAVE (Jacobs III. 65, xxvii.).

Translated by C.

Phido nor hand nor touch to me applied ;
Fever'd, I thought but of his name — and died.

The germ probably of Msirtial's epigram of like character (Book VI
a3), which Elphinston thus translates :

He bath'd with us, brisk ; and he supp'd with us, gay ;
Next morn, with the dead, Athenagoras lay.
The cause, do you ask, of the sudden transition ?
In sleep he Hermocrates saw, the physician.

The epigrams on doctors are numberless, but there are very few
modern ones which have the humoiir of those by Nicarchus and Martial.
There is a celebrated one by Prior, on Eadclitfe, who was noted for his
singular powers of conversation, and the rough independence of his
manners. It is entitled, " The remedy worse than the disease " :

I sent for Radclifife ; was so ill,

That other doctors gave me over ; •

He felt my pulse, prescrib'd his pill,

And I was likely to recover.
But when the wit began to wheeze.

And wine had warm'd the politician,
Cur'd yesterday of my disease

I died last night of my physician.

EUFINUS.

Of this author nothing is known. His epigrams are placed here in
accordance with the chronological position assigned to him by Brunck
and Jacobs.

TEE TRANSITORINESS OF YOUTH AND BEAUTY
(Jacobs HI. 102, xv.).

Translated by C.

Take, take this flow'ring wreath from me,
Twin'd by these hands, and twin'd for thee.
Here blends the daifodil's soft hue,
With lilies, and the violet's blue ;
Here the moist wind-flower darkly blows,
Entwining with the opening rose ;

RUFINUS. 53

And whilst it binds thy pensive brow,
Let pride to gentler feelings bow,
At thought of that no distant day.
When thou, as these, must fade away.

There are several epigrams in the Anthology, in which youth and
beauty are compared with the short-lived flowers. The following is by
Strato, who is supposed to have flourished early in the third century
(Jacobs ni. 85, Ixxiii.), translated by Shepherd :

Boast'st thou of beauty ? The sweet-scented rose,
The garden's pride, in blushing beauty glows ;
But pass some few fast-fleeting hours, are found
Its purple petals scatter'd on the ground.
The rose and beauty, when they reach their prime.
Alike are wither'd by the breath of time.

Compare the " Faerie Queene," Book II. Canto xii. 74 :

Ah ! see, whoso fayre thing doest faine to see,
In springing flowre the image of thy day !
Ah ! see the virgin rose, how sweetly she
Doth first peepe foorth with bashfull modestee.
That fairer seems the lesse you see her may !
Lo ! see, soone after how more bold and free
Her bared bosome she doth broad display,
Lo ! see soone after how she fades and falls away !

Pope has, in some measure, reproduced the same idea, though with
especial reference to beauty, nut life, in his Epistle to Miss Blount.

THE SHORTNESS OF LIFE A REASON FOR ENJOYING IT
(Jacobs in. 102, xvi.).

Translated by Fawkes.

Let us, my friend, in joy refine,

Bathe, crown our brows, and qnaff the wine :

Short is the space for human joys ;

What age prevents not, death destroys.

This is a favourite subject with the Greek epigrammatists. Anacreoii,
in several of his odes, enforces the enjoyment of life during the short
spaa; allotted to man on earth, and that his advice should not bo for-
gotten, Julianus .(Egyptus, in an epitaph on him, makes him repeat
the same le.sson after he was dead (Jacobs III. 208, l.\i.). Tlic transla-
tion is by Fawkes :

Wliat oft alive I sung, now dead I cry

I^ud from tiie tomb, " Drink, mortals, ere you die."

54 GBEEK EPIGEAililATISTS.

Palladas, man epigram, translated by Bland, presses the importanra
of passing no time in any pursuit but that of convivial enjoyment
(Jacobs in. 121, xxix.):

Dark are our fates — to-morrow's sun may peer
From the flush 'd east upou our funeral bier ;
Then seize the joys that wine and music give,
Nor talk of death while yet 'tis given to live ;
Soon shall each pulse be still, closed every eye,
One little hour remains or ere we die.

JVIrs. Hemans has translated an epigram by Garcilasso de la Tega. a
Spanish poet, bom about 1500, which contains the same thought as
sbat of Kufinus :

Enjoy the sweets of life's luxuriant May,

Ere envious age is hastening on his way,

With snowy wreaths to crown the beauteous brow :

The rose will fade when storms assail the year,

And Time, who changeth not his swift career.

Constant in this, will change all else below I

S. GEEGORY XAZIAXZEX.

Flourished about a.d. 365. He was born at Azianzum, an ot«cure
village belonging to Nazianzum, a town of the second Cappadocia.
He was a celebrated champion of the orthodox faith against the Arians,
and in his old age became Bishop of Constantinople.

THE TOMB OF EVPHEMIUS.

Translated by Samuel Wesley, Jun.

A blooming youth lies buried here,
Euphemius, to his country dear.
Nature adorn'd his mind and face
With every Muse and every Grace ;
About the marriage-state to prove,
But Death had quicker wings than Love.

TMs is one of several epitaphs written by S. Gregory on Euphe-
mius, who was the son of his intimate friend, S. Amphilochus, Bishop
of Iconium, Translations of the others may be found in the " Gentle-
man's Magazine," LXXXTV'., Part II. 575.

We may compare an epigram by Simonides on Timarchus (Jacobs L
11. xcv.j, thus translated by Sterling:

Ah ! sore disease, to men why enviest thou

Their prime of years before they join the dead ?

His Life from fair Timarchus snatching now,
Before the youth his maiden bride could wed.

PALLADA8. 55

An epitaph by Dryden on a youth (Mr. Rogers of Gloucestershire),
has much in common with S. Gregory's :

Of gentle blood, his parents' only treasure,

Their lasting sorrow, and their vanish'd pleasure,

Adom'd with features, virtues, wit, and grace,

A large provision for so short a race ;

More moderate gifts might have prolong'd his date,

Too early fitted for a better state ;

But knowing Heaven his home, to shun delay.

He leap'd o'er age, and took the shortest way.

EPITAPH ON BIS BROTHER C^SARIUS.
Translated by Boyd.

In youth we sent thee from thy natiye soil,
August, and crown'd -with learning's hallow'd spoil.
Fame, Wealth, on thee delighted to attend ;
Thy home a palace, and a king thy friend.
So liv'd Caasarius, honoiar'd, loy'd, and blest —
But ah ! this mournful um will speak the rest.

Caesarius was eminent for learning, especially for his knowledge of
medicine. He went to Constantinople, where he became chief physi-
cian, and also treasurer to the Emperor Julian. Fearing, however,
that his Christian piLLciples were in danger, his brother persuaded
him to return home. Two years afterwards he went again to the
eastern capital, where Valens advanced him to his former dignities.
and designed his advancement to greater. He again returned to
Nazianzum, at the request of S. Gregory, and there died.

PALLADAS.
Flourished about a.d. 370.

OLD AGE STILL JOYFUL (Jacobs IH. 114, iv.).
Translated by Fawlies.

To me the wanton girls insulting say,
"Here in this glass thy fading bloom survey :"
Just on the verge of life, 'tis equal quite,
Whether my locks are black, or silver- white ;
Eoses aroimd my fragrant brows I'll twine,
And dissipate anxieties in wine.

5G GBEBK EPIGBAMMATISTS.

This is a very close imitation of the 11th Ode of Anacreon, but
shorter and more to the point.

At banquets it was the custom of the ancients to wreath their brows
with flowers, and especially with the rose, which was the emblem of
silence, having been dedicated by Cupid to Harpocrates, the god of
silence. Hence that flower, worn at feasts, denoted that the guests
were to keep silence with respect to everything said under it. From
this custom we have our expression, " under the rose." This flower no
doubt formed, in accordance with the usual habit, part of the garland
with which Palladas encircled his brows, but it is not mentioned in the
original, though taken for granted by the translator.

THE SFARTAN MOTHER (Jacobs UI. 134, xcix.).
Translated by Cowper.

A Spartan 'scaping from the fight,

His mother met him in his flight,

Upheld a falchion to his breast,

And thus the fugitive address'd :

" Thou canst but live to blot with shame

Indelible thy mother's name ;

While every breath that thou shalt draw

Offends against thy country's law ;

But if thou perish by this hand,

Myself indeed throughout the land,

To my dishonour, shall be known

The mother still of such a son ;

But Sparta will be safe and free,

And that shall serve to comfort me."

This is a good example of the honour in which that Spartan virtue
was held, which proclaimed the coward unfit to live, and that even his
mother might glory in inflicting vengeance upon a son who had disgraced
his country. There are several other epigrams upon the same subject
in the Anthology. Tymneus (Jacobs I. 257, iv.) has one much
stronger than the above," as he makes the mother curse her son, whilst
with every evidence of strong feeling, she slays him. The patriotism of
Spai-tan mothers is finely exemplified in an epigram by Dioscorides,
thus translated by Mr. Goldwin Smith, in the late Dr. Wellesley's
" Anthologia Polyglotta " (Jacobs I. 253, xxxiv.) :

Eight sons Demseneta at Sparta's call
Sent forth to fight ; one tomb received them alL
No tear she shed, but shouted, '' Victory !
Sparta, I bore them but to die for thee."

JULIAN us ^QYPTUS. 67

HUMAN LIFE (Jacobs IH. 134, c).

Life's but a stage ; then learn to sport.

And cast aside all care ;
Or leara, with trust in Heaven's support.

The ills of life to bear.

This epigram necessarily reminds us of Shakespeare's celebrated
passage in " As You Like It " (Act 11. sc. 7) :

Duke, senior. Thou seest, we are not all alone unhappy :
This M'ide and universal theatre
Presents more woeful pageants than the scene
Wherein we play in.

Jaqueg. All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players :
They have their exits and their entrances :
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.

Malone points out, that Shakespeare was not the first English writer
who expressed this thought. In an old play called " Damon and
Pythias,'' similar language is used :

Pji;hagoras said, that this world was like a stage.
Whereon many play their parts.

Pope, in the " Essay on Llan," gives the same advice as Palladas, to
act well our parts :

Honour and shame from no condition rise ;
Act well your part, there all the honour lies.

JULIANUS iEGYPTIIS,

Praefect of Egypt. At what date he flourished has not been ascer-
tained. Brunck and Jacobs assign to him a chronological position
between Palladas and Agathias.

CUPID IN THE CUP (Jacobs III. 195, i.).

Translated by Bishop Bhmfield in " Museum Critivum"

While for my fair a wreath I twined,
Love in the roses lay reclined ;
I seized the boy : the mantling cup
Received him ; and I di auk him up.
And now ccmfined, the feathered guest
Beats, storms, and flutters in my bieast.

58 GBEEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

This epigram is commonly printed among the Odes of Anacreon.
The idea was reproduced by Andreas Naugerius, an Italian poet, born
in 1483, in a Latin epigram upon Hyella, wliich Moore has thus trans-
lated:

• As late I sought the spangled bowers,

To cull a wreath of matin flowers,

Wliere many an early rose was weeping,

I found the uichin Cupid sleeping.

I caught the boy, a goblet's tide

Was richly mantling by my side ;

I caught him by his downy wing,

And whelm'd him in the racy spring.

Then drank I down the poison'd bowl,

And Love now nestles in my soul.

Oh yes, my soul is Cupid's nest,

I feel him fluttering in my breast.

LAi'S OFFERING HER LOOKING-GLASS TO VENUS
(Jacobs III. 196, iv.).

Translated by Ogle.

Lais, when time had spoil'd her wonted grace,
Abhorr'd the look of age that plough'd her face ;
Her glass, sad monitor of charms decay'd,
Before the queen of lasting bloom she laid :
The sweet companion of my youthful years.
Be thine (she said), no change thy beauty fears !

Lais was a woman of Corinth of extraordinary beauty.
Plato has an epigram on the same subject, which is well known by
Prior's translation, or rather imitation (Jacobs I. 103, vii.), though
perhaps the English poet may have used a version by Ausonius,
Ep. 55 :

Venus, take my votive glass !
Since I am not what I was.
What from this day I shaU be,
Venus ! let me never see.

The old English epigrammatist, Henry Parrot, has an epigram in his
" Laquei Eidiculosi," Book I. 123, which may be compared with
Julian's and Plato's :

Rugosa waxen old hath broke her glass.
And lives in hatred with her own complexion,
Itememb'ring but the form it whilome was,
WTiich when she look'd on gave that sweet reflection :
But now despairing, thinks no crystal stone
Can show good count'nance that receiveth none.

AGATHIAS. 59

VIRTUE AND RANK (Jacobs III. 210, Ixix.).
Translated by the late Dr. WeUesley.

A. John tlie illustrious. B. John the mortal, say.

A. The son-in-law to the Queen's Highness. B. Nay,
Mortal again. A. Of Anastasius
Descendant prime. B. Mortal like all of us.

A. Of virtuous life. B. Ay, this doth never die,
Virtue is mightier than mortality.

Of similar character is the sentiment expressed by Shakespeare in
• All's Well that Ends Well " (Act II. so. 3) :

From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,

The place is dignified by the doer's deed :

Where great additions swell, and virtue none.

It is a dropsied honour : good 3 lone

Is good, without a name ; vileness is so :

The property by what it is should go,

Not by the title. * * *

* * * That is honour's scorn

Which ch illenges itself as honour's born,
And is not lilce the sire : Honours thrive,
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our fore-goers.

AGATHIAS.

Commonly called Agathias Scholasticus. Flourished in the sixth
century, lie was born at Myriua, and is supposed to have been a
Christian. Ho is celebrated as the third collector of scattered miscel-
lanies and fragments.

THE TORMENTS OF LOVE (Jacobs IV. 8, xii.).

Translated by Fawkes.

All night I sigh with cares of love opprest.
And when the morn indulges balmy rest,
These twitt'ring birds their noisy matins keep,
Recall my sorrows, and prevent my sleep :
Cease, envious birds, your plaintive tales to tell,
1 ravish'd not the tongue of Philomel.

60 QEEEK EPIQBAMMATI8TS.

In deserts wild, or on some mountain's brow,

Pay all the tributary grief you owe

To Itys, in an elegy of woe.

Me leave to sleep : in visionary charms

Some dream perhaps may bring Eodanthe to my arms.

This is imitated from the 12th Ode of Anacreon.

Shakespeare says of Queen Mab in " Romeo and Juliet " (Act L
8C. 4) :

And in this state she gallops night by night
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love.

Pope, in his imitation of Ovid's epistle, " Sappho to Phaon," 143, ex-
presses in fuUer terms the thought in the last two lines of the epigram :

'Tis thou art all my care and my delight.
My daily longing, and my dream by night :
O night more pleasing than the brightest day,
When fancy gives what absence takes away,
And, dress'd in all its visionary charms,
Restores my fair deserter to my arms !

But when, with day, the sweet delusions fly.
And all things wake to life and joy, but I ;
As if once more forsaken, I complain,
And close my eyes to dream of you again.

The close of the 1st Ode of the 4th Book of Horace may also be com-
pared.

LOVE AND WINE ^Jacobs IV. 9, xvi.).
Translated by Bland,

Farewell to wine ! or if thou bid me sip,
Present the cup more honour'd from thy lip !
Pour'd by thy hand, to rosy draughts I fiy.
And cast away my dull sobriety ;
For, as I drink, soft raptures tell my soul
That lovely Glycera has kissed the bowl.

There are several epigrams in the Anthology upon the same subject,
occasioned by a custom, not uncommon at Grecian entertainments, of
interchanging the wine-cups. There is an Arabian epigram, addressed
to a female cup-bearer, translated by Professor Carlyle, of Cambridge
'" Specimens of Arabian Poetry," 1796, 65), which is very similar in
tone to that of Agathias :

AGATHIA8. 61

Come, Leila, fill the goblet up.

Reach rouBcl the rosy wine ;
Think not that we will take the cup

From any hand but thine.

A draught. Like this, 'twere vain to seek.

No grape can such supply ;
It steals its tint from Leila's cheek.

Its brightness from her eye.

In " New-Old Ballads," by Dr. "Wolcot, better known as Peter Pindar,
are some lines " To the Glass," which begin thus (^Wolcot's Works,
1812, V. 86; :

Give me the glasse that felt her lippe,

And happy, happy shall I sippe ;

And, when is fled the daintie wyne.

Something remaineth still divyne.
The modem expression of " kissing the cup '' is prettily used by GoM-
smith, in the " Deserted Village," when lamenting the past splendoxu- of
the village ale-house •

The host himself no longer shall be found
Careful to see the mantling bhss go round ;
Nor the coy maid, half wUling to be prest.
Shall kiss the cup to pass it to the rest.

ON DEATH (Jacobs IV. 34, Ixxxi.).

Translated by C.

Death brings us peace : Oh ! fear him not :
Death ends the sufi'erer's heaviest lot.
He comes but once ; his awful mien
Twice coming, none has ever seen.
^Vhilst pain and grief, man's sadd'ning doom,
Come often, and are sure to come.

Some beautiful lines by Cardinal Bembo, translated by Mrs. Hemaua,
thus apostrophise Death ;

Thou the stem monarch of dismay.

Whom nature trembles to survey,

O Death ! to me, the child of grie^

Thy welcome power would bring relief.
Changing to peaceful slumber many a care.

And thougli thy stroke may thrill with pain

Each throbbing pulse, each quivering vein ;

The pangs that bid existence close.

Oh ! sure arc far less keen than those,
Which cloud its lingering moments with despair.

62 GBEEE EFIGBAMMATISTf.

PAULUS SILENTIARIUS.

Flourished a.d. 530. He was a Christian — a friend of Agathias, and
probably assisted him in his collection of fugitive epigrams. " Silen-
tiarius " was the title of an assessor in the Privy Council at the Byzantine
Court, an ofiSce which Paulus held.

LOVE NOT EXTINGUISHED BY AGE (Jacobs IV. 43, viii.).
Translated by Bland.

For me thy wrinkles have more chaims,
Dear Lydia, than a smoother face !
I'd rather fold thee in my arms
Than younger, fairer nymphs embrace.

To me thy autumn is more sweet,
More precious than their vernal rose,
Their summer warms not with a heat
So potent as thy winter glows.

There is an epigram in the Anthology by an uncertain author, which
very prettily expresses the same thought. The translation is by Meri-
vale (Jacobs IV. 130, Ixii.) :

Whether thy locks in jetty radiance play,

Or golden ringlets o'er thy shoulder stray,

There beauty shines, sweet maid, and should they bear

The snows of age, still love would linger there.

A piece by Thomas Carew, a poet of the reign of Charles I., is very
similar in sentiment to the epigram by Paulus. It is entitled, " Unfading
Beauty." The first two stanzas are given :

Hee that loves a rosie cheek,
, Or a coral lip admires,

Or from star-like eyes doth seeke

Fuell to maintaine his fires.
As old Time makes these decay
So his flames must waste away.

But a smooth and stedfast mind.
Gentle thoughts and calm desires.

Hearts with equal love combined.
Kindle never-dying fires ;

Where these are real, I despise

Lovely cheekes, or lips, or eyes.

PAULUS eiLBNTIABIUS. 63

CUPID AT REST (Jacobs IV. 47, xx.).
' Translated by Goldwln Smith.

Fear no more Love's shafts, for he
Hath all his quiver spent on me.
Fear not his wings ; since on this breast
His scornful foot the victor prest,
Here sits he fast, and here must stay.
For he hath shorn his wings away.

Eubulus, a native of Atarna in Lesbos, who flourished B.C. 375, ex-
presses the same thought in an epigram addressed to a painter. The
translation is by Cumberland in the " Observer," No. 104: :

"Why, foolish painter, give those wings to Love ?
Love is not light, as my sad heart can prove :
Love hath no wings, or none that I can see ;
If he can fly — oh 1 bid him fly from me !

GARDEN DECORATION (Jacobs IV. 61, Ixu.),
Translated by Bland.

Here strive for empire, o'er the happy scene.
The nymphs of fountain, sea, and woodland green ;
The power of grace and beauty holds the prize
Suspended even to her votaries.
And finds amazed, where'er she casts her eye,
Their contest forms the matchless harmony.

This is supposed to be descriptive of the gardens of Justinian at
Heraeum, on the Asiatic shore of the Propontis, of which Gibbon says
(" Decline and Fall," ed. 1846, III. 524, chap. 40): "The poets of the
age have celebrated the rare alliance of nature and art, the harmony of
the nymphs of the groves, the fountains and the waves."

There is a Latin poem by Charles Dryden (son of the great poet") on
the gardens of the Earl of Arlington, near the Green Park, where
Arlington Street now stands, which has been translated by Samuel
Boyse. The following passage bears much resemblance to the epigram
of Paulus (Nichols' " Collection of Poems," II. 164, 1780) :

Thy beauteous gardens charm the raviah'd sight,
And surfeit every sense with soft delight ;
Where'er we turn our still transported eyes,
New scenes of art with nature join'd arise;
We dwell indulgent on the lovely scene.
The lengthen d vista or the carpet green ;
A thousand graces bless th enchanted ground
And throw promiscuous beauties all around.

64 GEEEK EPIGEAMMATIST8.

UNKNOWN AUTHOES.

CLYTEMNESTRA'S ADDRESS TO HER SON ORESTES, AS
HE WAS IN THE ACT OF SLAYING HER TO AVENGE
HIS FATHER, WHOM SHE HAD MURDERED (Jacobs IV.

113, xvi.).

Translated by C.

Strike ! At my womb ? It bore thee. At my breast ?
It nurtur'd thee in infancy to rest.

When the mother of Coriolanus entreated him to forego his vengeance
against Rome, Shakespeare makes her say ("Coriolanus," Act V.

80. 3) :

If I cannot persuade thee
Rather to show a noble grace to both parts,
Than seek the end of one, thou shalt no sooner
March to assault thy country, than to tread
(Trust to 't, thou shalt not) on thy mother's womb,
That brought thee to this world.

THE LO VER'S WISH (Jacobs IV. 129, Iviii.).

Translated by Shepherd.

Oh that I were the wind ! whose gentle gales
Thy vest expand, and cool thy breast of snow;

Oh that I were a rose ! which sweets exhales,
That on thy beauteous bosom I might blow.

The 20th Ode of Anacreon, to his Mistress, is in parts very similar.
Broome translates a passage thus :

Oh were I made thy folding vest.

That thou might'st clasp me to thy breast.

* * * •

* * * «

A very sandal I would be,

To tread on— if trod on by thee.

There are several modern examples of the same idea. The most
notable is Dumain's song in " Love's Labour's Lost " (Act IV. sc. 3) ;

On a day (alack the day !)
Love, whose month is ever May,
Spied a blossom, passing fair.
Playing in the wanton air :
Through the velvet leaves the wind,
AU unseen, 'gan passage find ;

UNKNOWN AUTHORS. 65

That the lover, sick to death,
Wish'd himself the heaven's breath.
Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow ;
Air, would I might triumph so !
But alack, my hand is sworn,
Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn.

Spenser has the same thought, but with the figure varied. See his
76th Sonnet. Kirke White has a song which, no doubt, has its origin
in the Greek, probably in that of Anacreon. The first two stanzas are
given :

Oh that I were the fragrant flower that kisses

My Arabella's breast that heaves on high !
Pleased should I be to taste the transient blisses,
And on the melting throne to faint, and die.

Oh that I were the robe that loosely covers
Her taper limbs, and Grecian form divine !

Or the entwisted zones, like meeting lovers,
That clasp her waist in many an aery twine.

INSCRIPTION UNDER A STATUE OF PAN
(Jacobs IV. 171, cclix.).

Translated by Sliepherd.

The god Pan speahs.

Come, stretch thy limbs beneath these shady trees,
That wave their branches to the western breeze.
Where, by yon limpid stream that gently flows,
My rustic pipe shall soothe thee to repose.

The translator, following Stephens, ascribes this epigram to Her-
mocreon.

There are many epigrams in the Anthology of a similar character to
this. They refer to one of the customs of the Greeks most plea.sant to
contemplate — their sympathy with way-worn travellers. These shady
spots, hallowed by the; statue of the wood-god Pan, offered repose to the
weary, who were invited by the god himself to stretch their limbs
beneath the trees, and to seek the sleei) they needed, soothed by the
pipe which he deigned to play for their ph^asurc. The enthusiastic
Greeks felt for their minstrel-god the reverence and the giiititude
which is excited in the breast of the Itolian or the Swiss, when, in
some lonely sjjot, he finds the image of the holy Virgin, and, worn witit
toil, casts liimself at her feet to seek repose, confident in the protection
she will atibrd him, and the sweet sleep she will send him.

65 GREEK EriGEAMMATISTS.

TEE STATUE OF A BACCHANTE IN THE PORTICO OF A
TEMPLE (Jacobs IV. 175, cclxxviii.).

Translated by G.

Stop that Bacchante ! see, tho' form'd of stone.

She has gain'd the threshold — Stop her, or she's gone.

Among the fragments of Cratinus, who flourished B.C. 454, there is
MU epigram on the loss of a statue, which, being the workmanship of
Daedalus, the most ingenious artist of his age, was supposed to have
escaped from its pedestal. The translation is by Cumberland (" Ob-
server," No. 74 j :

My statue's gone ! By Daedalus 'twas made ;
It is not stolen therefore ; it has stray'd.

Plato Comicus, who flourished B.C. 428, has a fragment on a statue
of Mercury by the same artist, which Cumberland thus translates
(" Observer," No. 78) :

" Hoa there ! "Who art thou ? Answer me. Art dumb ?"
" Warm from the hand of Daedalus I come,
My name Merciu-ius ; and, as you may prove,
A statue ; but his statues speak and move."

INSCEIPTION ON A BATH AT SMYENA
(Jacobs IV. 190, cccxliii.).

Translated in the " Poetical Register" for 1802.

The Graces bathing on a day,
Love stole their robes and i-an away ;
So naked here they since have been.
Ashamed in daylight to be seen.

The beautiful imitation of this epigram by Thomas Warton is well
Known :

The Graces sought in yonder stream

To cool the fervid day,
When Love's malicious godhead came,
And stole theu- robes away.

Proud of the theft, the little god

Their robes bade Delia wear ;
While they ashamed to stir abroad,

Kemain all naked here.

A pretty epigram (Jacobs IV. 187, cccxxiv.) is translated by C:

The Graces bath'd here ; and enchanted gave.
In fond return, their beauties to mv wave.

TJXKKOWN AUTHORS. 67

ON LATE-ACQUIRED WEALTH (Jacobs IV. 210, ccccxxst.).

Translated by Cowper.

Poor in my youth, and in life's later scenes

Eich to no end, I curse my natal hour,
Who nought enjoy'd while young, denied the means ;

And nought when old enjoy'd, denied the power.

This picture of discontent, displays a man \s'ho was dissatisfied in his
youth, because luxuries Avere denied him, and in his old age, because his
strength was abated. The constant craving of the discontented man
for something unpossessed, is well expressed in a fragment of Theognis,
translated by Hookham Frere (" Works of Hesiod," &c., 1856, 438) :

Learning and wealth the wise and wealthy find!
Inadequate to satisfy the mind ; i

A craving eagerness remains behind ; J

Something is left for which we cannot rest ; j
And the last something always seems the best, >
Something unknown, or something unpossest. )

TEE PORTENT (Jacobs lY. 216, cccclxiii.).

Translated hy C.

Three playful maids their fate would try,

Who first was doom'd by lot to die.

Three times the awful die is thrown,

Three times it points to one alone.

Who smiled, nor deem'd that fate her own ;

When sudden from the roof 's dim height

She fell, and pass'd to fated night. —

Portents of ill err not, of brighter hours

No prayers can bring to pass, no human powers.

Instances of portents of death abound in the literature of ancient
and modern times. Those which preceded the murder of (Isesar are
among the best authenticated. The hold, however, which these have
gained on the popular mind, is probably due to Shakespeare's notice <if
them, who makes Cassar himself to bo so strongly influenced by his
wife's dream (though he puts it upon atibction for her) as to refuse to
go to the senate-house, saying to Decius (" Julius Ca'sar," Act II.
BC. 2; :

Calphurnia here, my wife, stays me at home :
Sh(; dreamt to-night she haw my statue.
Which, like a fountain with a hundred s{)outs,
Did run pure hlood ; and many lusty llomana

68 GEEEK EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Came smiling, and did bathe their hands in it.
And these does bhe apply for warnings and portents,
And evils imminent ; and on her knee
Hath begg'd, that I will staj^ at home to-day.

Many modern stories of such portents only arise from the supersti-
tion of the vulgar ; but there are a few, for which the evidence is
strong, and the good faith of the narrators unimpeachable. It is not for
us to say, that warnings of dealh or calamity may not be in mercy given
by Him, in whom we live and move and have our being ; and it argues
as little wisdom to scotf at every portent and every warning, which is
claimed as supernatural, as it does to believe all the folk-lore and the
ghost -stories, which the ignorant hold in reverence, and at which chil-
dren tremble. All that from the experience of mankind can be abso-
lutely asserted is, that, proceeding from natural or supernatural causes,
Campbell's celebrated line is continually verified :

And coming events cast their shadows before.

GREEK MANNER OF MOURNING FOR THE DEAD

(Stobseus;.

Translated by C,

Lov'd shade ! For thee we garlands wear,
For thee with perfumes bathe our hair ;
For thee we pledge the festive wine,
For joy, immortal joy, is thine.
Where thou art gone no tears are shed,
'Twere sin to mourn the blest, the dead.

Two stanzas by Byron, " Bright be the place of thy soul," breathe
very much the same spirit as this beautiful epigram. It may suffice to
quote the second :

Light be the turf of thy tomb !

May its verdure like emeralds be :
There should not be the shadow of gloom

In aught that reminds us of thee.
Young flowers and an evergreen tree

May spring from the spot of thy rest :
But nor cypress nor yew let us see ;

For why should we mourn for the blest ?

In the tombs of Etruria statues are found ot men, matrons, and
maidens, adorned with jewels, and reclining as at feasts; each viith
a goblet in the hand in act to pledge his companion. See Dennis'
" Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria," II. 442-4.

G'J

ANCIENT LATIN EPIGEAMMATISTS.

B.C. 54 — A.D. 370.

CATULLUS.

Flourished B.C. 54. He was bora at Verona, and in early life
removed to Eome, where his poetry and wit caused him to be held in
high estimation. "With the exception of Martial, he is the most cele-
brated of the Latin Epigrammatists.

The numbering of the epigrams varies in different editions of Ca-
tullus. Tiie one to which reference is made is that of Doering,
Londini, 1820.

TO JUVENTIA (Ep. 48).

Translated in " The Works of Fetronius Arbiter, &c., translated hy
several hands." 1714.

Juventia, might I kiss those eyes,

That such becoming sweetness dart,
The numbers might to thousands rise,

Yet be too few to satisfy my heart ;
A heart no surfeit woukl allow,

E'en though the harvest of our kisses were
More thick than what succeeds the plough,

And speaks the blessings of the fruitful year.

It was formerly the custom to kiss the eyes as a mark of tenderness.
In Cliaucer's " Troilus and Cresseide " we have :

Thus Troilus full oft her eyen two
Gan for to kisse.

Steevens, in his notes to Shakespeare's " Winter's Tale," mentions an
old MS. play of " Timon of Athens," in which the same expression
occurs:

O Juno ! be not angry with thy Jove,

But let me kisse thine eyes, my sweete delight.

There is anotiier ojiigram by Catullus very similar to this, and
Martial has oludoly imitiited them iu Book VI. Ep. 34.

70 ANCIENT LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

OxV THE INCONSTANCY OF WOMAN'S LOVE (Ep. 70).
Translated by George Lamb.

My Fair says, she no spouse but me
Would wed, though Jove himself were he,

She says it : but I deem
That what the fair to lovers swear
Should be inscribed upon the air,

Or in the ninning stream.

Tb(j original of this may be a Greek epigram by Xenarchus, whc
flourished B.C. 350 ; thus translated by Cumberland in the " Observer,"
No. 106:

Ah, faithless women ! when you swear

I register your oaths in air.

There are many imitations of the ejiigram of Catullus. In the " Diana,"
a pastoral romance by George de Monte-Mayor, a Spanish writer, born
in the early part of the 16th century, are some lines on a false mis-
tress, who had deceived her lover after writing her eternal vows on
tiie sandy margin of a river :

No prudent doubt fond love allows,

We act as he commands :
I trusted to a woman's vows.

Though written on the sands.

The old English poet, Sir Edward Sherburne, has an epigram called
•' The Broken Faith ":

Lately by clear Thames's side

Fair Lycoris I espied.

With the pen of her white hand

These words printing on the sand :

" None Lycoris dotli approve

But Mirtillo for her love."

Ah, false nymph ! those words were fit

In sand only to be writ :

For the quickly rising streams

Of oblivion and the Thames,

In a little moment's stay

From the shore wash'd clean away

Wliat thy hand had there impress'd,

And Mirtillo from thy breast.

Phineas Fletcher, the author of the " Purple Island," has somo
stanzas " On Woman's Liglitness," of which the following is the first :

Who sows the sand ? or ploughs the easy shore ?
Or strives in nets to prison in the wind ?
Yet I, (fond I;, more fond, and senseless more.
Thought in sure love a woman's thoughts to bind.

CATULLUS. 71

Fond, too fond thoughts, that thought in love to tie
One more inconstant than inconstancy !
[n " Wit's Interpreter ; the English Parnassus " (3rd edit. 1671, p. 275),
there is an epigram of similar character, but with the metaphor varied :

A woman may be fair, and her mind,

Is as inconstant as the wavering wind :

Venus herself is fair, and shineth far,

Yet she's a planet, and no fixed star.
A curious allegorical description of the brevity of renown may be
given here, as cognate to the preceding epigrams. Lord Chatham is
believed to be the subject of the lines :

Let his monument be the world.

And let that world be a bubble ;

And let Fame, in the character of a shadow,

Write his trophies on the air.

ON HIS OWN LOVE (Ep. 85).
Tramlated in " Select Epigrams," 1797.

That I love thee, and yet that I hate thee, I feel ;

Impatient, thou bid'st me my reasons explain :
I tell thee, nor more for my life can reveal,

That I love thee, and hate thee — and tell it with pain.

Martial has an epigram (Book I. 33) on dislike without reason,
which is well known in the English parody by Tom Brown (Brown's
Works, 1760, IV. 100; :

I do not love thee, Dr. Fell,
But why I cannot tell ;
But this I know full well,
I do not love thee, Dr. Fell.

Dr. John Fell was Bishop of Oxford, and Dean of Christ Church in
the reigns of Charles II. and James II. Tom Brown, of facetious
memory, being sentenced to expulsion from Christ Church for some
irregularity, was offered pardon by tlio Dean if he could translate ex-
temijore Martial's epigram, which he immediately did in tlie form
given above, probably verv much to the Dean's astouisliineut.

Another epigram by Martial (Book XII. 47), uu the difficulty of
arriving at a conclusion with respect to a companion, is translated by
Addison, in the " Spectator," No. 68 :

In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow,
Thou'rt .sucli a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow ;
Hast so much wit, and mirth, and spleen about thee,
There is no living with thee, nor without thee.

72 ANCIENT LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ON QUINTIA AND LESBIA: THE COMPARISON (Ep. 86).
Translated hy Elton.

Quintia is beaxiteoxis in the million's eye ;
Yes, beauteous in particulars, I own :

Fair-skinn'd, straight-shaped, tall-sized ; yet I deny
A beauteous whole : of charmingness there's none :
In all that height of figure there is not
A seasoning spice of that — 1 know not what ;
That piqiiant something, grace without a name ;
But Lesbia's air is charming as her frame ;
Yes — Lesbia, beauteous in one graceful whole,
From all her sex their single graces stole.

Shakespeare, in " The Tempest," makes Ferdinand compare the
perfect beauty of Miranda witli other women, whose beauty was in one
respect or another defective (Act III. sc. 1) :

For several virtues
Have I lik'd several women ; never any
With so full soul, but some defect in her
Did quarrel with the noblest grace she ow'd,
And put it to the foil : but you, you.
So perfect, and so ijeerless, are created
Of every creature's best.

The prominent idea of the epigram, that beauty without grace—
" that piquant something " — cannot give entire satisfaction, is well
expressed by Capito, a Oreek epigrammatist, in the following distich
("Jacobs II. 18o), the oidy epigram ascribed to him by Jacobs. The
translation is by Dr. Wdlesley :

Beauty devoid of grace, is but a bait
Without its hook ; and fails to captivate.

TO CALVUS, ON THE DEATH OF HIS WIFE QUINTILIA

(Ep. 96j.

Translated hy Elton.

If ere in human grief there breathe a spell

To charm the silent tomb, and soothe the dead ;

When soft regrets on past atfections dwell,

And o'er fund friendships lost, our tears are shed ;

OATUXLUS. 73

Sure, a less pang must touch Quintilia's shade,
While hov'ring o'er her sad, untimely bier,

Than keen-felt joy that spirit pure pervade.
To witness that her Calvus held her dear.

So, Shakespeare iu his 30th Sonnet :

When to the sessions of sweet, silent thought

I summon up remembrance of tilings past,

I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,

And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste :

Then can I drown an eye. unus'd to flow,

For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,

And weep afresh love's long-since cancell'd woe,

And moan the expence of many a vanish'd sight.

It appears that Calvus showed his love for Quintiliu by writing a
monody to her memory, which has not been preserved. Propertius
alludes to it :

The soft expression Calvus' page betrays,
Who mourn'd Quintilia's death in pitying lays.

In "Notes and Queries," 1st S. V. 361, a translation of a Latiu
epitaph is given, inscribed on the monument of a huslmud by a truly
mourning wife. It is in the church of S. Giles, Cripplegate, to the
memory of William Staples, citizen of London, who died in 1650 :

That heaven's thy home, I grieve not, soul most dear ;
I grieve but for myself, the lingerer here.

DIRGE AT BIS BROTHER'S TOMB (Ep. 101).
Translated by EUon.

Slow faring on, o'er many a land and sea,
Brother ! 1 come to thy sad obsequy :
The last fond tribute to the dead impart,
And call thee, speechless ashes as thou art,
Alas ! in vain ! isince fate has ravish'd thee,
E'en thee, thyself, poor brother ! torn from me
By too severe a blow ; let this be paid,
This right of ancestry, to soothe thy shade ;
Let this, all bathed in tears, my friendship tell.
And oh ! for ever ! bless thee, and farewell !

This beautiful dirge, so pathetic and so grand, is alone sulTicient to
stamp Catullus as a true poet; and it is painful to remember that he

74 ANCIENT LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

who could pen such Hues over the grave of a brother, disgraced hia
muse by those scurrilous invectives against Ctesar, and that liceutioua
desciiption of vice, which render the majority of his epigrams either
■worthless or abominable.

Martial has an epigram on fraternal love, which is far above his or-
dinary level (Book I. 37J. The translation is by Hay. It is addressed
to Lucanus and Tullus :

Fraternal love in such strong currents runs.
That were your fate like that of Leda's sons.
This were the single, but the generous, strife,
Which for tlie other first should yield his life ;
He first would cry, who first should breath resign,
Live thou, dear brother, both thy days and mine.

MAETIAL,

The most celebrated of the Latin Epigrammatists, was born in Spain
about A.D. 40. At an early age he went to Rome, where he spent
many years, receiving much honour from the emperors and other
patrons. Towards the close of his life he returned to his native
country. He wrote nearly 1600 epigrams, but a comparatively small
number have any real beauty, though the talent shown is very great.

TO CATO (Book I. 1).
Translated by Addison in the " Spectator," No. 446.
Why dost thou come, great censor of thy age.
To see the loose diversions of the stage?
With awful countenance and brow severe,
What in the name of goodness dost thou here ?
See the mixt crowd ! how giddy, lewd, and vain !
Didst thou come in but to go out again ?

" It happened once indeed, that Cato dropped into the Roman theatre
wlieu the Floralia were to be represented; and as, in that performance,
which was a kind of religious ceremony, there were several indecent
parts to be acted, the people refused to see them whilst Cato was pre-
sent " (" Spectator," No. 446).

P^TUS AND ARRIA (Book L 14).
Translated by Dr. John Hoadly.
When Arria from her wounded side

To Partus gave the reeking steel,
" I feel not what I've done," she cried ;
» What Paetus is to do— I feel."

martijVI.. 75

The melancholy story of Psetus and Arria is pathetically told in the
72nd No. of the " Tatler," where of the epigram it is said : " The
woman's part in the story is by much the more heroic, and has occa-
sioned one of the best epigrams tran:^mitted to us from antiquity."

The translation given above is highly praised in the "Saturday
Review," XXI. 4'17, but by mistake is ascribed to James Harris instetul
of to Dr. Hoadly.

TO JULIUS (Book I. 16).
Translated hy Hay.

Thou, whom (if faith or honoiir recommends
A friendj I rank amongst m}' dearest friends,
Remember, you are now almost threescore :
Few days of life remain, if any more.
Defer not, what no future time insures ;
And only what is past, esteem that yours.
Successive cares and trouble for you stay ;
Pleasure not so ; it nimbly fleets away.
Then seize it fast ; embrace it ere it flies ;
In the embrace it Tanishes and dies.
I'll live to-morrow, will a wise man say ?
To-morrow is too late, then live to-day.

An ode by Anacreon (admitted by Stephens, p. 174, into his Antho-
log;a, but not by Jacobs) has the same point. The translation is
by €.:

Yes, I can see and envy not
The Sardian monarch's wealthier lot ;
I care not for his state and treasure.
Grandeur for me hiis nought of jtleasure.
I'll bathe my head with i)erfumes now,
With roses bind my laughing brow.
I'll live to-day and banish sorrow,
For who can "tell he'U live to-morrow ?

Horace, too, gives similar advice (Odes, Book I. ix.). Translated by
Uobert Montgomery :

"Wliatc'er to-morrow.'s hue may be.
The living day irf litit to tliee;

A treasuri; for tiio soul ;
Enjoy the rt;ign of laugh and love,
And all that virgin dances prove.

7n ANCIENT LATIN EPIGEABIMATISTS.

S3, Shakespeare in "Macbeth " (Act V. So. 5) :

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day.
To the last syllable of recorded time ;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty deatb.

TO DECIAN (Book I. 40).
Translated by Dr. John Soadly (one word altered).

Is there, t' enroll ataongst the friendly few,
Whose names pure faith and ancient fame renew?
Is there, enrich'd with virtue's honest store,
Deep vers'd in Latian and Athenian lore ?
Is there, who right maintains and truth pursues,
Nor knows a wish that heaven need refuse ?
Is there, who can on his great self depend ?
Kow let me die, but Harris is this friend.

Tbis and other translations of epigrams by Martial were addressed
by Dr. Hoadly " To James Harris, Esq."

The reference in the second line is probably to the celebrated friend-
ships of antiquity, such as those of Damon with Pythias, and Pylades
with Orestes. A Greek epigram, by an uncertain author, expresses the
value of a true friend (Jacobs IV. 208, ccccxxv.). It is thus freely
rendered by Oowper :

Hast thou a friend ? thou hast indeed

A rich and large supply ;
Treasure to serve your every need,
Well managed, till you die.

Among the epigrams of Joseph Martyn, 1621, is a picture of the
cliaracter which a true friend should bear (Ep. 43) :
As true as turtle to her tender mate,
Free in good will and furthest from debate,
Regardless of each wrong, or false surmise,
Easy to be entreated, sober, wise ;
Impatient of delays that hurt his friend.
No ways in fault, yet willing to amend.
Discreet and constant ; such an one as he.
Each man should wish his nearest friend to be.

Rhake-peare shows a true friend in Antonio (" Merchant of Venice,"
Act I. So. 1) :

If it stand, as you yourself still do,
Within the eye of honour, be assur'd.
My purse, my person, my extremest means,
Lie all unlock'd to youi occasions.

MAETIAL. 77

TO BUFUS (Book H. 48).
Translated in " The Graphic" of April 2, 1870.

Exquisite wines and comestibles

From Tod-Heatley, and Fortniim and Mason —
Billiards and two or three chess-tables —

Water in vast marble basin —
Luminous books (not voluminous)
To read under beech-trees cacuminous —
One friend who is fond of a distich,
And doesn't get too syllogibtic —
A valet, who knows the complete art
Of service — a maiden, his sweetheart :
Give me these, in some rural pavilion,
And I'll envy no liothschild his million.

In several epigi-ams Martial praises contentment with mediocrity,
but the catalogue of necessaries in this epigram to Eufus, shows that
without them, though he might not envy a millionaire, he certainly
would envy the majority of "the upper ten thousand." He gives
various reasons for wishing wealth; one in Book IX. 23, that lie may
bestow gifts ; another in Book IV. 76, of a very different kind. It is
on Zoilus, an envious man. The translation is by Hay :

I never did the gods importune,

To grant to me a monstrous fortune ;

Contented with my little store :

But now I own I wish for more.

\\ hence comes this sudden love of pelf?

— That Zoilus may hang himself.

TO FABULLUS (Book III. 12).

Translated bij Thomas May, 1629.

Thou gavest good ointment, 'tis confest,

But little supper to thy guests.

'Tis an improper thing to be

I'erfum'd and hungiy. Well may he

That is anointed, and not fed,

Be thought a corpse, that's newly dead.

"Thifl epigram," ways Mr. Amos, "is cited by aiiticiuariuna as show-
ing a practice among the Komatis of anointing their dead."

78 ANCIENT LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Martial, who liked good living, is very severe upon those who gave
bad siiiipers. In one of the epigrams ascribed to him (Book IV. 77),
but with regard to the authenticity of which there is doubt, he com-
plains of rich plate without meat. The translation is by Dr. John
Hoadly :

With lace bedizen'd come.s the man,

And I must dine with Lady Anne.

A silver service loads the board,

Of eatables a slender hoard.

" Your pride, and not your victuals, spare,

I came to dine, and not to stare."

There are two or three epigrams in the Greek Anthology from which
Martial may have taken this. The following is by Palladas (Jacobs III.
120, xxvii.). The translation is by Major Macgregor :

Invite not me, a trencherman well-skiU'd,

To board whose platters are with pumpkins fill'd;

The silver stutf st t here one cannot eat,

The useless dishes but our hunger cheat.

To those who eat not show thy silver bright,

Thou, in thy plate admir'd, uustampt and light.

On the discomfort of dinners where bhow is the object of the wealthy
host, Pope writes in his " Moral Essays," Epistle IV. 157 :

A solemn sacrifice, perform'd in state,
You drink by measure, and to minutes eat.
■ So quick retires each flying course, you'd swear
Sancho's dread Doctor, and his wand were there.
Between each act the trem Tiling salvers ring,
From soup to sweet wine, and God bless the King.
In plenty starving, tantaliz'd in state, SI

And complaisantly help'd to all I hate.

ON CANIUS (Book III. 20).

Tell me, my Muse, how Canius spends his time :
In lasting leaves, and in immortal rhyme,
Does he the facts of Nero rightly state,
From malice and from flattery free, relate ?
Light elegies, or grave heroics write ?
1' th' comic, or the tragic strain delight ?
Or in the poets' school does (Janius sit,
Eegaling all with his choice Attic wit?
Or else, being free from study, does he talk
r th' temples, and the shady porches walk ?

MAETIAL. 79

Bathes he ? Or from the city toil retired,
Are fields and rivers more by bim admired,
Baia's or Lucrin's sweet recess desired ?
Muse. How Cauius spends bis time, wouldst have me show?
He laughs at all which most men serious do.

Martial has several epigrams on Canius, a humorous poet of Gades,
who was always laughing and the cause of laughter in others. Laugh-
ing and smiling do not always depend upou humour. To show white
teeth or to conceal the heart's bitterness, are often the predisposing
causes. Ovid advises a young lady to " smile if she be wise," and
Martial, adverting to this, recommends a contrary practice to maids
who have passed the Eubicon (Book II. 41). The first few lines of the
epigram are thus translated by Sir Charles Sedley :
Ovid who bid the ladies laugh,

Spoke only to the young and fair :
For thee his counsel were not safe,
Who of sound teeth have scarce a pair.

" Laugh if you be wise," is taken as the motto of an epigram on
Cumberland and Kelly, who are said to have been manifestly miser-
able at witnessing the success of their rival Goldsmith's play, " Siie
Stoops to Conquer." (Timbs' " Anecdote Lives of the Wits and
Humourists," 1872, 1. 360) :

At Dr. Goldsmith's merry piny,
All the spectators laugh, they say,
The assertion, sir, I must deny,
For Cumberland and Kelly cry.
Ralph has a satirical epigram on a witless miin who laughed immo-
derately (Relph's " Poems,' 1798, 130) :

The learned say laughter is denied
To creatures void of reason ;

Yet with laughter strains each side.

And 'tis well known that he's one.

TO BUFUS ON THE MARRIAGE OF PUDENS AND CLAUDIA

(Book IV. 13).
Tramlated hij R. Fletcher, 1G5G.
Strange Claudia's married to a friend of mine.
Hymen, be thou ready with thy pine !
Thus the rare cinnamons with the spikenard join,
And the Thesean sweets with Massic wine.
Nor better do the elm and vine embrace,
Nor the lote-tree aifect the fenny place.
Nor yet the myrtles more
Love and desire the shore.
Let a perpetual peace surround their bed.
And may their loves witli tnpial fire be fed!

80 ANCIENT LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

May she so love him old, that to him she,
Though old indeed, may not seem so to be.
The close of this tender epigram recalls a Greek one by Stratc
(Jacobs III. 78, xx.), thus tianslated by Merivale :

Oh, how I loverl, when, like the tjlorious sun
Firing the orient with a blaze of light,
Thy beauty every ie.-ser star outshone ! —
Now o'er that beauty steals the approach of night —
Yet, yet I love ! Tho' in the western sea
Half-sunk, the day-star still is fair to me.
So, Shakespeare in his 104th Sonnet :

To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
For as you were, when first your eye I ey'd,
Such seems your beauty still.

Amos, in his " jMartial and the Moderns," quotes Dugald Stewart,
who, in bis " Essay on the Beautiful," says that the "mental attrac-
tions of a beautiful woman supplaut those of her person in the heart of
her lover; and that when the former have the good fortune to survive
the latter, they appropriate to themselves, by an imperceptible meta-
phor, that language which, in its literal sense, has ceased to have a
meaning." That the attraction of miod in age can thus take the place
of the attraction of beauty in youth, shows the wisdom of the prayer in
" Verses by Stella" in Swift's Works :

If it be true, celestial Powers,

That you have form'd me fair.
And yet, in all my vainest hours,

My mind has been my cure ;
Then, in return, I beg this grace.

As you were ever kind.
What envious Time takes from my face.
Bestow upon my mind !
Claudia, who married Martial's friend Pudens. was very probably of
British birth, and the same on whom he wrote another epigram
(Book XI. 53), which is thus translated in the "Westminster Review,"
of April 1853 :

Thuugh British sskies first beam'd on Claudia's face.
Her beauty far outvies the Latin race :
E'en Grecian nymphs her form cannot excel,
Or Eoman matrons play the queen so well.
Ye powers, how bless'd must her possessor be !
What progeny will climb the mother's knee !
Kind heaven, grant her constant love to share,
And may three boys leward her tender care.
This recalls TibuUus' celebrated couplet on Sulpicia's grace, trans-
lated by Horace Walpole (Spence's " Anecdotee," 1820, 439) :

MAKTIAL. 81

If she but moves or looks, hor step, her face
By stealth adopt unmeditated gruce.

And which is probably the original whence Milton drew his descrip-
tion of Eve (" Paradise Lost," Book VIII. 488) :

Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye,
In every gesture diguity and love.

ON CLEOPATRA (Book IV. 21).

Translated by Elphinston (altered).

Just wedded, to the bath Cleopatra flew,
And into the clear stream herself she threw ;
The brilliant waves the fair deserter show'd,
While o'er her limbs pellucid shelter flow'd ;
So through the crystal are the lilies told,
So does the gem the blushing rose unfold :
I plung'd, and caught the dear reluctant kiss,
The envious waves scarce granted me e'en this.

There is, poetically speaking, a beautiful translation of this epigram
by Steele in the •19Uth Nu. of the " Spectator," but it i.s too free in more
senses tlian one. There are some good remarks upon it in the same
paper. It is undoubtedly one of Martial's mo.st elegant pieces, and
shows with liow much taste he could write, when he chose to lay aside
his coarse satire. It is said to have been composed in honour of his
wife Cleopatra, the day after their marriage. Herrick has very prettily
imitated it in his lines, " Upon Julia washing herself in the river " :

How fierce was I, when I did see
My Julia wash herself in thee !
So lillies thorough cristall look :
So purest pebbles in the brook :
As in the river Julia did,

Halfe with a lawne of water hid.

» * * *

Thomas Flatman, a poet of the middle of the 17th century, has some
lines, " On Mrs. E. Montague's Blushing in the Cross-bath," in tlw'
first few of which he seems to have had Martial's epigram in mind:

Amidst the nymphs (the glory of the flood)
Thus once tlie bt^aitteous yKglo stood,
So sweet a tiuctuie ere the sun appears,

The bashful ruddy morning wears :
Thus tlirout;li a cry.stal wave the coral glows,
And such a bluali hits nn the virgin rose.

82 ANCIENT LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ON VESTINUS (Book IV. 72).
Translated by Hay.

When on Time's precipice Allworfchy stood,

Ready to launch into the eternal flood,

The cruel Fates addressing, thus be said,

" Ye goddesses, one moment spare my thread :

Lost though I am, let friends my bounty prove."

His pious prayers the rigid sisters move.

He his vast wealth divides ; then quits the stage ;

And in that moment liv'd a Nestor's age.

The propriety of altering proper names in a translation is very
doubtful. For Vestinus, however, Hay could not have fixed upon a
better substitute than the character rendered so celebrated by Fielding
in " Tom Jones."

SOLID WEALTH (Book V. 42).
Translated by Hay (^slightly altered).

Thieves may break locks, and with your cash retire ;
Your ancient seat may be consumed by fire ;
Debtors refuse to pay you what they owe;
Or your ungrateful field the seed you sow ;
Your faithless maid may plunder you by stealth ;
Your ships may sink at sea with all your wealth :
Who gives to friends, so much from Fate secures.
That is the only wealth for ever yours.

Lucian, in a Greek epigram, shows the wisdom of generosity and the
foUy of parsimony (.Jacobs III. 28, xxxvii.). The translation is in " A
Selection of Greek Epigrams for the Use of Winchester School," 1791 :

He, who his wealth to generous ends appUes,
Is rich, and Lonour'd by the good and wise.
He, who for endless treasure ever sighs,
Whilst pile on pile, and bags on bags arise.
Shall toil like yonder bees with fruitless care,
And others shall the luscious honey share.

Martial and Lucian had only in mind the earthly advantages to be
gained by liberality. The Christian view is shown in a triplet forming
the epitaph of Edward, Earl of Devon, surnamed from his misfortune,
the blind, from his virtues, the good. Earl, who died a.d. 1419 ; and of
Mabel his wife (Gibbon's " Decline and Fall of the Eoman Empire,"
Chap. Ixi.) :

MARTIAL. 83

What we gave, we have ;
What we spent, we had ;
What we left, we lost.

Dr. Johnson made a Latin version (printed in his works) of similai
lines, said to be on the monument of John of Doncaster.

TO POSTDMUS: ON HIS FAV0VR3 (Book V. 52).
Translated by Hay.

Your favours to me I remember well,
But I do not mention them, because you tell.
Whenever I begin I'm answered straight,
" I heard from his own mouth what you relate."
Two ill become the business but of one;
Be you but silent, I will speak alone.
Great are your gifts, but when proclaim'd around,
The obligation dies upon the sound.
This is the original of Prior's epigram :

To John I ow'd great obligation :

But John unhappily thought fit
To publish it to all the nation :

Sure, John and I are more than quit.

It may, perhaps, also have suggested the good advice of Opitz, trans-
lated from the German in Hones " Table Book" (Ed. 1831, 11. 479) :

If one have serv'd thee, tell the deed to many :
Hast thou serv'd many — tell it not to any.

SUPPER NEAR A TOMB (Book V. 64).

Translated hy Merivale.

Fill high the bowl with sparkling wine;

Cool the bright draught with summer-snow;

Amid my locks let odours flow ;
Around my temples roses twine,
bee yon proud emblem of decay.

Yon lordly pile that braves the sky !
It bids us live our little day,

Teaching that gc^ds themselves may die.

Maiiial has an epigram (BfX)k II. 59) on a small supper-room erected
by Domitian from which there was a view of the Imperial Mausoleum.

84 ANCIENT LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

These two epigrams show the cnstoin of the Romans of keeping the
tombs uf the dead in sight during their convivial entertainments, and
of making the near approach of death, even to deitied emperors, an
argument for present enjoyment. Bishop Jeremy Taylor in liis •' Holy
Dying " (Chap. I. Sec. ii. 4), refers to the second of these epigrams,
and says : " At their solemn feasts they would talk of deutli to heighten
the present drinking, and that they might warm their veins with a
fuller chalice, as knowing the drink that was poured upon their graves
would be cold and without relish."

The poets of antiquity nearly all agree in the sentiment, " Let us eat
and drink, for to-morrow we die." One or two specimens will suffice.
The following epigram is by Strato (Jacobs III. 90, xcvi.). The trans-
lation by Merivale :

Drink now, and love, my friend, for mirth and wine
Cannot be always yours, nor always mine.
With rosy garlands let us crown om- head.
Nor leave them to be scatter'd o'er the dead,
Now let my bones the copious vintage have ;
Deucalion's self may float them in the grave.

Petronius Arbiter gives the same advice (" Satyricon," Ed. Amstcl,
16G9, 116. Translated in "The Works of Petronius Arbiter," 1714,
Part III. 261) :

Unhappy morfcils, on how fine a thread

Our lives depend ! How like this puppet man
Shall we, alas, be all, when we are dead !
Therefore let's live merrily while we can.

And Horace (Odes, Book II. 3. Translated by Francis) :

Here pour your wines, your odours shed.

Bring foith the rose's sliort-lived flower.
While fate yet spins thy mortal thread,
While youth and fortune give th' indulgent hour.

AN INSECT BURIED IN AMBER (Book VI. 15).

Translated in " Collection of Epigrams," 1735,

A drop of amber, from a poplar plant.
Fell unexpected, and embalm'd an ant :
The little insect we so much contemn,
Is, from a worthless ant, become a gem.

Martial has two more epigrams of a similar character (Book IV.
31 and 59).

Pope seems to have had this epigram in mind when, in his " Epistle
to Dr. Arbuthnot," he compared minor critics on great writers to
worms in amber :

MARTIAL. 85

Ev*!! small critics some regard may claim,
Preserv'd in Milton's or in Shakespeare's name.
Pretty ! in amber to observe the forms
Of hairs, or straws, or dirt, or grubs, or worms !
The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare,
But wonder how the devil they got there.

As cognate to Martial's epigram, some lines by James Montgomery
may be quoted : " The Gnat ; written with a pencil round an insect of
that kind, which had been accidentally crushed, and remained tixed
on a blank page of a Lady's album" :

Lie here embalm'd, from age to age ;
This is the album's noblest page.
Though every glowing leaf be fraught
With painting, poetry, and thought ;
Where tracks of mortal hands are seen,
A hand invisible hath been.
And left this autograph behind,
This image from th' eternal Mind ;
A work of skUl surpassing sense,
A labour of Omnipotenue ;
Though frail as dust it meet thine eye,
He form'd this gnat who built the sky.

Stop — lest it vanish at thy breath,
This speck had life, and sutier'd deati.

TO GALLICUS (Book VIIL 76).
Translated by Hay.

Tell me, say you, and tell me without fear

The truth, the thing I most desire to hear.

This is your language, when your works you quote ;

And when you plead, this is your constant note.

'Tis most inhuman longer to deny.

What you so often press so earnestly.

To the great truth of all then lend an ear ;

" You are uneasy when the truth you hear."

Martial knew human nature well, and some of his happiest epigrams
are directed against foibles, which are common to most men, but
acknowledged by none. Few can with equanimity bear to hear un-
welcome truths : many prefer open ilattery. lie satirizes tlie latter
clauH in nnother epigram (Book V. G::i), thus translated by Elphin.-ton
(with alight alteration of the laat line):

66 ANCIENT LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

What think you, Marcus, of my muse ?
Pray speak your mind, no more refuse.
" She strikes me dumb ; I so admire ;
Beyond is nothing to desire :
Thou'rt such a paragon of arts,
A Eegulus must yield in parts."
This is your mind ? So Caisar crown,
So Jove send choicest blessings down
Upon your head. " Nay, not on mine,
Such crown and blessings shall be thine."
There is an anonymous epigram in " The Flowers of Wit, Humour,
&c.," 1829, 146, which may be compared with Martial's, called " The
Way of the World " :

Determined beforehand, we gravely pretend
To ask the opinion and thoughts of a friend :
Sliould his difl'er from ours on any pretence,
We pity his want both of judgment and sense •
But if he falls into and flatters our plan.
Why really we think him a sensible man.
Shakespeare makes Antony say (" Antony and Cleopatra," Act I.
Sc. 2) :

Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death,
I hear him as he flatter'd.

ON THE BURIAL OF A HUSBAND (Book IX. 31).
Translated by Elphinston {slightly altered).

Far in a savage Cappadocian dell,

land for this accurs'd ! Antistius fell :

His bones Nigrina to her bosom prest,

And all she had of comfort still carest.

When the rich remnant home she would convey,

Thro' the long task she mourn'd the short'ning way

And, when entomb'd the sacred urn she left,

She seem'd twice widow'd, thus of all bereft.

In " Sheridaniana," 1826, 126, there is a note referring to Sheridan's
loss of his first wife, which shows that natural feelings are the same in
all ages, and forms a fitting parallel to Martial's touching epigram :
" The following striking reflection, in Sheridan's handwriting, was sug-
gested, no doubt, by his feelings on this occasion : ' The loss of the
breath from a beloved object, long suffering in pain and certainty to
die, is not so great a privation as the last loss of her beautiful remains-
The victory of the grave is sharper than the sting of death.' "

MARTIAL. 87

TO NUmdA (Book IX. 83).
Translated by Thomas May, 1629.

Numma, th' astrologer foretold that tliou

Sliouldst perish soon, nor did he lie I trow,

For loath to leave aught here when thou shouldst die,

Thou spend'st thy goods in riot speedily,

And all thy treasure in one year is gone.

"What is this, Numma, but to perish soon ?

Sir Thomas More has an epigram on an astrologer, which is thus
translated in " Fasciculus," printed for private circulation in 1869, a
book in which many other elegant translations are given :

The crowd proclaim thee wondrous wise,
If, out of all thy prophecies,

One only proveth true.
Be, Fabianus, always tcrnng,
Then will I join the gaping throng.

And hail thee prophet too.

A WELL-SPENT LIFE (Book X. 2.3).
Translated by Hay.

Antonius is arriv'd at seventy-five.

With all the ease and comfort life can give ;

Safe from the voyage of a length of yeai s.

Looks back with joy ; nor death approaching fears.

Not one of all his days can irksome find ;

Not one but he with pleasure calls to mind.

Thus a good man prolongs his mortal date ;

Lives twice, enjoying thus his former state.

Pope has freely but beautifully translated this epigram, and tlius
finely araplifie.s the last two lines (see Letter from Sir W. Trumbull to
Pope. Pope's Works, 1770, VII. 223) :

Such, STU'h a man extends his life's short space.
And from the goal airain renews the race :
For he lives twice, who can at once employ
The present well, and e'en the past enjoy.

Cowley, in one of his " Discourses iu Verso and Prose" ("On Myself"),
expresses the same thought :

88 ANCIENT LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Thus would I double my life's foding space ,•
For he, that runs it well, runs twice his race.

Rogers, in " The Pleasures of Memory," exquisitely portrays the
happiness, which is produced by the reflection of the past on the pre-
sent through the medium of memory :

When Joy's bright sun has shed his evening ray,
And Hope's delusive meteors cease to play ;
When clouds on clouds the smiling prospect close.
Still thro' the gloom thy star serenely glows :
Like yon fair orb, she gilds the brow of Night
With the mild magic of reflected light.

Again, the same poet, in " Human Life," speaks of the old man who —

Revives at will
Scenes in his life — that breathe enchantment stiJl.

EPITAPH ON EBOTION (Book X. 61).
Translated by Leigh Hunt.

Undenieatli this greedy stone

Lies little sweet Erotion,

Whom the Fates, with hearts as cold,

Nipped away at six years old.

Thou, whoever thou may'st be,

That hast this small field after me,

Let the yearly rites be paid

To her little slender shade :

So shall no disease or jar

Hurt thy house, or chill thy Lar,

But this tomb be here alone

The only melancholy stone.

Martial shows his tenderest vein win n writing on the death of the
young. The following elegy on Alcimus (Book I. 89) is quite equal in
beauty to the above. The translation is by George Lamb :

Dear boy ! whom, torn in early youth away.
The light turf cover.s in Labicum's way,
Eeceive no tomb hewn from the Parian cave
By useless toil to moulder o'er the grave ;
But box and shady palms shall flourish here,
And softest herbage green with many a tear.

MARTIAL. 89

Dear boy ! these records of my grief receive.
These simple honours that will bloom and live;
And be, when Fate has spun my latest line,
My ashes honour'd as I honour thine !

Some very similar Hues are found ia Pope's " Elegy to the Memory
of an Unfortunate Lady " :

What though no weeping Loves thy ashes grace,

Nor polish'd marble emulate thy face?

******

Yet shall thy grave with rising flowers be dress'd,
And the green turf lie lightly on thy brtast ;
There sliall the Morn her e.irliest terus bestow,
There the iirst roses of the year shall blow.

Some of the most touching poetic pieces, both m ancient and modern
times, have been written on tiie death of children. Two here must
suffice. The following, from the Greek, is by an unknown author
(Jacobs IV. 256, dclix.). The translation is by C. :

Inexorable Death ! Wiiy, why destroy

In the first dawn of life this teiuless boy !

He joyous plays in Pluto's drear domain,

But ah ! has liU'd his home with grief and pain.

Landor wrote this " To a Mother. On a Child's Death " :

The scythe of time, alas ! alas !
Always cuts down the freshest grass,
Nor .spares the flowers that would adorn
The tranquil brow of blooming morn :
He lets the corn grow ripe, then svhy
Bids he the germ be knipt and die ?

EPITAPH OF A NOBLE MATRON (Book X. G3).

Stranger, this stone, though small, defiance bids
To mausoleums and tu pyramids.
The centenary games I twice beheld,
And in those years no adverse fate bewail'd.
Five sons, as many daughters, Juno gave,
Whose pious hands piepar'd me for the grave.
Nor my least glory, though too rarely known,
One man I held most dear, and one alone.

A Greek epigram by an uncertain author is very similar, capecially
thi- clo.se (Jacobs IV. 2.54, dcxii.\), whicli by Stephens (p. 220) is given
i« a separate di.stich, thus translated by 0. :

90 ANCIENT LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Beneath this flowery mound she rests, whose zone
Was loosen'd by cue dear lov'd youth alone.

Herrick had probably Martial's epitaph in mind, when he wrote " An
Epitaph upon a Sober Matron," the close of wliich is exactly timilar to
both the Latin and the Greek :

With blamelesse carriage, I liv'd here.
To th' almost sev'n and fortieth yeare.
Stout sons I had, and those twice three ;
One onely daughter lent to me :
The which was made a happy bride,
But thrice three moons before she dy'd.
My modest wedlock, that was known
Contented with the bed of one.

PHYSIOGNOMY (Book XH. 54).

Translated by Addison in the " Spectator," No. 86.

Thy beard and head are of a different die ; •

Short of one foot, distorted in an eye :
With all these tokens of a knave complete,
Should'st thou be honest, thou'rt a devilish cheat.

Palladas, in a Greek epigram translated by C, says (Jacobs III. 132,
Ixxxviii.) :

In mind and body crook'd, 'tis Nature's plan
To show the inward by the outer man.

So, Shakespeare (" King John," Act IV. Sc. 2.) :

A fellow by the hand of nature mark'd,
Quoted, and sign'd, to do a deed of shame.

Yet Hubert's " abhorred aspect " maligned him, for he showed that
he had a feeling heart ; whilst King John " slandered nature in his
person."

That the mind can be read in the features has, however, in all ages
been credited, and physiognomists, notwithstanding their ludicrous
mistakes, have from the earliest times been held in estimation. As an
example of this in the time of Theocritus, an epitaph on Eusthenes by
that poet may be quoted (Jacobs I. 197, x.). The translation is by
Calverley :

Here the shrewd physiognomist Eusthenes lies,

Who could tell all your thoughts by a glance at your eyes.

A stranger with strangers his honoured bones rest ;

They valued sweet song, and he gave tiiem his best.

All the honours of death doth the poet possess :

If a small one, they mourned for him nevertheless.

AUSONIUS. 91

TO PRISCUS (Book XII. 93).
Translated bij F. Lewis.

Prisons, you've often ask'd me how I'd live.
Should fate at once both wealth and honour give.
What soul his future conduct can foresee ?
Tell me what sort of lion you would be.

Dr. Johnson took this epigram for the motto of the 172nd No. of the
" Rambler," where he remarks that, " the powers of the mind when
tliey are unbounded and expauded by the sunshine of felicity, more
frequently luxuriate into follies, than blossom into goodness."

AUSONIUS.

-Flourished A.n. 370. He was bom at Bordeaux, the son of a physician.
The Emperor Valcutinian selected him as tutor to his son Gratian,
which k-d to his advancement to the office of Pra^toriaTi Prsefcct, first of
Italy, and tiicn of the Gauls. By Gratian he was made Consul. He is
generally supposed to have been a Christian, but there is much in his
writings which disgraces his profession of that faith.

ECHO (Ep. 11).

Translated by Lovelace {two lines added to supply omission).

Vain painter, why dost strive my face to draw
With busy hands, a goddess' eyes ne'er saw ?
Daughter of air and wind, I do rejoice
In empty shouts ; without a mind, a voice.
Eeviving last-form'd sounds, I bid them stay,
And with unconscious converse love to play.
Within your ears shrill echo I rebound,
And if you'll paint me like, then paint a sound.

Archias has a pretty Greek epigram on " Echo," thus elegantly
translated by the late Dr. Wellesley (Jacobs II. 83, xv.) :

To Echo, mute or talkative

Address gofjd words ; for she can give

Keturts lo thos(^ who dare her:
If you provoke me, I reply ;
If you arc Hilont, so am I —

Can any tongue speak fairer?

92 ANCIENT LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ililton, ill "Comus," has an exquisite song to Echo, wliich cuni-
mences :

Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen
Within thy aery shell,
By slow Meander's margent green,
And in the violet-embroider'd vale,

Where the love-lorn nightingale
Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well.

ON BISSVLA, A GERMAN CAPTIVE (Edyll. VII. 2).

Translated hy Elton.

Oh my joy, my charm, my treasure,
My luve, my pastime, and my pleasure !
Dear pupil ! sweet barbarian ! thee
Our Latian damsels envying see :
If my young girl's name be found
Somewhat of unconther sound ;
That grating t^ound let strangers hear ;
Ah, Bissula ! it charms thy masters ear.

Love, it appears, can make the harshest name agreeable ; but one of
soft sound is generally thought to awake tlie gentler feelings. As in »
passage in Otway's tragedy of " Caius Marius " :

Laviuia ! O there's music in the name,
That, softening me to infant tenderness,
Slakes my heart spring like the hrst leap of life.

Yet Shakespeare, in oft-quoted words, asks ("Romeo and Juliet,'"
Act II. sc. 2) :

What's in a name? that which we call a rose,
By any other name would smell as sweet.

ON DIDO (Epitapliia Heroum, 30).
Translated in " Collection of Epigrams,'' 1735.

Poor Queen ! twice doom'd disastrous love to try !
You fly the dying ; for the flying die.

There is an allusion to Dido's flight, ou account of her husband's
murder, in the first book of the ^neis, 340, which Dryden translates

Phoenician Dido rules the growing State,
Who tied from Tyre^ to shun her brother's hate.

AUSONIUS. 93

At length, in dead of night, the ghost appears
Of her unhappy lord ; * * *

Then warns the widow and her household gods
To seek a refuge in remote abodes.
And in the fourth book, 630, her death, on account of .,Ene£is' dt>
parture, is described :

This said, within her anxious mind she weighs
The means of cutting short her odious days.
*****

Thus will I pay my vows to Stygian Jove,
And end the cares of my disastrous love.

EPITAFH ON HIS SISTEB, JULIA DRYADIA (Parentalia, 12 .

Translated hy Elton.

Is there a virtue whicli tlie prudent fair
Might wish, that fell not to my Julia's share ?
And hers were virtues, which the strongest kind
Might wish ; a manly nobleness of mind.
Good fame and sustenance her distatt" wrought :
And skill'd in goodness, she that goodness taught.
Truth more than life she prized : in God above
Her cares were wrapt, and in a brother's love.
A widow in her bloom, the maid austere
Might the chaste manners of her age revere.
She, who had seen six decades swiftly glide,
Died in the mansion where her father died.

Of similar character is an epitaph on a maiden by Marvell, wiiich,
though rather long, is too beautiful to be omitted ("Miscellaneou.i
Poems by Andrew Marvell," 1(381, 71) :

Enough ; and leave the rest to fame;
'Tis to commeml her, but to name.
Courtship, whifh living, she declined
When dead, to offer wore unkind.
Where never any could sjieak ill,
Who would otlicious jjiaises spill?
Nor can the truest wit, or fi lend.
Without detracting, her commend;
To siiy, she lived a virgin chaste
In this age loose ami all unlac'd.
Nor wa.s, when vice is so allow'd,
Of virtue or aohum'd or proud ;

94 ANCIENT LATIN KPIGBAMMATIST8,

That her soul was on heaven so bent
No minute but it came and went ;
That, I'eady her last debt to pay,
She summ'd her life up every day ;
Modest as morn, as mid-day bright,
Gentle as evening, cool as night ;
'Tis true ; but all too weakly said ;
'Twere more significant, She's Dead.

ANONYMOUS.

The following epitaphs must be styled anonymous, though it is con-
jectured that they were prepared by the poets themselves for their own
monuments :

EPITAPH ON N^VIUS.

Translated by Hookham Frere.

If goddesses for mortal men might weep,
A tear on Nsevius should the Muse bestow ;

Since Eome no longer does her language keep,
Now he is destined to the t^hades below.

Nsevius was a native of Campania, and one of the earliest Roman
poets. The epitaph is preserved by Aulus Gellius, who observes of it
that it is full of Campanian arrogance ; and Amos, in his " Gems of
Latin Poetry," justly remarks that it is "entertaining from being one
of the most impudent epitaphs on record."

EPITAPH ON PLAUTUS.
Translated by Hookham Frere.

When comic Plautus first departed,
The scene was left, the stage deserted ;
And wit and merriment, together
With mirth and humour, fled for ever.

Plautus was born, it is generally supposed, at Sarsina, a town in
Umbria. He was the greatest of the Roman comic dramatists, and is
described as a man " of such bodily deformities, that Nature would seem
to have designed to make his countrymen laugh at his person as well
as his wit." This epitaph also is preserved by Aulus Gellius, and is
scarcely less impudent thau that of Naavius.

AEABIAN EPIGKAMMATISTS.

A.D. 719— A.D. 988.

AEABIAN EPIGKAMS.

The following translations of Arabian epigrams are taken from a
volume published in 1796, entitled, "Specimens of Arabian Poetry,
from the earliest times to the extinction of the KhaUphat, with some
account of the authors, by J. D. Curlyle, B.D., F.R.S.E., Chancellor of
Carlisle, and Professor of Aa-ab:c in the University of Cambridge."
The sentiments of many of the epigrams and poems are exceedingly
beautiful, and the English di-ess in which they are clothed is very
oraceful.

IBRAHIM BEN ADHAM.

A hermit of Syria, equally celebrated for his talents and piety, born
about the 97th year of the Hegtra, i.e., a.d. 719.

TO THE KHALIFH HAEOUN ALRASHID,
Upon his undertaking a Pilgrimage to Mecca.
Religion's gems can ne'er adorn
The flimsy robe by pleasure worn ;
Its feeble texture soon would tear,
And give those jewels to the air.

Thrice happy they who seek th' abode
Of peace and pleasure, in their God !
\\ ho spurn the world, its joys despise,
And grasp at bliss beyond the skies.

The following, by an uncertain author of James I.'s reign, is taken
from Ellis' "Specunens of the Early English I'oets," 1803, III. 143 :

Happy, oh happy he who, not afifecting
The endless toils attending worldly cares.

With mind rcpos'd, all discontents rejecting,
Jn sileut peace his way to heaven preparea !

96 ARABIAN EPIGKAMMATISTS.

Deeming his life a scene, the world a stage,
Whereon man acts his weary pilgrimage.

The danger and short-lived happiness of mere pleasure are as expres-
sively as elegantly portrayed in Dr. Johnson's translation of some
French lines written under a print of persons skating :
O'er crackling ice, o'er gulphs profound.

With nimble glide the skaters play ;
O'er treach'rous Pleasure's flow'ry ground
Thus lightly skim, and haste away.

This translation, which was not the first he made, was repeated by
Johnson extempore, after reading one by Mr. Pepys, a friend of Mr?
Piozzi, who tells us in her " Anecdotes," that the Doctor was exceedingly
angry when he found she had asked several of her acquaintances to
translate the lines, declaring " it was a piece of treachery, and done to
make everyone else look little when compared to my favourite friends
the Pepyses, whose translations were unquestionably the best," as the
Doctor acknowledged. The Ibllowing is the one upon which he founded
his extempore :

Swift o'er the level how the skaters slide.
And skim the glitt'ring surface as they go ;

Thus o'er life's specious pleasures lightly glide.
But pause not, press not on the gulph below.

Though this surpassed Johnson's first translation, that it is not equal
to his second all must acknowledge.

ALY BEN AHMED BEX MAXSOUK.

A poet and historian, who excelled and delighted in satire. He died
at Bagdad, in the year of the Hegira 302, i.e., a.d. 924.

TO THE VIZIR CASSIM OBID ALLAH, ON THE DEATH OF

ONE OF HIS SONS.

Poor Cassim ! thou art doom'd to mourn

By destiny's decree ;
Whatever happen it must turn

To misery for thee.
Two sons hadst thou, the one thy pride,

The other was thy pest ;
Ah, why did cruel death decide

To snatch away the best ?
No wonder thou shouhVst droop with woe,

Of such a child bereft ;
But now thy tears must doubly flow,

For ah !— the other's left.

THE KHALIPH EADHI BILLAH — SHEMS ALMAALI CABUS. 97

Cassim's son, Hosein, was Vizir to the Khaliph Moctader ; and the
other, Mohummed, to his succestfor, Kaher. Professor Carlyle says :
" The sarcasm might apply to either without much impropriety ; for
Hosein was condemned to suffer punishment for his impiefy, in the
reign of Radhi ; and ]Mohammed was the favourite minister of Kaher,
who appears to have been the greatest monster that ever presided over
the Khaliphat."

THE KHALIPH EADHI BILLAH.

The twentieth Khaliph of the house of Abbas, and the hist of those
princes who possessed any substantial power. He died in the 329th
year of the Hegira, i.e., a.d. 951.

TO A LADY UPON SEEING HEB BLUSH.

Leila ! whene'er I gaze on thee

My alter'd cheek turns pale,
While upon thine, sweet maid, 1 see

A deep'ning blush prevail.
Leila, shall I the cause impart

AN hy such a change takes place?
The crimson stream deserts my heart.

To mantle on thy face.

This is on 3 of the most elegant epigrams to be foimd in any language,
and deserves particular attention.

SHEMS ALMAALI CABUS.

Ascended the thrnnc of Georgia in the year of the Hegira 366, i.e.,
4.1). 988, reigned for thirty-five years, and was then deposed. He
possessed almost every virtue and every accomplishment, and was as
unfortunate as he was amiable.

ON TEE CAPRICES OF FORTUNE.
Probably composed during the writer's exile in Khorassau,

Why should I blu.sh that Fortune's frown
Dooms mo life's humble paths to tread ?

To live unheeded, and uidcnown ?
To sink forgotten to the dead ?

98 ARABIAN EPIGBAMMATISTS.

'Tis not the good, the wise, the brave,

That surest shine, or highest rise ;
The feather sports upon the wave,

The pearl in ocean's cavern lies.
Each lesser star that studs the sphere

Sparkles with undiminish'd light ;
Dark and eclips'd alone appear

The lord of day, the queen of night.

In the " Festoon " is a translation from the Greek of Solon, which
well expresses the indifference of Fortune to worth :

Some w icked men are rich, some good men poor ;
Yet I'd not change my virtue for their store.
Virtue's a sure possession, firm as fate,
While wealth now flies to this man, now to that.

One of the best epigi-ams on Fortune is by Samuel Wesley, the usher
of Westminster School, which he says is "From a hint in the minor
poets " :

No, not for those of women born.

Not so unlike the die is cast ;
For, after all our vaunt and scorn.

How very small the odds at last !
Him rais'd to Fortune's utmost top

With him beneath her feet compare ;
And one has nothing more to hope,
The other nothing more to fear.

UNKNOWN AUTHORS.

ON TAHER BEN HOSEIN,
Who was ambidexter, and one-eyed.

A pair of right hands and a single dim eye
Must foiTQ not a man, but a monster, they cry :
Change a hand to an eye, good Taher, if you can.
And a monster perhaps may be changed to a man.

" Taher appears to have been the most celebrated general of his time.
He commanded the forces of Mamun, second son to Harotm Alrashid,
and it was chic fly owing to his abilities that Mamun arrived at the
throne." — Carlyle.

" This epigram," says Professor Carlyle, " reminds us of the well-
known lines upon a brother and sister, both extremely beautiful, but

UNKNOWN AUTHORS. 99

vho had each lost an eye; and it is curious to observe how easily
the same idea is modified by a different poet into a satire or a pane-
fryric." The epigram alluded to is that on Aeon and Leonilla by
Amaltheus. The one on Taher might have been given under that
singularly elegant piece, but the want of harmony between the two
would injure both if brought into juxta-position.

TO A FRIEND UPON HIS BIRTHDAY.

When born, in tears we saw thee drown'd,
While thine assembled friends around,

With smiles their joy confest ;
So live, that at thy parting hour.
They may the flood of sorrow pour,

And thou in smiles be drest !

It may interest some readers to see a translation of this very ber.utiful
epigram, which is attributed to Sir William Jones :

On parents' knees, a naked new-born child,
Weeping thou sat'st, while all around thee smiled :
So live, that sinking to thy life's last sleep,
Calm thou may'st smile, while all around thee weep.

It can hardly be supposed that the old epigrammatist, Hayman, knew
Anything of Arabian poetry. The similarity, therefore, of the following
distich, found among his " Quodlibets," may be considered as a coinci-
dence of ideas (Book I. Quod. 55) :

When we are born, our friends rejoice ; we cry :
But we rejoice, our friends mourn when we die.

ON LIFE.

Like sheep we're doom'd to travel o'er

The fated track to all assign 'd,
These follow those that went before,

And leave the world to those behind.
Ah Iho flock seeks the pasturing shade,

Man presses to the future day,
While death amidst the tufted glade.

Like the dun* robber, waits his prey.

* The wolf.

100 ARABIAN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

An epigram by Samuel Wesley shows how the generations of men
live and pass away :

Some laugh, while others mourn ;

Some toil, while others play ;
One dies, and one is born :

So runs the world away.

The sentiment of the Arabian epigram is similar to that of a Greek
one by Palladas, thus freely translated (Jacobs III. 141, cxxx.) :

To Death's dark home our wand'rings lead ;

To Death we all are born :
As sheep, who safely o'er night feed,

Unthinking die at mom.

TO A LADY UPON HER REFUSAL OF A PRESENT OF
MELONS, AND HER REJECTION OF THE ADDRESSES
OF AN ADMIRER.

Wiien I sent you iny melons, you cried out -with, scorn,
" They ought to be heavy, and icrinkled, and yello'P :"
When I ofler'd myself, whom those graces adorn,
You flouted, and call'd me an ugly, old fellow.

It was well that it was one of the opposite sex whom this lady desig-
nated •■ ugly.'' Had it been one of her own sex, the epithet would
have been unpardonable, according to the following anecdote. Two
French ladies had a violent quarrel. As it proved inconvenient, a
gentleman, a mutual friend, was asked to arbitrate between them. He
consented upon one condition — that both the ladies could solemnly assure
him tliat neither of them had called the other " ugly." On receiving a
satisfactory reply, he said, "'In that case the quarrel can be adjusted."

The lady and gentleman of the epigi-am change places in the follow-
ing diiticli of Martial (Book ix. 6), thus translated by Hay :

That you would wed Sir John is very wise :
That he don't care to wed is no surprise.

IGl

MEDLEVAL AMI) EAELY MODEEN LATIN
EPIGEAMMATISTS.

A.D. 1265— A.D. 1678.

DANTE ALIGHIEEI.

Born, 1265, Died, 1321.

EIS OWN EPITAPH.
Tranglated by Hackett, in " Select and Eemarhable Epitaphs" 1757.

Whilst Fate allow'd I snng of kings and gods,
Of Lethe's lake and Pinto's dire abodes.
But now the better part has wing'd its flight
To its great Author, and the realms of light.
Dante my name ; my birth fair Florence gave,
But exil'd thence, a foreign clime's my grave.

Poccianti says that Dante wrote these lines for his own epitaph, when
at the point of death. , Hackett.)

Leonidas of Tarentum, who is believed to have died in exile, having
been carried captive from Tarentum by Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, wrote
an epitaph for himself, which is singularly suitable to Dante (Jacobs I.
181, C). The translation is by Merivale :

Far from Tarentimi's native soil I lie.

Far from the dear land of my infancy.

'Tis dreadful to resij^u this mortal breath.

But in a stranger clime 'tis worse than death !

Call it not life, to pass a fever'd age

In ceaseless wanderings o'er the world's wide stage.

But me the muse has ever lov'd and giv'n

Sweet joys to coimterpoise the cur.se of lleav'n.

Nor lets my memory decay, but l^ng

To distant times preserves my deathless song.

102 MEDIiEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

JANUS PANNONIUS,

Or Jcau de Cisinge, was a poet of Hungary, born in 1434. When only
twenty-six years of age he was nominated by Pope Pius II., Bishop of
Cing-Eglises in Lower Hungary. He died in 1472.

ON AURISPA C'Delitiaj Delitiarum," 240).

Translated by James Wright.

Aurispa nothing writes though learn'd, for he
By a wise silence seems more learn'd to be.

From this Swift may perhaps have taken the following sarcasm :

Arthur, they say, has wit ; fir what ?
For writing ? No ; for writing not.

In "The Greek and Latin Prize Poems of the University of Cam-
bridge from 1814 to 1837," there is a Latin epigram by Dr. Kennedy,
which closes with this distich :

" Quid faciam ut propria decorem mea tempora lauru ?
Die mihi, quid faciam ?" — dixit Apollo, — " tace !"

TO SEVEBUS (" Delitise Delitiarum," 242).

A learned work, Severus, where you teach
To spurn vain glory, tho' within our reach :
But if 'tis really vain, as you have said,
"Why in the title is your name display'd,
With rich vermilion more conspicuous made ?

So, Lord Byron, satirizing a noble earl's tragedies, which were
resplendently bound in morocco and gold, says in " English Bards and
Scotch Reviewers " :

Yes ! doif that covering where morocco shines.
And hang a calf-skin on those recreant lines.

Disraeli, in his " Curiosities of Literature," 1st Series, Art. "Fame
contemned," says : " All men are fond of glory, and even the philoso-
phers who writt,- against that noble passion, prefix, however, theu name*
to their own works !"

103

MARTIALIS MONERIUS.

A French Poet of the fifteenth century, born in Paris. Died 1508.

ON MACHON AND HIS WOODEN LEG

(" Delitise Delitiarum," 24),

Translated by D.

Wlien 'gainst Cales the Gallic forces drove,
Machon, a soldier, raw, but smart by Jove,
To the tall rampart's height most boldly dash'd,
When thro' his wooden leg a bullet cra-^h'd ;
" All right." he cried, " I am not hurt a peg,
At home I've got iu store another leg."

Butler, in "Hudibras" (Part I. Canto ii. 921), describes the wooden-
legged Crowdero fighting with the Knight and Raljiho :

In haste he snatch'd the wooden limb
That hurt i' th' ankle lay by him.
And fitting it for sudden fight.

Straight di-ew it up, t' attack the knight.

*****

But EalpLo * ■* * flew

To rescue knight from black and blue ;
Which ere he could achieve, his sconce
The leg encounter'd twice and once ;
And now 'twas rais'd to smite again,
When Ralpho thrust himself between ;
He took the blow upon his arm,
To shield the knight from fmther harm,
And joining wrath with force, bestow'd
On th' wodden member such a load,
That down it fell, and with it bore
Crowdero, whom it propp'd before.

TO SORBICUS (" Delitiaj Delitiarum," 26).
Translated by D.

Th' incentive of duty urg'd him long,

SorbicuK stoutly declares ;
But study's too hard he complains, — and strong

The dread of failure, he swears.

104 MEDLEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Ah, Sorbicus ! 'tis not the work so hard,
^\ hich puts fame beyond your reach;

But the work's too hard because you discard
The aid which boldness would teach.

ANTONIUS TEBALTIUS.

Antonio Tebaldeo or Tibaldeo was an Italian poet, born at Ferrara in
1456. He wrote poetry in his own language, and also Latin Epigram-
mata. He died in 1538.

CUPID IN TBOVBLE ("DeUti^e Delitiarum," 10.?).
Translated in "Notes and Queries," 1st S. VII.

Wherefore does Venus beat her boy ?

He has mislaid or lost his bow : —
And who retains the missing toy?

Th' Etrurian Flavia. How so ?
She ask'd : he gave it ; for the child,

Not e'en suspecting any other,
By beauty's dazzling light beguil'd,

Thought he had given it to his mother

Spenser has the same point in " Poems," III. :
I saw, in secret to my dame
How little Cupid hmnbly Cime,
And said to her : " All hayle, my mother !"
But, when he saw me laugh, for shame
His face with bashful! blood did flame,
Not knowing Venus from the other.
'' Then, never blush, Cupid, quoth I,
For many have err'd in this beauty."
Prior, also, at the conclusion of " Cupid Mistaken ":
Poor Cupid sobbing scarce could speals: ;

Indeed Mama I did not know ye ;
Alas ! how easy my mistake !
I took you for your likeness Cloe.
The following anonymous lines on the toasting glasses of the Kit-
Cat Club, in praise of Mrs. Barton, are very similar to Tebaltius' epi*
gram (Nichols' " Collection of Poems," V. 170, 1782):

At Barton's feet the god of Love

His arrows and his quiver lays,
Forgets he has a throne above,

Ajid with this lovely creature stays.

ACTIUS SANNAZARIUS. 105

Xot Venus' beauties are more bright,

But each appear so like the otlier,
That Cupid has mistook the riglit,

And takes the nymph to be his mother.

This lady was the -wife of Colonel Barton, and niece of Sir Isaac
Newton.

William Thompson, Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, born in the
early part of the Ibth century, has an epigram, " Cupid Mistaken," whicli
is little more than a paraphrase of Tebaltius', applied to a beauty of
the day, though he makes no acknowledgment of it :

Venus whipt Cupid t' other day,
For having lost his bow and quiver :

For he had giv'n them both away
To Stella, queen of Isis river.

" Mama ! you wrong me while you strike,"

Cried weeping Cupid, " for I vow,
Stella and you are so alike,

I thought that I had lent them you."

ACTIUS SANXAZAEirS,

Born in 1458, was a Neapolitan, who, being patronized by King
Frederick, for his poetry and scholarship, followed his fortunes, and
retired with him into France when he was dethroned. On the king's
death he returned to Naples, and passed the remainder of his life in
the cultivation of poetry, dying in 1530. He is chiefly celebrated for
his Latin verse, which, in purity and elegance, is considered scarcely
inferior to that of the Augustan age.

OX POFE LEO X. ("Deliti£e Delitiarum," 109).
Translated in the " Quarterly Eeview," No. 233.

Leo lack'd the last Sacrament. " Why," need we tell ?
He had chosen the chalice and paten to sell.

This, though very spirited, scarcely gives the full force of the satire
in the original :

Sacra sub extrema, si forte requiritis, hora
Cur Leo non poterat sumere ; vendiderat.

The mere material adjuncts of the Sacrament could easily have been
replaced ; but Leo had done far worse tlian selling these. By tlie sale
of Indulgence.s, wliich he carried to an inordinate extent, that he miglit
replenish liis excliequer, exhausted by his profusion, he had made mer-
chandise of the forgiveness of sins, and, like another Judas, had sold,

106 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

though not the Person, yet the Power, of Christ. The Latin " sacra "
implies more than the externals of the Sacrament — rather the hidden
mysteries — the Presence of tlie Christ. Pope Alexander VI. had been
held up to scorn for the same impiety in a pasquinade of bitter severity,
alluding to his simony, the first two lines of which are thus translated
in Disraeli's " Curiosities of Litei'ature," 1st Series, Art. " Pasquin and
IMarforio " :

Alexander sells the Keys, the Altars and Christ ;
As he bought thcni first, he had a right to sell them.
And Buchanan has an epigram of similar character in " Fratres
Fraterrimi," on Pope Paul, tlms translated by Robert Monteith :
Pope Paul and Judas they agree full well ;
That, Heav'n ; this, Heav'n's Lord did basely sell.

ON AUFIDIU8 ("Dentin Dolitiarum," 110).
Translated in " Collection of Epigrams," 1735.

A lium'rous fellow in a tavern late,

Being dmnk and valiant, gets a broken pate ;

The snrgeon with his instruments and skill,

Searches his skull, deeper and deeper still,

To feel his brains, and try if they were sound ;

And, as he keeps ado about the wound,

The fellow cries — Good surgeon, spare your pains,

^^hen I began this brawl 1 had no brains.

This translation is not very literal, but gives admirably tlie humour
of the original.

An epigram by Dr. Huddesford, President of Trinity College, Oxford,
who died in 1770, was probably formed on the above. It is too long
to give in extenso, but the point is contained in the following portion
("Select Epigrams," II. 70^ :

Empty the flask, discharg'd the score,

Ned stagger'd from the tavern door,

And tailing in his drunken fits,

Crippled his nose and lost his wits ;

But from the kennel soon emerging

His nose repairs by help of surgeon ;

That done, the Leech peeps in Ids brain

To find his wits,— but peeps in vain.

" 'Tis hard," the patient cries, " to lose

Wits not a whit the worse for use ;

* * * ♦ *

*****

Wits, which if all your wealth could buy — sir.

You would not be a jot the wiser."

* >t> * * «•

ACTIUS SANNAZARIUS. 107

TO LESBIA ("DelitiffiDelitiarum,"110).

Translated in " Collection of Epigrams," 1735.

Ah ! Lesbia, now, or never, pity show ;

Two dift"'rent fates, alas ! to thee I owe ;

For thee in flames I'm scorch'd, in tears I drown.

At once a Nilus and an vEtna grown.

Let my tears quench my fire, cruel dame !

Or dry my tears up with more potent flame.

Owen bewails the fute rf one, wliose unrequited love consiomes him
in tears and flames. The translation is by Harvey (slightly altered)
(Book I. 74) :

Cold Nilus through my burning eyes doth flow,
My scorching heart with iEtna's flames doth glow ;
No floods of tears can quench so .great a fire.
Nor burning love can make those floods retire ;
So, though discordant tire and water be,
United, all their force they show in me.

VENICE {" DelitiEe Delitiarum," 111).
Translated by John Evelyn {son of the author of " Sylva"),

Neptune saw Venice on the Adria stand.
Firm as a rock, and all the sea command.
Think'st thou, Jove ! said he, Eome's walls excel?
Or that proud cliff whence false Tarpeia fell ?
Grant Tiber best, view both ; and you will say
That men did those, gods these foundations lay.

It is said that Sannazarius received from the Venetian Senate a sura
equal to about £300 for these few lines in praise of the " glorious city
in the sea."

4 MOTHER'S LAMENT OVER THE TOMB OF HEB ONLY SON
("Delitise Delitiarum," 111).

Translated in the " Quarterly Review" No. 233.

Why did thy parents thee misname their joy f
Alas ! far better had they said their grief.

The mother's dailing light, her precious boy,
By fate's despite found earth a sojourn brief.

Go to! what's Niobe to me? I moan

Worse fate. She could, I cannot, turn to stone.

108 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODBEN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ON PLATIXA'S ''HISTORY OF THE POPES," AND HIS
TREATISE ''DE HONESTA VOLUPTATE," WHICH IN-
CLUDED DIRECTIONS FOR THE KITCHEN.

Translated hy GresweU.

Each pontiff's talents, morals, life, and end,
To scan severe, your earlier labours tend —
When late — on culinary themes you shine.
Even pamper'd pontiffs praise the kind design.

This hit at the popes is very fair ; but Sannazarius mistakes the order
of Platina's works, the treatise " De Honesta " having been written
much earlier than the " History of the Popes."

PETEUS BEMBUS.

Born at Venice, in 1470. He became secretary to Pope Leo X.,
and was celebrated for the purity of the Latin in which he carried on
the Pope's correspondence. He died in 1 547.

EPITAPH ON RAPHAEL.

Translated hy the Rev. James Davies.

Here Raphael lies. While he lived. Nature's dread
Was base defeat ; but death, since he is dead !

This epitaph was copied by Pope at the close of his own on Sir
Godfrey Kneller, as will be found pointed out under Pope's epitapli un
that painter.

Cardinal Bembo wrote the epitaph, at the request of Leo X., to be
placed in the Pantheon. Thomas Warton has suggested a variation,
which is certainly equally expressive of the painter's wonderful powers,
and more consonant with truth, which in mortuary inscriptions should
never give place to hyperbole :

Here Raphael lies, by whose untimely end
Nature hath lost a Rival and a Friend.

ON THE DEATH OF A LAP-DOG.

Translated hy the Rev. James Davies.

What is there, whelp Bembino, that thy lord denies to thee ;
From whom thou hast thy name, thy tomb, and tearful
elegy ?

HERCULES STBOZA. 109

Bembo's brother Cardinal, Bellay, has an epigiam on a distinguish-
ing and very accommodating dog (•' Delitise Delitiarum." 36), which is
probably taken from the Greek. The translation is by James "Wright :

The lover I let pass, the thief did seize :
So I both master did, and mistress please.

HEECULES STEOZA.

A Latin poet of Ferrara, connected with the illustrious family oi
Strozzi. of Florence. His end was tragical. In 1508 he married a lady
of a noble house, and almost immediately afterwards was murdered by
a rival.

EPITAPH ON JOHN PICUS OF MIRANDOLA, I.V 8. MARK'S
CHURCH, FLORENCE (" Delitiae DeUtiarum," 126).

Translated in the " John Bull," of March 5, 1870.

Here lies John of Mirandola ; what else there is to tell,
The Tagus and the Ganges, and th' Antipodes know well.

The Latin of this celebrated epitaph is as follows :

Joannes jacet hie Mirandola ; csetera norunt
Et Tagus, et Ganges, forsan et Antipodes.

The illustrious scholar, John Picus of Mirandola, was born in 1463,
the younger son of a noble family, who held that little principality as
an imperial fief. He died at the early age of thirty-one. " If we talk,"
says Hallam in his " Introduction to the Literature of Europe," " of the
admirable Crichton, who is little better than a shadow, and lives but
in panegyric, so much superior and more wonderful a person as John
Picus of Mirandola should not be forgotten."

The epitaph is best known in Pope's parody. Spence gives the poet's
own account of it : " You know I love short inscriptions, and that may
be the reason why I like the epitaph on the Count of Mirandola so well.
— Some time ago I made a i)arody of it for a man of very opposite
character." (Spence's "Anecdotes." 1820, 165.) This was Lord Con-
ingsby, who, in 1715, impeached Harley, Earl of Oxford, of "high
treason and other crimes and misdemeanors " :

Here lies Lord Coniugsby ; be civil,
The rest God knows, jierhaps the devU.

Swift applied the parody to another person. Colonel Francis Chartrcs,
a man of infamous character, who by pandering to the vices and follies
of mankinfl, acquired an immense fortune. Pope (*' Moral Essays,"
Epifltle III. 19) says that riches are :

Given to the fool, the mad, the vain, the evil.
To Ward, to Waters, Chartres, and the devil.

110 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

It is probable that Pope had Stxoza's distich in mind, when he com-
posed the short epitaph intended for Dryden's monument erected by
the Duke of Buckinghamshire :

This Sheffield rais'd. The sacred dust below
Was Di7den once : The rest who does not know ?

EUEICIUS COEDUS,

Born in the latter part of the loth century, at Simmershuys. in
Hesse, was a physician and poet. He was a friend of Erasmus, and of
many of the learned Italians. He died at Bremen in 1538.

TO PHILOMUSUS (" Delitise DeUtiarum," 130).
Translated in the " Quarterly Review," No. 233.

If only when they're dead, you poets praise,
I own I'd rather have your blame always.

The original of this distich must be Martial's epigram " To Vacerra "
(Book VIII. 69), which is thus translated by Hay :

The ancients all your veneration have :
You like no poet on this side the grave.
Yet , pray, excuse me ; if to please you, I
Can hardly think it worth my while to die.

On this the Frenchman, Eabutin, Count de Bussy, founded an epigram,
which Samuel Bishop has imitated (Bishop's Works, 1796, Ep. 73):

" Praise premature is idle breath ;
No fame is just till after death 1"

So Clodio is for ever crying :
" Excuse me, Clodio, then," say I ;
" I rate not your applause so high,

To think of earning it— by dying !"

THE DOCTORS APPEARANCE.
Translated in the " Gentleman's Magazine," XCIV.

Three faces wears the doctor ; when first sought
An angel's — and a god's the cure half wrought :
But when, that cure complete, he seeks his fee,
The devil looks then less terrible than he.

" This epigram is illustrated by the following conversation, which
passed between Bouvart " (a celebrated Parisian physician, born 1717,

PIERITJS VALERIANtJS. Ill

died 1787), " and a French marquis whom he had attended during a
long and severe indisposition. As he entered the chamber on a certain
occasion, he was thus addressed by his patient : ' Good day to you,
Mr. Bouvart, I feel quite in spirits and think my fever has left me.' ' I
am sure of it,' replied the doctor ; ' the very first expression you used
convinces me of it.' ' Pray explain yourself.' ' Nothing more easy : in
the first days of your illness, when your life was in danger, I was your
dearest friend ; as you began to get better, I was your good Bouvart ;
and now I am Mr. Bouvart ; depend upon it you are quite recovered.' "
(" Gentleman's Magazine," XCIV. 343, quoting Wadd's " Nugre
Chirurgicse.")

The epigram is ascribed to Cordus on the authority of WadJ. One
of similar character is among the epigrams of John Owen (Book V. 95;,
who lived later, and may have taken the idea from Cordus.

PIERIUS VALERIANUS,

Whose family name was Bolzani, was born at Belluno in the Vene-
tian territory, about 1477. He became Apostolic Notary, and was high
in favour with the Popes Leo X. and Clement VII. He died in 1558.

BACCHUS.

Translated by Moore.

While heavenly fire consum'd his Theban dame ;
A Naiad caught young Bacchus from the flame,

And dipp'd him burning in her purest lymph ;
Hence, still he loves the Naiad's crystal urn,
And when his native fires too fiercely burn,

Seeks the cool waters of the fountain-nymph.

It was the custom of the ancients to mix water with their wine, and
this, in conjunction with the fable of his birth, caused Bacchus to be
represented as fond of that element. Meleager has a Greek epigram on
the subject (Jacobs 1. 33, cxiii.), which has been amusingly imitated by
Prior, without losing the force of the original :

Great Bacchus, born in thunder and in fire,
By native heat asserts Ins dreadful sire,
NourJHh'd near shady rills and cooling streams.
He to the nympiis avows bis amorous flames: —
To all the bretliren at the Bell and Vine
The moral says ; mix water with your wine.

112 MEDLfflVAL AND EARL'S MODERN LATIN EPIGEAMMATIST5.

SIE THOMAS MORE.
Born 1480. Died 1535.

ON THE UNION OF THE YORK AND LANCASTER ROSES.

Written for the Coronation of Henry VIII. and Queen Catharine

(Ed. Basil. 1518, IDl).

Translated by Thomas Fecke {slightly altered).

(The translation of this and the following epigrams by Pecke are in
"Parnassi Puerperium," 1659.)

The white rose was crimson'd in the dire cause,
The red grew pale as let blood by fierce wars :
But now the roses into one unite.
By this alone was stay'd the furious fight :
Both roses bud and flourish strongly still,
Although subjected to a single will :
One species includes both, and both agree
Copartnership in beauty, majesty.
They who were parties unto either side
Shall need no mure well- wishes to divide :
And he who envies, in his fear forlorn.
Shall feel to 's cost that the rose has a thorn.

Shakespeare, in " King Richard Til." (Act V. so. 3), ioaakes iiichmond
eay, after the battle of Bosworth Field :

And then, as we have ta'en the Sacrament,
We will unite the white rose with the red : —
Smile Heaven upon this fair conjunction.
That long hath frown'd upon their enmity ! —
■ What traitor hears me, and says not,-— amen ?

So, Diayton :

In one stalk did happily unite

The pui'e vermilion rose and purer white.

ANTICIPATION OF EVILS (Ed. Basil. 1518, 197).

Translated by Thomas Pecke.

And why so stupid as to lend an ear,

To the false alarms of amazing fear?

If evils come not, then our fears are vain :

And if they do ; dread will increase the pain.

SIR THOMAS MORE. 113

Milton was, no doubt, well acquainted with Moie's epigrams, aud
may have had this one in mind when he wrote in " Comus " :

Peace, brother : be not over exquisite

To cast the fashion of uncertain evils :

For grant they be so ; while they rest unknown

What need a man forestal his date of grief.

And run to meet wliat he would most avoid ?

Or, if they be but falsi; alarms of fear,

How bitter is such self-delusion !

VPON THE UNCEBTAINTY OF THE HOUR OF DEATH

(FA. Basil. 1518, 198).

Translated hy Thomas Pecke (Part of Epigram).

You would bewail next month to meet chill death :
And can you laugh ? next hour may stop your breath.

Rogers said, " I sometimes wonder how a man can ever be cheerful,
when he knows that he mmt die." The late Mr. Dyce has a note upon
this in Rogers' " Table Talk " (ed. 1856, 30) : " Mr. Rogers once made
the same remark to Mr. Luttrell, who versified it as follows :

" ' death thy certainty is such
And thou'rt a tiling so fearful,
That, musiag, I have wonder'd much
How men were ever cheerful.' "

ON A RIDICULOUS ASTROLOGER (Ed. Basil. 1518, IQQ'^
Translated by Thomas Pecke.

Cumtean sybils could not more descry,

Although enlightened from Divinity,

Than our astrologer, whose profound art,

Could through the stars a thing, when past, impart.

A consilerable number of Sir Thomas More's epigrams are only Latin
translations from the Greek. The above, though not a translation, may
probably have lx:f'ii suggested by an epigram of Tjucillius (Jacobs III.
38, xlv.j, which Cowper has freely, but well, translated:

The astrologers did all alike presage
My uncli-'rt dying in exfnMuo (dd age ;
One only disagreiMl. But lie was wise,
Aud spoke not till he heard the funeral cries.

114 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ON NICOLAUS, AN IGNORANT PHYSICIAN

(Ed. Basil, 1518, 211).

Translated by C.

It is not for nothing that sometimes we see
Great names and professions so closely agree.
There's Nicol the Gen'ral and Nicol the Leech,
A like reputation attaching to each :
The one slays his hosts with his sword of devotion,
The other his thousands with poison and potion.
The soldier may often be charg'd on the plain —
None live to encounter the doctor again I

Dr. Jolnison appears to have thought very highly of this epigram,
from his choosing the IbUowing passage from "Peachani of Poetry," to
illustrate the word " Pliysician " in his dictionary : " His gratuiatory
verse to King Henry is not more witty than the epigram upon tlie name
of Nicolaus, an ignorant physician, who had been the death of
thousands." The subject is hackneyed, but the wit is undeniable.
There is an ancient epigram, a little similar in character, in which a
poet takes the place of the soldier. The author is Lucillius (Jacobs III.
44, Ixxvi.). The following translation, by Merivale, giving modern for
ancient names, is fairly close, and very amusing :

Not Deucalion's deluge, nor Phaeton's roast,

Ever sent such a cart-load to Phlegethon's coast,

As our laureate with odes and with elegies kills,

And our doctor destroys with infallible piUs.

Then well these four plagues with each other may vie,

Deucalion and Phaeton, B m and P .

The poet is Pye, who preceded Southey as laureate. The doctor is
said to be Brodum, a qui.ck of the day.

The following story on the subject of medical treatment derives
interest from its connection with Pope. Duncombe, in a letter to Arch-
bishop Herring, informs liim, that in the poet's last illness a violent
altercation arose in the sick chamber between the two physicians, Burton
and Thomson, each ascribing Pope's hopeless condition to the misman-
agement of tiie other; that Pope remarked, all he could learn from
tiieir discourse was, that he was in extremis, and desired that tlie
following couplet might be added to the " Dunciad " :

Dunces, rejoice ; forgive all censures past ;
The greatest dunce has kdl'd your foe at last.

The story is a very good one, but very improbable. Indeed, Duncombe
adds, what is doubtless the truth, that the lines were written by Dr.
Burton himself ; and gives the following epigram in answer to them,
written bv a friend of Dr. Thomson (Archbishop Herring's Letters to
WilUam Duncombe, 1777, ti7-69) :

SIR THOMAS MORE, 115

As both physic and verse to Plicebus belong,
So the Colic ge oft dabble in potion and song ;
Hence, Burton, resolv'd his emetics shall hit,
When his recipe fails, gives a puke with his wit.

Burton's distich and the answer prove that doctors do not spare one
another. The following not only shows this, but also the universality of
the wit which has been displayed at the expense of the profession. It is
an epigram upon Abou Alchair Selamu, an Egyptian physician, by
George, a pliysician of Antioch, translated from the Arabic, by Professor
Carlyle (" Specimens of Arabian Poetry," 1796, 147) :

Whoever has recourse to thee

Can hope for health no more.
He's lauuch'd into perdition's sea,

A sea without a shore.

Where'er admission thou canst gain.

Where'er thy phyz can pierce.
At once the doctor they retain,

The mourners and the hearse.

EFITAPH FOR THE IV MB OF HIMSELF AND HIS TWO

WIVES IN CHELSEA CHVECH (Ed. Basil. 1518, 270).

Translated by Archdeacon Wrangham.

Within this tomb, Jane, wife of More, reclines :
This, More for Alice and himself designs.
The first, dear object of my youthful vow,
Gave me three daughters and a son to know ;
The next, — ah ! virtue in a step-dame rare !
Kursed my sweet infants with a mother's care.
With both my yeax'S so happily have past,
Wliich most I love, I know not — first, or last.
O ! had religion, destiny allow'd.
How smoothly, mix'd, had our three fortunes flow'd!
But be we in the tomb, in heaven allied :
So kinder death .shall <rrant what life denied.

»'

The last two lines, on the union of the three in the tomb and in
heaven, recall a Latin epitajih, found about the year 1729 in the church
of S. Botolph, Aldersgate. The inscription itself is remarkable, and ia
rendered more so by a translation by I'ope, wliich appears to be un-
published in any edition of liis works. It is given in the No. for
Fehnuiry 9, 17:iO, of '"The Pennsylvania Gazette," edited by the
celebrated Dr. PVanklin, who, quoting from the "Post Boy "an account
of the discovery of the epitaph, and that the extrthJC couciseuess of llio

116 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Latin, where so much is expressed in few words, b;tffled all attempts at
traiislatiun, adds that hearing of this, " Mr. Pope immediately under-
took the task, and has literally rendered it as follows." The terseness
of the Latin accounts for the difficulty that even Pope must have felt in
compressing the English, for there is an absence of any attempt at that
ease and harmony, for which Pope was so distinguished :

Close to her husband, Frances join'd once more

Lies here ; One Dust which was One Flesh before.

Here as enjoin'd, her sister Anne's Eemains

Were laid ; One Dust Three Bodies thus contains.

Th' Almighty Source of Things, th' immense Three-One,

"Will raise Three Bodies from this Dust alone.

Some .eaders may deshe to see the Latin :

Hie conjuncta suo recubat Francisca marito ;

Et einis est Unus, quae fuit Una Caro.
Hue cineres conferre suos soror Anna jubebat ;

Corpora sic Uno Pidvere Triaa jaeent.
Sic Opifex rerum Omnipotens, qui Trinus et Unus,

Pulvere ab hoc Uno Corpora Trina dabit.

Two fairly good translations are given in the " Gentleman's Magazine "
for 1754, XXIV. 183. In Nichols" " Collection of Poenis," V. 5*, 1782,
the Latin is conjecturally ascribed to Bishop Atterbury because found
among his papers. But it is clearly of an earlier date. The bishop had
probably transcribed it as a curiosity. In the " Gentleman's Magazine"
and in Nichols' "Collection," the church in which the epitaph was
found is said to be S. Botolph, Bishopsgate.

PAGEANTS.

" Master Thomas More in his youth devised in his father's house in
London a goodly hanging of fine painted clotii,with nine pageants and
verses over of every of those pageants: which verses expressed and
declared, what the images in those pageants represented : and also in
those pageants were painted the things that the verses over them did
(in effect) declare; which verses here follow." ("The works of Sir
Thomas More, wrytten by him in the Englysh tonge." London. 1557.)

These epigrammatic verses are very interesting, being i^robably tlie
earliest poetical productions of Sir Thomas More. The following are,
perhaps, the most curious. They are placed here, although not belonging
to the Latin Section, in order not to separate them from More's otiier
pieces.

FIRST PAGEANT— CHILDHOOD.

I am called Chilclliood, in play is all my mind,
To cast a coit, a cockstele and a ball ;
A top can I set, and drive it in his kind.
But would to God these hateful books all
Here in a fire burnt to powder small.

JULIUS C^SAR SOALIGEH. 117

Then might I lead my life always in play ;
A\ hich life God send me to mine ending day.

FOURTH PAGEANT.— AGE.

Old age am 1, with locks thin and hoar,
Of our short life, the last and best part.
Wise and discreet ; the public weal therefore
I help to rule to my labour and smart :
Therefore Cupid withdraw thy fiery dart,
Chargeable matters shall of love oppress
Thy childish game and idle business.

SIXTH PAGEANT— FAME.

Fame I am called, marvel you nothing

Though with tongues am compassed all round,

For in voice of people is my chief living,

cruel death thy. power I confound.

When thou a noble man hast brought to ground

Maugre thy teeth to live cause him shall I,

Of people in perpetual memory.

JULIUS C^SAR SCALIGER,

A learned critic, was lx)rn in 1484, in tlie ttiritory of Verona. He
studied pliysic, and afterwards applied liiniself to general literature,
in which he employed himself until his death in 1558.

ON TWO DRUNKARDS (" Delitiaj Delitiarum," 119).
Translated by Sir E. Slierhurne.

The sot Loserus is drunk twice a day ;
Bibinus only once ; now of these .say,
Which may a man the greatest drunkard call?
Bibinus still, for he's drunk once for all.

This is similar to the story of the gentleman who gave his Irish
Bervant warning, Injcause lie was always drunk twice a day. "No,
please your honour," expostulated I'addy, " I take a drop in the tiKirn-
ing, and it's tJie stune drunk in the eveniug." This must have liet u
Bach a drmikard as those who composed the " Club of Sots, ' on which
Dutler lias the following epigram :

118 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

The jolly members of a toping club,

Like pipe-staves, are but hoop'd into a tub,

And in a close confederacy link,

For nothing else but only to hold drink.

Or, as the cook of Lord Galloway, who is immortalised in " Elegant
Extracts ":

Says my lord to his cook, " You son of a punk.

How comes it I see you tlius ev'ry day drunk ?

Physicians, they say, once a month do allow

A man, fur his health, to get drunk— as a sow."

" That is right," quoth the cook, " but the day they don't say ;

So, for fear I should miss it, I'm di-unk ev'ry day."

ON FBASCATOE.

Translated hy Eoscoe.

Thine infant lips, Frascator, nature seal'd,
But the mnte organ favouring Phoebus heal'd :
He broke the charm ; and hence to thee belong
The art of healing, and the power of song.

Frascator, or Fracastorius, was an Italian physician, distinguished
for his Latin poetry. He obtained liis reputation by a poem upon a
medical subject, published in 1530. The epigram refers to the curious
fact, that when Frascator was born his lips adhered so closely to each
otlier, that it was necessary for a surgeon to divide them by an
operation.

HIERONYMUS ANGERIANUS.

A Neapolitan poet of the early part of the 16th centm-y, of whose
history there are no particulars. His Latin poems were first printed
at Naples, in 1520.

CMLIA'S THEFT (" Delitia Delitiarum," 60).
Translated by D.

Cselia stole Love's quiver while he slept,

Love waking, for his quiver sorely wept:

'Twas beauteous Caelia stole it ; weep no more,

For Cselia the quiver shall restore.

Fair Venus says : Cselia needs no darts,

Her voice, hand, step, breast, brow and eyes, fire hearts.

HTEBOIfTMUS ANGERIANUS. 119

This epigram has been prettily paraplirased in seven stanzas bv
Walter Harte.

Lord Lansdo^vne, in an epigram entitled '• Cupid Disarmed, to the
Princess D'Auvergne," after describing the seizure of Cupid's dart by
the princess, thus ends :

Princess, restore the boy his useless darts,
With surer charms you captivate our hearts ;
Love's captives oft their liberty regain,
Death only can release us from your chain.

In Dr. Croly's "Gems from the Antique," "Cupid Breaking tiie
Thunderbolt," the following stanza occurs :

O Love ! 'tis all the same ;

For thy subduing flame.
Alike by sunny tress and sigh is fann'd ;

And hearts, in all their pride.

Have in sweet passion died,
Ev'n at the first touch of her snowy hand.

JACOBUS EYNDIUS,

Of Helmstede, a Dutch Latin poet and historian, lived in the six-
teenth century. He was a captain of cuirassiers in the Dutch service.

ON LUCIA ("Delitiae Delitiarum," 168).
Translated hy D.

When on the wind streams Lucia's golden hair,

Like wreaths of flame its flow :
When Lucia doth display her forehead fair,

YoTi swear 'tis virgin snow :
Yet bound in love where envy is not felt,
Nor flame is quench'd, nor flame the snow can melt.

This recalls some lines by Landor : "At Pistoia lie (Landor) saw
the liair of Lucretia Borgia c,n which he wrote a quatrain, solemn yet
fantastic in its beauty as the subject tiiat suggested it." (Forster's
" Walter Savage Landor. A Biography," I8ti9, I. 501) :

Borgia, thou once wert almost too august
Au'i high for adoration ; now tliou'rt dust:
All that remains of tlice tiicso i)laits uufold,
Calm hair meandering in iXjUucid gold.

120 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

MAKCUS AKTONIUS CASANOVAS.

A Latin poet of the commencement of the 16th century, a native
of Rome. In 1527, when that city was taken by the Imperialists, he
was reduced to beggary, and died in the same year either of famine oi-
the plague.

ON VIRGINIA (" Dehtiffi Delitiarum," 69).

Translated by D.

Her honour and her freedom sav'd,

Virginia nobly fell ;
Both to preserve, e'en death she brav'd,

Nought else could tyrants quell :
Most lovely of the maids of earth,

Yet lovelier still in death ;
I owe my ?ire, she cried, for birth

Less than for this closing breath.

The reader will remember the fine lay of " Virginia," in Macauluja
" Lays of Ancient Rome." The following lines are part of the father s
address to his child, speaking of Appius Claudius :

" With all his wit he little deems, that, spurned, betrayed, bereft,
Tliy father hath in his despair one fearful refuge left.
He little deems that in this hand I clutch what still can save
Thy gentle youth from taunts and blows, the portion of the slave;
Yea, and from nameless evil, that passeth taunt and blow-
Foul outrage which thou knowest not, which thou shalt never know.
Then clasp me round the neck once more, and give me one more kiss ;
And now, mine own dear little girl, there is no way but this."
With that he lifted high the steel, and smote her in the side.
And in her blood she sank to earth, and with one sob she died.

MELLIN DE SAINT GELAIS.

Abbot of Recluz, and royal almoner and librarian at the French
comt. Born in 1491. Died in 1559. He was celebrated for his Latin
poetry.

ON HIS HARP.

Composed shortly before his death.
Translated hy Cary, in the " Early French Poets."

Harp, that didst soothe my cares, when opening life
With love and fortune waged alternate strife,

HirPOLTTUS CAPILUPUS. 121

Fulfil thy task : allay the fervid rage

Of fever preying on my feeble age ;

So, when I reach the skies, a place shall be,

Near the celestial l}Te, allotted thee.

The Oreek epigrammatist Macedoiiius took a different view of the
indrument most suitable to old age. The following translation is by
Bland r Jacobs IV. 87, xxiv.) :

There hang, my lyre ! This aged hand no more

Shall wake the strings to rapture known before.

Fare-well, ye chords ! Ye verse-inspiring powers,

Accept the solace of my former hours !

Be gone ye youths, ye instruments of song !

For crutches only to the old belong.

HIPPOLYTUS CAPILUPUS.

A Mantuan, one of four celebrated brothers who flourished in the 16th
century, of whom three were poets.

ON LYCUS ("DelitiiB Delitiarum," 67).

By hostile spears borne down brave Lyons falls.
And, death approaching, on his mother calls :
'Tis sweet for fatherland to die : but see,
Another love detains, my love for thee !
She, calm in virtue, her deep grief repress'd,
And thus, in golden words, tlie youth address'd,
Go to thy destin'd seats, by glory won.
All joyous go ; I bore thee, O my son.
But for thy country and for heaven alone.

This is Greek in construction and feeling, and recalls the many
epigrams in the Anthology on the patriotism of Spartan mothcis. One
by Dioscorides, tljc rlo.--e of which is very similar, will be found under
" The Spartan IMother " of Palladas.

With the grief expressed by the dying soldier at leaving his mother,
we may comijare an epitaph by William Whitehead, which closes with
the same thought :

Here lies a youth (ah, whcrefon! lireathless lies!)
Learn'd without pride, and diflidcntly wise.
Mild to all faults, wliich from weak nature flow'd;
Fonfl of all virtues, wheresoe'er bestow'd.
Who never gave nor sliglitly took offence,
The best gwid-nature, and tlie best good sense.
Who living hr)p'(i, and dying felt no fears.
His only sting of death, a j^arent's tears.

122 MEDIEVAL AND EAllLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

A^'DREAS ALCIATUS.

Andrew Alciati, the son of a rich merchant of Milan, was bom in
that city in 1492. He studied law, and became so celebrated that rival
princes strove to secure his services as professor in their universities.
Avignon, Bourges, Pavia, Bologna, and Ferrara were successively
rendered famous as seats of law by his teaching. He died at Pavia
in 1550.

ON A STUDENT IN LOVE ("Delitia Delitiarum," 57).

Translated by C.

A Sage to whom all learned lore was dear,
Orator, Lawyer, Couns'llor, Pamphleteer,
Lov'd the fair Helia ; Thracia's king betray 'd
Less am'rous phrensy for th' Athenian maid.
What ! Venus vanquish Wisdom as of yore ?
Enough t' have triumph'd once on Ida's shore.

An epigram " On a Student's Marriage," which may be compared
with the above, is ascribed by Warton to Sir Thomas More. He states
that he believes it to be the first pointed epigram in our language :

A student at his book so plast

That wealth he might have won,
From book to wife did flit in haste,

From wealth to woe to run.
Now, who hath played a feater cast,

Since juggling first begun ?
In knitting of himself so fast,

Himself he hath undone.

ON A BIRD BUILDING HER NEST AT COLCHIS,

(" Delitiaj Delitiarum," 57).

Translated by D.

Unhappy bird ! A Colchian guest,

In that dread land dost build thy nest ?

Know'st not a native sorc'ress fell.

Vengeful Medea, legends tell.

Her offspring slew ? That thine she'll spare,

Think'st thou, a happier fate to share?

Turbervile has a translation of this epigram. Drummond has one
ou the same subject, and of similar character, " To a Swallow building
near the Statue of Medea " :

MAECTJS ANTONIUS FLAMI>'ITJS. 123

Fond Pro^e, chattering wretch,

That is Medea ! there

Wilt thou thy younglings hatch ?

Will she keep thine, her own who could not spare ?

Le^rn from her frantic face

To seek some titter place.

What other may st thou hope for, what desire,

Save Stygian spells, wounds, poison, iron, fiie?

One of the most celebrated specimens of ancient art was a picture by
Timomachus, representing the murder of her children by Medea, and
the hesitation exhibited by the mother in her barbarous act. On this
painting there are several Greek epigrams. The following, by Antiphilus,
is thus translated in " Selection of Greek Epigrams for the Use of Win-
chester School, 1791 " t Jacobs 11. 159, xx.) :

See fam'd Timomachus sublimely trace
The varying sorrows of Medea's face !
Contending passions all his art engage,
A mother's love, an injur'd woman's rage:
True to his pencil, see each eye appears
A doubtful stiuggle betwixt rage and tears :
Such powers the artist's labours could acquire.
She melts with pity now, now burns with ire.
Thus far extends the painter's modest art :
The rest demands Medea's vengeful heart.

MARCUS ANTONIUS FLAMTNIUS,

A Latin poet, whose family name was Zarrabini, was born at Serevalle
in 1498. He was patronized by Pope Leo X., by Cardinal Pole, and
other dignitaries of the Church ; but was suspected, notwithstanding, of
leaning towarda the opinions of the Reformers. He died at Home in
1550.

ON THE MARTYRDOM OF SAVOXAEOLA.

TransltUed by GresweU in " Memoirs of Angelus Politianus, &c." 1801.

When frenzied zealots lijijlit the penal fires,
And Jerome writhes in tortures, and expires,
Religion weeps ; — barbarians cease ! she cries,
Religion suffers, — 'tis herself that dies.

124 5IEDI^VAL AND EAKLY MODERN LATIN EPIGEAMMATISTS.

GEORGIITS BUCHANANUS.

A Scotchman, born in 150G. As an historian liis style is pure,
but his partiality distorts facts. As a Latin poet he shows much
elegance, but his scurrility and servility mar the beauty of his verse.
He was di'iven out of Scotland by the monks, who were incensed against
him on account of his lampoons upon them. On his return in .1561. he
openly renounced the religion of Rome, having been for many years a
Lutheran at heart ; but he attended the court of Queen Mary, from
whom he received a hanilsome pension, for which he showed his gratitude
by the most cruel invectives against her, when she fell into misfortune.
From Queen Elizabeth he also received a pension, and in return flattered
her in a manner equally gross. He died in 1582.

CORINNA (Book I. 4).
Translated in the " Festoon."

I know not whether in Narcisstiis' glass,
Matchless Corinua, you e'er saw your face :
But this I know, with beauties all her own,
Matchless Corinna is enamour'd grown.
The youth some reason for his phrensy had ;
What made him so, made many others mad :
Your cause is less, therefore your madness more,
Without a rival you yourself adore.

The original is addressed " In Posthumum." The satire may have
been suggested by an equally severe epigram by the Greek Lucillius,
thus translated by Philip Smyth (Jacobs III. 35, xxxiii.) :

How falsely does Dorinda's glass

Reflect her face whene'er she views it !

If it told truth, I think the lass
Would seldom have a wish to use it.

Buchanan's close may be taken from Horace (Ars Poetica, 444) :

Yourself without a rival you may love.

The character of Siguier Sylli, a foolish self-lover, in Massinger's
play of "TheMaitl of Honour," is a good representation of a male
(Jorinna. In Act I. so. 2, we have :

Sylli. Yes, and they live too : marry, much condoling
The scorn of their Narcissus, as they call me
Because I love myself —

Camilla, Without a rival.

GEORGIUS BUCUANAKUS. 125

TO ZOILUS (Book I. 12).

Translated by Belph.

"With industry I spread your praise,
With equal, you my censure blaze ;
But, Zoilus, all in vain we do —
The world nor credits me nor you.

There is something in this wliich recalls Swift's epigram, "Ou one
Delacourt's complimenting Carthy, a schoolmaster, on his Poetry " :
Carthy, you say, writes well — his genius true ;
You pawn your word for him— he'll vouch for you.
So two poor knaves, who find their credit fail.
To cheat the world, become each other's bail.
James Delacourt was an Irish poet. His chief work, " The Prospect
of Poetry," gained him much applause, but Swift could seldom see
talent in those who were not amongst the number of his friends.

ON LEONOBA (Book I. 22).

Translated by live Rev. J. 0. W. Haweis.

There's a lie on thy cheek in its roses,

A lie echoed back by thy glass.
Thy necklace on greenhorns imposes.
And the ring on thy finger is brass.
Yet thy tongue, I afiSrm, without giving an inch back.
Outdoes the sham jewels, rouge, mirror, and pinchbeck.

Solon warns against trust in a lying face and honied words. The
epigram is translated from the Greek by Mr. Goldwin Smith, in
the late Dr. AVellesley's "Anthologia Pulyglotta" :

Beware smooth words and smiling face !

A dagger lurks within.
The double tongue speaks f.dr, the heart

Is foul with darkling sin.

TO NEMRA (Book I. 2(;).
Translated in " The Honeysuckle" 1734.

As virgin lilies pluck'd from off their stems
Wither and die beneath Sol's radiant beams ;
So when thy eyes, my love ! first warm'd my heart,
I felt a wasting fire seize ev'ry part ;

126 MEDIEVAL AND EAELT MODERN LATIN EPIGEAMMATISTS.

But when you join'd your rosy lips to mine,
\Varm"d by the gentle touch — O balm divine —
My strength return'd, e'en as descending showers
Call from the parch'd earth the beauteous flowers.
Since your eyes kill, and since your kisses cure,
My life and death you equally insure.
Destroy me, kill me ; be it as you will,
if, as I die, 1 may your kisses feel :
From such a fate I'd never ask to fly,
Thus oft to live, as often I would die.

Milton alludes to Buchanan and the Nesera of this epigram in
Lycidas, 64 :

Alas I what boots it -with incessant care

To tend the homely, slighted shepherd's trade,

And strictly meditate the thankless muse?

"Were it not better done, as others use.

To sport with Amaryllis in the shade,

Or with the tangles of Nesera's hair ?

The oblique censure conveyed in these lines was deserved by
Buchanan, who, unlike Milton, prolonged to graver years his amorous
eiiusions to poetical mistresses. It might at first sight appear that
Amaryllis and Nea;ra, being common poetical names, were chosen by
Milton without any reference to Buchanan, and notwithstanding a long
and tender poem to Amaryllis by the latter, called " Desiderium Lutitise "
(Silvse, III.), bad she alone been mentioned by Milton, this might have
been the case, but " the tangles of Nesera's haii- " is an expression which
fixes the allusion to Buchanan, for that jioet, in his last Elegy, and also
in his Epigrams Book I. 45}, romances in an extravagant manner on
the tangles of Nesera's golden hair, in which he is fast bound. (See an
admirable note in Warton's edition, of '" Milton's Minor Poems," ed.
1791, 474).

Similar in sentiment to the latter part of Buchanan's epigram is the
close of Tennyson's poem " Eleanore," whose lover, hearing " from lier
rose-red lips Lis name," exclaims :

I die with my delight, before

I hear what I would hear from thee ;
Yet tell my name again to me,

I would be dying evermore,

So dying ever Eleanore.

A CRUEL FAIR-ONE (Book I. 31).

^Vhen with her, Neasra is always disdaining.

As often, when absent, she is always complaining :

HIERONYMUS AMALTHEUS. 127

Not for love of myself, to give bliss by consenting ;
But in both she is mov'd by her love of tormenting.

Swift's picture of " Daphne " shows a lady of much the same tem-
perament :

Daphne knows with equal ease,
How to vex and how to please ;
But the folly of her sex
Makes her sole delight to vex.

And Ambrose Philips sings of the lady whom "the love-sick Stre-
phon flies," whilst :

The fair coquet,
With feign'd regiet,
In\'ites him back to town ;
But, when in tears
The youth appears,
She meets bim with a frown.

EPITAPH ON EOGEB ASCHAM (Book II. 27).

Translated in Arnos' " Gems of Latin Poetry."

His country's mn^es join with those of Greece
And mii!;hty Eome, to mourn the fate of Ascham ;
Dear to his prince, and valued by his friends,
Content with humble views through life he pass'd,
While envy's self ne'er dared to blast his fame.

This illustrious scholar was highly honoured by Queen Elizabeth, to
whom he was Latin secretary, and tutor in the learned languages.
With every opportunity of enriching himself, he was poor, and was
contented with the respect which his talents and integrity insured him
throu<rhout his life.

HIERONYMUS AiVlALTIIEUS.

Born at Oderzo, a city of the Venetian territory, in 1507. He was
a physician of some eminence, but was cliielly celebrated for liis
Latin poetry, especially of the light and epigrammatic kind; and holds
now a distinguished j>lac'e am(mg tlu; writers of his age. Ho died in
1574. The poetic vein seems to have been common to his t'miily, '«if
his brothers, Johannes and Cornelius, were scarcely interior to himself
in the composition of elegant Latin verse.

128 MEDIEVAL AND EAELY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

TO MART ANUS .''TiiAiiisi Delitiarum," 58).
Translated in the " Quarterly Review,^' No. 233.

If Nape bares her snowy breast or arm
Of milky hue, or smiles with witching charm,
Look thou not on them : Love, an archer keen,
These snares, this chain doth for thy capture mean.

On " Love, an archer keen," see an epigram by Meleager, " Cupid
Proclaimed."

The power of a smile is shown by Tennyson in " Madeline " :

All my bounding heart entanglest
In a golden-netted smile.

Peter Pindar (Dr. Wolcot) closes an Anacreontic in " Pindariana "'
with the line :

I feel in every smile a chain.

ON TWO BEAUTIFUL MONOCULI {"Belitise Delitiarum," 59).
Translated in " Select Epigrams."

But one bright eye young Aeon's face adorns,
For one bright eye sweet Leonilla mourns.
Kind youth ! to her thy single orb resign,
And make her perfect, and thyself divine :
For then (if Heaven the happy change allow)
She shall fair Venus be, blind Cupid thou.

This celebrated and singularly beautiful epigram was made, Warton
says, " on Louis de Maguiron, the most beautiful man of his time, and
the great favourite of Henry III. of France, who lost an eye at the
siege of Issoire ; and on the Princess of Eboli, a great beauty, but who
WciS deprived of the sight of one of her eyes, and who was at the same
time mibtress of Philip II., King of Spain." (Warton's "Essay on the
Genius and Writings of Pope." )

Passerat, who was younger than, but contemporary with, Amaltheus,
has an epigram on the same subject, which, wi;h the exception of being
longer, is closely similar. Hallam, in the first edition of his " Introduc-
tion to the Literatiire of Europe," gave Passerat '■ credit for the inven-
tion;" but in the second edition he states his belief that the one by
Amaltheus was first published. (Ed. 1843, II. 145, note.)

Sir Edward Sherburne has an epigram " On a Maid in Love with a
Youth Blind of One Eye," wliich is extremely elegant ; and, though
the subject be different, may be compared with that by Amaltheus ;

Th'Righ a sable cloud benight
One of thy fair twins of light.

HIKBONYMUS AMALTHEUS. 129

Yet the other brighter seems
As 't hail robbVl his brother's beams.
Or both lights to one were run,
Of two stars to make one sun :
Cunning archer ! who knows yet
But thou wink'st my heart to hit ;
Close the other too, and all
Thee the god of love will call.

HIELLA (" Delitiae Delitiarum," 59).

Ou me, my love Hiella casts her eyes,

And then so oft my love Hiella sighs :

Hence the flames, brighten'd by her breath, which dart

From those deep orbs, to ashes burn my heart.

Butler has an epigram on the flames of fire in a lady's eyes :

Do not mine afiection slight,

'Cause my locks with age are white :

Your breasts have snow without, and snow within,

While flames of fire in your bright eyes are seen.

AN UOVM-GLASS AS THE LOVER'S TOMB
(" Dditise Delitiarum," 59; .

Translated by Belph.

These little atoms that in silence pour.
And measure out, with even pace, the hour,
"Were once, Alcippus ; — struck by Galla's eyes,
Wretched he bum'd, and here in ashes lies ;
Which, ever streaming, tliis sad truth attest.
That Lovers count the time, and know no rest.

That this epigram was early held in estimation, is evident by Ben
Jonson (who was born in the same year in which Amaltheus died)
I)lacinga translation of it among his own epigrams, though so bald is
the rendering that it does no justice to the original. Herrick has an
<}pigram " On the lloui'-glass," the idea of which is evidently taken from
Amaltheus, whilst the point is quite ditferent :

That hourc-glasse, which there ye see
With water fill'd, sirs, credit mo.
The humour was, as I have read.
But Lovt-rs' tears inchristalled,
Which, as they drop by drop doe passe
From th' upper to the under-glassc.

130 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Do in a trickling manner tell,
(By many a wat'rie syllable)
That Lovers' tears, in life-time shed,
Du restless run when they are dead.

GEOKGIUS SABINUS,

A Latin poet, highly praised by Hallam, was bom in the Electorate
of Brandenburg in 1508. He married a daughter of Melancthon, but
was not on good terms with his father-in-law. By the princes of Ger-
many he was greatly esteemed, and was employed on several embassies
by the Elector of Bmndenbmg. He died in 1560.

THE PBIEST AND THE THIEF ('• Delitiae DeHtiarum," 134).
Translated in the '^Saturday Review" No. 546.

A priest one day accompanied a thief

To where the gallows makes rogues' penance brief.

" Grieve riot, but only have thou faith," said he,

" That soon with angels thou heaven's guest shalt be."

Groaning, he answer' d, " If thy text is true,

Pray let me send a substitute in you !"

" Nay," cried the j^riest, " I needs must say thee nay !

This is to me no feast — but — fasting day."

Owen imitated this epigiam, but spoilt it by putting the excuse of
the fust-day in the mouth of the thief instead of the jjriest. The
following tianslation is by Harvey, slightly altered (Book I. 123) :

To the thief Bardella, condemn'd to die,

A monk gave comfort, " Thou shalt sup on high :"

Bardella replied, " I fast to-day.

Please you to sup there in my place — you may."

Sabinus' epigram Ls clearly the original, as Dr. Johnson long ago
pointed out, of Prior's ballad, " The Thief and the Cordelier," which i.s,
in fact, little more than a paraphrase of the Latin. To show the simi-
larity, two stanzas towards the conclusion are given :

Alas ! quoth the squire, howe'er sumptuous the treat,
Parbleu ! I shall have little stomach to eat ;
I should therefore esteem it great favour and grace,
Would you be so kind as to go in my place.

That I would, quoth the father, and thank you to boot,
But our actions, you know, with our duty must suit.
The feast I propos'd to you I cannot taste,
For this night, by our order, is mark'd for a fast.

131

JOHANNES SECUNDUS,

Whose family name was Eveiard, was bom at the Hague in 1511. He
studied law, and becoming secretary to the Archbishop of Toledo, dis-
tinguished himself so much by the classical elegance of his composi-
tion, that he was appointed private Latin secretary to the Emperor
Charles V., but before he could enter upon the office he died, at the
early age of twenty-five. The " Basia," his chief work, is for the most
part unfit for perusal.

ON CHABINUS, THE HUSBAND OF AN UGLY WIFE

(" Delitise Delitiarum," 172).

Translated hy Wiialey {very slightly aliered).

Your wife's possest of such a face and mind,

So charming that, and this so soft and kind,

So smooth her forehead, and her voice so sweet.

Her words so tender and her dress so neat ;

That would kind Jove, whence man all good derives,

In wondrous bounty send me three such wives.

Dear happy husband, take it on my word,

To Pluto I'd give two, to take the third.

ON THE STATUE OF A HEIFEB.
Translated hy Whaley.

Good friend, this message to my owner bear,
That Myron stole me, and has fix'd me here.

This is one of the many epigrams on the celebrated brazen statue of
a cow by Myron. The following is translated from the Greek of
Anacreon by Fawkes (" Anacreontis Teii Carmina," &c., Willielmus
Baxter, 1695). Jacobs does not place this among the epigrams of
Anacreon, but ascribes the same, with slight variations, to Thilippus
(II. 206, xl.) :

Feed, gentle swain, thy cattle far away,
Lest they too near the cow of Myron stray.
And thou, if chance fhllacious judgment eiT'd,
Drive home the breathing statue witii the herd.

Ausonius has an epigram on the statue, which closes with a point
exactly similar to Anacreon 's. Gibbon says, that ^Myron's cow is cele-
brated by the false wit of thirty-six Greek epigrams ("Decline and
Full," chap, xxxix. L

132 MEDIEVAL AND EAKLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Pascbasius has a Latin distich on the same subject (" Delitiae Deli-
tiarum," 32), translated by James Wright :

Herdsman and herd, nay Myron I deceive;

And Jove, tm-u'd bull, for me would heaven leave.

Among the " Fables and Epigrams from the German of Lessing,"
London, 1825, is an admirable epigram " On the Horse of Frederick
William, on the Bridge at Berlin " :

On me you gaze surpris'd, as though

You doubted if I breathe or no ;
Expectant half to see me stir —

Enough— I only wait the spin: !

JOHANNES GIEAEDUS.

Bom at Dijon about 1518 ; educated at the University of Dole ; and
for some years llayor of Auxonne. He died in 1586.

THE PRUDENT CHOICE ("Delitiae Delitiarum," 42).

Translated by James Wright.

A wife you took deform'd, yet rich 'tis said :
By th' fingers, Cantulus, not eyes you wed.

This epigram has little merit. It is given because it may perhaps
be the original of the well-known and often quoted lines :

When Lovelace married Lady Jenny,
Whose beauty was tlie ready penny ;
" I chose her," said he, " like old plate,
Not for the fashion, but the weight !"

The epigi'ammatists of all ages have written on the subject of
marrying for money. Diodorus, a native of Sinope, who flourished
B.C. 354, tells us his own wise rule. Cumberland translates the lines
(" Observsr," No. 103j :

This is my rule, and to this rule I'll hold,
To choose my wife by merit, not by gold ;
For on that one election must depend
Whether I wed a fmy or a friend.

The poet Skelton, in his " Book of Three Fools," has this quaintly
expressed warning :

The man that doth wed a wyfe
For her goodes and her rychesse
But not for lygnage femynatyfe,
Procureth doloure and dystresse
With infynyte payne and hevynesae ;

THEODORUS BEZA. 133

For she will do hym moche sorowe
Bothe at evyn and at morowe.

In " Epigrams in Distich," 1740, is the following, entitled, " A Great
Fortune's Difficulty " :

Puzzled she is to know, which amorous speeches
Belong to her, and which unto her riches.

In " Papers relating to Suffolk " in the British Museum, a volume
consisting chiefly of cuttings from "Kaws' Pocket-books," preserved by
the Eev. J. M. Mitford, is the following amusing piece, called " True
Love " :

O'Leary was as poor as Job,

But love and poverty can please us,
He saw the widow Bonna-robe,

And lov'd — for she was rich as Croesus.
Mutual the love tlieir bosoms own ;

Sincere was he, and none could doubt her —
She lov'd him /or himself alone.
And he — He could not live mithout her !

Dr. Johnson said of a person who married on no higher principle
than pecuniary advantage, " Now has that fellow at length obtained a
certainty of three meals a day, and for that certainty, like Ids brother
dog in the fable, he will get his neck galled for life with a collar."
(Mrs. Piozzi's Anecdotes of Johnson.)

THEODOKUS BEZA,

Celebrated for the part he took in the Eeformation on the Continent,
was bom at Vezelai in France in 1519. He was intended for the
Priesthood, but married and changed his religion. His early years
were passed in dissipation. He afterwards became Professor of Greek
at Lausanne, where lie remained for ten years; and subsequently
resided at Geneva, as Rector of the Protestant Academy there, and
Professor of Divinity. He married a second time at the age of seventy ;
and died in 1G05. Paschasius gives him a tliird wife, but perhaps
without good authority, in an <'pigram wliicli is translated from the
Latin in " Selections from the French Anas," 1707, 1. 66 :

In age, youth, and noanhood, three wives have I tried.

Whose qualities rare all my wants have supplied.

The first, goaded on by the ardour of youtli,

I woo'd for the sake of her person, forsooth :

The second 1 took for the sake of her purse;

And the third — for wliat reason ? I wanted a nurse.

134 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS,

TO ZOILUS C" Delitise Delitiarum," 11).
Translated by James Wright.

My book to you, Zoilus, seems too small,
I only wish it would seem so to all.

Camden closes the preface to his "Britannia" with a Latin line,
which in Gibson's edition is rendered by the following distich :

Books take their doom from each peruser's will.
Just as tLey thiuk, they pass for good or ill.

LUCRETIAS SUICIDE ("Delitias Delitiarum," 14).
Translated by Dr. TurnbuU.

If Tarquin's wrong, Lucretia, pleased your soul,
Death was but justice for a crime so foul ;
But if by strength alone his will he had,
To die for his misdoings proves you mad :
Then be no more the matron's boast and pride,
You lived a wanton, or a fool you died.

A note to the"Eape of Lucrece," in the Variorum Shakespeare,
1821, XX. 202, ascribes this ejngram to Renatus Laurentius de la
Barre.

Marcus Antonius Casanovas, a Latin poet of the beginning of the
16th century, has an epigram on Lucretia, thus translated by Heywood
the dramatist (Variorum Shakespeare, as above, :

Why Lucrece better might herself have slain,
Before the act, than after her black stain,
Can any tell ? No crime did she commit,
For of all guilt her hand did her acquit.
Her ravislier she slew by that brave stroke,
And from her country's neck took off the yoke ;
From thine own hand thy death most willing came.
To save thy country, and preserve thy fame.

Elsum, in his " Epigrams on Paintings," 1700, has one on a pictura
by Giorgione of Lucretia stabbing herself ( Ep. 43) :

Since the vile ravisher my honour stains,
What thing of worth or moment now remains I
Thus cries Lucretia with grief opprest.
And sheathes a poignant dagger in her breast.
The heroine would die ; but you prevent,
O Georgion ! her murderous intent.
You have so painted her, that we conceive,
She in thy table will for ever live.

THEODORUS BEZA. 135

Dr. Young in his seveiith satire gives a favourable view of Lucrctia's
conduct :

Ambition, in a truly noble mind,
With sister vii tue is for ever join'd ;
As in fam'd Lucrece, who, with equal dread.
From guilt and shame by her last conduct, fled :
Her virtue long rebcll'd in tirm disdain.
And the sword pointed at her heart in vain;
But when the slave was threaten'd to be laid
Dead by her side, her love of fame obey'd.

ON HOLBEIN'S HALF-LENGTH PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS
(" Delitise Delitiarura," 15).

Translated in " Collection of Epigrams," 1735.

One half this canvass shows of that great sage,
\\ horn woi Ids proclaim the wonder of the age ;
Why not the whole ? Cease, reader, thy surprise,
Him the whole earth's not able to comprise.

This frigid conceit may have its origin in an epigram by Martial
(Book V. 7-1) "On Pompey and his Sons;" thus translated by Aaron
Hill:

Great Pompey's ashes in vile Egypt lie ;
His sons in Europe, and in Asia, die :
What wonder that these three so distant died.
So vast a ruin coidd not spread less wide.

There is an epigram on Holbein's picture in Elsimi's " Epigrams on
Paintings," 17(i0, translated from Michael Silos "De Eomana Pictura
et Sculptura " (Ep. 78j :

The famous Swiss no little skill hath shown

In painting of his generous patron.

This work in England th' artist much commends,

By which he was preferr'd, and gain'd his ends.

Thou mad'st Erasmus. Holbein ! as 'tis said,

But I .say that Erasmus Holbein made.

It will be remembered that Erasmus was Holbein's earliest patron, by
v/hose advice the painter came to England, with a letter of intro-
duction to Sir Thomas More and the portrait of his patron, as his
credentials.

ON LUTHER.

Translated in the " Poetical Farrago"

Rome, all the world, and Rome the Pope, subdu'd ;
By arms, lier empire — his, by fraud pursu'd:

136 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS,

But Luther rose superior to the two ;
And from one pen alone both conquests drew.
No more let Greece Aicides' honours raise,
A feather'd quill his mighty club outweighs.

This is one side of the picture, in which all the honour of bringing
about the Reformation is given to Luther. The other side is shown in a
curious book of epigrams, writtf^n in the interest of Rome, entitled,
" Mirror of the New Reformation," published at Paris in 1634, in which
the honour is given to another personage (Ep. 6) :

Luther still vaunts himself to be the first,

That by Truth's beams the Romish clouds disperst.

Yet is it granted, Saten was the cause,

"Which mov'd him first the sacred Mass t' oppose.

Why's Satan then not Reformer ? true,

He is indeed : Let's give the Devil his due.

JOACHIMUS BELLAIUS,

Or Du Bellay, called the Ovid of France, was born aliout 1524. He
was noticed by Francis I., Henry II., and Margaret of Navarre, and
was patronized by his cousin Cardinal du Bellay. Through the mis-
representations of enemies he fell under the displeasure of that prelate,
which caused him so much mortification that it shortened his life, and
he died at the age of thirty-seven.

TO AN AUTHOR WHO ENTITLED HIS BOOK "-NUG^"
(« Delitiaj Delitiarum," 36).

Translated by D.

Paul, you have chosen the best of all titles,
For nought in your book is better than trifles.

This distich was written on the "Nugse," or Latin epigrams of
Nicholas Borbonius. " Our countryman, Owen," says Warton, " who
had no notion of Borbonius' elegant simplicity, was still more witty "
("Hist, of English Poetry," 1840, III. 340). The epigram to which
Warton refers is Book I. 42 ; thus translated by Harvey :

Thou Trifles thought'st not, what thou so didst call ;
I call them not, but think them Trifles all !

137

MAECUS ANTONIUS MUEETUS.

A Frenchman, born in 1526. He was a learned critic, and miscellaneoua
writer ; an intimate friend of Julius Csesar Scaliger ; and much patron-
ized by Cardinal Hippolite d'Est. In 1576 he was ordained a priest,
and devoted himself to his profession until his death in 1585.

ON VENUS (" Delitise Delitiarum," 28).

Tkanslated in the " Quarterly Review" No. 233.

If Venus, as the lie of poets goes,

From the mid-waters at her birth arose ;

How is't that by herself, from ocean sprung,

This heart of mine with ceaseless flames is wrung ?

grief! '\\'hat worse can hopeless swains surprise,

Since fire to bum them doth from waters rise.

The original of this may be a Greek epigram by Meleager, thus
translated by Merivale (Jacobs I. 17, li.) :

Mighty is Love — mnst mighty — once again,
I cry, most mighty ! writhing with my pain,
And deeply groaning, — who, for mischief bom,
Mocks at our woes, and laughs our wrongs to scorn.
— The cold blue wave from which thy mother came.
Proud boy ! should quench, not feed, that cruel flame.

There is a Greek epigram by Zenodotus, on the impossibility of quench-
ing the fire of love by water, which is thus translated by the late
Dr. Wellesley (Jacobs II. 61, i.):

Who sculptured Love beside this fountain ? — Fool,
To think with water such a flame to cool.

So, Shakespeare in his last sonnet :

Love's fire heats water, water cools not love.

The most celebrated epigram on water not only not quenching, but
even increasing, the flame of love, is a Latin one by Petronius Afranius,
an author of whom nothing is known. The following translation is by
Christopher Smart. The subject, a lady throwing snow-balls at her
lover :

When, wanton fair, the snowy orb you throw,

1 feel a fire before unknown in snow,

J"en coldest snow I find has pow'r to warm

My breast, when flung by Julia's lovely arm.

T' elude love's powerful arts I strive in vain,

If ice and snow can latent fires contain.

These frolics leave ; the force of beauty prove ;

With equal jia.-sion cool my ardent love.

138 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

STEPHANUS PASCHASIUS,

Whose family name was Pasquier or Paquier, was born in Paris in
1528. He was Advocate in Parliament, and afterwards Advocate-genera!
in tiie Chamber of Accounts. He stood high as a lawyer and a scholar,
and was esteemed as a poet. He died in 1615.

MARRIED LIFE.
Translated in ^' Selections from the French Anas," 1797.

No day, no hour, no moment, is my house

Free from the clamour of ray scolding spouse !

My servants all are rogues ; and so am I,

Unless, for quiet's sake, I join the cry.

I aim, in all her freaks, my wife to please ;

I wage domestic war, in hopes of ease.

In vain the hopes ! and my fond bosom bleeds.

To feel how soon to peace mad strife succeeds :

To find, with servants jarring, or my wife.

The worst of lawsuits is a married life.

Lavish compliments to the ladies before man-iage, and abuse of them
afterwards, is too much the rule of the epigrammatists. A few of their
uncourteous epigrams and epitaphs on wives may be amusing to those
who have happily no experience of a Xantippe.

In " Selections from the French Anas " an " Epitaph on a Bad Wife,
by her Husband," is given. It is said to be from the Greek, but there is
no reference :

Ah ! once dear partner of my days.

Willing to thee this tomb I raise :

My grateful thoughts your shade pmsue,

In this small gift so justly due.

No envious tongue, with clamours rude,

Arraign'd this act of gratitude ;

For all must know, that, with my wife,

I lost each hour of care and strife.

Boileau has a well-known French " Epitaph on the Tomb of a W^ife," in
reference to which he used to say, that the best epigrams originated in
conversation; .and of all his own gave the preference to tiiis one. He
was easily satisfied it may be thought :

Here lies my wife ; and Heaven knows.

Not less for mine, than her repose !

In " Notes and Queries," 2nd S. II. 20, the following is given from the
Harl. M.S., 6894, 91, "On the Atehievement of a Married Lady
Deceased, at Stanmore Magna, Middlesex" :

God has to me sufficiently been kind,

To take my wife, and leave me here behind.

STEPHANUS PASCHASIUS. 139

James Smith (author of " Kejected Addresses '*) has a spirited and
iimusing epigram which he entitles " Heraldry '\" Memoirs, lAtters,
&c." 1840, II. 186) :

Where'er a hatchment we discern

(A truth before ne'er started),
The motto miikes us surely learn

The :^ex of the departed.
If 'tis the husband sleeps, he deems

Death's day a '' fdix dies"
Of unaccustom'd quiet dreams,

And cries — In coelo quies.
But if the wife, she from the tomb

Wounds, Parthian hke, " post tergum,"
Hints to her spouse his future doom,

And threatening cries — Hesurgam.

ON L^LIA (" Delitiae Delitiarum," 29).
Translated by D.

To conciliate my sweet Fair,

I tried ev'ry method rare ;

I kiss'd, I made gifts, and besought,

Yet vain e'en were gifts richly \/Tought.

But now when love is cold and dead,

M}' Laelia's willing to be wed,

And, dimming with salt tears her eyes,

Uses Love's weapon — woman's sighs,

Soft ditties, too, she sadly sings,

And presents oft she shyly brings,

And prayers with pretty lispings.

Ah ! Laelia, 'tis too late, go seek

A lover now than me more meek :

You scom'd me when with love I burn'd.

When now you're kind, to ice I'm turn'd.

William Browne, the author of " Britannia's Pastorals," has an epi-
gram on the same subject. It is found in Sir Egerton Brydges' edition,
1815, 21, of a MS. vol. of Browne's Poems, in the Lansdowne collection.
No. 777

Not long agone a youthful swain.
Much wronged by a maid's ditidain.
Before Love's altar came ; an<l did implore
That he might like her leas or she love more.

140 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

The god him heard ; and she began

To doat on him, he (foolish man)

Cloy'd -with much sweets, thus chang'd his note before,

let her love one less, or I hke more !

Walsh, in a complaint to Cselia, expresses a similar difficulty. One
stanza is sufficient :

While at the first you cruel prov"d,

And grant the bliss too late ;
You hinder'd me of one I lov'd,
To give me one I hate.

TO A PHYSICIAN (" Delitiffi Delitiarum," 29).

Translated in the " Quarterly Review," No. 233.

Say not, be sick, and gratis I'll prescribe :
Sickness prepense requu-es a stronger bribe !

These Latin poets were fond of satirical distichs on men who dabbled
in the healing art. Jacobus Zevecotius, born at Ghent in 160-i, has tiie
following, translated by James Wright (" DeUtiffi Delitiarum," 163):

Gellia the hangman doth, not doctor choose :
The quickest course of physic is the noose.

Georgius Anselmus, an eminent physician, bom at Parma, who died in
1528, is very severe upon one of his own fraternity, but not original, for
the idea is taken from Martial, Book I. -±8. The "translation is from the
" Quarterly Eeview " (" Delitiffi Delitiarum," 61) :

SosiL the butcher, has become a leech. 'Tis nothing new.
For what he did when butchering, as doctor he will do.

ON HABPALUS (" Delitiae Delitiarum," 31).
Translated by D.

Hai-palus to the poor his wealth would leave,
That at his death his son might truly gi-ieve.

This may have had its origin in an epigram by Martial (Book TV. 69),
which Hay thus translates :

Jack's father's dead ; and left him without hope ;
For he hath nothing left him but a rope.
By a strange turn did Fortune thus contrive,
To make Jack wish his father were alive.
Donne has a smart epigram on a spendthrift son, whom his father dis-
inherited :

Thy father all from thee, by his last wHl,
Gave to the poor. Thou hast good title stilL

HENRICUS STEPHANUS. 141

CEBDO (" DeUtisB Deiitiarum," 35).
Translated by D.

No rood of ground poor Cerdo call'd his own,

But, gipsy-like, his lodging was a loan ;

Until in death beneath the turf he lies ;

For to the living cruel Life denies

What to the dead Death gives as son-ow's balm ;

To wit, a home where nought disturbs the calm.

The most celebrated epitaph on a beggar is a touching Greek one, by
an uncertain author, on " Epictetus, the Slave," of which Dr. Johnson,
in his " Essay on Epitaphs," speaks in the strongest terms of approbation
(Jacobs IV. 238, dlxsvi.; ; thus translated by C. :

Want's bitter path I, Epictetus, trod ;
A slave and cripple — ^yet beloved of God.

HENEICUS STEPHANUS,

Who latinized his name Etienne, was one of an illustrious family of
Parisian printers, bom in 1528. As a scholar he was pre-eminent,
especially in Greek. His Latin epigrams, liowever, are, says Hallam,
" remarkably prosaic and heavy." He died deranged in 1598.

THE MISERS DEATH ("DeUtia DeUtiarum," 19).

Translated by James Wright.

The covetous man, whose life's a living death,
Grieves not to die, but gratis t' lose his breath.

Buchanan has an epitaph of similar character on a miser, translated
by Wright (BookH. 10):

Sylvius that nothing gratis gave ; being dead,
Grieves that his epitaph is gratis read.

The ruling passion strong in death is well exemplified by Pope, iu
the first of his " Moral Essays," Part III :

" I give and devise (old Euclio said

And sigh'd) my lands and tenements to Ned."

" Your money. Sir ? " — " My money, Sir, what, all ?

Why — if I must — fthen wept) I give it Paul."

•'The manor, Sir?"— "The manor ! hohl he cried),

Not thjit — I cannot part with that" — and died.

142 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

The same poet, in the third of his " Moral Essays," shows, by the
case of the miser Hopkins, how little the survivors care for the ruling
passion of the dead :

"When Hopkins dies, a thousand lights attend
The wretch who living sav'd a candle's end.

These lines perhaps originated in an anecdote of this miser, who
was called Vulture Hopkins. In order to obtain a lesson in saving, he
called one evening on a bookseller named Guy, reputed the pattern of
parsimony, whose hoards at length came to noble use in the foundation
of the Hospital, which bears his name. Hopkins found him in his
parlour with one candle, and, sitting down, stated the object of his
visit. "O," said Guy, "if that be all your business, we can just as
well talk it over in the dark," and forthwith put out the light. Tliis
was enough for the Vulture, who took his leave with this acknowledg-
ment : " I thought myself an adept in the arts of saving, but you have
taught me an important lesson, and be assured my future conduct shall
make amends for my past prodigality in caudles." (Rett's " Flowers of
Wit.")

A HEADSTRONG TFIF^ (" Delitise Delitiarum," 19).
Translated in the " Quarterly Review," No. 233.

A headstrong wife who oft came in for blame,
When charged with scant obedience, would reply,
" Why snarls my spouse ? Our wishes are the same :
He would the ruler be : and so would I."

Bishop, once master of Merchant Taylors' School, has an epigram on
a headstrong wife, which is amusing though without much merit.
(Works, 1796, Ep. 45j :

Celia her sex's foible shuns ;

Her tongue no length of larum runs ;

Two phrases answer every part :

One gain'd, one hreahs, her husband's heart ;

I wiU, she said, when made a bride ; —

I won't — through all her life beside.

JOHANNES PASSERATIUS,

Professor of Eloquence in the Koyal College at Paris, was born at
Troyes in Champagne, in 1534. His lectures were so celebrated, that
the most learned men of tlie time were his hearers ; and as a Latin poet
he was highly esteemed by all scholars of taste and refinement. He
died in 1602.

JOHANNES PAS8ERATIUS. 143

ON THE DEATH OF PHILIP STROZA (" Delitise DeUliarum," 5j.

Translated by B.

Hast'ning to battle, betray'd by thy friends,

One ship engages a fleet ;
Xoble and brave in the death which impends.

And ready thj fate to meet.
"Wounded, the sea-green wave thou stain'st with blood ;

ZS'ereus weeps; and th' ocean maids,
From their blue ej^es, pour forth a tender flood

Of tears, in their coral glades :
But not of a tomb, or of life, bereft.

For thee so sore need they weep ;
For fame eternal on earth hast thou left,

And ocean lulls thee to sleep ;
In the cradle of Venus reposing.
For thee the toils of war now are closing.

With this may be compared an epigram by Martin Lluellin, a Welsh-
man, on the death of Sir Eichard Granville, Vice-Admiral of England
in the reign of Elizabeth, who maintained a tight with his single ship
agauist the whole Armada of Spain, consisting of fifty-three of theii-
best men-of-war. It is printed among the " Verses by the Univt-r-
sitv of Oxford, on the death of the most noble and right valiant Sir
Be'vil Granville," who was slain at the battle of Lausdowne in 1643. The
absurdity of the conceit at the close will be observed :

Thus slain, thy valiant ancestor did lie,

When his one bark a navy did defy ;

When now encompass'd round, he victor stood,

And bath'd his pinnace in his conquering blood,

Till all the purple current dritd and spent,

He fell, and made the waves his monument,

Where shall the next fam'd Granville's ashes stand ?

Thy grundsire's fill the sea, and thine the land.

Extravagant hyperboles were common in a past age, though the
greater poets set their faces against them. Lord Lausdowne (the poet)
mentions another instance, which is only one of m my which might be
Cited, from a French author, in an ejngram on the monument of Francis 1.
of France, which he tlius translates :

Under this marble, who lies buried here ?
Francis the Great, a king beyond compare.
Why has so great a king so small a stone V
Of that great king here's but the heart alone.
Tlien of this conqueror here lies bnt part ?
No — here he lies all — for he was all lieuri.

144 MEDI^.VAL AND EAELY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

STEPHANUS rOECATULUS.

The Latin name of Etienne Forcadel, born at Beziers in 1534. He
was a French lawyer, and held a Chair at the University of Toulouse.
His death took place in 1573.

TO SIS MISTRESS (" DeUtije Delitiarum," 42).

Translated in tlie " Quarterly Beview," No, 233.

Eare presents wrouglit of gold I brought : but you
Spurn'd thera, and scorn upon my oflferings threw.
Nor spicy scents, nor jewels you affect,
What shall I do, if verse, too, you reject ?
I'll fetch the loadstone from its Afric home,
For in its wake your heart of steel will come.

This pretty thought is probably unique. It is very common to find
the poets upbraiding their cmel mistresses with having hearts of iron
or stone, but the following conceit by James Shirley, the dramatist
(who was bom in 1594), is as original as the more elegant idea of Forca-
tulus, "Upon his Mistress Dancing" (Shu-ley's Poems, 1646, 17):

I stood and saw my mistress dance.

Silent and with so lix'd an eye.
Some might suppose me in a trance,

But being asked why,
By one that knew I was in love,

I could not but impart
My wonder to behold her move

So nimbly with a marble heart.

JOSEPHUS JUSTUS SCALIGEE.

The son of Julius Caesar Scaliger, and heir to his talents and haughty
temper ; born at Agen, in 1540. He was Professor of BeUes Lettres at
Leyden, where he died in 1609.

THE IGNORANT NOBLEMAN (" Delitije Delitiarum," 52).

Translated hy D.

The one clothed in velvet, the other in stuff,
The clown and the peer differ widely enough ;
But in learning and manners, the dress of the mind.
The poor clown's not a whit the rich noble behind.

JOHANNES ATJDOENUS, OR OWEN. 146

Shakespeare, in "Taming of the Shrew" (Act IV. sc. 3), draws tte
distinction between richness of dress and of mind :

For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich ;
And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,
So honom- peereth in the meanest habit.
What ! is the jay more precious than the lark,
Because his feathers are more beautiful ?
Or is the adder better than the eel.
Because his painted skin contents the eye ?

So, Dyer in an Epistle "To Mr. Savage, soa of the late Earl
Rivers " :

Shame on the dull, who think the soul looks less,

Because the body wants a glittering dress.

It is the mind's for-ever bright attire,

The mind's embroidery, that the wise admire !

That which looks rich to the gross vulgar eyes,

Is the fop's tinsel, which the grave despise.

JOHANNES AUDOENUS, OR OWEN.

A Latin epigrammatist, born in Caenarvonshire about 1560. He
was educated at Westminster, and New College, Oxford, and became
Master of the Grammar School at Warwick. His epigrams were very
popular in England, and foreign critics held them in high estimation.
At his death in 1622 his relation, Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, and
Lord Keeper, who had treated him with much kindness in life, erected
a monument to his memory in S. Paul's Cathedral, where he was buried,
and engraved on it a Latin epitaph, of which the following is a transla-
tion by Thomas Harvey, who published an English version of all
Owen's epigrams in 1678 :

Thy statue, stature, thine estate, thy book,
All little, great men yet on this do look :
Nor is thine lionour, or thy glory small.
For greater wit than thine, is not at all :
Thy little house in a gnat temple lies,
A poet lives not truly till he dies.

PniLLIS (Book I. 25).

Translated in the " Quarterly Review" No, 233.

Kisses my I'hillis takes, bixt ne'er bestows.
Taking's all one with giving, Phillis knows.

146 MEDIEVAL AND EAELT MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

The following amusing epigram on this subject, is translated from
tne French, in "Poems Original and Translated," by the Rev. W,
Shepherd, 1829 :

" Come kiss me !" said Colin. I gently said "No !

For my mother forbids me to play with men so."

A ba sh'd by my answer, he slided away.

Though my looks pretty plainly advised him to stay.

Silly swain ! not at all recollecting — not he,

That Ms mother ne'er said that he must not kiss me.

TO CYNTHIA (Book I. 119).

Translated by Hayman.

Sweet, let thy soul be smooth as is thy skin ;
As thou art fair without, be so within.

Sir John Harington has an epigram on " A Fair Shrew " (Book IV.
37), which is imitated fi'um Martial (Book I. 65) :

Fair, rich, and young ! how rare is her perfection,
Were it not mingled with one foul infection !
I mean so proud a heart, so curs'd a tongue.
As makes her seem noi- fair, nor rich, nor young.

Shirley, the dramatist, has a very elegant epigram on inward and
outward beauty, " To a Lady upon a Looking-Glass Sent " (Poems,
1646, 45) :

When this crystal shall present

Your beauty to yom- eye,
Think that lovely face was meant

To dress another by.
For not to make them proud
These glasses are allow'd
To those are fair.
But to compare
The inward beauty with the outward grace.
And make them fair in soul as well as face.

John Harington, the father of Sir John, in the last stanza of a
rionnet, " On Isabella Markham, when I first thought her fair," prettily
expresses the union which ought to exist between beauty of form ana
kindness of heart ; but with reference to love, not as Owen and Shirley,
to moral goodness ("Nugoe Antiqure," 1804, II. 325) :

Why thus, my love, so kind bespeak
Sweet lip, sweet eye, sweet blushing cheek,
Yet not a heart to save my pain ? —
O Venus ! take thy gifts again ;
Make nought so fair to cause our moan,
Or make a heart that's like vour own.

JOHANNES AUDOBNTJS, OR OWEN. 147

So, in a song of the Scotch poet, Fergusson, a certain Strephon raises
his plaintive lay :

O Julia ! more than lily fair,

More blooming than the budding rose ;

How can thy breast, relentless, bear
A heart more cold than winter's snows ?

TO A FRIEND IN DISTRESS (Book III. 181).

Translated by Cowper.

I wish thy lot, now bad, still worse, my friend ;
For when at worst, they say, things always mend.

Granville, Lord Lansdowne, seems to have found comfort fi-om this
reflection when a prisoner in the Tower. He was confined in the same
room in which Sir Robert Walpole had been imprisoned, and wrote on
a window, under that minister's name, the following epigram, which is
imitated from the Greek of Palladas (Jacobs HI. 138, cxx.) :

Good unexpected, evil unforseen.
Appear by turns, as Fortune shifts the scene :
Some rais'd aloft, come tumbling down amain,
And fall so hard, they bound and rise again.

We may compare the first stanza of " The Prophecy," by Chatterton :

This truth of old was Sorrow's friend,
" Times at the worst will surely mend."
The difficulty's then to know.
How long Oppression's clock can go ;
When Britain's sons may cease to sigh.
And hope that their redemption's nigh.

LIFE (Book IV. 238).

Translated by Harvey.

To slothful men the day, night, month and year
Seem long, though posting on with swift career ;
Wo trifle out our long-thought time in vain ;
Why of life's shortness do we then complain?

The importance of activity on account of the shortness of life, is a
sentiment which Shakcsj)earo puts into the mouth of Hotspur ("King
Henry IV." Part I. Act V. sc. 2).-

148 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODKRN LATIN EPIGEAMJIATISIS.

O gentlemen, the time of life is short ;

To spend that shortness basely, were too long,

If life did ride upon a dials point,

Still ending at the arrival of an hour.

A portion of Owen's thought is expressed in graceful language by
Rogers in one of his " Reflections" :

Man to the last is but a froward child ;

So eager for the future, come what may,

And to the present so insensible !

Oh, if he could in all things as he would,

Years would as days and hours as moments be ;

He would, so restless is his spirit here.

Give wings to Time, and wish his life away !

5. PETER AT ROME (Book V. S).
Translated in Chalmers' " Biographical Dictionary."

Whether at Rome Peter e'er was or no,

Is much disputed still I trow :
But Simon's being there, on neither side

Was ever doubted or denied.

The only interest of this epigram arises from the effect it had on tlie
fortunes of the author. In consequence of it his book was put into the
" Index Expurgatorius," and the result of this was, that his uncle, a
wealthy Romanist, who intended to leave his property to him, struck
him out of his will.

SUNSET AND SUNRISE (Book V. 39).
Translated by Cowper.

Contemplate when the sun declines,
Thy death, with deep reflection !

And when again he rising shines,
The day of resurrection !

ON POPE JULIUS IL (Book V, 77).
Translated by Harvey (^altered).

S. Peter arm'd exclaim'd, behold two swords ;
Peter, two keys behold, were his Lord's words ;
The sword he left, and did the keys receive,
But thou dost take the sword, the keys dost leave.

JOHANNES AtJDOENDS, OK OWEN. 149

In tlie " Collection of Epigrams," 1735, there is a translation of a
Latin epigram on Julius casting the keys of S. Peter into the Tiber,
The author is Gilbertus Duclierius Vulto, born in Auvergne, whose
epigrams were printed at Lyons in 1538 :

Fame says. Pope Julius once the sword did wield.
And, to engage the Frenchman, took the field ;
Fierce into Tiber's stream, the keys he threw.
Exclaiming loudly, as his sword he drew,
Since, in my aid, thy keys, O Peter ! fail.
Thy sword, Paul ! in battle may avail.

In Elsum's " Epigrams on Paintings," 1700, is the following on a
portrait of Julius by Raphael (Ep. 158) :

A countenance so strong, and so severe,
Though but a shadow, raises awe and fear.
The picture breathes ; for this I can assure ye,
Here you may see of art the utmost fury.
His temples are begirt witii triple crown.
To show tliat kings before him do fall down.
Julius" power Raphael doth express,
But who can paint Julius holiness '?

Elsum's sarcasm on Julius' holiness brings to mind the unjustly
levere epigram of Buchanan on that prelate (" Book of Miscellanies";,
Iranslated in the " Collection of Epigrams," 1735 :

Thy father Genoese, thy mother Greek,
Bom on the seas ; who truth in thee would seek ?
False Greece, Liguria's false, and false the sea ;
False all : and all their falsehoods are in thee.

ADVICE TO FONTICUS (Book VIII. 71).
Translated by Harvey.

Thou nothing giv'st, but dying wilt : then die :
He giveth twice, who giveth speedily.

The original of this caustic epigram is probably one by Martial
(Book XI. G7), which Hay thus translates :

You give me nothing now : when you expire,
You promise all. — You know what I desire.

" Bis dat qui cito dat " was a sentiment known to the Greeks, as is
Been by an epigram of an uncertain author (Jacobs IV. 205, ccccix.),
vvliich Hodgson translates:

Swift favours charm ; but when too long they stay,
They lose the name of kindneaa by delay.

150 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ON ONE IGNORANT AND ARROGANT (Book X. 59).

Translated by Cowper.

Thou may'st of double ignorance boast,
Who know'st not that thou nothing know'st.

In another epigram Owen gives the converse of this. Harvey thus
translates (Book VI. 39) :

All things I thought I knew ; but now confess
The more I know^ I know, I know the less.

John Heath, in "Two Centuries of Epigrams," 1610, has (2nd
Century, 36) :

All things you know : what all ? If it be so
Then you know this too, that you nothing know.

Kobert Heath, in " Clarastella, &c.," 1650, has an epigram on " Blessed
Ignorance" (Book II. p. 50) :

He is most happy sure that knoweth nought.
Because he knows not that he knoweth not.

This may have been suggested to Heath by Martial's epigram (Book
XrV. 210)":

Folly is not feign'd, nor with false wit lies ;
Who is not wiser than enough is wise.

And this, too, may be the origin of Gray's famous line :

Where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise.

A PARADOX (Book X. 90).
Translated in the " Poetical Farrago."

Tho' ev'ry atheist, all Christians know,
Must after death hell's torments undergo ;
Yet Satan (paradoxical to tell)
Will search in vain for atheists in hell.

Of epigrams on atheists few are better than Martial's (Book IV. 20),
the translation of which by Sir John Harington is very happy (Book

II. 14) :

That heav'ns are void, and that no gods there are,
Rich Paulus saith, and all his proof is this :
That while such blasphemies pronounce he dare,
He liveth here in ease and endless bliss.

The same argument against the Being of God is said to have been
urged by Voltaiie.

151

BERNAEDUS BAUHUSITJS,

Was a Jesuit of Louvain, bom at Antwerp, but at what date is uu-
known. He died in 1619. His epigrammata were first printed in 1G15.

ON SILENCE ("Delitise Delitiarum," 202),

To use the tongue in speech is great,

But greater to refrain :
Thousands have taught the art to prate,

Not one the tongue to rein.

Bauhusius' assertion is too strong, as the following epigram from thy
Greek of Palladas shows (Jacobs III. 130, Ixxvii.). The translation,
spirited and correct, but a little too diffuse, is taken from " A Selection
of Greek Epigrams for the Use of Winchester School," 1791 :

Silence, to thee Instruction owes
Tiie blessings she on man bestows,
Pj'thagoras, thy favourite sage
(Born to instruct a learned age),
Though eloquent himself, portray 'd
And prais'd thy charms, meek, sober maid.
To Wisdom's sons, this truth is known,
That peace and freedom are thine own.

An epigram by Samuel Bishop on this subject has considerable merit
("Works, 1796, Ep. 44):

On Folly's lips eternal tattlings dwell :
Wisdom speaks little — but that little well.
So length'uing shades the sun's decline betray ;
But shorter shadows mark meridian day.

ON THE DAUGHTER OF HERODIAS BEING DROWNED

(" Delitia; Delitiarum," 202).

Translated hy James Wright.

Such as thy life, a soft and dancing wave
Hath justly been to thee both death and grave.

" NiccphoruH and Metaplirastcs relate that Salome accompanied her
mother Herodias and lier fatli(;r-in-law Herod in their banishment to
Vienne in Daujiljine ; and that the emperor liaving obliged them to

fo into Spain, as she jiassed over a river tliut was frozen up, tlui ice
roke unii(!r her fe-i-t, anrl siie sunk in uj) to her neck : then the ice
uniting again she remained thus suspended by it, and sull'crcd liio

152 MEDIEVAL AND EAKLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

same punishment slie had made John the Baptist undergo. But none
of the ancients mention this particular ; and it is contrary to Josephus.
(Calmet's " Dictionary of the Bible," Art. Salome.)

ON FORTUNE (" DelitisB Delitiarum," 205).
Translated hy the Rev. James Bavies.

Js't thus, Jade Chance, that thou with men dost play,
And wage keen war with reason's better way ?
Proclus is rich, but childless ; children nine
Has Lausus, who for brass, not bairns doth pine.
Blind Fortune, turn thy wheel ! By " give and take,"
Eicher make Proclus, richer Lausus make.

Ovid tells us that we can never have all we wish, for good and evil
are balanced (Metamor. I. vii.) :

But mortal bliss will never come sincere ;
Pleasure may lead, but grief brings up the rear.

Very similar is the complaint against Fortune, which Shakespeare
puts into the mouth of King Henry (" King Henry IV." 2nd Part,
Act IV. sc. 4) :

Will fortune never eome with botli hands full.
But write her fair words still in foulest letters ?
She either gives a stomach, and no food, —
Such are the poor, in health ; or else a feast,
And takes away the stomach, — such are the rich.
That have abimdauce, and enjoy it not.

MAPH^US BARBERINUS.

Born at Florence in 1568. In 1606 he was made a cardinal by
Pope Paul v., and in 1G23 became Pope, under the title of Urban VIII.
He died iu 1644.

ON THE STATUE OF NIOBE ("Delitiffi Delitiarum," 73).
Translated hy D.

'Tis Kiobe ! by vengeance harsh bereft
Of a much-lov'd husband, while none are left
Of twice sev'n stalwart sons and daughters fair,
Whom, now tho' stone I be, I once did bear.

MAPttaStrS BARBERINUS. 153

But, behold ! I breathe, for the sculptoi's art
To living marble gave a beating heart.
And foil'd the fates who sped the cruel dart
Ko faculty I miss, I hear, I see.
And e'en the pow'r to speak's restor'd to me ;
But fear my utt'rance stays, lest once again
Latona' s v^rath be rous'd for language vain.

On no work of ancient art, with the exception of Myron's cow, have
more epigrams been written than on tliis celebrated statue of Niobe
by Praxiteles. The Greeks were warm in its praise, the Latins imitated
them, and, so attractive is the subject, that the moderns have pursued
the theme. A fine epigram by Meleager, written on the pedestal of
the statue, will be found under that author.

ON A STATUE OF DIANA SLEEPING BY A FOUNTAIN

("Delitiaj Delitiarum," 73).

Translated by D.

Hark ! she's not marble. With gentle heaving

She draws in the lightsome air,
And the breath plays, the parted lips cleaving.

Sweet chords round her bosom fair.
Nay, 'tis not the murmuring sleeper's breath,

But a kindred sound you hear ;
'Tis what the prattling water sweetly saith.

Which charms and deceives the ear.

The epigrams of Barberinus seem to be generally either translations
from the Greek, or founded upon some elegant thought in the Antho-
logy. This, lilve the previous epigram on Niobe, is thoroughly Greek
in tone, and is taken from some of those many epigrams in which the
Greeks, who delighted to portray their deities in the most fascinating
form, connected their favourite haunts with tlieir reliL'ious sensibilities.

Tlie following pretty epigram on some Statues of Hamadryads is by
M.yro, a poetess who flourished B.C. 280 (Jacobs I. 135, ii.). The trans-
lation is by C. :

Nymphs of this lucid stream ! Wliose white feet tread
Its shadowy depths, cool grots, and pearly bed,
Hail ! and protect Cleonymus who enshrines
Your lovely forms beneath these waving pines.

154 MEDIEVAL AisD EAELY MODEKN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

PAULUS THOMAS.

This was probably Paul Thomas, Sieur de Maisonnette (father of
the better known Bieirr de Girac), who was born at Jamac, and re-
sided at Angouleme. His poems were praised by Balzac and Nicolas
Uorbonius. He lived in the latter part of the 16th and beginning of
the 17th centuries.

ON CELSUS (" Delitiae Delitiarum," 49).

Translated by 2>.

With self-love Celsus burns : is he not blest ?
For thus without a rival he may rest.

This is perhaps the original of a well-known modern epigram :

To Damon's self his love's confin'd ;

No harm therein I see ;
This happiness attends his choice ;

Unrivall'd he wUl be.

An epigram on self-love, perhaps the best ever written, will be
found under Buchanan, — " Corinna."

JOHANNES MEUESIUS.

Born at Losdun, near the Hague, in 1579. He travelled through
a great part of Europe, as tutor to the children of John Barneveldt,
the Dutch statesman, and on his return was appointed professor of
history and of Greek at Leyden, and soon afterwards historiographer
to the States of Holland. After the execution of Barneveldt, in 1619,
be was persecuted on account of his connection with him, and retired
to Denmark, where he was offered the professorship of history and
politics in the University of Sora. He died in 1639.

THE POOB. NOT INFERIOR TO THE RICH
(" Delitiffi Delitiarum," 232).

Translated by D.

Eich, dost thou the virtuous poor despise,

And think'st thyself supreme?
Fool ! in worth not wealth all the merit lies,

'Tis deeds that gain esteem :
Would'st thou be honour'd 'mongst thy fellow-men ?
Be just, as one who dwells in Virtue's ken.

JOHANNES MEURSIUS. 155

Pope might have taken this epigram as the groundwork of several
passages in his " Essay on Man," Epistle IV. For instance :

What nothing earthly gives or can destroy,
The feoul's Ciilm sunshine and the heartfelt joy,
Is virtue's prize.

* * * * *

* * * ^ *

To whom can riches give repute or trust,

Content or pleasure, but the good and just?

Judges and senates have been bought for gold ;

Esteem and love were never to be sold.

O fool ! to thiuk God hates the worthy mind.

The lover and the love of human kind,

Whose life is healthful, and whose conscience clear,

Because he wants a thousand pounds a year !

Honour and shame from no condition rise ;

Act well your part, there all the honour lies.

Groldsmith's description of the country parson in the " Deserted
Village," illustrates the truth, that not wealth but worth gains honour,
for:

A man he was to all the country dear.
And pas-sing rich with forty pounds a year.

There is a rather striking distich " On Westminster Abbey," iu
" Epigrams in Distich," 1740 :

Kings, statesmen, scholars, soldiers, here are dust !
Vain man, be humble ; to be great, be just.

BLUSHING, THE SIGN OF MODESTY.

(" Delitise Delitiarum," 233).

Translated by C.

'Tis well to see the cheeks with blushes drest :
For blushing is of modesty the test.

A very different view is found in a song by Moth, in "Love's Labour's
Lost " (Act I. sc. 2) :

If she be made of white and red,

Her faults will ne'er bo known ;
For blushing cheeks by faults are bred,

And fears by pale-white shown :
Then, if she fear, or be to blame,

15y this you shall not know;
For still her cheeks possess the same,

Which native she doth owe.

Moth adds. "A dangerous rhyme, master, against th« reason of
white arid red."

156 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LATIN EPIGBAMMATIST8.

THE POWER OF KINGS ("Delitise Delitiarum," 234).
Translated by D.

Vain man, wilt thou the monarch's anger dare ?
To fear him learn, to yield, and to beware :
He's Jove on earth, his thunder echoes wake,
And what he cannot bend, his pow'r can break.

A Greek epigram on the statue of Alexander the Great, executed
by Lysippus, shows the monarch arrogating to himself the power of
Jove on earth. The author is Archelaus, whose date is unknown.
The translation is by Samuel "Wesley, usher of Westminster School
(Jacobs II. 57, i.) :

Lysippus' art can brass with life inspire,
Show Ale.tander's features and his fire ;
The statue seems to say, with up-cast eye, — 1
" Beneath my rule the globe of earth shall lie ; >
Be thou, O Jove, contented with thy sky." )

Shakespeare shows the danger which would arise, if great men were
allowed to use Jove's thunder (" Measure for Measiu'e," Act II. sc. 2).

Isabella speaks :

O, it is excellent
To have a giant's strength ; but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.
Could great men thunder

As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet,
For every pelting, petty ofiScer,
Would use his heaven for thunder.

Beaumont and Fletcher, in their play of " Philaster," show a king
claiming extraordinary powers, and acknowledging his weakness
(Act IV.). The king speaks :

'Tis the king
Will have it so ; whose breath can still the winds,
Uncloud the sun, charm down the swelling sea.
And stop the floods of Heav'n. Speak, can it not ?
*****

Alas ! what are we kings ?
Why do you, gods, place us above the rest.
To be serv'd, flatter'd, and ador'd, till we
Believe we hold within our hands your thunder ?
And, when we come to try the pow'r we have,
There's not a leaf shakes at our threat' nings.

157

BALTHASAE BOXIFACIUS,

Was born in the Venetian territory, about 1581. He had severai
ecclesiastical appointments, and in 1653 was advanced to the bishopric
of Capo d'Istria, which he held until his death in 1659.

DANGEROUS iOFE ("DeUtiae Delitiarum," 91).
Translated by C.

All whom I love die young; Zoilus, I'll try,

Tho' loath'd, to love thee— that thou too may'st die.

The first words of this caustic distich contain a sentiment beautifully
expressed by Moore in often quoted lines (" Lalla Kookh" — "The
Fu'e Worshippers") :

Oh ! ever thus, from childhood's hour,

I've seen my fondest hopes decay ;
I never lov'd a tree or flower,

But 'twas the first to fade away.
I never nurs'd a dear gazelle,

To glad me with its soft black eye,
But when it came to know me well.

And love me, it was sui-e to die !

ON THE DYING CHABICLITA ("Delitise Delitiarum," 97).

Translated in the " Quarterly Review," No. 233.

Yon eye, that into shade the sunlight throws.
Death, had he sight, would have no heart to close.
My life upon 't, e'en Death himself would die
Of love, at sight of yonder starry eye.

This conceit, exaggerated though it be, is remarkably pretty. If it
be thought open to censure as too fanciful, an observation in tho
" Tutler," No. 34, may be remembered : " There's no carrying a meta-
plior too far, when a lady's charms arc spoke of."

Massinger gives expression to a very similar idea in " The Unnatural
Combat " (Act II. sc. 3) :

For she had
Such smooth and high-arch'd brows, such sparkling eyes,
Whose every glance stored Cupid's emptied quiver,
vSuch ruby lips, — and such a lovely bloom.

158 MEDIEVAL AND EAELY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS,

Disdaining all adulterate aids of art,
Kept a perpetual spring upon her face,
As Death himself lamented, being forced
To blast it with his paleness.

TO PHILLIS AT HER HUSBAND'S TOMB
('• Delitiae Delitiarum," 97).

Translated in the " Quarterly Review," No. 233.

Wreaths to your lost one's tomb you neither bring,
Nor round it, Phillis, showers of perfume fling.
Tears are your sole rich tribute, pour'd anew ^
O'er the dark urn that hides your love from view.
Hence from the turf upspringing, many a flower
Finds thy tear dew, thy glance the day-god's power.

CUNRADINUS.

It is difQcult to trace the history of this poet. It is probable he was
one Henry Cunrad, a German physician, who lived in the first half of
the 17th century.

ON A FLY ENGRAVED IN A GOLDEN DRINKING-CUP

("Delitise Delitiarum," 131).

Translated in the " Quarterly Review," No. 233.

Deep down I drew my latest breath in a gold cup of wine.
Could I have wish'd a sweeter death, or a more splendid
shrine ?

Herrick has an epigram " On a Fly buried in Amber," in which the
tliought with regard to the richness of the shrine is similar :

I saw a flie within a beade
Of amber cleanly buried :
The ume was little, but the room
More rich than Cleopatrii's tomb.

In another and longer piece, " On a Fly enclosed in an Ivory-Vjox,"
Herrick refers to the following epigram by Martial (Book TV. 31 ), from
which, therefore, it may be inferred he took his idea of the fly buried
in amlier ; or perhaps more directly from another epigram, by the same
author, on a viper so buried. The translation is by Hay :

JOHN MILTON. 159

The bee eucloa'd, and through the amber shown,
Seems buried in the juice which was his own.
So houour'd was a lite in kibour spent :
Such might he wish to have his monument.

JOHN MILTON.

Bom 1608. Died 1674.

TO CHRISTINA, QUEEN OF SWEDEN, WITH A PORTRAIT

OF CROMWELL.

Translated by Sir Fleetwood Shepheard.

Bright martial maid, queen of the frozen zone,
The northern pole supports thy shining throne ;
Behold what furrows age and steel can plough,
The helmet's weight oppress'd this wrinkled brow.
Through fate's untrodden paths 1 move, my hands
Still act my free-born people's bold commands :
Yet this stern shade to you submits his fi'owns.
Nor are these looks always severe to crowns.

This epigram is by some ascribed to Andrew Marvell. A long and
interesting note on the subject, will be found in Warton's edition of
Slilton's Minor Poems, ed. 1791, 489.

Mr. Bryan Proctor (better known as Barry Cornwall) has given us a
portrait of Cromwell, probably as true to life as the "Shade" which
was sent to the Queen of Sweden, and certainly more so than Milton's
flattering lines which accompanied it :

*****

* * Like some dark rock, who.«e rifts

Hold nitrous grain, whereon the lightning fires
Have glanced, and left a pale and livid light,
So he, some corji'ral nerve being struck, stood there
Glaring, but cold and pitiless. — Even hope
(The brightest angel whom the heavens have given
To lead and cheer us onward.sj shrank aghast
From that stern look despairing.

160 MKDLEVAL AND EAELY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS,

TO LEONORA, SINGING AT ROME.
Translated by Cowper.

Another Leonora once inspired

Tasso with fatal love, to frenzy fired ;

But how much happier lived he now, were he,

Pierced with whatever pangs for love of thee !

Since could he hear that heavenly voice of thine,

With Adriana's lute of sound divine.

Fiercer than Pentheus' though his eye might roll,

Or idiot apathy benumb his soul,

You still with medicinal sounds might cheer

His senses wandering in a blind career ;

And sweetly breathing through his wounded breast,

Charm with soul-soothing song, his thoughts to rest.

Adriana of Mantua, and her daughter Leonora Baioni, were esteemed
by their contemporaries the finest singers in the world. Tasso is said
to have been enamoured of three ladies of the name of Leonora ; the
one mentioned in the epigram is supposed by Dr. J. Warton (quoted in
his brother's notes on Milton) to have been Leonora of Este, sister of
Alphonso, Duke of Ferrara, at whose court Tasso resided.

Milton, in " L' Allegro," has exquisitely painted the power of mus c ;
and Shakespeare in the "Tempest" (Act I. sc. 2), makes Ferdmsnd

say :

This music crept by me upon the waters ;
Allaying both their fury and my passion,
With its sweet air.
Pope, in his " Ode on S. Cecilia's Day," shows the influence of music
over the passions, in terms which bear much resemblance to those of
Slilton in his epigram :

Music the fiercest grief can charm,
And fate's severest rage disarm :
Music can soften pain to ease.
And make despair and madness please :
Our joys below it can improve,
And antedate the bliss above.

161

JOHN PETER BELLORT.

Born at Eome about 1616. His maternal uncle, Francis Angeloiii,
secretary to the Cardinal Aldobraudini, cultivated in him a love of anti-
quities, and he became greatly celebrated' as an antiquary. Christina,
Queen of Sweden, made him her librarian and keeper of her museum.
He died in 1696, having passed his life in the composition of various
works.

EPITAPH ON NICHOLAS POUSSIN
(" Vite de Pittori, Scultori, &c." 1672>

Translated hy C.

Forbear to weep where Poussin's ashes lie ;
Who taught to live himself can never die !
Though silent here, from whence no language breaks,
Yet in his Works he lives, and ek)quently speaks.

The thought that he " being dead yet spcaketh," is quaintly expressed
in an epigram on Marcus Tullius Cicero, by Nicholas Grimoald, who
was born in the early part of the 16th century ; was a lecturer on
rhetoric in the University of Oxford ; and is supposed to be the same
as one Grimbold, mentioned by Strype as chaplain to Bishop Ridley
("Poetical Works of Surrey and others," Bell's ed. 1854, 220):

For TuUy late a tomb I gan prepare,
When Cynthie, thus, bade me my labour spare :
" Such manner things become the dead," quoth he,
" But Tully lives, and still alive shall be."

There is another epigram of similar character by an anonymous nuthor
of nearly the same period, which is interesting from its subject — the
celebrated Sir Thomas Wyat tlie elder, the statesman and poet
Ibid. 249) :

Lo, dead ! he lives, that whilome lived here ;
Among the dead, that quick goes on the ground ;
Though lie be dead, yet quick he doth appear
By lively name, that death cannot coufound.
His life for aye of fame the trump shall sound.
Though he be dead, yet lives he here alive,
Thus can no death of Wyat life deprive.

162 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

JOHANNES SANTOLIUS,

The Latin name under which the French poet, better known as
Santeul, wrote, was born at Paris in 1630. He devoted himself wholly
to poetry, and wrote almost exclusively in Latin. His reputation was
chiefly gained by the hymns which, at the request of Bossuet and others,
he composed for the Paris Breviary. But lie was celebrated not ouly
for his poetry, but also for his wit and eccentricity, and it was said of
him, that he spoke like a fool and thought like a sage. He died in
1697.

ON THE DEATH OF LULLI.

Translated in " Selections from the French Anas" 1797.

Perfidious art thou. Death, and thy commands

Harsh and tyrannic ; and too bold thy bands :

Such are thy dreadful attributes ; in vain,

Though pressed beneath thy yoke, would man complain.

But when your dart, great Lulli to destroy,

You shook, and damp'd a king's and nation's joy,

And robb'd too soon each fond enraptur'd ear

Of strains the earth again shall never hear ;

Complain we must, although to ills resign'd.

And mourn that Fate is deaf, as well as blind.

John Baptist Lulli was a Florentine. His musical talents were early
noticed, and after being an under-scuUion in the kitchen of Madame de
Montpensier, he became superintendent of music to Louis XIV.

It is related that while Santeul was composing his lines on Lulli's
death, a favourite and tame finch, perching on his head, sung in so ch<irm-
ing a manner that the bird seemed actuated by the soul of the departed
artist, and appeared desirous by his melody to inspire the poet with
thoughts worthy of his subject. Singularly enough it was the finch's
last song ; he was found dead the next morning.

Santeul may have been acquainted with a Greek " Epitaph on a
Flute-player," by Diotimus, to which pju-t of his own bears a resem-
blance. The translation is by Dr. Merivale, Dean of Ely (Jacobs 1, 185,
viii.):

Man's hopes are spirits with fast-fleeting wings.

See where in d.ath our hopeful Lesbus lies !
Lesbus is dead ; the favourite of kings !

Hail, light-wing'd Hopes, ye swiftest deities !
On his cold tomb we carve a voiceless flute ;
For Pluto hears not, and the grave is mute.

NINIANUS PATERSONTJS. 16;'

A YOUNG DOCTOR'S ATOLOGY FOB THE SMOOTHNESS OF

HIS FACE.

Freely translated in " Selections from the French Anas," 1797.

What ! praise my rosy cheeks and youthful face?
Alas ! such features would my rank disgrace.
Such beauties suit fair ladies of eighteen,
And not a doctor's philosophic mien.
The beetle brow, the wrinkle deep and wide,
A pompous look by studious thoughts supplied,
Are a sage doctor's charms. No more upbraid
My miss-like visage. Lately I survey'd
In yonder stream my phiz, and found it rough
With wrinkles, and for a doctor's grave enough.
Besides, revolving years will soon destroy
Whate'er remains that marks me for a boy :
Yet still I hope they will not snatch one part
Of the fair image of an honest heart.

These lines were supplied by Santeul to a yoimg liceutiate about to
take Ms doctor's degree ; and it is said that "when they were recited, the
learned assembly with one voice declared them to be Santeul's, so well
was the poet's Latin style known to the audience.

NINIANUS PATEESONUS,

Was a native of Glasgow, and Minister of Liberton. He published
" Epigrammatum Libri Octo" in 1678.

TO TROY {Book I\. 59).

Ah, hapless Troy ! the flame, whilst Marc sings,
Around thy blacken'd walls for ever clings ;
One conflagration to the Greeks you owe.
In Maro's verse the flames immortal glow.

Alpheus of Mitylene, in a Greek epigram on Homer, shows how
{xietry has preserved in action all the cutastroiihes of the Trojan war
Jacobs 11. IIG, v.j. The translation is taken from the 55l8t No. of the
'' Spectator " :

Still in our ears Andromache complains,
And still iu sight the fate of Troy remains :

164 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Still Ajax fights, still Hector's dragg'd along :
Such strange euchantmeiit dwells in Homer's song;
Whose birth could more than one poor realm adorn,
For all the world is proud that he was born.

Duke, in lines addressed "To Mr. Dryden, on his 'Troilus ami
Cressida,' 1679," says :

Boast then, O Troy ! and triumph in thy flames,

That make thee sung by three such mighty names.

Had Ilium stood. Homer had ne'er been read,

Nor the sweet Mantuan swan his wings display'd,

Nor thou, the third, but equal in renown,

Thy matchless skill in this great subject, shown.

Not Priam's self, nor all the Trojan state,

Was worth the saving at so dear a rate.

But they now flourish by you mighty three,

In verse more lasting than their walls could be :

Which never, never shall like them decay,

Being built by hands divine as well as they.

ON A SAILOR RIDING (Book V. 38).
Translated in the " Quarterly Review" No. 233.

The sailor curses land's uneven tides,

^\ hile he, no rider, a wild horse bestrides.

Butler, in " Hudibras " (Part III. canto iii. 59), describes a sailor's
manner of riding :

As seamen ride with all their force,
And tug as if they row'd the horse.
And when the hackney sails most swift,
Believe they lag or nm adi-ift.

RAPH. MACENTINUS.

Of this author no account has been found.

ON LYCUS (" Deliti£e Delitiarum," 101).

Translated in the '' Quarterly Review," No. 233.

Lycus was ask'd the reason, it is said.
His beard was so much whiter than his head.
" The reason," he replied, " my friend, is plain :
I work my throat much harder than my brain !"

RAPH. MACENTINtJS. 165

Traces of the mediaeval epigrams are sometimes found in works where
they are least expected. In " The Spirit of the Public Journals '" for
1806, X. 239, the following appears. It is only styled " Epigram,"
with no hint of being a translation, or of its origin, but undoubtedly
it is a version of Macentinus' epigram :

Black locks hath Gabriel, beard that's white;

The reason, sir, is plain ;
Gabriel works hard, from morn to night.

More with his jaw than brain.

An epigram, "ToMarcus,"tliough very inferior, maybe compared with
the above. It is a distich by Owen (Book I. 95) translated by Hayman,
with an addition of two lines by the translator (Hayman's " QuodUbets,
&c. ' 1628) :

Thy beard grows fair and large ; thy head grows tliin ;

Thou hast a light head, and a heavy chin.

Hence 'tis those light conceits thy head doth breed.

From thy dull heavy mouth so slow proceed.

The older English epigrammatists were fond of this subject. Sir John
Harington has an epigram, " Of One that had a Black Head and a Grey
Beard." It is too long and worthless for insertion iu full (Book III. 32) :

Though many search, yet few the cause can find,
Why thy beard grey, tliy head continues black :
Some think thy btaril more subject to the wind,
Some think that thou dost use the new-found knack.

But we think most of thede have missed the mark.
For this think we, that think we think aright.
Thy beard and years are grave, thy head is light.

TAEEUS HEBUS.

Of this author no account has been found.

ON THE DEATH OF CATO ("Delitiae Delitiarum," 158).
Translated by James Wright.
Many lived proudly, Cato died : now say
Who are most foolish, lUutarch, he or they ?
Martial answers the question (Book 1. 9, " To Decianus." Translated

by Hay):

That you, like Thrasea, or like Cato, great,
Pursue their maxims, but decline tlniir fate ;
Nor rashly point the dagger to your heart;
More to my wish you aci a lloman's part.
I like not iiim, who fame by death retrieves :
Give me the man who merits praise, and lives.

166

MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

A.D. 1480— A.D. 18—.

PIERRE ORINGORE.

A French poet, born between 1475 and 1480 ; whether in Lorraine
or Normandy is doubtful. He died about 1544.

THE DBESS MAKES NOT THE MAN.
Translated from the French by Gary in " The Early French Poett."

The lepers by the warning clack are known,
As by his pig Saint Anthony is shown ;
The inky cloak makes not the monk devout,
Nor trappings proud the soldier brave and stout.

So, Hamlet says (Act I. so. 2) :

'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath.
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye.
Nor the dejected haviour of the visage,
Together with all forms, modes, shows of grief,
That can denote me truly.

BEHAVIOUR IN CHURCH.

Translated from the French by Gary in " The Early French Poets."

Unwise the man who heareth Mass, I wist,
With hound in leash, or hawk upon his fist ;
He comes not into church to worship there,
But to disturb his neighbours at their prayer.

The custom complained of at this early period extended into modenj
times. Within the memory of the present generation, it was very
common for country farmers to take their dogs to church — an irreverent

PIERRE GRINGORE. 167

practice, which occasionally resulted in a rat-hunt in the middle of
eervice. It is well known that old S. Paul's was a fashionable pro-
menade, the general rendezvous of the busy and the idle of all classes,
who disgraced the sacred building by jests and quarrels. The number
was increased by those who, having no means of procuring a dinner,
affected to loiter tiiere. From this the phrase, " dining with Duke
Humphrey" originated; for in this "Powles Walke" was a huge
monument of Sir John Beauchamp, buried in 1358, which, by a vulgar
niistake, was called the tomb of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who
was buried at S. Alban's. The duke had kept an open table, where
any gentleman was welcome to dine ; and after his death, to dine witii
Duke Humphrey — i.e., to loiter about his supposed tomb in S. Paul's
— meant to go dinnerless. Bishop Hall, in his satires, touches upon
this use to which the cathedral was put (Book IH. sat. 7) :

'Tis Euffio. Trow'st thou where he din'd to-day ?
In sooth I saw him sit with Duke Humphrey.
Many good welcomes, and much gratis cheer.
Keeps he for every straggling cavalier ;
An open house, haunted with great resort ;
Long service mix'd with musical disport.

In a humorous poem, published in 1674, by Samuel Speed, entitled,
"The Legend of his Grace, Humphrey, Duke of S. Paul's Cathedral
Walk, &c.," is the following passage :

Some with their beads unto a pillar crowd ;
Some mutter forth, some say tlieir graces loud;
Some on devotion came to feed their muse ;
Some came to sleep, or walk, or talk of news.

Bishop Corbet, in his " Elegy on the Death of Dr. Ravis, Bishop of
London," gives a still worse view of the use to which the cathedral was
put:

When I past Pauls, and travelld in that walk
Where all our Brittain-sinners swear and talk;
Old Harry-ruffians, bankrupts, soothsayers,
And youth, whose cozenage is as old as theirs.

At a later period we find a complaint with regard to new S. Paul's,
which is applicable to the present as well as a past day (" Epigrams in
Distich," 1740) :

This is God's House ; but 'tis to be dcplor'd,
More come to see the house than servo its Lord.

168 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

SIR THOMAS WYAT,

Usually styled " the elder " to disting;uish him from his son, who was
executed for high treason iu Mary's reign, was born in 1503. He was
a man of many accomplishments, and was a great favourite of Henry VIII.,
who emjiloyed him in several embassies. He is said to have combined
the wit of Sir Thomas More with the wisdom of Sir Thomas Crt)mwell.
He died in 1541.

TO HIS LOVE, WHOM HE HAD KISSED AGAINST HER

WILL.

Alas, madam, for stealing of a kiss,
Have I so much your mind therein offended ?
Or have I done so grievously amiss,
That by no means it may not be amended?
L'eveuge you then : the readiest way is this ;
Another kiss, my life it shall have ended.
For to my mouth the first my heart did suck,
The next shall clean out of my breast it pluck.

Plato, in a Greek distich, thus freely rendered by Moore, expresses the
etfect produced by a kiss (Jacobs I. 102, ii.) :

Whene'er thy nectar'd kiss I sip.

And drink thy breath in trance divine,

My soul then flutters to my lip,
Eeady to tly and mix with thine.

Robert Greene, born about 1550, has a similar passage ("Lady Fitz-
water's Nightingale." — Philomela's Ode) :

With arms folded, and lips meeting.
Each soul another sweetly greeting !
For by the breath the soul tieeteth.
And soul with soul in kissing meeteth.

So, Massinger in " The Fatal Dowry" (Act II. so. 2) :

Breath marry Ineath, and kisses mingle souls.
Two hearts and bodies here incorporate !

William Habington has a pretty epigram, " Upon a Trembling Kiss
At Depaiture," too long for insertion, but the last few lines are wo)tlj
comparing with Wyat's epigram, and close with a curious conceit :

Or else you fear, lest you, snould my heart skip
Up to my mouth, t' encounter with your hp.
Might rob me of it : and be judg'd in thi.s,
T' have Judas-like betrayd me with a kiss.

1G9

JOHN HEYWOOD,

"Was bom at North Mims, near S. Alban's, but at what date is uu-
certain. He was a great favourite of Henry VlIL, and of his daughter
Mary, on account of his happy talent for telling diverting stories.
Upon the accession of Elizabeth, being a strict Roman Catholic, he
retired to Mechlin, where he died in 1565. His epigrams on proverbs
and general subjects amount to about six hundred, and were several
times reprinted before the end of the 16th century. The edition from
which the following are taken is that of 1576.

JACK AND HIS FATHER (1st Hundred, 25j.

Jack (quoth his father), how shall I ease take ?

If I stand my legs ache, and if I kneel,

My knees ache, and if I go, then my feet ache,

If I lie my back acli'th, if I sit I feel

My hips ache, and lean I never so weele,

My elbows ache : Sir, (quoth Jack) pain to exile,

Since all these ease not, best ye hang awhile.

TWO WISHEBS FOB TWO MANNEB OF MOUTHS

(1st Hundred, 83).

" I wish thou hadst a little narrow mouth, wife,
" Little and little to drop out words in strife !"
" And I wish you, sir, a wide mouth, for the nonce,
" To speak all that ever you shall speak at once """

The life of this wishing couple seems to have been much like that
which was led by the husband and wife whom Martial celebrates
(Book VUI. 35). The translation is by Kelph :

Alike in temper and in life,
The cros,-c.-,t hu.sband, Grossest wife :
It looks exceeding odd to me,
This well-match'd pair can disagree.

A thought which has been humorously expanded by Ben Joneon
(Ep. 42) :

Who says that Giles and Joan at discord be?

Tb' oli.servirig tieigliliours no sucb mood can see.

Indeed, podr GiliM re[)eiits lie married ever;

But that his Joan dutb too. And Giles would never

By his free will be in Joan's company;

No more would Joan he should. Giles riseth early

170 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

And having got him out of doors is glad ;

The like is Joan. But turning home is sad ;

And so is Joan. Oft-times, when Giles doth find

Harsh sights at home, Giles wisheth he were blind ;

All this doth Joan. Or that his long-yearn'd life

Were quite outspun ; the like wish hath his wife.
*****

If now, with man and wife, to will and nill
The self-same things, a note of concord be,
I ^now no couple better can agree.

OF PBIDE (5th Hundred, 42).

If thou wilt needs be proud, mark this, friend mine ;
Of good deeds be not proud, they are not thine :
But when thou playest the knave, in ill deeds grown,
Be proud of those ill deeds ; they are thine own.

A Latin distich by Nicholas Baxius is similar to tlie first part of thia
epigram, though its teaching difiiers from the latter part. The transla-
tion is by James Wright (" Delitiae Delitiarum," 225) :
Boast not thy actions ; for if bad they be.
No praise is due ; if good, none's due to thee.

OF TONGUE AND WIT (6th Hundred, 33).

Thou hast a swift running tongue ; howbeit,
Thy tongue is nothing so quick as thy wit :
Thou art, when wit and tongue in running contend,
At thy wits' end ere thou be at thy tale's end.

Prior has an epigram of similar character, on one whose pen ran faster
than his wit :

While faster than his costive brain indites,
Philo's quick hand in flowing letters writes ;
His case appears to me like honest Teague's
When he was run away with by his legs.
Phoebus, give Philo o'er himself command ;
Quicken his senses or restrain his hand ;
Let him be kept from paper, pen, and ink ;
So he may cease to write, and learn to think.

JOHN HOPKINS — LADY CATHERINE KILLIGREW. 171

JOHN HOPKINS,

Wio after Sternhold's death finished the metrical version of tho
Psalms, which that lugubrious poet had left incomplete, was born about
1525, and is supposed to have been a clergyman of Suftblk, but nothing
is known of his life.

TO MR. THOMAS STERNHOLD, ON THE KING'S OFFERING
("The Honeysuckle," 1734, 88).

From ancient custom 'tis (they say)

Our most religious king
Does annuall}^ upon Twelfth-day,

Unto the altar bring,
Gold, m3'rrh, and frankincense, I ween

They do devolve by right.
Unto the royal chapel's dean

A certain perquisite ;
Now, what I'd know is this, — pray tell

In your opinion, sir,
Which to the dean does sweetest smell,

Gold, frankincense, or myrrh.

LADY CATHERINE KILLIGREW.

Sir Anthony Coke, who had been tutor to Edward VI., was especially
happy in his daughters, who were distinguished for their amiable
qualities and unusual learning. Sir Hem-y Killigrew, who had married
Ihe third daughter, Lady Catherine (born about 1530), was to be de-
Bpatched as ambassador to Paris by Queen Elizabeth, an office at that
time of difficulty and some danger. His wife sent the following lines
to her eldest sister, Lady Mildred, who had married the Lord Chan-
cellor Burleigh, begging her interest to cause the appnintnient to be
cancelled. The original is in Latin. The translation, which singularly
well j)reserves the epigrammatic point, is by Fuller, the author of tho
" British Worthies " (Fuller's " Worthies ") :

If, Mildred, by thy care, he be sent back, whom I request,

A sister good thou art to me, yea better, yea the best.

But if with stays thou keep'st him, or send'st where seas

may part.
Then unto me a sister ill, yea worse, yea none thou art.

172 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

It' he to Cornwall thou shalt please, I peace to thee foretell,
But, Cecil, if he cross the sea, I war denounce ! — Farewell.

The intercession appears to have been successful, for Camden in his
" History of Queen Elizabeth " mentions that Sir Thomas Hobey died
ambassador at Paris in 1576 ; yet if so, the husband of one sister was
endangered to preserve the husband of the other, for Sir Thomas Hobey
married Sir Anthony Coke's fourth daughter.

Richard Edwards, the compiler of " The Paradise of Dainty Devises,"
thus celebrates one of the daughters of Sir Anthony Coke in " The
Praise of Eight Ladies of Queen Elizabeth's Court" (" Nuga; Antiqu.e,"
ed. 1804,11.394):

Coke is comely, and thereto

In books sets all her care ;
In learning with the Roman dames

Of right she may compare.

JOHN LYLLY,

A dramatic writer of no gi-eat merit, upon whom Queen Elizabeth
bestowed some notice, was born about 1553. He was chiefly celebrated
for two books, entitled, " Euphues and his England." and " Euphues,
the Anatomy of Wit," in which he taxight an affected style of language,
which was for a time very popular. The character of the Euphuist,
Sir Piercie Shafton, in Sir' Walter Scott's " Monastery," will be remem-
bered, who talked to Mary Avenel and the miller's daughter with the
fashionable afl[ectation of the day.

CUPIB AND CAMPASPE.

Cupid and ray Campaspe pla_y'd

At cards for kisses ; Cupid paid :

He stakes his quiver, bow, and arrows,

His mother's doves, and train of sparrows ;

Loses them too ; then down he throws

The coral of his lip, the rose

Growing on's cheek (but none knows how) ;

AVith these the crystal of his brow.

And then the dimple on his chin ;

And these did my Campaspe win :

At last he set her both his eyes —

She won, and Cupid blind did rise.

Love ! has she done this to thee ?

What shall, alas ! become of me ?

EOBEKT SOUTHWELL. 173

Campaspe, or Pancaste, was a beautiful woman, whom Alexander
the Great gave in marriage to Apelles. the painter, who had fallen in
love with her when he drew her portrait. On this picture Elsum has
the following in his •' Epigrams on Paintings," 1700, Ep. 6 :

An object this, so wonderfully bright,
Does almost dazzle and confound the sight.
Her eyes, her breasts, her bosom, ev'ry part,
Every member of her shoots a dart,
Apelles found each of them pierc'd his heart.
The Macedonian king perceiv'd him languish.
Gave him Campaspe, and assuag'd his anguish.
Had he in lieu of her resign'd his crown.
He hai 1 not half of such a bounty shown :
But what's return'd for this vast gift? A Table
For beauty and for grace inestimable.

EOBEKT SOUTHWELL,

Born in 1560, was sent abroad for education, and became a Jesuit at
Rome, whence he returned as a missionary to England. In 1592 he
was apprehended, and imprisoned for three years, and in 1595 was
tried for teaching Roman Catholic doctrines, and executed the next
day. His poetry has fallen into unmerited neglect ; many of his pieces
are singularly beautiful, and full of striking thoughts. " S. Peter's
Complaint and other Poems" (from which tlie following epigranmiatic
stanzas are taken) has passed through several editions.

LOSS IN DELAYS.

TiCae wears all his locks before,
Take thou hold upon his forehead ;

When he flies, he turns no more,
And behind his scalp is naked.

Works adjourn'd have many stays ;

Long demurs breed new delays.

Posidippus, who flourished B.C. 280, has a fine Greek epigram on a
Statue of Time (Jacfjbs H. 49, xiii.) ; thus translated by C. :

" Htatue ! your sculptor whence ?" ' From Sicyon's clime.'
" His name ?" ' I-ycippus.' "Who art tliou ?" ' I'm lime.'
" On tip-tf)e why ?" ' I ever speed.' " Why bind
Thy feet witli wings?" ' I leave the gale behind.'
" What means that hour-glass with his sands outrun?"'
*Tliat Time and Time's occasion waits for none.'
*' And why that fore-lock ?" ' 'Tis that Le may hold

174 MODERN EPIGEAMMATI8TS.

"Who meets me coming. " And behind why bald ?"
' Me once past by, man never can regain,
He'll wish to have me, but he'll wish in vain !
Lo ! such am I, plac'd here before this shrine,
Stranger, for thee : to teach thee Truth divine '.'

Shakespeare, in " All's Well that Ends Well " (Act V. so. 3), warns
against procrastination :

Let's take the instant by the forward top;
For we are old, and on our quick'st decrees
The Inaudible and noiseless foot of time
Steals ere we can effect them.

UPON THE IMAGE OF DEATH.

Before my face the picture hangs,
That daily should put me in mind.

Of these cold names and bitter pangs
That shortly I am like to find ;

But yet, alas ! full little I

Do think hereon, that I must die.

There is something very solemn in these lines, and, considering the
cruel fate of the writer, one passage is almost prophetic ; for there is a
known edition of the poem as early as 1593, n-ni probably it was pub-
lished before his imprisonment.

DEATH IS RELEASE.

On the unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots.

The Queen speaks.

A queen by birth, a prisoner by mishap.

From crown to cross, from thence to thrall I fell ;

My right my ruth, my title wrought my trap ;
My weal my woe, ray worldly heaven my hell.

By death from prisoner to a prince enhanc'd,

From cross to crown, from thrall to throne again ;

My ruth my right, my trap my state advanc'd ;
From woe to weal, from hell to heavenly reign.

S<j, Herrick says :

Be not dismaide, though crosses cast thee downo ;
Thy fall is but the rising t(j a crowne.

175

SIR JOHN HAEINGTON,

Descended from a good family in Cumberland, was born at Kelston,
near Bath, in 1561, and had Quten Elizabeth for his Godmothtr. He
was educated at Eton, and Christ's Colleg;e, Cambridge, and brought
himself into considerable notice by a translation of Ariosto's •' Orlando
Furioso." Throughout life he was much at court, and always held in
esteem. He died in 1612. Many of the epigrams which commonly
pass as his own, and which are found in his volume of " Most Elegant
and Wittie Epigrams," are only translations from Martial. The edition
of 1633 is the one from which the following are taken.

OF GALLA'S GOODLY PERIWIG (Book II. 65).

You see the goodly hair that Galla wears,

'Tis certain her own hair, who would have thought it V

She swears it is her own : and true she swears.
For hard by Temple-bar last day she bought it.

So fair a hair upon so foul a forehead,

Augments disgrace, and shows the grace is borrow'd.

This is taken from Martial (Book VI. 12) :

This hair's my own, Phil swears ; none saw her buy it ;
What, Paulus, is she perjur'd ? — I deny it.

Of a similar character are some of the inferior epigrams of the later
Greek Epigrammatists, as, for instance, the following by Lucillius
^Jacobs III. 35, xxxi.); thus translated by Cowper:

Mycilla dyes her locks, 'tis said ;

But 'tis a foul aspersion ;
She buys them black ; they therefore need

No subsequent immersion.

OF TREASON (Book IV. 5).

Treason doth never prosper ; what's the reason ?
For if it ])ro.sper, none dare call it treason.

This epigram ocours, with slight variation, in a letter in " Nugas
Antiquao" (ed. 1804, I. 385), from Sir John llarington to Friuce
Henry, 160'J :

"My grandfather .... whose father was bo much in the trouble*;
and wars of York and l^ancaster, as to lose all liis lands fur being a
commander on the wrong aide, and umong the traitors, if so I may say ;
ttud yi;t thus saith a p<x;t (himselfj : Treas<jn, &c."

176 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Butler, in one of his " Miscellaneous Thoughts," shows the rebel's
view of treason :

The worst of rebels never arm
To do their king or country liarm ;
But draw then- swords to do tliem good,
As doctors cure by letting blood.

In "The Poetical Register" for 1802, "A Traitor's Epitaph" is
given, an unsuccessful traitor, no doubt :

Be this dark spot for ever to verdure unknown,

For ever by Virtue and Pity untrod ;
Unbreatli'd be his name, and unhonour'd his stone,

The foe of his Country, his King, and his God !

THE AUTHOR TO QUEEN ELIZABETH IN PRAISE OF HER
READING (Book IV. 13).

For ever dear, for ever dreaded Prince,
You read a verse of mine a little since,
And so pronounst each word, and every letter,
Your gracious reading grac't my verse the better
Since then your Highness doth, by gift exceeding.
Make what you read the better for your reading ;
Let my poor muse your pains thus far importune,
To leave to read my verse, and read my Fortune.

These lines are also in "Nugje Antique^," ed. 1804, 1. 172, among
the pieces " From Sir John Harington's Papers, called his ' Breefe
Notes and Eemembrannces.' " They are subscribed, "From your
Higlinesse saucy Godson " ; and are preceded by a few words of expla-
nation : " My Lord of Essex is also my friend, and that not in

bad sort. He bids me lay good hold on her Majesty's bounty, and ask
freely. I will attend to-morrow, and leave tins little poesie behind her
cushion at my departing from her presence."

The verses having been found among the papers of Sir John Har-
ington, whicli were in the possession of his descendant, the Rev. Henry
Harington, who published the lirst edition of the " Nugse Antique,"
there can be no doubt of their authenticity, and of the occasion on
whicu they were composed. They are published, however, amon'< the
poems of Bishop Corbet in the editions of Gilchrist aTid of Chalmers, as
verses addressed by that poet "To the Prince, afterwards Charles
the First." They were not printed in the early editions of Corbet's
poems, but are stated by Gilchrist to be taken " From a Manuscript in
Ashmole's Museum."

SIB JOHN HAKINGTON, 177

FORTUNE (Book IV. 56).

Fortune, men say, doth give too mucli to many :
But yet she never gave enough to any.

This iii an amplification of the second line of a distich of IMartial
(Book XII. 10) ; translated by Hay (with very slight alteration) :

He strives for more, though he his thousands toucli :
Fortune gives none enough, but some too much.

With this may be compared the latter part of the " Moral " of Prior's
coarse story called " The Ladle." The last line is necessarily altered,
as it refers to the tale, and when separated from it would haye no
meaning :

Against our peace we arm our will :

Amidst our plenty, something still

For horses, houses, pictures, planting,

To thee, to me, to him, is wanting.

The cruel something unpossess'd

Corrodes, and leavens all the rest.

That something, if we could obtain.

Would soon create a future pain :

And to the coffin, from the womb.

Each granted wish has shade of gloom.

Robert Southwell has a fine stanza on this subject in " Times go by
Turns " :

A chance may win that by mischance was lost ;

The well that holds no great, takes httle fish ;
In some things all, in all things none are cross'd ;

Few all they need, but none have all they wish.
Unmeddled joys here to no man befoll.
Who least hath some, who most hath never all.

Singularly enough, considering the age of Southwell, this stanza,
with very slight variation, is attributed to S. T. Coleridge, and pub-
lished in his " Literary Kemains," edited by Henry Nelson Coleridge.
1836, 1. 40.

A TRAGICAL EPIGRAM (Book IV. 82).

When doom of peers and judges fore-appointed,
By racking laws beyond all reach of reason,
Had luito death condomn'd a queen anointed.
And found (oh strange !) without allegiance treason ;
The axe that should have done that execution,
fc)hunn'd to cut off a head that had been crown'd,
Our hangman lost his wonted resolution.
To quell a queen of nobleness so renowned.

178 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Ah, is lemorse in hangmen and in steel,
When peers and judges no remorse can feel ?
Grant, Lord, that in this noble Isle, a queen
Without a head may never more be se'en.

This, with only slight variation, was published by Samuel Sheppiird
as liis own in " Epij^rams, Tlieological, Philosophical, and Romantick,"
1651, Book III. '28.

Sir Jolm Haringtou's father, in lines " Upon the Lord Admiral
Seymour's Picture," had said of that aspii-ing man, with far less ground
than his son of poor Mary, Queen of Scots (" Nugie Antiquse," ed. 1804,
II. 330) :

Yet against nature, reason, and just laws,

His blood was spilt, guiltless, without just cause.

COURT LIFE (" NugfB Antiquse," 1804, I. 168).

Who liveth in courts, must mark what they say ;
^\ ho liveth for ease, had better live aw^ay.

This terse advice is curious, coming from the pen of a man who had
spent the greater part of his life at court, and who teems to have been
a general fevourite. It may, however, refer to Elizabeth's displeasure,
which he incurred, in common with the Earl of Essex, on that noble-
man's impolitic return from Ireland in 1599, whither Harington had
accompanied him.

Sir Thomas Wyat, who was born in 1503, wrote some lines on " The
Courtier's Life," which might have been a warning to Harington of the
troubles, which at that time, at any rate, were inseparable from the
condition of a professed courtier (Ellis' " Specimens of the Early
English Poets," 1S03, II. 48) :

In court to serve decked with fresh array,

Of sugar'd meats feeling the sweet repast ;
The life in banquets, and sundry kinds of play
Amid the press of worldly looks to waste ; —
Hath with it joiu'd oft-times such bitter taste,
That whoso joys such kind of life to hold,
In prison joys fetter'd with chains of gold.

But a still older poet, Quintyn Schaw, a Scotchman, who wrote
" Advice to a Courtier," comparing the life of a courtier to that of a
mariner, concludes liis poem with this sage counsel (Ellis' " Specimens
of the Early English Poets," 1803, I. 404):

Dread tiiis danger, good friend and brother,
And take example before of other.*

Know, courts and winds has oftsysf varied :
Keep well your course, and rule your rudder ;
And tliink with kings ye are not married !

* Of others before vuu. f Oft-times.

179

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.
Born 1564. Died 1616.

EPITAPH ON JOHN COMBE, AN VSUBER.

Ten in the hundred the devil allows,

But Combes will have twelve, he swears and he vows :

If any one ask, who lies in this tomb,

Hoh ! quoth the devil, 'tis my John O'Combe.

There are several versions of this epitaph. The above is taken from
Boswell's edition of Malone's Shakespeare. Eowe, in his Lite of the
Dramatist, gives a different one, and says that the poet made it during
Combe's life, and handed it to that gentleman, wliich so incensed him
that he never forgave the author. Another account states that the
epitaph was fastened upon a tomb, which Combe caused to be built for
liimself in his lifetime. Malone refutes both these storits, and shows
that the epitaph was written after the usm-er's death and on the occa-
sion of his fimeral, which took place at Stratford-on-Avon, July 12.
1614,

EPITAPH ON ELIAS JAMES.

When God was pleas'd, the world unwilling yet,

Elias James to nature paid his debt.

And here reposeth : as he liv'd, he died ;

The saying in him strongly verified, —

Such life, such death : then, the known truth to tell.

He liv'd a godly life, and died as well.

For an account of this and the following epitaphs, and the reasons
for ascribing them to Shakespeare, the reader is referred to Malone's
Life of the Dramatist.

Shakespeare may not refer to any particular " saying." The senti-
ment is common. Sutton, in his "Disce Mori" (^cliap. X.), says;
"What remaineth, but to frame the preuiises as we would hud the
conclusion ; to sow as we would one day reap i* for those that will lif
soft iiiu.st make their b(;d tlierealter, and to live the life we hope to live,
ia in a geuarulity here to live religiously."

180 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

EPITAPHS ON SIE THOMAS STANLEY, KNIGHT,
IN TONG CHURCH, SHBOPSHIBE.

ON THE EAST END OP THE TOMB.

Ask who lies here, but do not weep ;

He is not dead, he doth but sleep.

This stony register is for his bones,

His fame is more perpetual than these stones :

And his own goodness, with himself being gone,

Shall live when earthly monument is none.

ON THE WEST END OF THE TOMB.

'Not monumental stone preserves our fame,
Xor sky-aspiring pyramids our name.
The memory of him for whom this stands.
Shall out-live marble, and defacers' hands.
When all to time's consumption shall be given,
Stanley, for whom this stands, shall stand in heaven.

The expression, "his own goodness with himself being gone," is
introduced with little variation by Shakespeare in " Henry VIII."
(Act II. sc. 1) ; Buckingham, just before his execution, thus speaking of
the king :

Ever belov'd, and loving, may his rule be !
And, when old time shall lead him to his end,
Goodness and he fill up one monument !

Milton, in his epitaph on Shakespeare, almost reproduces the ex-
pression, " Sky-aspiring Pyramids " :

What needs my Shakespeare for his honour'd bones,
The labour of an age in piled stones ;
Or that his hallow'd reliques should be hid
Under a star-y -pointing pyramid ?

Truly did Shakespeare say :

The memory of him for whom this stands.
Shall outlive marble and defacers' hands.

But he was, perhaps, too diffident to .suppose that it would be by
means of his own verse. We may apply to this a stanza of Spenser in
" The Ruines of Time" :

For not to have been dipt in Lethe lake,
Could save the sonne of Thetis from to die ;
But that blincle bard did liiiii immortall make
With verses, dipt in deaw of Castalie :
Which made the Easterne conquerour to crie,
O fortunate yong-man ! whose vertue found
So brave a trompe, thy noble acts to sound.

181

SIR JOHX DAVIES.

The son of a lawyer at Tisbury, in Wiltsbire, born about 1570.
A poem on the " Immortality of the Soul," brought him into notice
In 1603 he was made Sulicitor-General of Ireland, and rose to be a Judge.
On his retui-n to England in 1616 he practised as King's Serjeant, and is
said to have had the prospect of being Chief Justice, but died suddenly
in 1626. His epigrams were added to Marlowe's translation of Ovid's
Epistles, printed at Middleburgh in 1596. In 1599 all the copies in the
Stationers' Hall were destroyed, together with the satires of Hall and
Marston, by order of Archbishop Whitgift and Bishop Bancroft.

ON TITAS (Ep. ^).

Titas, the brave aud valorous young gallant,
Three years together in this town hath been,
Yet my Lord Chancellor's tomb he hath not seen.
Nor the new water-work, nor the elephant.
I cannot tell the cause without a smile,
He hath been in the compter all this while.

The Lord Chancellor's tomb, which the unfortunate Titas was unable
to visit, was probably that of Sii- Christopher Hatton, who died in 1591,
and was buried under a stately monument in the choir of S. Paul's.

An anonymous epigram, evidently formed upon Davies', is in several
old collections :

Three years in London Bobadil had been,
Yet not the lions nor the tombs had seen :
I cannot till the cause without a smile —
The rogue had been in Newgate all the while.

Bishop Corbet ridicules the Chancellor's tomb at the close of his
" Elegj- upon the Death of Dr. Kavis, Bishop of Lundon " :

Nor needs the Chancellor boast, whose pyramis

Above tlie Host and altar reared is ;

For though thy body fill a viler room.

Thou shalt not change deeds with him for his toTnb

On this passage Mr. (lilchrist, the editor of Corbet's Poems, remarks :
" This was not the first censure of Sir Cinistopher Hatton's extnivagant
monument ; as, according to Stow, some poet had before complained on
the part of Sydney and Walsingham, that

" ' Pliilip and Francis liavc no tomb,
For great Christopher takes all the room.' "
The port was Stow himself "Great," alludes to the legend of
S. Christopher, who was of gigantic stature.

182 MODERN EPIGRAMMATI8TO.

ON PBISCUS (Ep. 31).

When Priscus, rais'd from low to high estate,
Eode through the streets in pompous jollity,
Caius, his poor familiar friend of late,
Be-spake him thus : Sir, now you know not me.
'Tis likely, friend, (quoth Priscus) to be so,
For at this time myself I do not know,

Hackett, the editor of a volume of epigrams in 1757, has one very
similar to this (Ep. 32) :

When Jack was poor, the lad was frank and free ;

Of late he's grown brimfull of pride and pelf ;
You wonder that he don't remember me ;

Why so ? You see he has forgot himself.

Swift's satire, " The Dean and the Duke," will be recollected, which
opens thus :

James Brydges and the Dean had long been friends :
James is beduk'd ; of course their friendship ends :
But sure the Dean deserves a sharp rebuke,
From knowing James, to boast he knows the Duke.

And also Pope's dialogue with Craggs :

Pope. Since my old friend is grown so great

As to be minister of state ;
I'm told (but 'tis not true, I hope)
That Craggs will be asham'd of Pope.

Craggs. Alas ! if I am such a creature.

To grow the worse for growing greater ;
Why faith, in spite of all my brags,
'Tis Pope must be asham'd of Craggs.

ON BBUNUS (Ep. 32).

Brunus, which deems himself a fair sweet youth,
Is nine-and-thirty years of age at least ;
Yet was he never, to confess the truth.
But a dry starveling when he was at best.
This gull was sick to show his night-cap fine.
And his wrought pillow overspread with lawn ;
And hath been well since his grief's cause hath lien
At Trollop's by Saint Clement's Church in pawn.

DR. JOHN DONNE. 183

The original of this is probably an epigram by Martial (Book II. 16^,
v.hich Hay thus freely translates:

Vainlove is ill ; his illness is his bed,

Made up of chintz and silks prohibited :

Near it an Indian screen, and workd settee,

Inflame his fever to a high degree.

When he is well these fopperies are not seen :

They make him sick and give us too the spleen.

Dismiss his doctors, and apply my spell ;

Let him change beds with me, and he'll be well.

Massinger, in " The City Madam " (Act IV. sc. 4), makes Luke say
to Lady Frugal and her daughters :

Great lords and ladies feastad to survey
Embroider'd petticoats ; and sickness feign"d
That your night- rails of forty pounds apiece
Might be seen with envy of the visitants.

DE. JOHN DONNE,

Descended from an ancient family in Wales, was born in I^ondon in
1573. He was educated as a Koman Catholic, but joined the Church of
England when about twenty years of age. After travelling abroad for
some time, he took holy ordcra in IGll ; in 1620 was made Dean of S.
Paul's ; and died in 1631. Dryden said of him, that he was " the greatest
wit, thouich not the best poet of our nation."

On the Dean's death the following epitaph was made, the curious
conceits in which are quite in the style of the age. The author is un-
known (Donne's Poems— Chalmers' Poets; :

Here lies Dean Donne : enough ; those words alone

Show him as fully, as if all the stone,

His church of Paul's contains, were through inscrib'd ;

Or all the walkers there, to speak him, brib'd.

None can mistake him, for one such as he,

Donne, dean or man, more none shall ever see.

Not man ? no, thoiigli unto a sun each eye

Were turn'd, the whole eartii so to over-spy ;

A bold brave word ; yet such brave spirits as knew

His spirit, will say, it is less brave than true.

184 MODEEN EPIGKAMMATI8TS.

THE ANTIQUARY.

If in his study he liath so much care

To hang all old strange things, let his wife beware.

The scholar's wife who ventured into his study, was not in danger of
being hanged, but of being put away {" Literary Anecdotes, &c., of
Porson and others, from MS. Papers of the late E. H. Barker, Esq.,"
1852, I. 229) :

To a deep scholar said his wife :
/ " Would that I were a book, my life !

On me you then would sometimes look ;

But 1 should wish to be the book,

That you would mostly wish to see :

Then say what volume should I be ?"

" An almanack," said he, " my dear ;

You know we change them ev'ry year."

This is a joke by Dryden, versified. Ho was himself the scholar ; the
lady, his wife. Lady Elizabeth. Dryden, however, did not express a
desire to change his wife, but to be free altogether of such an appendage,
saying : " When you do become a book, pray let it be an almanack ; for
then at the end of the year I shall lay you quietly on the shelf, and
shall be able to pursue my studies without interruption" (Kett's
•' Flowers of Wit," 1814, I. 92).

DR. DONNE'S LATIN EPIGRAMS

Were translated in 1652 by Jasper Maine, or Mayne, and entitled,
" A Sheaf of Miscellany Epigrams." The following occm- in this
volume.

UPON ONE ROGER, A RICH NIGGARD (Ep. 2).

Bottomless pit of gold ! Slave to thy chest !
Poor in the midst of riches not possest !
Self Tantalus ! To thine own wealth a thief!
Aifording scarce thy half-starv'd womb relief.
Cheating thy limbs with clothes transparent worn ;
Plague to thyself! To all men else a scorn !
Who madly does men's silver shapes adore ;
And thence get'st cheeks pale as the silver ore.
Tear not I'll beg ; my mind's above thy pelf;
Good thrifty Hodge, give something to thyself.

Donne, when writing this, probably thought of a Latin epigram by
Petronius Arbiter (" Satyricon," ed. Amstel., 1669, 309), translated in
" The Works of Petronius Arbiter, by several hands," 1714 :

THOMAS BASTARD. 185

Unhappy Tantalus, amidst the flood,

Where floating apjiles on the surface stood,

Ever pursu'd them with a longing eye.

Yet could not thirst nor hunger satisfy.

Such is the miser's fate, who, curs'd with wealth,

In midst of endless treasures starves himself.

EPIGRAM 50.

A Dutch captain of foot, having with his soldiers entered a breach,
and there awhUe fought valiantly with a two-handed sword ; in the
very point of victory, being mortally wounded, spake thus :

I die well paid, whilst my expiring breath,
Smiles o'er the tombs of foes made kin by death.

Diodorus, a Greek poet, who flourished B.C. 354, lias a fragraei.t
which expresses a noble feeling with regard to the kinship and cessation
of hostility between foes in death. It is translated by Cumberland
(" Observer," No. 103) :

When your foe dies, let all resentment cease ;

Make peace with death, and death shall give you peace.

THOMAS BASTAED,

Was a native of Blandford in Dorsetshire. The exact date of his
birth is unknown, but in 1588 he was elected to New College, Oxford,
from Winchester School. He took holy orders, and obtained the
livings of Bere Regis and Amour, or Amer, in his own county. In the
latter part of his life he became embarrassed in circumstances, and
afiectcd in mind, and died in Dorchester prison in 1618. He published

Chrestoleros. Seven Books of Epigrams," in 1598.

ON SIR PHILIP SIDNEY (Book I. 11).

When Nature wrought upon her mould so well,
That Nature wonder'd her own work to see,
When Art so labour'd Nature to excel,
And both had spent their excellence in thee ;
Willing they gave thee into Fortune's hand.
Fearing they could not end what they began.

Spf.n.ser has an elegy and two epitaphs on Sir Philip Sidney. In one
of the latter he thus expresses his worth :

186 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Place pensive wailes his fall, whose presence was her pride :
Time crieth out, My ebbe is come ; his life was my spring tide ;
Fame mournes in that she lost the ground of her reports ;
Ech living wight laments his laeke, and all in sundry sorts.
He was (wo worth that word !) fo ech well thinking minde
A spotlesse friend, a matchless man, whose vertue ever shinde,
Declaring in his thoughts, his life, and that he writ,
Highest conceits, longest foresights, and deepest works of wit.

This curious epitaph on Sir Philip Sidney, inscribed on a board,
hung on a pillar in S. Paul's Church, Farringdon Without, is by Sir
Walter Raleigh (" Gentleman's Magazine," New Series, XVII. 616) :

England, Netherland, the Heavens and the Arts,

The Soldiers, and the World, have made six parts

Of noble Sidney : for none will suppose,

That a small heap of stones can- Sidney enclose.

His body hath England, for she it fed,

Netherland his blood, in her defence shed ;

The Heavens have his soul, the Arts have his fame,

All Soldiers the gi'ief, the World his good name.

THE HEIR (Book I. 13).

Gallus would make me heir, but suddenly,
He was prevented by untimely death :
Scilla did make me heir ; when by and by
His health returns, and he recovereth.
He that intends me good, dies with his pelf,
And he that doth me good, hath it himself.

Martial has an epigram " On Numa," who, like Scilla, inopportunely
recovered (Book X. 97). The translation is by Elphinston :

Now giddy Libitina mounts the pyre:

Now myrrh and cassia fume the wailing wife.

The grave, the bier, th' anointer, at desire ;
Numa subscribes me heir : and sleei:)S — to life.

GAZING AT THE SUN (Book IV. 17).

The sun which shines amid the heav'n so bright.
And guides our eyes to heaven by his light,
"Will not be gaz'd on of a fleshly eye,
But blinds that sight which dares to see so high :
Even he doth tell us that heaven doth require.
Far better eyes of them which would see higher.

DR. JOSEPH HALL. 187

Shakespeare, in " Love's Labour's Lost" (Act I. so. ]), has:

Study me how to i^lease the eye indeed,

By lixing it upon a fairer eye ;
Who dazzling so, that eye. shall be his heed,

And give hun light that it was blinded by.
Study is like the heaven's glorious sun,

That will not be deep-search'd with saucy looks.

DE. JOSEPH HALL,

Was born in 1574. In 1627 he was consecrated Bishop of Exeter,

and was afterwards translated to Norwich. When the rebels under
Cromwell gained the mastery, his revenues were sequestered, and, after
being brutally treated by the Parliamentary soldiers, he was turned out
of his palace, and sought shelter at Higham, near Norwich, where, in
the exercise of such ministrations as the times permitted, he lived in
retirement until his death in 1656.

UPON MR. GREEN HAM HIS BOOK OF THE SABBATH.

W.hile Greenham writetli of the Sabbath's rest,
His soul enjoys not what his pen express'd :
His work enjoys not what itself doth say.
For it shall never find one resting day ;
A thousand hands shall toss each page and line,
Which shall be scanned by a thousand eiue.
That Sabbath's rest, or this Sabbath's unrest,
Hard is to say whether's the happiest.

Richard Greenham, a Puritan of considerable talent and popularity,
was rector of Dry Drayton, near Cambridge. His works, consisting of
sermons, meditations, treatises, &c., were published in 1599.

ON THE DEATH OF PRINCE HENRY.

Upon the unseasonable times that have followed the unseasonable
death of my sweet master. Prince Henry.

Fond Vulgar, canst thou think it strange to find
So icatery winter, and so wasteful windf
What other face could Nature's age become.
In looking on Great Henry's hearse and tomb?

188 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

The world's whole frame his part in mourning bears :

The vjinds are sighs : the rain is Heaven's tears :

And if these tears be rife, and sighs be strong,

Such sighs, such tears, to these sad times belong.

These show'rs have drown'd all hearts : these sighs did make

The church, the world, with griefs, with fears to shake.

Weep on, ye Heav'ns, and sigh as ye begon,

Men's sighs and tears are slight and quickly done.

The conceit in these lines is very pretty ; and the Prince (James I.'s
eldest son) was worthy of the pathetic lament, for in every respect
his merit was great ; and historians recount with fondness his virtues,
and with sorrow his early death.

Shakespeare, in " Antony and Cleopatra " (Act V. sc. 2), makes
Charmian tersely cry at Cleopatra's death :

Dissolve, thick cloud, and rain ; that I may say.
The gods themselves do weep.

Wordsworth, in " The Excursion" (Book I.), says:

— The poets in their elegies and songs
Lamenting the departed, call the groves,
They call upon the hills and streams to mourn.
And senseless rocks ; nor idly ; for they speak.
In these their invocations, with a voice
Obedient to the strong creative power
Of himian passion.

The imagery of wind or rain to express grief, has seldom been con-
ceived with greater energy than by Shelley in the following dirge :

Eough wind, that meanest loud

Grief too sad for song ;
Wild wind, when sullen cloud

Knells all the night long ;
Sad storm, whose tears are vain,
Bare woods whose branches stain.
Deep caves and dreary main.

Wail, for the world's wrong !

Prior has an epigram " To Cloe Weeping," in which Nature, animate
and inanimate, is depicted as sympathising with the fair mourner.

ON THE DEATH OF SIR HORATIO PALLAVICINI.

Translated from the Latin by Peter Hall in his edition of the Bishop's

Worlis, 1837-9, XII.

Which is my home-land, which the stranger-shore,
When England holds what soil Italian bore ?

BENJAMIN JONSON. 189

There born, jet here I liv'd, and here I died;
A cradle that, and this a tomb supplied.
In life, 'twixt me and Latinm roU'd the main,
And death the bond of birth-right rent in twain.
Britain receiv'd me, lov'd me, fed me long ;
Sure Britain numbers me her sons among ?
Ah, no ! my lot no limits now confine ;
A home eternal in the Heav'ns is mine !

Bishop Hall appears to have had a good opinion of Sir Horatio.
Not so the author of an epitaph on him which is found in " Recreation
for Ingeniiius Head-pieces: or a Pleasant Grove for their Wits to Walk
in," 1654, Epitaph 181 :

Here lies Sir Horatio Faluvozeene

Who robb'd the Pope to pay the Queen,

And was a thief. A thief ? thou liest :

For why ? he robb'd but Antichrist.

Him Death with his besom swept from Babram.,

Into the bosom of old Ahraham :

But then came Hercules with his club,

And struck him down to Bekebub.

Sir Horatio Pallavicini, of a noble Italian family, settled in England,
and was appointed by Queen IMary collector of the Pope's taxes. At
her death, having a large sum of money in hand, he abjured the
religion of Pome, and kept the cash. Being thus enriched, he made a
figure at court, and at the time of the expected Spanish invasion
assisted the Queen by fitting out a ship against the Armada. He died
in IGOO, and was buried at I3abraham in Cambridgeshire. His widow
married Sir Oliver Cromwell, the usurj^er's uncle, and two of his sons.
Sir Henry and Tobias, married, respectively, Catherine and Joan, the
daughters of their steji-father. It is also said that his only daughter
married Henry, Sir Olivers son.

BENJAMIN JONSON.
Born 1574. Died 1G37.

POBTRAIT OF SHAKESPEARE.

Written under Martin Droueshont's engraving in the first edition

of the Plays.

, This figure that thou here seest put,
It was for gentle Shakespeare cut.
Wherewitli the graver had a strife.
With nature to outdo the lite.

190 MODERN EPIGEAMMATISTS.

could he but laave drawn his wit
As well in brass, as he has hit
His face ; the print would then surpass
All that was ever writ in brass !
But since he cannot, reader, look
Not on his picture, but his book.

Addison, in his Ode to Sir Godfrey Kneller, on his picture of the
kin", pays a similar compliment to that painter :

Thou, Kneller, long with noble pride,
The foremost of thy art, hast vied
With nature in a generous strife.
And touch'd the canvass into life.

Prom the close of the epigram, Orashaw may have taken the thought
at the end of his lines, " On the Picture of Bishop Andrewes before his
Sermons " (Crashaw's Poems, 1G70, IIG):

And now that grave aspect hath deign'd to shrink
Into this less appearance ; if you think
'Tis but a dead face Art doth here bequeath,
Look on the following leaves, and see him breathe.

THE COURT-WORM (Ep. 15).

All men are worms : but this no man. In silk
'Twas brought to court first wrapt, and white as milk ;
Where afterwards it grew a butterfly ;
Which was a caterpillar. So 'twill die.

Fenton, in " The Fair Nun," describes a youth who
* * Successively did grow

From a half-wit, a finish'd beau !
For fops thus naturally rise.
As maggots turn to butterflies.

ON SIR JOHN ROE (Ep. 33).

rU not oifend thee with a vain tear more.
Glad-mention' d Eoe : thou art but gone before,
Whither the world must follow. And T, now,
Breathe to expect my When and make my How ;
Which if most gracious Heaven grant like thine,
Who wets my grave can be no friend of mine.

BENJAMIN JONSON. 191

A fragment by Antiphanes, who flourished b.c. 388, may be com-
pared : thus translated by Cumberland (" Observer," No. 102) :

Cease, mourners, cease complaint, and weep no more !
Your lost friends are not dead, but gone before,
Advanc'd a stage or two upon that road.
Which you must travel in the steps they trode ;
In the same inn we all shall meet at last,
There take new life and laugh at sorrows past.

OF LIFE AND DEATH (Ep. 80).

The ports of death are sins ; of life, good deeds

Through which our merit leads us to our meeds.
How wilful blind is he then, that should stray,

And hath it, in his powers, to make his way !
This world death's region is, the other life's :

And here it should be one of our first strifes.
So to front death, as men might judge us past it.

For o-ood men but see death, the wicked toMe it.

The last line brings to remembrance Callunachus' Greek epigram on
a good man Jacobs I. 223, xlix.) :

In sacred sleep here virtuous Saon lies ;
'Tis ever wrong to say a good man dies.

This, again, may have suggested to S. T. Coleridge, the two lines on
the Christian's Death-bed, in " My Baptismal Bii'th-day " :

Is that a death-bed where a Christian lies ?—
Yes ! but not his— 'tis Death itself there dies.

TO CELIA ("The Forest").
Drink to me, only with thine eyes,

And I will pledge with mine ;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,

And I'll not look for wine.
The thirst, that from the soul doth rise,

Doth ask a drink divine;
But might I of Jove's nectar sip,

I would not clmnge for thine.
I sent theo, late, a rosy wreath.

Not so much honouring thee,
As giving it a hope that there

It could not withered be.

192 MODERN KPTGRAMMATISTS.

But thou thereon didst ouly hreathe,

And sent'st it back to me ;
Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,

Not of itself, but thee.

Jonsou has had the credit of composing these beautiful verses, but
they are little more than a translation, as has been pointed out by
Cumberland, in the "Observer," No. 109, from some pieces "in an
obscure collection of love-letters written by the sophist Philostratus."

A VINTNEB,

To whom Jonson was in debt, told him that he would excuse the
payment, if he could give an immediate answer to the following ques-
tions : What God is best pleased with ; what the devil is best pleased
with : what the world is best pleased with ; and what he was best
pleased with. Jonson, without hesitation, replied thus :

God is best pleas'd, when men forsake their sin ;
The devil's best pleas'd, when they persist therein :
The world's best pleas'd, when thou dost sell good wine ;
And you're best pleas'd, when I do pay for mine.

The authority for this anecdote is Kett, who gives it in his " Flowera
of Wit," 1814, I. 152. A similar story has been told with Dryden for
the hero ; but a debt to a vintner, evidently only forgiven because the
chance of payment was very slight, accords better with the circum-
stances of Jonson than of " Glorious John." The lines are, no doubt,
the original of an elegy on Coleman, a plotting Jesuit in the reign of
Charles II. :

If Heav'n be pleas'd, when sinners cease to sin ;

If Hell be pleas'd, when souls are damn'd therein ;

If Earth be pleas'd, when it's rid of a knave ;

Then all are pleas'd, for Coleman's in his grave.

This elegy first appeared in " Poems on Affairs of State," III. 207, 1704.
It afterwards did duty for Bishop Burnet, and for Colonel Henry
Luttrell (" Notes and Queries," 3rd S. XI. 273 j.

EPITAPH ON HIS FIBST-BORN DAUGHTEB (Ep. 22

Here lies to each her parents' ruth,

Mary the daughter of their youth :

Yet all Heaven's gifts, being Heaven's due.

It makes the Father less to rue.

At six months' end she parted hence

With safety of her innocence ;

BENJAMIN JOXSON. 193

Whose soul Heaven's Queen, (whose name she bears)

In comfort of her mother's tears,

Hath plac'd among her Virgin-train ;

Where, while that sever 'd doth remain,

This grave partakes the fleshly birth.

Which cover lightly, gentle earth !

The prayer, that the earth would rest lightly on the bodies of the
departed, is common in ancient epitaphs. Meleager has one on a man
of kindly nature, which may serve as a specimen (Jacobs I. 3G, exxi.) :

Oh ! mother earth, his body lightly press,
Who, living, would no hapless man distress.

The thought of the severed soul and body is exquisitely expressed by
Herrick, in an " Epitaph upon a Maide " :

Hence a blessed soule is fled.
Leaving here the body dead.
WTiich, since here they can't combine,
For the saint, we'll keep the shrine.

EPITAPH ON HIS FIEST-BOBN SON (Ep. 45).

Farewell, thou child of my right hand and joy ;

My sin was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy ;
Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay,

Exacted by thy fate on the just day.
0, could I lose all father now ! For why

Will man lament the state he should envy ?
To have so soon 'scap'd world's and flesh's rage.

And, if no other misery, yet age.
Eest in soft peace, and ask'd, say. Here doth lie

Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.
For whose sake, henceforth all vows be such,

As what he loves, may never like too much.

When Jonson wrote this beautiful lament, be must liave had in hia
mind Martial's epitajth upon Glaucias, one of the few touching pro-
ductions of that author. The translation is by Hay (IMartial, J3(K>k VI.
28, with last two lines of 2'J) :

Less by his birtii than by bis merit known,
A favourite lamented by tlic tr)wn,
(){ friends the exquisite but shoj^-liv'd joy.
Amongst the great intcrr'd, hcrMics a boy :

191 MODBEN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

A chaste behaviom-, aud a modest gi'ace ;
An early judgment ; and a cherub's face.
But soon, alas too soon ! his race was run !
Scarce had he seen a thirteenth summer's sun i
Ne'er may he grieve again, who drops a tear I
Worth is short liv'd ; then nothing hold too dear.

EPITAPH ON S. P., A CHILD OF QUEEN ELIZABETH'S
CHAPEL (Ep. 120).

Weep with me all you that read

This little story ;
And know, for whom the tear you shed

Death's self is sorry.
'Twas a Child that so did thrive

In grace and feature,
As Heaven and Nature seem'd to strive

Which own'd the creature.
Years he number'd scarce thirteen

When Fates turn'd cruel,
Yet three fill'd Zodiacks had he been

The stage's jewel ;
And did act, what now we moan,

Old men so duly
As, sooth, the Parcai thought him one,

He play'd so truly.
So, by error, to his fate

They all consented ;
But viewing him since (alas, too late !)

They have repented ;
And have sought (to give new birth)

In baths to steep him ;
But, being so much too good for earth.

Heaven vows to keejp him.

S. P. was probably Salvadore Pavy, who had a part in " Cynthia's
Kevels," and the " Poetaster," and who died at about 13 years of age.

The conceit in this beautiful epitaph, of the Fates mistaking the
child for an old man, on account of his excellence, appears to be much
in favour with later writers ; but it was not original in Jonson, who
probably adopted it from Martial's epigram on the death of the youth-
ful Scorpus, who, like S. P., was celebrated for his performances in the
Paiajstra (Book X. 53) ; translated by D. :

BENJAMIN JONSON. 195

For me tlie Koman circus echo'd to its height ;

•' Scorpns." the applause raug out, short-lived delight :

Mistaken Lachesis proclaim'd my triumphs bold,

And though but three times nine my span, she call'd me old.

This is translated in accordance with Archdeacon Jortiu's sugges-
tion (" Tracts, Philological, &c." 11. 279) that " inscia Lachesis " must
be the true reading, inste.id of "■invida (envious) Lachesis." which is in
all modern copies, but which is not consistent with the main thought
in the epigram.

There is a very pretty epigram by Kelph, which is evidently founded
upon Martial's (Ep. 34) :

Censure no more the hand of Death,
That stopp'd so early Stella's breath ;
Nor let an easy error be
Charg'd with the name of cruelty :
He heard her sense, her virtues told.
And took her (well he might) for old.

Owen has a Latin epigram, similar in character, but cast in a
different form (Book V. SS). The translation is by Harvey :

WTiy doth the gout, which doth to age belong,
Vex thee, a soldier, scholar, and so young ?
The gout mistook, it saw thee grave and sage,
And took thee for an old man, full of age.

EPITAPH ON ELIZABETH L. H. (Ep. 124).

Would'st thou hear what man can say

In a little ? Keader, stay.
Underneath this stone doth lie

As much beauty as could die ;
"Which in life did harbour give

To more virtue than doth live :
If, at all, she had a fault.

Leave it buried in this vault.
One name was EUzahetli,

Th' other let it sleep with death ;
Fitter, where it died, to tell,

Thau that it liv'd at all. Farewell.

The thought of the beauty and virtue of the deceased is roprfidiiced
with some eltgancc by Aaron Hill, in an ef)ita[)h on the tomb fif Jliury
lernegan, a gold.smith and jeweller, in tlio churchyard of B. raul'.-.
Covent Garden aiilla Works, 1753, HI. 1G2):

196 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

All, that accomplish'd body lends mankind,
From earth receiving, he to earth reaign'd:
All that e'er graced a soul, from Heaven he drew,
And took back with him, as an angel's due !

The subject of this epitaph was a man of some note, a younger sun
of Sir Francis Jerningham, or Jernegan, whose family had long been
settled at Cossey, in Norfolk. He was an ingenious artist, and made a
silver cistern, beautiful and celebrated enough for Vertue finely to
engrave. This he disposed of by lottery, about the year 1740. The
tickets were five or six shillings each, and the purchaser had a silver
medal into the bargain, of the value of three shillings. The medal
induced many persons to buy the tickets, of which it is said that
30,000 were sold (Nichols' " Literary Anecdotes," 11. 513).

Note. — The celebrated epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke, which
is usually given to Jonson, will be foimd under William Browne, the
author of " Britannia's Pastorals," with the reasons for ascribing it to
that poet.

HUGH HOLLAND.

Born at Denbigh. In 1589, he was elected from "Westminster
School to Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he was afterwards a
Fellow. He travelled in Italy, and went as far as Jerusalem. On his
retiu'n, he lived for some years at Oxford for the sake of the public
library. He died in Westminster, in 1G33, and was buried in the Abbey.

ON PRINCE HENRY.

Lo, where he shineth yonder

A fixed star in heaven,
Whose motion thence comes tinder

None of the planets seven :
If that the moon should tender

The sun her love and marry,
They both could not engender

So bright a star as Harry.

This is ascribed to Hugh Holland, on the authority of the MS.
volume of William Browne's poems, iu the British Museum (Lans-
downe Collection, No. 777, leaf 66).

Many elegies and epitaphs were written on this accomplished young
Prince. See one by Bishop Hall. The following distich by Samuel
Sheppard, is very characteristic of the exaggerations of the period
(look III. 15):

Here lies Prince Henry, I dare say no more.
Lest after times this sepulchre adore.

l'J7

ROBERT HAYMAX,

Wae born in Devonshire, aljout 1580, but the date is uncertain. He
was entered at Exeter College. Oxford, but went to liincoln's Inn with-
out taking a degree. By the advice of Drayton, Ben Jouson and others,
he studied poetry more than law. "When about 40 years of age, he
was made Governor of tlie Plantation of " Harbor-Grace, in Bristol-
Hope, in Britaniola, anciently called Newfoundland." He is supposed
to have died about 1632. In IGiiS, he published " Quodlibets lately
come over from New Britaniola, Old Newfoimdland. Epigrams and
other small parcels, both Morall and Divine." In the same volume are
translations of some of the epigrams of Owen, and " other rare Authors."

HOW AND WHEREOF TO JEST (Book I. Quod. 2C).

Jest fairly, freely : but exempt from it,
Men's misery, State business, Holy Writ.

Mrs. Barber has an epigram on making free with Holy Writ (Barber's
" Poems on Several Occasions," 1735, 239; :

Since Milo rallies Sacred Writ,
To win the title of a wit ;
'Tis pity but he should obtain it.
Who bravely pays his soul to gain it.

LOVE IS BETWIXT EQUALS (Book I. Quod. 33).

Kicli friends, for rich friends, will ride, run, and row,
Through dirt and dangers cheerfully they'll go :
If poor friends come home to them, for a pleasure.
They cannot find the gentleman at leisure.

There are two fragments by AIcjeus of Mitylene, who flourishe<l
B.C. tJlO, on poverty, and the contempt in which a poor man was held,
which are thus translated together by Merivale :

The worst of ills, and hardest to endure,

Past hope, past cure,
Is Penury, wlio with her sister mate
Disorder, soon brings down the loftiest state.

And niakt s it de>X)hile.
This trutli ihc sage of Sparta told,

Aristodemuri old, —
"Wtallli tn;ikistlie man." On liim that's poor
Proud wiirlh looks dowTi, and hi'Ui'Ur shuts the door.

Petronius Arbiter, in his " Satyricon," (Ed. Amstel. 1669, 304) lia.s »
couplet on faithless friends, which is thus excellently rendered by
Burton, in hia " Anatomy of Melancholy " :

198 MODERN EPIGKAMMATISTS.

Whilst Fortune favour'd, friends, ye smil'd on me,
But when she fled, a friend I could not see.

SAD MEN'S LIVES ARE LONGER THAN KERRY MEN'S
(Book I. Quod. 45).

To him whose heavy grief hath no allay
Of light'niiig comfort, three hours is a day :
But unto him that hath his heart's content,
Friday is come, ere he thinks Tuesday spent.

If Hayman were acquainted with the epigrams of the Greeks, he
perhaps had in mind one by Lucian (Jacobs IH. 27, xxix.), thus trans-
lated by Jlerivale :

In pleasure's bowers whole lives unheeded fly.
But to the wretch one night's eternity.

NEWFOUNDLAND POETICAL PICTURE OF TEE AD-
MIRABLE YOUNG GENTLEWOMAN, MISTRESS ANNE
LOWE, MY DELICATE MISTRESS. THE PREFACE TO
HER PICTURE (Book III. Quod. 83).

At sight. Love drew your picture on my heart,
In Newfoundland I limn'd it by my art,

8o, Hughes, in " The Picture," says of Love :

Smiling then he took his dart,
And drew her picture in my heart.

EDWAED, LOED HEEBEET OF CHERBUEY.

This nobleman, who signalised himself as a soldier, an ambassador,
and an historian, was born in 1581. He was the author of a remark-
able work, " De Veritate," in which he endeavoui-ed to form Deism into
R system ; but his inconsistencies were as singular as, in that day, were
hfs views. He died in 1648, having written the following very charac-
teristic epitaph for his tomb, which, however, was not engraved on l:
(Ellis' " Specimens of the Early English Poets," 1803, lU. 46; :

The monument which thou beholdest here
Presents Edward Lord Herbert to thy sight ;

A man who was so free from either hope or fear,
To have or lose this ordinary light,

HENEY PARROT. 199

That, when to elements his body turned were,
He knew that as those elements woiild fight,

So his immortal soul should find above,

With his Creator, peace, joy, truth, and love.

This epitaph is consonant with Lord Herbert's general inconsistency,
one marked instance of which may be adduced. Being doubtful
whether he should publish his deistical work, " De Veritate," he prayed
for a sign from heaven of God's will, upon which, he says, ''a loud,
though yet gentle, noise came forth from the heavens, for it was like
nothing on earth, which did so cheer and comfort me, that I took my
petition as granted, and that I had the sign I demanded ; whereupon
also I resolved to print my book." Thus he who argued against the
revelation of God's will to millions, had the vanity to believe that it
was revealed to himself, and the folly to suppose that an individual
revelation was granted, in order that the doctrine of a general revela-
tion miglit be condemned.

HENRY PAEEOT.

Nothing is known of this author. In 1613 he published in London
" Laquei llidiculosi : or Springes for Woodcocks." Warton, in his
" History of English Poetry," says of the epigrams in this volume,
" Many of them are worthy to be revived in modern collections." The
praise is well deserved, but the wit of a large number is couched in
language too gross for modern refinement. The title "Springes for
Woodcocks " is from a proverbial expression of the day. Shakespeare
uses it in "Hamlet" (Act I. sc. 3); Polomus saying to Ophelia when
she told him of Hamlets vows of love :

Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know,
When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Lends the tongue vows.

QUO MA JOB, I'EJOR (Book I. 5).

Lajtus, that late a great divine did meet,
^\'ould, jesting, needs presume his health to gi'eet,
Wlio (not oU'ended) told him he was well .
Lord, then, quoth Lajtus, see what lies men tell,
J^ast day I was abroad, where I did hear
Your worship hath been speechless all this year.

The divine might have answorf<l in the langna^'e of an ci)igiiuii by
Dr. Walsh, stated to be imitated from Owen (" Select EiHgrains ") :

200 MODEKN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Because I'm silent, for a fool
Beau Clincher doth me take ;

I know he's one by surer rule,
For — I heard Clmcher speak.

SALTEM VIDERETUB (Book I. 9).

A Welshman and an Englishman disputed,
Which of their lands maintain'd the greatest state ;
The Englishman the Welshman quite confuted,
Yet would the Welshman nought his brags abate.
Ten cooks (quoth he) in Wales one wedding sees :
True, quoth the other, each man toasts his cheese.

Warton reprinted this epigram, as worthy of special commendation ;
and it is also found in " Elegant Extracts " and " Select Epigrams,"
but; without the author's name.

John Taylor, the Water Poet, has an epigram on " Welsh Eabbit " :

The way to make a Welshman thirst for bliss,

And say his prayers daily on his knees,
Is to persuade him that most certain 'tis

The moon is made of nothing but green cheese;
And he'll desire of God no greater boon,
But place in heav'n to feed upon the moon.

OPUS ET USUS (Book I. 49).

Opus for need consum'd his wealth apace,
And ne'er would cease until he was undone ;
His brother Usus liv'd in better case
Than Opus did although the eldest son :

'Twas strange it should be so ; but here was it,

Opus had all the land, Usus the wit.

Opus lived too well for wit, while poverty sharpened that of Usus, by
which he became wealthy. The words of Longaville, when subscribing
the oath to live as fellow-student with Ferdinand, are applicable to
Opus ("Love's Labour's Lost," Act I. sc. 1):

I am resolv'd : 'tis but a three years' fast ;
The mind shall banquet, though the body pine :
Fat paunches have lean pates ; and dainty bits
Make rich the ribs, but bank'rout quite the -wits.

HKNRY PAKKOT. 201

TIMET, SEIPSUM NOCERE (Book I. 1G2).

Dacus doth daily to his doctor go,
As doubting if he be in health or no ;
For when his friends sahite him passing by,
And ask him how he doth in courtesy,
He will not answer thereunto precise,
Till from his doctor he hath tane advice.

One of the best epigi-ams on a Valetudinarian is by the Arabian
poet Ebu Alrumi, a Syrian, who died a.d. 905. The translation is by
Professor Carlyle (" Specimens of Arabian Poetry," 1796, 76):

So careful is Isa and anxious to last,

So afraid of liimself is he grown,
He swears thi'o' two nostrils tlie breath goes too fast,

And he's trying to breathe thro' but one.

SI EODIE TIBI CBAS MIEI (Book I. 181).

A scornful dame invited over night,
To come and dine next morrow with a knight,
Eefus'd his sudden bidding with disdain,
To whom this message was return'd again,

Since with so short time she could not dispense, .

To pray her come as that day twelvemonth hence.

The dame seems to have resented a friendly invitation to a small
party, as much as the gentleman, of whom Martial tells us, objected to
the bidding to a formal dinner (Book XI. 35). The translation is by
Hay:

That I your invitation should decline,
Why do you wonder? Why do you repine ?
When hundreds you invite to me unknown :
I do not choose, dear friend, to dine alone.

NE SVTOB ULTRA CREPIDAM (Book I. 200).

A cobbler and a cuj'ate once disputed,
Before a judge about the king's injunctions;
Wherein the curate being still confuted.
One said 'twere good if they two changed functions.
Nay (quoth the judge) 1 thereto should be loth,
But an you will we'll make them cobblers both.

202 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

In some respects parallel to this are Pope's lines in the " Essay on
Man " (Epistle IV. 199) :

" What difter more (you cry) than crown and cowl ?"
I'll tell you, friend, a wise man and a fool.
You'll find if once the monarch acts the monk,
Or, cobbler-like, the parson will be drunk.
Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow ;
The rest is all but leather or prunella.

WILLIAM GAMAGE,

Was educated at Oxford, probably at Jesus College, but neither the
date of his birth nor any particulars concerning him are known. He
published " Liusi-Woolsie, or Two Centuries of Ejiigrammes," in 1613,
now a rare volume, consisting, as Dr. Bliss, the editor of Wood's
" Athense," very truly remarks, of " the saddest trash that ever assimied
the name of epigrams." One, a little butter than the majority, is
given as a specimen of his powers :

COYT-IE CASTLE AND BADYB HOUSE EXCLAIMING ON
TIME (Book I. 78).

World-wasting Time, thou worker of our woes.
Thou keen-edg'd razer of our famous name,
That antique was, but now oblivious grows,
The subject almost of contempt and shame.
Yet do thy worst, our names shall live for ayo,
Altho' our fame thou buried hast in clay.

DE. RICHARD CORBET.

Born in 1582 ; educated at Westminster ; consecrated Bishop of
Oxford in 1629, and afterwards translated to Norwich. He is better
known as a poet than a divine. He died in 1635. The best edition ()f
his poems is that by Gilchrist, 1807.

ON THE DEATH OF LADY ARABELLA STUABT.

How do I thank thee, Death, and bless thy power.
That I have past the guard, and 'scaped the Tower !
And now my pardon i^ my epitaph,
And a small coffin my poor carcass hath ;

DR. RICHARD CORBET. 203

For at thy charge both soul and body were
Enlarged at last, secured from hope and fear.
Tiiat among saints, this amongst kings is laid ;
And what my birth did claim, my death hath paid.

It was the misfortune of Lady Arabella Stuart to be born near the
throne, and consequently to excite the jealousy both of Elizabeth and
James I. She languished for some years a prisoner in the Tower, and
at her death in 1615 was buried in Westminster Abbey, a vain tribute
to that high rank which had been the cause of her misery in life.

Owen has several Latin epigrams addi-essed to this lad}'. The follow-
ing (Book IV. 2) is translated by Harvey :

Thy constant life doth from thy youth express

The genius of thine ingeuiousness :

Adverse things quell thee not, nor prosp'rous swell

Thy sails ; thy front and mind are parallel :

And thy rare signal virtues are the cause

That none will think I flatter for applause.

Corbet's expression of Lady Arabella's thankfulness for death recalls
a Greek epigram by an uncertain author, which the late Dr. Wellteley
thus translates (Jacobs IV. 283, dccxlvi.) :

Sweeter than life thou cora'st, who from disease.
From painful gout, and trouble giv'st me ease.

ON MR. BICE, THE MANCIPLE OF CHE 1ST CHURCH, IN

OXFORD.

Who can doubt. Rice, but to th' eternal place

Thy soul is fled, that did but know thy face ?

Whose body was so light, it might have gone

To heav'n without a resurrection.

Indeed thou wert all type ; thy limbs were signs,

Thy arteries but mathematic lines :

As if two souls had made thy compound good,

That both should live by faith, and none by blood.

Mr. Rice seems to have resembled the original of an cjiigram by
firaves, on "A Very Thin Metaphysician " (" Euphrosyne," 17S3, iL
1.00):

Scarce from Privation's dreary lap,

Thy shadowy form drawn forth we see;
A scanty shred ; a tiny scrap
Of metaphysic entity !

204 MODEEN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Thy face, in hieroglyphic style,

Seems juat mark'd out; thy waist a span

Thou sketch ! thou out-line ! thou profile !
Thou bas-rclievo of a mau 1

SIE JOHN BEAUMONT,

Son of Francis Beaumont, one of the Judges of the Common Pleas,
was born at Grace-Dieu, in Leicestershire, in 1582. He studied law,
but did not follow it as a profession, devoting himself chiefly to poetry.
He was created a baronet by King Charles I., but enjoyed the rank a
very short time, dying in 1628.

EPITAPH ON HIS BROTHER FRANCIS BEAUMONT, THE

DRAMATIST.

On Death, thy murd'rer, this revenge I take :

I slight his terror and just question make,

"Which of ns two the best precedence have,

Mine to this wretched world, thine to the grave :

Thou should'st have followed me, but Death to blame,

Miscounted years, and measur'd age by fame.

So dearly hast thou bought thy precious lines,

Their praise grew swiftly ; so thy life declines:

Thy Muse, the hearer's queen, the reader's love.

All ears, all hearts, (but Death's) could please and move.

Bishop Corbet's epigram on Beaumont's early death is well
known :

He that hath such acuteness and such wit.
As would ask ten good heads to husband it ;
He, that can write so well that no man dare
Refuse it for the best, let him beware :

Beaumont is dead, by whose sole death appears.
Wit's a disease consumes men in few years.

With the line, " Miscounted years, and measur'd age by fame," may
be compared Ben Jonson's " Epitaph on S. P.," and the epigrams given
in illustration of it.

Compare, also, Shakespeare (" King Richard III." Act III. So. 1),
who quotes a proverbial expression :

So wise so young, they say, do ne'er hve long.

205

WILLIAM DEUMMONI).

A Scotch poet, son of Sir Jobn Drummond of Hawtborndeii,
born in 1585. During the civil war he was greatly harassed by the
rebels, on account of his zealous attachment to the Church and the
Throne. The niurdtr of the king so deeply aftected him that it is said
to have hastened his death, which took place at the close of ltJ49. As
a poet he ranks very high. Headley remarks of his sonnets, that many
of them " resemble the best Greek epigrams in their best taste."

L ALUS' DEATH.

xlmidst the waves profotmd,

Far, far from all relief,

The houest iisher Lalns, all! is drown'd,

Shut in this little skiff ;

The boards of which did serve him for a bier,

So that when he to the black world came near,

Of him no silver greedy Charon got ;

For he in his own boat

Did pass that flood, by which the gods do swear.

Diogenes might surely have saved his penny by crossing the Styx
in his tub, like Lalus in his skiflf ; but Archias, in a Greek epigram,
shows that he was not so economical (Jacobs II. 89, xxxiv.). The
translation is from " A Selection of Greek Epigrams for the Use of
Winchester School,' 1791. Diogenes speaks :

Stern guardian of this gloomy shore.

Quick push thy crazy bark afloat ;
From yonder world no toys I bore.

Old Charon, to retard thy boat.

A staff, a tub, a stout warm vest,

Were all my store, and all my gains :

Come, ferryman, a(hnit your guest.
And take this penny for your pains.

THE STATUE OF VENUS SLEEPING.

Break not my sweet repose.

Thou whom free will or chance brings to this place,

Let lids these comets clo.se,

do not seek to see their shining grace ;

For when mine eyes thou seeist, they thine will blind,

And thou slialt part, but leave thy heait behind.

206 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

With this may be compared the pretty lines of an old English poet,
•which express the dangt-r of distiu'bing the repose of Venus' son
(quoted in Bland's " Collections frum the Greek Anthology," 1813):

Corne shepherds, follow me !

Run up apace the mountain !

See, lo be-side the fountain
Love laid to rest; how sweetly sleepeth he !

O take heed ! Come not nigh him,

But haste we hence, and fly him !

And, lovers, dance with gladness ;
For while Love sleeps is truce with care and sadness.

DAPHNIS' VOW.

WTien sun doth bring the day

From the Hopeiian sea,

Or moon her couch doth roll

Above the Xorthem Pole,

When serpents cannot hiss,

And lovers shall not kiss.

Then may ir be, but in no time till then,

That Daphnis can forget his Orienne.

Turbervile, older than Drummond, but contemporary with him, has
a similar vow in " The Assured Promise of a Constant Lover " :

When Phoenix shall have many makes.
And fishes shun the silver lakes ;
When wolves and lambs y-fere shall play,
And Phcebus cease to shine by day ;
When grass on marble stones shall grow,

And every man embrace his foe ;

* * * *

When Fortune hath no change in store,
Then will I false, and not before.

Shakespeare makes Othello, full as strenuously, but in the fewest
word.s possible, declare his inichanging love for Desdemona (" Othello,"
Act III. sc. 3) :

Excellent wretch ! Perdition catch my soul,
But I do love thee ! and when I love thee not.
Chaos is come again.

The Scotch will better understand than the English reader the fol«
lowing, by Allan Ramsay, the last stanza of " I'll Never Leave Thee " :

Bid iceshogles hammer red gauds on the study.
And fair simmer mornings nae mair appear ruddy ;

WILLIAM DRUMMOND. 207

Bid Britons think ae gate, and when they obey ye,
But never till that time, believe I'll bttray ye :
Leave thee, leave t]iee, I'll never leave thee ;
The starns shall gang withershms e'er I deceive thee.

ON THE DEATH OF A SCOTCH NOBLEMAN.

Fame, register of Time,

"Write in thy scroll, that I

Of wisdom lover, and sweet poesy,

AV'as cropped in my prime :

And ripe in worth, though green in years did die.

So, Dryden laments the early death of Oldham (verses prefixed to
Oldham's •' Eemains," 1694) :

O early ripe ! to thy abundant store

■What could advancing age have added more ?

*****

» * * * *

Once more, hail and farewell, farewell you young,
But ah too short, Marcellus of our tongue ;
Thy brows with ivy, and with laurels bound;
But fate and gloomy night encompass thee around.

ADDRESS TO CHARLES L

Drummnnd was compelled by the revolutionists to furnish his quota
of men and arms, to serve against the cause which he espoused ; but his
estate lying in three different counties, " he had not occasion," it is
said, " to send one whole man, but halves and quarters and such like
fractions," upon which he wrote extempore the following verses to
King Charles :

Of all these forces raised against the king,
'Tis my strauge hap not one whole man to bring.
From divers parishes, yet divers men.
But all in halfs and quarters ; great king, then,
In halfs and quarters if they come 'gainst thee.
In legs and arms, send thou them back to me.

This is not found in Drummond's "Works, Edinburgh, 1711. It is
taken from Chalmers' " Biog. Diet."

208 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

JOHN HEATH.

Of this epigrammatist very little is known. He was bom about
1585, at Stalls ("whether a hamlet or a house I know not," says
Wood) in Somersetshire, and admitted Perpetual Fellow of New
College, Oxford, in 1607. He published " Two Centuries of Epigrams "
in 1610.

ON THE SETTING SUN (1st Century, 4).

Oft did I wonder why the setting sun
Should look upon us with a blushing face :
Is 't not for shame of what he hath seen done,
Whilst in our hemisphere he ran his race ?

DEATH BETTER THAN MISFORTUNE (1st Century, 6).

I wail not those,

Who take their sweet repose,

Within the bowels of our common mother :

Those grieve me most,

Who still are tost,

From bad to worse, from one fate to another.

When Heath penned this, was he thinking of that fine apostrophe
of Jeremiah on Shallum (Jer. xxii. 10) ? " Weep not for the dead,
neither bemoan him : but weep sore for him that goeth away : for he
shall return no more, nor see his native coimtry."

Owen shows that, though more and more wretched, men still desire
life to be prolonged (Book III. 28). The translation is by Harvey :

Who long would live, wretched although and poor,
That is, he would be wretched more and more :
Poor wretched Irus dies against his will ;
That is, he would be poor and wretched still.

THE SABBATH (1st Century, 83).

Ned will not keep the Jewish Sabbath he,
Because the Church hath otherwise ordain'd :
Nor yet the Christian, for he does not see
How alt'ring of the day can be maintained.
Thus seeming for to doubt of keeping either,
He halts betwixt them both, and so keeps neithor.

PHINEAS FLETCHER. 209

Kolph has an epigram on the " best ' way of lieeping Sunday, wiiicb
forms a good companion picture to Heath's (Poems, 1798, Ep. 3) :

tioUius, with head bent buck and close shut eyes.
All service time devoutlij snoring lies :
Its great dislike, in fies ! the parisli speaks.
And wonders LoUius thus the Sabbath breaks :
But I think Lollius keeps the Sabbath best ;
For whv, he makes it still — a day of rest.

ON THE DEATH OF BEATRICE (2ud Century, 10).

In Beatrice did all perfections grow,
That she could wish or Nature could bestow.
When Death, enamour'd with that excellence.
Straight grew in love with her and took her hence.

The modern poets more commonly represent Death as envious than
as enamoured. For instance, Oldham, in his poem " To the Memory
of Mr. Charles Morwent," has (Oldham's " Kemaius," 1(394, 71) :

Death in thy fall betray'd her utmost spite,

And show'd her shafts most times levell d at the white.

She saw thy blooming ripeness time prevent ;

She saw, and envious grew, and straight her arrow sent.

Longfellow, however, in his well-known lines, makes the " Reaper
whose name is Death," express pleasure in the breath of the flowers :

" Shall I have naught that is fair ?" saith he ;

" Have naught but the bearded grain ?
Though the breath of these flowers is sweet to mo,

I will give them all back again."

PHINEAS FLETCHER,

Cousin of the celebrated dramatic writer, was admitted a scholar of
King's College, Cambridge, in 1600. In 1621 he was presented to the
living of Ililgay in Norfolk; and probably died about 1650. He holds
a very high rank among the poets of this early period. His principal
poem is "The Purple Island, or the Isle of Man," an allegorical
de8crij)tion of the human body and mind.

ON MY FRIEND'S PICTURE WHO DIED IN TRAVEL.
Though now to heav'n thy travels are confin'd,
Thy wealth, friends, life, and country all are lost ;
Yet in this picture we thee living find ;
And thou with lesser travel, lesser cost,

210 MODEEN EPIGEAMMATISTS.

• Hast found new life, friends, wealth, and better coast :
So by thy death thou liv'st, by loss thou gain'st ;
And in thy absence present still remain'st.

Tliere are several passages io Cowper's exquisite lines on his mother's
pictm-e, which, very different though the language be, express similar
feelings. For instance :

The meek intelligence of those clear eyes
(Blest be the art that can immortalize,
The art that baffles time's tyrannic claim
To quench it) here shines on me still tiie same.

ON DB. PLAYFER.

Who lives with death, by death in death is lying ;
But he who living dies, best lives by dying :
Who life to truth, who death to ^Tor gives.
In life may die, by death more surely lives.

My soul in heaven breathes, in schools my fame ;

Then on my tomb write nothing but my name.

Owen has an epigi-am on this subject (Book III. 49) ; thus translated
by Harvey:

We live to die, and die to live : why.
Then learn we not to die, before we die ?

PETEE PATEIX.

A French minor poet, born at Caen in 1585. He attached himself to
the Court of Gaston, Duke of Orleans, where his wit and social talents
were much appreciated. His reputation as a poet is not high, and the
piece by which he is best known, entitled " A Dream," was written
only a few days before his death, which took place in ltj72, at the
age of 88.

A DBEAM; A DIALOGUE BETWEEN A NOBLEMAN AND

4 BEGGAR.

Translated from the French in " Select Epigrams," 1797.

I dreamt, that, buried in my fellow clay,
Close by a common beggar's side I lay ;
And, as so mean a neighbour shock'd my pride,
Thus, like a corpse of quality, I cried,

FRANCIS BEAU310NT. 211

"Away! thou scoundrel ! henceforth touch me not ;

More manners learn, and at a distance rot !"

*' Thou scoundrel /" in a louder tone, cried he,

" Proud lump of dirt ! I scorn thy words and thee.

^^ e're equal now, I'll not an inch resign;

This is my dunghill, as the next is thine."

The thought in the latter part is similar to that which Pope expressea
in his " Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady " :

A heap of dust alone remains of thee ;

'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be !

Granville, Lord Lansdowne, has a noble stanza on this subject in
his " Meditation on Death " :

Those boasted names of conquerors and of kings

Are swallow'd, and become forgotten things :

One destin'd period men in common have, I

The gi'eat. the base, the coward, and the brave, \

All food alike for worms, companions in the grave.)

The prince and parasite together lie,

No fortune can exalt, but death will climb as high.

FEANCIS BEAUMONT,

Younger brother of Sir John Beaumont, the poet, was born at (irncc-
Dieu, in Leicestershire, in 1586. He was entered at Broadgate's Hall,
now Pembroke College, Oxford, and afterwards studied in the Inner
Temple; but he early devoted himself to dramatic pursuits, and was
assoc'.ated with Fletcher in the jilays'which were published as their
joint jiroduction. Considering the early age at which he died in ItJlU.
it La marvellous how large a number of dramatic pieces he and Fletcher
jointly wrote.

THE SHEPHERDESS.

A shepherdess who long had kept her flocks

On stony Charnvvood's dry and barren rocks,

In heat of .summer to the vales declin'd

To seek fresh pastuie for her lambs half pin'd ;

She (while her charge was feeding) spent the hours

To gaze on sliding brooks, and smiling flowers.

212 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ON SPENSER.

At Delphos shrine, one did a doubt propound,
Which by th' Oracle must be released,

Whether of poets were the best renown'd :
Those that survive or they that are deceased ?

The gods made answer by divine suggestion,

VVhil i Spenser is alive, it is no question.

In "Wit Restored" (ed. 1817,11.214), there is a quaint epitaph
on Spenser, in which the gods are introduced as his patrons after his
death :

He was, and is (see then where lies the odds)
Once god of poets, poet now to the gods,
And though his time of life be gone about.
The life of his lines never shall wear out.

EPITAPH ON BEN JONSON.

Here lies Jonson with the rest

Of the poets : but the best.

Eeader, would'st thou more have known ?

Ask his story not this stone ;

That will speak what this can't tell

Of his glory. So farewell.

This is ascribed to Herrick also, and printed in his works.
Similar, in bidding the writings, instead of the survivors, tell the
glory of the poet, is Kolt's epitaph on Pope :

Ye Muses, weep ! ye sons of Phojbus, mourn.
And decorate with tears this sacred urn !
Pope died : Fame bade the Muses sound his praise ;
They said, 'twas done in his immortal lays.

JOSEPH MARTYN.

No account can be found of this author. In 1621 he published, in
London, '• New Epigrams and a Satyre. "Written by Jos. Martyn. a
well-wisher to study."

A CONTENTED MIND (Ep, 23).

I want, and stand in need of Croesus' store ;
Yot I than he that hath the most, have more :

JOSEPH MARTTN. 218

I subject aiu to grief and sad annoy,
Yet never felt 1 scarcity in joy :
He that is blest with true content of mind,
No want of wealth, no misery can iind.

Horace speaks to much the same purpose in one of his odes (Book II.
10); thus elegantly, but rather freely, translated by Wakefield :
Who loves, well-balanc'd and serene.
Contentment in the golden mean,

Escapes each wild extreme of woe :
Him nor the cot with sordid fare,
Nor sumptuous mansion's dazzling glare,
Nor envy nor ambition know.

Martial has a fine epigram on the happiness of contentment in mean
circumstances (Book II. 53), which Cowley has freely but successfully
rendered :

Would yon be free ? 'tis your chief wish, you say ;

Come on ; I'll show thee, friend, the certain way ;

If to no feasts abroad thou lov'st to go,

While bounteous God does bread at home bestow ;

If thou the goodness of thy clothes dost prize

By thine own use and not by others' eyes ;

If (only safe from weathers) thou canst dwell

In a small house, but a convenient shell ;

If thou, without a sigh, or golden wish.

Canst look upon thy beechen bowl and dish ;

If in thy mind such power and greatness be,

The Persian king's a slave compar'd with thee.

The last line cannot fail to recall the close of the noble apostrophe to
bleep, which Shakesjieare puts in the mouth of Henry IV. (" Second
Part of King Henry IV." Act III. so. 1) :

Then, happy low, lie down !
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
On this subject a stanza may be given from the " Farewell to FoLly "
of Robert (ireene:

Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content ;

The quiet mind is richer than a crown :
Sweet are the nights in careless slumber spent ;
The poor estate scorns Fortune's angry frown.
Such sweet content, such minds, such sleep, such blistj
Beggars enjoy, when princes oft do miss.

21-L MODERN EPIGEAM3IATISTS.

TO AVAhUS OF HIS ABGUMEXT (Ep. 47).

When as I ask thee money, thou repliest,
Believe thou hast, thou hast it, yet deniest.
What ! is to think, to be ? thou say'st, I hit,
Then I believe thou hast more wealth than wit.

Shakespeare expresses the vanity of putting imagination in the place
of reality of possession, in the well-known passage in "' Eichard II."
(Act I. sc. 3), where Bolingbroke says :

O, who can hold a fire in his hand,

By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?

Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite.

By bare imagination of a feast ?

Or wallow naked in December snow,

By thinking on fantastic summer's heat ?

O, no I the apprehension of the good,

Gives but the greater feeling to the worse :

Fell sorrow's tooth doth never rankle more,

Than when it bites, but lanceth not the sore.

EGBERT HEATH.

Published " Clarastella ; together with Poems Occasional, Elegies,
Epigrams. Satyrs. London, ltj50." Xo account can be found of him.
unless he be the Sir Eobert Heath stated by AVood to have been made
recorder of London in 1620 ; but on the title page of " Clarastella " he
is styled Esquire.

TO A TRAVELLEB (Book I. P. 5).

You talk of Silurus that turns wood to stone ;

Of a fount flows with wax, and then of one

That streams with pitch ; and of the Indian spriog

That store of wine and oil doth daily bring ;

All tins I'll first believe, then travel I,

To see how wide you and your fountains lie.

This traveller, like the famous Coryate, was, perhaps, a butt for the
wits of the day, and, like his predecessor, might have been honoured for
his discoveries, if he had not been riiliculed for his vanity. It is a pity
his name has not been haniled down, for he might now receive post-
humous distinction, as the first modern who found out the existence of
the valuable springs which " oil doth daily bring." That oil-springs

EGBERT HEATH. 215

were known to the Ancients is testified by Herodotus (Book IV. 19")),
who says : '• I have niTself seen pitch drawn up out of a lake and from
water m Zacynthus (Zante)." That this pitch was the modem petro-
leum there can be scarcely a doubt. Dr. Johnson, citing Professor
Woodward, defines petroleum : '• A liquid bitumen, black, floating on
the water of springs." Beloe has a note on the passage of Herodotus,
in which he says, that Chandler (who was at Zante in 17(36) had seen
this very spring, and that a shining film l;ke oil s^ims at the top,
which being removed with a bough, the tar is seen at the bottom, three
or four feet beneath the surface, working up, it is said, out of the fissTire
of a rock.

OF LOVE SONNETS (Book I. P. 14).

AN'hy love so often themes each writer's pen

Is this : 'tis spreading love o'ercomes all men :

Which sickness though most would hide from their fiiends,

Like agues, yet 'twill work at th' fingers' ends.

A more modem anonymous epigram, in a similar manner, places love
and ague in juxta-position (" Poetical Farrago ") :

Did love, like agues, ever intermit.

How we should blush, in absence of the fit !

EPITAPH ON BIBULUS (Book I. P. 32).

Here, who hut once in 's life did thirst, doth lie,
Perhaps the dust may make him once more dry.

Leonidas of Tarentum has a Greek epitaph on a di-unken old woman,
who mourned that the grave was dry. The translation is taken from
" A Selection of Greek Epigrams for the Use of Winchester School,"
1791 (Jacobs I. 177, Ixxxvii.) :

Here rests Myrillo's drunken wife.

Drawn to the dregs her cask and life —

This vast round goblet on her tomb.

Is plac'd a symbol of her doom.

Though dead, she mourns — alas ! she left

Her children of her care bereft :

She weeps, no doubt, with grief sincere,

Snatch'd from an husband's tender care —

False are the reasons you apply —

She mourns because her cup is dry.

AatipntcT of Sidon has one very similar (Jacobfi II. 32, xi).

216 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

THOMAS CAREW,

Was the younger brother of Sir Matthew Carew, a zealous adherent
to the fortunes of Charles I. He is supposed to have been born in 1589.
He was received into the court of Charles I. as gentleman of the privy
chamber, and sewer in ordinary. His talents were highly valued by
his contemporaries, particularly Ben Jonson and Sir William Davenant.
His death is said to have taken place in 1639.

THE DART.

Offc when I look I may descry
A little face peep through that eye :
Sure that's the boy, which wisely chose
His throne among such beams as those,
Which, if his quiver chance to fall.
May serve for darts to kill withal.

That Cupid could be seen in a maiden's eye, was a common conceit of
the older poets. An uncertain author of the time of Henry VIII., pos-
sibly George Boleyn, has the following stanza in " A Praise of his
Lady " (" Poetical Works of Lord Surrey, and Minor Contemporaneous
Poets," Bell's ed. 1854, 237) :

In each of her two crystal eyes

Smileth a naked boy :
It would you all in heart suffice

To see that lamp of joy.

So, Edmund Prestwich, in the reign of Charles L, in"AEemedy
against Love" (Ellis' "Specimens of the Early English Poets," 180:;,
lU. 329):

If thou'rt wounded by her eyes

Where thou thinkest Cupids lie,
Think thyself the sacrifice.

Those the priests that make thee die.

On the eyes serving for Cupid's darts. Hughes, in his poem " Green-
wich Park," makes the god say to a nymph :

My loss of darts I quickly can supply.
Your looks shall triumph for Love's deity.

RED AND WHITE ROSES.

Read in these roses the sad story
Of my hard fate and your own glory
In the white you may discover
The paleness of a fainting lover ;

WILLIAM BROWNK. 217

In the red, the flames still feeding

On my heart with fresh wounds bleeding.

The white will tell you how I languish,

And the red express my anguish :

The white my innocence displaying,

The red my martyrdom betraying.

The frowns that on your brow resided,

Have those roses thus divided ;

Oh ! let your smiles but clear the weather,

And then they both shall grow together.

The original of this is doubtless the jiretty epigram of the Latin poet
Bonnefonius, born in Auvergne in 1554 ; thus translated in " Select
Epigrams " :

In this little wreath unite

Roses red and roses white ;

Take it, beauteous maid, and trace

In the white my love-sick face ;

But the red's un emblem true

Of my heart intlam'd by you. ,

WILLIAM BROWNE,

Was bom at Tavistock, in Devonshire, in 1590. He became a student
.it Exeter College, Oxford, and from thence removed to the Inner
Temple. In 1G13 he published the first part of " Britannia's Pastorals,"
and in 161G the second part. About lG2i he returned to Exeter College,
!is tutor to Robert Dormer, Earl of Caernarvon, and when he left the
Univ(;rsity with him, he found a liberal patron in William, Earl of
I'embroke, who took him into Jiis family, and employed him in such a
manner that he was able to purchase an estate. He is supposed to have
died in 1(J45. The following pieces are taken from a MS. volume of
his poems, dated 1650, in the Lansdown Collection, No. 777, in the
British Museum. The MS. was jtrinted in 1815 by Sir Egerton Brydgos.
at the private press of I^ee Priory.

TO CUPID (Leaf 8).

Love ! when I met her first whose slave I am,
To make her mine why had 1 not thy flame r

Or else thy blindness not to see that day ;
Or if I needs must hjok on her rare parts,
Love I why to wound her had I not thy dartti?

Since I had not thy wings to fly away.

218 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Browne's melancholy complaint may bo answered by a stanza of
Sir Philip Siilney (Ellis' " Specimens of the Early English Poets,"
1803, II. 248) :

Faint amorist ! WTiat, dost thou think

To taste love's honey, and not drink

One dram of gall ? or to devour

A world of sweet, and taste no sour ?

Dost thou ever think to enter

Th' Elysian fields, that dar'st not venture

In Charon's barge ? A lover's mind

Must use to sail with every wind.

EPITAPH ON THE COUNTESS OF PEMBBOKE (Leaf 43).

Underneath this sable heaise
Lies the subject of all verse,
Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother ;
Death, ere thou hast slain another
Fair and learn'd and good as she,
Time shall throw a dart at thee.

Marble piles let no man raise
To her name for after days ;
Some kind woman born as she,
Eeading this, like Niobe,
Shall turn marble and become
Both her mourner and her tomb.

This celebrated epitaph is extracted from the MS. volume mentioned
in the biographical notice of Browne. The first stanza has for the la.st
centmy been constantly ascribed to Ben Jonson. Sir Egerton Brydges,
in the preface to his edition of Browne's poems, stated that it might fairly
be appropriated to that poet, because found among his MS. pieces. This
fact, however, woidd not be conclusive, if there were any good evidence
in favour of Jonson's authorship ; but none exists.

The epitaph does not appear in the earlier editions of Jonson's works.
Had it been known to be his, when in 1U40, nineteen years after the
death of the countess, his works were collected, it woidd undoubtedly
have been included. And considering how marked were all the persons
named in the epitaph, and how high the reputatirin of Jonson, it could
not fail to be known as his, if he were really the author. Even the
tradition that it is his composition is of comparatively modern date, for
in the 323rd No. of the " Spectator" it is quoted as "an epitaph written
by an uncertain avthor on Sir Philip Sidney's sister."

On the other hand, the epitapn is found in a MS. volume of Browne's
poems dated 1050, only five years after the date at which the author is

WIIiLIAM BEOWNE. 219

believed to have died. In the volume are several pieces which are not
Browne's, 'out these are carefully marked with the name of the author,
or as anonj'uious. Thus no attenij)t is made to pass as Browne's any
poetry which was not his o^\-n ; and therefore, as the epitaph is ascribed
to him, it may be held that in 1G50 it was kniiwn to be his composition.
Moreover, there are two stanzas ; the second is not equal to the first,
but bears evidence of being by the same author. They fit the one to
the other. Yet the second has never been claimed fur Jonson. Both
were in 1C50 claimed for Browne.

It may be thought that Jonson's connection with tlie Pembroke
family gives ground for the assumption, that he wrote an epitaph on the
countess. But there is no evidence that the connection was ever per^
sonal, or other than arose from his dedicating, in 1616, his epigrams and
earlier epitaphs to the earl.

On the other hand, Browne returned to Oxford about 1624 as tutor
to the Earl of Caernarvon, who married a granddaughter of the countess ;
and when he left the university with that nobleman, probably about
1626, the Earl of Pembroke took him into his family, and treated him
with the greatest kindness. From this it is reasonable to suppose that
the earl had known Browne for some time, and that there may have
been a connection between the poet and the Pembroke family at the
time of the countess' death in 1621.

The evidence is altogether so strong in favour of Browne as the
author of the epitaph, that it may without hesitation be ascribed to
him.

The close of an " Elegy on the Death of Henry, Lord Hastings, 1650,"
by Sir John Denham, has much in common with the first stanza of the
epitaph :

Tell them, whose stem decrees impose our laws,
The feasted grave may close her hollow jaws ;
Though sin search nature, to provide her here
A second entertainment half so dear,
She'll never meet a plenty like this hearse.
Till Time present her with the universe.

As in the epitaph on the countess, it is said that none so good would
be Ibund ere Time should destroy Death, so in the following by Aaron
Hill on his wife, who died in 1731, it is similarly prophesied that there
would bo no more perfect wife ere Eternity should destroy Time (Hill's
Works, 1753, I. xv.) :

I^nough, cold stone ! sullice her long-lov'd name ;
Words are too weak to pay her virtue's claim.
Temples, and tombs, and tongues shall waste away,
And power's vain pomp in mould'ring dust decay :
But ere mankind a wife more perfect see.
Eternity, O Time ! shall bury thee.

A similar thought to that in the second stanza of the epitaj)h, is
found in Oldhum'.s '• I'indariqiie to the Memory of Mr Charles I^ior'
went" (1st Htanza) (Oldham's "Itemaiua,'" 1694, 69) :

220 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Best friend ! could my unbounded grief but rate

Witb due proportion tby too crael fate ;

* * * *

The learned sisters all transform'd should be,
No longer nine, but one Melpomene :
Each should into a Niobe relent,
At once the mourner and thy monument.

EPITAPH ON ANNE PRIDE AUX, DAUGHTER OF DR. PRI-
DE AUX, REGIUS PROFESSOR, WHO DIED AT THE AGE
OF SIX YEARS (Leaf 60).

Nature in this small volume was about
To perfect what in woman was left out.
Yet fearful lest a piece so well begun
Might want preservatives when she had done,
Ere she could finish what she undertook
Threw dust upon it and shut up the book.

lu " Musarum DelicisB, or the Muses' Recreation," the second edition
of which was published in 1656, there is an " Epitaph iipon Doctor Pri-
deaux's Son," by either Sir John Mennis or Dr. James Smith, the joint
authors of the volume. It is probable that this boy was the brother of
the child upon whom Browne's beautiful epitaph was composed. Dr.
Johu Prideaux, who died Bishop of Worcester in 1650, was made Eegius
Professor of Divinity in 1615. He lost three sons in infancy. A
(laughter may have died young, though no mention of sucli occurs in
the memoir of him in Chalmers' Biographical Dictionary (" Musarum
Deliciffi,"ed. 1817,1.92):

Here lies his parents' hopes and fears,

Once all their joys, now all their tears.

He's now past sense, past fear of pain,

'Twere sin to wish him here again.

Had he liv'd to have been a man,

This inch had grown but to a span ;

But now he takes up the less room,

Rock'd from his cradle to his tomb.

'Tis better die a child at four.

Than live and die so at fourscore.

View but the way by which we come,
Thou'lt say, he's best, that's first at home.

The (quaint beauty of Browne's epitaph may be illustrated by some
lines in a commendatory poem prefixed to Beaumont and Fletcher's

Elays, written after the death of the former by John Earle, afterwards
ishop successively of Worcester and Salisbury :

WILLIAM BROWNE. 221

Scarce in an age a poet, and yet he

Scarce lives the thii'd part of his age to see ;

But quickly taken oft", and only known,

Is in a minute shut as soon as shewn.

^^^ly should w^eak Nature tire herself in vain

In such a piece, to dash it straight again ?

Why should she take such work beyond her skill,

Which, when she cannot perfect, she must kill.

Of similar character is an "Epitaph composed on the Death of ar,
Infant Lady," by Jordan (" Divinity and Morality in Eobesof Poetry."
By Thomas Jordan. No date) :

Ladies that are young and wise,

Shall I tell ye of a prize ?
Here a Box of Beauty lies.
A jewel hid from vulgar view,

Whose excellency if you knew,
Yowc eyes would drop like morning dew.
Dame Nature's Diamond, which when

She saw it was too bright for men,
Shew'd it, and shut it up agen.

EPITAPH ON HIS WIFE (Leaf 62).

Thou need'st no tomb, my wife, for thou hast one

To which all marble is but pumice stone ;

Thou art engrav'd so deeply in my heart

It shall oxitlast the strongest hand of art.

Death shall not blot thee thence, although I must

In all my other parts dissolve to dust,

For thy dear name, thy happy memory,

May so embalm it for eternity.

That when I rise, the name of my dear wife

Shall there be seen as in the Book of Life.

The lady, thus fondly commemorated, can have had no fear of the
" melancholy fate," so pathetically prayed against in the following lines,
ti'anslfitcd by Merivalc from the (jlreek of Solon :

Oh let not death, un\vei)t, unhonour'd, be
The melancholy fate allotted mc !
But those who loved me living, when I die,
Still fondly keep soaic cheriah'd memory.

222 MODERN KPIGKAMMATISTS.

DR. HENRY KING,

Bishop of Chichester, was born in 1591. He was olectci student of
Christ Church from Westminster School ; was installed in the Deanery
of Rochester in IGSS ; and consecrated to the see of Chicheoter in IGil.
By the revolutionary party he was deprived of his temporalities, and
treated witli great cruelty, but upon the restoration, he resumed his
functions at Chichester, where he died in 1669.

MY MIDNIGHT MEDITATION.

Ill-busi'd man ! why should'st thou take such care

To lengthen out thy life's .short kalendar ?

When ev'ry spectacle thou look'st upon

Presents and acts thy execution.

Each drooping season and each flower doth cry,
Fool ! as 1 fade and wither, thou must die.

The beating of thy pulse (when thou art well)

Is just the tolling of thy passing bell :

Night is thy hearse, whose sable canopy

Covers alike deceased day and thee.

And all those weeiiing dews which nightly fall,
Are but the tears shed for thy funeral.

An epigram, entitled " Fatura Supremum," in " Wit Restored,"
ed. 1817, II. 61, may be compared with King's beautiful lines :

All buildings are but monuments of death,
All clothes but winding-sheets for our last knell,
All dainty fattings for the worms beneath,
All curious music, but our passing bell ;

Thus death is nobly waited on, for why ?

All that we have is but death's livery.

But few pieces of poetry on the subject of man's mortality are equal to
" The Passing Bell," by Shirley, the dramatist (" Shirley's Poems,"
1640,66):

Hark how chimes the passing bell,

There's no music to a knell ;

All the otlier sounds wc hear.

Flatter and but cheat our ear.

This doth put us still in mind

That our flesh must l)e resign'd,

And a general silence made.

The world must be muffled in a shade ;

He that on his pillow lies

Top.r embalm'd before he dies,

EOBEKT HEBRICK. 223

Carries like a shee}: his life,
To meet the sacrificer's knife
And for eternity is prest,
Sad bell-wether to the rest.

EOBEKT HEREICK,

Author of "Hesperides " and "Noble Numbers or his Pious Pieces,"
w as born in 1591, and educated at S. John's College, Cambridge ; not,
it is believed, at Oxford, as Wood asserts. In 1G29 he was presented
to the vicarage of Dean Prior in Devonshire, from which he was ejected
by the Rebels, but regained the living at the Kestoration. It is con-
ioctured that his death took place in 1674.

THE BOCK OF RUBIES: AND THE QUAERIE OF PEARLS.

Some ask'd me where the Babies grew ?

And nothing I did say ;
But with my finger pointed to

The lips of Julia.
Some ask'd how Pearls did grow, and where ?

Then spoke I to my girle,
To part her lips, and show'd them there

The Quarelets of Pearl.

Herrick may have taken the idea of the home-growth of Rubies and
Pearls from Spenser's fifteenth sonnet :

Ye tradefuU merchants, that, with weary toyle,

Do seeke most pretious things to make your gain ;

And both the Indias of theu' treasure spode ;

What needeth you to seelvc so farre in vaine ?

For loe, my love doth in her selfe containe

All this world's riches that may farre be found :

If saphyres, loe, her eies be saphyres plaine ;

If rubies, loe, her lips be rubies sound;

If pearles, her teeth be pearles, both pure and round.

TO THE WATER NYMPHS, DRINKING AT TUE FOUNTAIN.

Eeach, with your whiter hands, to me,

Some C'listall of the .spring ;
And I, ahout the cu]:) shall see

I'resh lillies flourishing.

224 MODEEN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Or else, sweet Nymphs, do you but this ;
• To th' glasse your lips encline ;

And I shall see by that one kisse,
The water turn'd to wine.

Very different as are the subjects of the two epigrams, it is not im-
probable that the conceit in the last stanza of Herrick's may have
suggested to Crashaw the far-famed thought in his Latin epigram on
the Marriage at Cana, which will be found under his name.

A pretty fragment by Sappho suits well with Herrick's lines. Thu
translation is in the " Edinburgh Review," No. 109:

Come, Venus, come !
Hither with thy golden cup,
Where nectar-floafed flow'rets swim,

PiU, fill the goblet up !
Thy laughing lips shall kiss the brim.
Come, Venus, come !

LOVE LIGHTLY I'LEASED.

Let faire or foule my mistress be,
Or low or tall, she pleaseth me :
Or let her walk, or stand, or sit.
The posture her's, I'm pleas'd with it.
Or let her tongue be still, or stir,
Graceful is ev'ry thing from her.
Or let her grant, or else deny,
My love will fit each historic.

Thomas Stanley, whose poems were published only three years after
the " Hesperides," from which the above is taken, has a stanza in his
"Love's Heretic," of which the first two lines are singularly like
Herrick's (EUis' " Specimens of the Early English Poets," 1803, IH. 3HJ) :

Black, or fair, or tall, or low,

I alike with all can sport,
The bold sprightly Thai's woo.

Or the frozen Vestal court.
Every beauty takes my mind,
Tied to all, to none confin'd.

The following curious simile is the close of an epigram by Abon
Aly the mathematician, who flourished in Egypt about the year of
the Hegira 530, translated, by Professor Carlyle, from the Arabic
('• Specimens of Arabian Poetry," 1796, 167) :

EGBERT HEEBICK. 225

I never knew a sprightly fair
That was not dear to me.

The circle's bounding line are they.

Its centre is my heart,
My ready love the equal ray

That flows to every part.

THE MAIDEN-BLUSH.

So look the mornings when the sun
Paints them with fresh vermilion:
So cherries blush, and Kathern pears,
And apricots, in youthful yeares :
So conolls looke more lovely red,
And rubies lately polished :
So purest diaper doth shine,
Stain'd by the beames of clarret wine :
As Julia looks when she doth dress
Her either cheeke with bashfulness.

Spenser, in -'The Faerie Queene," has another simile for a blushing
cheek (Book II. Canto ix. 41) :

And ever and anone with rosy red

The bashfull blood her snowy cheekes did dye.

That her became as polisht yvory

Which cunning craftesman hand hath overlayd

With fayre vermilion or pure castory.

Bums, in his song of " The Lass that made the Bed to Me," has
another comparison :

Her cheeks like lilies dipt in wine.

HO W HIS SOUL CAME ENSNARED.

My soule would one day goe and seeke

For roses, and in Julia's cheeke

A richess of those sweets she found,

As in another Rosamond.

But gathering roses as she was ;

Not knowing what would come to passe,

226 MODEBN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

It chanst a ringlet of her haire,
Caught my poor soule, as in a snare :
Which ever since has been in thrall ;
Yet freedome, she enjoyes withall.

So, Pope, in the "Rape of the Lock," says of Belinda's "shining
ringlets " :

Love in these labyrinths his slaves detains,

And mighty hearts are held in slender chains.

*****

Fair tresses man's imperial race insnare.
And beauty draws us with a single hair.

Both Herrick's epigram and Pope's lines have, undoubtedly, a
common origin in an epigram by Paul the Silentiary, which is thus
translated by Merivale (Jacobs IV. 48, xxiii.) :

In wanton sport, my Doris from her fair
And glossy tresses tore a straggling hair,
And bound my hands, as if of conquest vain,
And I some royal captive in her chain.
At first I laugh'd — '' This fetter, lovely maid,
Is lightly worn, and soon dissolv'd," I said.
I said — but ah I had not learn'd to prove
How strong the fetters that are forged by love.
That little thread of gold I strove to sever
Was bound like steel about my heart for ever ;
And, from that luckless hour, my tyrant fair
Has led and turn'd me by a single hair.

COCK-CROW.

Bell-man of night, if I about shall go
For to deny my Master, do thou crow.
Thou stop'st S. Peter in the midst of sin ;
Stay me, by crowing, ere I do begin;
Better it is, premonish'd for to shun
A sin, than fall to weeping when 'tis done.

Wordsworth has some lines on hearing a cock crow, in a sonnet
written near Rome, in sight of S. Peter's (" Memorials of a Tour in
Italy in 1837," Sonnet Vm.) :

Oft for a holy warning may it serve,
Charged with remembrance of his sudden sting,
His bitter tears, whose name the Papal Chair
And yon resplendent Church are proud to bear.

ROBERT HERRICK. 227

UPON A CHILD THAT DIED.

Here she lies a pretty bud,
Lately made of flesh and blood :
Who, as suone, fell fast asleep,
As her little eyes did peep.
Give her strewings ; but not stir
The earth, that lightly covers her.

This is a model of simplicity and elegance. It has all the pathos of
the pui-est Greek epitaphs, and in its delicate gracefulness is perhaps
unrivalled.

The pretty idea of the " Strewings " was originally expressed in
(iray's " Elegy in a Country Churchyard," and it may, perhaps, be
thought that the rejection of the stanza was a mistake on the part of
the poet :

There scatter'd oft, the earliest of the year.
By hands unseen, are show'rs of violets found,
The redbreast loves to build and warble there.
And little footsteps lightly print the ground.

UPON A LADY THAT DIED IN GIVING BIRTH TO
A DAUGHTER.

As Gilly flowers do but stay

To blow, and seed, and so away ;

So you, sweet Lady, sweet as May,

The gardens-glory liv'd awhile,

To lend the world your scent and smile.

But when your own faire print was set

Once in a Vii'gin Flosculet,

Sweet as yourselfe, and newly blown,

To give that life, resign'd your own :

But so, as still the mother's power

Lives in the pretty Lady-flower.

In "Wit Restored," cd. 1817, II. 23.5, is the following epitaph on n
lady, who died in giving birth to a child :

Bom at the first to l)ring another forth,
Bho leaves the world to leave the world her worth :
Thus, I'hojnix-likc, as she was born to bleed,
Dying lierself, renews it in her seed.

228 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

TO LADY CREW, UPON THE DEATH OF HER CHILD.

Why, Madam, will ye longer weep,
When as your baby's lull'd asleep ?
And, pretty child, feels now no more
Those paines it lately felt before.
All now is silent ; groanes are fled :
Your child lyes still, yet is not dead :
But rather like a flower hid here
To spring again another yeare.

Longfellow's exquisite lines, " The Eeaper and the Flowers," in
which he has carried out the thought of the dead, like the flowers,
springing again, are well known :

And the mother gave, in tears and pain,

The ilowers she most did love ;
She knew she should find them all again

In the fields of light above.

Headley, in his " Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry," pre-
serves a striking epitaph, from Tewkesbury Church, Gloucestershire, on
Eleanor Freeman, who died in 1G50, aged 21, in which we find the
metaphor of the flower, but with a variation :

A virgin blossom in her May,
Of youth and virtues turn'd to clay ;
Rich earth accomplish'd with those graces
That adorn saints in heavenly places.
Let not death boast his conquering power,
She'll rise a Star that fell a Flower.

Freeman, the epigi'ammatist, was a Gloucestershire man. If he were
alive in 1650, he must have been about sixty years of age. Whether or
not he had children is unknown ; but it would be interesting if we
might believe that this epitaph was written by him for the tomb of a
daughter. Some of the epigrams in his " Eubbe and a Great Cast "
give evidence of his having the power to writ« with elegance and
simplicity.

229

THOMAS FREEMAN,

Was born near Moieton-in-the-Marsh, in Gloucestershire, about 1591.
He took his degi-ee at Oxford, and then set up as a poet in London,
and was shortly after held in esteem by Daniel, Donne, Shakespeare,
and others. The date of his death is unknown. In 1614 he published
two books of epigrams, entitled " Kubbe and a Great Cast," and ' Runne
and a Great Cast, the Second Bowie." This volume, which is extremely
scarce, has never been reprtated.

IN VIBTUTEM(Ep. 51).

Virtue we praise, but practise not her good,
(Athenian-like) we act not what we know;
So many men do talk of Kobin Hood,
Who never yet shot arrow in his bow.

One Georgius Benedictus has a Latin epigram " On a Certain En-
comiast of Virtue," which is thus translated by James Wright ('' DelitisB
Delitiarum," 166):

No wonder virtue comes not near thy heart,
When from thy tongue it never doth depart.

CLOE'S PERJURY (The Second Bowie, Ep. 73).

'Tis one of Cloe's qualities,
*■ That ever when she swears she lies :
Dost love me, Cloe? swear not so,
For when thou swear'st, tliou liest I know :
Dost hate me, Cloe ? pry thee swear.
For then I know thou lov'st me dear.

Juliet is ready to take Romeo's word, but begs him not to swear Ihal
he loves her (" Romeo and Juliet," Act II. sc. 2) :

Yet, if thou swear'st,
Thou may'st prove false ; at lovers' perjuries,
They say, Jove laughs.

IN THUSCUM (The Second Bowie, Ep. 76).

Thuscus writes fair, without blur or blot
The raseal'st rhymes, wore ever read, God wot.
No marvel : many with a swan's quill write.
That can but with a gooso's wit cndite.

230 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

It is supposed that Freeman alludes, in this epigram, to John Davies
of Hereford, a poet to whom Southwell's " S. Peter's Complaint " has
been wrongly ascribed by Wood. Not finding a subsistence by poetry,
Davies set up as a writing-master, and became esteemed for his pen-
manship beyond all others in that age. John Heath, whose epigrams
were published four years before Freeman's, has one which was probably
also levelled against Davies (1st Century, 89) :

There's none were fitter than thou to endite,
If thou could'st pen as well as thou can'st write.

Fair, as a hit against scribblers, is an anonymous epigram in " An
Asylum for Fugitive Piecus," 1785, 57 :

Scribbletonius, by volume.s, whene'er we peruse.

This idea they always instil; —
That you pilfer'd, felonious, the brains of a goose,

When you robb'd the poor bird of a quill!

KINSMEN AND FRIENDS (The Second Bowie, Ep. 80).

I have some kinsfolk rich, but passing proud,
I have some friends, but poor and passing willing;
The first v5^ould gladly see me in my shroud.
Which in the last would cause the tears distilling :
Now which of these love I ? so God me mend.
Not a rich kinsman, but a willing friend.

John Eliot, whose epigrams were published about forty years after
Freeman's, is equally severe upon kinsmen (p. 18) :

In kinsman friend, of old, was comprehended.
Give me one friend and hang up all my kindred.

HENEY CLIFFOED, EAEL OF CUMBEELAND.

The 5th and last Earl of that family. Born 1591; died 1643.

ON S. STEPHEN'S MARTYRDOM.
(Wood's " Athense Oxonienses," ed. 1813,111. 83.)

Hail ! thou first sacrifice in th' martyrs' roll,
Of cursed wrath and malice envious.

See heaven wide opens to receive thy soul,
And Christ proclaims thee now victorious.

FRANCIS QUAELES. 231

Each stone they threw is made a gem to fit
Th' eternal crown that on thy head shall sit.

This epigram is considerably beyond the usnal style of the period at
which it was written. Tho thoui,'ht in the last two lines is singularly
beautiful. A similar idea occurs at a later period, in an ode on
S. Stephen's Day, by Dr. Warmstrey ; sometimes assigned to Dr.
Waldren, of All Souls' College, Oxford, a Devonshire physician
(Nichols' " Collection of Poems," V. 145, 1782) :

Whilst the bright flames, which in his bosom burn,
The wounding pebbles into jewels turn ;
And the rough rocks, which at his head are thrown,
Like diamonds shine, and melt into a crown.

FEANCIS QUAELES,

The author of the well-known " Emblems," was born in 1592. He
was cup-bearer to the Princess Elizabeth, wife of the Elector Palatine ;
and afterwards secretary to Archbishop Usher, of Armagh. His loyalty
caused him to be persecuted by the rebels, and he suffered greatly both
in health and fortune. At the time of his death, in 1G44, he held the
oiSce of chronologer to the City of London, a position very uncongenial
to his habits, and which, probably, poverty alone induced him to
accept.

CUPID'S TBADE.

What, Cupid, are thy shafts already made ?
And seeking honey to set up thy trade,
True emblem of thy sweets ! thy bees do bring
Honey in their mouths, but in their tails a sting.

The latter half of a piece by Herrick, " The Showre of Blossomos,"
may be compared :

But true it was as I rowl'd there,

Without a thought of hurt, or feare,

Lovc; turn'il hini.selfe into a bee,

And with his javdin wounded me :

From which mishap this use 1 make,

Where laod siiwets are, there lijc.a a snake :

KinteK and favours are sweet, tldiKjs ;

But those have thorns, and theso have stings.

232 MODEEN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

THE SOUL'S DANGER.

My soul, the seas are rough, and thou a stranger
In these false coasts ; O, keep aloof ; there's danger ;
Cast forth th}^ plummet ; see a rock appears ;
Thy ship wants sea-room ; make it with thy tears.

Quarles' " Emblems " are full of such conceits as this. But quaint
though he be, he never wants clearness. Unlike the love-poets of
that age, whose conceits are often so extravagant as to hide sense
beneath a load of unreality, Quarles always makes the conceit subser-
vient to the main point of the passage, and thus causes it to add to,
and not detract from, the nervous power of his lines.

EPITAPH ON MICHAEL DRAYTON.

Do, pious marble, let thy readers know

What they, and what their children owe

To Drayton's name, whose sacred dust

We recommend unto thy trust.

Protect his memory, and preserve his story,

Remain a lasting monument of his glory ;

And when thy ruins shall disclaim

To be the treasurer of his name,

His name, that cannot fade, shall be

An everlasting monument to thee.

This is inscribed on Drayton's monument in Westminster Abbey.
He died in 1631. In Chalmers' edition of the British Poets, the epitaph
is printed among the poems of Francis Beaumont — an anachronism, as
that poet died about fifteen years before Drayton. It is by some ascribed
to Ben Jonson.

In a curious collection of epitaphs on physicians, entitled, "NugJB
CanorsB," 1827, by "William Wadd, a celebrated London surgeon, is one
on Drs. Heberden, Turton, and Baker, in which a similar thought is ex-
pressed to that in the latter part of the epitaph on Drayton (Epitaph I.) :

He wrongs the dead who thinks this marble frame
Was built to be the guardian of each name :
Whereas, 'twas for their ashes only meant ;
Their names are set to guard the monument.

See also an epitaph by George Herbert on the Earl of Danby.

233

GEORGE HERBERT.
Born 1593. Died 1632.

KING JAMES I.'s VISIT TO CAMBRIDGE.
Translated from the Latin in Amos' " Gems of Latin Poetry."

While Prince to Spain and King to Cambridge goes,
The question is, whose love the greater shows ?
Ours, like himself, o'ercomes, for his wit's more
Remote from ours than Spain from Britain's shore.

Herbert was public orator when he presented this flattery to James.
If his name were substituted for that of Bacon in the following epigram
by Whaley, entitled, "Verses occasioned by reading Lord Bacon's
Flattery to King James I.," the reproof would be most applicable
(Whaley's Poems, 1745) :

Ye, to whom heaven imparts its special fires,

Whose breasts the wond'rous, quickening beam inspires.

That sheds strong eloquence's melting rays.

Or scatters forth the bright poetic blaze;

Look here, and learn, those gifts how low and light

If conscious dignity guides not their flight ;

How mean, when human pride their service claims,

And Bacon condescends to flatter Janies.

But it was the fashion to flatter in those days, and King James had
abundance of such incense ofiiered to him, though according to Ben
Jonson it was impossible to flatter so perfect a monarch. The dramatist
addressed the following epigram " To the Ghost of Martial " (Ep. 36) :

Martial, thou gav'st far nobler epigrams

To thy Domitian, than I can my James :

But in my royal subject I pass thee.

Thou flattered'st thine, mine cannot flatter'd be.

GOOD AND EVIL ACTIONS.

If thou do ill, the joy fades, not the pains •
If well, the pain doth fade, the joy remains.

In " Notes and Queries," 2nd S. VI. 87, are the following lines by
Bi.shop Hhuttleworth, of Chichester, whoso "son thought he rcmcm-
Itercd his father saying, at the time, that the idea of them occurred in
R. Chrysostom, or some of the early Fathers." The bishop jirobubly
referred to Herbert, utde.ss there is a passage in one of the Fatht rs from
which both took the thought :

234 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Do right ; though pain and anguish be thy lot.
Thy heart will cheer thee, when the pain's forgot ;
Do wrong for pleasure's sake, — then count thy gains,-
The pleasure soon departs, the sin remains !

EPITAPH ON HENRY DANVEBS, EABL OF DANBY.

Sacred marble, safely keep

His dust, who under thee must sleep,

Until the years again restore

Their dead, and time shall be no more.

Mean while, if he (which all things wears)

Does ruin thee, or if thy teai-s

Are shed for him, dissolve thy frame.

Thou art requited : for his fame.

His virtue, and his worth shall be

Another monument to thee.

Henry Dan vers, second son of Sir John Danvers, was a warrior of
some note in the Low Country wars during the reign of Elizabeth. By
James I. he was created Baron Dauntsey, and by Charles I., Earl of
Danby.

It will be observed how similar are the leading thoughts in this
epitaph to those in the one on Drayton by Quarles ; but the idea of the
name and virtues of the dead being a monument to the marble beneath
which they rest, is not original in either of these poets, for a similar
thought is found in an epitaph on Euripidis, among the Greek epigrams
by uncertain authors (Jacobs IV. 231. dxxxvi.). The translation is
taken from the 551st No. of the " Spectator " :

Divine Euripides, this tomb we see,

So fau-, is not a monument for thee.

So much as thou for it, since all will own

Thy name and lasting praise adorn the stone.

JAMES SHIELEY.

Born in London in 1594; educated at Merchant Taylors' School;
S. John's College, Oxford ; and subsequently at Catherine Hall, Cam-
brido-e. He was ordained, but changed his religion for that of Rome,
and '^became a schoolmaster at S. Aibau's. He afterwards went to
London, and supported himself as a dramatic writer. Plays being
prohibited during the Commonwealth, he returned to his old occupation

JAMES SHIRLEY. 235

of teaching, which he carried on in AAliitefriars. He and his wife were
forced from their house near Fleet Street by the great lire in 1666, and
in consequence of the shock they both died within twenty-four hours.
Shirley published a volume of poems in 1646, from which the following
pieces are taken :

FIE ON LOVE.

Now fie on foolish love, it not befits

Or man or woman know it.
Love was not meant for people in tlieir wits,

And they that fondly show it.
Betray the straw and feathers in their brain,

And shall have Bedlam for their pain :
If single love be such a curse,
To many is to make it ten times worse.

Although this was published by Shirley himself in his volume of
poems, 1646, Chalmers, in his edition of the poets, ascribes it to Francis
Beaumont.

Very different was the view taken by Antiphanes, who in a frag-
ment, translated by Cumberland (" Observer," No. 102), exclaimed :

The man who first laid down the pedant rule.
That love is folly, was himself the fool;
For if to life that transport you deny,
What privilege is left us — but to die ?

Shirley's view of matrimony is found in an amusing stanza in Ellis'
" Specimens of the Early English Poets," 108:^. II. 19, extracted from
Gosenkyll's satire against women, entitled, " The Scole-howse, wherein
every Man may rede a Goodly Prayse of the Condycyons of Women,"
printed in 1542 :

Truly some men there be

That live always in great horrour.
And say it goeth by destiny

To hang or wed : both hath one hour.
And whether it be, I am well sure,
Hanging is better of the twain ;
Sooner done and shorter pain.

In the " Festoon " is an anonymous epigram called " The Choice " :

IjO ! here's the hride, and there's the tree,
'i'ake which of these best liketh thee.^
" The bargain's bad on either part —
But, hangman, come drive on the cart."

236 MODEUN El'IGKAMMATISTS.

EFITAFH ON THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

Here lies the best and worst of Pate,

Two kings' delight, the people's hate ;

The courtiers' star, the kingdom's eye,

A man to draw an angel by.
Fear's despiser, Villiers' glory.
The great man's volume, all time's story.

Eliot, in his " Epigrams, &c.," 1658, has an epitaph on the Duke
(p. 102) :

Keader, stand still and look ; lo ! here I am,
That was of late the mighty Buckingham.
God gave me my being and my breath,
Two kings their favour, and a slave my death.
And for my fame I claim, and do not crave.
That thou believ'st two kings before a slave.

On the occasion of the Duke's murder, the seditious poets among the
disaffected party displayed their wit in satire on his character. The
following anonymous lines are in the Lansdowne MSS., 198. Quoted
in Lawson's " Life and Times of Archbp. Laud," 1829, I. 435 :

Some say the Duke was gracious, virtuous, good,

And basely Felton did to spill his blood ;

If that be true, what did he then amiss

In sending him the sooner to his bliss?

Pale death is pleasing to a good man's eye,

And none but bad men are afraid to die.

Left he this kingdom to a passage better ?

Why, then, Felton hath made the Duke his debtor.

THOMAS BANCKOFT,

Was born about 1596. His father and mother were buried together
in Swarston Church, Derbyshu-e, which may, therefore, probably have
been his native place. He was of Catherine Hall, Cambridge, where
Shirley, the dramatist, was his contemporary. Of his life afterwards
nothing is known. In 1639 he published " Two Bookes of Epigrammes
and Epitaphs. Dedicated to Two top-branches of Gentry : Sir Charles
Shirley, Baronet, and William Davenport, Esquire."

THE LIFE OF MAN (Book I. 44).

Man's life is but a cheating game
At cards, and Fortune plays the same,

THOMAS BANCROFT. ^ 237

Packing a queen up with, a knave,
Whilst all would win, yet none do save,
And loose themselves : for Death is it
That lastly cuts, and makes his hit.

The idea of life as a game at cards at which Fortune plays, seems
from the last line, to have been in Boyse'a mind when he wrote tbo
following epigram :

The various ills below content I'll bear,

Grant me, indulgent Heav'n ! this sole request ;

Nor life to overprize, nor death to fear.
Let Fortune shulfle as she please the rest !

ON SLEEP (Book I. 148).

Sleep binds the senses, but at liberty
It sets the soul, and mocks the fantasy
With strange illusions, playing (juggler-like)
At fast and loose, till death in earnest strike.

Petronius Arbiter has a passage which well describes the fantasies of
sleep (" Satyricon," Ed. Amstel., 1669, 369). The translation is by John
Addison :

When in our dreams the forms of things arise.

In mimic order plac'd before our eyes,

Nor heav'n nor hell the airy vision sends,

But every breast its own delusion lends.

For when soft sleep the body lays at ease.

And from the heavy mass the fancy frees :

Whate'er it is in which we take deHght,

And think of most by day, we dream at night.

So, in " Romeo and Juliet " (Act I. sc. 4), Mercutio says :

True, I talk of dreams ;
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Bi-got of nothing but vain fantasy ;
Which is as thin of substance as the air,
And more inconstant than the wind.

But Sliakcspearo in other places shows dreams, not as "children of
an idle brain," but as presaging future events. Such are those of
liifhard III., of the Duke of Clarence, and of Queen Katharine.

The subject of dreams, sent as warnings of death or misfortune,
recalls an epigram in " The Foundling llo8i)ital for Wit," No. 6, p. 69,
1749:

238 , MODEBN EPIGBAaiMATISTS.

Dreams are monitioris sent us from high Heav'u,
But what avails the scanty prescience giVn ;
Unless the same kind Power would reveal
How man may shun the ruin they foretell ?

TO SIB LAyDLESS BAMKIN (Book I. 156).

Kniglitkood's come on thee (as a man should throw
Gold on a dunghill), and thy lady so
Suits with thy greatness, that her gown will be
Instead of coat-of-ai-ms and honour unto thee.

Owen has a Latin epigram on the rage for knighthood (Book II. 8).
The quaintness of the following translation by Harvey suits well the
ityle of the epigram :

Wert knighted, that thy wife should love thee more?
She loves thee less, herself more than before :
Her garb, her garments must new-fashion'd be,
So that thy Dear will be more dear to thee.

A humorous epigram by Graves, is entitled. " The Mystery explained
of a very trilling Fellow being Knighted " (" Euphrosyne," 1783, 1. 207):

What ! Dares made a knight ! No ; don't be frighted :
He only lost his way, and was be-nighted.

ON THEOLOGICAL VIBTTE (Book U. 2).

Virtue's a bridge (near to the Cross whereby
"We pass to happiness beyond the spheres)
\\ hose arches are faith, hope, and charity,
And what's the water but repentant tears ?

So, Young, in '■ Night Thoughts " (4th Night, 721) :

Faith buUds a bridge across the gulph of death.

EGBERT HEGGE,

Born in 1599, was a scholar of Corpus Christi CoUege, Oxford, and
afterwards Probationer FeUow, but died soon after his election in 1629.
He was author of " The Golden Legend of St. Cuthbert," and seems to
have been held in much esteem as a writer.

ROBEET HEGGE DB. WHuLIAM STBODE. 239

OX LOVE ("Wood's " Athenae Oxonienses," ed. 1813, 11. 459;.

Love's like a landscape which doth stand
Smooth at a distance, rough at hand ;
Or like a fire which from afar
Doth gently -warm, consumes when near.

Yft'den, in his verses " Against Enjoyment," has a passage remark-
ably like Hegges first two lines, though the older poet perhaps refers
to a natural landscape, -whilst the later writes of a picture :

We're charm'd with distant views of happiness,
But near approaches make the prospect less.
Wishes, like painted landscapes, best delight,
WhUst distance recommends them to the sight ;
Plac'd afar off, they beautiful appear ;
But show their coarse and nauseous colours, near.

So, Garth, in " The Dispensary" (Canto m. 27) :

As distant prospects please us, but when near
We find but desert rocks and fleeting air.

And Campbell, at the commencement of the " Pleasures of Hope " ;

'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view.
And robes the mountain in its azure hue.

DR. AYILLIAM STEODE,

Was bom about 1600. He was a Canon of Christ Church, and had
the reputation of being a good preacher, and an eminent poet. He
died in ltj44. His poetical pieces are scattered in the MS. and printed
collections of the period. The following pieces are taken from the
'• Gentleman's Magazine," XCTH. Part H. 8, extracted from an old MS.
Yolvmie.

ON A GENTLEWOMAN WALKING IN THE SNOW.

I saw fair Cloris walk alone,
When feathered rain came softly down,
And Jove descended from his tower
To court her in a silver shower.
The wanton snow flew to her breast,
Like little birds into their nest,
And overcome with whiteness there,
For grief it thaw'd into a tear,

240 MODEEN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Thence falling on her garment's hem,
To deck her froze into a gem.

This pretty piece is foiind also in " Wit Eestored," but without the
author's name.

Exactly the same idea, of snow melting for grief, is found in an epi-
gram in the Collection of 1735, I. Ep. 91. In a MS. note in the British
Museum copy it is stated to be by Dodsley :

Those envious flakes came down in haste,

To prove her breast less fair :
Grieving to find themselves surpass d,

Dissolv'd into a tear.

KISSING.

My love and I for kisses play'd,

She would keep stakes, I was content,

But when I won, she would be paid.
This made me ask her what she meant :

" Pray, since I see," quoth she, "your wrangling vain.

Take your own kisses, give me mine again."

The point is similar in a Greek epigram by Strato (Jacobs III. 75,
XXX.,, thus translated by Philip Smyth :

Whilst thus a few kisses I steal,

Dear Chloris, you gravely complain ;

If resentment you really do feel.
Pray give me my kisses again.

And also in an epigram by Owen (Book II. 75). The translation is
by William Browne, author of " Britannia's Pastorals ;" and is taken
from Sir Egerton Brydges' edition, 1815, of a MS. vol. of his poems,
1650, in the Lansdowne Collection, No. 777 :

Give me three kisses, Phillis ; if not three,
Give me as many as thy sweet lips be ;
You gave and took one, yet deny me twain.
Then take back yours, or give me mine again.

One of the prettiest epigrams on playing for kisses is by Lylly, which
will be found under his name at page 172.

241

EDMUND WALLER.

Bom 1605. Died 1687.

OF A LADY WHO WRIT IN PRAISE OF MYRA.

While she pretends to make the graces known
Of matchless Myra, she reveals her own :
And when she would another's praise indite,
Is by her glass instructed how to write.

The thought of gaining, by giving, honour, is well expressed in ar
epigram on the erection of a bust in memory of Newton, by the Queen
of George II. ("Poetical Farrago," II. 11) :

While Caroline to learning just,
Raises, to grace great Newton's dust,
A monument of Parian stone,
Of adamant she builds her own.

UNDER A LADYS PICTURE.

Such Helen was ! and who can blame the boy
That in so bright a flame consum'd his Troy ?
But, had like virtue shin'd in that fair Greek,
The amorous shepherd had not dar'd to seek.
Or hope for pity, bv;t, with silent moan,
And better fate, had perished alone.

In some respects similar, is the thought so beautifully expressed by
Prior, at the dose of his lines written in Lady Dursley s " Milton ":

With virtue strong as yours had Eve been arm d.
In vain the fruit had blush'd, or serpent charm'd ;
Nor had our bliss by penitence been bought ;
Nor had frail Adam fall'n, nor Milton wrote.

ON THE STATUE OF KING CHARLES L AT CHARING
CROSS, IN THE YEAR 1674.

That the first Charles does here in triumph ride ;
Sec his son reign, where he a martyr died ;
And peoj)le ])ay that reverence as they pass,
(Which then he wanted !) to the sacred biass;

242 MODERN EPIGKAMMATISTS.

Is not til' etifect of gratitude alone,
To which we owe the statue and the stone.
But Heaven this lasting monument has wrought,
That mortals may eternally be taught,
Eebellioii, though successful, is but vain ;
And kings so kill'd rise conquerors again.
This truth the royal image does proclaim,
Loud as the trumpet of surviving Fame.

After the Restoration Waller's loyalty was very conspicuous in his
writings ; and his verses to Charles II. and his Queen were full of gross
ilattery. But not less had he courted Cromwell during the Protect-
orate, and upon the death of that usru'per he wrote an elegy, com-

We must resign ! Heaven his great soul doth claim
In storms, as loud as his immortal fame.

Charles II., upon reading some complimentary versos presented to
him by Waller, joked the poet upon his praises of Cromwell, receiving,
of course, a flattering excuse ; which produced the following epigram
(" Select Epigrams," II. 185) :

When Charles, at once a monarch and a wit,

Some smooth, soft flattery read, by Waller writ ;

Waller, who erst to sing was not asham'd,

TJiat Heav'n in storms great CromweWs soul had claim'd.

Turn d to the bard, and, with a smile, said he.

" Your strains for Noll excel your strains for me."

The bard, his cheeks with conscious blushes red,

Thus to the King return 'd, and bow'd his head :

" Poets, so Heav'n and all the nine decreed,

In fiction better than in truth succeed."

DR. GEEAED LANGBAINE.

Born in Westmoreland about 1608. He was Provost of Queen's
College, Oxford ; a man of great learning and high reputation. An
edition of Longinus with notes was his most important work. He
died in 1657.

WRITTEN UNDER THE PORTRAIT OF SELDEN.
Translated from the Latin in " Selections from the French Anas," 1797.

Lo ! such was Selden, and his learned fame

All polish'd nations would be proud to claim.

The gods, nay, e'en the stones, their voice would raise,

iShould men by silence dare withhold their praise.

JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 243

" The gods " refers to Selden's treatise on the Syrian gods, and
'• the stones " to his work on the Arundel marbles.

At ten years of age Selden wrote a Latin distich, which was placed
over the door of his father's house at Salvington, in Sxi^sex ; thus
translated by William Hamper in the *' Gentleman's Magazine," XCIV.
Part II. 601 :

Thou'rt welcome, honest friend ; walk in, make free :
Thief, get thee gone ; my doors are closed to thee.

This recalls an inscription written over the door of the priory of
Ramessa by a very liberal prior (Kett's " Flowers of Wit," II. Ill) :

Be open evermore, O thou my door,
To none be shut— to honest, or to poor.

The next prior, who was as covetous as his predecessor had been
liberal, retained the lines, changing nothing but the pointing :

Be open evermore, O thou my door,
To none,— be shut to honest, or to poor.

JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE.
Bom 1612. Died 1650.

ON TEE DEATH OF KING CHARLES I.
Written with the point of his sword.

(John Cleveland's " Revived Poems, Orations, &c.," 1687, 199.)

Great ! Good ! and Just ! Could I but rate
My griefs, and thy too rigid fate,
I'd weep the world to such a strain,
As it should deluge once again.
But since thy loud-tongu'd blood demands supplies
More from Briareus' hands than Argus' eyes,
I'll sing thy obsequies with trumpet ."-ounds,
And write thy epitaph with blood and wonnds.

In the ballad of "The Gallant Grahams," in Sir Walter Scott's
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," are the following stanzas ;

Our fiil.se comniandfT sold our king

I'nto liis dcfidly r'n('ini(!,
Who wiiH thi; traitor, Cromwell, tluin ;

So 1 care not what they do with me.

244 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

They have betray'd our noble prince,
And banish'd him from his royal crown ;

But the gallant Grahams have ta'en in hand
For to command those traitors down.

WRITTEN ON THE WINDOW OF HIS PlilSON THE

NIGHT BEFORE HIS EXECUTION.

(Aytoun's " Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers, and other Poems.")

Let them bestow on every airth a limb,

Then open all my veins, that I may svs^ira

To Thee, my Maker ! in that crimson lake ;

Then place my parboiled head upon a stake —

Scatter my ashes — strew them in the air :

Lord ! since thou know'st where all these atoms are,

I'm hopeful thou'lt recover once my dust.

And confident thou'lt raise me with the just.

It was decreed that the head of this gallant soldier should be placed
on the top of the prison, and his severed limbs sent to the principal
towns of tlie kingdom ; but he declared that he was prouder to have
his head affixed to the prison walls than to have his picture placed in
the king's bedchamber ; and, far from being troubled that his limbs
were to be sent to the diiferent cities, he wished he had flesh enough
to be dispersed through Christendom, to attest his dying attachment
to his king. After the Restoration his dust ivas recovered ; his scat-
tered remains were collected, and buried with great solemnitv in the
Cathedral of S. Giles, Edinburgh. The late Mr. Aytoun's fine
ballad on " The Execution of Montrose " contains some stanzas, which
express the very spirit of chivalrous loyalty, and conscious rectitude,
In the 11th stanza Montrose speaks :

Now by my faith as belted knight.

And by the name I bear.
And by the bright Saint Andrew's cross

That waves above us there —
Yea, by a greater, mightier oath—

And oh, that such should be ! —
By that dark stream of royal blood

That lies 'twixt you and me —
I have not sought in battle-field

A wreath of such renown.
Nor dared I hope, on my dying day,

To win the martyr's crown !

In tlie 15th stanza his advance to the scaffold is described :

ISAAC DE BENSEEADE — GILES MENAGE. 245

He is coming ! he is coming !

Like a briilegroom from his room,
Came the hero from liis prison

To the scaftbld and the doom.
There was glory on his forehead,

There was lustre in his eye,
And he never walked to battle

More proudly than to die :
There was colour in his visage,

Though the cheeks of all were wan,
And they marvelled as they saw him pass,

That great and goodly man !

Wordsworth, in " Lines on the Expected Invasion, 1803," writes :

Come ye — who, if (which Heaven avert !) the Land
Were with herself at strife, would take your stand,
Like gallant Falkland. Ijy the Monarch's side.
And, like Montrose, make loyalty your pride.

ISAAC DE BEXSERADE.

A French poet and wit, born in 1G12. He was patronized by Car-
dinal de Richelieu, who granted him a pension, which, however, ceased
at that minister's death ; and he, at the same time, lost the protection
of the Duchess d'Aiguillon by an epitaph on his deceased patron,
which has been thus translated from the French :

Here lies, aye, here doth lie, mort-bleu,

The Cardinal de Kichelieu,

Aud, what is worse, my pension too.

In his old age Benserade retired to Gentilly (where he died in 1691).
and there displayed his poetical genius in inscriptions cut on the bark
of his trees. One of these has been translated from the French by
Dr. Johnson :

In bed we laugh, in bed we cry.

And born in bed, in bed we die ;

I'he near approach a bed may show

Of human bliss to human woe.

GILES MENAGE,

An accomjilished scholar, was bom at Angers in I(J1.3. He was
brought up to the liar, but, disliking the profession, liecame an eccle-
siastic, and obtainerl valuable jireferment. Ho resided almost con-
stantly in I'aris, where his talents were fully appreciated. He died
'O 1G92.

246 MODERN EPIGEAMMATISTS.

PSAYER TO VEMIS.

Translated from the Greek in Dryden's " Miscellany Poems.*'

While liere for the fair Amaryllis I die,

She o"er rocks, and o'er streams from my passion does fly :

bring her, kind Venus! bring her here back again,

And the best of my heifers on thy altar lies slain :

But if she's appeas'd. if to love she incline,

Take all my whole herd, my little herd is all thine.

Ambrose Philips has some pretty pastoral lines on " The Stray
Xymph," which may be compared with Menage's epigram :

Cease your music, gentle swains ;
Saw ye Delia cioss the plains ?
Every thicket, every grove.
Have I rang'd, to find my love :
A kid, a lamb, my flock I give,
Tell me only, doth she live ?

WRITTEN UNDER TEE PORTRAIT OF SCARRON.
Translated from the Latin in " Scarron's Letters," London, 1677.

I am the man who made a prey to grief,
Do in ber very jaws find out relief.
The cvnic and the stoic could receive,
Th' unkindnesses of Fortune and not grieve.
Eejoice and sport with misery there's none
Could ever yet but comical Scarron.

Paul Scarron, a burlesque French writer, bom in 1610, was deformed,
and, while still a young man. lost the use of his limbs ; but, notwith-
standing his melancholy condition, his humour never forsook him, and
his house became the rendezvous of all the men of wit. He married
Slademoiselle d'Aubigne', afterwards the celebrated iladame de Slain-
tenon. His life of uninternipted sutfering is alluded to in the follow-
ing aflecting epitaph, which he wrote for himself :

Tread softly ; xaake no noise

To break his rlumbers deep ;
Poor Scarron here enjoys

His first calm night of sleep.

247

CHAELES DE S. EVEEMOND,

Was bom at S. Denis le Guast. in Lower Normandy, in 1G13. Ho
entered the army, and was patronized by Cardinal Mazarin ; but a
rupture occurring with that politician, he retired to Holland to avoid
the Bastille, and afterwards to England, where he lived, with a short
interval, for the remainder of his life. Charles U. gave him a pension,
and his talents and powers of conversation gained him a distinguished
position among the political and literary men of the day. He died in
1703, at 90 years of age.

OX WALLEE.

Translated from the French by Thomas Bymer, in Dryden's
" Miscdlany Foems."

Yain gallants, look on Waller, and despair :
He, only he, may boast the grand receipt ;
Of fourscore years he never feels the weight ;
Still in his element, when with the fair :
There gay, and fresh, drinks in the rosy air ;
There happy, he enjoys his leisure hours :
Nor thinks of Winter, whilst amidst the Flowers.

A far less happy picture of an amorous old man, given in an epigram
by ilallet. may make S. Evremond's more pleasing by the contrast :

Still hovering round the fair at sixty-four,

Unfit to love, unable to give o'er :

A flesh-fly, that just flutters on the wing.

Awake to buzz, but not alive to sting ;

Brisk where he cannot, backward where he can ;

The teazing ghost of the departed man.

TO NINON DE L'ENCLOS, ON REMEMBEBING HER IN

ABSENCE.

Translated from the French by Bland, in " Collections from the Greek

Anthology," 1813.

No, no — the season to inspire

A lover's flame is past ;
But that of glowing with the fire

As long as life will last.

S. Evremond waa one of the oldest admirers of Ninon de I'Enclos,
celebrated for her beauty, her elegance, and her voluptuousness. They

'248 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

were about the same age, and were both passing into the vale of yoari?
when S. Evremond wrote these tender lines. Moore, in one of his
Irish Melodies (^" Love's Young Dieam "; gives expression to the same
thought :

No, — that hallow'd form is ne'er forgot

Which first love trac'd ;
Still it lingering haunts the greenest spot
On memory's waste.

Ninon de I'Enclos affected to live as " a jolly companion." A French
distich, intended for her epitaph, shows her success. Bland -thus
translates :

Here Ninon lies buried, who always aspired

A good fellow to be ; and was — what she desired.

SAMUEL SHEPPAED,

Was the son of Dr. Harmon Sheppard, a physician. The date of his
birth is unknown. He is supposed to have been a clergjTuan, and
was imprisoned, as we learn by one of his epigrams, for writing
" Mercui-ius Elencticus," a newspaper, the fii'st number of which was
published April 11th, 1649. Watt, in his "Bibliotheca Britannica,"
says that his " loyalty is more commendable than his poetry," but the
latter is above the average of the epigrammatists of the day. He pub-
lished, " Epigrams, Theological, Philosophical, and Romantic in Six
Books," with some other pieces attached, in lUSl.

ON HOMEE (Book I. 8).

Homer, though blind, yet saw with his soul's eye
The secfets hid in deep'st philosophy.
Who while he sang the gods, deserv'd to be
Himself adored as a deity.

In the 551st No. of the " Spectator," a translation of a Greek epigram
is given, in which the " Iliad " and " Odyssey " are represented as the
work of a deity (Jacobs IV. 222, cccclxxxix) :

Who first transcribed the famous Trojan war.
And wise Ulysses' acts, O Jove, make known ;

For since 'tis certain thine those poems are,
No more let Homer boast they are his own.

Milton, in " Paradise Regained," Book IV. 259, says :

Blind Melesigenes thence Homer call'd,
Whose poem Phoebus challeng'd for his own.

SAMTJEL SHEPPAED. 219

AFFLICTIONS BENEFICIAL (Book I. 16).

It is not for our good in ease to rest ;
Man, like to Cassia, when bruis'd is best.

This is a favourite simile with the poets. Goldsmith, in " The
Captivity," says :

The good man suffers but to gain.
And every virtue springs from pain :
As aromatic plants bestow
No spicy fragrance while they grow,
But crush'd or trodden to the ground,
Diffuse theii' balmy sweets around.

Rogers, in " Jacqueline " :

The Good are better made by 111,
As odours crushed are sweeter still.

And Wordsworth, in " The Prelude," Book IX. :

Injuries
Made him more gracious, and his nature then
Did breathe its sweetness out most sensibly,
As aromatic flowers on Alpine turf.
When foot hath crushed them.

ON THE TWO ADMIRABLE WITS, BEAUMONT AND
FLETCHER (Book II. 13).

Cease, Greece, to boast of Aristophanes,

Or of Menander, or Euripides,

The comic sock, and tragic buskin we

Wear neatest here in foreign I:>rittany :

Or if you list to struggle for the bays,

We'll fight with Beaumont's and with Fletcher's plays.

Equally extravagant is the boast of an epigram, " Written in Pope's
Works," found in " A Collection of Miscellany Poems, never beforo
Vublishcd," 1737, 17:

Greece justly boasts her Homer's mighty name,
And Kome resounds majestic Virgil's fame ;
France shows her lioileau, we witJj all can cope.
For Homer, Virgil, Boileau, we have Popo.

250 MODERN EPIGEAMMATISTS,

TO MY FRIEND LUCIUS VABEUS (Book IIL 10).

How can I choose but like Mount Etna gloM',
Though I Carussa make my drink each day,
Or feed on frigid lettuce, and lay low
Upon the humble earth, Love to allay?
Her skin for whiteness passeth Atlas snow,
Her cheeks the roses that in Jury grow :
Her crisped locks do out-shine Lybian gold,
Her teeth the pearls in stately Ormus sold ;
Her lips as cherries, breath as incense flow.
Her eyes as to pure crystal heavens show ;
Her tongue, like Lydian music, doth delight.
Then how can I (friend Varrus) want her sight ?
Her presence can alone preserve my breath.
Her loss to me is famine, war, and death.

This catalogue of a lady's beauties may have been suggested to
Sheppard by one of Spenser's sonnets (LXIV.) :

Her lips did smell lyke unto gilly flowers ;
Her ruddy cheekes, lyke unto roses red ;
Her snowy browes, lyke budded bellamoures ;
Her lovely eyes, lyke pineks but newly spred ;
Her goodly bosome, lyke a strawberry bed ;
Her neck, lyke to a bounch of cullambjTies ;
Hel' breast, lyke lillyes ere their leaves be shed.

SIE JOHN DENHAM.

Born 1615. Died 1668.

COWLEY AND KILLIGREW.

The witty Thomas Killigrew, page of honour to Charles I., and
groom of the bedchamber to Charles II., apijeared to little advantage
in his writings, whilst his conversation was unusually brilliant.
Cowley, the poet, on the other hand, shone but very moderately in
company, though he excelled so much with his pen. Denham, who
knew them both, thus characterizes in a distich the merit and defect
of each (Chalmers' " Biog. Diet." under Thomas KUligrew) :

Had Cowley ne'er spoke, Killigrew ne'er writ,
Combin'd in one, they'd made a matchless wit.

251

EICHAED CEASHAW,

Bern about 1616, was a Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge. He was
driven from the University by the Parliamentary forces, and retired to
France, where he joined the Chiirch of Eome. The poet Cowley in-
troduced him to the patronage of the Queen of Charles I., who gave
him letters of recommendation to Italy. Ur. John Bnrgrave, Canon of
Canterbury, saw him in Eome, as an attendant on Cardinal Palotto;
and states in a MS., entitled "Pope Alexander the Seventh, and the
College of Cardinals," lately edited for the Camden Society by Canon
Eobertson, that Crashaw had oflended Palotto's retinue ; upon which
the Cardinal " to secure his life was fain to put him from his service,
and procuring him some small imploy at the Lady's of l.oretto ; whither
he went in pilgrimage in summer time, and, overheating himself, died
in four weeks after he came thither, and it was doubtful whether he
were not poisoned." The biogiaphers of Crashaw give no hint that
his death in 16,50 was by foul means, but from this account it is
evident that such was the impression in Eome at the time.

TO F0NTIU8 PILA TE, WASHING HIS HANDS.

Thy hands are wash'd, but oh, the water's spilt,
That labour'd to have wa.sh'd thy guilt :
The flood, if any can that can suffice,
Must have its foimtain in thine eyes.

In Elsum's "Epigrams on Paintings," 1700, is one on a picture by
Andrsea Sacchi, of Pilate washing his hands, translated from Michael
Silos, " De Eomana Pictura et Sculpturu " (Ep. 17) :

O cursed Pilate ! Villain dyed in grain,

A little water cannot purge thy stain ;

No, Tanais can't do 't, nor yet the main.

Dost thou condemn a Deity to death,

Him whose mere love gave and preserv'd thy breath ?

ON THE BLESSED VIRGINS BASHFULNESS.

Tliat on her lap she casts her hninble eye,

'Tis the sweet pride of her humility.

The fair star is well fix'd, for where, O where

Could she have fix'd it on a fairer sphere?

'Tis Heaven, 'tis Heaven she sees, Heavcm's God there lie«

She can see Heaven, and ne'er lift up her eyes :

This new Guest to her eyes new laws hath given,

'Twas once looh up, 'tis now look down to Heaven.

252 MODERN EPIGKAMMATISTP.

Some lines, " To the Blessed Virgin at her Purification," by the old
epigrammatist Bancroft, are almost as beautiful in sentiment as tliis
exquisite piece (Book II. 86) :

Why, favourite of Heaven, most fair,
Dost thou bring fowls for sacrifice ?
Will not the armful thou dost bear,
That lovely Lamb of thine, suffice ?

THE WATER TURNED TO WINE.
Translated from the Latin hy Aaron Hill.

When Christ, at Cana's feast, by pow'r divine,
Inspir'd cold water with the warmth of wine,
See ! cried they, while, in red'ning tide, it gu.sh'd,
The bashful stream hath seen its God, and blush'd.

This is a masterly translation of Crashaw's celebrated and beautiful
epigram. It may be satisfactory to some to see the Latin (Crashaw's
" Poemata et Epigrammata," 1670, p. 29) :

Unde rubor vestris, et non sua purpura, lymphis ?

Quae rosa mirantes tam nova mutat aquas ?
Nuraen (couvivse) prsesens agnoscite Numen :

Nympha pudica Deum vidit, et eruhuit.

Crashaw has an English epigram on the same subject, " To Our
Lord upon the Water made Wine " :

Thou water turn'st to wine (fair Friend of life)
Thy foe, to cross the sweet arts of thy reign,

Distils from thence the tears of wrath and strife,
And so turns wine to water back again.

EPITAPH ON A HUSBAND AND WIFE, WHO DIED AND
WERE BURIED TOGETHER.

To these, whom Death again did wed,
This grave's the second marriage-bed.
For though the hand of Fate could force
'Tvvixt soul and body a divorce,
It could not sever man and wife,
Because they both liv'd but one life.
Peace, good reader, do not weep !
Peace ! the lovers are asleep.

EICHAED CRASHAW. 258

They, sweet turtles, folded lie

In the last knot that Love could tie.

And though they lie as they wore dead,

Their pillow stone, their sheets of lead :

Pillow hard, and sheets not warm,

Love made the bed, they'll take no harm.

Let them sleep, let them sleep on,

'Till this stoimy night be gone,

And th' eternal morrow dawn ;

Then the curtains will be drawn,

And they waken with that light

Whose day shall never sleep in night.

The line, " And though they lie as they were dead," with the three
following, are placed by Mr. Ellis in his " Specimens of the Early
English Poets " between brackets, with a note stating that they " are
in no printed edition," but "were found in a MS. copy, and are perhaps
not Crashaw's" (Ellis, ed. 1803. III. 228). Mr. Ellis is mistaken. The
lines are in the edition of Crashaw's poems, published in 1648, in the
lifetime of the author. They are not in the edition of 164G, nor in that
of 1670.

After reading this beautiful epitaph, all others on the same subject
must sutler by comparison. Yet there is much to be admired in the
following by Bishop Hall, on Sir Edward and Lady Lewkenor. It is
translated from the Latin bv the Bishop's descendant and editor, the
Rev. Peter Hall (Bp. HaU's Works, 1837-9, XII. 331):

In bonds of love united, man and wife,

Long, yet too short, they spent a happy life :

United still, too soon, however late.

Both man and wife receiv'd the stroke of fate :

And now, in glory clad, enraptur'd pair.

The same bright cup, the same sweet draught tlicy share.

Thus, first and last, a married couple see,

In life, in death, in immortality !

There is much beauty also in an anonymous epitaph in the " Festoon,"
143, "On a Man and his Wife" :

Here sleep, whom neither life, nor love,

Nor friendship's strictest tie.
Could ill such close embrace as thou,

Thou faithful grave, ally. —

Preserve them, each dissolv'd in each,

For bands of love divine; :
For union only more complete,

Thou faithful grave, than thine.

264 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ABRAHAM COWLEY.

Bom 1618. Died 1667.

PBOMETHEUS ILL-PAINTED.

How wi-etched does Prometheus' state appear,

Whilst he his second lui^eiy suffers here !

Draw him no more ; lest, as he tortur'd stands,

He blame great Jove's less than the painter's hands.

It would the vulture's cruelty outgo,

If ouce again his liver thus should grow.

Pity him, Jove ! and his bold theft allow ;

The flames he once stole from thee grant him now !

The original of this may be a Greek epigram by Glaucus, on a
picture of Philoctetes, drawn by Parrhasius, though upon the point o^:
the painter's merits the epigrams -widely differ (Jacobs III. 57, v.).
The translation is in the " Festoon " :

Drawn by Parrhasius, as in person view'd,

Sad Philoctetes feels his pains renew'd.

In his parch'd eyes the deep sunk tears express

His endless misery, his dire distress.

We blame the«, painter ! though thy skill commend ;

'Twas time his suflerings with himself should end !

UPON THE CHAIR MADE OUT OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE'S

SHIP ;

Which was presented to the University Library of Oxford by John

Davis, Esq.

To this gi-eat ship, which round the globe has run,

And match'd in race the chfirio' of the sun,

This Pythagorean ship (for it may claim

Without presumption so deserv'd a name,

By knowledge once, and transformation now)

In her new shape, this sacred port allow.

Drake and his ship could not have wish'd from Fate

A more blest station, or more blest estate ;

For lo ! a seat of endless rest is given

To her in Oxford, and to hi in in Heaven.

Cowley has also an ode upon this chair, in which the following
distich occm-8 :

ABRAHAM COWLEY. 265

Let not the Pope's itself witli this compare,
This is the only universal chair.

Cowley, who was well acquainted with Martial, may have remem-
bered aii epigram by him "On a Fragment of the Argo*' (Book VII.
19), thus translated by Elphinston :

The bit of wood, you so disdain,
Was the first keel that plough'd the main.
Her not conflicting rocks could crash ;
She mock'd the hyperborean lash.
Kegardless thus of ev'ry rage,
She yielded to all-conqu'ring age;
And the small remnant of a slip,
Became more sacred than the ship.

In Camden's "Britannia" (Devonshire), a Latin epigram is pre-
served on Drake's return, after his celebrated voyage round the world.
The translation is taken from " Selections from the French Anas,"
1797:

Where'er old Ocean's boundless waters roll,

Have borne, great Drake, thy bark from pole to pole.

Should envious mortals o'er thy labours sleep,

The stars, which led thee through the vent'rous deep,

Shall tell thy praises ; and thy well-earn'd fame,

The sun, thy fellow-traveller, proclaim.

The following was composed "On Sir Francis Drake, drowned,"'
taken from " Recreation for Ingenious Head-jjieces : or, A Pleasant
Grove for their Wits to Walk in," 1654, Epitaph 182 :

Where Drake first found, there last he lost his fame •

And for tomb left nothing but his name.

His body's buried under some ^reat wave,

The sea, that was his glory, irf his grave:

Of him no man true epitaph can make.

For who can say, Here lies Sir Francis Drake i

LOVE INCURABLE.

Sol Daplmo sees, and seeing her admires,
Which adds new flames to his celestial fires :
Had any remedy fur love been known.
The god of physic, sure, had cur'd his own.

Apollo, the god of physic and other arts, and Sol, the sun, arc gene-
rally rc|ireH(!iiti(l as the tame deity.

'Jhis epigram is by tradition a.-cribed to Cowley, and is Bai<l to liave
been Bp'jkcu by liim at the Westminster School election. The thought

256 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

is taken from Ovid (Metamorph. Book I. 521). Thus Drydeu traiia-
lates the passage :

Medicine is mine, what herbs and simples growl
In fields and forests, all their powers I know ; >
And am tlie great physician call'd below. )

Alas, that fields and forests can aflford
No remedies to heal then- love-sick lord !
To cure the pains of love, no plant avails ;
And his own physic the physician fails.

Or perhaps Cowley remembered a passage in Spenser, the favciirita
poet of his youth (" The Shepheards Calender — December") :

But, ah ! unwise and witlesse Colin Cloute,
That kydst the hidden kindes of many a weede.
Yet kydbt not ene to cure thy sore heart-roote,
Whose ranckling wound as yet does rifely bleede.

EPITAPH.

Underneath this marble stone,

Lie two beauties join'd in one.

Two, whose loves death conld not sever ;

For both liv'd, both died together.

Two, whose souls, being too divine

For earth, in their own sphere now shine.

Who have left their loves to fame,

And their earth to earth again.

Hughes, in " The Friendship of Phoebe and Asteria," has a passage
which may be compared with this :

So strict 's the union of the tender pair.

What Heaven decrees for one, they both must share.

Like meeting rivers, in one stream they fiow,

And no divided joys or sorrows know.

Not the bright twins, preferr'd in lieaven to shine.

Fair Lcda's sons in such a league could join.

One soul, as fables tell, by turns supplied

That hcivenly pair, by turns they liv'd and died :

But these have sworn a matc-hless sympathy,

They'll live together, or together die.

RICHAED LOVELACE — GEOEGE DK BREBEUF. 257

EICHAED LOVELACE,

Born about 1618, was a soldier under Lord Goring. He had a con-
siderable estate, but was reduced to poverty by his loyalty. In 1646
he formed a regiment for the sei-vice of the French King, and was
wounded at Dunkirk. On his return to England, he lived in penury
until Lis death in 1658. His poems under the title of *' Lucasta "
were addressed to Lucy Sacheverel, whom he called " Lux casta," and
to whom he was engaged to be married ; but, on the report of hi^
death at Dunkirk, she gave her hand to another.

TO LUCASTA. EER RESERVED LOOKS.

Lucasta, fro^^^^, and let me die,

But smile, and see, I live ;
The sad indifference of your eye

Botli kills and doth reprieve.
You hide our fate "wdthin its screen ;

We feel our judgment, ere we hear.
So in one picture I have seen

An angel here, the devil there.

The close of the epigram refers to the double-faced pictures, which
have been common in both ancient and modern times. Gibbon,
referring to Caracalla's anxiety to be thought the equal of Alexander
the Great, states : " Herodian had seen very ridiculous pictures, in
which a figin-e was drawn, with one side of the face like Alexander,
and the other like CaracaUa." (" Decline and FaU," ed. 1846, I. 147,
note, chap, vi.) Burton, in the Preface "Democritus to the Reader"
to his " Anatomy of Melancholy," says : " They are like these double
or turning pictures ; stand before which, you see a fair maid, on the
one side an ape, on the other an owl" (ed. 1800, I. 106). In the
present day such pictures are often seen, and the contrivance by which
they are produced is sometimes very ingenious.

GEORGE DE BREBEUF,

A French poet, born in 1G18, who gained hU laurels by a translation
of Lucan. He publii^hed some epigrams, among wJiich are one hundred
on a lady who painted, written for a wager. The follies which Prior
perpetrated on this subject, sink into insignificance when compared
with those of the P'renciimau. He died in 1661.

258 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ON A FATHER AND SON EQUALLY VICIOUS.

Translated from the French by Bland, in " Collections from the Greek

Anthologij," 1813.

How little grief thy father's ashes claim !

How just was Death to hurry him from hence !
A ceaseless labourer in the work of shame,

You thought him born, his Maker to incense.

The self-avow'd support of impudence,
With Modesty he waged insatiate strife,

And lived the eternal foe of Innocence ;
Thus having made Sin's empire all his own,
Still, fearing to be bad by halves alone,
He gave thee life.

This is suflSciently severe, but a Greek epigram by Demodocus is. if
possible, still more so (Jacobs II. 56, ii.). It is pointed against the
Cappadocians, whose name was considered by the ancients synony-
mous with infamy and vice. The following paraphrase, taken from
" Fables and Epigrams from the German of Leasing," 1825, gives the
sting of the original, perhaps more forcibly to modern readers than an
exact translation :

While Fell was reposing himself on the hay,
A reptile conceal'd bit his leg as he lay ;
But, all venom himself, of the wound he made light,
And got well, while the scorpion died of the bite.
Gibbon, in the " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," ed. 1846,
V. 232, note, says of the epigram of Demodocus : " The sting is pre-
cisely the same with the French epigram against Frerou : Un serpent
mordit Jean Freron — Ehbien? Le serpent en mourut. But, as the
Paris wits are seldom read in the Anthology, I should be curious to
learn through what channel it was conveyed for their imitation."

The last stanza of Goldsmith's " Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog,"
is very similar :

But soon a wonder came to light.

That show'd the rogues they lied,
The man recover'd of the bite.
The dog it was that died.
With the latter part of Brebeuf's epigram, the giving birth to a
wicked son, may be compared an epitajih by another Frenchman,
Nicolas Sells, born at Paris in 1737 ; thus translated by R. A. Daven-
port (" Poetical Register " for 1802) :

Within this grave a bachelor lies,

By follies and by vices only known !
Ah ! when in death his father clos'd his eyes,

Why could there not be written on his stone —
Within this grave a bachelor lies 1

SIB EDWARD SHERBURNE. 259

This is similar to the thouglit in Suetonius, on Nero's pretended
marriage vsith Sporus (Nero Claud. Cap. xxviii.) :

Si Domitius pater talem habuiaset uxorem.

SHAMEFACEDNESS.

Translated from the French by Mericale, in " Collections from the Greek

Anthology," 1813.

The poets sing, but faith they're wrong,
That Modesty which shuns the throng.

Is but a rural grace.
Sometimes in town she holds resort,
Whenever Iris goes to court

She hides behind her face.

This is one of the epigrams mentioned in the aceoimt of Brcbeuf.
That, for a joke, he should have written such rubbish, only shows that
he wasted his time. That he should have published it, shows to what
a poet will sometimes descend.

The last line recalls an amusing Arabian epigram, by Isaac Ben
Khalif, translated by Professor Carlyle, " On a Little Man with a Very
Large Beard," of which the closing stanza is (" Specimens of Arabian
Poetry," 1796, 148):

A man lUce thee scarce e'er appear'd —

A beard like thine — where shall we find it ?

Surely thou cherishcst thy beard
In hopes to hide thyself behind it.

It was such a man that Bishop Corbet singled out, when at a confir-
mation in his cathedral, the crowd pressed upon the altar-rails, and
addressed as " You, Sir, behind the beard."

SIR EDWAKD SHERBURNE,

Born in 1C18, was Clerk of the Ordnance, but was ejected from his
office at the commencement of the Kebellion. lie followed the fortunes
of the King, and was made Comniissary-(Jeneral of Artillery. From
1(J54 to 10;")!*, he travelled abrrtad as tutor to Sir John Coventry. At
the Kestorution, he was re-estaljlishod in his })lace iit tlic ( )nln!inc('. but
at the Ilevoliition h<; was removed, as he rcfuHcd to take the oiiths to
William and Mary. In his old age he sulfered from poverty, and lived
in retirement. His death took place in 1702.

260 MODERN EPIGEAMMATISTS,

ICE AND FIBE.

Naked Love did to thine eye,
Chloris, once, to warm him, fly :
But its subtle flame and light
Scorch'd his wings, and spoil'd his sight.
Forc'd from thence, he went to rest
In the soft couch of thy breast :
But there met a frost so gi-eat
As his torch extinguish'd straight.
When poor Cupid thus (constrain'd
His cold bed to leave) complain'd,
" Alas ! what lodging's here for me,
If all ice and fire she be ?"

V«'e may compare the latter part of the Earl of EoscommoTi's imiia-
tion of the 22nd Ode of the 1st Book of Horace :

Set me in the remotest place

That Neptune's frozen arms embrace ;

"Where angry Jove did never spare

One breath of kind and temperate air.

Set me where on some pathless plain

The swarthy Africans complain,

To see the chariot of the sun

So near their scorching country run.

The burning zone, the frozen isles,

Shall hear me sing of Cselia's smiles :

All cold but in her breast I will despise.

And dare all heat but that in Cselia's eyes.

CELIA'S EYES. A DIALOGUE.

Loiter. Love ! tell me ; may we Celia's eyes esteem
Or eyes or stars ? for stars they seem.

Love. Fond, stupid man ! know stars they are,
Nor can heaven boast more bright or fair.

Lover. Are they or erring lights, or fixed ? say.

Love. Fix'd ; yet lead many a heart astray.

No comparison is more common among the old English poets, than
that of ladies' eyes to stars. One example will suffice. Romeo savs
of Juliet (Act II. so 2) :

THOMAS JORDAN. 2G1

Her eye in heaven
"Would thi-ough the airy region stream so bright,
That birds would sing, and think it were not night.

It is not usual for ladies to liken their own eyes to stars, but William
Browne, in " The Inner Temple Mask," makes the Siren sing to the
sailors :

Be awhile our guests,
For stars, gaze on our eyes.

THOMAS JORDAN,

An Actor and Dramatist. He was poet to the City of London from
1671 to 168i, at which latter date he is supposed to have died.

INGRATITUDE.

(Nichols* "Select Collection of Poems," VH. 64, 1781.)

Our God and soldier we alike adore,
Just at the brink of ruin, nc^t before :
The danger past, both are alike requited ;
God is forgotten, and the soldier slighted.

There is another version of this epigram, which Mr. Budworth, au
officer in the army, who had been engaged in the defence of Gibraltar,
in 1782-3, told Dr. Hurd, Bishop of Worcester, he had seen chalked
upon a sentry-box on Europa Guard (Nichols' " Literary Anecdotes,"
III. 339) :

God and a soldier all people adore

In time of war, but not before :

And when war is over and all things are righted,

God is neglected, and an old soldier is slighted.

In the " Foundling Hospital for Wit," No. 6, 87, 1749, there is an
epigram on the national forgetfulness of God, which seems to have been
occasioned by the rejoicings for the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. It is
headed " On seeing the Workmen emjjloyed ujion the preparations for
the Fire-works in the Green Park on Sunday last — Dies Solis, nou
Sabbati " :

Freed from the toils of war, and long distress,

Her bliss increasing, tho' her merit less.

Ungrateful Britain ! scanre the tempest o'er,

But of the hand that still'd it thinks no more.

From her once fav'rite Isle Religion's tied.

And we again in heathen footsteps tread ;

Like the poor Persians, we no more nsjiire.

Sunk from the God of Ileav'n to serve the god of Fiie.

262 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

HENEY DELAUNE.

Of this writer nothing is known, except that in 1651 he published a
volume of moral and religious epigrams, entitled, " XlarpLKov Aapoy,
or a Legacy to his Sons; being a Miscellany of Precepts, Theological,
Moral, Political, and Economical, digested into seven books of Quadrins."
It was rejjrinted in 1657.

THOUGHT .iND SPEECH (1st Century, 64).

Think all you speak ; but speak not all you think :
Thoughts are your own ; your words are so no more.

Where Wisdom steers, wind cannot make you sink :
Lips never eiT, when she does keep the door.

John Hosklns, a lawyer and poet, born in 1566, addressed the
following epigram to his little child Benjamin from the Tower, to which
he was committed for having made in a speech in Parliament, what
Wood calls " a desperate allusion to the Sicilian Vesper " (Sir Henry
Wotton's Poems, 1843, 3) :

Sweet Benjamin, since thou art young,
And hast not yet the use of tongue.
Make it thy slave while thou art free.
Imprison it lest it do thee.

BEGINNING OF SIN (3rd Century, 4).

Motions to ill resist in their first grass ;

Lest gaining growth, they shoot into the ear :
Custom to sin, at length will make you pass

That for a bat, which was before a bear.

The ground-work of this epigram, and of many similar passages in
the poets, is the " Nemo repente fuit turpissimus." of Juvenal, Sat. II. 83
So, Beaumont and Fletcher, in " A King and No King," Act V., have :

There is a method in man's wickedness ;
It grows up by degrees.

The same thought is expressed by Aaron Hill, in the last lines of his
tragedy of " Athelwold " :

Oh ! Leolyn, be obstinately just ;
Indulge no passion and deceive no trust :
Let never man be bold enough to say,
Thus, and no farther, shall my passion stray .
The first crime past, compels us into more,
And guilt grows fate, that was but choice before.

HENRY DELAUNE. 263

LEABNIXG AND DRESS (3rd Century, 20).

Adorn not more j'our body than your brain ;

Lest that this emblem in your teeth be flung,
That you resemble houses, which remain

With empty garrets though the rooms be hung.

The idea is similar in Parnell's epigram on the Castle of Dubliu in
the year 1715 :

This house and inhabitants both well agree,
And resemble each other as near as can be ;
One half is decay'd, and in want of a proji,
The other new-built, but not finish'd at top.

DANGER OF DELAYED REPENTANCE (7th Century, 53).

Cheat not yourselves as most ; who then piepare
For death, when life is almost turn'd to fume.

One thief was sav'd, that no man might despair :
And but one thief that no man might presume.

There is a remarkable epitaph in Camden's " Discourse on Epitaphs "
("Curious Discourses," edited by Hearne, 1771, I. 345), on a man who
•lelayed repentance not only to the last hour, but the last moment, of
his life: "A gentleman falling oft' his horse broke his neck, which
sudden hap gave occasion to much speech of his former life, and some
in this judging world judged the worst; in which respect a good friend
made tl'iis good epitaph, remembering that of S. Augustine, misericordia
Domini inter pontent etfontem" •

My friend judge not me,
Thou seest I judge not thee :
Betwixt the slirrup and the ground,
Mercy I ask'd, mercy I found.

INSTABILITY OF EARTHLY POSSESSIONS (7th Century, C2).

Wealth, honour, friends, wife, children, kindied, all.
We so mTich dote on, and wlierein we trust :

Are with'nng gourds ; blossoms that fade and fall ;
Landscapes in water ; and deeds drawn in dust.

A similar sentiment is exprcBsed in the following lines by an old

264 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

English poet (quoted in Bland's " Collections from the Greek An-
thology," 1813):

Your fond preferments are but children's toys,
And as a shadow all your pleasures pass :
As years increase, so waning are your joys ;
Your bliss is brittle like a broken glass.
Death is the salve that cease th all annoy ;
Death is the port by which we sail to joy.

The last line is almost word for word the same as one in an " Elegy
Tvrote in the Tower, by John Harynton, confined with the Prmcess
Elizabeth, 155-1 " (" Nugaj Antiquaj," 1804, n. 333) :

Death is a porte whereby we pass to joye.

JOHN ELIOT.

Of this author no particulars can be discovered. He published
" Poems or Epigrams, Satyrs, Elegies, Songs and Sonnets upon several
Persons and Occasions, London, 1G5S." His name is not on the title-
page. The authority for the statement that he is the author is the
British Musexmi Catalogue.

UPON A FELLOW THAT FEARED HE SHOULD RUN MAD
FOR HIS MISTRESS (P. 17).

Ealph is love si(rli, and thinks lie shall run mad,
And lose his wits, a thing Ralph never had.
Take comfort, man, if that be all thou fearest,
A groat will pay the loss when wit's at dearest.

On a witless person, the following, by Thomas Jordan, is fairly good
of its kind (Nichols' " Collection of Poems," VU. 64, 1781) :

Eant is, they say, indicted for a wit,

To which he pleads — " not guilty," — and is quit.

ENGRAVED ON A SILVER SCREEN, PRESENTED BY A

GREAT LADY TO THE EARL OF PORTLAND, LORD

TREASURER (P. 32).

Your virtues, like this silver screen,
Are known to interpuse between
The flaming eyes of envious fools
'Till your clear flame their fire cools

THOMAS TECKE. 265

Sit then securely, take yonr rest,
And with this motto dare their test ;
Detraction's sparks no more dare fly,
But like these coals shall waste and die.

The virtues of great men are always subject to the detractions of
" envious fools." No man suffered from this more than Wellington,
and no man, notwithstanding, was able to sit more securely or to take
his rest more calmly. The eloquent language of the late Lord Brougham
at a banquet given to the Duke at Dover in 1839, is a fitting illustra-
tion of Eliot's epigram (Alison's Essays — Wellington ) : "Despising all
who thwarted him with ill-considered advice ; neglecting all hostility,
so he knew it to be groundless ; laughing to scorn reviling enemies,
jealous competitors, lukewarm friends, ay, hardest of all, to neglect
despising even a fickle public, he cast his eyes forward as a man might
— else he deserved not to cummand men— cast forward his eye to observe
when that momentary fickleness of the people would pass away,
knowing that, in the end, the people are ever just to merit."

THOMAS PECKE.

Of this author nothing is known beyond the facts that he was of
Spixford, in Norfolk, and a member of the Inner Temple ; and that in
1659 he published " Parnassi Puerperium," consisting of translations
from Martial, Owen, and Sir Thomas More ; and a century of heroic
epigrams.

TO TBE RIGHT HON. THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE GLYN

(Ep. 2).

One of your predecessors pleas'd to tell
Posterity that the law is a well.
Men are the thirst}' buckets M'hich receive
More or less water, as reason gives leave :
There's an eternal spring, or else no doubt,
You had long since drawn all the water out.

The law is a well which suitors generally find very deep. Tlie
unfortunate clit^nt in Martial's epigram (liook VI. 19), thought liis
counsel took a long time to get the bucket to the top. The following
translation, by Hay, gives to modern ears the force of the original
perhaps better than a more exact rendering :

My cause concerns nor battery, nor treason ;

I sue iijy mighljoiir for tliis oidy rciisou,

Tliat late tliree sheep of mine to pound he drove;

This is the point the court would have you jirove;

266 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Conceming Magna Charta you run on,

And all the perjuries of old King John ;

Then of the Edwards and Black Prince you rant,

And talk of John o' Stiles, and John o' Gaunt ;

With voice and hand a mighty pother keep :

— Now, pray, dear sir, one word about the sheep.

TO SIR EDMUND PRIDEAUX, ATTORNEY GENEBAL (Ep.5).

If law, if rlietoric, my muse avow,

In you enthron'd, I sing what all men know :

Of your great virtue most are ignorant,

How charitable unto those that want !

You have found out the untrack'd path to bliss, —

To sue for Heaven, in formd pauperis.

If the subject were not a serious one, the witty conceit of the point
might be said to be very amusing. In the " Church-Porch " of George
Herbert, are two lines which may be compared with Pecke's subject :

Let thy alms go before, and keep heaven's gate
Open for thee ; or both may come too late.

CHAELES COTTON,

Born at Beresford, in Staffordshire, in 1630, was a voluminous writer ;
he translated much from the Latin and French, and published some
original poems. He was an intimate friend of Isaac Walton, and wrote
instructions on angling. He died in 1G87.

TO SOME GREAT ONES.

Poets are great men's trumpets, poets feign,
Create them virtues, but dare hint no stain :
This makes the fiction constant, and doth show
You make the poets, not the poets you.

In " Directions for Making a Birth-day Song," Swift is satirical on
Court poets :

— You some white-lead ink must get,
And write on paper black as jet ;
Your interest lies to learn the knack
Of whitening what before was black.
Thus youi- encomium to be strong.
Must be applied directly wrong.

JOHN DBTDEN. 267

A tyrant for his mercy praise,

And crown a royal dunc« with bays.

If * *. *

:^ it!^ * *

For princes love you should descant
On virtues which they know they want.

P(ipo, in the "Dunciad,'" shows the position of poets with respect tt
their patrons (Book II. 191):

But now for authors nobler palms remain ;
Room for my lord ! three jockies in his train ;
Six huntsmen with a shout precede his chair :
He grins, and looks broad nonsense with a stare.
His honour's meaning Dulness thus exprest,
" He wins this patron who can tickle best."

JOHN DKYDEN.

Bom 1631. Died 1701.

MILTON COMPARED WITH HOMER AND VIRGIL;

Under a Picture of Milton in the ith Edition of " Paradise Lost."

Three Poets, in three distant ages born,
Greece, Italy, and England d7d adorn.
The first, in loftiness of thought surpass'd
The next, in majesty ; in both the last.
The force of nature could no fuither go ;
To make a third, she join'd the former two.

The original of these fine lines was probably a Latin distich writt'.-u
by i^elvaggi at Kome (Amos' " Gems of Latin Poetry," 101), which haa
been thus translated :

Greece boasts her Homer, Eorne her Virgil's name,
But England's Milton vies with both in fame.

Cowper's lines on Milton may be compared with Dryden'e :

Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appear'd,
And ages ere the Mautuan Swan was heard
To carry Nature lengths unknown before,
To give a Milton birth, ask'd ages more.
Thus (JeniuH rose and set at order'd times,
And shot a day-spring into distant climea,
Ennobling every region that he chose ;
He sunk in Greece, in Italy he rose;

268 MODERN KPIGKAMMATIST8.

And, tedious years of gothic darkness pass'd,
Emerged all splendour in our isle at last.
Thus lovely hidcyons dive into the main.
Then show far off their shining pliunes again.

In Bishop Gibson's edition of Camden's " Britannia," there is a very
free translation of some old monkish verses on S. Oswald by Basil
Kennet, brother of Bishop White Kennet. The last line, to which
there is nothing corresponding in the Latin, seems to have been copied
from the last line of Dryden's epigram (Camden's " Britannia," 1695,
853, Northumberland) :

Cffsar and Hercules applaud thy fame, j

And Alexander owns thy greater name, >

Tho' one himself, one foes, and one the world o'ercarae : )
Great conquests all ! but bounteous Heav'n in thee,
To make a greater, join'd the former three.

ON JACOB TONSON.

With leering look, bull-fac'd, and freckled fair,
With two left legs, with Judas-colour'd hair,
And frouzj pores that taint the ambient air.

These most unpleasant lines are only interesting from their effect.
Tonson, the bookseller, having refused to advance Dryden a sum of
money for a work on which he was employed, the poet sent them to
him with a message : " Tell the dog, that he who wrote them can write
more.'' The money was paid. The triplet by some means got abroad
in manuscript, and after Dryden's death was inserted in " Fnction Dis-
played," a satirical poem against the Whigs (supposed to have been
written by WiUiam Shippen, the great leader ot the Tories in the reigns
of George I. and II.), among whom Tonson was a marked character,
being the secretary of the Kit-Cat Club, which was entirely composed
of the most distinguished members of that party. (See Nichols' " Lite-
rary Anecdotes," I. 293.)

The description of Tonson " with two left legs " arose from an awk-
wardness in his gait. Pope applies a similar epithet to him in the
" Dunciad " (Book II. 67) :

With arms expanded, Bernard rows his state,
And left-legg'd Jacob seems to emulate.

'^oo

Tonson was very anxioiis that Dryden should dedicate his Virgil to
King William, and anticipated such a compliment by giving .^neas a
hooked nose, William's marked feature, in all the plates, which pro-
duced the following epigram (" Gentleman's Magazine," XCl. Part II.
o33):

THOMAS BROWN. 269

Old Jacob by deep judgment swayed.

To please the wise brbokkrs,
Has placed old Nassau's hook-nosed head

On poor J2ueas' shoulders.
To make the jiarallel hold tack,

Methinks there's little lacking ; —
One took his father pick-a-back,

And t'other sent his packing.

Dryden's message to Tonson recalls a different alternative proposed
by Lord Byron to the late INIr, Jlurray on a similar occasion, preserveil
in Moore's" Life of Byron " :

For Orford and for Waklegrave,

You give much more than me you gave,

Whicii is not fairly to behave,

jMy Murray.

* * * *

* * * ♦

But now this sheet is nearly cramm'd,
So, if you will, I shan't be flamm'd,

And, if you won't, you may be d d,

My Murray.

The allusion is to Walpole's Memoirs of the Reign of George IL,
and the Memoirs of Earl Waldegrave, Governor of George III., when
Prince of Wales.

THOMAS BEOWN,

" Of facetious memory," was the son of a large farmer at Shiffnal, in
Shropshire. His irregularities obliged him to leave Christ Church,
Oxford, and, alter being for a short time a schoolmaster at Kingston-
on-Thames, he went to London, and made literature his profession.
His writings display some learning and exuberant humour ; but " he
seems," says Dr. Johnson in his " Life of Dryden," " to have thought it
the pinnacde of excellence to be a merry felloio ; and therefore laid out his
powers upon small jests or gross buli'oouery ; so that his pcrforuianceb
have little intrinsic value." His epigrams i);irt;d<e of this character,
and few are worthy of preservation. He was born during the Common-
wealth, and dii d in 1704. In 1700 an edition of his works, in four
volumes, wad published by Dr. Drake, where the following epigram.^
are found.

UPON THE FORTUNATE AND AUSPICIOUS RETGNS OF
QUEEN ELIZABETH ±\D QUEEN A^'NE.

Sure lleav'n's unerring voice decreed of old
The fairest sex bhould Europe's balance hold ;

270 MODERN EPIGEAMMATISTS.

As great Eliza's forces humbled Spain,
So France now stoops to Anne's superior reign.
Thus tho' pioud Jove with thunder fills the sky,
Yet in Astrcea's hands the fatal scale does lie.

Astraea, it will be remembered, is the virgin with tlie scales in her
hand, who personifies Justice as godiiess of that virtue.

Sir Samuel Garth has an epigram " On the King of Spain," whicli
may be compared with Brown's, the subject being the same :

Pallas, destructive to the Trojan line,

Eaz'd their proud walls, though built by hands divine:

But Love's bright goddess, with propitious grace.

Preserv'd a hero, and restor'd the race.

Thus the fam'd empire wliere the Iber flows,

Fell by Eliza, and by Anna rose.

Prior has some lines on the victories in Queen Anne's reign, whicli
were intended for a fountain, having statues of the Queen and the Duke
of Marlborough, with allegorical figures of the chief rivers of the world :

Ye active streams, where'er your waters flow.
Let distant climes and farthest nations know
What ye from Thames and Danube have been taught.
How Anne commanded and how Marlborough fought.

ON DR. SHERLOCK.

The same allegiance to two kings he pays,
Swears the same faith to both, and both betrays.
No wonder if to swear he's always free.
Who has two Gods to swear by more than we.

Dr. William Sherlock, Dean of S. Paul's and Master of the Temple,
was sadly perplexed how to act at the Revolution, but at length de-
cided to take the oaths. The epigram refers to t>ome peculiar views
which he broached on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, in which the
unity of the Godhead appeared to be to some extent explained away.

Before the Revolution, Dr. Slierlock had been a zealous advocate for
the divine right of kings by consecration, and only, therefore, by
changing his views could he take the oaths to William and Mary. His
sou, Master of tlie Temple and afterward.s Bishop of London, in like
manner, long hesitated respecting certain doctrinal tenets, but was con-
verted to the winning side when James II.'s cause became hopeless, and
he even preaclu d a revolutionary sermon on the very Sunday following
the fatal battle in Lancashire. The following epigram was probably by
a Bencher of the Temple, where it was remarked that it was unfor-
tunate the sermon had not been preached at least the Sunday before
(Noble's " Continuation of Granger," 1806, I. 91) :

BICHABD PAKSONS, VISCOUNT KOSSE FRANCIS KEGNIER. 271

As Sherlock the elder with his jure divine,

Did not comply 'till the buttle of Boyne ;

So Sherlock the younger still n)ade it a question.

Which side he would take, 'till the battle of Preston.

The following anonjonous epigram was probably made on the elder
Sherlock, but it may serve for either father or son (" Collection of
Epigrams," 1735, II. Ep. 114):

As Sherlock at Temple was taking a boat,
The waterman ask'd him which way he would float ;
Which way, says the Doctor, why, fool, with the stream.
To Paul's, or to Lambeth, — 'twas all one to him.

EICHARD PAKSONS, VISCOUNT ROSSE.

Died 1702.

TO LORD MONTAGU.

When Elizabeth, Duchess of Albemarle, lost her husband Christoplier,
second duke, she declared she would never take another of lower rank
than a sovereign prince. As she possessed immense estates, Ralph,
Lord Montagu, afterwards Duke of Montagu, paid his addresses to
her as the Emperor of China, and married her in 1691. This strange
courtship and marriage formed the subject of the well-known comedy
of " The Double Gallant," by Colley Gibber ; and it also occasioned
the following epigram by Lord Rosse, who had been Montagu's rival
(Granger's " Biog. Hist.," 1779, IV. 158. See also Noble's " Continua-
tion," 1806, II. 37) :

Insulting rival ! never boast

Thy conquest lately won ;
No wonder that her heart was lost,

Her senses first were gone.
From one who's under Bedlam's laws

\Vhat conquest can be had ?
For, love of thee was not the cause,

It proves that she was mad.

The duchess long survived her second husband, and gave evidence
oi a disordered mind by being always served on the knee as a sovereign.

FRANCIS REGNTER,

A French writer, born in Paris in 1632. He was secretary of the
.\cademy, jmd a dignitary of the Church. lie died in 1713.

272 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

THE PETITION OF THE VIOLET.

Translated from the French in Disraeli's " Curiosities of Liieratwre."

Modest my colour, modest is my place,
Pleased in the grass my lowly form to hide ;
But mid your tresses might 1 wind with grace.
The humblest flower would feel the loftiest pride.

These lines were written for the Due de Montausier, and inserted
in a MS. volume, containing flowers painted in miniature, with verses
appropriate to each, which he sent as a New-year's gift to the beautiful
Julia d'Angennes, whom he afterwards married. Disraeli tells us
(" Curiosities of Literature," 1st Series, Art. " Garland of Julia"), that
at the sale of the library of the Due de la Yalliere, this volume fetched
the extraordinary sum of 14,510 livres.

It is very likely that Jolm Cunningham was acquainted with this
epigram, either in the original or a translation, so similar are his lines
entitled " The Violet." The following are the first and the last stanzas :

Shelter'd from the blight ambition,
Fatal to the pride of rank,
See me in my lew condition
Laughing on the tufted bank.

Modest though the maids declare me.
May in her fantastic train.
When Pastora deigns to wear me,
Ha'n't a flow'ret half so vain.

NICHOLAS DESPKEAUX BOILEAU,

Was born in 1(53(3. He was intended for the Bar, but was thought
such a dunce that he woidd not succeed. He then applied himself to
scholastic divinity, which he abhorred ; and, at length, realised his
earnest wish of becoming a poet. He died in 1711. The following
translations are taken from " The Works of Monsieur Boileau. Made
English by Several Hands," 1712.

UPON A PALTRY SATIRE WHICH THE ABBE COTIN
HANDED ABOUT UNDER BOILEAU '8 NAME (Ep. 5).

Of all the pens which my poor rhymes molest,
Cotin's is sharpest, and succeeds the best.
Others outrageous scold and rail downright.
With hearty rancour, and true Christian spite.

NICHOLAS DESPREAUX BOILKATT. 273

But he, a readier method does design.

Writes scoundrel verses, and then says they're mine.

Had Horace and Milton been alive, they might perhaps have made a
complaint of similar character against Bentley. It has been made for
them by Mallet in his " Verbal Criticism " :

While Bentley, long to -wrangling schools confin'd,

And, but by books, acquainted with mankind,

* * * *

To Milton lending sense, to Horace wit,
He makes them write what never poet writ.
»

TO MONSIEVB PERRAULT, ON HIS BOOKS AGAINST THE
ANCIENTS (Ep. 23).

How comes it, Perrault, I would gladly know-
That authors of two thousand years ago,
Whom in their native dress all times revere,
In your translations should so flat appear ?
'Tis you divest them of their own sublime,
By your vile crudities, and humble ihj'me.
They're thine, when sufi'ering thy wretched phrase,
And then no wonder, if they meet no praise.

With this may be compared the " Verses sent to Dean Swift on iiis
hirtliday, with Pine's Horace iinely bound," by Ur. J. Siean (in Swilt'^i
Works), in which the following lines occur, Horace speaking :

Attack'd by slow-devouring moths,
iJy rage of barbarous Huns and GJoths ;
By Bentley's notes, my deadliest foes,
By Creech's rhymes and Dunster's prose ;
I found my boa.'ited wit and fire
In their rude hands almost cxphe.

There i:* an anonymous epigram in " The London Medley," on Perrauit'.-
" Parallel between the Ancients and Moderns," which may be inserted
here :

Perrault, the Frenchman, needs would prove

The Ancieiit.s knew not bow ti> love ;

Yet spite of all tiiat he lias said,

'Tis sure they wfK)'d, tliey won and wed.

The case beyond disjiute is clear ;

Or else how came the Moderns hero.

271: MODERN BPIGRAMMATISTS.

The following very complimentary distich, " On the celebrated dispute
between the Ancients and Modems," is by Mrs. Barber (" Poems on
Several Occasiuns," 1735, 170) :

Swift for the Ancients has argu'd so well,

"lis apparent, from thence, that the Moderns excel.

The celebrated Boyle and Bentley controversy on the Epistles of
Phalaris, originated in Sir W. Temple's essay on the comparative
excellence of ancient and modern writers, in which he gives the pre-
ference to the former.

VEESES TO BE PUT UNDER THE PICTURE OF MONSIEUR
BE LA BRUYERE, BEFORE HIS BOOK ENTITLED " THE
MANNERS OF THE AGE " (Poesies Diverses).

The Author speaks.

Let the self-lover these strict lessons learn,
And here himself, within himself discern ;
My hook, which scorns his vanity to hide,
Will cure his passion, and correct his pride.

Dr. Gloster Eidley severely condemns love of self, in the moral to
one of his fables (Nichols' " Collection of Poems," VIII. 132, 1782) :

Self spoils the sense of all mankind,

And casts a mist before the mind ;

Whate'er's th' intrinsic of the coin,

Youis always will be worse than mine.

Each grovelling despicable elf

Damns all the world besides, and deifies himself.

JOHN WILMOT, EAEL OF EOCHESTER.
Born 1647. Died 1680.

ON A PARISH CLERK WITH A BAD VOICE.

Sternhold and Hopkins had great qnalms,
When they translated David's Psalms,

To make the heart full glad :
But had it been poor David's fate
To hear thee sing and them translate,

By Jove, 'twould have drove him mad.

NAHXJM TATE. 275

Lord Rochester's residence was at Adderbury in Oxfordshire. TJie
epigram is said to have been made on the clerk, or sexton, of Bodicot,
a chapelry attached to Adderbury ('• Notes raid Queries," 2nd 8. IV. 441).

The witty Tom Brown, who w:is contemporary with Lord Rochester,
has the following lines in a long piece " On Sternhold and Hopkins and
the New Version of David's Psalms" (Brown's Works, 1760, IV. 63} :

Poor Psalmist ! he frets, and he storms, and he stares,
Bemoans his composures, and renounces his pray'rs ;
Blushes more at the dress which his penitence hath on,
Than when told of liis faults by the prophet old Nathan.

NAHUM TATE,

Was born in Dublin in 1652. He succeeded Shadwell as poet laureate.
He wrote a considerable portion of the " Second Part of Absalom and
Achitophel," and several dramas, but he is chiefly known as tlio author,
in conjunction with Dr. Brady, of the " New Version of the Psalms in
Metre." He died in 1715.

ON THE SPECTATOR ("Spectator," No. 4S8).

When first the Tatler to a mute was tnrn'd.
Great Britain for her censor's silence monrn'd ;
Eobbed of his sprightly beams she wept the night,
Till the Spectator rose, and blaz'd as bright.
So the first, man the sun's first setting viev/'d,
And sigh'd lill circling day his joys reneAv'd,
Yet, doubtful how that second sun to name,
Whether a bright successor or the same.
So we : but now from this suspense are freed,
Since all agree, who both with judgment read,
'Tis the same sun, and does himself succeed.

The thought is taken from Horace (Carm. SiEC. 9) :

Fair sun, who with unchanging beam,
Ri.-iing anotlutr and tlie sanie,

Do.4t from thy bcuiny car unfold
The glorious day,

Or hiJo it in thj setting ray.

276 MODERN EPIGKAM3IATISTS.

DE. ARCHIBALD PJTCAIRNE,

An eminent Scotch physician, was born in 1652. He published
several medical treatises, and employed his leisure in writing Latin
verses of considerable merit. He died in 1713.

UPON TEE DEATH OF THE EARL OF DUNDEE.

Translated from the Latin by Rev. John Graham.

Tliy death, Dundee ! has criish'd thy country's cause,
New 's her religion now, and new her laws ;
As thou disdain'd her ruin to survive,
Without thee now, in turn, she scorns to live.
Farewell, then, Caledonia ! empty name !
Adieu, thou last of Scots, and last bold Graeme !

A beautiful paraphrase of the Latin by Dryden may be found in his
works.
Aytoun, in " The Burial-march of Dundee," calls his hero :

Last of Scots, and last of freemen —

Last of all that dauntless race
Who would rather die unsullied

Than outlive the land's disgrace !

And in the introduction to the poem, he says : " It would be difficult
to point out another instance in which the maintenance of a great
cause depended solely upon the life of a single man. Whilst Dundee

survived, Scotland at least was not lost to the Stuarts But

with his fall the enterprise was over."

ANNE KILLIGREW,

Daiighter of Henry Killigrew, Master of the Savoy and a Prebendary
of Westminster, was born a short time before the Restoration. Sho
was Maid of Honour to the Duchess of York. Her death took place at
the age of twenty-live years.

EXTEMPORE COUNSEL TO A YOUNG GALLANT IN A

FROLIC.

(" Poems by Eminent Ladies," 1755, H. 14.)

As you are young, if you'll be also wise,
Danger with honour court, but broils despise ;

CHARLES MONTAGUE, EARL OF HALIFAX. 277

Believe you then are truly brave and bold,
To beauty when no slave, and less to gold ;
When virtue you dare own, nor think it odd,
Or ungenteel to say, " I fear a God."

The point of the following epigram by Graves is similar, the reasoE
given by an officer for avoiding u duel (" Euphrosyne," 17S3, I. 303 1 :

" What ! you re afraid, then ?" " Yes, I am ; you're right :

I am afmid to sin, but not to fight.

My country claims my service ; but no law

Bids me in folly's cuse my sword to draw.

I fear not man nor devil ; but tho' odd,

I'm not asham'd to own, I fear my God."

CHARLES MONTAGUE, EARL OF HALIFAX.
Born 16G1. Died 171.5.

VERSES WRITTEN FOB THE TOASTING-GLASSES OF THE
KIT-CAT CLDB, 1703.

DUCHESS OF S. ALBANS.

The line of Vere, so long renown'd in arms,
Concludes with lustre in S. Albans' charms.
Her conquering eyes have made their race complete :
They rose in valour, and in beauty set.

Charles Beauclerk. first Duke of S. Albans, married Diana de Vei
eldest daughter and co-heiress of Aubrey do Vere, the last Earl <>f
Oxford.

LADY MAIiY CHUBCHILL.

Fairest and latest of the beauteous race.

Blest with your parent's wit and her first blooming face ;

Burn with our liberties in William's reign.

Your eyes alone that liberty restrain.

Ltuly Mary ChTirchill was the youngest daughter of the celebrated
Duke of Marlborougli. She married the Duke of Muntiigu.

278 MODERN EPIGKAMMATISTS.

LADY SUNDERLAND.

All Nature's charms in Sundeiiand appear,
Bright as her eyes, and as her reason clear :
Yet still their force to men not safely known,
Seems undiscover'd to herself alone.

This was Aune, secnnd daughter of the celebrated Duke of Marl-
borough, and second wife of the third Earl r>f Sunderland.

The Kit-Cat Club, whose members toasted and commemorated in
verse the reigning beauties, was founded about the year 1700, and con-
sisted of the most di.4inguished wits and statesmen among the Whigs.
The place of meeting was a house in Shire Lane, from the owner of
which, Christopher Cat, it is generally believed the club took its name.
He was a pastry-cook, who excelled in making mutton pies, which
always formed part of the entertainment. It is the opinion of some,
however, that the club derived its name from Christopher and the sign
of his house, " The Cat and Fiddle ;" hence the allusion in the first stanza
of the following epigram, the second stanza of which, in its joking
derivation of the title of the club, is far from polite to the ladies who
•were toasted :

Whence deathless Kit-Cat took its name,

Few critics can unriddle ;
Some say from pastry-cook it came,
And some from cat. and fiddle.

From no trim beaux its name it boasts,

Grey statesmen, or green wits ;
But from this pell-mell pack of toasts

Of old cats and young kits.

This is found in Swift's Works, but in the " Gentleman's Mngazine,"
XCI. Part II. 435, it is stated to be from the pen of Dr. Arbuthnot,
several of whose pieces are included in Swift's Works.

In Noble's "Continuation of Granger," 1806, III. 431, the following
lines are given on Cat's mutton pies :

Eat mutton once, and you need eat no more,
All other meats appear so mean, so poor ;
Eat it again, nay oft'ner of it eat.
And you will find you need no other meat.

This is a parody of some lines by Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire,
in his " Essay on Poetry," which Pope said contained the finest praise
of Homer which had ever been given to that poet :

Read Homer once, and you can read no more,
For all books else appear so mean, so poor.
Verse will seem prose ; but still persist to read.
And Homer will be all the books you need.

279

WILLIAM WALSH.

Born 1663. Died 1709.

WRITTEN IN A LADY'S TABLE-BOOK.

With what strange raptures would my soul be blest.

Were but her book an emblem of her breast !

As I from that all former marks efface.

And uncontroll'd put new ones in their place ;

So might I chace all others from her heart,

And my own image in the stead impart.

But, ah ! how short the bliss would prove, if he

AV'ho seiz'd it next, might do the same by me !

The close of Swift's lines, " Written in a Lady's Ivory Table-Eook
1699," may be compared :

"Who that had wit would place it here,
For every peeping fop to jeer ;
In power of spittle and a clout.
Whene'er he please, to blot it out ;
And then, to heighten the disgrace.
Clap his own nonsense in the |ilace?
Whoe'er expects to hold his part
In such a book, and such a heart.
If he be wealthy, and a fnnl.
Is in all points the fittest tool ;
Of wlioiu it may be justly said,
He's a gold pencil tipp'd with lead.

LOVE AND JEALOUSY.

How much are they deceiv'd who vainly strive
By jealous fears to keep our flames alive !
Love's like a torch, which if secur'd fi'om blasts,
Will faintlier burn, but then it longer lasts :
I]xpos'd to storms of jealousy and doubt,
The blaze grows greater, but 'tis sooner out.

Hcrrick took the same view of violent love not being lasting, iu " Love
Me Little, Love Me Long":

You say, to rae-wards your affection's strong;
Pray love mo little, so you love me long.
Slowly goes fa ire : The meane is best : Desire
Grown violent, do's either die, or tiro.

280 MODERN KPIGRAMMATISTS.

THRASO.

Thraso picks qua rrels when he's drunk at night ;
When sober in the morning dares not fight.
Thraso, to shun those ills that may ensue,
Drink not at night, or drink at morning too.

Martial recommends a morning dram to those who drink at nighl
(Book XII. 12) ; thus translated by Hay :

In midnight cups you grant all we propose :
Next morn neglect : pray, take a morning dose.

Among the epigrams of Thomas Bancroft, 1639, there is a good one
on the subject of drunken courage (Book I. 11) :

Who only in his cups will fight, is like

A clock that must be oil'd well, ere it strike.

DE. FEANCIS ATTERBUEY,

Born in 1663, was a man of much learning and elegant accomplish-
ments. Attached to the Stuarts, and the High Church school, his life
was a continual struggle with political and literary opponents, while
his imperious temper made him many personal enemies. He was suc-
cessively Dean of Carlisle and of Christ Church, and Bishop of Kochester.
In 1716, on suspicion of being concerned in a plan in favour of the
Stuart.s, he was committed to the Tower, and afterwards banished the
country. He died in Paris in 1731.

WRITTEN ON A WHITE FAN BELONGING TO MISS
OSBORNE, AFTER WARDS HIS WIFE.

(" Biographia Britannica.")

Flavia the least and slightest toy

Can with resistless art employ :

This fan in meaner hands would prove

An engine of small force in love ;

Yet she, with graceful air and mien,

Not to be told or safely seen,

Directs its wanton motions so.

That it wounds more than Cupid's bow;

Gives coolness to the matchless dame,

To every other breast a flame.

MATTHEW PRIOR. 281

It has been thought thut Atterbury, Mhen writing this, had in his
mind the 7th Ode of Auacrton. on the power of Love, which com-
mences :

Love, waving awful in his hand

His niiigic hyacinthine wand,

Forc'd me, averse, with him to nm.

Li vain I strove the task to shun.

The general object of the ode being to show the irresistible force of
Love, in whose hands a flower is as powerful as his bow ami arrows.

Lloyd may have remembered Atteibury's epigram, when he wrote the
lines on a fan in the " Capricious Lovers." The last stanza is :

'Tis folly's sceptre first design'd

By love's capricious boy.
Who knows h'lw lightly all mankind

Are goveru'd by a toy.

EPITAPH FOB DRYDENS MONUMENT.

In a letter to Pope the Bisliop says (Pope's Works, 1770, VIII. 93 :
"If your design hulds of fixing Drydcn's name only below, and his
Busto above, may not lines like these be grav'd just under the name V

" This Sheffield rais'd to Dryden's ashes just,
Here tix'd his name, and there his laurel'd Bust.
What else the Muse in uiaible might express,
Is known already ; Praise would make him less."

Dryden's monument was erected in Westminster Abbey by Sheffield,
Duke of Buckinghamshire, but the only inscription he placed was the
poet's name.

MATTHEW PRIOR.
Born 1664. Died 1721.

ON JOUBDAIN'S PICTURE OF SENECA DYING IN

A BATH.

While cruel Nero only drains
The moral Spaniard's ebbing veins,
By study worn, and slack with age,
How dull, how thoughtless, is his rage!
Heigliten'd revenge AVould lie have took,
He should have burnt his tutor's book,

282 MODEEN BriGRAMMATISTS.

And long have reign'd supreme in vice :

One nobler wretch can only riae,

'Tis he whose fnry shall deface

The stoic's image in this piece ;

For while niihurt, divine Jourdain,

Thy work and Seneca's remain,

He still has body, still has soul,

And lives and speaks, restor'd and whole.

Seneca, the philosopher, a native of Corduba in Spain, was for four
years tutor to Nero. When the emperor gave rein to his odious vices,
the virtuous Seneca became so distasteful to him that he ordered him
to destroy himself. The pliilosopher died by opening his veins in a hot
batli, a common mode of death at that period.

Elsum, in his "Epigrams on Paintings," 1700, has one on "Seneca
teaching Nero, by Titian," the first few lines of which are (Ep. 39) :

His countenance does not betray much evil,
At present he's a young and harmless devil :
' But when this infant tyrant comes of age,

O how his wrath and cruelty will rage !
His villanies and murders will be rife,
He will not spare his rev'rend master's life.

Marini, an Italian poet of the IGth century, has an epigram on Nero's
cruelty, which has been translated by Sir Edward Sherburne. Thii
subject is " A Marble Statue of Nero, which, fiilling, killed a Child".

This statue, bloody Nero, does present

To tyrants a sad document.
Though marble, on his basis yet so fast

He stood not, but he fell at last :
And seems as when he liv'd, as cruel still.

He could not fall, but he must kill.

Marini probably took this thought, a very singular one, from a Greek
epigram usually ascribed to Callimachus, but by Jacobs to an uncertain
author (Jacobs IV. 210, ccccxxxii.). Translated by C. :

As on a stepdam's tomb, a young child laid
A wreath of votive flowers, t' a])pe ise her shade.
It fell, and crush'd him ! Fly, sad otfspring, fly
A stepdam's roof, e'en tho' entombd she lie.

TO FORTUNE.

Whilst I in prison or in court look down,
Nor beg thy favour, nor deserve thy frown,

MATTHEW PRIOR. 283

In vain, malicious Fortune, hast thou tried

By taking from my state, to quell my pride :

Insulting girl ! thy present rage abate,

And, would'st thou have me humbled, make me great.

So, Keble, in the " Christian Year " (SS. Philip and James' Day) :

Thankful for all God fakes away,
Hiunbled by all He gives.

It is related of the late Lord Seaton that, when at the close of the
great war he and another officer were addressed by a lady, " How proud
you gentlemen must feel at the recollection that you had a share in
those great events," he replied, "Proud! no, rather humbled I
thmk" (Leeke's "Lord Seaton's Keguneut at Waterloo," 1SG7, I. 103).

A REASONABLE AFFLICTION.

In a dark corner of the house

Poor Helen sits, and subs, and cries ;
She will not see her loving spouse,
JS'or her more dear picquet allies :
Unless she find her eye-brows,
She'll e'en weep out her eyes.

Prior delighted in epigi'ams on ladies who wore false hair and teeth.
and who attempted to retain the beauty of youth by means of paint and
dye. They are generally imitated from Martial or from the woi st pro-
ductions of the later Greek epigrammatists. Perhaps no English poet
was guilty of plagiarism to such un extent as Prior, and unfortunately
he had not generally the good taste to steal from the best sources. One
Bjiecimen of such wortldess wit as the above is quite enough.

THE POET'S DINNER.
In Chaucer's style.

Full oft doth Mat. with Topaz dine,
Eateth baked meats, drinketh Greek wine ;
But Topaz his own wcike rehearseth,
And Mat. mote praise what Topaz verseth.
Kow sure as priest did e't-r shrive sinner.
Full hardly eanieth Mat. his dinner.

Topaz, whom Mat. Prior here satirizes, was Sir Richard Blackmore.
physician and jtoel. Ilia virtues rous<;d against liim the (^ninity of tlie
wits, who would not allow any merit in his jioctry. Uryden and Pope

284 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

persistently persecuted him. The latter holds him up to ridicule in
the " Dunciad " (Book II. 259) :

But far o'er all, sonorous Blackmore's strain ;
Walls, steeples, skies, bray back to him again.
In Tot'nam Fields the brethren with amaze,
Prick all their ears up, and forget to graze !
Long Chancery Lane retentive rolls the sound,
And courts to courts return it round and round ;
Thames wafts it thence to Rufus' roaring hall,
And Hungerford re-echos bawl for bawl.
All hail 'him victor in both gifts of song.
Who sings so loudly, and who sings so long.

Prior probably took the idea of his epigram from a Greek one bj
Lucillius, thus translated by Merivale (Jacobs III. 43, Ixxiii.) :

When Narva asks a friend to dine,

He gives a pint of tavern wine,

A musty loaf and stinking ham,

Then overwhelms with epigram.

A kinder fate Apollo gave.

Who whelm'd beneath the Tyrrhene wave

The impious rogues that stole his kine.

Oh Narva, let their lot be mine !

Or if no river's near your cell,

Show me at least yoiu- deejaest well.

ON A FLOWER PAINTED BY SIMON VARELST.

When fam'd Varelst this little wonder drew,
Flora vouchsaf 'd the growing work to view ;
Finding the painter's science at a stand,
The goddess snatch'd the pencil from his hand ;
And finishing the piece, she smiling said,
Behold one work of mine, that ne'er shall fade.

Varelst was a man of gi-eat eccentricity. Horace Walpole says of
him : " His lunacy was self-admiration ; he called himself the God of
Flowers ; and went to Whitehall, saying he wauted to converse with
the king (Charles 11.) for two or three hours. Being repulsed, he said
'He is king of England, I am king of painting: why should we not
converse together familiarly ?' " (Walpolc's Works, 1798, III. 303.)

Prior's most elegant compliment to this painter, is only equalled by
Sir Samuel Garth's Epigram on a poet — Gay :

When Fame did o'er the spacious plain
The lays she once had learn'd repeat ;

Or listen'd to the tuneful strain,

And wonder'd who could sing so sweet.

MATTHEW PRIOK. 285

'Twas thus. The Graces held the lyre,
Th" haimonioiis frame the Muses strung,

The Loves and Smiles comjjos'd the choir,
And Gay transcrib'd what Phoebus sung.

Tennyson, in the " Gardener's Daughter," has the same thought as
Prior. The subject is Eustace's pictui-e of Juliet:

'Tis not your work, but Love's. Love unperceived,
A more ideal artist he thau all,
Came, drew your pencil from you, made those eyes
Darker than darkest pansies, aud that hair
More black than ashbuds in the front of March.

EPITAPH FOB HIMSELF.

Nobles and Heralds by your leave,

Here lies what once was Matthew Prior,

The son of Adam and of Eve ;

Can Bourbon or Nassau claim higher ?

Mr. Singer remarked in " Notes and Queries," 1st S. I. 482 : " Prior's
epitaph on himself has its prototype in one long previously written by
or for one John Carnegie " :

Johnnie Carnegie lais heer,

Descendit of Adam and Eve,
Gif ony can gang hieher,

I'se williug gie him leve.

The same, without name, but with only slight verbal variations, is
given in " Sharpe's London Journal," XIV. 348, stated to be " taken
from a monument erected in ITOiJ, in the New Church burying-ground
of Dundee, to the memory of J. R."

Prior had, or affected to have, a contempt for hereditary honours. In
his lines on " The Old Gentry," he says :

But coronets we owe to crowns,
And favour to a court's affection ;

By nature we are Adam's sons.
And sous of Anstis by election.

Jolin Anstis was then Garter King-at-arms.

But Prior, though perhaps iu'lilferent to lank or noble birtli, was
certainly very an.\ious for posthumous honours, for he had the vanity to
leave by will .t.J0O for his monument, whicli was placed in Westminster
Abbey. Gibbs, the architect of the church of S. jMartiii-iii-the-Fieids,
the Badclitie Library at Oxford, aud oth( r public buildiugs crccttd at
that time, was enipl'iyed to design it. Those who riiueinlier the monu-
ment can judge whether the following complimentary epigram, prest^rved

286 MODERN EPIGEAMMATI8TS.

in Walpole's " Anecdotes of Painting," was deserved by the architect.
It is signed T. W., probably Thomas Warton :

While Gibbs displays his elegant design,
And Rysbrach's art does in the sculpture shine,
With due composure and proportion just,
Adding new lustre to the finished bust,
Each artist here perpetuates his name,
And shares with Prior an immortal fame.

Cowper has an extremely fine thought on the subject of hereditary
honours in his poem, " On the Receipt of my Mother's Picture " :

My boast is not that I deduce my birth
From loins enthroned, and rulers of the earth ;
But higher far my proud pretensions rise —
The son of parents passed into the skies.

TO THE MASTER OF S. JOHN'S COLLEGE.

I stood, sir, patient at your feet,

Before your elbow-chair ;
But make a Bishop's throne your seat,

I'll l-neel before you there.
One only tiling can keep you down,

For your great soul too mean ;
You'd not, to mount a Bishop's throne,

Pay homage to the Queen.

In 1712 Prior, who had lately been plenipotentiary at the court of
France, went to Cambridge, and, being a Fellow of S. John's, called on
the master, Dr. Jenkin, who had been elected to that dignity the
previous year. The master " loved Mr. Prior's principles, had a great
opinion of his abilities, and a respect for his character in the world,
but then he had much greater respect for himself," and consequently
kept the ex-ambassador standing. Prior struck off the epigram as he was
walking from the college to the Rose Hotel. This account is chiefly taken
from the "Gentleman's Magazine,'' XLIV. 16. 'J'he writer was Prior's
companion on the visit to Cambridge ; but as he says of the master of
S. John's, " whether Dr. Gower or Dr. Jenkin 1 cannot now recollect,"
it is very probable that he was thinking of the former, as one who
"loved Mr. Prior's princijiles." The real cause of the indignity which
Prior suffered, may have been the master's objection to his principlee,
for Dr. Jenkin had resigned his preferments rather than take the oaths
to William and Mary, whom Prior liad served as a statesman, and
courted as a poet ; and had only the year before satisJied his conscience
that he could take them to Anne.

MATTHEW PKlOfi. 287

BISHOP ATTERBURYS GRAVE.

Meek Francis lies here, friend : without stop or stay,
As 3'ou value your peace, make the best of your way.
Though at pres^ent arrested by Death's caititf paw,
If be stirs, he may still have recourse to the law :
And in the King's-bench should a verdict be found.
That by livery and seisin his grave is his ground,
He will claim to himself what is strictly his due ;
And an action of trespass will straightway ensue,
That yoii without right on his premises tread.
On a simple surmise that the owner is dead.

Bishop Atterbury, who was alive and well when this severe epigram
w£is written, refers to it in a forgiving spirit in a letter to Pope, dated
Sept. 27, 1721 : "I had not strength enough to attend ]Mr. Prior to his
grave, else I would have done it, to have shew'd his friends that I had
forgot and forgiven what he wrote on me."

Leonidas of Tarentum has a Greek epigram on Hipponas the satirist,
similar in spirit, and which may perhaps have suggested to Prior hia
witty severity on the litigiousness of Atterbury. The translation is by
Merivale (Jacobs I. 180, xcvii.) :

Pass gently by this tomb — lest, while he dozes.
Ye wake the hornet that beneath reposes ;
Whose sting, that would not his own parents spare,
Who will may risk — and touch it those who dare !
Take heed then — for his words, like fiery dart.s,
Have ev'n in hell the power to pierce our hearts.

Another epigram on Atterbury's grave was made when he was really
dead. He died in exile, and liis body was brought over to England and
privately interred in Westminster Abbey. There were some thoughts
of a public funeral, which was refused. This occasioned the epigram,
which is found in the " Poetical Calendar," 17G3, VIU. 79 :

His foes, when dead great Atterbury lay,

.Shrunk at his name, and trembled at his clay:

Ten thousand dangers to their eyes appear.

Great aa tlieLr guilt, and certain as their fear;

T' insult a deathless corse, alas ! is vain : 1

Well for themselves, and well employ'd their pain, >

Gould they secure huu— not to rise again. )

A public funeral, for a man who had died in banishment, could hardly
have been seriously contemplated. Moreover, tlie same dillieuity would
have arisen as aft'Twards prevented a monuuiorit iicing erected to his
memory— liis rank and title. His friends hcM that he died Bishop o"
Kochester. Jint tiie government had (lceliue<l liis see vacant when lit
was banished, and caused it to be tilled by another prelate.

288 MODERJf EriGEA3IMATI8TS.

DR. JONATHAN SWIFT.

Born 1667. Died 1744.

OX MISS BIDDY FLOYD;
Or, the Eeceipt to Form a Beauty.

When Cupid did his grandsire Jove entreat
To form some Beauty by a new receipt,
Jove sent, and found, far in a conn try -scene
Truth, innocence, good-nature, look serene:
From -which ingredients fir.st the dexterous boy
Pick'd the demure, the awkward, and the coy.
The Graces from the court did next provide
Breeding, and wit, and air, and decent pride :
These \'enus cleans from every spurious grain
Of nice, coquet, aft'ected, pert, and vain.
Jove mix'd up all, and his best clay employ'd ;
Then called the happy composition Floyd.

Miss Floyd is said to have been connected with the Berkeley family.
She resided with Lady Betty Germaine, daughter of the 2nd Earl ol
Berkeley, and wife of Sir John Germaine of Drayton, Xorthamptonshire.
In 1712 her beauty was impaired by the small-pox. She was alive and
unmarried in 1736, as she is mentioned in a letter from Lady Betty to
Swift of that date (Pope's Works, Supplemental Vol. 1825, 107).

LINES SENT TO THE PHYSICLiN WHO ATTENDED
BARLEY (AFTER WAUDS EARL OF OXFORD), WHEN
STABBED BY TEE MARQUIS OF GUISCARD.

On Britain Europe's safety lies;
Britain is lost if Harley dies :
Harley depends upon your skill ;
Think what you save, or what you kill.

In " The Poetical Register " for 1806-1807, there is a translation by
Davenport, of an epigram by the French poet Montreuil (born 1611)
addressed to a Physician, with an object the contrary to that which
Swift had in view, but in general character so similar, that the Dean
may possibly have been indebted to the Frencliman for the idea of bin
lines:

DR. JONATHAN SWIFT. 289

Kaymond, thou hast beneath thy care
Sylvia, the fairest of the fair !

Who treats with cruel scorn each lover:
Her rigour daily to the grave
Dooms thousands whom her eyes enslave ;
And thou may'st half the nation save,

If Sylvia thou wilt not recover.

SUNT QUI SEBVARI NOLUNT.

As Thomas was cudgell'd one day by his wife,

He took to the street, and he fled for his life.

Tom's three dearest friends came by in the squabble,

And sav'd him at once from the shrew and the rabble ;

Then ventur'd to give him some sober advice —

But Tom is a person of honour so nice,

Too wise to_ take counsel, too proud to take warning,

That he sent to all three a challenge next morning.

Three duels he fought, thrice ventur'd his life,

Went home — and was cudgell'd again by his wife.

This well illustrates the proverbial danger of interfering in matri-
monial quarrels, especially in the case of such a chivalrous husband as
Thomas. His connubial infelicitv recalls an epigram which is often
quoted, found in -'Wit Restored," 1658 (Ed. 1817, II. Ill):

111 thrives the hapless family that shows
A cock that's silent, and a hen that crows :
I know not which live more unnatural lives,
Obeying husbands, or commanding wives.

In " The History of Man," ITOi, the first two lines are said to be the
translation of a French proverb :

La maison est miserable et me'chante
Oil la poule plus haut que le coq chante.

TO MRS. UOUGIITON OF BOJtMOUNT, UPON PRAISING
HER HUSBAND TO DR. SWIFT.

You always are making a god of your spouse ,
But this neither reason nor conscience allows :
Perhaps you will say, 'tis in gratitude due,
And you adore him, because he adores you.
Your argument's weak, and so you will find ;
For you, by this rule, mu.Nt adore all mankind.

290 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

This IS, perhaps, one of the finest compliments to be met with in
epigrammatic form. It will be observed how much is contained in
these few lines. The charming character of the lady— her fondness for
her husbaml, and his love for her, and the consequent happiness of
their married life. The epigrammatists so constantly depict the misery
of marriage, that it is quite a treat to meet with an epigi'am in which
the bright side is shown. Martial writes in his best taste, when he
addresses an epigram to Nigriua on her goodness as a wife (Book IV. 74) ;
thus translated by Hay :

Blest in thy spirit, in thy husband blest,
O thou of wives most honour'd, and the best ;
Who your whole fortune to your consort spare ;
And know no joy, in which he bears no share :
Evadne died in her lord's funeral flame ;
Nor less immortal is Alceste's name ;
Yet less did they, when they resign'd their breath :
Late is the proof of love when after death.

The happiness of marriage is well displayed in a complimentary
epigram presented to Dr. Zachary Pearce, Bishop of Rochester, on the
celebration of his Weddiug Jubilee (Nichols' " Literary Anecdotes,"
m. 107):

No more let calumny complain
That Hymen binds in cruel chain,
And makes his subjects slaves:
Supported by the good and wise,
Her keenest slander he defies.

Her utmost malice braves.
To-day — he triumphs o'er his foes,
And to the world a pair he shows

Tho' long his subjects — free :
Who happy in his bands appear,
And joyful call the fiftieth year
A year of jubilee.

WEITTEN ON ONE OF THE WINDOWS OF DELVILLE, THE
RESIDENCE OF DR. DEL ANY, DEAN OF DOWN.

A bard grown desirous of saving his pelf,

Built a house he was sure would hold none but himself.

This enrag'd god Apollo, who Mercury sent,

And bid him go ask what his votary meant.

" Some foe to my emjiire has been his adviser ;

'Tis of di'eadful portent when a poet turns miser !

Tell him, Hermes, from me, tell that subject of mine,

I have sworn by the Styx to defeat his design ;

DR. JONATHAN BWIFT. 291

For wherever he lives the Muses shall reign ;
And the Muses, he knows, have a numerous train."

Swift seems to have been fond of rallying Dr. Delany upon the
smallness of Delville, which, however, from the account which Mrs.
Delany, in her correspondence, has given of it, must have been a very
pretty residence. The Dean closes an ode, entitled " Dr. Delany's Vdla,"
with a compliment to the owTier even more pointed than that in the
epigram :

In short, in all your boasted seat,
There's nothing but yourself that's great.

There is a famous saying of Socrates with regard to a small hous%
which Phfedrus has made the subject of one of his fables. The latter
half gives the story. The translation is by Smart (" Phgedrus," Book III.
Fable 8>:

Socrates * * ♦

Was building of a little cot,

When some one standing on the spot,

Ask'd, as the folks are apt to do,

" How comes so great a man as you

Content with such a little hole ?" —

" I wish," says he, " with all my soul,

That this same little house I build

Was with true friends entirely iill'd."

ON WOOD'S BRASS MONEY.
Carteret was welcom'd to the shore
First with the brazen cannon's roar;
To meet him next the soldier comes,
With brazen trumps, and brazen drums;
Approaching near the town he hears
The brazen bells salute his oars :
But, when Wood's brass began to sound,
Gun.s, trumpets, drums, and bells were drown'd.

In 1724, a speculator named Wood obtained a patent authorizing him
to coin £180,000 in copjxT for tlie use of Ireland. Swift discovered
tiiat the jnotal was debused with brass to an immense extent, and wrote
a series of letters, under the title of the " Drapier," to expose the con-
duct of the (iovf-rnment and their patentee. The greatest excitement
was created ; tiie (government oOered a large sum for the discovery of
tlie writer, but in vain ; and it was found necessary to withdraw the
J^atent. The popularity of tlie " Drapier " was at its height, when Lord
Carteret arrived in Dublin as Lord-Lieutenant, and the ej)igram wittily
alludes to the brazen din which greeted the unfortunate Viceroy on aU
eideu.

292 MODERN EPIGEAMMATISTS.

EPITAPH ON DR. THOMAS SHERIDAN.

Beneath this marble stone here lies
Poor Tom, more merry much than wise ;
Who only liv'd for two great ends,
To spend his cash and lose his friends :
His darling wife of him bereft,
Is only griev'd— there's nothing left.

This Is not found in Swift's Works. It is taken from Watkins'
" Memoir of the Public and Private Life of R . B. Sheridan," J 817.
Part I. 33.

The hero was the grandfather of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. He
was an Irish clergyman, and had some prospect of rising in his profes-
sion through Government patronage, but irretrievably offended the
Lord-Lieutenant, by inadvertently preaching a sermon at Cork on tlie
King's birthday, on the text : " Sufficient unto the day is the evil
thereof." He was an improvident man, and that at his death there
was " nothing left " is probably true.

THE POWER OF TIME.

If neither brass nor marble can withstand
The mortal force of Time's destructive hand ;
If mountains sink to vales, if cities die,
And lessening rivers mourn their fountains dry :
When my old cassock (said a Welch divine)
] s out at elbows ; why should I repine ?

There are several examples of this class of epigram, in which the
trifling and the grand are brought into juxta-position. A Greek one
by Lucilius (Jacobs III. 41, Ixiii.) is well known in the version of Bishop
Sprat :

Bestride an ant, a pigmy great and tall

Was thrown, alus ! and got a dreadful fall

Under th' unruly beast's proud feet he lies,

All torn ; but yet with generous ardour cries,

" Behold, base envious world, now, now laugh on, ■

For thus I fall, and thus fell Phaeton."

The following anonymous epigram is amushig, and to the poict
("Select Epigrams," 1797, II. 181) :

MjTtle unsheath'd his shining blade.
And fix'd its point against his breast :

Then gaz'd upon the wond'ring maid,
And thus his dii-e resolve exprest :

DR. JONATHAN SWIFT. 293

*' Since, cruel fair, witli cold disdain,

You still return my raging love,
Thought is but madness, lite but pain.

And thus — at once — I both remove !'''

"O, stay one moment !"— Chloe said,

And, trembling, hasten'd to the door:
" Here, iietty !— quick ! — a pail, dear moid ! —

This madman else will stain the floor."

ON HIS OWN DEAFNESS.

Deaf, giddy, helpless, left alone,
To all my friends a burden grown ;
No more I bear my cburcb's bell,
Than if it rang out for my knell ;
At thunder now no more I start.
Than at the rumbling of a cart ;
And what's incredible, alack !
No more I hear a woman's clack.

Swift wrote this epigram in Latin as well as English. The first line
of the Latin version is :

Vertiginosus, inops, surdus, male gratus amicis.

Upon the false quantity of the first word it has been happily said, thnt
it adds expression to the line, showing how tlie poor old man had, by
his deafness, lost all power of detecting error by the ear.

In the "Poetical Farrago," 1794, II. 19, there is an epigram upon
Swift's :

What though the Dean hears not the knell

Of the next church's passing-bell ;

Wliat though the thunder from a cloud,

Or that from female tongue more loud.

Alarm not : at tiie Drapier's ear

Chink but Wood's halfpence, and he'll hear.

ON THE NEW MAGAZINE FOR ARMS AND POWDEB

IN DUBLIN.

Behold ! a proof of Irish sense !

Here Irish wit is seen !
When nothing's loft, that's worth defence,

We build a magazine.

294 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

During the lunacy of his latter years, Swift had lucid intervals, and
was then taken out for a drive. On one of these occasions he observed
a new building, and enquired its object ; being told that it was a
magazine, he expressed surprise, and afterwards made the above
epigram ; which is interesting as his last known composition.

GEOEGE GKANVILLE, VISCOUNT LANSDOWNE.

Born 1667. Died 1735. I

TO MYBA. '

Lost in a labyriiitli of doubts and joys,

Whom now her smiles reviv'd, her scorn destroys :

She will, and she will not, she grants, denies,

Consents, retracts, advances, and then flies, :■.

Approving, and rejecting in a breath, |

Now proft'ring mercy, now presenting death. I

Thus hoping, thus despairing, never sure, ^

How various are the torments I endure ! '

Cruel estate of doubt ! ah, Myra, try

Once to resolve — or let me live, or die.

A song by Sidney Godolphin, who was born in 1610, might be thought
the original of this, if Granville were likely to have ever seen it ; but
Mr Ellis knew of no printed copy, and in his " Specimens of the Early
English Poets," from which the following stanza is taken, he gives it
extracted from a MS. (Ed. 1S03, III. 229) :

Or love me less, or love me more ;

And play not with my liberty :
Either take all or all restore ;

Bind me at least or set me free !
Let me some nobler torture find
Than of a doubtful wavering mind :
Take all my peace ! but you betray
Mine honour too, this cruel way.

SENT TO CLABINDA WITH A NOVEL ENTITLED " LES
MALHEUBS DE L'AMOUB."

Haste to Clarinda, and reveal
Whatever pains poor lovers feel ;
When that is done, then tell the fair
That I endure much more for her :

GEORGE GRANVILLE, VISCOUNT LANSDOWNE. 295

"Who'd truly know love's pow'r or smart,
Must view her eyes and read my heart.

Lord Lyttelton's address to Miss Fortescue, with a copy of
Hammond's elegies, has a similar point :

All that of love can be express'd

In these soft numbers see ;
But, Lucy, would you know the rest,

It must be read in me.

FORTUNE.

When Fortune seems to smile, 'tis then I fear
Some lurkinnj ill, and hidden mischief near ;
Us'd to her frowns, I stand upon my guard,
And arm'd in virtue, keep my soul prepared.
Fickle and false to others she may be,
I can complain but of her constancy.

The noble endurance here expressed may remind us of a passage in
Shakespeare's "Coriolanus" (Act IV. sc. ij, where Coriolanus, address-
ing his mother, says :

You were us'd
To say, extremities was the trier of spirits ;
That common chances common men could bear ;
That, when the sea was calm, all boats alike
Show'd mastership in floating : fortune's blows,
When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves
A noble cunning.

Johnson thus comments upon the latter part : " The sense is, ' When
Fortune strikes her hardest blows, to be wnunded, and yet continue
calm, requires a generous policy.' He calls this calmness, cunning.
because it is the effect of reflection and phil()S(jphy. Perhaps the first
emotions of nature are nearly uniform, and one man differs from anotlier
in the power of endurance, as he is better regulated by precept and
instruction."

A stanza (last but one) in a poem, entitled " Content and Ricii," by
Robert Southwell, the Jesuit, time of Queen Elizabeth, is so similar to
the first part of Granville's epigram, that wo may be disposed to
believe it the original from which the latter obtained the thought :

No change of Fortune's calm

Can east my comforts down :
When Fortune smiles, I smile to think

How quickly she will frown.

296 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

BEVIL HIGGONS,

A younger son of Sir Thomas Higgons, and of Bridget, his second wife,
daughter of Sir Bevil Grenville, of Stow, was born in 1670. He be-
came a commoner of S. John's College, Oxford ; went afterwards to
Cambridge ; and then to the Bliddle Temple. Being a firm adherent
of James II., he followed that monarch to France, where he continued
to reside, delighting all his acquaintance by his wit and humour. He
wrote a few poems, a tragedy, and one or two prose works of some
merit. He died in 1735. The following epigrams are taken from
Nichols' " Select Collection of Poems," Vol. III. 1780.

TO SIB GODFREY KNELLER. WHEN PAINTING LADY
HYDE'S PORTRAIT.

The Cyprian Queen, drawn by Apelles' hand.

Of perfect beauty did the pattern stand.

But then bright nymphs from every part of Greece

Did all contribute to adorn the piece;

From each a several charm the painter took

(For no one mortal so divine could look).

But, happier Kneller, fate presents to you

In one that finish'd beauty which he drew.

But oh, take heed, for vast is the design,

And madness 'twere for any hand but thine.

For mocking thunder bold Salmoneus dies ;

And 'tis as rash to imitate her eyes.

This lady, afterwards Countess of Clarendon and Rochester, is
celebrated in the writings of many of the poets of the day for her great
beauty, and was a reigning toast at the meetings of the Kit-Cat Club.
One of the best of the club verses on her is by Garth :

The god of wine grows jealous of his art,
He only fires the head, but Hyde the heart.
The queen of love looks on, and smiles to see
A nymph more mighty than a deity.

Hughes, in lines " To a Painter," who was taking the Ukenees of a
'* beauteous and victorious fair,'" asks :

Canst thou Love's brightest lightning draw.
Which none e'er yet unwounded saw ?
To what then wilt thou next aspke,
Unless to imitate Jove's fire ?
Which is a less adventurous pride,
Though 'twas for that Salmoneus died.

FRANCIS FULLER. 297

TO MR. POPE.

Thy wit in vain the feeble critic gnaws ;

While the hard metal breaks the serpent's jaws.

Grieve not, my friend, that spite and brutal rage

At once thy person and thy muse engage :

Our virtues only from ourselves can flow,

Health, strength and beauty, to blind chance we owe.

But Heaven, indulgent to thy nobler pai-t,

In thy fair mind express'd the nicest art :

Nature too busy to regard the whole,

Forgets the body to adorn the soul.

Pope, it will be remembered, was deformed. Sh.akespeare, in " Twelfth
Xight" (Act III. se. 4), shows of how little importance is personal
appearance in comparison with a " fair mind " :

In nature there's no blemish, but the mind ;
None can be call'd deform'd, but the unkind ;
Virtue is beauty ; but the benuteous-evil
Are empty trunks, o'erflourish'd by the devil.

NATHANIEL LEE,

A dramatic poet, born in the latter half of the 17th century. He
fell into dissipated habits, and became insane.

TO SIR ROGER L' ESTRANGE.
(Granger's " Biographical History of England," 1775, IV. 70).

Faces may alter, names can't change :

I am strange Lee altered ; you are still L'e-Stramje.

The occasion of this flash of wit was a visit by L'Estrange to Lee
in a madhouse, when he found him so altered as scarcely to l>e
recognised.

Epigrams which depend for their wit on play upon words, rank low
in this class of foiiijKJsition, but many are amusing and chver. Thomas
Fuller, in his " Holy State," in a "life of William Perkins, gives an
epjgram, the original being in Latin, by Hugh Holland, on that learned
divine, born in 1558, whose works were held in great estiniation, but
were all written with a left-handed pen, his right hand being useless :

Though Nature thee of thy right hand bereft,
Right well thou writest with tliy hand that's left

298 MODERN EPIGKASIMATIST8.

Another good one is by Dr. Donne, on a Lame Beggar :

" I am unable," yonder beggar cries,

" To stand or move ; " if he says true, he lies.

The following punning epitaph in S. Michael's Church, Lewes, is a
curious specimen of this style. It is on Sir Nicholas Pelham, an
ancestor of Lord Chichester, who repulsed the French forces whioli
attacked Seaford, compelling them to escape to their ships. He died
in 1.559 :

His valour's proofe, his manlie virtue's prayse
Cannot be marshall'd in this narrow roome ;
His brave exploit in great King Henry's dayes
Among the worthye hath a worthier tombe :
What time the French sought to have sack't Sea-Ford
This Pelham did Ee-Pel'em back abroad.

The play upon a name sometimes rises into extreme elegance, as in
the following epitaph, by Crashaw, on Dr. Brook, a celebrated Master
of the Charter-hou.se (" Steps to the Temple, &c." 1670, 95) :

A Brook, whose stream so great, so good,
Was lov'd, was honour'd as a flood,
Whose banks the Muses dwelt upon,
More than their own Helicon,
Here at length hath gladly found
A quiet passage under ground ;
Meanwhile his loved banks, now dry,
The Muses with their tears supply.

And, as in an extempore addressed to Lady Brown, and ascribed to
Lord Lyttelton in "An Asylum for Fugitive Pieces," 178G, II. 191 :

When I was young and deljonnaire,
The brownest nymph to me was fair ;
But now I'm old, and wiser grown.
The fairest nymph to me is Brown.

Luttrell wrote a punning distich on Miss Tree, afterwards Mrs.
Bradshaw, the celebrated singer, of which Rogers said : " It is quite a
little fairy tale " (Eogers' " Table Talk," 1856, 276; :

On this tree when a nightingale settles and sings.
The tree will return her as good as she brings.

Another specimen of the punning style, is an anonymous epigram
" On the Masters of Clare Hall, and Caius (Keys) College, Cambridge "
(" Select Epigrams," II. 113) :

Says Gooch to old Wilcox, Come take t'other bout !

'Tis late, says the Master, I'll not be lock'd out.
Mere stufi" ! cries the Bishop, stay as long as you please,

What signify gates 'i arn't I Master of Keys?

Sir Thomas Gooch was Bishop of Norwich, and afterwards of Ely
and also Master of Caius College.

\VILLIA.lt CONGREVE. 299

" The Superiority of Machinery," by Hood, may be cited aa an
amusing modern example of this class of epigram :

A mechanic his labour will often discard,

If the rate of his pay he dislikes ;
But a clock — and its case is uncommonly hard —

Will continue to work, tho' it strikes !

WILLIAM CONGREVE.

Bom about 1G70. Died 1729.

ABSENCE.

Alas ! what pains, what racking thoughts he proves,
Who lives remov'd from her he dearest loves !
In cruel absence doom'd past joys to mourn,
And think on hours that will no more return !
Oh, let me ne'er the pangs of absence try,
Save me from absence, Love, or let me die.

Shakespeare, in the " Two Gentlemen of Verona " (Act III. so. 1),
puts a similar sentiment in the mouth of Valentine, when banished
by the Duke on pain of death :

And why not death, rather than living torment ?
To die, is to be banish'd from myself ;
And Silvia is myself : banish'd from her,
Is self from self; a deadly banishment!
What light is light, if Silvia be not seen?
What joy is joy, if Silvia be not by ?
Unless it be, to think that she is by,
And feed upon the shadow of perfection.

So also, Spenser in one of his sonnets (Ixxxviii.) says :

Dark is my day whyles her fayre light I mia,
And dead my life that wants such lively blis.

LESBIA,

When Lesbia first I saw so heavenly fair,
"With eyes so bright, and with that awful air,
I thought my heart, which durst so high aspire,
As bold as his who snatch'd celestial fire.
Lut soon as e'er tho beauteous idiot spoke.
Forth from her coral lips such folly broke,

300 MODEBN EPIGRAMKATIST8.

Like balm the trickling nonsense heal'd my wound,
And Avhat her eyes enthrall'd her tongue unbound.

The third stanza of a ballad by Smart, " The Talkative Fair," beara
much resemblance to this :

Your tongue's a traitor to your face,
Your fame's by your own uoise obscur'd,
All are distracted while they gaze ;
But if they listen, they are cur'd.

Martial has an epigram on a lady who was no longer young, which
is very similar in idea, the senses of hearing and seeing being trans-
posed (Book VII. 101). The translation is by Steele, but it is rather a
happy imitation than a literal rendering :

Wliilst in the dark on thy soft hand I hung,
And lieard the tempting siren in thy tongue,
AVHiat flames, what darts, what anguish I endur'd !
— But, when the candle enter'd, I was cui'd.

In the following, taken from " Select Epigrams," the lady liad no
defect either of feature or voice. It is entitled an " Impromptu ; after
reading the story of Ulysses' escape from the Sirens " :

When Emily, sweet maid, appears.

More dangerous charms siu-prise ;
What then avails to stop our ears.

Unless we shut our eyes ?

KICHARD GWINNETT,

Born probably about 1670, was of Christ Church, Oxford, whence
he removed to the Middle Temple ; but the air of London disagreeing
with his delicate health, he gave up the law and retired into the
country, where he died in 1717. He was in love with the poetess,
Elizabeth Thomas, tlie Corinna of Dryden, whose death was hastened
by the cruel malediction of Pope in the " Dunciad." Tlie marriage
was prevented by the bad health and early death of Gwinnett. The
letters which passed between them, under the names of Pylades and
Corinna, were afterwards publislied.

ON READ AND HANNES BEING KNIGHTED BY QUEEN

ANNE.

(Noble's Continuation of Granger's " Biographical History,"
180(5, II. 233.)

■ The queen like Heav'n shines equally on all,
Her favours now without distinction fall :
Great Eead and slender Hannes, both knighted, show,
That none their honours shall to merit owe.

JOSEPH ADDISON, 301

That popish doctrine is exploded quite,
Or Kalph had been no duke, and Kead no knight.
That none may virtue or their learning plead,
This has no grace, and that can hardly read.

Sir William Read, originally a tailor, or a cobbler, became progressively
a mountebank, aud a quack "doctor, and, though he could not read, he
could ride in his own chariot. He professed to cure all blindness, and
even Queen Anue and George I. entrusted the care of their eyes to
him, " from which," amusingly remarks Noble, " one would have thought
the rulers, like the ruled, wished to be as dark as Taylor, his brother
quack s coach-horses, five of which were blind, because he exercised
his skill upon animals that could not complain."

Sir Edward Hannes was a very dift'erent character, having been
educated at Westminster, and Christ Chm-ch, Oxford, where he was
.Professor of Chemistry. He was the author of several poems in the
'" MusiB AnglicanaB "; and left £1000 towards completing the quadrangle
at Christ Church. He was, however, satirized as a quack by the wits
of the day.

The Ralph of the epigram was the first Duke of Montagu, who
was raised from an earldom to that rank in 1705. His chief charac-
teristic was fondness for magnificence, and desire of wealth for the
display of pomp. He married the mad widow of Christopher, Duke
of Albemarle, for the sake of her riches. An epigram by Lord Rosse,
on this marriage, will be found under his name. It was this noble-
man, who, when complimented by the Duke of Marlborough on some
Waterworks which he had completed at Boughtou, gave the well-
turned answer, "What are they to your grace's Fireworks !"

JOSEPH ADDISON.
Born 1672. Died 1719.

WRITTEN ON A TOASTING-GLASS OF THE KIT-CAT CLUB
ON THE DUCHESS OF MANCHESTER.

While haughty Gallia's dames, who spread
O'er their pale cheeks an artful red.
Beheld this beauteous stranger there
In native charms, divinely fair.
Confusion in their looks they show'd.
And with unborrow'd blushes glow'd.

The lady upon whom tliis b( autiful epigram was written, was tlio
Lady D(jdingt<)n Grcuville, married to ChaihiS, Duke of Manchester.
She accompanied her liu,-,band (then Lord Montagu), when he went us
ambaasador to the court of Louis XIV. in IGyS).

302 MODERN EPIGEAMMATISTS.

NICHOLAS EOWE

Bom 1673. Died 1718.

TO THE TWO NEW MEMBERS FOR BRAMBER, 1708.

Thoixgh in the Commons' House you did prevail,
Good Sir Cleeve Moore, and gentle Master Hale ;
Yet on good luck be cautious of relying,
Burgess for Bramber is no place to die in.
Your predecessors have been oddly fated ;
Asgill and Shippen have been both translated.

Jolm Asgill published a treatise entitled, "An argument proving tlrnt
according to the covenant of eternal life, revealed in the Scriptures,
men may be translated hence into that eternal life without passing
through death," &c., 1700. He was elected member for Bramber, but
a committee being appointed to examine his ]x)ok, and reporting tliat
his views with regard to men being translated without death were
blasphemous, he was expelled the lionse— translated from public to
private life.

William Shippen, a strong Jacobite, succeeded Asgill as member for
Bramber, in 1707. As Eowe's epigram is dated 1708, he can have sat
a very short time for tliat borough, but the cause of his translation to
another constituency does not appear.

TO THE PRINCE OF WALES {AFTERWARDS GEORGE IE).

In 1726, the king, George I., was in Hanover, when a fire broke out
in Spring Gardens, which the Prince of Wales assisted in extinguish-
ing. Upon which Kowe composed this epigram :

Thy guardian, blest Britannia, scorns to sleep.
When the sad subjects of his father weep ;
Weak princes by their fears increase distress ;
He faces danger, and so makes it less :
Tyrants on blazing towers may smile with joy ;
He knows, to save, is greater than destroy.

In the " Poetical Farrago," are " Verses written under the statue oi
Edward VI. at S. Thomas's Hospital " :

On Edward's brow no laurels cast a shade.
Nor at his feet are warlike spoils display'd :
Yet here, since first his bounty rais'd the pile,
The lame grow actiye, and the languid smile :
See this, ye chiefs, and, struck with envj', pine ,
To kill is brutal, but to save, divine.

JOHN HUGHES. 303

The last two lines of Rowe's epigram recall a fine passage in Pope's
" Es3ay on Jian," Epistle II. 195 :

Thus Nature gives us (let it check our pride)
The virtue nearest to our vice allied :
Eeason the bias turns to good from ill.
And Xero reigns a Titus if he will.
The fiery soul abhorr'd in Catiline,
In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine :
The same ambition can destroy or save,
And makes a patriot as it makes a knave.

JOHN HUGHES.

Born 1677. Died 1720.

WRITTEN UNDER THE PRINT OF TOM BBITTON, TEE
MUSICAL SMALL-COAL MAN.

Though mean thy rank, yet in thy humble cell
Did gentle peace and arts unpurchas'd dwell.
Well pleas'd Apollo thither led his train,
And music warbled in her sweetest strain :
Cyllenius so, as fables tell, and Jove,
Came willing guests to poor Philemon's grove.
Let useless pomp behold, and blush to find
So low a station, such a liberal mind.

The singular character commemorated in this epigram was born in
Northamptonshire, about the middle of the 17th century, and, going to
London, .set up as a small-coal man. The business was not congenial
either to chemistry or music, yet he became an adept in both, and was
also a collector of curious books of various kinds. In a miserable house,
the ground floor of which was a repository for his small-coal, lie had
regidar concerts, at which he played the viol da gamba, and which
persons of all ranks attended, lie st ems to have been a modest, un-
prcsuming man, of real genius, but practical habits. He died iu 1714.

Prior has an epigram, " V\ ritten under the Print of Tom Britton,
Painted by Mr. Woolaston":

Tliough doom'd to small-coal, yet to arts allied,
liji'h without wealth, and famous without pride;
Music's best patron, judge of books and men,
Belov'd and honour'd by Apollo's train :
In (Jreecc or Pome sure never did appear
8o bright a genius, in 1-.0 dark a sphere :
More of the man liad artluily been sav'd.
Had Kuclli:r paintcil, and had Vcrtue grav'd.

304 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ADVICE TO ME. POPE, ON HIS INTENDED TRANSLATION

OF HOMER.

O thou, who, with a happy genius born,

Canst tuneful verse in flowing numbers turn.

Crown'd on thy Windsor's plains with early bays,

Be early wise, nor trust to barren praise.

Blind was the bard that sung Achilles' rage,

He sung, and begg'd, and cnrs'd th' iingiving age :

If Britain his translated song would hear.

First take the gold — then chaim the listening ear ;

So shall thy father Homer smile to see

His pension paid — though late, and paid to thee.

Dr. Johnson took this hint in the publication of his edition of
Shakespeare. He obtained subscribers, expecting to be able to issue
bis volumes speedily ; yet nine years elapsed before the publication,
which was at length hastened, Boswell supposes, by Churchill's up-
braiding satire in " The Ghost," Book III. :

He for subscribers baits his hook,

And takes their cash— but where's the book?

No matter where ; wise fear, we know,

Forbids the robbing of a foe ;

But what, to serve our private ends.

Forbids the cheating of our friends ?

Cowper, by his epigram on Oxford, resented tiie refusal of the
University to subscribe to his translation of Homer :

Could Homer come himself, distress'd and poor,
And tune his harp at Rhedicina's door.
The rich old vixen would exclaim (I fear),
" Begone ! no tramper gets a farthing here."

WRITTEN ON A WINDOW AT WALLINGTON HOUSE, THEN
THE SEAT OF MRS. ELIZABETH BRIDGES, 1719.

Envy, if thy searching eye
Through this window chance to pry,
To thy sorrow thou shalt find
All that's generous, friendly, kind,
Goodness, virtue, every grace,
Dwelling in this happy place :
Then, if thou would'st shun this sight,
Hence for ever take thy flight.

DR. ABEL EVANS. 305

In the fourth book of "Paradise Lost,' Milton paints Satan's sight
of the happiness of Adam and Eve :

Aside the devil turn'd
For envy ; yet with jealous leer malign
Eyed them askance, and to himself thus 'plain'd :
" "Sight hateful, sight tormenting ! thus these two.

DE. ABEL EVANS,

A man of great genius, the friend of Pope and of other writers ot
the period, was of S. John's College, Oxford, and took his degree of
M.A. in 1699. He is generally styled " Dr. Evans, the Epigramma-
tist," and it is, therefore, probable that he wrote much in that style,
but very few of his epigrams are now extant. When Bursar of S. John's,
he caused some very fine trees belonguig to the college to be cut down,
which produced the following epigram, ascribed in the " Additions to
Pope" to Dr. Tadlow; in the "Poetical Calendar" and in Nichols'
" Collection " to Dr. Conyers, with some variations :

Indulgent Nature to each kind bestows

A secret instinct to discern its foes.

The goose, a silly bii'd, yet knows the fox ;

Hares fly from dogs, and sailors steer from rocks :

This rogue the gallows fur his fate foresees.

And bears a like antipathy to trees.

The following, with the exception of the thii'd (which is in " Select
Epigrams"), and other pieces by Evans, are preserved in Nichols'
" Select Collection of Poems," Vol. III. 1780.

ON A LEARNED DEVICE ON BLENHEIM GREAT GATE;
A HUGE LION TEARING A COCK IN PIECES.

Had Marlborough's troops in Gaul no better fought.
Than Van, to grace his fame, in marble wrought,
No more in arms, than he in emblems, skill'd,
The cock had drove the lion from the field.

In a longer epigram on the same subject, Evans describes the
absurdity of the device :

See ! the fell lion does with vengeance glow,
To lix his talons in the prostrate foe,
Arm'd witli dir*; wrath, tlie coward cock to maul ;
Where is the builder's joke ? go, ask the GauL

iJ06 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

AN EPITAPH ON SIB JOHN VANBBUGH.

Under this stone, reader, survey
Dead Sir John Vanbrugh's house of clay.
Lie heavy on him, earth ! for he
Laid many heavy loads on thee !

Sir John Vanbrugh, the dramatic writer and architect, has never
been denied the honours of a wit, but has been severely censured for
his heavy and tasteless buildings. Blenheim was especially the
object of ridicule, and is thus humorously condemned by Swift :

. . If his Grace were no more skill'd in
The art of battering walls tlian building,
We might expect to see next year
A mouse-trap-man chief engineer.

Though he knew nothing of heraldry. Sir John was in 1704 ap-
pointed Clarenceux King-at-Arms. Swift admitted that he could now
build houses !

ON THE BBIDGE AT BLENHEIM.

The lofty arch his high ambition shows,
The stream, apt emblem of his bounty, flows.

The Duke of Marlborough built a fine bridge over a paltry rivulet,
which produced this epigram in reference to his well-known meanness
When afterwards a large body of water was collected, and the tiny
brook became a wide and full-flowing stream, Boswell remarked to
Dr. Johnson, as they drove together through the park : " They have
drowned the epigram." The duke's bridge was an object of general
ridicule. The following distich, found in the " Festoon," is said to be
by Pope :

The minnows, as through this vast arch they pass.

Cry — How like whales we look ! Thanks to your Grace !

Camden, in his " Britannia," gives a Latin epigram on a handsome
bridge at Tadcaster, over the Warfe, a stream reduced in summer to
very small dimensions ; translated by Basil Kennet, in Gibson's edition,
1G95, 715 :

Nothing in Tadcaster deserves a name

But the fair bridge that's built without a stream. •

GEORGE JEFFREYS. 307

ON DR. TADLOW.

Ten thousand tailors, with their length of line,

Strove, though in vain, his compass to confine ;

At length, bewailing their exhausted store,

Their packthread ceas'd, and parchment was no more.

Dr. Tadlow was of S. John's College, and was remarkable for his
stoutness. His contemporary at Oxford, Mr. Paule, son of Dr. William
Paule, bisliop of that see, was also a very stout man, but not so cor-
pulent as Dr. Tadlow. Dr. Evans said he had some thoughts of
writing a poem upon them, but of which he had only composed one
line (Granger's " Biog. Hist." 1779, IV. 173) :

Tadloides musse Paulo majora canamus.

The following distich was also probably written by Evans :

When Tadlow walks the streets, the paviours cry,
" God bless you, sir !" and lay their rammers by.

When this was first made public, a blank was left for the name, and
consequently every gentleman of large bulk and some note was, by one
or other of the anecdote-writers and wits of the day, conjectured to be
the particular subject of tlie epigrammatist's facetiousness.

Perliaps a similar joke in " Epigrams in Distich," 1740, 7, may also
refer to Dr. Tadlow :

The paviours bless his steps where'er they come :
Chairmen dismay'd fly the approaching doom.

GEOKGE JEFFEEYS,

Born in 1G78, was of Trinity College, Cambridge, and was called to
the Bar, but did not practise. He was for some time secretary to
Dr. Hartstronge, Bishop of Derry ; and afterwards lived in the families
of two Dukes of Chandos, who were; his relations. In IT.'it he pub-
ILshed a volume of " Miscellanies in Verse and Prose" (including the
following epigrams), and died the next year.

EXTEMPORE ON THE SIGHT OF A DANCE.

How ill the motion with the music suits !

So once play'd Orpheus, but so danc'd the bnites.

This epigram has been given to Welsted, Budgell, and Ambrose
Pliilips, and is printed (with a slight variation) in the works of the
lust.

308 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

The same author takes a very diiferent view of a dance in the fol-
lowing epigram, addressed " To a Lady " :

Your hand and voice the judging ear delight,
And in the dance you doubly charm the sight :
Where shall we meet, but in the spheres and you,
So smooth a motion, and such music too !

ON A GENTLEMAN WHO RAN 3IAI) WITH LOVE OF A
PHYSICIAN'S DAUGHTEB.

Employ'd to cure a love-distracted swain,

The boasted aid of hellebore is vain ;

None but the Fair the storm she rais'd can calm ;

Her smiles the cordial, and her tears the balm :

In Cynthia's bosom dwells the magic pow'r,

Sov'reign to heal, and vital to restore :

But, oh! what medicine e'er could reach the heart?

The daughter's eyes have foil'd the father's art :

For, matchless were the learn'd physician's skill,

If he could save as fast as she can kill,

Spenser's fiftieth sonnet describes the vain effort of a leech to curt
a love-distracted swain :

Long languishing ia double malady
Of my harts wound, and of my bodies griefe ;
There came to me a leach, that would apply
Fit medicines for my bodies best reliefe.
Vayne man, quoth I, that hast but little priefe
In deep discovery of the mynds disease ;
Is not the hart of all the body chiefe,
And rules the members as it selfe doth please ?
Then, with some cordialls, seeke for to appease
The inward languor of my wounded hart ;
And tlien my body shall have shortly ease :
But such sweet cordialls passe physicians art.

Then, my lyfes leach ! doe your skill reveale ;

And, with one salve, both hart and body heale.

DB. JOSEPH TRAPP. 309

ON A LADY'S HANDWRITING.

In characters so fair, we trace

Eliza's charming hand,
That Heaven alone, who form'd her face,

Could sweeter strokes command.
The beauties there by Nature wrought

Excel the writer's art ;
For here the wondering eye is caught.

But there the wounded heart.

An epigram in the "Poetical Eegister" for 1810-11, by Dr. Russell

(author of the "History of Modern Europe"), "On Miss W 's

Drawings," gives the reason why, in her case, none " could sweeter
strokes command " :

Beneath a myrtle Cupid lay,

His eyelids drown'd in sleep's soft dew,
When Dora, passing by that way.

His quiver seiz'd and straight withdrew.
Hence the fair artist's drawing charms,

Her slightest sketches fire our hearts :
The nymph possess'd of Cupid's arms,

Sports with our fate, and di-aws with darts.

DR. JOSEPH TRAPP,

Born in 1679, was the first Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and in
later life Vicar of Christ Church, Newgate Street, and of Harlington,
Middlesex. He was a voluminous writer, and a most learned pers-on.
Bi.shop I'earce said of him, that he studied harder than any man in
England. In translations only he failed, his " Virgil" being strongly
condemned. He died in 1747.

ON A REGIMENT BEING SENT TO OXFORD, AND A
rUESENT OF BOOKS TO CAMBRIDGE, BY GEORGE J.,
IN 1715.

(Nichols' "Literary Anecdotes," III. 330, and VIII. 439.)

The king, observing with judicious eyes,
Tlie state of l^oth his univcr.sitios,
Tu Oxford sent a troop of horse ; and why?
That learned body wanted loyalty :

310 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

To Cambridge books he sent, as well discerning
How much that loyal body wanted learning.

This epigram being repeated in the presence of Six William Browne,
a physician of Lynn, in Norfolk, whose learning and eccentricity
brought him into great notoriety, lie stood up for the honour of Cam-
bridge, of which he was a graduate, and answered, impromptu (Nichols,
as above) :

The king to Oxford sent a troop of horse,

For Tories own no argument but force ;

With equal skill to Cambridge books he sent,

For Whigs admit no force but argument.

Dr. Johnson's opinion of this answer is given in Mrs. Piozzi's " Anec-
dotes " : " Mr. Johnson did him the justice to say, it was one of the
happiest extemporaneous productions he ever met with ; though he
once comically confessed, that he hated to repeat the wit of a Whig
urged in support of Whiggism."

The books sent to Cambridge composed the valuable library of Dr.
Moore, Bishop of Ely, which George I. purchased for 6000 guineas,
and presented to the university.

DE. EDWARD YOUNG.
Bom 1681. Died 1765.

ON MICHAEL ANGELO'S FAMOUS PICTURE OF TEE
CRUCIFIXION.

Whilst his Redeemer on his canvass dies,

Stabb'd at his feet his brother weltering lies :

The daring artist, cruelly serene,

Views the pale cheek and the distorted mien ;

He drains off life by drops, and deaf to cries,

Examines every spirit as it flies :

He studies torment, dives in mortal woe,

To rouse up every pang repeats his blow ;

Each rising agony, each dreadful grace.

Yet warm transplanting to his Saviour's Face.

Oh glorious theft ! Oh nobly wicked draught !

With its full charge of death each feature fraught •

Such wondrous force the magic colours boast,

From his own skill he starts in horror lost.

DR. EDWARD YOUNG. 311

To account for the wonderful perfection of tlie picture, it seems to
have been thought necessary to inveut the fiction upon which the
epigram is founded. The tradition is this : " Michael Angelo, bcins;
engaged in painting a picture of the Crucifixion, obtained permission
to superintend the execution of a malefactor, who was condeamed to
be broken upon the wheel. The man being stretched out upon his
back, perfectly naked, the artist, eagerly scrutinizing each nerve and
fibre of his frame, directed that the blows should be inflicted on those
parts of his limbs and trunk, which might occasion the most lively and
lingering torment, in order that, in representing the agonies of death,
he might rival Nature herself !" Mr. White, from whose " Fragments
of Italy and the Rhineland " this circumstantial statement of the well-
known tradition has been taken, says that he was shown the picture
in reference to which it is told, and which was stated to be the work
of Michael Angelo, in the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina, at Rome,
but that the famous altar-piece of the Crucifixion in that church is in
reality the work of Nicholas Poussin.

TO VOLTAIRE.

When Voltaire was in England he ridiculed, in Young's presence,
Milton's " Allegory of Sin and Death," which produced this extempore
epigram :

You are so witty, profligate, and thin,

At once we think thee Milton, Death, and Sin.

Sir Herbert Croft, who wrote the "Life of Young" for Ih-. Johnson,
says, in reference to the epigram : " From the following passage in the
poetical dedication of his ' Sea-piece ' to Voltaire, it seems that this
extemporaneous reproof, if it must be extemporaneous (for what few
will now affirm Voltaire to have deserved any reproof), was something
longer than a distich, and something more gentle than the distich just
quoted " :

" Tell me, say'st thou, who courts my smile?
What stranger stray'd from yonder isle ?" —
No stranger, sir ! though born in foreign climes ;
On Dorset Downs, when Milton's page,
With Sin and Death, provok'd thy rage.
Thy rage provok'd, tvhu sooth 'd with gentle rhymes?

Who kindly couch'd thy censure's eye,

And gave thee clearly to descry
Sound judgment giving law to fancy strong?

Who halt' iiiclin'd thee to confess,

Nor could tliy modesty do less,
That Milton's bliudnees lay not in his song?

312 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

WIT.

As in smooth oil the razor best is whet,
So wit is by politeness sharpest set ;
Their want of edge from their oifence is seen,
Both pain us least when exquisitely keen.

There is an epigram in Hackett's " Collection of Select Epigrams,"
1757, Ep. 144, which has some affinity with this very beautiful one of
Young's :

True wit is like the brilliant stone

Dug from the Indian mine ;
Which boasts two various powers in one,

To cut as well as shine.
Genius, like that, if polish'd right,

With the same gifts abounds ;
Appears at once both keen and bright,
And sparkles while it wounds.

That a " blunt will," which cannot combine true politeness with
" sharp wit," is injurious, is shown in the character given of Longaville
in " Love's Labour's Lost " (Act II. sc. 1) :

The only soil of liis fair virtue's gloss,
(If virtue's gloss will stain with any soil,)
Is a sharp wit match'd with too blunt a will ;
Whose edge hath power to cut, whose will still wills
It should none spare that come within his power.

WRITTEN WITH LOUD STANHOPE'S DIAMOND PENCIL.

Accept a miracle instead of wit ;

See two dull lines with Stanhope's pencil writ.

This elegant compliment has been generally ascribed to Pope : it is
here given to Young on the authority of Spence, who, being the in-
timate friend of the former poet, would gladly have allowed him the
merit of it, had there been even a doubt of the authorship at the time
he collected his anecdotes. The account whicli Spence gives (appar-
ently communicated by Young) of the occasion of the disticli is very
circumstantial : " There was a club held at the King's Head in Pall
Mall, that arrogantly called itself ' The World.' Lord Stanhope, then
(now Lord Chesterfield) Lord Herbert, &c., &c., were members. Epi-
grams were proposed to be written on the glasses by each member,
after dinner : once, when Dr. Young was invited thither, the Doctor
would have declined writing, because he had no diamond: Lord Stan-
hope lent him his, and he wrote immediately " the distich given above
(Spence's " Anecdotes," 1820, 377).

313

AARON HILL,

A poet an<l dramatic writer of some celebrity in his day, was born in
London, in 1685. He was of good tiimily, but small fortune. At one
time he was manager of the Kings Tlieatre, in the Haymarket, and
endeavoured to make money by various speculative schemes, in which
he generally failed. He was, however, more successful in matrimony,
as he obtained a wife with a considerable fortune. He died in the very
minute of the shock of an earthquake, February 8th, 1750. His poetry
was much esteemed by Eicliardson, who wrote the following compli-
mentary epigram (" Select Epigrams," 1797, I. 59) :

When noble thouglits with language pure unite.
To give to kindled excellence its right,
Though unencumber'd with the clogs of rhyme,
Where tinkling sounds for want of meaning chime,
Which, like the rocks in Shannon's midway course.
Divide the sense, and interrupt its force ;
Well may we judge so strong and clear a rill
Flows higher from the Muses' sacred Hill.

Hill's Works, where the following epigrams are found, were published
in four volumes, in 1753.

MODESTY.

As lamps burn silent, with unconscious light,
So modest ease in beauty sbines most bright :
Unaiming charms with edge resistless fall,
And she, who means no mischief, does it all.

The same thought is expressed by Matthew Green, in his poem, the
"Spleen":

In love the artless catch the game.
And they scarce miss who never aim.

And Robert Craggs, Earl Nugent, in his ode to " Clarissa," shows

her ;

.... Soft reclin'd in careless ease.
More pleasing, less intent to please.

The last stanza of Shenstone's " Inscription on a statue of Venus de
Medicis," is to the same eflcct :

'Tis bashful beauty ever twines

The most coercive chaiii ;
'Ti.H slie, tliiit Hovt'n ign rule declines

Who Ixjst doservca to reign.

314 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ON TWO LOVELY AND LOVING SISTERS.

When equal claarms, in different colours dress'd,
Have two sweet sisters' rival persons bless'd,
How kind is Heaven, their minds with love to sti'ike,
And teach them both to look, and think, alike.

In Beaumont and Fletcher's "Maid in the Mill," Antonio says
(Act II. 8C. 2;:

But is it possible that two faces

Should be so twinn'd in form, complexion.

Figure, aspect, that neither wen nor mole,

Tlie table of the brow, the eyes' lustre,

The lips' cherry, neither the blush nor smile,

Should give the one distinction from the other ?

Does Nature work in moulds ?

In the " Festoon," 1767, 143, is given one of the most beautiful of
anonymous epitaphs, " On Two Twin-Sisters " :

Fair marble, tell to future days.

That here two virgin-sisters lie.
Whose hfe eraploy'd each tongue in praise.

Whose death gave tears to ev'ry eye.
In stature, beauty, years, and fame.

Together as they grew, they shone ;
So much alike, so much the same,

That Death mistook them both for one.

LETTEIiS.

Letters from absent friends, extinguish fear,
Unite division, and draw distance near ;
Their magic force each silent wish conveys,
And wafts embodied thought a thousand ways.
Could souls to bodies write, death's pow'r were mean.
For minds could then meet minds with heav'n between.

Perhaps HiU had the thought from Pope, who, in " Eloisa to
Abelard," says :

Heav'n first taught letters for some wretch's aid.

Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid :

They live, they speak, they breathe what love inspires.

Warm from tlie soul, and faitliful to its fires;

The virgin's wish witliout her fears impart,

Excuse the blush, and pour out all the heart,

Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul.

And waft a sigh from Indus to the Pole.

AARON HILL. 315

Possibly both Pope and Hill may have gained the idea from the
Greek epigrammatist, Palladas, who has an epigiara on the subject;
thus translated bv the late Dr. Wellesley in liis " Anthologia Poly-
glotta " (Jacobs III. 140, cxxv.) :

Ingenious Nature's zeal for friendship's laws
A means for distant friends to meet could find.

Lines which the hand with ink on paper draws,
Betokening from afar the anxious mind.

The last two lines of Hill's epigram, on communion between the
dead and the living, may be compared with some lines by the old
English poet Daniel in his " Musophilus '" :

O blessed Letters ! that combine in one
All ages past, and make one live with all :
By you we do confer with who are gone,
And the Dead-living unto council call !
By you the unborn shall have communion
Of what we feel and what doth us befall.

A French epigram by Brebeuf, translated by the Hon. Mary Monk,
deserves insertion (" Poems by Eminent Ladies," 1755, II. 188) :

The noble art from Cadmus took its rise
Of painting words and speaking to the eyes ;
He first in wond'rous magic-fetters bound
The aiiy voice, and stopp'd tlie flying sound ;
The various figures by his pencil wrought
Gave colour, and a body to the thought.

THE NETTLE'S LESSON.

Tender-handed stroke a nettle.

And it stings you for your pains :
Grasp it like a man of mettle,

And it soft as silk remains.
'Tis the same with common natures ;

Use them kindly, they rebel :
But be rough as nutmeg-giaters,

And the rogues obey you well.

If the epigram refer to inferiors in mind and station, the advice
which Lord Chesterfield gave to his son is more agreeable to the
dictates of humanity tlian Hill's (Letter 3G) : " You must treat all
your inferiors with affability and good maimers, and not speak to them
in a surly tone, nor with harsh expressions, as if they were of a dif-
ferent species. A gfxxl heart never reminds people of their misfortune,
but endeavours to alleviate, or, if possible, to make them forget it.'

816 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

NAMES ON GLASS.

Were women wise, their names on glass,

Like froth of empt}^ fashion !
Would, to their lovers' sorrow, pass

For proofs of brittle passion.
Love should, in secret, like the sun.

Burn, though a world should shade it ;
But show its source of heat to none,

Except that God who made it.

There are some lines, which may be compared with this epigram, in
the " Collection of Epigrams," 1735, 1. Ep. 145, " To a Lady, on seeing
some Verses in praise of her on a Pane of Glass " :

Let others, brittle beauties of a year.
See their frail names, and lovers' vows writ liere :
Who sings thy solid worth, and spotless fame.
On purest adamant should cut tliy name :
Then would thy fame be from oblivion sav'd ;
On thy own heart my vows must be engrav'd.

LONG COURTSHIP.

Whisp'ring close a maid long courted.

Thus cried Drone, by touch transported ;

Prithee, tell me, gentle Dolly !

Is not loving long a folly ?

Yes, said she, with smile reproving, ,

Loving long, and only loving.

More serious, but very similar, is the first stanza of '' The Maid's
Bemonstrance," by Campbell :

Never wedding, ever wooing.
Still a love-lorn heart pursuing,
Eead you not the wrong you're doing

In my cheek's pale hue ?
All my life with sorrow strewing,

Wed, or cease to woo.

ALLAN EAMSAY. 317

PROPOSED EPITAPH FOB SIB ISAAC NEWTON'S
MONUMENT.

More than his Name were less : 'Twould seem to fear,
He, who increas'd Heav'n's fame, could want it here.
Yet, when the Suns he lighted up shall fade,
And all the Worlds he found are first decay'd ;
Then, void and waste, Eternity shall lie,
And Time and Newton's Name, together die.

Bevil Higgons, in an ode on the death of Waller, has the same
thought as that with which this noble epitaph closes (Nichols' " Col-
lection of Poems," 1. 130, 1780) :

Thou only shalt with Natiue's self expire,
And all the world in the supremest fire ;
When Horace and fam'd Yirgil die, when all
That's great or noble shall together faU.

So also, Broome, in his address "To Mr. Pope on His Works,
1726 " :

Nor till the volumes of th' expanded sky
Blaze in one flame, shalt thou and Homer die ;
Then sink together in the world's last fires
What Heaven created, and what Heaven inspires.

EPITAPH ON A YOUNG LADY, WHO DIED UNMABBIED.

Eipe in virtue, green in years.

Here a matchless maid lies low :
None could read, and spare their tears,

Did they but her sweetness know.
Humbly wise, and meekly good,

No earthly lover's arms she blest ;
But, full of grace, her Saviour woo'd,

And hides her blushes in his breast !

ALLAN EAMSAY,

One of the most popular of the poets of Scotland, was bom in 1685,
of humble parentage. He had few educational advantages, but his
genius shone througli, and his perseverance overcame, the defects of
ea.rly training. He was apprenticed to a wig-maker in Edinburgh, but,
disliking the trade, turned bfxikseller. About twenty years before bin
deatli, which took place in 1758, he retired from busuieafl.

318 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ON RECEIVING AN ORANGE FROM MRS. G. L.,
NOW COUNTESS OF ABOYNE.

Now, Priam's son, thou may'st be mute,

For I can blithly boast with thee ;
Thou to the fairest gave the fruit,
The fairest gave the fruit to me.

The lady to whom this pretty compliment was paid was Grace
Lockhart, daughter of George Lockhart of Carnwath, who married
.John, third Earl of Aboyne, and secondly, James, ninth Earl of Moray,
and died in 1738.

On the subject of giving and receiving the fruit, Moore has a compli-
mentary epigram, imitated from the French :

With women and apples both Paris and Adam

Made mischief enough in their day :
God be prais'd that the fate of manland, my dear madam,

Depends not on us the same way.
For, weak as I am with temptation to grapple,

The world would have doubly to rue thee ;
Like Adam, I'd gladly take from thee the apple,

Like Paris at once give it to thee.

ON MARY SLEIGH.

Minerva, wand'ring in a myrtle grove,
Accosted thus the smiling Queen of Love :
Revenge yourself, you've cause to be afraid,
Your boasted pow'r yields to a British maid :
She seems a goddess, all her graces shine ;
Love lends her beauty, which eclipses thine.
Each youth, I know (says Venus), thinks she's me ;
Immediately she speaks, they think she's thee ;
Good Pallas, thus you're foil'd as well as I,
Ha, ha ! cries Cupid, that's my Mally Sleigh.

The Molly Scot in the following epigram by William Thompson,
may be the same accomplished beauty :

Minerva last week (pray let nobody doubt it)
Went an airing from Oxford, six miles or about it :
When she spied a young virgin so blooming and fair.
That, " O Venus," she cried, " is your ladyship there ?
Pray is not that Oxford ? and lately you swore
Neither you, nor one like you, should trouble us more.

ALLAN BAM SAY. 319

Do you thus keep your promise ? and am I defied ?"
The virgin came nearer and smiling replied :
" My goddess ! what, have you your pupil forgot ?" —
— " Your pardon, my dear, is it you, Molly Scot?"

W CALISTA.

Ance AVisdom, Majesty, an' Beauty,

Contended to allure the swain,
Wha fain wad pay'd to ilk his duty,

But only ane the prize cou'd gain.

Were Jove again to redd debate

Between his spouse an' daughters twa,

An' were it dear Calista's fate
To bid among them for the ba' ;

When gi'en to her, the shepherd might
Then wi' the single apple sei've a' ;

Since she's possest o' a' that's bright
In Juno, Venus, an' Minerva.

Angerianus, the Italian poet of the 16th century, has a Latin epi-
gram on the charms of the three goddesses being united in one mortal
r" Delitise Delitiarum," GO) :

Tres quondam nudas vidit Priameius heros
Luce deas, video tres quoque luce deas ;

Hoc maj us, tres uno in corpore : Ctelia ridens
Est Venus, incedena Juno, Minerva loquens.

Dr. Farmer, in his " Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare,'' tells a
curious story in connection with this epigram: "A few years ago (the
essay was first published in 17G7) at a great court on the Continent, a
countryman of ours, of high rank and character, exhibited with many
other candidates his complimental epigram on the birthday, and
carried the prize in triumph :

" ' Regina orbia prima et pulcherrima : ridens
Ea Venus, iucedens Juijo, Minerva loquens.'

Literally stolen from Angerianus."

The "countryman of ours" was Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, in
whose works the epigram is given, witii this statement : "In 1753 he
was sent to Vienna, . . . and in his triple capacity of minister,
courtier, and pnet, he composed the distich on the Empress Queen "
(Works, 1822, II. 210;.

Very similar, and perhaps also taken from Angerianus, was Lord
Lansdowuo's flattery of Queen Caroline and licr dau;,'hter, wrilten in
a leaf of his I'oems, presented to Aunc, the Princesis lC(jyul, in 1732 :

320 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

When we'd exalt some heavenly fair,

To some bright goddess we compare :

Minerva, wisdom ; Juno, grace ;

And Venus furnishes the fuce :

In royal Anne's bright form is seen,

Wliat comprehends them all — the Queen.

An older piece in "England's Helicon," 1600, ed. 1812, 67, is of the
same character, the conclusion of a poem by Robert Greene, " Doron'a
Description of his fair Shepherdess Samela " :

Her tresses gold, her eyes like glassy sti'eams,
Her teeth are pearl, the breasts are ivory,

Of fair Samela.
Her cheeks like rose and lily yield forth gleams,
Her brows bright arches fram'd of ebony :

Thus fair Samela
Passeth fair Venus in her brightest hue,
And Juno, in the show of majesty :

For she's Samela.
Pallas in wit, all three if well you view,
For beauty, wit, and matchless dignity,

Yield to Samela.

But there is a much earlier example than any of the above of this
form of compliment, in a Greek epigram by an uncertain author
(Jacobs IV. 128, li.), which Swift freely but prettily translated in
praise of Stella :

Two goddesses now must Cyprus adore ;
The muses are ten, the graces are four :
Stella's wit is so cliarming, so sweet her fair face.
She shines a new Venus, a Muse, and a Grace.

TO DR. J. C, TO WROM THE AUTHOR GAVE "A BALLAD
ON BONNY KATE," TO PRESENT TO THAT LADY.

Here, happy Doctor, take ttis sonnet,

Bear to the Fair the faithful strains :
Bow, make a leg, and doff your bonnet ;

And get a kiss for Allan's pains.
For such a ravishing reward,

The cloud-compeller's self would try
To imitate a British bard.

And bear his ballads from the sky.

321

DR. PATRICK DEL ANY,

An Irish clergyman, born of humble parentage about 1686, is chiefly
known as the husband of the celebrated Mrs. Delaoy. He was one of
Swift's most intimate friends; a man of considerable learning, and
some popidarity as a preacher. In 1741: he was appointed Dean of
Down, and died in 1768.

ON A LOOKING-GLASS.

(Swift's Works.)

When musing on this evanescent state,
So fleeting in its form, so short its date ;
My being and my stay dependent still
Not on my own, but on another's will,
I ask myself, as I my image view,
W^hich is the real shadow of the two.

lu the " Collection of Epigrams," 1735, II. Ep. 239, there is an epi-
gram "On Beauty," wliich may be compared with Dr. Delany's:

While Sylvia at her glass her charms unfolds.
And Phaon's eye a double form beliolds,
What has the am'rous youth, alas ! survey'd ?
A shadow one — one soon to be a shade.
A real likeness the kind mirror shows,
Herself that fleeting phantom which she views.

ALEXANDER POPE.

Born 1688. Died 1744.

ON A CERTAIN LADY AT COURT.

I know the thing that's most uncommon ;

(Envy be silent, and attend !)
I know a reasonable woman,

Handsome and witty, yet a friend.

Not warp'd by passion, aw'd by rumour ;

Not grave tlirough pride, nor gay through folly;
An equal mixture of good-humour,

And sensible soft melancholy.

322 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

" Has she no faults then (Envy says), sir ?"

Yes she has one, I must aver :
When all the world conspires to praise her,

The woman's deaf and does not hear.

The lady thus highly praised was Henrietta, wife of Charles Howard,
afterwards 9th Earl of Suffolk. She was a lady of the bedchamber to
Queen Caroline, and one of the mistresses of George II. Horace
Walpole sums up her character by saying tliat she "was sensible,
artful, and agreeable, but had neither sense nor art enough to make
the king think her so agreeable as his wife." She seems, however, to
have been a general favourite, women as well as men concurring in
praising and loving her. One of Mrs. Howard's lovers was the old
Earl of Peterborough, to answer whose tender letters she called in the
helji of the poet Gay, who ranks her among the celebrities of the age,
in his " Epistle to Sir. Pope " :

Now to my heart the glance of Howard flies.

ON MBS. TOFW,

A Handsome Woman with a Fine Voice, but very Covetous and Proud.

So bright is thy beauty, so charming thy song.

As had drawn both the beasts and their Orpheus along ;

But such is thy avarice, and such is thy pride,

That the beasts must have starv'd, and the poet have died.

This epigram has been ascribed to both Swift and Pope. It is given
to the latter by Sir John Hawkins in his " History of Music." Mrs.
Tofts was so celebrated as a singer, that she vied with the Italians,
who were then first introducing the modern oj^era into England. She
acquired a large fortune, and, according to Steele's account in the
20th No. of the " Tatler," where slie is described under the name of
Camilla, she showed her pride by entering " so thoroughly into the
great characters she acted," that she "would appear in her own
lodgings with the same magnificence that she did upon the stage."
But this was, perhaps, the commencement of the derangement of mind,
with which, during all the latter part of her life, she was afflicted.

ON ONE WHO MADE LONG EPITAPHS.

Freind, for your epitaphs I'm griev'd.
Where still so much is said ;

One half will never be believ'd.
The other never read

ALEXANDER POPE. 323

Dr. Robert Freiud was Head Master of Westminster School, Pre-
bendary of Westminster, and Cauou of Christ Church. He was cele-
brated as a writer of Latin epitaphs, which Pope, who was equally
noted for Enghsh ones and could not bear a rival, affected to think too
Ions;, and tuo flattering.

Dr. Freiud's name was tempting to punsters, and produced the fol-
lowing anonymous epigram, on his appointment to the mastership of
Westminster in succession to Dr. Busby, who had ruled with a rud of
iron (Nichols' " Literary Anecdotes," V. 90):

Ye sons of Westminster, who still retain
Your ancient dread of Busby's awful reign ;
Forget at length your fears — youi- panic end—
The monarch of this place is now a Freind.

The family of the Freinds was remarkable for learning and success
in life. Dr. John Freind, a brother of the Master of Westminster, was
the most celebrated physician of his day. At his death in 1728, the
following epigram was written on him and Dr. Radcliffe (physician to
William IH., and founder of the Radcliffe Library and Infirmary at
Oxford) by Samuel Wesley, Usher of Westminster School, imitaterl
from a Greek epigram of Theosebia (Jacobs III. 156) :

When Radcliffe fell, afflicted Physic cried,

How vain my power ! and languish'd at his side.

When Freind expir'd, deep struck, her hair she tore.

And speechless fainted, and reviv'd no more.

Her flowing grief no farther could extend ;

She mourns with Radclifle, but she dies with Freind.

This exaggerated praise, so wanting in truth and simplicity, but
which was very common in that day, recalls the yet more fulsome
flattery in Lord Lansdowne's address '' To Dr. Garth in his Sickness."
where Apollo is thus invoked :

Sire of all arts, defend thy darling sun ;
O ! save thi; man whose life's so much our own !
On whom, like Atlas, the whole world's reclin'd.
And by restoring Garth, preserve mankind.

ENGRAVED ON THE COLLAR OF A DOG, WHICH I GAVE
TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS.

I am his Highness' dog at Kew ;
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you ?

This often-quoted rpigrain must have been written in, or subse-
qu(-ntly to, 17:-50, in which yc:ftr Frederick, Prince of Wales, took Kew
H0U.SO upon a lease from the Cappel fuinily. George III. purchased it
abr)ut 17H!i ; it was afterwards pulled down, and the furniture removeJ
to Kew Palace.

324 MODERN EPIGEAMMATISTS.

The following note is attached to this epigram in " Select Epigrams,'
I. 38 : " When Pope wrote this epigram, I think he must have recol-
lected a passage from Sir William Temple's ' Heads designed for an
Essay on Conversation : ' ' Mr. Grantam's Fool's reply to a great man
that aslted liim whose fool he was. — I am Mr. Grantam's fool; pray
whose fool are you ?' "

Swift wrote an inscription for the collar of a lady's dog, which ia
bitterly sarcastic :

Pray steal me not ; I'm Mrs. Dingley's,
Whose heart in this four-footed thing lies.

Mrs. Dingley was Stella's companion.

TO THE RT. HON. THE EARL OF OXFORD;

On a Piece of News in " Mist," that the Eev. Mr. W. refused to write
against Mr. Pope, because his best patron had a friendship for the
said P.

Wesley, if Wesley 'tis they mean,

They say, on Pope would fall,
Would his best patron let his pen
Discharge his inward gall.

What patron this, a doubt must be

Which none but you can clear,
Or Father Francis cross the sea.

Or else Earl Edwaid here.

That both were good must be confest,

And much to both he owes.
But which to him will be the best

The Lord of Oxford knows.

This epistolary epigram is not found in Pope's Works. It is taken
from the " Gentleman's Magazine," LXXIX. Part II. 609, where a fac-
simile of it, in the poet's hand-writing, is given. "Wesley'" was the
Eev. Samuel Wesley, Rector of Epworth, the father of Samuel, John,
and Charles Wesley. " Father Francis cross the sea " was Atterbm'y,
the exiled Bishop of Eochester. " Mist" was a journal published by a
man of that name.

In one of the earlier editions of the " Dunciad," Wesley was honoured
with a niche in conjimction with Dr. Watts (Book I.) :

Now all the suiiering brotherhood retire,
And 'scape the martyrdom of jakes and fire ;
A Gothic library of Greec© and Eome
Well purg'd ; and worthy Wesley, Watts, &c.

ALEXANDER POPE. 325

lu tlie octavo edition of 1729, Wesley and Watts were released from
the pillory, and the last line ran thus :

Well purg'd ; and worthy Withers, Quarks, and Blonie.

At the last revision there was again an alteration, and " Settle,
Banks, and Broome " took the place of their more fortunate brethren.

Wesley is said to have been a very worthy man ; but he was a very
bad poet, and consequently his productions met with abundant atten-
tion from the wits of the day. Garth, in " The Dispensary," Canto V.
71, is severe upon him :

Had Wesley ne'er aim'd in verse to please.
We had not rank'd him with our Ogilbys.
Still censures will on dull pretenders fall ;
A Codrus should expect a Juvenal.

For once, however, Wesley made a good answer, though it is to be
feared Garth never saw it. The Eev. Samuel Badcock, in an account
of Wesley in Nichols' '■ Literary Anecdotes," V. 218, says that lie had
seen a MS. poem by him, in which he thus retorts on the satirist :

What wonder he should Wesley Codrus call,
Who dares sui'name him.self a Juvenal ?

INSCRIPTION ON A GROTTO OF SHELLS AT CBUX-
E ASTON, THE WORK OF NINE YOUNG LADIES.

Here, shunning idleness at once and praise.
This radiant pile nine rural sisters raise ;
The glittering emblem of each spotless dame,
Clear as her soul, and shining as her frame ;
Beauty which nature only can impart.
And such a polish as disgraces art ;
But Fate dispos'd them in this humble sort,
And hid in deserts what would charm a court.

This inscription is not found in Pope's Works, but is stated to be by
him in Dodsley's " Collection of Poems," 1782, VI. 177 :

Tlie ladies were the daughters of Edward Lisle, Esq., of Crux-
Eastoii, Hants.

The last two lines forcibly call to mind a stanza in Gray's " Elegy " :

Full many a gem of purest ray serene.
The dark unfatiiom'd raves of ooi an Ix ar :
Full many a llower is Ixjrn to blush un.seen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Pope's fondness for grottoes is well known. He constructed an
elaborate suljterranean one in his grounds at Twii'kenlmm, of which
he says, in a letter to Edward ISiount : " It wants nothing lo complete

326 MODEKN EPIGRAMIIATISTS.

it but a good statue with an inscription, like that beautiful antiqua
one which j'ou know I am so fond of." Of this Latin inscription (with
regard to the antiquity of which there is. however, a doubt) he gives a
translation, written for the statue of a water-nymph, at Stour Head, in
Wiltshire :

Nymph of the grot, these sacred springs I keep.
And to the murmur of these waters sleep ;
Ah ! spare my slumbers, gently tread the cave !
And drink in silence, or in silence lave !

Witli this may be compared a Greek epigram, by Plato, on tho
image of a Satyr and a Cupid .sleeping by the side of a fountain 'Jacobs 1.
105, xvi. The translation is by Bland:

From mortal hands my being I derive ;

Mute marble once, from man I Itarn'd to live.

A satyr now, with nymphs I hold resort,

And guard the watery grottoes where they sport.

In purple wine refused to revel more.

Sweet draughts of water from my urn I pour ;

But, stranger, softly tread, lest any sound

Awake yon boy, in rosy slumbers bound.

Willi regard to the stanza of Gray's " Elegy " which has been quoted,
the f illowing has been communicated by a friend : " Gray adopted the
thoughts of others with great freedom. It is, probably, little known
that this very beautiful passage was suggested by one in Bishop Hall's
'Contemplations ' (Book VI. 'The Veil of Moses'): 'There is many a
rich stone laid up in the bowels of the earth, many a fair pearl laid up
in the bosom of tlie sea, that never was seen, nor never shall be.' And
what is remarkable, the Bishop goes on to say, ' There is many a goodly
atar which, because of lieight, comes not within our account;' for
Duncombe, who parodied tlie elegy in the churchyard, by one on a
college, in this stanza adopts the image of the star :

" ' Full many a lark, high tow'ring to the sky,
, Unheard, unheeded, greets th' approach of light ;

Full many a star, unseen by mortal eye,

With trembling lustre glimmers through the night.' "

INSCRIPTION FOR A PUNCH-BOWL, BOUGHT IN THE
SOUTH SEA YEAR, FOR A CLUB-CHASED WITH JUPI-
TER PLACING CALLISTO IN THE SKIES, AND EUROPA
WITH THE BULL.

Come, fill the South Sea goblet full,
The gods shall of our stock take care,

Europa, pleas'd, accepts the Bull,
And Jove with joy puts off the Bear.

ALEXANDER POPE, 327

Tliis epigram was communicated by Bishop Warburton to Dr. Bircli.
The famous South Sea bubble produced much wit as well as much
misery. There is extant a ballad, entitled, " Merry Remarks upon
South Sea," by Dr. John Davies, father of Dr. Sneyd Davies, in which
there are some good stanzas (Nichols' " Illustrations of Literary His-
tory," I. idij :

In London stands a famous pile,
And near that place an alley ;
Where merry crowds for riches toil,
And wisdom stoops to folly.

There stars and garters do appear,
And 'mongst our lords the rabble ;

To buy, and sell, to see, aud hear,
The Jew and Gentile squabble.

Here crafty courtiers are tdb wise,
For those who trust to Fortune ;

They see the cheat with clearer eyes,
Who peep behind the curtain.

Our South Sea .ships have golden shrouds,
They bring us wealth, 'tis granted ;

But lodge their treasure in the clouds,
To hide it till it's wanted.

There is an epigram in Hone's "Every-Day Book" (taken from
"The Champion "of January 10th, 1740), on the per-centage to be
deducted from the prizes in the State Lottery of 1739, which, mutatis
mutandis, might be well applied to the South Sea scheme :
This lottery can never thrive.

Was broker heard to say,
For who but fools will ever give
Fifteen per cent, to play ?

A sage, with his accustom'd grin.

Replies, I'll stake my <loom,
That if but half the fools come in

The wise will find no room.

EPITAPH ON MRS. CORBET, WHO DIED OF A GANGER;
IN THE CHURCH OF S. MARGARET, WESTMINSTER.

Here rents a woman, good without pretence,
Blest with plain reason, and with sober sense :
Kg conquest she, but o'er herself desii'd,
Ho arts essay'd, but not to be admir'd.

328 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Passion and pride were to her soul unknown,

Convine'd that virtue only is our o'wti.

So unaffected, so compos'd a mind,

So firm, yet soft, so strong, yet so refin'd,

Heaven, as its purest gold, by tortures tried ;

The saint sustain'd it, but the woman died.

" I have always considered this," says Dr. Johnson, " as the most
valuable of all Pope's epitaphs. . . . Domestic virtue, as it is ex-
erted without great occasions, or conspicuous consequences, in an even
unnoted tenor, required the genius of Pope to display it in such a
miinner as might attract regard, and enforce reverence. Who can for-
bear to lament that this amiable woman has no name in the verses ?"
(Johnson's " Life of Pope.")

EPITAPH ON SIR GODFREY KNELLER, IN WEST-
MINSTER ABBEY.

Kneller, by Heaven, and not a master taught.
Whose art was nature, and whose pictures thought ;
Now for two ages having snatch'd from Fate
Whate'er was beauteous, or whate'er was great,
Lies crown'd with princes' honours, poets' lays,
Due to his merit, and brave thirst of praise.

Living, great Nature fear'd he might outvie
Her works ; and, dying, fears herself may die.

The last two lines are simply copied (stolen would, perhaps, be the
more correct expression) from Cardinal Bembo's Latin epitaph on
Raphael :

nie hie est Raphel. Timuit, quo sospite, vinci
Rerum Magna Parens, et moriente, mori.

On the monument erected to the memory of Spenser, in Westminster
Abbey, which was destroyed by the Puritans, there was a Latin epitaph,
a translation of which is given in Pettigrew's " Chronicles of the
Tombs":

Here plac'd near Chaucer, Spenser claims a room.

As next to him in merit, next his tomb.

To place near Chaucer, Spenser lays a claim,

Near him iiis tomb, but nearer far his fame.

With thee our English verse was rais'd on high;

But now declin'd, it fears with tliee to die.

It will be seen by tiiis epitaph that Kneller was not the first in this
country into whose service Bembo's lines were pressed. Tlie close of
the epitaph is simply the Cai-dinal's thought varied. And were there

ALEXANDER POPE. 329

any doubt, it would be set at rest by the fact, that the first part is a
still more exact imitation of the same writer's epitaph on Sannazarius.
This was long since pointed out by Dr. Jortin in iiis " Tracts, Philo-
logical,' &c., 1790, I. 285. The epitaph is thus translated in Amos"
'• Gems of Latin Poetry " :

Upon thy sacred dust be flow'rets spread,

He sung like Maro once, he rests near Maro dead.

Pope seems to have had this in mind when, in his "Essay on
Criticism," he says of " Immortal Vida " :

Cremona now shall ever boast thy name,
As next in place to Mantua, next in fame !

EPITAPH ON SIB ISAAC NEWTON.

Kature and Nature's laws lay hid in night:
God said, Let Newton be ! — and all was light.

This peerless epitaph was written for Newton's monument in
Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately a prose Latin inscription was
preferred. In 1798 it was engraved on a marble tablet, fixed in the
room in which Sir Isaac was bom in the manor-houtie of Wools-
thorpe.

The epitaph, as first written by Pope, is preserved in the minutes
of the Gentlemen's Society at Spalding, of which Newton was a
member (Nichols' " Illustrations of Literary History," IV. 17) :

Nature and all her works la}- hid in night ;
God said. Let Newton be, and all was light.

A fine epitaph by Aaron Hill was also written for the monument
in the Abbey, which will be found under his name. He wrote also
a disticli wliicli, if not suggested by Pope's (as it probably was), is
a remarkable instance of similarity of thought (Hill's Works, 17.53,
IV. 92) :

O'er Nature's laws, God cast the veil of night.
Out blaz'd a Newton's soul — and all was light.

EPITAPH FOR ONE (HIMSELF) WHO WOULD NOT BE
BURIED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

Heroes and kings ! your distance keep ;
In peace let one poor poet sleep,
\\ ho never flatter'd f(jlkK like you:
Let Horace blush, and Virgil too.

330 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

This is engraved on Pope's monument, erected by Bishop Warburton
in Twickenham Church.

Several poets wrote such mock epitaphs for themselves. Gay's is
well known :

Life is a jest, and all things show it ;
I thought so once, but now I know it.

Samuel Wesley, the usher of Westminster School, rejoiced in his
rest :

Here Wesley lies in quiet rest,
Hated in earnest for his jest.
Here he his worldly bustle ends.
Safe from his foes and fi-om his friends.

Prior's famous epitaph for himself will be found under his name.
He wrote another, " For my Own Tombstone " :

To me 'twas given to die : to thee 'tis given
To live : alas ! one moment sets us even.
Mark ! how impartial is the will of Heaven !

LEONAED WELSTED,

A poet and miscellaneous writer, was born in 1689. Died in
1747. He offended Pope by a satire upon Inm entitled, " The
Triumvirate, or a Letter in Verse from Palemon to Celia, from
Bath," and tliat irritable poet, in revenge, introduced him in the
" Dunciad " in the following lines, which are a parody of a pas8;igo
in Denham's " Cooper's Hill" :

Flow, Welsted, flow ! like thine inspirer, beer,
Though stale, not ripe, though thin, yet never clear ;
So sweetly mawkish, and so smoothly dull ;
Heady, not strong ; o'erflowing, though not full.

Welsted's Works were published by Nichols in 1787.

THE HEIB.

" I owe," says Metius, " much to Colon's care ;
Once only seen, he chose me for his heir."
True, Metius; hence your fortunes take their rise ;
His heir you were not, had he seen you twice.

This is, no doubt, the original of Person's joke on Bishop Pretty-
man. When told that a large estate had been left to that prelate
by a person who had seen him only once, he replied : " It woiild not
have happened, if the person had seen him twice " (Rogers' " Table-
Talk," 1856, 319).

331

ALEXIS PIEON,

A French dramatic poet, born at Dijon in 1689. At the age of
thirty he went to Paris, where he became one of the most popular
write'rs for the theatres. He had great conversational talents and
inexhaustible wit; but his unbending temper and caustic raillery-
made him disliked by his contemporaries, and kept him from a seat
in the Academy, an exclusion which he never forgave. He died
in 1773.

ON THE FRENCH BOYAL ACADEMY.

Trnmlated from the French by . Amended by Campbell, in

"Literary Reminiscences and Memoirs of Thomas Campbell." By
Cyrus Redding, 1860.

The truth tohl, they've in France a most excellent plan
The authors who pen heavy writings to cure,

In the chair of an E.A. they place the dull man,
Nor sonnet nor madrigal more you endure.
For there he does nothing but doze fast and sure, —

Since to Genius the sleep of that chair is as dead

As to love is the sleep of the conjugal bed.

This epigram is expressive enough of Piron's anger at his exclu-
sion from tlie Academy, but a mock epitaph which he wrote for
himself is still more sutii-ical and witty :

Ci git Piron, qui ne fut rien,
Pas meme Academioien.

ON BEAU JON.

Translated from the French in " Anecdotes of Eminent Persons,'' 1804.

A farmer-general, to all virtue lost,
Of liis unjust extortions dares to boast :
In golden cars he lords it o'er the plain ;
The blackest vices form his chosen train ;
Witli royal pomp he eveiy where appears,
And drinks in cups of gold the orphans' tears

It is said that Beaujon, the rich farmer-general, had a coach
covered with plates of gold ; and refused a poor widow with six
children her only lx;d, which wiis seized for payment of the poll-tax.

To this man may be applied u French epigram by (Jombuul.l,

332 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

translated by E. A. Davenport in the " Poetical Kegister " for 1806-7
entitled '• Successfid Villainy " :

By showering wealth and titles splendid
• On thee, the basest of tlie bad !

It seems that Fortune sure intended
To drive insulted virtue mad.

LADY MAEY WOETLEY MONTAGUE,

Eldest daughter of the Duke of Kingston, was born about 1690.
In 1712 she married Mr. Edward Wortley Montague, but the mar-
riage was not a happy one. In 1739 she went to reside abroad with
her husband's consent, and did not return to England untU after his
death in 1761. In tlie following year she died.

FREEDOM AND SLAVEBY.

Bom to be slaves, our fathers freedom sought,
And with their blood the precious treasure bought ;
We, their mean offspring, our own bondage plot,
And, bom to freedom, for our chains we vote.

This epigram is given in Lord WharnclLffe's " Letters and Works
of Lady Mary Wortley Montague," 1861, II. 501, under the date
1734. But in the fourth volume of "Poems on Affairs of State," pub-
lished in 1707 (p. 459), the following very similar lines occiu-, entitled,
"On the French Subjects":

Born under kings our fathers freedom sought,
And v/ith their blood the God-like treasure bought ;
We, their vile offspring, in our chains delight.
And, born to freedom, for our tyrants fight.

Lady Mary, though only about seventeen years of age in 1707,
may very likely have written these lines in the " State Poems," a
publication to which many of the wits of the day contributed ; and
she may have reproduced them with alterations in 1734, a year
remarkable for stormy debates in Parliament on certain measures of
the Government, which, by some, were thought to be of an arbitrary
character.

WILLIAM DUNCOMEE. 333

WRITTEN AT LOVERE, 1755.

(« Letters und Works of Lady M. W. Montague," 1831, II. 503.)

Wisdom, slow product of laborious years,
The only fruit that life's cold winter bears ;
Thy sacred seeds in vain in youth we lay,
By the fierce storm of passion torn awa}'.
Should some remain in a rich gen'rous soil,
They long lie hid, and must be rais'd with toil ;
Faintly they struggle with inclement skies,
No sooner born than the poor planter dies.

Lady Mary was a Greek scholar, and may have had in mind some
lines by Pherecrates, who floui-islied B.C. 436, which Cumberland thus
translated in the " Observer," No. 78 :

Age is the heaviest burthen man can bear.
Compound of disappointment, pain, and care ;
For when the mind's experience comes at length,
It comes to mourn the body's loss of strength :
Eesign'd to ignorance all our better days.
Knowledge just ripens when the man decays ;
One ray of light the closing eye receives.
And wisdom only takes what folly leaves.

WILLIAM BUNCOMBE,

Son of John Buncombe of Stocks, in the parish of Aldbury, Hert-
fordshire, was born in London in 1690. He became a clerk in the
Navy Office, which he quitted after nineteen years' service, and during
the remainder oi' Iuh life edited and published many volumes. His
most valued friendship was with Arclibisliop Herring, whose letters
to him liave been published, and form an interesting volume. He
died in 1769. Several poems by him, including the following epigrams,
were contributed by liis son to Nichols' " Select Collection of Poems,"
Vol. VI. 1780.

TO THE MEMORY OF PETER THE GREAT, CZAB OF

RUSSIA.

To deck witli arts a lough barbarian race,
And polish them with every manly grace ;

334 MODERN EPIGKA5IMATISTS.

To chase the shades of ignorance profound.
And spread the beams of knowledge all around ;
To brighten and exalt .the human soul,
And. still consult the welfare of the whole :
If these be acts more worthy of applause,
Than with wild havock, in ambition's cause.
To conquer kingdoms, to lay waste and burn,
And. peaceful states with restless rage o'ertum,
Then Russia's Czar with greater glory reign'd,
Than was by Philip's son, or Caesar gaiu'd.

In Tickell's " Prospect of Peace," there is a passage on Peter tlio
Great's visit to England in 1698, which resulted in the improvement
of the condition of his people :

Have we forgot, how from great Russia's throne
The king, whose pow'r half Europe's regions own,
Whose sceptre waving, with one shout rush forth
In swarms the harness'd millions of the north ;
Through realms of ice pursu'd his tedious way.
To court our friendship, and our fame survey !
Hence the rich prize of useful arts he bore,
And round his empire spread the learned store,
(T' adorn old realms is more than new to raise,
His country's parent is a monarcli's praise).
His bands now march in just array to war,
And Casi^ian gulphs unusual navies bear ;
With Eunic lays Smolensko's forests ring,
And wond'ring Volga hears the muses sing.

TO DB. {AFTERWARDS SIR EDWARD) WILMOT.

With doubtful strife. Humanity and Art
For conquest vie in Wilmot's head, and heart.
On his lov'd son Apollo did bestow
The healing power, and woids to soften woe.
With sympathizing eyes and tender mind
He views the maladies of human-kind ;
Eeprieves the languid patient from the grave,
While Pity soothes whom Medicine cannot save !

Empedocles, the philosopher and naturalist, who flourished B.C. 444,
has a punning epitaph on a physician. The play upon the name is
preserved in the following translation by Merivale (Jacobs I. 95, ii.) :

HENRY NEEDLER. 335

Paitsanias — not so nam'd without a cause,
As cue who oft has giv'n to pain a pause —
Blest son of -^sculapius, good and wise,
Here in his native Gela, buried lies ;
Who many a wretch once rescu'd by his charms
From dark Persephone's constraining arms.

On a more humble professor of the healing art, Dr. Johnson's
friend, Robert Levet, the sage wrote an elegy, in which these stanzas
occui' :

When fainting natm-e call'd for aid,

And hov'riug death prepar'd the blow,
His vig'rous remedy display'd
The power of art without the show.

In misery's darkest cavern known,

His useful care was ever nigh,
Where hopeless anguish pour'd his groan,

And lonely want retir'd to die.

HENEY NEEDLER,

The grandson of Colonel Needier, a Eoyalist, who served under
General Monk, was born in 1690. He had a place in the Navy
Office, and by his sedentary life and intense application, principally to
mathematics, accelerated his death, which took place at the early age
of 28 years. His works were collected and published by William
Buncombe, and passed through several editions. The one from whicli
the following epigrams are taken is that of 1728.

TO A LADY, OFFERING TO TELL THE AUTHOR HIS

FORTUNE.

Chloe, you well my future fate may show.
Which, wliether good oi- bad, from you must flow.
With needless care you search the stars and skies ;
No stars can influence me, but those bright eyes.
The gods, that govern by supreme decree,
In their own minds may all events foresee.

Urban Chevrcau, a poet born at Loudun in Poitou, in 1013, has a
French epigram on Leance the gipsy, of whom people in the higluht
ranks in I'aris enquired their destinies ; whose portrait artists drew ; and
whose beauty poets celebrated in verse. The translation is taken iioin
"Selections from the French Anas," 17!)7:

836 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Loveliest of nature's works, ah ! why
Thus vainly in my hands you try

My fortune to discover ?
My fate is written in your heart,
And 'tis your will, and not your art,

Can kill or save your lover.

On the subject of fortune-telling, we may compare a stanza in
Cbwley's " My Fate " :

You, who men's fortunes in their faces read,
To find out mine, look not, alas ! on me ;

But mark her face, and all the features heed ;
For only there is writ my destiny :

Or, if stars show it, gaze not on the skies,

But study the astrology of her eyes.

Also the close of Prior's lines " To a Young Lady, who was fond of
Fortune-Telling " :

What matters, if unblest in love,
How long or short my life will prove ?
To gratify what low desire,
Should I with needless haste inquire
How great, how wealthy I shall be ?
Oh ! what is wealth or power to me !
If I am happy, or undone,
It must proceed from you alone.

ON ARITHMETIC AND GEOMETBY.

Hail, heav'nly Pair ! by whose conspiring aid
The beauteous fabric of the world was made !
Led on by you, audacious men forget
The narrow bounds by envious Nature set ;
To yon bright mansions soar with happy flight.
Survey the starry realms, and range thro' worlds of
light !

A Greek epigram by Ptolemy (Jacobs II. 65, ii.) on the study ol
aetronomy may be compared. The translation is by Philip Smyth :

Though but the being of a day,
When I yon planet's course survey

This earth I then despise —
Near Jove's eternal thione I stand.
And quaff from an immortal hand

The nectar of the skies.

337

JOHN BYROM,

The son of a linendraper of Manchester, was born in 1691. When
at Trinity College, Cambridge, he wrote the elegant pastoral of" Colin
and Phoebe," which appeared in the 603rd No. of the " Spectator."
The Phoebe of this pastoral was Johanna, daughter of the celebrated
Dr. Bentlev, Master of Trinity. When he left the University he
studied medicine, but the chief means by which he supported him-
self arose from his talent in shorthand writing. He died in 1763.
He is usually called Dr. Byrom, though there is no evidence that he
ever proceeded to that degree. An edition of his poems was pub-
lished at Manchester in 1773, from which the following epigrams
are taken, with the exception of the " Two Millers," which is ascribed
to him in several collections.

ON TWO MILLERS OF MANCHESTER, NAMED BONE AND
SKIN, WHO WANTED TO MONOPOLIZE CORN.

Two millers thin,

Call'd Bone and Skin,
Would starve us all, or near it ;

But be it known

To Skin and Bone,
That Flesh and Blood can't bear it.

This epigram on millers recalls one on two other rogues, the
Atkinsons, which appeared in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for
August, 1784, signed T. W., probably Thomas Wartou :

To rob the public two contractors come,
One deals in corn, the other cheats in rum ;
Which is the greater rogue, ye wits, explain,
A rogue in spirit or a rogue in grain ?

" Christopher Atkinson, for his malpractices as agent of the
Victualling Olfice, was not only fined £'2000, but condemned to stand
in the pillory near the Com Exchange, which took place on November
25, 1785 " (" Notes and Queries," 4th S. I. 570j.

ADVERTISEMENT UPON THE NATURALIZATION BILL.

Now upon sale, a bankj-upt Island,
To any stranger that will buy land —
The birthrifjht, note, for further satis-
Faction, is to be thrown in gratis.

338 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS,

This is one of several epigrams by Byrom on the same subject. It
was probably written when he was at college, on the Bill of 1708 for
the naturalization of all foreign Protestants, which, notwithstanding
strenuous opposition, was carried ; the chief motive of the Whigs, who
brought the Bill into Parliament, being, says Smollett, " to throw an
aildition of foreigners into the balance against the landed interest."
At the end of three years the law was repealed as injurious to
natural-born subjects. The epigram is curious, marking the strong
feeling which existed against this preposterous measure. It certainly
has no intrinsic merit. At a later period, when Napoleon was boasting
of his intended conquest of England, and borrowing money to carry
out his object of giving the birthright of Britons to the French, the
following clever epigram appeared in the " Anti-Jacobin " from the pen
of Hookham Frere :

The Paris cits, a patriotic band.

Advance their cash on British freehold land :

But let the speculating rogues beware —

They've bought the skin, but who's to kill the bearf

DESIGNED FOB A WATCH-CASE.

Could but our tempers move like this machine,
Not urg'd by passion, nor delay'd by spleen ;
But true to Nature's regulating pow'r,
By viituous acts distinguish ev'ry hour;
Then health and joy would follow, as they ought,
The laws of motion, and the laws of thought ;
Sweet health, to pass the present moments o'er ;
And everlasting joy, when Time shall be no more.

These verses were intended, according to the custom of the day, for
the outer case of the large watches then in use, in which a piece of
poetry of this kind was commonly enclosed.

Some pretty lines were addressed by Lord Lyttelton to Miss
Fortescue (afterwards his wife) " with a new watch" :

With me while present may thy lovely eyes

Be never tiiru'd upon this golden toy ;
Think every pleasing hour too swiftly flies,

And measure time by joy succeeding joy !
But whtn the cares that interrupt our bliss,

To me not always will thy sight allow,
Then oft with kind impatience look on this,

Then every minute count— as I do now.

SAMUEL WE6LET. 339

4JV ADMONITION AGAINST SWEARING, ADDRESSED TO
AN OFFICER IN THE ARMY.

that the Muse might call, without oflfence,

The gallant soldier back to his good sense !

His temp'ral field so cautious not to lose ;

So careless quite of his eternal foes.

Soldier ! so tender of thy prince's fame,

AN'hy so profuse of a superior Name ?

For the king's sake the brunt of battles bear ;

But — for the King of kings' sake — do not swear.

Dr. James Fordyce has some fine stanzas on this subject : " An Answer
to a Gentleman who apologized to the Author for swearing iu his
company." The last stanza may be compared with Bvroiiis very
beautiful epigi-am (Fordyces "Poems," 178U, 208J :

Men weigh their words in presence of the throne ;
Tempt not, dear sir, a higher Sov'reign's frown.
You would not swear upon the bed of death.
Wliy so ? Your Maker now could stop your breath.
Behold this globe, tho.se skies, the wondrous whole ;
And to th' Almighty Former bow your soul.
Henceforth the Majesty of God revere :
Fear Him, and you have nothing else to fear !

The fine thought in the last line of this stanza is from Racine
(" Athalie," Acta I. sc. 1) :

Je crains Dieu, cher Abner, et n'ai point d'autre crainte.

^Vhich was adopted by Professor Smyth, in his Ode for the Installation
of the Duke of Ghmcester as Chancellor of Cambridge -(Smvlb's
* English Lyrics," 1815, 151) :

From Piety, whose soul sincere
Fears God, and knows no other fear.

SAMUEL WESLEY,

The fion of a clergyniiin of the same nnmcs, and the brother o)l the
Cflebratexl Methodists. John and Charles Wesley, was born about 1(J92.
Ho was for some years usher of Westmin.stcr, and afterwards IMaster of
Tiverton KfhrxJ. He took orders under the patronage of Bi.shop
.\tterbury, to wli<jm, and to whose opinions, he was greatly attached,

340 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

and in consequence was much opposed to the views and conduct of hia
brothers. He died in 1739. A new edition of his poems, including
his epigrams, was published in 1862.

THE BED BIB AND OF THE BATH.

Quoth Sir Eobert, " Our ribands, I find, are too few, —

Of S. Andrew's tlie green, and S. George's the blue.

I must find out a red one, a colour more gay,

That will tie up my subjects with pride t' obey.

Though the 'chequer may suffer by prodigal donors,

Yet the king's ne'er exhausted, that fountain of honours."

This caustic epigram refers to the revival of the Order of the Bath
by George I. in 17'25, dui'ing the administration of Sir Eobert Walpole,
to whose politics Wesley was strongly opposed.

The last line but one of the epigram is, probably, a sly hit at Sir
Robert Walpole's corruption by means of the secret service money,
which was notorious. In reference to this the following epigram
appears to have been written, which is also by Wesley, incorrectly
ascribed, in the " New Foundling Hospital for Wit," to the Duke of
Wharton :

From sunset to daybreak, when folks are asleep,
JS'ew watchmen are 'pointed the 'chequer to keep :
New locks and new bolts fasten every door,
And the chests are made three times as strong as before.
Yet the thieves, when 'tis open, the treasure may seize ;
For the same are still trusted with care of the keys.
From the night to the morning, 'tis true, all is right ;
But who shall secure it from morning to night ?

ON THE EBECTION OF BVTLEB'S MONUMENT IN
WESTMINSTEB ABBEY.

Whilst Butler, needy wretch ! was yet alive.

No gen'rous patron would a dinner give :

See him, when starved to death, and turn'd to dust,

Presented with a monumental bust !

The poet's fate is here in emblem shown, —

He ask'd for bread, and he receiv'd a stone.

Butler, the celebrated author of " Hudibras," was entirely neglected
in life. His poem was read, admired, and praised by Charles II., the
courtiers, and all the Koyalist party ; but instead of the honours and

SAMUEL WESLEY. 341

emoluments which it was expected would be showered upon him, he
was left in obscurity and indigence. In 1721, about forty years after
his death, John Barber, a printer, afterwards Alderman and Lord
Mayor of London, erected the monument to which Wesley's epigram
refers.

In Pope's " Poetical Works " (Johnson's " Poets ") is an epigram on
this monument with a note, " Perhaps by Mr. Pope" :

Eespect to Dryden, Sheffield justly paid.

And noble Villiers hcmour'd Cowley's shade;

But whence this Barber?— that a name so mean

Sliould, join'd with Butler's, on a tomb be seen ;

This pyramid wouLl better far proclaim.

To future ages humble Settle's name ;

Poet and patron then had been well pair'd,

The city printer and the city bard.

The obvious remark is, that if neither a Sheifield nor a Villiers
were noble enough to erect a monument to the memory of the poet, all
honour to the " city printer," who did what those of higher rank had
neglected.

An epitaph, in which the sentiment is somewhat similar to that in
Wesley's epigram, was inscribed by Horace Walpole on a monument
which he erected in the churchyard of S. Anne's, Westminster, over
The remains of Theodore, King of Corsica, who, after many reverses,
became a prisoner for debt in the King's Bench, and died very shortly
after his release (Walpole's Works, 1798, I. loS) :

The grave, great teacher, to a level brings
Heroes, and beggars, galley slaves, and kings.
But Theodore this moral learn'd ere dead :
Fate fM)ur'd its le.-son on his living head ;
Bestow'd a kingdom, and denied him bread.

THE MONUMENT.

A monster, in a course of vice grown old,

Leaves to liis gaping heir his ill-gain'd gold ;

Straight breathes his bust, straight are his virtues shown,

Their date commencing with the sculptured stone.

If on his specious marble we rely,

Pity a worth like his should ever die !

If credit to his real life we give,

Pity a wretch like him should ever live!

Bishop Hall, in one of his satires, is very severe on the erection of
(Xirtly monuments to the vicious (Book III. sat. 2) :

Small honour can be got with gaudy grave ;
Nor it thy rotting name from death can save.

312 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Tlie fairer tomb, the fouler is thy name ;
The greater pomp procuring greater shame.

Thine ill deserts cannot be grav'd with thee,
So long as on thy grave they engrav'd be.

Massinger, in the " Fatal Dowry," makes the son of the brave and
virtuous Charalois thus address his father's corpse (Act II. sc. 1 j :

Leaving thy heir so bare and indigent,

He cannot raise thee a poor monument,

ISuch us a flatterer or a usm-er hath ;

Thy worth in every honest breast, builds one.

Making their friendly hearts thy funeral stone.

Byron's severe lines in "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers" wiU
be remembered:

Hope constancy in wind, or corn in chaff;
Believe a woman or an epitaph.

EPITAPH ON AN INFANT.

Beneath, a sleeping infant lies;

To earth whose ashes lent
More glorious shall hereafter rise,
Though not more innocent.

"When the Archangel's trump shall blow,

And souls and bodies join, li

What crowds will wish their lives below n

Had been as short as thine !

Of the many epitaphs on infants, few are so beautiful as this. The
following, given m the 538th No. of the " Spectator," from S. Pancraa
churchyard, shows the blessing of early death as next to that of a well- U

spent life : "

Here innocence and beauty lies, whose breath

Was snatch d by early, not untimely, death ;

Hence she did go, just as she did begin

Sorrow to know — before she knew to sin.

Death, that can sin and sorrow thus prevent,

Is the next blessing to a life well spent.

The following, in the cloisters of Canterbury Cathedral, is by
Elizabeth Carter, the tianslator of Epictetus ("Gentleman's
Magazine," LXXXIV. Part II. 515) :

Though infant years no pompous honours claim.
The vain parade of monumental fame,
To better praise tlie last great day shall rear
The peaceful innocence that slumbers here.

343

WILLIAM SOMERVILE.
Bom 1692. Died 1742.

LINES SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN IX THE
15TH CENTURY BY THE DUKE OF CLARENCE. OF THE
HOUSE OF YORK, AND SENT, WITH A WHITE ROSE. W
LADY ELIZA BEAU CHAMP, DAUGHTER OF THE DUKE
OF SOMERSET, OF THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER.

If tliis pale rose offend your sight,
It in yciir bosom wear ; ^

'Twill blush to find itself less white,
And turn Lancastrian there.

But if thy i-uby lip it spy,

To kiss it should'st thou deign

With envy pale, 'twill lose its dye,
And Yorkist turn again.

The first stanza only is Somervile's, one of several on " Presenting to
a Lady a White Rose and a Eed on the Tentli of June." The second
was added by Congreve. (See Sir Henry llalford's " Nugae Metricse,'"
1842.) Somervile probably adopted the idea from Herrick, who has
an epigram on the way roses became red :

Roses at first were white,

Till they co'd not agree,
Whether my Sapho^s breast,

Or they more white sho'd be.

But being vanqui-sht quite,
A blush their cheeks bespred ;

Since whicli, beleeve tlie rest.
The roses first came red.

In " Wit Restored," ed 1817, II. 20, there is a pretty epigram on
the .same subject, " To His Mistress " :

Shall I tell you how the rose at first grow red.

And whence the lily whiteness lx)rrowed ?

You blu.sh'd, and straight tlie rose with red was dight.

The lily kissM your hand, and so was white.

HiA'nTc such time, each rose had but a stain.

And lilies nought but ]>alunc8S did Contain;

You liave the native colour, these the dye.

And only flourish in your livery.

Spenser, iu " Daphnaida," gives a diflfereut reason for the colour of
the rose :

344 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS,

It there befell, as I the fields did range,
Fearlesse and free, a faire young lionesse,
White as the native rose before tlie change
Which Venus blood did in her leaves impresse,
I spied * * * #

Spenser is, however, incorrect. He alludes, of course, to the story
of Venus and Adonis ; but it was from the blood of the latter that the
red rose sprung, and from the tears of the foimer the anemone ; as may
be seen in Bion's Idylliura on the death of Adonis. The same mistake
occurs in a very beautiful epigram translated by Moore from the Latin,
more to be admired in the English, especially the last line, even than
in the original (Moore's '• Poetical Works ") :

While the enamour'd queen of joy
Flies to protect her lovely boy,

On whom the jealous war-god rushes ;
She ti'eads upon a thorned rose,
And while the wound with crimson flows.

The snowy flow'ret feels her blood, and blushes !

An epigram by Dr. John Carey, " Origin of the Red Rose," is m the
"Gentleman's Magazine," LXXXIX. Part II. 67:

As, erst, in Eden's blissful bow'rs,
Young Eve survey'd her countless flow'rs,
An op'ning rose, of purest white,
She mark'd, with eyes that beam'd delight.
Its leaves she kiss'd : and straight it drew,
From Beauty's lip, the vermeil hue.

TO DR. BEADING MATHEMATICS.

Vain our pursuits of knowledge, vain our care,

The cost and labour we may justly spare.

Death from this coarse alloy refines the mind,

Leaves us at large t' expatiate unconfin'd ; (,.

All science opens to our wondering e3'es,

And the good man is in a moment wise. '*

The Jesuit Bernardus Bauhuiius has a Latin epigram on tlie deatli
of Christopher Clavins, a German Jesuit, who wrote an elaborate work
on mathematics, and who was sent for to Rome, to assist in the refor-
mation of the Calendar by Pope Gregory, where he died in 1612. The
translation is by James Wright (" Delitiae Delitiarum," 209):

When doubting of some stars, thus Clavius cried.
Let me, O God, nearer behold ; and died.

The close of an epitaph on Sii- Isaac Newton may be comparwl
'/'Elegant Extracts"):

PHILIP DOEMEB STANHOPE, EARL OF CHESTERFIELD. 345

Who in the eye of Heaven like Enoch stood.

And thro' the paths of knowledge walk'd with God :

Whose fame extends, a sea without a shore !

Who but forsook one world to know the laws of more.

EPITAPH ON HUGH LUMBER, A HUSBANDMAN.

In cottages and homely cells
Ti'ue piety neglected dwells ;
Till call'd to heaven, her native seat,
Where the good man alone is great :
'Tis then his humble dust shall rise.
And view his Judge with joyful eyes ;
While haiTghty tyrants shrink afraid,
And call the mountains to their aid.

liancroft, the epigrammatist of the seventeenth century, has an
epigram on '■ Pride and Humility," which may be compared with
Somervile's epitaph (Book II. 62) :

Mountains their tallness lose, but vaUies grow
Higher, by ruins on their bosom cast ;
And climbing pride comes txunbling down below.
But himable goodness will reach heaven at last.

PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, FOURTH EARL OF

CHESTERFIELD,

Was bom in 1694. He was a courtier, an ambassador, and a wit ;
but \B popularly remembered now as the nobleman whose tardily-ofiered
patronag(! Dr. Johnson declined with disdiiin ; and as the author of
" I^etters to liis Son," which contain little grace and less morality. Ho
died in 1773.

ON SEEING A WHOLE-LENGTH PORTRAIT OF NASH
BETWEEN THE BUSTS OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON AND
POPE IN THE BOOMS AT BATH.

Immortal Newton never spoke
Moie truth than here you'll find ;

Nor Pope himself e'er penn'd a joke
Severer (Jii mankind.

346 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

The picture, plac'd the busts between,

Gives satire all its strength :
Wisdom and Wit are little seen,

While Folly glares at length.

This epigram is found in Lord Chesterfield's " Miscellaneous Works "
1777, 1. 89. The picture was painted at the expense of the Corporation
of Bath. The Earl wrote a much longer piece on the same subject, tlie
last verse of which is, with the exception of a few words, the same as
the last verse of the epigram.

Another epigram on Nash may be inserted here. Dr. Johnson, talking
of infidel writers and of injudicious defenders of religion, said of the
latter : " To such I would apply a stanza of a poem which I remember
to have seen in some old collection " (Boswell's " Life of Johnson," year
1784). The collection is, " The Foundling Hospital for Wit," from
which Boswell gives the entire epigram, " Occasioned by a Religious
Dispute at Bath." The initials only of the names are printed ; but
tliey are Bentley, son of the great critic, and Beau Nash :

On Reason, Faith, and mystery high,

Two wits harangue the table ;
Bentley believes he knows not why,

Nash swears 'tis all a fable.

Peace, coxcombs, peace, and both agree ;

Nash, kiss thy empty brother ;
Religion laughs at foes like thee,

And dreads a friend like t'other.

Johnson remarked of the stanza which he quoted, " The point is well,
though the expression is not correct ; one, and not thee, should be op-
posed to t'other." The following emendation has been suggested :

Peace, coxcombs, peace ! Such contests shun !

Nash, kiss thy empty brother ;
Religion laughs at foes like one,

And dreads a friend like t'other.

TO MISS AMBROSE.

At a ball given by Lord Chesterfield, when Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland, on the anniversary of the battle of the Boyne, a Roman Catholic
lady of great beauty, Miss Ambrose, appeared with an orange lily in her
dre'as. The Earl addressed her in the following extempore lines •

Say, lovely Tory, why the jest,
Of wearing orange on thy breast,
When that same breast betraying shows
The whiteness of the rebel rose ?
In allusion to the beauty of this lady. Lord Chesterfield used to mv

ELIZABETH TOLLET. 347

that she was the only dangerous Papist in Ireland (" Anecdotes of
Eminent Persons," 1804, I. 268).

The epigram is not found in Lord Chesterfield's " IMiscellaneous
Works," but is ascribed to him by almost general consent. In the
" Asylum for Fugitive Pieces," however, it is given to '' the late John
St. Leger, Esq." Another epigram on the same lady is in Chesterfield's
Works.

ELIZABETH TOLLET,

Daughter of George Toilet, Esq., who, as a commissioner of the navy,
had a house in the Tower in the reigns of King William and Queen
Anne. She was born iu 1694, and died in 1754.

THE TRIUMVIRATE OF POETS.
(Nichols " Collection of Poems," VI. 67, 1780.)

Britain with Greece and Rome contended long

For lofty genius and poetic song,

Till this Augustan age with three was blest,

To fix the prize and finish the contest.

In Addison, immortal Virgil reigns ;

So pure his numbers, so refin'd his strains :

Of nature full, with more impetuous heat,

In Prior Horace shines, sublimely great.

Thy country', Homer ! we dispute no more,

For Pope has fix'd it to his native shore.

The thought in the last two lines finds expression in an nnonymoaa
epigram addressed to Pope ("The Grove," 1721, 2G5) :

So much, dear Pope, thy English Iliad charms.
As pity melts us, or as passion warms,
That after-ages shall with wonder seek
Who 'twas translated Homer into Greek.

This view, however, of Pope's " Homer" is scarcely original, as very
much the same was said years before of Chapman's translation, in an
a.idre88 to that poet (" Wit Kestored," ed. 1817, U. 11) :

Thou ghost of Homer, 'twere no fault to call
His till) translation, thiue the original,
Did wo not know 'twas done by thee so well ;
Thou makest Homer, Homer's self excel.

348 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Ben Jonson, in some introductory commendatory verses to " Bartas,
his Divine Weeks and Works, translated, and dedicated to the King's
Most Excellent Majesty, by Joshua Sylvester," 1605, has the I'cllowing,
speaking of Du Bartas, and addressing Sylvester :

So well in that are his inventions wrought.
As his will now be the translation thought.
Thine the original ; and France shall boast
No more those maiden glories she hath lost.

ANDREW JACKSON,

Bom in 1694, was a dealer in old books, and kept a shop for many
years in Clare Court, Drary Lane. He hud a love for literature, and
wrote as well as read. In 1740 he published the first book of " Paradise
Lost" in rhyme, and, ten years afterwards, tales from Chaucer in
modern verse, placing on the title-page the following epigram to explain
the object of his publication (Nichols' " Literary Anecdotes," III. 626) :

The first refiner of our native lays
Chaunted these tales in second Richard's days ;
Time grudg'd his wit, and on his language fed !
We rescue but the living from the dead ;
And what was sterling verse so long ago
Is here new coined to make it current now.

Jolm Skeltcn, an old English poet, bom towards the latter part of
the 15th century, speaks thus of the honour due to Chaucer :

O noble Chaucer, whose pullished eloquence
Our Englishe rude so freshely hath set out,
That bounde are we with all due reverence,
With all our sti-engthe that we can bryng about,
To owe to you our service, and more if we nowte.

* * ie Hf if

So, Akenside, in his " Inscription for a Statue of Chaucer," speaks :

Of him who first with hannony inform'd
The language of our fathers.

And Addison, in '• An Account of the Greatest English Poets,"
says of Chaucer, in exact accordance with the third line of Jackson's
epigram :

But age has ru.sted what the poet writ,
Worn out his language, and obscur'd his wit.

349

FRANCOIS MAEIE AROUET DE VOLTAIRE.
Bom 1694. Died 1778.

TO LAURA HABLEY, 1727.
(" (Euvres de Voltaire." Paris, 1837, 11. 806.)

Laura, would you know the passion
You have kindled in my breast ?

Trifling is the inclination,

That by words can be express' d.

Li my silence see the lover,
True love is by silence known :

In my eyes you'll best discover
All the power of your own.

In Dodsley's " Collection " these lines are stated to have been ad-
dressed to Lady Hervey, who was the daughter of General Nicholas le
Pell.

Sir Walter Raleigh, in " The Silent Lover," says very much the
.same of true love (Ellis' " Specimens of the Early English Poets," 1803.
11. 223) :

Passions are liken'd best to floods and streams ;

The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb :
So when affections yield discourse, it seems

The bottom is but shallow whence they come.
Tbey that are rich iu words must needs discover
They are but poor in that which makes a lover.

INSCRIPTION FOB A STATUE OF CUPID.
(" (Euvres de Voltaire." Paris, 1837, U. 765.)

Translated from the French by Granville (Lord Lansdowne).

Whoe'er thou art, thy lord and master see.
Thou wast my slave, thou art, or thou shalt be.

Numberless passages may be found in the poets of every age on this
subject. An Ode of Anacreon, thus translated by Fawkes, shows
Cupid's power (Ode 58j :

To Love I wake the silver string.
And of his soft dominion sing :
A wreath of flowers adorns his brow,
The sweetest, fairest flowers that blow ;

360 MODEEN EPIGRAMMATISTS,

All mortals own his mighty sway,
And him the gods above obey.

Alexis, a Greek comic poet, who flourished B.C. 356, thus speaks in a
fragment preserved by Athena^us, Book XIII., translated, or rather
paraphrased, by Cumberland (" Observer," No. 101) :

The man who holds true pleasure to consist
In pampering his vile body, and defies
Love's great divinity, rashly maintains
Weak impious war with an immortal god.
The gravest master that the schools can boast
Ne'er train'd his pupils to such discipline,
As Love his votaries, unrivall'd power.
The first great deity — and where is he,
So stubborn and determinately stiif,
But shall at some time bend the knee to love,
And make obeisance to his mighty shrine ?

Shakespeare has many passages on the power of Love. In '■ Love's
Labour's Lost " (Act I. sc. 2), Armado says : '• Cupid's butt-ghaft is too
hard for Hercules' club, and tlierefore too much odds for a Spaniard's
rapier. . . . His disgrace is to be called boy ; but his glory is to
subdue men."

And in the " Two Gentlemen of "Verona " (Act H. sc. 4), Valentine
says:

Oh, gentle Proteus, Love's a mighty lord ;

And hath so himibled me, as, I confess,

There is no woe to his correction.

Nor to his service, no such joy on earth !

ON TEE PHRASE, " TO KILL TIME."

Translated from the French in '' Select Epigrams."

Time speaks.

There's scarce a point whereon mankind agree
So well, as in their boast of killing me :
I boast of nothing, but, when I've a mind,
I think I can be even with mankind.

1'he riddle, " On Time," by Swift, or one of his friends, may be com-
pared with this epigram :

Ever eating, never cloying.
All devouring, all destroying.
Never finding full repast.
Till I eat the world at last.

Charles V. asserted that himself, backed by Time, was a match fot
any other two. Dr. Franklin, referring to this in a letter to W. Car-

GILBEBT WEST. 351

michael, Esq., says that he had somewhere met with an answer to it
in tius distich (" Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin," by his grandson,
W. T. Franklin, 1818, KI. 83) :

I and Time, 'gainst any two.
Chance and I, 'gainst Time and you.

BELL-BIN GEES.

Translated frcytn the French, in " Miscellaneous Poetical Extracts from

Newspapers."

Ye rascals of ringers, ye merciless foes.

And disturbers of all who are fond of repose,

How I wish for the quiet and peace of the land,

That ye wore round your necks what you hold in your hand !

Hood, in " Up the Khine,' writes : " Past one o'clock, and here 1 am
not couchant but rampant ! Yet have I been between the sheets, and
all but into the soft arms of Mr. Morpheus, but oh ! Gerard, a night
at Bonn is anything but a honne nuit ! . . . Partial as I am to
music, I could not relish these outbreaks, nor did it comfort me a whit,
that all who met or overtook these wassailers (the University students;
joined most skilfully and scientifically in the tune !

" ' I like your German singers well.
But hate them too, and for this reason.
Although they always sing in time.
They often sing quite out of season,' "

GILBERT WEST.

Bom towards the close of the 17th century. Died 1756.

INSCRIPTION ON A CELL IN LORD WESTMORELAND'S

GROUNDS.

Beneath these moss-grown roots, this rustic cell,
Truth, Liberty, Content, sequester'd dwell ;
Say you, who dare our hermitage disdain,
\\ hat drawing-room can boast so fair a train ?

These lines are characteristic of West, who, delighting in the truth of
Dulure, the liberty of country life, and the content which simple habits

352 MODERN EPIGKAMMATI8T8.

produce, preferred his quiet seat at Wicklmm to the gaiety and con-
straints of London drawing-rooms. In the very spirit of West, his
intimate friend and cousin, Lord Lyttelton, addressed the following
prett)' epigram to him :

Fair Nature's sweet simplicity,

With elegance refin'd.
Well in thy seat, my friend, I see,

But better in thy mind.

To both, from courts and all their state,

Eager I fly, to prove
Joys far above a courtier's fate.

Tranquillity and love.

A similarity to West's lines, and also in sentiment to Ix)rd Lyttel-
ton's, will be observed in the following inscription " Upon the Thatched
House in the Wood of Sander&on Millar, Esq. at Radway, in Warwick-
shire." It is taken from a MS. note-book, and given in " Notes and
Queries," 2nd S. IV. 291. Tiie author is the Rev. James Merrick, of
Trinity College, Oxford, whose chief work was "The Psahns translated
or paraphrased in English Verse," 1765 :

Stay, passenger, and though within
Nor gold nor sparkling gem be seen,

To strike the dazzled eye ;
Yet enter and thy raptur'd mind
Beneath this humble roof shall find

What gold could never buy.

Within this solitary cell

Calm thought and sweet contentment dwell.

Parents of bliss sincere ;
Peace spreads around her balmy wings.
And banisli'd from the coiu-ts of kings,^

Has fixed her mansion here.

WILLIAM CLAEKE, "

Was bom in Shropshire in 1696. He became rector of Buxted, in
Sussex, and subsequently a prebendary and chancellor of Chichester
cathedral. Antiquities were his favourite study, and he was a secret
though not unsuccessful votary of the Muses. The learned Bishop Hunt-
ingford speaks of his " exquisite taste and diversified erudition ;" a7id
so noted was he as a peacemaker in quarrels, which seem to have been
rife among the members of the Chapter of Chichester, that it was said
after his death in 1771, " Tlie peace of the Church of Chichester has ex-
pired with Mr. Clarke." The poet Hayley wrote an epitaph on this
amiable man and his wife, which commences :

Mild William Clarke and Anno his wife

WILLIAM CLASEE — WILLIAM OLDTS. 353

ON SEEING THE WORDS " DOMUS ULTIMA" INSCRIBED
ON THE VAULT BELONGING TO THE DUKES OF
RICHMOND IN CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL.

(Nichols' " Literary Anecdotes," IV. 372.)

Did he, who thus inscrib'd the wall,
Not read, or not believe S. Paul,
Who says there is, where'er it stands,
Another house not made with hands ;
Or may we gather from these words,
That house is not a house of Lords?

Of this Hayley said : "Perhaps there are few better epigrams in our
language ;" and Kapin, who declared it enough for any one man to
liave composed one good epigram, would probably have acknowledged
that Clarke dosc-rved the bays as an epigrammatist.

The inscription, on which the epigram is founded, is (or was) on a
mural tablet at the east end of the Duke's vault, near S. Mary's Chapel
in the Cathedral (Nichols, as above) :

Sibi et suis, posterisque eorum

Hoc Hypogaeum vivus F. 0.

Carolus Richmondise, Liviniae,

Et Albiniaci dux.

Anno aerse Christiana} 1750.

Hxc est Domus ultima.

WILLIAM OLDYS,

Was born in 1C96. He was librarian to the Earl of Oxford, and
afterwards Norroy-King-at-Arnis. He had a great knowledge of Eng-
lish books, and cliiffiy supported him.self by writing for the book-
sellers. " A Cdllcetioii of Epigrams, with a Dissertation on this Species
of Poetry," the '2nd edition of whicli was jjublished in 1735, has been
atcribf il to him, but no sufficient authority for this has been found.
He died in 17tiJ.

ON A FLY DRINKING OUT OF A CUP OF ALE.

I'usy, cmnous, thirsty fly !
Drink witli rac, and drink as 1 !
Freely welcome to my cup,
Could'st thou sip and sip it up :

2 A

354 MODEEN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Make the most of life you may ;
Life is short and wears away !

Both alike are mine and thine,
Hastening quick to their decline !
Thine's a summer, mine no more,
Though repeated to threescore !
Threescore summers when they're gone.
Will appear as short as one.

Disraeli, in his " Curiosities of Literature " (Art. " Oldys aud
his MSS."), confirms this Anacreontic as the production of Oldys,
and gives it in its correct form, as hei-e set down, without a third
stanza, which is commonly printed with it, but which is an interpo-
lation.

We may compare the last stanza of Dr. Johnson's " Ode on Winter" .

Catch then, O ! catch the transient hour.

Improve each moment as it flies ;
Life's a short summer — man a flower :

He dies — alas ! how soon he dies !

ON FLATMAN'S THREE VOCATIONS— POETRY, PAINTING,

AND LAW.

(Horace Walpole's Works, 1798, III. 300.)

Should Flatman for his client strain the laws,
The Painter gives some colour to the cause :
Should critics censure what the Poet writ,
The Pleader quits him at the bar of wit.

Flatman was a barrister, but it does not appear that he ever made the
law a profession. In poetry he was not very successful, but in painting
attained some eminence. Granger says one of his heads is worth a ream
of his Pindarics.

MATTHEW GKEEN,

Was born about J 696, and died at the early ago of 41. He had a
place in the Custom House. He published nothing during his life, but
his Poems were collected after his death ; the chief is one entitled " The
Spleen," which Pope pronounced very original, and which has gained
the praise of the most competent critics.

MATTHEW GKEEN. 355

ON BISHOP GILBERT BURNET'S AND THE REV. LAURENCE
ECEARD'S HISTORIES.

('* The Spleen and other I'oems," 1796, 59.)

Gil's history appears to me

Political anatomy,

A case of skeletons well done,

And malefactors every one.

His sharp and strong incision pen

Historically cuts up men,

And does with lucid skill impart

Their inward ails of bead and heart.

Laurence proceeds another way.

And well-dress'd figures doth display :

His characters are all in flesh,

Their hands are fair, their faces fresh ;

And from his sweet'ning art derive

A better scent than when alive.

He wax-work made to please the sons.

Whose fathers were Gil's skeletons.

Of Bishop Burnet's "History of his own Time," Swift said : " His
characters are miserably wrought, in many things mistaken, and aU of
them detracting) except of tiiose who were friends to the Presbyterians."

Lauix-nce Echard was Archdeacon of Stowe. He published a "History
of England " terminating with tlie Revolution. In politics he was op-
posed to Burnet, and wrote accordingly ; but his history was acknow-
ledged to be fair, and Dr. Edmund Calamy, who published a pamphlet
again.st some of Mr. Eciiard's conclusions, praised his clearness of
method, pert-picuity of language, and the " smooth and polite way " in
which the historv is written.

THE MODERN LADY.

Could our first fatlier, at bis toilsome plough,
Thoins in bis path, and laboui- on liis brow;
Cbjfli'd only in a lude, unpoli.-^b'd skin,
Could he a vain fantastic nymph have seen,
In all her airs, in all her modem graces.
Her vaiious fashions and more vuiiuus faces;
How bad it puzzled him, who late assign 'd
Just appellations to each several kind,

356 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS,

A right idea of the sight to frame,

To guess from what new element she came,

To fix the Avavering form, and give the thing a name !

Tliis is not foimd in tlie " Spleen and other Poems," but is ascribed
to Green on the authority of Hacki tt, who, in '' A Collection of Select
Epigrams," 1757, Ep. 58, states that it is "by the author of the
' Spleen.' "

The "various fashions and more various faces " of modern nymphs,
is a subject upon which epigrammatic wit has been continually exer-
cised. The tbllowing " Impromptu ; To a Lady enquiring why Beards
were not worn as in former times," is amusing, and very ajaplicable in
tl;e days of Green, though it is not so in our own ("Gentleman's
Magazine," LXXVIII. Part II. 1107):

To brush the cheeks of ladies fair,

With genuine charms o'erspread ;
Their sapient beards with mickle care,

Om- wise forefathers fed.

But since our modern ladies take

Such pains to paint their faces ;
What liavock would such brushes make

Among the Loves and Graces !

WILLIAM HOGAETH.

The celebrated Painter. Born 1697. Died 1764.

QUIN, MACKLIN, AND EICR.
(Nichols' "Collection of Poems," VIH. 232, 1782.)

" Your servant, sir," says surly Quin.

" Sir, I am yours," replies Macklin.
" Why, you're the very Jew you play,

Your face performs the task well."
" And you are Sir John Brute, they say,

And an accomplish 'd Maskwell."
Says Eich, who heard the sneering elves,

And knew their horrid hearts,
" Acting too much your very selves,

Y^ou overdo your parts."

This is said to be an almost unique specimen of Hogarth's wit in
epigranimatic form.

VINCENT BOrUNE. 357

Quin, who was famous for his playiug of Sir John Jirute, is com-
luemorated by Clmrchill, in the " Kosciad," in that poet's usual strain
of satire :

In Brute hie shone unequall'd : all agree
Garrick's not half so great a brute as he.

Macklin gained his laurels as Shylock, and when he died in 1797 at
the age (it is said) of 107, the epitaph was remembered, whicli Pope
had, many years before, given as the most approi^riate for his tomb.
The lines have appeared iu various forms, and the cireumstances under
whieh they were extemporized have been told iiiditierent ways. That
Pope was the author has been denied, but without sufHcieut reason.
(" Collection of Epitaphs," 1806, I. 30) :

Here lies the Jew
That Shakespeare drew.

Rich was manager of the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and after-
wards patentee of Covent Garden.

VINCENT BOURNE,

Whose Latin poems are the admiration of scholars, was born about
1698. He was educated at Westminster, whence he removed to Trinity
College, Cambridge. Alter taking his degree he became an usher in
We.-3tminster School, and died of a lingering disorder in 1747.

TEE CAUSE WON (Ed. 1772, 195).
Translated from the Latin by Cotcper.

Two neighbours furiously dispute ;

A field — the subject of the suit.

Trivial the spot, yet such the rage

With which the combatants engage,

'Twcre hai-d to tell who covets most

The piize — at whatsoever cost.

The pleadings swell. Wi^rds still .sufBce :

No single word but has its price.

No term but yields some fair pretence

For novel and increased expense.

Defendant thus becomes a name.
Which he that bore it may disclaim ;
Since both, in one dcscripti(ni blended.
Are plaiutiifs — when tlie suit is ended.

Boiloau's famoiiH njiigram on a law-suit, translated by Pope, is in the
Works <>i' the- lutti;r jjoet.

358 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

An anonymous epigram on this subject is given in " Select EiDigrams,"
entitled " The Fatal Victory " :

Unhappy Chremes, neighbour to a peer,

Kept Jialf his sheep, and fatted half his deer;

Each day liis gates thrown down, Ids fences broke,

And injur'd still the more, the more he spoke :

At length, resolv'd his potent foe to awe,

And guard his riuht by statute and by law,

A suit in Chancery the wretch begun ;

Nine happy terms through bill and answer rim,

Obtain'd his cause, — had costs, and — was undone.

This brings to mind Martial's Epigram (Book VII. 65) on Gar-
gilianus, who was determined to carry his cause through every court
rather than lose it. The force of the original is well given in the fol-
lowing free translation by Halhed (" Imitations of Some of the
Epigrams of Martial," 1793-4, Part I. 27) :

Full twenty years, through all the courts.
One craving process George supports.
You're mad, George — twenty years ! you're mad :
A nonsuit's always to he had.

This is probably tlie original of a Latin epigram by Owen (Book
VIII. 67 >, translated by Harvey (altered; :

Thy suit depends in law : better suspend,
And pay the costs, than let it long depend.

NO SORROW PECULIAR TO THE SUFFERER
(Ed. 1772, 250).

Translated from the Latin by Cowper.

The lover, in melodious verses,
His singular distress rehearses ;
Still eloping with a rueful cr}",
" Was ever such a wretch as I !"
Yes ! thousands have endured before
All thy distress ; some, haply, more.
Unnumber'd Corydons complain.
And Strephons, of the like disdain ;
And if thy Chloe be of steel.
Too deaf to hear, too hard to feel ;
Not her alone that censure fits,
Nor thou alone hast lost thy wits.

VINCENT BOURNE. 359

Shakespeare, in the "Two Gentlemen of Verona" (Act V. sc. i),
makes Valentine piteously say :

Here can I sit alone, unseen of any.

And to the ni>>;htingale's complaining notes,

Tune my distresses, and record my woes.

And Proteus, in the same scene :

0, 'tis the curse in love, and still approv'd,
When women cannot love, where they're belov'd.

ON A SEPULCHRAL STATUE OF AN INFANT SLEEPING

CEd. 1772, 329).

Translated from the Latin by Charles Lamb.

Beautiful infant who dost keep

Thy posture here, and sleep'st a marble sleep,

May the repose unbroken be,

Which the fine artist's hand hath lent to thee,

While thou onjoy'st along with it

That which no art, or craft could ever hit,

Or counterfeit to mortal sense,

The heaven-infused sleep of Innocence!

Cowper's beautiful "Lines on a Sleeping Infant" may perhaps have
been suggested by Bourne s ; for, though the subject be different, the
thoughts called forth are of t!ie same character, and Cowper was an
ardent admirer of " Vinny Bourne," as he used affectionately to call
him, having been under him at Westminster :

Sweet babe ! whose image here express'd

Does thy peaceful slumbers show ;
Guilt or far, to break thy rest,

Never did thy spirit know.
Sootliing slumbers ! soft repose.

Such as mock the painter's skill,
Such as innocence bt-stows,

Harmless infant ! lull thee still.

The following pretty ejtitapli on a baljy, in Peterborough Cathedral,
dated IfJGG, may be adde<l (Uackitt's " Select and Remarkable Epitaphs,''
17.")7, I. 124):

Hen- lies a babe, that only cried
In Bujdibm to be wash'd from sin, and died.

360 MODEEN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

DR. JOHN JOETIN,

Born in 1698, was a learned divine, and a critic of great ingenuity
He was rector of S. Dunstan's-in-the-East, and of Kensington, and
Archdeacon of London. Dr. Parr says: "Whether I look back to
his verse, to his prose, to his critical, or to his theological works,
there are few authors to whom I am so much indebted for rational
entertainment, or for solid instruction." Ha died in 1770. The
following pieces are taken from his " Tracts, Philological, Critical,
and Miscellaneous," 1790.

EPITAPH ON A CAT.
(Written in Latin and English.)

With age o'erwlielm'd, deep sunk in dire disease,

At last I visit the infernal shades :
Fair Proserpine, with smiles, dispos'd to please,

Said, " Welcome, Tabby, to th' elysian glades."

But ah ! I cried, mild queen of silent sprites,

Grant me, once more, to view my late dear home :

Once more ; — to tell the man of studious nights,
" I love thee faithful still, tho' distant far I roam."

Dr. Jortiu, who loved exactness, informs us that Tabby died in
1756, aged 14 years, 2 months, and 4 days. That she lived to so
great an age justifies the epigram of Vincent Bourne, which has
been thus translated from tlie Latin by Gilbert Wakefield (Bourne,
ed. 1772, 277) :

To all the Tabby kind alone
Fate has a partial kindness shown.
Their thread to thrice three lengths is run ;
Their life on thrice three spindles spun.
Is puss thrown headlong to the street
From a house-top ? She finds her feet.
Should butchers and their curs annoy her ?
Nor butchers nor their curs destroy her.
Should she lose three or e"en four lives ?
By more than half she still survives.

William Harrison, who was secretary to the plenipotentiaries for
the treaty of peace at Utrecht, commemorates the death of a lady's
cat, who, notwithstanding her nine lives, at length succumbed to
fate (Nichols' " Collection of Poems," IV. 182, 1780) :

And is Miss Tabby from the world retir'd ?
And are her lives, ail her nine lives expir'd ?

DR. JOHN JOETLiSr. 361

What sounds, so moving as her own. can tell
How Tabby died, how full of play she fell !
Begin, ye tuneful Nine, a moiu-nful strife,
For every Muse should celebrate a life.

EPITAPH ON P^TA.

Tramlated from the Latin by James Meyrick, in Jortui's •'Tracts."

Thee, Pasta, death's relentless hand

Cut oft' in earliest bloom :
Oh ! had the iates for me ordain'd

To share an equal doom ;

With joy this busy world I'd leave,

This hated light resign,
To lay me in the peaceful grave,

And be for ever thine.

Do thou, if Lethe court thy lip.

To taste its stream forbear :
Still in thy soul his image keep,

Who hastes to meet thee there.

Safe o'er the dark and dreary shore

In quest of thee I'll roam ;
Love with his lamp shall run before,

And break the circling gloom.

This Latin epitaph was published by Dr. Joitin as a " fragment of
an inscription" in ancient form. Burmann admitted it into liis Latin
Anthrjlogy, and commended it very highly, tliough questioning its an-
tiquity. It is, perhaps, the happiest imitation extant of an ancient
inscription. The latter part has much resemblance to a (ireek epi-
gram by an unknown author, which is thus translated by Merivale
(Jacobs IV. 252, dexlii.) :

How often, Lycid, shall I bathe with tears
This little stone which our great love endears !
Thou ti>o, in memory of the vows we made.
Drink not of Lethe' in the realms of shade 1

362 MODERN EPIGEASIMATISTS

EPITAPH ON DB. STEPHEN HALES.
(Written in Latin and English.)

Of sweet simplicity, of generous breast,
Godlike Religion ! thy undoubted test ;
Of vivid genius, form'd for public good,
Source to the wretch, of joy, — the poor, of food :
Such were thy titles ; high and low the same
Bespoke thee, Hales ; and these God's voice proclaim.

Dr. Hales was an eminent natural philosopher. His invention of
ventilators for mines, prisons, hospitals, &c., proved most valuable for
the preservation of life and health. He was held in high estimation
for his learning and his benevolence. Pope, in the second of his " Moral
Essays," highly compliments him, and dignifies him with the appella-
tion of " plain Part^on Hale " ; though the poet, from carelessness or
for the sake of the rhyme, sjjells his name incorrectly.

EICHARD SAVAGE.
Born 1698. Died 1743.

TO MIRANDA, CONSOBT OF AARON HILL, ESQ., ON
READING HER POEMS.

Each softening charm of Clio's smiling song,
Montague's soul, which shines divinely strong,
These blend with graceful ease to form thy rh3'me,
Tender, yet chaste ; sweet- sounding, j^et sublime ;
Wisdom and wit have made thy works their care,
Each passion glows, refin'd by precept, there:
To fair Miranda's form each grace is kind ;
The Muses and the Virtues tune thy mind.

Dr. Johnson was equally complimentary in an epigram addressed
" To Lady Firebrace at Bury Assizes," which first appeared in the
^ Gentleman's Magazine," Vltl. 486 :

At length must Suffolk's beauties shine in vain,

So long renown'd in B n's deathless strain?

Thy charms at least, lair Firebrace, might inspire

Some zealous bard to wake the sleeping lyre.

For such thy beauteous mind and lovely face,

Thou seem'st at once, bright nymph, a Muse and Grace

WILLIAM BOWTEE. 363

This lady was Bridget, daughter of Philip Bacon, of Ipswich. She
married first, Edward Evers. of the same place ; secondly, Sir Cordell
Firebrace ; and thirdly, William Campbell, brother of John, third Duke
of Argyll.

The two ladies thus commemorated were endowed with more sub-
stantial advantages than those conferred by the Muses and Graces, for
they both brought handsome fortunes to their husbands.

Johnson mentions his lines in a letter to Cave, the editor of the
" Gentleman's Magazine " : " The verses to Lady Firebrace may be
had when you please, for you know that such a subject neither de-
serves much thought nor requires it." Croker, in a note to BoswelFs
"Life of Johnson," L 150, ed. 1835, says: "It seems quite unintel-
ligible how these six silly lines should be the production of Johnson " ;
and he conjectures, " that Cave may have sent some verses of another
correspondent, on Lady Firebrace, to Johnson to correct or curtail."
But this conjecture is scarcely consistent with the expressions used by
Johnson in his letter.

WILLIMI BOWYEE,

A printer of great learning, and extensive acquaintance with literary
men, was bom in 1099, and in 1710 admitted of S. John's College,
Cambridge. He afterwards became a partner in his father's printing-
house, and from that, time until his death, in 1777, was constantly
engaged in his business — in literary correspondence — and in writing
and editing valuable works. The following epigrams are found in
Nichols' " Literary Anecdotes of the 18th Century."

TO BE PLACED UNDER A HEAD OF GULLIVER.

Here learn, from moral truth, and wit refin'd,
How vice and foil}' have debas'd mankind ;
Strong sense and honour arm in Virtue's cause;
Thus her great votary vindicates her laws :
^Vhile bold and free the glowing colours strike ;
Blame not the painter if the picture's like.

On the subject of the last line, a passage may be quoted from Bishop
Hall's postscript to his satire.-:, written as an apology for them : " Why
should vices be uiiblamed, for fear of blame ? And, if thou may'st
spit upon a toad unvenomed, why may'st thou not speak of a vice with-
out danger ? Especially so warily as I have endeavoured : who, in tho
unpartial mention of so many vices, may safely profess to be altogether
giiiltli'ss in iDyHcllto the intention of any guilty person who might bo
blciriished l)y the likelihood of my conceived apjilieation ; thereupon
chorjsing ratJier to mar mine own verse thar^ another's name. Wliich,
notwithstanding, if the injurious reader shall wrest to his own spite,

364 MODEKN EPIGRAJIMATISTS.

and disparaging of others, it is a short answer, ' Art thou guilty f Com-
plain not : thou art not wronged. ' Art thou guiltless f Complain not :
thou art not touched."

ON DEAN SWIFT.

Which gave the Drapier birth tAvo realms contend :

And each asserts her poet, patriot, friend :

Her mitre jealous Britain ma}- deny ;

That loss lerne's laurel shall supply ;

Through life's low vale, she, grateful, gave him bread ;

Her vocal stones shall vindicate him dead.

This was written by Bowyer and Nichols conjointly, on the occasiou
of the publication by them of the latter volumes of Swift's Works in
1762. The epigram is said to have been suggested by the following
inscription by John Cunningham, intended for a monument to the
Dean :

Say, to the Drapier's vast unbounded fame
Wliat added honours can the sculptor give ?
None — 'Tis a sanction from the Drapier s name
Must bid the sculptor and the marble live.

This was probably taken from some translation of a Greek epigram
by an uncertain author ; perhaps the one in the *' Spectator, ' which
will be found under George Herbeit. Cunningham was not scholar
enough to be acquainted with the original.

With regard to the third line of Bowyer's epigram it may be noticed
that Queen Anne wished Swift to be a bishop, but was cautioned
against promoting him by Dr. Sharp, Archbi^llop of York, who re-
marked, " that her Majesty should be sure that the man whom she
was going to make a bishop was at least a Christian." The Arch-
bishop was afterwards reconciled to Swift, and even asked his forgive-
ness ; but the Dean, whose chance of a bishopric was gone, bitterly
alludes to the occasion in " The Author upon Himself" :

York is from Lambeth sent to (-how the Queen
A dangerous treatise writ against the spleen ;
Which, by the style, tlie matter, and the drift,
'Tis thought could be the work of none but Swift.
Poor Yorji! the harmless tool of others' hate;
He sues for pardon, and repents too late.

The treatise was the ♦' Tale of a Tub."

365

JOHN WHALEY,

Was born at the end of the 17th or the beginning of the IStb
.century. He ■was a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and an
assistant master of Eton. He published a volume of Poems in 1732
and another in 1745. The following epigrams are in the latter. He
was a clergyman, but does not appear to have been an honour to his
Drofession. He died in distress.

ON GAMBLING.

To gild o'er avarice with a specious name,
To sufler torment while for sport you game,
Time to reverse aud Urder to defy,
To make your temper subject to a die,
To curse your fate for each unlucky throw,
Your reason, sense, and prudence to forego ;
To call each power iufemal to your part,
To sit with anxious eyes, and aching heart ;
Your fortune, time, and health to throw away,
Is what our modern men of taste call plaij.

The following lines on gambling are by Madame des Houlieres. a
French poetess, who shone among the wits of the reign of Louis XIV.
The ti-anslation is taken from " Seltcttous from the French Anu.s,"
1797, U. 32 :

Amusement which exceeds the measure

Of reason, ceases to be pleasure.

Play, merely for diversion's sake,

Is fair, nor risks an heavy stake.

The vet'ran gamester, void of shame.

Is man no longer but in name.

His mind the .slave of every vice

Spawn'd by that foul fiend Avarice.

Though with integrity and sense

The gamester may his trade commence,

The lust of gold will soon impart

Its subtle pfii.son to his lieart.

To each mean trick inur'd to stoop,

The knave soon supersedcB the dupo.

An ajionymous epigram on a gambler's marriage may bo g'iven :

" I'm Very rnucli Mn])rise(l," (juolli Harry,
'' Tli;it Jane a gambler should marry."
" I'm not at nil," lier s-ister .says,
" Vou know he has such winning wava."

366 MODERN EPIGKAMMATISTS.

ON A NORTHERN BEAUTY.
Translated from the Latin by Dr. Timothy TJwmas.

Though from ihe North the damsel came,

All spring is in her breast ;
Her skin is of the driven snow,

But sunshine all the rest.

There is a similar idea in Wordsworth's pretty poem, " She was a
Phautom of Delight":

Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair ;
Like Twilight's, too, her dusky hair ;
But all things else about her drawn
From May-time and the cheerful Dawn.

ON A WASP'S SETTLING ON BELLAS ARM.

How sweetly careless Delia seems,
(Her innocence can fear no harm)

"While ronnd th' envenomed insect skims,
Then settles on her snowy arm !

Ye flutt'ring beaux, and spiteful bards,

To you this moral truth I sing :
Sense, join'd to virtue, disregards

Both Folly's buzz and Satire's sting.

Very similar in spirit is Swift's view of the impotence of satire, in
an epistle " To Dr. Delany on the Libels written against him " :

Though splendour gives the fairest mark
To poison'd arrows from the dark,
Yet, in yourself when smooth and round.
They glance aside without a wound.

STEPHEN DUCK.

This remarkable person was an agi-icultural labourer, bom about the
beginning of the 18th century. He had a thirst for knowledge, and
some inclination towards poetry ; and studied such books as his poverty
enabled him to obtain. Some of his verses were shown to Queen
Caroline, who settled upon liim an annuity of about £30 a year. In

STEPHEN DUCK. 367

1733 he was made one of the yeomen of the guard, and soon afterwards,
though quite unfitted iu point of learning for such a position, was
ordained, and presented to the living of Byfleet, in Surrey. His last
advancement was to the chaplaincy of a regiment of dragoon guards.
He committed suicide in a fit of insanity in 1756.

PROFEE INGREDIENTS TO MAKE A SCEPTIC.
("Poems on Several Occasions. By Stephen Duck," 1736, 157.)

Would 3'ou, my friend, a finish'd sceptic make,
To form his nature these materials take :
A little learning ; twenty grains of sense,
Join'd with a double share of ignorance ;
Infuse a little icit into the scull,
"Which never fails to make a might y fool ;
Two drams of faith ; a tun of doubting next ;
Let all be with the dregs of reason mixt :
When, in his mind these jarring seeds are sown,
He'll censure all things, but approve of none.

In Dr. Bliss' "Reliquiae Hernianse" is the following: "'Twas a
memorable saying of my Lord Bacon, that a little learning makes
men atheists, but a gi'eat deal reduces them to a better sense of things."

So, Pope, in his " Essay on Criticism," Part II. 15 :

A little learning is a dangerous thing ;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.

ANSWER TO THOSE WHO ENVIED THE FAVOURS SHOWN

TO THE AUTHOR.

(Spence's "Anecdotes," 1820, 436.)

You think it, censor, mighty strange

That, born a country clown,
I should my first profession change,

And wear a chaplain's gown!
If virtue hononis the low race

From which I was descended.
If vices your high birth disgrace,

Who should bo most coiuuiended?

There is good feeling and sound sense in these lima, which form a

368 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

noble reply to the carping envy of the wits who assailed the poor poet,
Swift, who too often forgot his dig-nity in the spleen which prompttil
iiis satire, was one of those who had shown theu- malice. The following
epigram by the Dean contrasts unfavourably with Duck's reply :

The thresher Duck could o'er the Queen prevail ;
The proverb says, " No fence against a flail."
From threshing corn he turns to thresh his brains,
For which Her Majesty allows him grains.
Though 'tis confess'd that those who ever saw
His poems, think them all not worth a straw.
Thrice happy Duck, employed in threshing stubble !
Thy toil is lessen'd, and thy profits double.

EPITAPH ON JOE MILLER.

If humour, wit, and honesty could save
The hum'rous, witty, honest from the grave ;
The grave had not so soon this tenant found,
Whom honesty, and wit, and humour crowned.
Or could esteem and love preserve our breath,
And guard us longer from the stroke of death,
The stroke of death on him had later fell,
Whom all mankind esteem'd and lov'd so well.

The epitaph was inscribed on the tombstone of Joe Miller, who died
in 1738, and was buried in the upper churchyard of S. Clement Danes,
in Portugal Street, near Lincoln's Inn. The inscription, which time
had nearly obliterated, was transferred to a new stone in 1S16. (For the
epitaph and some interesting particulars of Joe Miller, see " Gentleman's
Magazine," XC. Part II. 3'27, 3'28, and 487 ; and XCI. Part I. 321.,

ON HIS SON'S ADMISSION TO ETON.
(FrankUn's "Pennsylvania Gazette," of December G, 173S.)

Vast blessings, lucky child, attend

Thy fate as well as mine;
A gracious Queen has been my friend,

A King will now be thine.
Great Caroline supported me,

Tho' 1 no learning knew;
But Henry's bounty gives to thee

ISxipport and learning too.

369

JAMES THOMSON.
Bom 1700. Died 1748.

TO AMANDA, WITS A COFY OF TEE "SEASOXS."

Accept, loved nymph, this tribute due
To tender friendship, love, and you :
But vi'ith it take what breath'd the whole,
O take to thine the poet's soul.
If Fancy here her pow'r displays,
Or if a heart exalts these lays,
You fairest in that Fancy shine,
And all that Heart is fondly thine.

" These verses to IMiss Young were communicated, some time after
Thomson's death, by Mr. Riimsay, of Ocherlyne, to the Earl of Buchan ;
who appended to them this note : ' Some slight variatious have been
found in diflerent copies which have been handed about in manuscript.
This is from the original.' Edit." (Note to ed. of •' Thomson's Poems,"
])y Nichols, 1849).

Burns, who had lost his chance of praying his Amanda to " take the
poet's soul," and could only otier friendship, addi'essed the following
lines '■ To an old Sweetheart, after her Marriage, with a present of a
copy of his Poems " :

Once fondly loVd, and still remember'd dear,
Sweet early object of my youthful vows,

Accept this mark of fiiendshij), warm, sincere,
Friendship ! — 'tis all cold duty now allows : —

And when you read the simple, artless rhymes,
One friendly sigli for him, he asks no more,

Wlio di.-jtant burns in flaming, torrid climes,
Or haply lies beneath th' Atlantic roar.

This was written when Burns, unknown to fame, was making
arrangements to go to Jamaica, hoping to push his fortune in that
island. Tlie maiden name of the sweetheart was Ellison Begbie, a
farmer's daughter.

ON THE DEATH OF MB. AIRMAN.

As those we love decay, we die in part:
String after string is sever'd from tlie heart.
Till looseu'd life, at last, but breathing clay,
Without one pang is glad to fall away.

2 B

370 MODEKN EPIGRAMMATISTg,

Unhappy he who latest feels the blow,
Whose eyes have wept o'er every friend laid low,
Dragg'd ling'ring on from partial death to death,
Till, dying, all he can resign is breath.

William Aikman was a Scotch painter of some celebrity. He excelled
chiefly in portraits. He died in 1731.

Campbell, in "A Thought suggested by the New Year," says:

It may be strange — yet who would change

Time's course to slower speeding ;
When one by one our friend;* have gone,

And left our bosoms bleeding ?

Boyse has an epigram addi-essed " To Mr. Aikman, on a Piece of his
Painting " ; and Mallet wrote an epitaph on Aikman and his only son
(wlio died before him), who were both interred in the same grave.

DE. PHILIP DODDKIDGE.

Bom 1702. Died 1751.
(The epigrams are preserved in Kippis' " Life of Doddridge.")

ON HIS FAMILY MOTTO, ''BUM VIVIMU8 VIVAMUS."

" Live, while you live " — the epicure would say,

" And seize the pleasure of the present day."

" Live, while you live " — the sacred preacher cries,

" And give to God each moment as it flies."

Lord, in my views let both united be ;

I live in pleasure, when I live to thee.

Dr. Johnson called this, " one of the finest epigrams in the English
language." An amplification of the last line is found in Oldham's
" Pindarique to the Memory of Mr. Charles Morwent," Stanza XXX.
(Oldham's " Remains," 1694, 98) :

Thou didst not wish a greater bliss t' accrue,
For to be good to thee was to be happy too,
That secret triumph of thy mind,

Which always thou in doing well didst find.
Were heaven enough, were there no other heaven design'd.

On another part of the subject Graves has a good epigram, entitlad
" Diogenes to Aristippus" (^ 'Euphrosyne," 1783, I. 303) :

EGBERT DODSLEY. 371

Cloy'd with ragouts, yon scorn my simple food ;
And think good-eating is man's only good.
I ask no more than tt-mperance can give ;
You live to eat ; L only eat to live.

Aristippiis, however, could sometimes give a good answer to tliose
who blamed him for his rich living. " A miser objected to him his
luxurious table. Aristippiis showed him an expensive dish of dainties,
and said, ' Would you not buy this, if it were sohl for a penny ?' ' Cer-
tainly I would,' said the other. ' Then,' said Aristippus, ' I only give
to luxury what you give to avarice.' " (Kett's " Flowers of Wit," 1. 18.)

ON ONE OF HIS PUPILS, A WEAK YOUNG MAN, WHO
THOUGHT HE HAD INVENTED A METHOD OF FLYING
'1 THE MOON.

And will Volatio quit this world so soon,
To fly to his own native seat, the moon ?
'Twill stand, however, in some little stead
That he sets out with such an empty head.

The sixth chapter of " Rasselas," " A dissertation on the art of flying,"
may be read with interest in connection with this epigram.

ROBERT DODSLEY,

A poet and miifccllaneous writer, was born in 1703. In early life he
was a footman, and, while in that situation, wrote and imblished a
volume of Poems, with the singularly a])])ropriate title of " The Muse in
Livery, or the Footman's MiscelliUiy." Tliis was followed by a, dramatic
piece, wliich he srnt in manuscript to Pope, and which procured for
him the patronage of tiiat inllueutial poet. He soon made enough
money Vjy his poems to eualjle him to set up in business in Jjondon, as
a 1x>oks(;ller, and in th.it position obtained great notoriety and esteem.
He died in 1704. INipe's friend, Spence, and Glover, the aulhf)r of
"Leonida.-," were among iiis early jiatrons, and are introduced in a
malignant epistle from (Jurll, the bookseller, to I'opc, in 1737, whicl/
was evidently dictated by anger at the success of his rival (Nichols"
" Literaiy Anecdotes, " II. 374) :

'Tis kind indeed a Livery Muxe to aid,
Who H(Tibbl(!8 fiirces to augment his trade:
Where you and Spence and (ilov(u- drive the uail,
The dovila in it if the plot should fail.

372 MODERN EPIGllAMMATISTS.

A DEE AM OF LOVE.

As death alone the marriage knot unties,

So vows that lovers make
Last until sleep, death's image, close their eyes,

Dissolve when they awake ;
And that fond love which was to-day their theme,
Is thought to-morrow but an idle dream.

'&■'

Au Arabian epigram, translated by Professor Carlyle, well expressea
ill sarcastic terms the transient natui'e of lovers' vows. It was "ad-
dressed by Waladata, daughter of Mohammed Almostakii Billah,
Khalif of Spain, to some j'oung men, who had pretended a pnssion for her-
self and her companions " (" Specimens of Arabian Poetry," 1796, 134) :

When you told us our glances soft, timid and mild,

Could occasion such wounds in the he art,
Can ye wonder that yours, i-o ungovern'd and wild,

Some wounds to our cheeks should impart ?

The wounds on our cheeks, are but transient, I own,

With a blush they appear and decay ;
But those on the lieart, fickle youths, ye have shown

To be even more transient than they.

ON THE SLIGHT MENTION OF " ONE PRIOR " IN
BURNET'S ''HISTORY OF HIS OWN TIME."

One Prior ! and is this, this all the fame
The Poet from the Historian can claim ?
No ; Prior's verse posterity shall quote.
When, 'tis forgot one Burnet ever wrote.

The passage in Bishop Burnet's " History," to which the epigi-am
refers, is this (Folio II. 580) : " One Prior, who had been Jersey's secre-
tary, upon liis death was employed to prosecute that which the other did
not live to finish. Prior had been taken a boy out of a tavern by the Earl
of Dorset, who accidentally foimd him reading Horace; and he, being
very generous, gave him an education in literature." Dean Swift's note
upon this passage is very short but very expressive, " Malice." Burnet
insinuates a falsehood by telling only part of the truth. It is the fact
that the Earl of Dorset took Prior out of a tavern, and sent hun to
Cambridge ; but the Bisliop should have added that the tavern was
ke]it by the boy's imcle, who had given him the best possible education
at Westminster, under the famous Dr. Busby.

Burnet's untrutlifulness and love of malicious insinuations have pro-

EOBEr.T DODSLEY. 373

duoed several epigrams. The following, found in the " Poetical .Far-
rago," II. 19, is a fair speciineu :

De Eetz in egotisms falls short of thee,

His books are minutes, thine an history.

Pride, disappointment did thy soul enrage,

Against known trutlis thou ojieu war dost wage.

Saint in tliy preface, Mendez in each jiage —

Thy last will shows thou would'st earth's penance save,

There is nor shame nor sorrow in the grave.

De Retz was a celebrated cardinal who wrote his own memoirs.
IMendez was Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, a celebrated Portuguese travel-
ler, born about 1.510. He wrote a history of his travels and adven-
tures, which abounds in gross exaggeration, and idle and extravagant
hctions, so that his name became a bye- word for falsehood, as in
Congreve's " Love for Love" (Act II. sc. 1) :

'•Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee, thou liar of the
first magnitude."

The last two lines of the epigram refer to the " History " being a
posthumous publication ; for the Bi.-hop by his will left tlie MS. to his
9xecutor, with the order "to print faithfully, as ho left it, without
Hiding, suppressing, or altering it in any particular" — a direction
which, as is well known, was not obeyed in the first edition.

Of the many animadversions on Burnet's untruthfulness, the fol-
lowing is perhaps the most unceremonious. In his book, entitled
" Some Passages in the Life and Death of the Earl of Kochester," he
states on the title-page, " Written by his own desire on his death-bed."
In a MS. in the British Museum, "A List of Lives by Edward, Earl of
I >xford and Mortimer," tliis statement is quoted witli the concise
remark, " I have reason to believe that this is a lie of that Scotcli
rascal."

MARRIAGE IN HEAVEN.

Cries Sylvia to a reverend Dean,

What reason can be given,
Since marriage is a holy thing,

That there is none in heaven ?

Th(;re are no women, he replied.

She quiclc returns the jest : —
AN'omen there are, but I'm afraid

They cannot find a priest.

Hone, in his "Evory-T)ay Bf>fik," says liiat this appeared, probably
for tlie fir.-it time, in a Loiid(jii iiewspai»cr, entitled, " i'he Old VVliig,
or the Conaistent Protestant," of March 24, 173G-7. 1'lie Doau wan Swift.

374 MODERN ErrOKAMMATISTS.

Butler, in ' Hudibras," Part III, Canto i. 545, has:

Quoth she, there are no barj^aiiis flriv'n.
Nor marriages clap'd up in heaven ;
And that's the reason, as some guess,
There is no heaven in marriages ;

* * * *

Their bus'ness there is only love.
Which marriage is not like t' improve.

SOAME JENYNS,

Was born in London in 1704. He sat in Parliament for many years,
and invariably supported the minister of the day. In 1757 he published
" A Free Enquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil," which produced
a brilliant refutation of his dangerous theories from the pen of Dr.
Johnson. This was never forgiven by Jenyns, wlio had the bad taste
to carry his enmity beyond the grave by writing a silly epigrammatic
epitaph on his opponent, which served to dishonour the writer without
injuring the memory of the great moralist. He died in 1787.

TO THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD, ON HIS BEING
INSTALLED KNIGHT OF THE GARTER.

These trophies, Stanhope, of a lovely dame,
Once the bright object of a monarch's flame,
Who with such just propriety can wear.
As thou the darling of the gay and fair ?
See ev'ry friend to wit, politeness, love.
With one consent thy Sovereign's choice appiove!
And liv'd Plantagenet her voice to join.
Herself and Garter, both were surely thine.

That the Order was founded for those who are merely " the darlings
of the gay and fair," history does not attest. Gilbert West is nearer
the truth in describing the foundation, in his " Institution of the Order
of tlie Garter " :

To Windsor, as to Fame's bright temple, haste
From every shore, the noble, wise, and brave.
Knights, senators, ami statesmen, lords and kings ;
Ambitious each to guin the splendid prize.
By Edward piomis'd to transcendent worth.
For who of mortals is too great and high
In the career of virtue to contend ?

SOAME JENTNS. 375

The following lines were written by Captain Morris on George IV.,
when Prince of Wales, who, at a ball given by the Duchess of Devonshire,
suddenly quitted Lady Salisbury, who was his partner, and finished
the dance with the Duchess (Morris' " Lyra Urbanica," II. 318) ;

Ungallunt youtli ! could royal Edward see,
While Salisbury's Garter decks thy faithless knee.
That thou, false knight ! hadst turn'd thy back, and fled
From such a Salisbury as might wake the dead ;
Quick from thy treacherous breast her badge he'd tear.
And strip the star that beauty planted there.

In old age, the Marchioness of Salisbury met with another misfortune.
At a ball at Hatfield House, the Earl of Verulam, then Lord Grimston,
accidentally knocked her down in the course of a waltz; which pro-
duced the following impromptu by Jekyll (" Guardian " newspaper of
Sept. 2, 1868, Table-Talk column) :

Conservatives of Hatfield Housa

Were surely " harura-skarum ;"
W^hat could reforming Whigs do worse,

Than knocking down old Sarum ?

This was in 1834, and is said to have been the first use of the word
" Conservative," as the modern equivalent for " Tory."

WRITTEN IN A LADY'S VOLUME OF TRAGEDIES.

Since thou, relentless maid, can'st daily hear
Thy slave's complaints without one sigh or tear,
AVhy beats thy breast, or thy bright eyes o'erflow
At these imaginary scenes of woe ?
Rather teach these to weep and that to heave,
At real p:iins themselves to thousands give;
And if such pity to feign'd love is due,
Considei' how much more you owe to true.

In Whaley's first Collection of Poems, there is an epigram on a young
lady, weeping at Southerne's Tragedy of " Oroonoko " :

At Fate's approach, see Oroonoko moan

Inioinda's fate, undaunted at liis own ;

Drojtiiiiig a generous tear Lucretia sighs,

Anil views the hero with Imoinda's eyes.

When the pnnce Htrikes, who envies not the deed?

To be 80 wept, who would not wish to bleed ?

The following epigram gives a different view of the effect produced

376 MODERN EI'IGEAMMATISTS.

by a tran:edv. It was spoken extempore by Mr. Parsons (probably the
Kev. Philip Parsons, Eectur of Eastwell, and of Bnave, and Master of
Wye School, in Kent; on seeing " The Fate of Sparta ; or the Kival
Kings," a tragedy by Mrs. Cowhy (quoted fiom Jones' " Biograpihia
Dramatica," in the " Gentleman's Magazine," LXXXII. Part I. 348) :

Ingenious Cowley ! while we yievv'd

Of Sparta's sons the lot severe,
We caught tlie Sjiartan fortitude.

And saw their woes without a tear.

ISAAC HAWKINS BKO^yNE,

\V as born at Burton-upon-Trent, of which his father held the living,
in 1706. Pie distinguished himself at Cambridge, became a barrister,
and entered Parliament, where, however, he was too nervous to speak.
His chief poem was a Latin one, on the immortality of the soul, of
which there are several translations. He died in 17(30. The following
epigrams are taken from Nichols " Select Collection of Poems," Vol. VI.
1780, where it is stated that they were " never before printed."
Probably they were not known to be Browne's when an edition of his
Poems was published in 17fjS.

ON SEEING A POBTBAIT OF MISS BOBINSON, FAINTED
BY MB. HIGHMOBE.

I, wliom no living beauty yet could warm,
Am now enamour'd of an empty form.

This lady was sister of Sir Thomas Robinson, Bart., and of Lord
Rokeby, Primate of Ireland. She married Dr. William Freind, Dean
of Canterbury.

Waller, in some verses " On the discovery of a Lady's Painting,'
Bays:

A real beauty, though too near,

The fond Xarcissus did adniire;
I doat on that which is no where ;
The sign of beauty feeds my fire.

ON DB. YOUNG'S ''NIGHT THOUGHTS."

His Life is lifeless, and his Death shall die,
And mortal is his Immortality.

The fulfilment of Browne's prophetic denunciation was for some
time delayed, for Rogers tells us : " In my youthful days Young's

DR. NATHANIEL COTTON. 377

' Niglit Thoughts ' was a very favomite book, especially with ladies
I knew more than one lady who hail a copy of it in which particular
passages were marked for her bv some popular preacher " (Rogers'
"Table Talk." 1856, 31).

Young told Spence t..at the title '• Night Thoughts " was not affected,
for he never composed but at night, except sometimes when on horse-
back. This habit of nocturnal eomposition seems to have been known
to the Duke of Wharton, who, when the doctor was deeply engaged in
writing one of his tragedies, procured a human skull, fixed a candle in
it, and gave it to the poet as the most proper lamiJ for him to write
tragedy by (Spence's " Anecdotes," 1820, '255, 378).

ON A POEM CALLED '^ SILENCE."

On Silence this ! What next you write,
Be Chaos ! Ealph has handled Night.

"Night" is a poem by James Ealph, who figures as one of the
heroes of the " Dunciad," Book III. 165 :

Silence, ye wolves ! while Ealph to Cynthia howls,
And makes tiight hideous — answer him, ye owls I

DE. NATHANIEL COTTON,

A phy.sician and poet, was born in 1707. He kept a house for the
reception of lunatic patients at S. Albans, and at one time had the
poet Cowper under his care, whom he treated with great success, and
by whom he was always remembered with aifectiou and respect. He
died in 1788.

LINES UNDER A SUN-DIAL IN THE CHURCIIYABD AT

THOHNBY.

Mark well my shade and seriously attend
The silent lesson of a common friend —
Since time and life speed hastily away.
And neither can recall the former day,
Jmprove each fleeting hour before 'tis past.
And know, each fleeting hour may be thy last.

The following epitaph is on the grave of an aged man in GarBingtop.
Churchyard, Oxon (" Notes and Queries," Ist S. XI.):

378 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Time, which had silver 'd o'er my aged he^d,
At length has rang'd me with the peaceful dead.
One hint, gay youth, from dust and ashes borrow.
My days were many, — thine may end to-morrow.

The poet William Hamilton of Bangour has a striking inscription,
" On a Dial in my Garden" :

Once at a potent leader's voice it stay'd,
Once it went back when a good monarch pray'd •
Mortals howeer we grieve, howe'er deplore,
The flying shadow shall return no more.

Tliere is a good inscription on a sun-dial near Florence, th\\% trans-
lated from the Latin :

Whether the heavens be foul or fair.
Midst summer suns and wintry showers,

Pleas'd and content my lot I bear.
And only note the brightest hours.

ON LOBD COBHAWS GARDENS.

It puzzles much the sage's brains,

Where Eden stood of yore ;
Some place it in Arabia's plains,

Some say it is no more.
But Cobham can these tales confute

As all the curious know ;
For he has prov'd, beyond dispute.

That Paradise is Stow.

Sir Eiohard Temple, of Stow, acquired renown under the Duke of
Marlborough, and was created Viscount Cobham, witli remainder, in
default of male issue, to his sister, wife of Richard Grenville, who
iniierited his title and estates, and through whom Stow becume the
seat of the Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos;.

Lord Nugent has an epigram " Upon tlie Busts of th ■ English
Worthies at Stow" (" Odes and Epistles," 1739, 27) :

Among the chiefs of British race,

Who live in breathing stone.
Why has not Cobham's bust a place ?

The structure was his own.

379

ROBEET CEAGGS, EAEL NUGENT,

Bom early in the ISth century, was an Irishman, — a poet, a Lord of
the Treasury, and Controller of the Household of Frederick, Prince of
Wales. Neither as a poet nor a politician did he ever rise to great
eminence, but he excelled more in the former than the latter capacity.
He died in 1788. His "Odes and Epistles" were published anony-
mously by Dod.sley, but nearly all his epigrams must be sought for in
Dodsley's " Collection of Poems," and similar publications.

TO COBINNA.
(" New Foundling Hospital for Wit," 1784, 1. 65.)

While I those hard commands obey,
Which tear me from thee far away ;
Never did yet love-tortur'd 3'oiith,
So dearly prove his doubted truth ;
For never woman charm'd like thee,
And never man yet lov'd like me.

All creatures whom fond flames inspire.
Pursue the object they desire ;
But I, prepost'rous doom ! must prove
By distant flight the strongest love ;
And ev'ry way distress'd by fate,
Must lose thy sight, or meet \\xy hate.

The sorrows of a lover absent from liis mistress have been the themo
of poets of all ages. Meleagcr has a Greek epigram on the subject
(Jacobs I. 12, xxxiii.), translated by Benjamin Keen :

Gazing on thee, sweet maid I all things I see —
YoT thou art all the universe to me ;
And, when thou rt absent, to my vacant sight,
Though all things else be present, uU is night.

So, Shakespeare, in the " Second Part of Hem-y VI.," makes SuUblk
thus address Queen Slargaret (Act III. sc 2) :

Tliu.-j is poor Suffolk ten times banished.

Once by the king, and three times thrice by thee.

'Tis not the land I cure for, wert thou hence ;

A wilderncs.s i.s populous enough,

S<) iSullolk had thy heuveuly company:

Ffir wliere tli(ju art, tiiere is liie world itself,

Willi every several pleasure in the world;

And where thou art not, desolation.

380 ' MODERN EPIGKAMMATISTS.

THE SPENDTEBIFT AND THE MIS EM.
(Dodsley's " Collection of Poems," 1782, 11. 247.)

Tom thouglit a wild profusion great,
And therefore spent bis whole estate
\\ ill thinks the wealthy are ador'd,
And gleans what misers blush to hoard.
Their passion, merit, fate the same,
They thirst and starve alike for fame.

Walsh has an epigram on the same subject :

Rich Gripe does all his thoughts and cimning bend,
T' increase th;it wealth he wants the soul to spend.
Poor Shifter does his whole contrivance set,
To spend that wenlth he wants the sense to get.
How hapjjy would appear to each his fate.
Had Gripe his humour, or he Gripe's estate !
Kind Fate antl Fortune, blend tliem if you can,
And of two wretches make one happy man !

THE SUREST REVENGE.
(Dodsley's "CoUection of Poems," 1782, II. 245.)

Lie on ! while my revenge shall be.
To speak the very truth of thee.

Indifference to the enmity of a worthless man, is well expressed in
an anonymous epigram in the " Poetical Register" for 1801, 32(t:

Sylla declares the world shall know
That he's my most ditermiued foe!
I wish him wide the tale to spread ;
For all that I from Sylla dread
Is, that the knave, to serve some end,
May one day swear that he's my friend.

That a truth may injure more than a falsehood is amusingly ex-
emplified in the following old jest, which has its date in the past time
when jealousy existed between the English and Scotch : " A ceitain
English bishop, by nation a Scotchman, had been informed tliaL a
neighbour of his had said he was a false Scot, which made him send
for him, and ask him, pressingly, if he said so. The fellow absolutely
denied it. 'Well, what did you say?' said the bishop. 'My lord."
replied tlie man, * I only said you were a true Scot ;' which cut him to
the heart as much as if he had bid him read Cleveland's satire ujion his
countrymen." (Kelt's " Flowers of Wit.") Perhaps the bishop was
Burnet.

JOHN STKAIGHT. 381

INSCRIPTION ON THE TOMB RAISED TO THE MEMORY
OF THE AUTHOR'S FATHER, AND OF OTHERS, HIS

ANCESTORS.

(Dodsley's " Collection of Poems," 1782, II. 243.)

Unmark'd by tropliies of the great and vain,

Here sleeps in silent tombs a gentle train.

]So folly wasted their paternal store,

No suilt, no sordid av'rice made it more ;

\\'ith honest fame, and sober plenty crown'd,

They liv'd, and spread their cheering influence round.

May he whose hand this pioiis tribute pays,

Receive a like return of filial praise !

A good epitaph by Nathaniel Cotton, on Mr. Sibley of Studham,
nay be compared :

Here lies an honest man ! without pretence
To more than prudence and to common sense ;
Who knew no vanity, disguise, nor art,
Who scorn'd all language foreign to the heart.
Diflusive as the light his bounty spread,
Cloth'd were the naked and the hungry led.

" These be his honours !" honours that tUsclaim
The blazon'd scutcheon and the herald's fame !
Honom-s ! which boast detiance to the grave,
Where, spite of Anstis, rots tiie garter'd knave.

John Anstis was Garter King-at-Arms.

JOHN STRAIGHT,

Born early in the 18th century, was Fellow of Magdalen College,
Oxford, and Vicar of Findon in Sussex.

ON MR. , SCHOOLMASTER AT .

(Dodsley's " Collection of Poems," 1782, V. 276.)

TV'lidld tlie lordly jxdant in his school,
How stern his br<jw, liuw absolute his rule!
The trembling boys start at hia awful nod;
Jove's sceptic is less dreaded than his rod.
See him at home before the sovereign dame.
How fawning, how obscfj^uious, and how tame !

382 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Prosper, bright Amazon, to tliee 'tis given,
Like Juno, to rule him who rules the heaven.

In "Notes and Queries," 2nd S. I. 131, some amusing lines are
given, as " tlie production of one of the boys in the upper form of u
very large school, wliere great severity was exercised in the last
century. The retaliation recorded was firmly credited by all the
scholars, and allirmed by the servants." Possibly the boy had seen
Straight's epigram, winch may have suggested to him the idea of his
lines. They are headed " The Tables Turned by ' Dear Molly,' the
name of endearment used always by the Doctor to that Vixen, his
Wife." The words printed iu italics were school phrases in daily use
at that time :

Our master, who, within his school,

Bears always most tyrannic ride.

And every day, to keep us jucjijing,

Gives fom* or live a (jood sound flogging,

Storming like any demigod,

Whilst he administers the rod;

Of all his manliness forsaken,

At home can scarcely save his bacon.

Whilst his '■ Dear Molly " with tongue pie,

Scolds him all day confoundedly;

And oft at night, with his own birch.

Makes him pray louder than at church ;

Until " Dear Molly's " wrath to appease,

He begs her pardon on his knees.

SAaiUEL BOTSE,

A poet whose talents might have raised him to atHueuce, had not
his dissipated habits ruined his reputation, was born in Dublin in
1708. The latter part of his life was spent in London, where he died
in 1749.

TO A YOUNG LADY ON HER RECOVERY.

While, fair Selinda ! to our eyes
From .sickness beautiful you rise ;
Your charms put on superior power,
And shine more strongly than before.

So have I seen the heavenly fire
Awhile his radiant beams retire ;
Then breaking through the veil of night,
Eeetore the world, to warmth and light.

DR. SAMTTEIi JOHNSON. 383

The comparison of beauty with the warmth and light of the sun,
is given in an epigram in "The Grove,' 1721, 120, •'On a Lady
sleeping with her Face covered " :

So sets the sun, veil'd with the shades of night,
To rise with liercer rays of native light :
In darkness we his tedious absence mourn,
And wish for day, but at his bright return.
Are dazzled, if w'e look, and if too near, we burn.

The following fine passage in Lord Carlisle's " Father's Revenge "
(Act III. sc. 4), comparing joy succeeding grief, with the sudden Light
to the eye accustomed to darkness, was greatly praised by Dr. Johnson
in a letter to Mrs. Chapone : " It has all that can be desired to make
it please: it is new, just, and delightful " :

I could have borne my woes. The stranger joy

Wounds while it smiles : the long-imprison'd wretch,

Emerging from the night of his dark cell,

Shrinks from the sun's bright beams, and that which flings

Gladness to all, to him is agony.

DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON.
Born 1709. Died 1784.

WRITTEN AT THE REQUEST OF A GENTLEMAN TO WHOM
A LADY HAD GIVEN A SPRIG OF MYRTLE.

What hopes, what terrors, does this gift create,
Ambiguous emblem of uncertain fate !
The myrtle, ensign of supreme command,
Consign'd by Venus to Melissa's band,
Not less capricious than a reigning fair.
Now grants, and now rejects a lover's prayer.
In myrtle shades oft sings the happy swain.
In myrtle shades despairing ghosts complain ;
The myrtle crowns the hajipy lovers' heads,
The unhappy lovers' graves the myrtle spreads.
then the meaning of thy gift impart,
And ease the throbVjings of an anxious heart I
Soon must ihis bougli, as you sliall fix his doom,
Adcjrn I'liilandor's head, or giace his tomb.

In 179.3 and 1791 a controversy was carried on in the " Gentleman's
^lugazine," between Misa Seward and Boswell, with respect to these

384 MODEKN EPIGRAMMATISTS,

verses ; the former asserting that they were written f jr presentation by
Johnson himself to Miss Lucy Porter, whose motlior he afterwards
married; the latter that they were written at the request of Mr. Hector
of Birmingham, at a time when Johnson was not even acquainted with
Miss Porter. The controversy was clo.sed by the publication of a letter
from Mr. Hector, asserting the facts to be as Boswell had stated them.
It was thought that Bo.swell had, in his ardent admiration of Johnson,
gone a little out of his way in this controversy to sneer at the talents
of Miss Seward, whose dislike to that great genius was well known.
This gave rise to the following anonymous epigram (" Gentleman's
Magazine," LXIV. Part I. 165) :

Fie, Bozzy ! hector, and talk big !

Forego th' immanly quarrel;
Here- — take your Master's Myrtle-sprig,

But spare a Lady's laurel.

ON GEORGE II. AND COLLET CIBBEB.

Augustus still survives in Maro's strain,
And Spenser's verse pi'olongs Eliza's reign ;
Great George's acts let tuneful Gibber sing.
For Nature form'd the Poet for the King.

It would have been difficult for even a Virgil or a Spenser to bestow
glory upon a monarch so mean as George II. ; and poor Gibber, it will
be remembered, was thought worthy by Pope of the throne — not of the
Jluses — but of the Dunces. It was upon his attaining this high
honour that the following well-known ejDigram was written :

In meiTy old England it once was a rule,

The king had his poet and also his fool:

But now we're so frugal, I'd have you to know it,

That ("ibber can serve both for fool and for poet.

TO A YOUNG LADY WHO SPOKE TN PRAISE OF

LIBERTY.

Translated from the Latin by Mrs. Piozzi.

Persuasions to freedom fall oddly from you ;
If freedom we seek — fair Maria, adieu !

" Molly Aston," said Dr. Johnson to Mrs. Piozzi, " was a beauty and
a scholar, and a wit and a Whig, and she talked all in praise of
liberty ; and so I made this epigram upon her."

A singular coinoielence of sentiment will be observed between

DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. 385

Johnsoa's epigram and a French one, which wa? occasionea by a pretty
girl going to a masquerade, dressed in the habit of a Jesuit (" Selec-
tions from the French Anas," 1797, II. 50) :

What means Calista's mimic wit ?

Calista is no Jesuit.

Where "er the damsel rolls her eye,

We all give up our liberty:

Able no longer to resist.

We hail the lovely Jansenist !

" That which most offends the Jesuits .... is the austere severHy
that reigns in the system of moral discipline and practical religion
adopted by the Jansenists .... The Jansenists are not undeserr-
edly branded by their adversaries with the appellation of Rigorists "
(Mosheim's " Ecclesiastical History," S. II. Part I. xlvi.).

IMITATION OF THE STYLE OF .

Hermit hoar, in solemn cell,

Wearing out life's evening grey,

Smite thy bosom, sage, and tell,

"Where is bliss, and which the way ?

Thus I spoke ; and speaking sigh'd.
Scarce repressed the starting tear ;

When the smiling sage replied —
Come, my lad, and drink some beer.

Boswell, in his " Life of Johnson " (year 1777), gives the origin of this
piece : " He (Johnson) observed, that a gentleman of eminence in
literature had got into a bad style of poetry of late. ' He puts,' said
he, ' a very common thing in a strange dress till he does not know it
himself, and thinks other people do not know it.' Bosivell : ' That is
owing to Ills being so much versant in old English poetry.' Johnson:
' What is that to the purpose, sir ? If I say a man is drunk, and you
tell me it is owing to his taking much drink, the matter is not mended.
No, sir, has taken to an odd mode. Fur example, he'd write thus :

" ' Hermit hoar, in solemn cell.
Wearing out life's evening grey.

Grey evening is common enough; but evening grey he'd think fine.
Stay — we'll make out the stanza.'" Johnson then completed the first
stanza, and afterwards addled the second. The only subsequent changes
were, in the la.st line of the first stanza, substituting "where" for
•'what"; and, in the third line of the second stanza, "smiling" for
" hoary." It is generally believed that the poet whose stylo was thus

2 C

386 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

imitated was Dr. Percy, afterwards Bishop of Dromore, of whose talenta
as a poet and an antiquary, though he thus playfully criticized him,
Johnson had the highest opinion.

The expression " evening grey " is certainly very usual. For instance.
in Cowper's " Retired Cat," we find :

The sprightly mom her course renewed,
The evening grey again ensued.

EPITAPH ON CLAUDE PHILLIPS, A TRAVELLING
VIOLIN-PLAYEB.

Phillips, whose touch harmonious could remove
The pangs of guilty power or hapless love;
Eest here, distress'd by poverty no more.
Here find that calm thou gav'st so oft before ;
Sleep undisturb'd, within this peaceful shrine,
Till angels wake thee with a note like thine.

This very beautiful epitaph was published, with some other pieces
by Johnson, in Mrs. "Williams' " Miscellanies." It was at first ascribed
to Garrick, but Boswell gives an account of its origin from the mouth
of the great actor himself. Johnson and Garrick were sitting together
when the latter repeated an epitaph on Phillips, by Dr. Wilkes, at
which Johnson shook his head and said, " I think, Davy, I can make
a better." Then stirring about his tea for a little while, in a state of
meditation, he almost extempore produced the verses given above.
IVlr. Brickdale Blakeway, in a note to Boswell's " Johnson," gives the
correct version of Dr. Wilkes' epitaph (the one which Garrick repeated
to Boswell being incorrect), and says, " one of the various readings is
remarkable, as it is the germ of Johnson's concluding line " :

Exalted soul, thy various sounds could please
The love-sick virgin, and the gouty ease ;
Could jarring crowds, like old Amphion, move
To beauteous order and harmonious love ;
Rest here in peace, till angels bid thee rise,
And meet tliy Saviour's consort in the skies.

Croker remarks, " By consort, in the above lines, I suppose concert
is meant ; but stiU I do not see the germ of Johnson's thought." (See
I}o8well's' " Johnson," ed. 1835, I. 16G.)

The close of a long epitaph in the south transept of Lichfield
Cathedral on John Saville, Vicar Choral, who died in 1803, is copied
from Johnson's epitaph on Phillips (" Gentleman's Magazine," LXXXI.
Part II. 256) :

Sleep then, pale mortal frame, in yon low shrine,
Till angels wake thee with a note like thine.

387

GEOEGE, LOED LYTTELTON.

Born 1709. Died 1773.

LOVE AND HOPE.

None witliout hope e'er lov'd the brightest fair ;
But love can hope where reason would despair.

Swift, in one of his " Epigrams on Windows," shows that reason
Las nothing to do with love :

The glass, by lovers' nonsense blurr'd,

Dims and obscures our sight :
So when our passions love hath stirr'd,

It darkens reason's light.

TO MISS LUCY FORTESCUE {AFTEBWARDS LADY
LYTTELTON).

Once by the muse alone inspir'd

I sung my amorous strains :
No serious love my bosom fir'd ;
Yet every tender maid, deceiv'd,
The idly mournful tale believ'd,

And wept my fancied pains.

But Venus now to punish me,

For having feign'd so well,
Has made my heart so fond of thee,
That not the whole Aonian quire
Can accents soft enough inspire.

Its real flame to tell.

This has so much in common with a sonnet by Sir Edward Sher-
burne, that it may be thought Lord Lyttelton took the idea from that
piece, entitled, " I'hc Surprise." It is on dallying with Cupid. Tlie
following is the 2nd stanza :

Lately with tlio boy I sported;

Love 1 did not, yet love feign'd ;
Had no iniKtrcsH, yet I courted ;

Sigh I did. yet was not pain'd :
'Till at last tiiis love in jest
Prov'd in earnest my unrest.

388 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

EPITAPH ON LUCY, LADY LYTTELTON.

Made to engage all hearts, and charm all eyes ;

Though meek, magnanimous ; though witty, wise ; L

Polite, as all her life in courts had been ; |

Yet good, as she the world had never seen ;

The noble fire of an exalted mind,

With gentle female tenderness combin'd.

Her speech was the melodious voice of love,

Her song the warbling of the vernal grove ;

Her eloquence was sweeter than her song,

Soft as her heart, and as her reason strong ;

Her form each beauty of her mind express'd.

Her mind was Virtue by the Graces dress'd.

Graves has an epigi-am " On Miss Lucy Fortescue, afterwards Larly
Lyttelton, 1740," which gives as charming a view of her character a«
the epitaph by her sorrowing husband (" Euphrosyne," 1783, 1. 199) :

Lucia was form'd by Heav'n in courts to shine,

With grace and air and majesty divine :

Yet o'er those charms her virtuous thoughts dispense |

The humblest mien with rural innocence.

Hence viscounts wait their doom from Lucia's eyes,

Whilst many a swain in hopeless silence dies.

SIR CHARLES HANBURY WILLIAMS,

Born in 1709, was the third son of John Hanbury, of Pontypool Park,
in the county of Monmouth. In 1720 he succeeded to the property of
his Godfather, Charles WiUiams, of Gaerleon, and took his name. The
principal part of his life was passed in embassies to foreign courts ;
and though he was not always a successful ambassador, his wit made
him a very acceptable one to the continental sovereigns. He died
in 17.59. His works, in which bitter satire and indelicate freedom
abound, were published in 1822, in three volumes, whence the following
epigrams are taken.

WRITTEN ON THE EARL OF BATH'S HOOB, IN
PICCADILLY.

Here, dead to fame, lives patriot Will,

His grave a lordly seat ;
His title proves his epitaph,

His robes his winding sheet.

Sm CHARLES HANBUEY WILLIAMS — DR. SNEYD DAVIE?. 389

Sir Charles also wrote a parody of Pope's epitaph on Craggs, headed
"An Epitaph on the Political Memory of William Pultney, Earl of
Bath, who died to fame July 15, 174:2 " :

Pultney, no friend to truth, in fraud sincere,
In act unfaithful, and from honour clear ;
Who broke his promise, served his private ends,
Who gain'd a title, and who lost all friends ;
Dishonour'd by himself, by none approv'd,
Curs'd, scorn'd, and hated, e'en by those he lov'd.

Mr. Pulteney took a prominent part in the House of Commons against
Sir Robert Walpole ; and, when that minister resigned, he was created
Earl of Bath, and took his seat in tlie House of Lords, July 15. 174:2.
" He had lived long," says one of his biographers, " in the very focus of
popularity, and was respected as the chief bulwark against the en-
croachments of the Crown ; but from the moment he accepted a title,
all his favour with the people was at an end, and the rest of his life was
spent in contemning that applause which he no longer could secure.''

ON THE REPEAL OF THE GIN ACT, 1742.

Deep, deep, in Sandy's blundering head

The new gin project sunk ;

" happy project," sage, he cried,

" Let all the realm be drunk.

'Gainst universal hate and scorn,

This scheme my sole defence is,

For when I've beggar'd half the realm,

'Tis time to drown their senses."

Samuel Sandys, a man of little note except for his opposition to the
Court party, was made Chancellor of the Exchequer on the resignation
<if Sir Kobert Walpole, and so<m afterwards, in conjunction with his
colleaguea, proposed, and with some difficulty carried, the repeal of the
Act which had been passed in 178tj, imposing certain duties on spirituous
liquors, and compelling licenses to be taken out for retailing them.

DR. SNEYD DAVIES.

Bom in 1709. At Eton, and King's College, Cambridge, he gained
tho frietidsliip, which lie rctiiinod through life, of Charles Pratt,
aft^:rward8 Karl Camden, and of Fredeiiik Cornwallis, subsequently
Arclibi.sJiop of Canterbury. He succoede*! Iiis father in the living of

390 MODERN EPIGEAMMATISTS,

Kingsland, in Herefordshire, and there he usually resided. He was
also Archdeacon of Derby. His great delight was in the society of a
few chosen friends of congenial wit and humour, and he was never so
happy as when smoking, laughing, and writing verses: but he had
higher claims to respect, in the warmth of his friendship, the gentle-
ness of his disposition, and the quickness of his sympathy. He died in
1769. His poetical pieces, and amongst them the following, are pub-
lislied in Nichols' "Illustrations of tlie Literary History of the 18th
Century," Vol. I.

DIVINE PHILOSOPHY.

Tutor of human life ! auspicious guide !

"Whose faithful clue unravels ev'ry maze ;

Whose conduct smooths the roughest paths ; whose voice

Controls each storm, and bids the roar be still.

O condescend to gild my darksome roof,

Let me know Thee ; — the Delphic oracle

Is then obey'd, — and I shall know myself.

Milton, in " Comus," 476, thus speaks of " Divine Philosophy " :

How charming is Divine philosophy !

Not harsh, and crabbed, as dull fools suppose.

But musical as is Apollo's lute.

And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets,

Where no crude surfeit reigns.

THE ACTION OFF TOULON IN 1744.

What is the vollied bolt's corporeal maim
Of limbs dissever'd — to a blasted name !
Laurels and honours wait the mangled brave.
With his whole fame descending to his grave.
Who does not hail the gallant Cornwall's wound ?
Who does not spurn at Lestock safe and soiind ?
Spare the fond sigh ! and Britain's tears be shed
For dastards living — not for heroes dead !

This spirited epigram was occasioned by the disgrace to the British
fleet in the action with the combined squadrons of France and Spain,
in the Mediterranean, in 1744. The enemy issued out of the harbour
of Toulon, and Admiral Mathew, who commanded the English fleet,
proceeded to the attack, and was ably seconded by Admiral Rowley ;
but Admiral Lestock, with his whole division, remained at a distance
astern, in consequence of which the enemy escaped with little damage

DR. SNEYD DAVIES. 391

but on the English side Captain Cornwall, after exhibiting remarkable
intrepidity, was killed. Mathew and Lestock accused each other at
head quarters ; a Parliamentary inquiry and a court martial ensued,
which resulted in several Ciiptains being cashiered ; in Admiral Mathew
being declared incapable of serving for the future ; and in Admiral
Lestock being honourably acquitted. But the world then knew, and
posterity even better knows, that prejudice and party-feeling produced
this decision, and that Lestock sacrificed his country's honour to the
private resentment which he had long nourished agaiast his superior
ofiBcer.

The following epitaph on Captain Cornwall, written on seeing his
monument in Westminster Abbey, is by John Duncomhe, and is pre-
eerved, with other pieces by him, in the " Poetical Calendar," 1763,
X. 77. It is printed among Lord Lyttelton's Poems (without the last
four lines) in Johnson's edition of the " Poets," 1779 ; but as it is omitted
in a later edition, it may be presumed that it was discovered not to be
his. Chalmers, in his " Biographical Dictionary," enumerates it among
the poems written by Duncombe :

Tho' Britain's Genius hung his drooping head,

And mourn'd her ancient naval glory fled.

On that fam'd day when France combin'd with Spain,

Strove for the wide dominion of the main ;

Yet, Cornwall, all, with grateful voice, agree

To pay the tribute of applause to thee :

When his bold chief, in thickest fight engag'd.

Unequal war with Spain's proud leader wag'd,

With indignation mov'd, he timely came

To rescue from reproach his country's fame ;

Success too dearly did his valour crown,

He sav'd his leader's life— and lost his own.

Her warlike son Britannia thus repays,

That latest times may learn the Hero's praise,

And chiefs, like him, shall unrepining bleed,

When senates thus reward the glorious deed.

To Davies' indignant words, " dastards living," *' heroes dead," a
Greek epigram, by Anacreon, is very applicable (Jacobs I. 56, xii.). thus
translated by Fawkes :

The tomb of great Timooritus behold !

Mara spares the base, but slays the brave and bold.

ON LOBD CAMDEN.

Pratt oddly is naade ;

For when vex'd out of measure.
He calls spleen to his aid,

And i8 pleas'd with displeasure.

392 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Stranger yet his disease,

As I know to my cost ;
For the most you displease

When you please liim the most.

These whimsical verses were written at one of the social meetings of
Davies and Pratt (not then a peer), and the initials of the author and
the hero were appended to the MS. Mr. Justice Hardinge remarked
of the portrait thus giveu of liOrd Camden : *' Half jest and half earnest
there are traits of similitude in it whicli I can attest, as exemplified in
the hero when he was not in tune for that mirth which in general ho
enjoyed" (Nichols' "Literary Illustrations," I. 676).

ON THE REV. BEES PRICE REFUSING A DRAM.

When Cassar, and when Cromwell, saw their crowiv

Presented, they unwillingly could wave

That sparkling pageant : In their look askant

W^hat featur'd variations ! Pangs acute

Of doubt, and longing, how appall'd, and blank.

When the decamping genius from their breast

Summon'd his train of spirits to be gone.

Thus, conscious of self-perfid}-, amaz'd,

With glowing cheek and haggard eye stood Bees,

When he refus'd his dram !

The Kev. Kees Price, Vicar or Curate of Eardisland, Herefordshire,
seems to have been a most respectable clergyman, but fond of good
living, and by no means averse to the social glass. Dr. Davies, with
whom he was on intimate terms, has many jokes upon the subject. The
following epigram, in the form of a soliloquy supposed to have been
uttered by Mr. Price himself, is, like the former one, a good specimen of
Davies' humorous vein, and refers to the same memorable occasion :

Plagues take me if I ever did a thing
That left within me such a venom'd sting,
As when this morning, with an idiot shame,
My soul I cheated — and refused a dram.

393

DE. ROBERT LOWTH.

Bishop of London. Bom 1710. Died 1787.

EPITAPH ON TEE TOMB OF HIS DAUGHTER.

Translated from the Latin by the late Lard Derby.

Dear Child, farewell ! that didst in worth,

Wit, piety, so far excel !
By closer ties than those of birth

Knit to my heart, dear Child, farewell !

Dear Child, farewell ! till Time bring round

Those blessed ages, yet in store.
When I, if haply worthy found,

Shall meet thee face to face once more !

Dear Child, Oh come, no more to part,

Shall I exclaim in rapture then ;
To bless a Father's arms and heart,

My Child, my Mary, come again !

The tomb, with the Latin, is at Cuddesdon. The English in Lord
Derby's " Translations of Poems Ancient and Modern," 1862. 87.

LEWIS DUNCOMBE,

of Merton College, Oxford ; second son of John Duneombe, Esq., of
Stocks, in Hertfordshire. Born 1711. Died 1730.

THE OAK.

Trandaied from the Latin in " Select Epigrams."

The lofty oak from a small acorn grows.

And to the skies ascends with spreading boughs ;

As years increase, it shades th' extended plain.

Then big with death and vengeance, ploughs the main.

Hence rises fame and safety to our shore.

And from an acorn springs Britannia's pow'r.

Tlie oak, as forming tlic "wooden walls of old Eni^laiul," is similarly
celel.Tated in some lines H\><>Ui:n before the Queen when visiting Oxforii
in 1702, by Ilenesigo Kincb, afttrwardB Earl of Ayli.sford (Nichols
"Collection of Toems," HI. 315, 1780; :

394 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

The spreading oaks from lovely Windsor borne,
Shall shelter Britain, which tliey now adorn ;
With swelling sails o'er distant seas they'll go,
And guard that goddess by whose care they grow.

So, Campbell, in his well-known ode, " Ye Mariners of England"

With thunders from her native oak
She quells the floods below.

And again, the same poet, in " The Launch of a First-rate" :

Oaks that living did inherit

Grandeur from our earth and sky,

Still robust, the native spirit
In your timbers shall not die.

DE. JOHN FKEE.

Bom at Oxford in 1711. He was of Christ Church, and became
Master of the Grammar Scliool of S. Saviour's, South wark. He pub-
lished many sermons, pamphlets, and poems on various subjects. Died
in 1791.

ON BEING STUNG IN THE FACE BY A BEE, WHOSE
STING WAS TAKEN OUT BY A YOUNG LADY.

("Poetical Farrago," 1794, II. 131.;

In vain my little foe inflicts the smart,
For Parthenissa draws the venom 'd dart.
Her hand can instantaneous ease restore,
And add a thousand joys tinfelt before.
Whilst the poor insect, by the wound he gave,
Sickens to death, and makes his cell his grave.
Thus by their malice be my foes subdued.
Or made by Heav'n the in.struments of good :
And thro' my life be this my lot — to feel
Joys from each smart, and good o'erpaying ill.

Sir Edward Sherburne has some pretty lines on the pleasure with
which love can overpay grief, entitled " Weeping and Kissing" :

A kiss I begg'd ; but, smiling, she

Denied it me :
When straight, her olieeks with tears o'erflcwn,

I Now kinder grown)
What smiling she'd not let me have.

She weeping gave ;

THOMAS SEWAED. 395

Then you whom scornful beauties awe,

Hope yet relief ;
For Love (who teats from smiles) can draw

Pleasure from grief.

THOMAS SEWARD,

Father of tlie poetess Anna Seward, was Eector of Eyam in Derby-
shii-e, Prebendary of Salisbury, and Canon Residentiary of Lichtield.
He was a writer of some elegance, and was fond of literary pm'suits.
His principiil work was an edition of Beaumont and Fletcher's plays.
For the last ten years of his life his health was shattered, and tlie
lowers of his mind impauxd. He died in 1790. He was a contributor
to Dodsley'a " Collection of Poems," whence the following epigrams
are tiiken.

CHISWJCK.

The potent lord, that this bright villa plann'd,

Pkhibits here a Paradise regain'd ;

Whate'er of verdure have hills, lawns, or woods,

Whate'er of splendour, buildings, flow'rs or floods,

Whate'er of fruits the trees, of birds the air.

In blissful union are collected here :

All with such harmony dispos'd as shows,

Tliat in the midst the Tree of Knowledge grows.

The Earl of Burlington seems to have succeeded better as a planter
than a builder. Upon the house at Chiswick the following epigram
was made by Lord Hervey (" New Foundling Hospital for Wit," 17t^4,
I. 242; :

Possess'd of one great liall for state,

Without one room to sleep or eat ;

How well you build, let llatt'ry tell,

And all mankind how ill you dwell.

The last four lines of an epigram, by Dr. Evans, upon Blenlieim
House, may have suggested the above (Nichols' " Collection of Poems,"
IIL IGl, 1780;:

Thanks, sir, cried I, 'tis very fine.
But where d'ye sleep, or where d'ye dine?
I find, by all yr)U h;iv(; been telling,
Tliat 'tis a house, but not a dwelling.

f)r possibly both may have their origin in an epigram by Martial,
which concludes with tliese two lines (Book XII. 50) :

396 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Apartments grand ; no place to eat or sleep !
\Vhat a most noble house you do not keep !

KNOWLEDGE.

Not self-secure on earth can Knowledge dwell,
Knowledge the bliss of heav'n and pang of hell,
Alike the instrument of good and evil,
The attribute of God and of the devil.
Without her. Virtue is a powerless will :
She without Virtue, is a powerful ill ;
Does she then join with Vii'tue, or oppose.
She proves the best of friends, or worst of foes.

That mere knowledge is an evil, when imsanctified by the wisdom
to which virtue is allied, is frequently expressed by the poets. Cowper
says in " The Task," Book VI. :

Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one,
Have oft-times no connection. Knowledge dwells
In heads replete with thoughts of other men ;
Wisdom in minds attentive to their own.
Knowledge, a rude, unprofitable mass,
The mere materials with which wisdom builds,
Till smoothed, and squared, and fitted to its place.
Does but encumber whom it seems to eiu'ich.

And Wordsworth, in "Musings near Aquapendente":

O grant the crown
That Wisdom wears, or take his treacherous staff
From Knowledge !

There is a fine passage in " Easselas," Chap. XL., parallel to Seward's
epigram : " Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and
knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful."

ON SHAKESPEARE'S MONUMENT AT STRATFORD-V PON-
AVON.

Great Homer's birth sev'n rival cities claim,

Too mighty such monopoly of fame ;

Yet not to birth alone did Homer owe

His wond'rous worth ; what Egypt could bestow,

With all the schools of Greece and Asia join'd,

Enlarg'd th' immense expansion of his mind.

JOSIAH RELPn. 397

Nor yet unrivall'd the Maeonian strain,
The British eagle,* and the Mantuan swan f
Tow'r equal heights. But, happier Stratford, thou
With incontested laurels deck t% brow ;
Thy bard was thine unsclwoVd, and from thee brought
More than all Egypt, Greece, or Asia taught ;
Not Homer's self such matchless laurels won ;
The Greek has rivals, but thy Shakespeare none.

With the latter part of Seward's epigram, may be compared part of
Ben Jonson's elegy on Shakespeare :

And though thou hadst small Latin, and less Greek,

From thence to honour thee, I would not seek

For names; but call forth thuud'ring ^schylus,

Euripides, and Sophocles, to us,

Pacuvius, Accius, him of Cordova di ad,

To life again, to hear thy buskin tread

And shako a stage ; or when thy socks were on.

Leave thee alone ; for the comparison

Of all that insolent Greece, or haughty Rome,

Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come.

Seward has a distich on the cities which claim Homer's birth ;

Seven wealthy towns contend for Homer dead.
Through which the living Homer begg'd his bread.

This is, however, not original, but taken from " The Hierarchic of
the Blessed Angells," by John Heywood, the dramatist and epigram-
matist (London, 1635, Book IV. 207) :

Seven cities warr'd for Homer being dead ;
Who living, had no roofe to shrowd his head.

JOSIAH EELPH,

Whose father possessed the little ostiitc of Sebcrgham in Cumberland,
was bom in 1712. Ho was sent to the University of Glasgow, but wiuj
soon removed, and became a schoolmaster in his native village. Ho
was afterwards ordained, and presented to the small living of Scberghuni,
which he held until hia death in 1743. His Poems were published at
Carlisle in 1798, with engravings by Bewick.

♦ Milton. t Virgil,

398 MODEKN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

A REASON FOB NOT WRITING IN PRAISE OF CMLIA

(Ep. 6).

For Phoebus' aid my voice I raise

To make the charms of Ca3lia known ;

But Phoebus cannot bear to praise
A face that's brighter than his own.

Matthseus Zuberus, a Latin poet, in a distich on the death of John
Lauterbachius, shows that the jealousy of Phoebus may be as much
roused by poetic talent as by beauty (" Delitise Delitiarum," 159). The
translation is by James Wright :

PhcEbus thy verse did envy ; he, thy fate,
And not the Parcse, did anticipate.

ADVICE TO STREPHON (E^. 8).

Pensive Strepbon, cease repining.

Give thy injur'd stars their due ;
There's no room for all this whining,

Be Dorinda false or true.
If she feeds a faithful passion,

Canst thou call thy fortune cross ?
And if sway'd by whim and fashion,

Let her leave thee — where's the loss ?

The last stanza of a sonnet by George Wither (born in 1588), ex-
presses a view s^imilav to Eelph's very excellent advice (Ellis' " Specimens
of the Early English Poets," 1803, III. 83) :

Great, or good, or kind, or fair,

I will ne'er the more despair :

If she love me, this believe,

I will die e'er she shall grieve ;

If she slight me when I woo,

I can scorn and let her go ;
For if she be not for me,
What care I for whom she be !

THE WORM-DOCTOR (Ep. 36).

Vagus, advanc'd on high, proclaims his skill,
By cakes of wondrous force the wonns to kill

WILLIAM SHENSTONE. 399

A scornful ear the wiser sort impart,
And laugh at Vagus' pretended art ;
But well can Vagus what he boasts perform,
For man (as Job has told us) is a worm.

The subject is not a very pleasant one, but the wit of the epigram is
undeniable. The point was perhaps suggested by Pope's epistle, "To
J\li-. Moore, author of the celebrated worm-powder," of which the last
stanza is :

Our fate thou only canst adjourn

Some few short years, no more !

Ev'n Button's wits to worms shall turn,

Who maggots were before.

WILLIAM SHENSTONE.
Born 1714. Died 1763.

TO MR. DODSLEY.

Come then, my friend, thy sylvan taste display,
Come hear thy Faunus tune his rustic lay ;
Ah, rather come, and in these dells disown
The care of other strains, and tune thine own.

Graves, in an ode " On the Death of Mr. Shenstone, to Mr. Eoberl
Dodsley," says (" Euphrosyne," 1783, I. 294) :

Yet here we fondly dreamt of lasting bliss :

Here we had hop'd, from busy thoughts retir'd.

To drink large draughts of friendship's cordial stream.

In sweet oblivion wrapt by Damon's verse.

And social converse, many a summer's day.

EPITAPH ON MISS ANN POWELL, IN HALESOWEN
CHOllCHYAIW.

Here, here she lies, a budding rose,

Blasted befoie its bloom,
Whose innocence did sweets disclose

Beyond that flower's perfume :

400 MODERN EPIGKAMMATISTS,

To those who for her death are griev'd

This consolation's given ;
She's from the storms of life reliev'd

To bloom more bright in Heaven.

Thij young lady, who died in 1744, in the twentieth year of her age,
was highly esteemed by Shenstone. She was killed by a fall from her
liorse between Halesowen and Dudley ("Gentleman's Magazine,"
LXXXVII. Part I. 297.;.

We may compare an epitaph on Dorothea dias de Faria, who was
drowned in the fifth year of her age; in S. Puncras' Churchyard.
Preserved in " A Collection of Epitaphs," &c., 1806, II. 145 :

Soft as the balm the gentlest gale distils,
Sweet as the fragrance of the new-mown hills ;
Her op'ning mind a thousand charms reveal'd :
Proofs of those thousands which were yet conceal'd :
The loveliest flow'r in nature's garden plac'd,
Permitted just to bloom, then pluck'd in haste;
Angels beheld her ripe for joys to come,
And call'd, by God's command, their sister home.

RICHAED GEAVES,

Was bom at Mickleton, in Gloucestershire, in 1715. He was a scholar
of Pembroke College, Oxford, and afterwards Fellow of All Souls'.
He became Eector of Claverton, and from 1750 uutil his death in 1804
was never absent from his living for more than a month at a time.
His publications were numerous. His first was "The Festoon, a
Collection of Epigrams, Ancient and Modern," which was much
improved in a second edition published in 1767, and which has pre-
served its reputation to the present day. He was himself an epigram-
matist, and placed many of his own compositions in this collec-
tion. He reprinted these, and added many others, in a work entitled,
" Euphrosyne ; or Amusements on the Road of Life," the first edition
of which was published in 1776, and which was subsequently enlarged.
The 3rd edition, in two volmnes, bears date 1783.

TO MRS. W . 1760.

When Stella joins the blooming throng

Of virgins dancing on the plain,
A Giace she seems the nymphs among,

Or Dian' 'midst her virgin train.

EICHAKD GRAVES. 401

But when with sweet maternal air,
She leads lulus through the grove,

Herself appears like Venus fair,
Her wanton boy the god of love.

With the second stanza may be compared an epigram given in the

Works of Horace Walpole, ed. 1798, IV. 431, who, in a letter to

Richard West, Esq., dated Geneva, October, 1739, mentions some of

•the English in the town, and amongst them " a son of — of Mars and

Venus, or of Antony and Cleopatra, or, in short, of . This is the

boy in the bow of whose hat Mr. Hedges pinned a pretty epigram" :

Give but Cupid's dart to me.
Another Cupid I shall be ;
No more distinguisli'd from the other,
Than Venus would be from my mother.

ISIeleager has a Greek epigram of similar character, translated bv
Beujtunin Keen (Jacobs I. 5, ix.) :

Take away from young Cupid his wings and his bow,
And give him sweet Antij^ho's bonnet and feather :

So like is your boy to the god, love, I vow
You'd not know your child if you saw them together.

A COURT AUDIENCE.

Old South, a witty Churchman reckon'd.
Was preaching once to Charles the second,
But much too serious for a court.
Who at all preaching made a sport :
He soon perceiv'd his audience nod.
Deaf to the zealous man of God.
The doctor stopp'd ; began to call,
" Pray wake the Earl of Lauderdale :
" My Lo]"d ! why, 'tis a monstrous thing !
" You snore so loud — you'll wake the King."

Thifi is the well-known storj' of South versified. The words he used
to Lord Lauderdale, after calling to him to awaken him, arc said to
have been : " My \x>ti\, I um sorry to interrupt your repose, but I must
l>eg that you will not snore quite so loud, lest you should awaken his
Majesty."

^ D

402 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

A CHECK FOB MIRTH.

"When I the husy, fruitless cares,
The pride, the folly, hopes and fears

Of mortal men survey ;
Like that old Greek I sometimes think,
True wisdom is to eat and drink,

And laugh the live-long day.

But, when I seriously reflect

How much depends on our neglect,

Or careful use of time.
Taught of my folly to repent, I
Could almost think, when turn'd of twenty,

To laugh at all's a crime.

John Heath, in " Two Centuries of Epigrams," 1610, has the fol-
lowing (2nd Century, 25) :

"Who make this earth their heaven whereon they dwell,
Their heaven once past, must look to find an hell.

In "The Honeysuckle, by a Society of Gentlemen," 1731, 40, are
some " Extempore Lines on a Club of Freethinkers," the last two of
which are to be admired, but tlie first two are open to the objection
that happiness does not consist in freedom from restraint, and that the
transitory joys of freethinkers commonly arise from their pride rather
than their infidelity :

If death's the end of life, why then

Freethinkers are the happiest men ;

But, if there is a life hereafter,

How fatal are their jests and laughter !

In a " Collection of Epitaphs," 1806, I. 113, is one on a Petit-Maitre

By fashion led, I spent my life at ease,
Too gay to let a serious thought displease ;
But died amaz'd, that death, that tyrant grim,
Should think of one who never thought of him.

These epigrams show the folly of living "like that old Greek,"
Democritus, of whom Graves writes. The following, by James Mont-
gomery, shows the importance of the "careful use of time." It id
addressed " To a Friend, with a Copy of ' Time, a Rhapsody ' " :

May she for whom these lines are penn'd,
By using well, make Time her friend ;
Then, whether he stands still or flies.
Whether the moment lives or dies,

BICHARD GRAVES. 403

She need not care, — for Time will be
Her friend to all eternity.

Graves does not mention the weeping philosopher Heraclitus in his
second stanza, but he probably had him in mind as the reverse of the
laughing Democritus. On these two celebrated philosophers of
antiquity there are many epigrams. The following is by Hayman in
his " Quodlibets," 1G28 (Book III. Quod. 46):

Heraclitus. Vain, foolish man, why dost thou always laugh ?
Democritm. Man's vanity and foolish pride I scoff; "

Wherefore dost thou such a sad puling keep ?
Heraclitus. For man's bad sins, sad miseries I weep.

Harvey thus translates one from the Latin of Owen (Book X. 57) :

This wept for his times, the defaults, and crimes ;

That laughed at the follies of the times.

Mortals will still be foolish, wretched, frail,

That this may laugh, that ever may bewail. •

Prior's epigram is well known :

Democritus, dear droll, revisit earth.

And with our follies glut thy heighten'd mirth :

Sad Heraclitus, serious wretch, return,

In louder grief our greater crimes to mourn,

Between you both I unconcern'd stand by ;

Hurt, can I laugh ? and honest, need I cry ?

UNDER AN HOUR-GLASS IN A GROTTO NEAR
THE WATER.

This babbling stream not uninstructive flows,

Nor idly loiters to its destin'd main :
Each flow'r it feeds that on its margin grows,

And bids thee blush, whose days are spent in vain.

Xor void of moral, tho' unheeded, glides

Time's current, stealing on with silent haste ;

For lo ! each falling sand his folly chides,
Who lets one precious moment run to waste.

The poet Lovibond has a beautiful " Inscription for a Fountain,"
wliich has some points of similarity with fJraves' stanzas :

O you, who mark what llDw'rcts gay.
What giili-H, what odours breathing near.

What hlidtering shades from summer's ray.
Allure my spring to linger hero:

4.04 MODERN EPIGUAMMATISTS.

You see me quit this margin green.
You see me deaf to pleasure's call.

Explore the thirsty haunts of men,
Yet see my bounty flow for all.

O learn of me — no partial rill,

No slumbering selfish pool be you.

But social laws alike fulfil,
O flow for all creation too !

EPITAPH ON A FAVOVBITE DOG.

True to his master, generous, brave ;
His friend, companion ; not liis slave :
Fond without fawning ; kind to those
His master lov'd ; but to his foes
A foe undaunted ; whom no bribe
Could warp, to join the faithless tribe
Of curs, who prosperous friends caress,
And basely shun them in distress.
Whoe'er thou art, 'till thou canst find
As true a friend amongst mankind,
Grudge not the tribute of a tear,*
To the poor dog that slumbers here.

Blacklock has an epitaph " On a Favourite Lap-dog" :

I never bark'd when out of season ;
I never bit without a reason ;
I ne'er insulted weaker brother ;
Nor wrong'd by force nor fraud another.
Though brutes are plac'd a rank below,
Happy for man, could he say so !

The conclusion of Gay's " Elegy on a Lap-dog " may be compared :

He's dead. lay him gently in the ground !
And may his tomb be by this verse renowu'd :
" Here Shock, the pride of all Lis kind, is laid ;
Who fawn'd like man, but ne'er like man betray'd."

Porson wrote a Greek inscription for the tomb of a friend's favourite
doc, which has been admitted into the Anthology of Brunck and
Jacobs among the epigrams by tmcertain authors (Jacobs IV. 285,
dcclv.). The following translation was found in MS. on the margin of
the British Museum copy of " The Sexagenarian, or the Kecollectious
of a Literary Life," by W. Beloe, where the original is given (;2nd ed.
1818, I. 231):

WILLIAM WHITEHEAD. 405

Pass not whoe'er thou art this marble by,
Nor smile with scorn tho' here a spaniel lie ;

My master mourn'd my loss, aud placed me here
To prove hia sorrow and his love sincere.

WILLIAM WHITEHEAD,

Bom in 1715, the son of a baker at Cambridge, was a sizer, and
subsequently Fellow, of Clare Hall. He became tutor to the son of
the third Earl of Jersey, and gradually rose into notice as a poet and
dramatic writer. In 1758, on the death of Colley Cibber, he was
appointed Poet-Laureate, an office which had fallen into contempt
through the incapacity and servility of Cibber, but which he raised to
much of its former dignity. For some years after he became Laureate,
he lived in Lord Jersey's house as a companion and friend, and died
there in 1785.

JE NE SAIS QUO I.

Yes, I'm in love, I feel it now,

And Caslia has undone me !
And jet I'll swear I can't tell how

The pleasing plague stole on me.

'Tis not her face which love creates,

For there no graces revel ;
'Tis not her shape, for there the fates

Have rather been uncivil.

Tis not her air, for sure in that

There's nothing more than common ;

And all her sense is only chat.
Like any other woman.

Her voice, her touch might give th' alarm—
'Twas both perhaps or neither;

In short, 'twas that provoking charm
Of Caelia altogether.

Herrick exprfases tin- indiireronce with which love regards defrcfci
n hifl lines, " Love Dialikca Nuthing," of which the lust two staiizaH
are :

406 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Be she whole, or be she rent.
So my fancie be content,
She's to me most excellent.

Be she fat, or be she leane.
Be she sluttish, be she cleane,
I'm a man for ev'ry sceane.

And Sir Charles Sedley, in his ode " To Cloris," takes the same
view as Whitehead in his concluding stanza, though with the dift'erence
that Cloris had all the beauties in which Cselia was defective :

No drowning man can know which drop
Of water his last breath did stop :
So when the stars in heaven appear,
And join to make the night look clear,
The light we no one's bounty call,
But the obliging gift of all.

INSCBIPTION FOB A COLD BATH.

Whoe'er thou art, approach. — Has med'cine fail'd ?

Have balms and herbs essay'd their poveers in vain ?
Nor the free air, nor fost'ring sun prevail'd

To raise thy drooping strength, or soothe thy pain ?

Yet enter here. Kor doubt to trust thy frame

To the cold bosom of this lucid lake.
Here Health may greet thee, and life's languid flame.

E'en from its icy grasp new vigour take.

What soft Ausonia's genial shores deny,

May Zembla give. Then boldly trust the wave :

So shall thy grateful tablet hang on high,

And frequent votaries bless tlais healing cave.

A pretty epigram, translated from the Latin, " On a Natural Grotto,
near a Deep Stream," may be compared with Whitehead's Inscription
("Elegant Extracts"):

Health, rose-lipp'd cherub, haunts this spot.

She slumbers oft in yonder nook :
If in the shade you find her not.

Plunge — and you'U find her in tlie brook.

407
RICHARD JAGO,

A clergyman who held the livings of Snitterfield in Warwickshire,
and Kimcote in Leicestershire, was born in 1715. He was an intimate
friend of Shenstune, witli whom he regularly corresponded. His life
was retired, and poetry was his recreation. He died in 1781.

ABSENCE.

With leaden foot Time creeps along,

While Delia is away,
AVith her, nor plaintive was the song,

Nor tedious was the day.

Ah ! envious pow'r ! reverse my doom,

Now double thy career.
Strain ev'ry nerve, stretch ev'ry plume,

And rest them when she's here.

Biitnca shows how tedious are the hours during a lover's absence:
when she says to Cassio (" Othello," Act HI. sc. 4):

What ! keep a week away? Seven days and nights ?
Eight score eight hours ? and lovers' absent hours,
More tedious than the dial eight score times ?
O weary reckoning !

THOxMAS GRAY.
Born 1716. Died 1771.

THE ENQUIRY.

With Beauty and Pleasure surrounded, to languish —
To weep without knowing the cause of my ang-uish ;
To start from short slumbers, and wish for the morning—
To close my dull eyes when I see it returning ;
Sighs sudden and frequent, looks ever dejected —
Words that steal from my tongue, by no meaning connected I
Ah, say, fellow-swains, how these symptoms befel me?
They smile, but reply not — Sure Delia can tell me !

We may compare a passage in the '' Cistellaria" of Plautus (Act II.
8C. Ij, thus traiislfttid by Warner:

I'm toss'd, tormented, agitated,

Prick'd, rack'd upon tlio wheel of love; distracted,

Tom, fainting am I hurried round ; and thus

408 MODERN EPIGKAMMATISTS.

My inmost mind is in a cloud ; that where
I am, I am not; where I am not, there
My mind is. Such are all my faculties :
I like, and like not, as the moment passes.
Fatigued in mind, thus Love does draw me on,
Pursues, drives, drags me, seizes, and retains,
Drains me to nothing, and then gives me all :
All that he gives retracts, and so deludes me.

These descriptions, in which the lover is represented as having no
control over himself, the mind and body being in different plai-es,
recalls a singularly beautiful Greek epigram by Callimachus (Jacobs I.
212, iv.) on the Divided Soul. The translation is by Merivale:

Half of my soul yet breathes : the rest

I know not whether
Cupid or Hades have possest ;

'Tis altogether
Vanished. Among the virgin train

Perhaps 'tis straying —
O ! send the wanderer home again,

Or chide its staying !
Perhaps on fair Cephisa's breast

'Tis captive lying.
Of old it sought that haven of rest.

When almost dying.

TOPHET.

Thus Tophet look'd ; so grinn'd the brawling fiend.
Whilst frighted prelates bow'd, and call'd him friend.
Our Mother Church, with half-averted sight,
Blush'd as she bless'd her grisly proselyte ;
Hosannas rung thro' hell's tremendous borders,
And Satan's self had thoughts of taking orders.

These severe lines were written under an etching of the head of the
Rev. Henry Etough, of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. An account of
this clergyman is given in the " Gentleman's Magazine," LVI. 25, by
the Rev. John Buncombe, who says : " Mr. Etough was, in truth, an
ecclesiastical phenomenon, and a most eccentric, dangerous character.
He began his career by setting out from Glasgow with a pack on his
back, being a Scotch Presbyterian, afterwards hallooed in election
mobs at Lynn, and, in consequence, being worshipped like the devil by
the Indians, through fear, he was converted, ordained, and preferred,
by the means of Sir Robert Walpole ; the valuable rectory of Tljerfield,

in Hertfordshire, and another, being his reward I remembei

Mr. Etough often in company at Cambridge, where he attended at the
Commencements. Odd was his iigure, and mean and nasty his ap-

THOMAS GRAY. 409

parol : his stockin,2;s were blue, darned, and coarse, and without feet ;
and so hot and reeking was his head, that, when he entered a room, he

often hung up his wig on a peg, and sat bare-headed " This

amusing description is stated by another correspondent in the same
volume (p. 2S1) to be in some respects untrue. He denies the story of
the •' pack,'' and anxiously asserts Mr. Etough's cleanliness, declaring
that he enjoyed '• a very general washing twice in a day," with other
particulars to that gentleman's credit.

ON HIMSELF.

Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune,

He bad not tbe method of making a fortune ;

Could love and could bate, so was tbougbt something odd ;

No very great wit, be believed in a God ;

A post or a pension be did not desiie.

But left Cburcb and State to Cbarles Townsbend and Squire.

This was written in 1761, in which year Charles Townshend was
made Secretary-at-War. The epigram probably alludes to the in-
fluence which that statesman exercised in the House of Commons,
by his eloquence and power of argument. " He is the orator ; the rest
are speakers," was said of him in comparison with Barre, Conway, and
others.

Dr. Samuel Squire was Dean of Bristol, and in 1761 was consecrated
Bishop of S. David's.

ON LORD SANDWICH.

The most severe of Gray's severe epigrams is " On Lord Sandwich,
on the occasion of his standing for the High Stewardship of Cambridge,"
which commences :

Wben sly Jemmy Twitcher bad smugg'd up bis face
With a lick of court whitewash and pious grimace,
A wooing be wont where three sisters of old,
In harmless society guttle and scold.

It cannot with propriety be inserted in this collection, but is Uw
remarkable in it.sill', and in its effect, to be passed over without com-
ment. In 17<;4, on the death of the liret Earl of Hardwicke, there was
a contest for the oilice of High Steward of the University of Cambridge,
between Lord Sandwich and the second Ivirl of liardwick(;. The former
was noted for his tahiits as a politician and liis immorality as a man,
but notwithstanding his evil life, lie was sujiported by a large' body of
the electors. Gray, who, severe though he was, never jiut pen to paper
without a good object, deteiTOined to endeavour, by the iniluenoe of

410 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

satire, to avert the disgrace which the election of such a man would
bring upon the University. Lord Hardwicke had a majority, and it
is said that the epigram was the cause of the election being decided
against Lord Sandwich, — a singular instance of the power of well-
directed satire. There was a strong feeling on the subject of the
election. The undergraduates scouted Lord Sandwich, and a notice
was dropped in the rooms of those of Trinity :

" If you've any spirit don't dine in hall to-day."

Their absence from hall roused the anger of the Master, Dr. Robert
Smith, who favoured Lord Sandwich, and several were expelled. A
paper was afterwards put about for Repentants to sign. Happily now-
a-days undergraduates would neither be expelled, nor expected to re-
pent, for showing their disgust at a man of Lord Sandwich's character,
who (Churchill's " The Candidate")

Wrought sin with greediness, and sought for shame
With greater zeal than good men seek for fame.

DAVID GAREICK.

Born 1716. Died 1779. The main incidents in the life of this great
actor are so well known that no account of him is necessary. The posi-
tion which he held in the public estimation in comparison with the
other actors of the day, may be gathered from the following contempo-
rary epigram by the Rev. Richaid Kendal, of Peterhouse, Cambridge
(" Poetical Register" for 1810-11, 369), in which he is compared with
Barry, in the character of King Lear :

The town has found out different ways

To praise its ditferent Lears ;
To Barry it gives louil huzzas,

To Garrick only tears.

A king ? Aye, every inch a king —

Such Ban y doth appear :
But Garrick' s quite another thing ;

He's every inch King Lear.

The following epigrams are taken from " The Poetical Works of
David Garrick, Esq., ' in two vols., 1785.

ON LORD CAMDEN'S PROMOTION.

Soon after Lord Camden, in 17f6, was made Lord Chancellor, his
purse-bearer, Mr. Wilmot, called upon Garrick, and hearing that he
had not yet paid his congratulatory compliments to the Chancellor, a
conversation ensued which furnished Garrick with the subject of the

DAVID GARRICK. 411

following epigram, in which he turned an imputed neglect into an
elegant panegyric :

Wilmot. You should call at his house, or should send him
a card ;
Can Garrick alone be so cold ?
Gairick. Shall I a poor player, and still poorer bard,
Shall Folly with Camden make bold ?
What joy can I give him, dear Wilmot declare ?

Promotion no honours can bring ;
To him the Great Seals are but labour and care,
Wish joy to your Country and King.

His "Country and King" had not long the benefit of Pratt's talents
as Chancellor. An epigram on his retirement from that dignity may
fitly find a place here. Upon the opening of the session of 1770, he
declared his opposition to the Government of the Duke of Grafton, and
was consequently desired to resign the Great Seal. Jeremiah Mark-
land, a learned critic. Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, wrote at that
time to Bowypr, the printer, in reference to politics: "I had expressed

rav apprehensions in many political squibs anil crackers The

laist was this ' Nichols' " Literary Anecdotes," IV. 298) ; ' To the Duke
of Grafton'":'

How strangely Providence its ways conceals !
From Pratt it takes, Yorke it takes from, the Seals.
Restore them not to Pratt, lest men should say
Thou'st done one useful thing in this thy day.

Charles Yorke, second son of the first Earl of Hardwicke, received
the Great Seal January 17, 1770, and died suddenly three days alter
his promotion.

VERSES WRITTEN IN SYLVIA'S PRIOR.

Untouch'd by love, unmov'd by wit,

I found no charms in Matthew's lyre,
But unconcern'd read all he writ,

Though Love and Thoebua did inspire :
'Till Sylvia took her favourite's part,

Rcsolv'd to prove my judgment wrong ;
Her proofs prevail'd, they reach'd my heart,

And soon I felt the poet's song.

Sliakeapoare, in *' Winter's Tale," express(;8 the power of a c^tpti-
vating woman to make others agree in opinion with her (Act V.
BC. 1):

412 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

This is a creature,
Would she begin a sect, mi^fht quench the zeal
Of all professors else ; make proselytes
Of who she but bid follow.

UPON A LADY'S EMBROIDERY.

Arachne onoe, as poets tell,
A goddess at her art defied ;

But soon the daring mortal fell
The hapless victim of her pride.

then beware Arachne's fate,
Be prudent, Cioe, and submit ;

For you'll more surely feel her hate,
Who rival both her Art and Wit.

The following epigram, on one who rivalled Flora in art and beauty
is in the " Festoon." " On Flowers embroidered by a Young Lady " ;

Tills charming bed of flow'rs when Flora spied.
By Flavia's needle wrought ; enrag'd, she cried ;
Still to be vanquish'd by her is my doom ;
Mine early fade, but hers sliall ever bloom ;
Bloom like her face, that stings me to the heart ;
Surpass'd in beauty as excell'd in art.

ON JOHNSON'S DICTIONARY. 1755.

Talk of war with a Briton, he'll boldly advance,
That one English soldier will beat ten of France ;
Would we alter the boast from the sword to the pen,
Our odds are still greater, still greater our men : *

In the deep mines of science though Frenchmen may toil,
Can their strength he compared to Locke, Newton, and

Boyle?
Let them rally their heroes, send forth all their pow'rs,
Tiieir verse-men, and prose-men ; then match them with

ours !
First Shakespeare and Milton, like gods in the fight,
Have put their whole drama and epic to flight ;
In satires, epistles, and odes would they cope.
Their numbers retreat before Dryden and Pope ;

DAVID GARRICK. 413

And Johnson, well-arm'd, like a hero of yore,
Has beat forty French, and will beat forty more.

The last line of the epigram refers to the forty merabei's of the
French Academy, who were for thirty years employed in compiling
the dictionary of their language.

QUIX'S SOLILOQUY ON SEEING THE EMBALMED BODY
OF DUKE HUMPHREY AT S. ALBANS.

A plague on Egypt's arts, I say !
Embalm the dead ! on senseless clay

Eich wines and spices waste !
Like sturgeon, or like brawn, shall I
Bound in a precious pickle, lie,

Which I can never taste ?

Let me embalm this tlesh of mine
With turtle-fat, and Bordeaux wine,

And spoil th' Egyptian trade !
Than Humphrey's Duke more happy I —
Embalm'd alive, old Quin shall die

A mummy ready made.

The embalmed body of Humphrey, the good Duke of Gloucester, was
di/scovered in 1703 in S. Albans' Abbcy-ohurch.

James Quin, the celebrated actor, and rival of Garrick, was noted as
an epicure, and was luxurious' in his descriptions of the turtle and
venison feasts at which he had been present. He thought angling a
very cruel diversion ; and on being asked why, gave this reason : " Sup-
iwse some superior being sliould bait a hook with venison, and go a
quinning ; I should certainly bite, and what u figure I should make
dangling in the air !" An epigram in which Quin is introduced will
be found under Hogartli.

The conclusion at which Quin arrives in his soliloquy is exprcsseil in
a passage in the 4tli Ode of Anacrcon, which Fawkes thus translates :

Why on the tomb are odours shed ?
Why pour libations to the dead?
To mc far better, while I live,
Kich wines and balmy fragrance give.

An epigram by Graves shows how notorious was Quin's love of gcKxl
living. It is entitled "Tlie Epicure. To W. Mdls, Esq., of Warden's
Hall, Essex, on a late Act of Generosity " (" Eupbrosyne," 1783, I.
119):

414 MODEEN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

You call it luxury, when, in all his glory,
Quin loads his plate with turtle and John-Dory;
Or snuffs the pinsjuid haunch's sav'ry steam.
And crowns the feast with jellies and ic'd cream.
But when, with more indulgence, you employ
Your wealth to give the pensive bosom joy ;
When by one lib'ral act, the mind's best treat !
You make a brother's happiness complete ;
There is, you'll own, tho' rarely understood,
The higljest luxury in doing good ;
Nay, view his heart, and Quin will grant, I'm sure,
The gen'rous man's the truest epicure.

The act of generosity was, that Mr. Mills took his brother one morn-
ing to the Bank, and transferred ten thousand pounds to him as a
present.

Garrick wrote the following epitaph on Quin, thus testifying his
appreciation of his talents and character, though the rivalry between
them had prevented any close bond of intimacy :

That tongue, which set the table on a roar.

And charm'd the public ear, is heard no more !

Clos'd are those eyes, the harbingers of wit,

Which spoke, before the tongue, what Shakespeare writ ;

Cold are those hands, which, living, were stretch'd forth,

At friendship's call to succour modest worth.

Here lies James Quin ! deign, reader, to be taught

(Whate'er thy strength of body, force of thought.

In nature's happiest mould however cast),

To this complexion thou must come at last.

EPITAPH FOB HOGARTH'S MONUMENT IN CHISWICK

CHURCHYARD.

Farewell, great painter of mankind.
Who reach'd the noblest point of art;

Whose picturd morals charm the mind.
And through the eye correct the heart !

If genius fire thee, reader, stay ;

If nature touch thee, drop a tear : —
If neither move thee, turn away,

For Hogarth's honour'd dust lies here.

Dr. Johnson also wrote an epitaph on Hogarth, which for its fulness
and, at the same time, its brevity may be preferred to Garrick's :

HORACE WALPOLE, EARL OF OEFORD. -115

The hand of him here torpid lies,

That drew the essential form of grace ;

Here closed in death the attentive eyes,
That saw the manners in the face.

Garrick may, perhaps, have taken the idea for his first stanza from a
Latin poem, by Vinct-nt Bourne, on the pictures of Hogarth, addressed
to the artist, in which he calls him

Corrector grave, nor wanting grace of touch.

And concludes thus :

Impartial and just is your censure ;
More useful than the roughness of satire.
Or the laugh most severe of the scornful.

The last line of Johnson's epitaph may have been suggested by
the praise which Pliny the elder bestowed upon Zeuxis, saying of his
picture of Penelope : '• He painted the maniiers of that queen."

HORACE WALPOLE, EARL OF ORFORD.
Bom 1718. Died 1797.

ON ADMIRAL VERNON'S APPOINTMENT TO PRESIDE
OVER TEE HERRING FISHERY. 1750.

Long in the senate had brave Yemen rail'd,
And all mankind with bitter tongue assail'd :
Sick of his noise, we wearied Heav'n with pray'r,
In his own element to place the tar.
The gods at length have yielded to our wish,
And bade him rule o'er Billingsgate and fish.

Of Admiral Vernon, Chamock says : " Of all men who have been
fortunate en(jugh to obtain celebrity as naval commanders, few appear
to have taken greater pains to sully their public fame by giving full
scope to all tlieir private feelings ;" and unfortunately he chose the
House of Commons, in which lie sat as member for Ipswich, as the
arena for the display of extravagance of conduct and temper.

416 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ON ARCHBISHOP SECKER. 1758.

The bench hath oft 'posed ns, and set us a-scoffing,
By signing Will. London, John Sarum, John Roffen ;
But this head of the Church no expounder will want,
For his Grace signs his own proper name. Thomas CJant.

This was written in the year in which Dr. Seeker was translated to
Canterbury. It does not appear that the sarcasm was deserved, but
we learn from Nichols' " Literary Anecdotes " that, in conseqiience of it,
the Archbishop was commonly called " Thomas Cant " by the clergy of
Kent. Cant, was the abbreviation for Cantuaria, generally used by the
Archbisliops. Cornwallis, who followed Seeker, made nO' change, but
the next Primate, Dr. Moore, wrote " Citntuar.," and his successors
have since done the same. It is, perhaps, an allowable conjecture that
Dr. Moore had Walpole's epigram in mind, and, dreading to be called
Joliu Cant by his clergy, changed the signature to John Cantuar.,
which certainly has a more dignified appearance.

The following epigram, in " Elegant Extracts," on the death of
Archbishop Seeker, displays his character in a very bright light :

While Seeker liv'd, he show'd how seers should live ;

"Wbile Seeker taught, hea\ en open'd to our eye ;
When Seeker gave, we knew how angels give ;

When Seeker died, we knew e'en saints must die.

EPITAPHIUM VIVI AUCTORIS. 1792.

An estate and an earldom at seventy-four !

Had I sought them or wish'd them, 'twould add one fearf

more.
That of making a countess when almost four-score.
But Fortune, who scatters her gifts out of season,
Though uukind to my limbs, has still left me my reason ;
And whether she lowers or lifts me, I'll try
In the plain simple style I have liv'd in, to die ;
For ambition too humble, for meanness too high.

It is well known that when Horace Walpole succeeded to the earldom
by the death of his nephew, and to the fortune annexed to it, he made
no difference in his manner of living, and did not even take his seat in
the House of Lords.

The following lines by Cowper, though written as an " Inscription
for a Moss-house in the Shrubbery at Weston," may be well applied tc
Horace Walpole's life at Strawberry Hill :

HORACE WALPOLE, EARL OF ORFORD. 417

Here free from Riot's hated noise,
Be mine the calmer, purer joys,

A book or friend bestows ;
Far from the storms that shake the great,
Contentment's gale shall fan my seat,

And sweeten my repose.

ON MADAME DE FOECALQUIER SPEAKING ENGLISH.

1766.

Soft sounds that steal from fair Forcalquier's lips,
Like bee that murmuring the jasmine sips !
Are these my native accents ? None so sweet,
So gracious, yet my ravish'd ears did meet.
O pow'r of beauty ! thy enchanting look
Can melodize each note in nature's book.
The roughest wrath of ruflSans, when they swear,
Pronoiinc'd by thee, flows soft as Indian air ;
And dulcet breath, attemper'd by thine eyes,
Gives British prose o'er Tuscan verse the prize.

Allan Ramsay paid a pretty compliment of like character to a lady :

A poem wrote without a tliought.
By notes may to a song be brought,
Tiio' wit be scarce, low the design,
And numbers lame in ev'ry line :
But when Mr Christy this shall sing,
In consort with the trembling string,
O then the poet's often prais'd.
For charms so sweet a voice hath rais'd.

TO MADAME DE DAMAS, LEARNING ENGLISH.

Though British accents your attention fire,
You cannot learn so fast as we admire.
Scholars like you but slowly can improve,
For who would teach you but the verb, I love ?

This beautiful epigram does not appear in Horace Walpole's Works.
5 vols. 4to, 1798 (where the previous ones are found), but is always
ascrited to him.

The master is often more anxious to teach than the pupil to learn.
Perhaps IMa<lame de Daman may have been lik(! tlie lady addressf^d in
tlie following epigram, who sigiied, but not for love,— a lesson whicli
she r/)uld not acquire (" Wit's Interpreter. The English Parnassus,"
1671. 241; :

2 E

418 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Where did you borrow that last sigh.

And that relenting groan ?
For those that sigh and not for love,

Usurp what's not their own.
Love's arrows sooner armour pierce.

Than your soft snowy skin ;
Your eyes can only teach us love,

But cannot take it in.

DK. JAMES FORDYCE,

A dissenting teacher of some eminence, was born at Aberdeen about
1720; was for many years minister of a congregation in Monkwell
Street, London ; and died at Bath in 1796. He published a volume of
Poems in 1786.

TBUE BEAUTY.

The diamond's and the ruby's blaze

Disputes the palm with Beauty's queen :

Not Beauty's queen commands such praise,
Devoid of virtue if she's seen.

But the soft tear in Pity's eye

Outshines the diamond's brightest beams ;

But the sweet blush of Modesty

More beauteous than the ruby seems.

This very beautiful epigram is ascribed in this form to Dr. Fordyce
in Pearch's " Collection of Poems," 1783, I. 297. In the author's
Poems, published in 1786 (p. 3), tlie stanzas appear, with some varia-
tion, as the first two of a piece entitled " Virtue and Ornament ; an Ode
for the Ladies " :

The diamond's and the ruby's rays
Shine with a milder, finer flame.
And more attract our love and praise
Than Beauty's self if lost to fame.

But the sweet tear in Pity's eye

Transcends the diamond's brightest beams ;

And the soft blush of Modesty
More precious than the ruby seems.

On the subject of beauty enhanced by pity, Professor Carlyle has
translated a piece from the Arabic addressed to a lady weeping. The
author is Ebn Alrumi, reckoned by Arabian writers one of the most

Dh. JAMES FOEDTCE. 419

• xcellent of their poets. He died about a.d. 905 ("Specimens of
Arabiau Poetry," 1796, 75) :

When I beheld thy blue eye shine
Tkro' tLe bright diop that pity drew,

I saw beneath those tears of thine
A blue-eyed violet bathd in dew.

And thus thy charms in brightness rise
When wit and pleasure round thee play.

When mirth sits smiling in thine eyes,
Who but admires their sprightly ray ?

But when thro' pity's flood they gleam,

Who but must hve their soften'd beam ?

UN TWO NEIGHBOURS WHO DIED AT THE SAME TIME.

" My neighbour Thornton cannot live a day,"
Cried honest Jones then in a deep decay.
" Jones cannot live a day," cried Thornton, broke
With cruel gout, though still he lov'd a joke.
To think himself might die each one was loth :
Before the day expir'd, Death seiz'd them both.

■■ Honest" Samuel Jones, we learn from the " Gentleman's Magazine "
in a note on the above lines, in a review of " Select Epigrams," 1797,
was a watclimaker, and a well-known character at Bath. During the
season his shop was frequented by the nobility and gentry, witli whom
he was'delighted to argue on religious subjects, and, having no respect
of persons, he was accustomed to use the rudest language to those wlioso
opinions difl'ered from his own singularly enthusiastic ones. Notwith-
standing his eccentricities, he was much respected, and for some time
after his death, in 1794, his portrait adorned the pump-room (" Gentle-
man's Magazine," LXVHI. Part H. G03). As the epigram was published
in Fordyce'a Poems, in 1786, either the " Gentleman's Magazine " must
be incorrect in its statement that it refers to Samuel Jones, the watch-
maker, or else the epigrammatist killed him before his time in the last
line of the epigram.

420 MODERN EPIGEAMMATISTS.

JAMES LAMBERT.

This gentleman was a clergyman, Senior Fellow of Trinity College.
Cambridge, and was Greek Professor in 1772. "Mo further particulars
of him have been discovered.

ON THE TORSO OF TEE ELEUSINIAN CERES, THE FACE
OF WHICH IS ENTIRELY OBLITERATED.

(From a manuscript.)

The Goddess speaks.

Scorn me not, fair ones ! 'Tis as sad as true,
I once was lovely and ador'd like you ;
But hither brought to beauty's favour'd shore,
I stand abash'd, and — show my face no more.

The first two lines of the epigram bear a striking resemblance to the
first stanza of a long epitaph on a lady, given in Hackett's " Select and
Remarkable Epitaphs," 1757, II. 94 :

Blush not, ye fair, to own me, but be wise,
Nor turn from sad mortality your eyes :
Fame says, and Fame alone can tell how true,
I once was lovely and beloved like you.

The remains of the colossal statue of the Eleusinian Ceres stand in
the vestibule of the public library at Cambridge, having been brought
from Greece by Dr. Edward Daniel Clarke and John Martin Cripps.
The former of these travellers was the grandson of "Mild William
Clarke and Anne his wife." In acknowledgment of his services in
bringing the statue and other treasures to England, the University con-
ferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. In reference
to this, and to another Cambridge man of the name of Clarke, who was
distinguished as a violin player, tlie following epigram was composed :

Dan Clarke and his namesake for honour applied ;
The fii'st was accepted, the last was denied :
Yet their merits are equal, 'tis very well known.
For the last mov'd a stick, and the first mov'd a stone.

DK. JOSEPH WARTON,

Who was eminent as a scholar and a critic, and was not without
merit as a poet, was born in 1722, and educated at Winchester College,
of which in after life he became Head Master. His preferment in the

DK. JOSEPH WARTON. 421

Church was slow, but he eventually held several livings, and pre-
bendal stalls in S. Paul's and Winchester Catliedrals. Among his
friends were the whole of that class who composed Dr. Johnson's famous
club, the literary giants of the day, and he seems to have been highly
esteemed by all. He died in 1800.

THE STRAIN.

That strain again ! that strain repeat !
Alas ! it is not now so sweet !
Oh ! it came o'er my mournful mind,
Like murmurs of the southern wind.
That steal along the violet's bed,
And gently bend the cowslip's head ;
'Twas suited to my pensive mood,
'Twas hopeless love's delicious food.

This exquisite piece is grounded on (acknowledged by the author to
be so_) the opening of Sliakespeare's " Twelfth Night'" :

If music be the food of love, play on.

Give me excess of it ; that, surfeiting,

The appetite may sicken, and so die. —

That strain again ; — it had a dying fall :

O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet Soutli,

That breathes upon a bank of violets,

Stealing-, and giving odour. — Enough ; no more ;

'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.

The late Mr, Keble's beautiful stanza in his " Morning Hymn," on
" Tiiat Strain Again,'" will be remembered :

As for some dear familiar strain
"Untir'd we ask. and ask again,
Ever, in its melodious store.
Finding a spell unheard before.

TO DR. BALGUY,

» in liraring a sermon preached by him at "Winchester Cathedral on the
text, " Wisdom is Sorrow."

I f what you advance, my dear Doctor, be true.
That wisdom is sorrow — how wretched are you !

Tills distich is not found in Warton's " Poetical Works," but is ascribed
to him in scvt^ral publications. It recalls Gray's well-known dictum e.t
the close of his " Ode on a distant prospect of Eton College " :

Where ignorance is bliss,
Tis folly to be wise.

4.22 MODERN EPIGEAMMATISTS.

There is a good Oxford story connected with these lines. Some
years ago there was in tliat city an auctioneer named Wise. At a sale
of books, Dr. Philip Bliss, the lexirned editor of Wood's " Athenaj," was
present in the auction-rooms, and dissented from a statement made bv
Wise with regard to a volume he -was puffing oft'. The auctioneer, no't
liking to have the price, which he hoped to get for the book, lessened,
looked across at the Doctor, and coolly remarked : " Since ignorance is
Blus, 'tis folly to be Wine."

Dr. Bliss edited with great care and with valuable notes " Reliquise
Herniana;." An admirer is said to have inscribed on the fly-leaf of his
copy the following quatrain (" Notes and Queries," 2nd S. III. 40; :

Time once complained of Tliomas Hearne,

" Whatever I forget you learn."
Now Time's complamt is changed to tins :

" What Hearne forgot is learned by Bliss."

The reference in these lines is to the well-known epigram " On Time
and Thomas Hearne " (the expletives are necessarily altered) (Horace
Walpole's Works, 1798, I. 204) :

Bother't ! quoth Time to Thomas Hearne,
Wliatever I'd forget you learn.

This was answered by Jlr. Polyglot, otherwise Richard West, son of
Mr. West, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and a grandson of Bishop
Burnet :

Hang it ! cries Hearne, in furious fret,

Whate'er I learn you'll soon forget.

JOHN HOME,

Bom in Roxburghshire in 1724, became a Presbyterian minister, but
liaving an ambition to shine as a dramatic writer, his position was verv
distasteful to him, and his play of " Douglas," which in 1756 was per-
formed in Edinburgh, causing a great scandal on account of his pro-
fession, he resigned his living, and retired from all ecclesiastical duties.
He produced several other plays, but they were all failures in com-
parison with " Douglas." In 1778 he received a captain's commission
in a regiment of militia raised by the Duke of Buccleuch. He died
in 1808.

THE SCOTCHMAN'S POISON.

For many years Government had allowed claret, for which Mr
Home had a great partiality, to be imported into Scotland under the
lower duties applicable to a beverage called Southampton port. At
length, however, the higher duties were stringently enforced, which
occasioned the following epigram, preserved in Lockhart's "Life of Sir
Walter Scott":

WILLIAM MASON. 423

Bold and erect the Caledonian stood,

Old was his mutton, and his claret good :

" Let him drink port," the English statesman cried —

He di'ank the poison, and his spirit died.

Mr. Home pronounced his name Hume, but persisted in the old
Kpelling. His friend David Hume left him by will " ten dozen of ok!
claret, and one bottle of the hquor called port, provided that he attests
under his hand, signed John Hume, that he finished the bottle at two
sittings ; by which he will terminate the only diflference that ever arose
between us in temporal matters." It may be presumed that Mr. Home
was for once willing, for the sake of the claret, to conform to his friend's
mode of spelUng their name.

WILLIAM MASON.

Born 1725. Died 1797.

INSCRIPTION UNDER A PICTURE OF THE EDITOR OF
SHAKESPEARE'S MANUSCRIPTS. 1796.

Four Forgers, born in one prolific age,

Much critical acumen did engage.

The first was soon by doughty Douglas scar'd,

Though Johnson would have screen'd him, had he dar'd ;

The next had all the cunning of a Scot ;

The third invention, genius — nay, what not?

Fraud, now exhausted, only could dispense

To her fourth son their threefold impudence.

This is a parody of the celebrated epigram by Dryden on Homer,
Virgil, and Milton. The four forgers were Lauder, Macpherson, Chat-
terton, and Ireland. It is sometimes ascribed to Stecveus.

William Lauder, a Scotchman, published an essay in which, by means
(>f forged interpolations amongst a mass of true quotations, he en-
deavoured to sliow that Milton was indebted to modern Latin poets for
many parts of the " Paradise Lost." Dr. Douglas, afterwards Bisho|) ot
Salisbury, detected and exposed the fraud. Ho is introduced by Gold-
Bmith ia " Ketaliation " :

Here Douglas retires from his toils to relax,
The scourge of impostors, the terror of quacks.

Johnson was imposed upon, and wrote a preface to Laudei's eissay,
but there is not the slightest ground for imputing to him any desire to
screen the author, when he became aware of the iraud.

424 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

William Hall, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, wbo, from his
iutimacy with men of rank, and the dignity of his manners, was called
"Prince Hall," addressed a sonnet on the subject of Lauder's forgery
to Mr. Nicholas Hardinge, who was noted as an enthusiastic admirer of
Milton (Nichols' " Literary Anecdotes," VIII. 520) :

Hardinge ! firm advocate of Milton's fame !

Avenge the honour of his injur'd muse !

The bold Salmasius dar'd not so accuse,
And brand him, living, with a felon's name !
More hellish falsehood could not Satan frame

Arch forger, cursed poison to infuse

In Eve's chaste ear, her freedom to abuse :
That lurking fiend, — Ithuriel's arm and flame,
Ethereal gifts, detected : up arose

In his own form the toad : But this new plot
Thou hast an arm and spear, that can expose :

With lashes keen, drive, to that trait'rous spot,
The nurse of base impostors, to his snows,

And barren mountains, the blaspheming Scot !

James Macpherson was, like Lauder, a Scotchman. He published
translations of poems from the Erse language, which he asserted were
the composition of Ossian, the son of Fingal, who flourished in the
third century. Dr. Johnson enquired into the subject, and declared
his belief that the poems were a forgery ; and it appears by a letter
from Bishop Percy to Dr. Graham (Nichols' "Illustrations of Literary
Hist.," VIII. 418), that before his death Macpherson acknowledged to
Sir John Elliot, " he had no genuine originals of Ossian's composition."

Thomas Chatterton, whose forgery consisted in publishing his own
compositions as the poems of Rowley, who lived in the fifteenth century,
was an infidel in profession and a libertine in practice ; and as he was
the most precocious in genius, so was he the most circumstantial in
falsehood, of the literary forgers of the age. That his suicide was pre-
meditated is undoubted ; and that a year before the idea was present
to his mind, is shown by the following lines from his pen, dated 1769
(Chatterton'a " Poems," with Notes, Cambridge, 1842, II. 439) :

Since we can die but once, what matters it,
If rope or garter, poison, pistol, sword.
Slow-wasting sickness, or the sudden burst
Of valve arterial in the noble parts.
Curtail the miseries of human life ?
Tho' varied is the cause, the effect's the same :
All to one common dissolution tends.

In 1838 it was proposed to erect a monument to his memory at Bristol,
for which the following epitaph was prepared by the Rev. John Eagles
/• Notes and Queries," 2nd S. IV. 32*5) :

A poor and friendless boy was he, — to whom
Is raised this monument, without a tomb.

WILUAM MASON. 425

There seek his dust, there o'er his genius sigh.
Where famished outcasts unrecorded lie.
Here let his name, for here his genius rose
To might of ancient days, in peace repose !

The wondrous boy ! to more than want consigned,

To cold neglect — worse famine of the mind ;

All uncongenial the bright world within

To that without of darkness and of sin.

He lived a mystery — died ! Here, reader, pause ;

Let God be Judge, and mercy plead the cause.

This is very sentimental and very untrue. Chatterton was not friend-
less, nor was he consigned to want or neglect. He chose to leave Bristol,
where he had many friends, to seek his fortune in London, where he
had none ; and, when he failed, was too proud to return to his native
city. To complain of the " cold neglect " of the world with regard to
a boy of eighteen, however great his genius, is quite preposterous. But
it was the fashion to consider he was neglected and starved, and
epigrams, such as the following, were written on him ("Asylum for
Fugitive Pieces," 1785, 118) :

All think, now Chatterton is dead,

His works are worth preserving !
Yet no one, when he was alive,

Would keep the bard from starving !

Johnson, Goldsmith, and a hundred otiiers, who were nearly starved
at eighteen, persevered and won their way to fame, as Chatterton might
have done, had hhi character been of a higher stamp.

Samuel Ireland, under whose portrait Mason's epigram was written,
produced, in conjunction with his son William Henry, a large quantity
of manuscripts which he asserted were in the hand-writing of Shake-
speare, consisting of poems, letters, and one entire play, entitled
" Vortigern and Itowena." Many critics, among whom were Dr. Parr,
Boswell, and George Chalmers, subscribed to the authenticity of the
forged MSS. L;eland published a list of tlie names, upon which
Steevens wrote to Bishop Percy : " I am very poor, and had a serious
regard for the £1000 I subscribed to Mr. Pitt's loan, by which even then
I expected to be a loser; but if any one would double that sum, and
give it into my hands at this very moment, I would refuse the present,
if the terms of it were, that my signature should be found on that
register of ••ihame^Mr. Ireland's list of believers " (^Nichols' " Illustra-
tions of Literary History," Vll. 9j.

EPITAPH ON JOHN DEALTEY, M.D., IN YORK MINSTEU.

Here o'er the tomb where Dealtry's ashes sleep,
See Health in emblematic anguish weep

426 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

She drops her faded wreath ; " No more," she cries,'
" Let languid mortals with beseeching eyes,
Implore my feeble aid : it fail'd to save
My own and Nature's guardian from the grave."

The monument has a figure of Health, with her ancient insignia, in
alto-relievo, dropping a chaplet on the side of an urn.

With Mason's epitaph may be compared some lines by Jemingham :

Thus when the poisoned shafts of death are sped,
The plant of Gilead bows ht-r mournful head ;
The holy balm that heal'd another's pain
On her own wound distils its charm in vain.

EPITAPH ON THOMAS GRAY, ON HIS MONUMENT IN
WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

No more the Grecian muse unrivall'd reigns,
To Britain let the nations homage pay !

She boasts a Homer's fire in Milton's strains,
A Pindar's rapture in the lyre of Gray.

The comparison of Gray with the Theban Pindar, is elegantly made
in the following lines by Anna Seward, " Written in a Diminutive
Edition of Gray's Poems " :

All to the lofty ode that genius gives

Within these few and narrow pages lives ;

The Theban's strength, and more than Theban's grace,

A lyric universe in fairy space.

Note. — The most beautiful of Masons epitaphs is that on his wife,
iti which he was assisted by Gray. It is omitted because very long,
and well kuown.

DAYID GEAHAM,

Bom about 1726, was a Fallow of King's College, Cambridge, and a
barrister-at-law.

ON RICHARDSON'S NOVEL, " CLARISSA."
(Nichols' " Literary Anecdotes," IV. 584.)

This work is Nature's ; every tittle in't,
She wrote, and gave it Eichardson to print.

EDWARD JERNINGHAM. 427

" Mrs. Montagu's elegant compliment, in Lord Lyttelton's ' Dialogues
of the Dead, bttween Plutarch, Charon, and a Modern Bookseller,'
turns neaily on the same thought. ' It is pity he should print any work
but /ii»- own,' says Plutarch to the bookseller," referring to " Clarissa " and
" Sir Charles Grandison " (Nichols' " Literary Anecdotes," FV. 584).

The thought in the epigram was expressed in old time, in one of the
numerous Greek epigrams on Myron's Heifer. It is often ascribed to
Auacreon, but Jacobs places it among uncertain authors (Jacobs IV.
lt)3, ccxxviii.). The translation is by Fawkes :

This heifer is not cast, but rolling years
Harden'd the life to what it now appears :
Myron unjustly would the honour claim.
But Natui-e has prevented him in fame.

EDWARD JERNINGHAM,

Born in 1727, was descended from an ancient Eoman Catholic family
in Norfolk. He devoted himself to literature, and acquired consider-
able reputation as a poet. His death took place in 1812.

OiV SEEING MBS. MONTAGV'S PICTURE.

Had this fair form the mimic art displays
Adurn'd iu Roman time the brightest days,
In ev'ry dome, in ev'iy sacred place
Her statue would have breath'd an added grace,
And on its basis would have been enroll'd,
TJiis is Minerva cast in Virtue's mould.

This epigram is given to Dr. Johnson in Gilfillan's edition of his
" Poetical Works," but without sufficient authority. It is found in several
editions of Jeriiingham's Poems, i)ublislied in the lifetime of that poet.

The lady, whose picture drew forth these complimentary lines, was
the wife of Edward ISlfJutagu, grand.son of the first i''arl of Sandwich.
She was greatly distinguished for lier literary acquirements, and lias
gained lasting reputation by her " Essay on the Genius and Writings
of Sliake:ipeare," iu answer to the frivolous objections of ^'oltaire.
Jeruinj,'ham wrote another epigram on her, dated February 4th, 1785 ;
" Alluding to Mrs. Montagu's fall the preceding day, as she was going
down tin; stairs at St. James's ":

Ye radiant fair ! yo Hebes of the day,
Who heedless laugli your little hour away !
Lot caution be your guide, when uext yc sport
Within the precincts of the splendid court;

428 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Th' event of yesterday for prudence calls,
'Tis dangerous treading when Minerva falls.

That tlie first epigram is in Jemingham's style may be seen by the
follov/ing lines, written on seeing a landscape drawn by a lady, whicli
are very similar in phraseology. They are taken from a MS. in the
poet's J) and writing :

That tree, how drawn ! I know by whom,
'Twas by JMinerva, no, by Coombe ;
Whose father is a righteous man
Who forms his life on Virtue's plan !

TO A LADY, WHO LAMENTED SHE COULD NOT SING.

Oh ! give to Lydia, ye blest pow'rs, I cried,

A voice ! the only gift ye have denied.

" A voice !" sajs Venus, with a laughing air,

" A voice ! strange object of a lover's pray'r !

Say— shall your cbosen fair resemble most

Yon Philomel, whose voice is all her boast ?

Or, curtain 'd round with leaves, yon mournful dove,

That hoarsely murmurs to the conscious grove ?"

■ — Still more unlike, I said, be Lydia's note

The pleasing tone of Philomela's throat.

So to the hoarseness of the murm'ring dove,

She joins ('tis all I ask) the turtle's love.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.
Bom 1728. Died 1774.
ON HOPE.

The wretch, condemn'd with life to part,

Still, still on hope relies ;
And every pang that rends the heart,

Bids expectation rise.

Hope, like the glimmering taper's light.

Adorns and cheers the way ;
And still, as darker grows the night,

Emits a brighter ray.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 429

Cowley, ill his verses " For Hope " in " The Mititress," expresses the
blessing of hope :

Hope ! of all ills that men endure,

The only cheap and universal cure !

Thou captive's freedom, and thou sick man's health !

Thou loser's victory, and thou beggar's wealth !

There is a beautiful anonymous epigram, given in " Elegant Extracts,"
on this subject, which is Greek in its tone, and in which the sentiment
is similar to Goldsmith's:

Hope, heav'n-bom cherub, still appears,

Howe'er misfortune seems to lower ;
Her smile the threat'ning tempest clears.
And is the rainbow of the showeif.

TO MEMO BY.

Memory ! thou fond deceiver,

Still importunate and vain,
To former joys, recurring ever.

And turning all the past to pain ;

Thou, like the world, the opprest oppressing,
Thy smiles increase the wretch's woe !

And he who wants each other blessing,
In thee must ever find a foe.

Shelley finely depicts the pain of remembrance of past joys, in the
second stanza of his lines, entitled " The Past ":

Forget the dead, the past? O yet

There are ghosts that may take revenge for it ;

Memories that make the heart a tomb.

Regrets which glide through the spirit's gloom,

And with ghastly whispers tell

That joy, once lost, is pain.

So Mrs. Norton, in " The Heart's Wreck " (" Sorrows of Rosalie, with
other Poems," 1829, 112,:

But when a word, a tone, reminds

My bosfjm of its perished love,
Oh ! fearful are the stormy winds

Which dash the heart's wild wrecks above!

That Rogers is on this subject more true to liuman experience than
Goldsmith, and that the pkamrea of memory surpass its imim, few lau
•'.oubt.

430 MODERN EPIGBAMMATI8TS.

THE CLOWN'S REPLY.

John Trott "was desir'd by two witty peers

To tell them the reason why asses had ears ?

" An't please you," quoth John, " I'm not given to letters,

Nor dare I pretend to know more than my betters ;

Howe'er, from this time I shall ne'er see your graces.

As I hope to be sav'd ! without thinking on asses."

Possibly Groldsmith took this idea from a witticism of Sprat (sub-
sequently Bishop of Kochester), who, after the Eestoration, was made
chaplain to the Duke of Buckingham. At his tirst dinner with that
witty and profligate peer, the latter observing a goose near Sprat, said
he wondered why it generally happened that geese were placed near
the clergy. "I cannot tell you the reason," said Sprat, "but I shall
never see a goose again without thinking of your grace." The duke
was delighted with the readiness of the retort, which convinced him
that Sprat w£is the very man he wanted as chaplain.

THOMAS WAETON,

Was bom in 1728 at Basingstoke, of which his father held the vicar-
age. He became a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, and when only
just of age entered the lists against Mason, answering, in a poem called
" The Triumph of Isis," the attack which the Cambridge bard made
upon Oxford in his " Isis." His most important work was a " History
of English Poetry," which he brought down to the end of the reign of
Elizabeth, but never carried farther. In 1785 he was created Poet
Laureate, and raised that office to a position of honour. He died in
his college rooms in 1790.

INSCRIPTION FOB A SPRING IN BLENHEIM GARDENS.

Here quench your thirst, and mark in me
An emblem of true charity ;
Who while my bounty I bestow,
Am neither heard nor seen to flow.

There was, and still may be, a fountain in Paris with a Latin inscrip-
tion of similar import, which, perhaps, Warton may have seen ; thus
translated by Samuel Boyse :

Hid lies the nymph from whom this bounty flows,
So let thy hand conc/cal when it bestows.

THOMAS WAKTON. 431

INVOCATION TO SLEEP.
Translated from the Latin.

sleep, of death althougli the image true,
Mtich I desire to sliare my bed with you.
come and tarry, for how sweet to lie,
Thus without life, thus without death to die.

These beautiftil lines breathe the spirit of the purest Greek epigrams.
There are many ti'anslations : the above, which is anonymous, is taken
from Kett's " Flowers of Wit," and is an admirable rendering of the
original. Invocations to sleep are often met with in the poets ; few can
compare with Warton's ; but one by Drummond, the close of which
bears much resemblance to it, is of true poetic beauty :

Sleep, Silence Child, sweet father of soft rest,

Prince, whose approach peace to all mortals brings,

Indifferent host to shepherds and to kings,
Sole comforter of minds wliicli are opprest.
Lo, by thy charming rod all breathing things

Lie slumb'ring, with foi-gotfulness possest,
And yet o'er me to spread thy drowsy wings

Thou spar'st (alas) who cannot be thy guest.
Since I am thine, O come, but with that face

To inward light which thou art wont to show,

With feigned solace ease a true-felt woe ;
Or if, deaf god, thou do deny that grace,

Come as thou wilt, and what thou wilt bequeath,

I long to kiss the image of my death.

In Beaumont and Fletcher's " Tragedy of Valentinian." there is a
song invoking sleep which, in its lighter numbers, is almost eijually
beautiful (Act V. sc. 2 ) :

Care-cl] arming Sleep, thou easer of all woes.
Brother to Death, sweetly thyself di.spose
On this aiBicted prince ; fall like a cloud
In gentle showers ; give nothing that is loud.
Or painful to his slumbers ; easy, sweet,
And as a i)urling stream, thou son of night,
Pass by his troubled senses ; sing his pain.
Like hollow murmuring wind, or silver rain.
Into this prince gently, oh, gently slide,
And kiss him into slumbers like a bride !

Owen has an epigram, in wliich the turn of thought is very similar to
Warton's i.Book IV. 19:^;. The translation is by Hayman:

When I do sleep, I seem as I were dead ;
Yet no part of my life's more sweeten'd :
Therefore 'twere strange that death should bitter be.
Since sleep, death's image, is so sweet to me.

432 MODERN EPIGEAMMATISTS.

While upon the subject of sleep, it would be unpardonable to pass
over two celebrated passages in Shakespeare, althousrh neither of them
are, as Warton's epigram, invocations to that deity. The first, Macbeth s
terrific vision, and the attributes of sleep ("Macbeth," Act II. sc. 2,:

Mach. Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more !
Macbeth does murder sleep, the innocent sleep ;
Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd shave of care.
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great Nature's second course,
' Chief nourisher in life's feast ; —

Lady M. What do you mean ?

Mach. Still it cried, Sleep no more ! to all the house :

Glamis hath murder'd sleep ; and therefore Cawdor
Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more!

The second. King Henry IV.'s comparison between the sleep of the
monarch and of the peasant. The whole of the soliloquy is extremely
beautiful, but is too long to quote in full. The first part is given
(" King Henry IV." Part II. Act III. so. 1) :

O gentle sleep,
Nature's soft nurse, how have I fi-ighteJ tliee.
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down,
And steep my senses in forgetfulness ?
Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee.
And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber ;
Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great,
Under the canopies of costly state.
And lull'd with sounds of sweetest melody?

Wordsworth, in one of his " Miscellaneous Sonnets " (XIII.), says o ;'
Bleep :

Mere slave of them who never for thee prayed.
Still last to come where thou art wanted most !

AN EPIGRAM ON AN EPIGRAM.

One day, in Christ- Church meadows walking,
Of poetry, and such things talking,

Says Kalph, a merry wag !
An epigi'am if smart and good,
In all its circumstances should

Be like a jelly-bag.

Your simile, I own, is new ;
And how dost make it out ? quoth Hugh,
Quoth Ealph, I'll tell thee, friend !

JOHN CUNNINGHAM. 433

Make it at top both wide, and fit
To hold a budget-full of wit,
Aud point it at the end.

This first appeared in the " Oxford Sausage," published by Warton
in 176-1, where this note is attached to it : " N.B. This epigram is
printed from the original manuscript, preserved in the archives of the
' Jelly-bag Society.' "

Receipts for making epigrams are numerous, but refer generally to
the modern pointed epigram. The following is, in the " Poetical
Register" for 1808-9, ascribed to Don Juan de Yriarte, who was a
Spanish archaeologist. It is more probable that the writer was Don
Thomas de Yriarte, a Spanish poet, born in 1750 :

The qualities all in a bee that we meet,

In an epigram never should fail ;
The body should always be little and sweet,

And a sting should be felt in its tail.

An anonymous distich in the " Poetical Register " for 1802, 253,
describes an epigram :

What is an epigram ? a dwarfish whole,
Its body brevity, and wit its soul.

JOHN CUNNINGHAM.

Born in Dublin in 1729. His father, who was a wine-cooper, un-
fortunately drew a prize in the lottery, set up as a wine-merchant,
and failed. At the age of twenty he crossed to England, and, having
a pa.ssion for the stage, became an actor, a profession for which he
had little ability. Some of his poetry was much admired in his day,
but it is now seldom read. He died at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1773.

ON AN ALDERMAN.

That he was born it cannot be denied,

He ate, drank, slept, talk'd politics, and died.

An " Epitaph on a very Idle Fellow " may be compared with this
("Elegant Extracts"):

Here lietli one that once was bom and cried,
Liv'd several years, and then — and then — he died.

Both may liave had tlioir origin in an epitaph by Simonidesou Tirao
creou of Kliodes, tlius translated by C. (Jacobs I. 70, Iv.; :

Here lies Timf)crcon : were his deeds supplied,
You'M hear he liv'd, ate, drank, curs'd men, and died.

2 r

434 MODERN EPIGKAMMATISTS.

ON CHURCHILL'S DEATH

Says Tom to Eichard, " ChurchiU's dead!"

Says Kicliard, " Tom, you lie ;
Old Eancour the report has spread ;
But Genius cannot die."

Parrot has an epigram in his volume " Laquei Ridiculosi," ol
" Fama MenJax " (Book I. 42) :

Eei^ort, thou sometimes art ambitious,
At other times too sparing courteous,
But many times exceeding envious,
And out of time most devilish furious :

Of some or all of these I dare compound thee,

But for a liar have I ever found thee.

In the case of Churchill, " old Eancour " spread a true report of his
death, and, if the inditference of posterity may be taken as a verdict,
perhups of that of his genius too. The lesson, however, which the
following excellent anonymous epigram teaches, may not be out of
place here :

Two ears and but a single tongue

By nature's laws to man belong ;

The lesson she would teach is clear,

Kepeat but half of what you hear.

The thought in Cunningham's last line was expressed by the Greek
Parmenion (Jacobs II. 186, xii.); thus translated by the Rev. E
Stokes, in the late Dr. WeUesley's " Anthologia Polyglotta " :

False is the tale ; a hero never dies.
Or Alexander lives, or Phoebus lies.

GOTTHOLD EPHEAIM LESSING,

A distinguished German writer, was born in Pomerania in 1729.
Leopold, heir-apparent to the Duke of Brunswick, was his patron, and
caused him to Ije appointed librarian at Wolfenbuttle. He published
many works of very varied character, but his fame must rest upon
his lighter productions. His religious opinions were deistical, and
his morals very incorrect. He died at Hamburg in 1781. His epi-
grams are numerous, but the majority are translations or imitations
from the Greek and Latin. With the exception of the first, the
following renderings are taken from "Fables and Epigrams from the
German Df Lessing," 1825.

GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING. 435

NAMES.
Translated by S. T. Coleridge.

I asked my fair one happy day,
What I should call her in my lay ;

By what sweet name from Eome or Greece ;
Lalage, Xesera, Chloris,
Sappho, Lesbia, or Doris,

Arethusa or Lucrece.

" Ah ! " replied my gentle fair,

" Beloved, what are names but air ?

Choose thou whatever suits the line ;
Call me Sappho, call me Chloris,
Call me Lalage, or Doris,

Only, only call me Thine."

The following lines on " Names," sent to a young lady on New
Year's Day, are in the " Menagiana " ; thus translated from the French
'" Selections from the French Anas," 1797) :

May names, inspir'd by ardent love,

As gifts, your grateful bosom move ;

" My heart," " my lovely queen," " the prize,"

" The life," " the light of these fond eyes :"

Choose which you will, they all are due.

Exclusively, dear girl, to you.

But might I act th' adviser's part.

Fair Iris, you'll accept " my heart."

THE ONE HIT OF LIFE.

Nicander, who fain would be reckon'd a wit,

In an epigram once made a capital hit ;

From that day to this he still puzzles his brain

To strike oif a second as sharp, but in vain.

I low often the bee, in its first fierce endeavour.

Leaves its sting in the wound, and is pointless for ever.

Francis Beaumont, in a " Letter to Ben Jonson " (Beaumont and
Fletcher's Works, 1778, I. cxxxix.), expresses the same thought :

What things have we seen
Done at the Mermaid ! heard words that have been

436 MODERN EPIGRAM3IATISTS.

So nimble, and so full of subtile flame,
As if that every one from -whence tht-y came
Had meant to put bis whole wit in a jest.
And had resolv'd to live a fool the rest
Of his dull life.

A man who has " once made a capital hit," often loses rather tbari
gains by a second attempt. Bishop Warburton said to Anstey, after
the publication of the celebrated " New Bath Guide " : " Young man.
you have made a good hit ; never put pen to paper again."

ON A STATUE OF CJPID. ■

Nay, Chloe, gaze not on his form, i

Nor think the friendly caution vain, I

Those eyes the marble's self may warm, i

And look him into life again.

Waller has some lines " To a Fair Lady playing with a Snake,'
which conclude thus :

Take heed, fair Eve ! you do not make

Another tempter of this snake ; i

A marble one, so warm'd, would speak. i

Stephen Duck has an epigram, " To a Yoilng Lady who had a Cupid j

given her " (^Duck's " Poems on Several Occasions," 173(3, 129j : |

Fair lady, take a special care, [

This pleasing toy become no snare ; j

The subtle god is full of wiles,

And mischiefs most, when most he smiles : I

Beware to clasp him in your arms, i

Nor gaze too much upon his charms ; ]

Lest in a borrow'd shape he wound, |

As once unhappy Dido found ;

For, while she view'd his smiling look.

Her heart receiv'd a fatal stroke.

ON A BATTLE-PIECE.

How line the illusion ! Bramarbas breath 'd shorter.
When he saw it, fell prostrate, and roar'd out for quarter

This thought is, no doubt, taken from some of the numerous Greek
and Latin epigrams on Myron's famous statue of the Cow.

Bowles fomid the sun in a "Scene in France by Louth erbourg" f«
real as was the enemy to Bramarbas. The epigram is headed " liny;
Academy Exhibition, 1807 " :

as
al

ANNE STEELE. 437

Artist, I own thy genius ; but the touch
May be too restless, and the glare too much :
And sure none ever saw a landscape shine,
Basking in beams of such a sun as thine,
But felt a fervid dew upon his phiz,
And panting cried, O Lord, how hot it is !

ANNE STEELE.

This lady was the eldest daughter of a minister of a dissenting
congregation at Broughton in Hampsliire, where she lived and died.
She published " Poems on Subjects chiefly Devotional," uuder the
pseudonym of Theod(jsia. The first edition is not in the British
Museum, and its date has not been ascertained. The second edition
was published at Bristol in 1780, edited by Caleb Evans. When
Miss Steele died is uncertain, but it was previous to 1780.

EPITAPH ON MRS. ANN BERRY, IN BRADING CHURCH-
YARD, ISLE OF WIGHT,

Forgive, blest shade, tlie tributary tear,

That mourns thy exit from a world like this ;

Forgive the wish that would have kept thee here,
And stayed thy progress to the realms of bliss.

No more confin'd to grovelling scenes of night,
No more a tenant pent in mortal clay ;

We rather now should hail thy glorious flight,
And trace thy journey to the lealnis of day.

This celebrated ei>itaph is on Ann, wife of Robeit Berry, of Alver-
stone Farm, who died at the age of twenty-five years. The Isle df
Wight guide-books, including tlio valuable one by Canon Venable.s,
state that it was from the pen of the Kev. John Gill, Curate of New-
church. For the honour of that gentleman it is to be hoped he did
nut induce the belief that the beautiful composition was his own.
Some year.s ago, it was pointed out in "Notes and Queries," 1st S. X.
'214, that it was taken from an elegy "On the Death of Mr. Hervey,"
by MisH Steele, ftuldishful atn(jng her Poems. But as tin; writer of the
notice did not state the date of Mrs. lic.rry'H death, it was open to
(jue'stion whetlier the ejiitapli was taken from the elegy, or the com-
nienceincnt of llie elegy from tli(; epila|jli. The Vicar of IJiiuling, in
a courteous reply to a questioa ou the subject, states that Mr-j. Berry

438 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

died in 1790. The second edition of Miss Steele's Poems was pub-
lished in 1780. To her, therefore, undoubtedly belongs the honour of
having written the epitaph, though not exactly in the form in which it
appears on the head-stone. How little alteration Mr. Gill made, will
be seen by comparing the commencement of Miss Steele's elegy, which
consists of nine stanzas (" Poems," 1780, II. 71) :

O Hervey, honoured name, forgive the tear.
That mourns thy exit from a world like this ;
Forgive the wish that would have kept thee here.
Fond wish ! have kept thee from the seats of bliss.

No more confin'd to these low scenes of night
Pent in a feeble tenement of clay :
Should we not rather hail thy glorious flight,
And trace thy journey to the realms of day.

It may be conceded that some of Mr. Gill's alterations are an
improvement, but others, on the contrary, have injured the beauty of
the lines.

The use of the word "trace" in the second stanza is singularly
beautiful, and not at all common. It is met with in an epitaph in the
" Gentleman's Magazine," LV. Part II. 735, " On the Death of a much-
Joved, amiable Wife " :

Sweet Juliet, fare thee well ! but why this prayer ? —
Allied to heaven, thou surely must be there.
Grant me. Almighty Power, that I may trace
Her path, to meet her in that blessed place ;
Where tears and grief shall all be done away,
And high-felt joys be one eternal day !

WILLIAM COWPER.
Born 1731. Died 1800.

ON THE BUBNING OF LORD MANSFIELD'S LIBRARY
TOGETHER WITH HIS MSS., BY THE MOB IN 1780.

So tlien — the Vandals of oiir isle,

Sworn foes to sense and law,
Have burnt to dnst a nobler pile

I'han ever Eoman saw !

And Murray sighs o'er Pope and Swift,

And many a treasure more,
The well-judged purchase, and the gift

That graced his letter'd store.

WILLIAM COWPER. 439

Their pages mangled, burnt, and torn.

The loss was liis alone ;
But ages yet to come shall mourn

The burning of his own.

Lord Mansfield's house in Bloomsbury Square was burnt by the
mob, in the Gordon riots, on the 7th of January, 1780. " His library,"
says Lord Campbell in his " Lives of the Chief Justices," " contained
the collection of books lie had been making from the time he was a
boy at Perth School, many of them the cherished memorials of early
friendship, — others rendered invaluable by remarks in the margin, in
the handwriting of Pope, or Boliugbroke, or some other of the illus-
trious deceased wits and statesmen with whom he had been familiar.
Along with them perished the letters between himself, his family,
and his friends, which he had been preserving for half a century as
materials for memoirs of his times. It is Ukewise believed that he
had amused his leisure by writing, for posthumous publication, several

treatises on juridical subjects, and historical essays They were

all consumed through the reckless fury of illiterate wretches, who were
incapable of forming a notion of the irreparable mischief they were
committing."

TO MISS CBEUZE, ON HER BIllTUDAY.

How many between east and west

Disgrace their parent earth,
Whose deeds constrain us to detest

The day that gave them birth !
Not 80 when Stella's natal morn

Eevolving months restore,
We can rejoice that she was born,

And wish her bom once more !

Martial has an elegant epigram on a birthday, addressed to Quinctus
Ovidius (Book IX. 53). Hay thus translates it :

Believing hear, wliat you deserve to liear :

Your birthday, ns rny own, to me is dear.

Blest and distinguisii'd days ! which we should prize

The first, the kindest, bounty of tlie skies.

But yours gives most; for inino (hd only lend

Me to the world, yours gavo to me a friend.

GeorgG Jeffreys addressed an epigram " To a Lady on her Birth-
day " (Jeffreys' " MiHrx-lianies," 1754, ir2) :

As this auspicious day began tlic race
Of ev'ry virtue joiu'd with cv'ry grace ;

440 MODERN EPIGKAMMATISTS,

May you, who own them, welcome its return.
Till excellence, like yours, again is bom.
The years we wish, will half your charms impair ;
The years we wish, the better half will spare :
The victims of your eyes would bleed no more,
But all tlie beauties of your mind adore.

WRITTEN IN MISS PATTY MORES ALBUM. 1792.

In vain to live from age to age
While modern bards endeavour,

I w^rite my name in Pattj^'s page,
And gain my point for ever.

A distich of similar character is said to have been penned by Cowper,
" at the request of a gentleman who importuned him to write something
in his pocket album " :

I were indeed indifferent to fame,
Grudging two lines t' immortalize my name.

EPITAPH ON FOP, A DOG BELONGING TO LADY
THROCKMORTON. 1792.

Though once a puppy, and though Fop by name,

Here moulders one whose bones some honour claim.

No sycophant, although of spaniel race,

And though no hound, a martyr to the chase —

Ye squirrels, rabbits, leverets, rejoice !

Your haunts no longer echo to his voice ;

This record of his fiite exulting view ;

He died worn out with vain pursuit of you.

" Yes," — the indignant shade of Fop replies —
" And worn with vain pursuit, man also dies."

Robert Veel, born about 1648, has a poem on the " Vanity of Worldly
Happiness," the first stanza of which has much in common with the
moral of Fop's epitaph. Vetl wrote more wisely than he acted, for
Wood says that he "lived after the manner of poets, in a debauchtd
wav, and wrote ... to gain money to carry on the trade of folly "
(Ellis' " Specimens of the Early English Poets," 1803, III. 401) :

How eager are our vain pursuits

Of pleasure and of worldly joys !
And yet how empty are the fruits !

How full of trouble, grief, and noise I

SAMUEL BISHOP. 441

We to our ancestors new follies add.
Proving ourselves less happy and more mad.

An anonymous epigram of singular beauty, the author of -which it
■would be interesting to discover, warns the vain pursuer of pleasure
alone against the efifects of his folly (" Select Epigrams," II. 160j :

From flow'r to flow'r, with eager pains.

See the blest, busy lab'rer fly ;
Wlien all, that from her toil she gains,

Is in the sweets she hoards — to die.
'Tis thus, would man the truth believe.

With life's soft sweets, each fav"rite joy •.
If we taste wisely, they relieve,

But, if we plunge too deep, destroy.

SAMUEL BISHOP,

Born in 1731, was educated at, and in 1783 became Head Master of,
Merchant Taylors' School. He held also the living of S. Martin
Outwich. He died in 1795. He was a poet of considerable powers,
especially in epigrammatic effusions, and has been called the Martial
of England, who, with the wit of the Roman, was free from his coarse-
ness. His " Poetical Works," including his epigrams, were published
in two volumes, 4to, the year after his death.

PAR PABI (Poemata).

When seventy (as 'tis sometimes seen)
Joins hands in wedlock with seventeen,

We all th' unequal match abuse.
But where's the odds we fret about ?
Difference in age there is no doubt ;

In folly — not a pin to choose !

This was written in Latin as well as English.

Broome writes "To a Gentleman of Seventy, who married a Lady
ot Sixteen" :

What woes must such unequal union bring.
When hoary winter weds the youthful spring !
You, like Mizeutius, in the nuptial )jcd,
Once more unite the living to the dead.

Virgil aiys of Mezentius < Ain. VIII. 48.5, Drydcn s translation):

The living and tlio dead, at liis command
Were coupled, face to face, and huml to hand.

442 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

THE BENEDICT'S FATE (Ep. 29).

Only mark how grim Codrus' visage extends !

How unlike his ownself ! how estrang'd from his friends 1

He wore not this face, when eternally gay,

He revell'd all night, and he chirrup'd all day.

Honest Codrus had then his own house at his call ;

'Twas Bachelor's, therefore 'twas Liberty Hall :

But now he has quitted possession for life,

And he lodges, poor man ! in the Jiotise of his wife !

This is a good specimen of the epigrams on hen-pecked husbands.
The subject may be amusing, but it has not produced much elegant
wit. Some of the best lines on the female love of ruling are by the
old epigrammatist, Henry Parrot, in "Laquei Kidiculosi," Book 1. 161 :

Kind Katherine to her husband kiss'd these words,
" Mine own sweet Will, how dearly do I love thee !"
If true (quoth Will) the world no such affords
(And that it's true I durst his warrant be) :
For ne'er heard I of woman good or ill,
But always loved best her own sweet will.

THE AUCTION (Ep. 135).

Need from excess— excess from folly growing.
Keeps Christie's hammer daily, going, going !
Ill-omen'd prelude! whose dire knell brings on
Profusion's last sad dying speech — " Gone ! Gone !"

The thought mav, perhaps, have been taken from an epigram by
Martial (Book VII. 98), thus translated by Hay :

You purchase every thing, which makes it plain
That every thing you soon will sell again.

CONSISTENCY (Ep. 151).

Tho' George, with respect to the wrong and the right,
Is of twenty opinions 'twixt morning and night;
If you call him a turn-coat, you injure the man ;
He's the pink of consistency, on his own plan,
While to stick to the strongest is always his trim ;
'Tis not he changes side, 'tis the side changes him 1

SAMUEL BISHOP. 443

George seems to have taken the Vicar of Bray as his model, or one
who miitched that famous ecclesiastic, "William, Marquis of "Win-
chester, who, being asked how he continued to be of the council in the
troublesome times of divers princes, said : " I never attempted to be
the director of others, but always suffered myself to be guidid by the
most, and mightiest. I have always been a willow, and not an oak "
(.Kett's " Flowers of Wit "').

MY LORD AND THE FOOL (Ep. 155).

Of great connections with great men,

^ed keeps up a perpetual pother ;
" My Lord knows what, knows who, knows when ;

My Lord says this, thinks that, does t'other."

My Lord had formerly his Fool,

We know it, for 'tis on record ;
But now, by Xed's inverted nile.

The Fool, it seems, must have his Lord !

Graves, in an epigram called " The Dangler," shows the style of life
of such a man as Ned (_" Euphrosyne," 1783, I. 93) :

Charm'd with the empty sound of pompons words,
Carlo vouchsafes to dine with none but lords ;
"WTiilst rank and titles all his thoughts employ,
For these he barters every social joy ;
For these, what you and I sincerely hate.
He lives in form, and often starves in state. —
Carlo, enjoy thy peer ! content to be
Rather a slave to liim, than friend to me :
Go, sell the substance to retain the show ;
May you seem happy — whilst I'm really so !

THE MAIDEN'S CHOICE (Ep. 201).

A fool and knave with diflferent views,

For Julia's hand apply :
The knave, to mend his fortune, sues

The fool, to please his eye.

Ask you, how Julia will behave?

Depend on't for a rule.
If she's a fool, she'll wed the knave —

If she's a knave, the fool.

444 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Julia seems to have cunningly coquetted with both her suitors, and
her chance of happiness was not very great. She might have read with
advantage a few lines in Lord Lytteltou's " Advice to a Lady " :

Be still superior to your sex's arts,
Nor thint dishonesty a proof of parts :
For you, the plainest is the wisest rule :
A cunning woman is a knavish fool.

AUDI ALTEBAM PARTEM (Ep. 221).

When quacks, as quacks may by good luck, to be sure,

Blunder out at hap-hazard a desperate cure,

In the prints of the day, with due pomp and parade,

Case, patient, and doctor, are amply display'd : —

All this is quite just — and no mortal can blame it ;

If the}'^ save a man's life, they've a right to proclaim it :

But there's reason to think they might save more lives still.

Did they publish a list of the numbers they kill !

This satire is as applicable to the present day as to the last century ;
and, indeed, from the number of epigrams in all ages upon quacks, it
may be supposed that the fraternity has always been numerous, and the
exit of their patients as certain as those of Gil J31as' Dr. Sangrado. Many
modern epigrams, however, attack not only illiterate empirics, but the
whole medical profession, and indiscriminately satirize a body of men,
who in honour, learning, and liberality have no superiors. Some are
amusing from their clever and transparent exaggeration, but others are
wanting as much in wit as in taste. Dimces and quacks are fair game
for the satirist, and they have not been spared. One of the earliest
epigmms on this subject is a Greek one by Lucian (Jacobs III. 25.
xxiv.), thus rather freely translated in a " Selection of Greek Ei^igrams.
for the Use of Winchester School," 1791 (slightly altered) :

My friend, an eminent physician,
Trusted his son to my tuition :
The father wish'd me to explain
The beauties of old Homer's strain.
But scarce these lines the youth had read,
" Of thousands number'd with the dead,
" Of ghastly woimds and closing eyes,
" Of broken limbs and heart- felt sighs" —
You teach no more, the father saith,
Than I can well instruct of death ;
For many I to Hades send,
And need no learning for this end.

The following by Graves is witty (" Euphrosyne," 1783, I. 271) :

ROBERT LLOYD. 445

A doctor, -who, for want of skill,

Did sometimes cure — and sometimes kill ;

Contriv'd at length, by many a pnfF,

And many a bottle fill'd with stufi".

To raise liis fortune, and his pride ;

And in a coach, forsooth ! must ride.

His family coat long since worn out.

What arms to take, was all the doubt.

A friend, consulted on the case,

Thus answer'd with a sly grimace :

" Take some device in your own way,

Neither too solemn nor too gay ;

Three Ducks, suppose ; white, grey, or black ;

And let your motto be, Quack! Quack!"

Dr. Edward Jenner, the celebrated discoverer of vaccination, sent
the following epigram with a present of a couple of ducks to a patient
("Gentleman's Magazine," XCIII. Part I. 165, where it is stated to be
taken " from Fosbroke's ' Life of Jenner,' in the History of Berkeley ") :

I've dispatch' d, my dear madam, this scrap of a letter,

To say that Miss is very much better ;

A regular Doctor no longer she lacks,

And therefore I've sent her a couple of Quacks.

Impromptu, in answer to the epigram, " Sent with a Couple of Ducks
to a Patient. By the late Dr. Jenner " (" Gentleman's Magazine,"
XCIII. Part I. 454) :

Yes ! 'twas politic, truly, my very good friend,
Thus a " couple of Quacks " to your patient to send ;
Since there's nothing so likely, as " Quacks " (it is plain),
To make work for a " Regular Doctor " again !

EGBERT LLOYD,

Was the son of a worthy clergyman, whose hopes he raised by his
abilities, but whose life he embittered by his in-egularities. lie was
born in 1733, and educated at Westminster School, of which his father
was second ma.ster, where he as.sociated with evil companions, whose
example proved his ruin. He followed literature as a profession, but
brought no industry to his work, and, falling into irretrievable diffi-
culties, was confined in the Fleet Prison, where he died in 1704. The
following anonymous epigram was composed on him when a prisoner
' " Select Epigrams ') :

Wit, wisdom, pity, folly, friends.

Bob uses and abuses ;
No pride, but learn(;d pride commends,

No liars, but the Musus.

446 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

SENT TO A LADY WITH A SEAL.

Th' impression which this seal shall make,

The rougher hand of force may break ;

Or jealous time, with slow decay,

May all its traces wear away ;

But neither time nor force combin'd,

Shall tear thy image from my mind ;

Nor shall the sweet impression fade

Which Chloe's thousand charms have made :

For spite of time, or force, or art,

'Tis seaVd for ever on my heart.

Campbell says, in " Lines on Receiving a Seal wath the Campbell
Crest, from K. M , before her Marriage " :

This wax returns not back more fair
Th' impression of the gift you send,

Than stamp'd upon my thoughts I bear
The image of your worth, my friend !

BUSTIC SIMPLICITY.

When late a simple rustic lass,

I rov'd withotit constraint,
A stream was all my looking-glass,

And health my only paint.

The charms I boast, (alas how few !)

I gave to nature's care.
As vice ne'er spoil'd their native hue.

They could not want repair.

Thomson ("Autumn," 201) describes "the lovely young Lavinia's'
rustic simplicity :

A native grace
Sat fair proportion'd on her polish'd limbs,
Veil'd in a simple robe, their best attire,
Beyond the pomp of dress ; for loveliness
Needs not the foreign aid of ornament,
But is, when uuadorn'd, adorn'd the most.
Thoughtless of beauty, she was beauty's self,
Recluse amid the close embow'riug woods.

So, Goldsmith, in " The Deserted VUlage" :

EOBEKT LLOTD, 447

As some fair female, unadorn'd and plain,
Secure to please while youth confirms her reign.
Slights every borrowed charm that dress supplies,
Nor shares with art the triumph of her eyes.

Bishop Lowth says, in a Latin address " To a Young Lady (Miss
Moliueux of Winchester) Curling her Hair," tianslated by William
Duucombe (Nichols' " Collection of Poems," VI. 22, 1780; :

So simple dxess and native grace
Will best become thy lovely face !
For naked Cupid still suspects,
In artful ornaments conceal'd defects.

CUPID'S DART AND WINGS.

If tyrant Love with cruel dart

Transfix the maiden's tender heart,

Of easy faith and fond belief,

She hugs the dart and aids the thief.

Till left her hapless state to mourn,

Keglected, loving, and forlorn ;

She finds, while grief her bosom stings.

As well as darts the god has wings.

The sorrows of a maiden left forlorn, are pictured in " England's
Helicon," ed. 1812, 178, in a madrigal, entitled "Lycoris the Nymph,
her Sad Song " :

In dew of roses, steeping her lovely cheeks,

Lycoris thus sat weeping:
Ah Dorus false, that hast my heart bereft me,
And now unkind hast left me,
Hear, alas, oh hear me !

Aye me, aye me.
Cannot my beauty move thee?
Pity, yet pity me,
Because I love thee.
Aye me, thou scorn'st the more I pray thee :
And this thou dost, and all to slay mo.
Why do then
Kill me, and vaunt thee:

Yet my f^host
Still shall haunt thee.

So. Tennyson, in " Mariana in the South," describes the grief of a
forsaken one :

MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

And rising, from her bosom drew

Old letters, breathing of her wortn,
For " Love," they said, " must needs be true,

To what is loveliest upon eartli."
An image seem'd to pass the door,
To look at her with slight and say,
" Bat now thy beauty flows away,
So be alone for evermore."

" O cruel heart," she changed her tone,
" And cruel love, whose end is scorn,
Is this the end to be left alone,

To live forgotten, and die forlorn !"

Professor Smyth of Cambridge (late Professor of Modern History)
has two lines in his ode "To Pity" ("English Lyrics," 1815), which
touchingly describe the forsaken maiden :

The love-lorn maid that long believed
Now sinking wan, now undeceived.

FRANCIS COVENTRY,

Perpetual Curate of Edgware, was the author of a satirical romance
entitled " Pompey the Little." He died young of the small-pox in 1759.

INSCRIPTION FOR AN OAK IN PENSRURST PARK
PLANTED ON THE DAY ON WHICH SIR PHILIP SID-
NEY WAB BORN.

(Dodsley's " Collection of Poems," 1782, IV. 59.)

Stranger, kneel here ! to age due homage pay !
When great Eliza held Britannia's sway
My growth began— the same illustrious morn,
Joy to the hour ! saw gallant Sidney born ;
Sidney, the darling of Arcadia's swains !
Sidney, the terror of the martial plains !
He perish'd early ; I just stay behind
An hundred years, and lo ! my clefted rind,
My wither'd boughs, foretell destruction nigh ;
We all are mortal ; oaks and heroes die.

Ben Jonson commemorates this tree :

That taller tree, which of a nut was set,
At his great birth, where all the Musf^ wet.

RICHARD GOUGH. 4-i9

Afid Waller thus links it with his passion for Sacharissa :

Go, boy, ami carve this passion oc the bark
0£ that old tree, which stands the sacred mark
Of noble Sidney's birth

Southey, in an inscription " For a Tablet at Penshurst,"' thuij com-
inemorates the old tree :

Upon his natal day an acorn here
Was planted : it grew up a stately oak.
And in the beauty of its strength it stood
And flourish'd, when his perishable part
Had moulder'd, dust to dust. That stately oak
Itself hath moulder'd now, but Sidney's fame
Endureth in his own immortal works.

The oak is still standing, though much decayed. A fence has hew
placed round it, to protect the trunk from injury.

EICHAED GOUGH.

The iUusti-ious antiquary, worthily called the Camden of the 18tl
century. Born 1735. Died 1809.

A GREAT LITERARY UNDERTAKING,

With wliich the following epigram is connected, renders it in
teresting. It is preserved, with the accompanying account of it, ir
Nichols' " Literary Anecdotes," VI. 284 : '• He (Gough) assistec
j\Ix. Nichols in the ' Collection of Royal and Noble Wills,' 1780,
to which he wrote the preface, and compiled the glossary." . . .
" The first projector of this cui-ious work was Dr. Ducarel ; and by the
joint assistance of that eminent civilian and Mr. Gough it was con-
ducted through the jjress. not without a very considerable inconveni-
ence to the printer, who paid the whole expense occasioned by the various
notes added by his h arutd frieuds; a circumstance thus pleasantly
alluded to by one of them." The epigram is signed " R. G., Nov. 1770 "

" ^^'ho shall decide when doctors disagree "
Between the learn'd civilian and W. G. ?
Hevis'd and sic orig. the Doctor cries,
Kor once t' elucidate the puzzle iries.
" \V rite notes," the Director says : " Again revise,"
And wearies out the text with grave surmise.
Kichols o'en-uns, and finds at last to 's cost
The plague is his, and only ours the boast.
^Vhile the compositor's and Pouncey's fees
Mount high, we ecratch and scribble at our ease,

2 a

450 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Scrawl crooked lines and words that none can read :
x\nd thus far only are we both agreed.

The &'st line is from Pope's " Moral Essays," Epistle III. 1.
Pouncey or Pouncy was an eminent engraver, who was occasionally
Dr. Ducarel's amanuensis.

DR. JOHN LANGHORNE,

A poet and miscellaneous writer, was Lorn in Westmoreland, in
1735. He was a Prebendary of Wells, and is well known as the trans-
lator, with his brother William, of Plutarch's " Lives." He died in 1779.

WRITTEN IN A SEAT IN MB. BAMPFYLDE'S WOODS
AT HESTER COMBE, NEAR TAUNTON,

Called the Witches' Parlour, and which commanded the prospect of

his pleasant grounds.

O'er Bampfylde's woods by Nature's beauties grac'd,
A witch presides— but then that witch is Taste.

This is not in Langhorue's Poetical Works, but is commonly ascribed
to him.

In Graves' " Euphrosyne,"' 1783, I. 45, is a poem addressed "To
C. W. Bampfylde, Esq., after a slight Fit of the Gout," in which the
Witches' Parlour is alluded to under the name of Urganda's cava •

But could'st thou reach Urganda's cave,

And thence direct thine eye,
Where tow'ring oaks their branches wave

And pierce the azm-tj sky.

* * * *

itc :H * 3tE

That scene should lull thy cares to rest,

Which still nncloy'd you view :
Tho' thy own skill the scene has drest,

Its charms are always new.

DR. JOHN WOLCOT,

Better known as Peter Pindar, was born in Devonshire in 1738.
He became a physician, and in that capacity accompanied Sir William
Trelawny when he went to Jamaica as Governor. He received holy
orders from the Bishop of London, and, returning to the island, held
a living or curacy there. On leaving Jamaica at the Governor's death,
he St ttled in Cornwall, and resumed practice as a physician. He after-

DR. JOHN WOLCOT. 451

wiirds went to London, where lie became noted for his satires, which
were severe and popular. He died in 1819. He occasionally wrote
with feeling and propriety, but the following epigrams are scarcely a
fair specimen of his usual style, which was coarsely satiricd and
vulgarly personal. His Works were published in 5 vols, in 1812.

TO CHLOE.

Dear Chloe, well I know the swain
Who gladly would embrace thy chain ;

And who, alas ! can blame him ?
Affect not, Chloe, a surprise :
Look but a moment on these eyes ;

Thou'lt ask me not to name him.

Shenstone has some epigrainmatic stanzas, on the willingness of the
British youth to embrace "the chains forged for them by the fair sex,
which thus conclude :

Nor pouated spear nor links of steel,
Could e'er those gallant minds subdue,

Who beauty's woimds with pleasure feel,
And beast the fetters wrought by you.

Spenser, however, warns against embracing the chain in his i?7tb

sonnet :

Fondnesse it were for any, being free,
To covet fetters, though they golden bee !

TO LOUD NELSON.

Dr. Wolcot, when on a vi^it to Lord Nelson at Merton. was reading
in bed, and accidentally .set fire to the night-cap he was wearing, which
and been lent to him by his host. He returned the cap with the
lollowing lines :

Take your night-cap again, my good lord, I desire,

For I wish not to keep it a minute :
A\ hat belongs to a Nelson, where'er there's afire.

Is sure to be instantly in it.

The following impromptu is good. On the victory of the Nile, ro-
fi-rring to Nclsfjn's previous loss of an eye and an arm ( Kelt's " y lowers
of Wit," 1814, L l'J8) :

Frenchmen, no more with Britons vie, —

Nelson destroys your naval band,

Sees your designs with half an eye,

And lights and boutb you with one han<l.

452 MODERN EPIGKAMMATISTS.

A beautifnl Latin epitaph on Nelson, ascribed to the Hon. Bamri
Smythe of Dublin, is thus imitated in the " Spirit of the Public
Journals" for ISOtJ, X. 122:

While dazzling honours crown the deathless name
Of George's navy — and of Nelson's fame.
With genrous grief her triumph Britain hears,
And quenches half her glory in her tears ;
Mourns her lost Bronte's * heaven-imparted fires ;
Eesistless bolt of war — who, while he blasts, expires !

The following, " Upon the Death of Lord Nelson," is by William.
5th Duke of Devonshire, husband of the celebrated Duchess Georgian-
(" Gentleman's Magazine," LXXXI. Part II. 560) :

Oft had Britannia sought, midst dire alarms,
Divine protection for her sons in arms ;
Generous and brave, tho' not from vices free,
Britons from Heaven receiv'd a mix'd decree —
To crown their merits, but to lower their pride,
God gave them victory — but Nelson died.

THE LAST TOKEN; OB, "REMEMBER ME."
On the Princess Amelia's mournful present to His Majesty.

With all the virtues blest, and every grace,
To charm tho world, and dignify her race,
Life's taper losing fast its feeble fire,
The fair Amelia thus bespoke her sire :

" Faint on the bed of sickness lying.

My spirit from its mansion flying,
Not long the light these languid eyes will see,

My Friend, my Father, and my King,

Oh wear a daughter's mournful i-ing,
Eeceive the token and remember me !"

These beautiful lines are not found in Wolcot's Works. 1812, bul
are given in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1810, LXXX. Part II.
565. They are very unlike his usual style. Hail he written more of
such verses, his reputation as a poet would have been far higher than
it now stands.

TO BR. GEACH.

Dr. Wolcot, having a violent cougli, his friend Dr. Geach persisted
on recommending ass' milk as a certain cure. The bard, tired of hu

* Bronte, fiom the Greek, signifies Jove's thunderbolt.

BAPTIST NOEL TURNEU. 453

importunity, at length stopped it by sending him the following
epigram :

And, doctor, do you really think
That ass' milk I ought to drink ?
'Twould quite remove my cough you say,
And drive my old complaints away.
It cured yourself— I grant it true ;
But then— 'twas mother s milk to you.

This is not found in Dr. Wolcot's Works, but is ascribed to liiiu in
" Flowers of Anecdote, Wit, Humour, &c.," 1829, 160.

EPITAPH ON A FRIEND.

Though here in death thy relics lie,
Thy worth shall live in Memory's eye ;
Who oft at night's pale moon shall stray,
To bathe with tears thy lonely clay.

Hero Pity, too, in weeds forlorn.
Shall, mingling sighs, be heard to mourn;
With Genius drooping o'er thy tomb,
In sorrow for a br.)ther's doom.

Remarkably similar to the opening of the first stanza are two lines
in Professor Carlyle's translation of an Arabian ode " On the Tomb ot
Maiio," by Hassan Alasady (" Specimens of Arabian Poetry," 1796, 12; :

But tho' ill dust thy relics lie,
Tliy virtues, JMano, ne'er shall die.

BAPTIST NOEL TURNER,

Was born in M'.V.K and named after his godfatlier. Baptist Noel, Earl
of (iainsburoiigli. Ho- bi'<'am(! Fellow of Fniuuucl Coll('g(^, Ciuabridge,
and subsequently niariicd and resided at Denton, in Lincolushin^ the
rectory of which lie ln'ld. He was liighly chtecjined by many of tho
literary luminaries of the day, and especially by Dr. Jolinson, with
wlioni he was on intimate terms. He died in 1826, at tlie ago of 86.
The iollowing and oilier pieees of his poetry are jireserved in Nicliole'
" lUuhtrations of the Literary Hi.-jtory of the 18th Century," Vol. VI.

454 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS,

0^" AN OLD GOSSIP,

Who had slandered a young lady, to whom one of the Fellows of
Emanuel College was engaged to be married.

When will Belisa's envious tongue

The charming Pattilinda spare ?
When will she cease th' insidious wrong,

Nor sneer at gifts she cannot share ?
'Twill be — you need not doubt how long —

'Twill be as soon as she's as fair,

As good, as happy, and as young !

In a volume of newspaper cuttings in the British Museum (" Miscel-
laneous Poetical Extracts from Newspapers "), is a severe epigram on a
Btjlica of Bath, entitled, " Impromptu on an unpretty, miildle-aged,
milevolent Female, who lodges, feeds, and fibs not a thousand mik-s
from Pierpoint-btreet, Bath." It is perhaps a fair specimen of the
scandal and wit of that fashionable city in the last century :

Secure from scandal, Delia still may rail,
Invent the si^iteful fib, the slanderous tale ;
Paint, with the poison of a serpent's tooth.
The fame of beauty and the bliss of youth :
Safe from retort of belL-s, or youth, or men.
Safe as a bloated spider in a den —
To rail at Delia not a tongue will stir —
For nought is ecandal you can say of her.

It is probable that the Delia of this severe epigram may be Lady
Mary Wortley Montague, who was much at Bath, and was lampooned
under the name of Lady Bath. It suits her character very well, and
the particular mention of " Pierpoint-street " seims to refer to her
family name, as she was the daughter of Evelyn Pierrepoint, Duke ot
Kingston.

THE UN CANONICAL NATURE OF POETRY.

Alas ! we rectors must resign

All claims upon the Muses blithe ;

The blithesome Muses are but nine.
And so we've none, you see, for tithe.

In another epigram, however, " To the Rev. George Crabbe, on the
General Failure of the Laurel-tree in 1814," Turner holds that the Muses
are not averse to smile on the clergy :

BRTAK EDWARDS. 455

In you, my dear friend, we've a proof that the Nine
May propitiously smile on the soundest divine ;
And as now in these plains you no longer will stay,
See the laurels, alas ! are all fading away.

BRYAX EDWARDS,

'Who is chif fly known as the autlior of a " History of the West Indies,"
was born at Westbury, in Wiltshire, in 1743. Owing to the narrow
meiuis of his father, his education was neglected, until he was sent for
to .Jamaica by a wealthy mati-mal uncle, whose property he inherited,
and at whose death he returned to England, and entered Parliament
for the borough of Grampound, which he represented until his death
in 1800.

TO MISS .

(" Select Epigrams," 1797, II. 51.)

O clear that cruel, doubting brow,

I'll call on mighty Jove
To witness this eternal vow ; —

'Tie you alone I love !

" Pray leave the god to soft repose,"

The smiling maid replies,
" For Jove but laughs at lovers' oaths,

And lovers' perjuries."

By honoTir'd Beauty's gentle pow'r !

By Friendship's holy flame !
" Ah ! what is beauty but a flow'r,

And friendship but a name?"

By those dear tempting lips, I cried, —

With arch, ambiguc^us look ;
Convinc'd, my Cliloe glanc'd aside,

And bade me Jciss the hook.

TIk' firiint of the epigram is found in a passage in Massinger (" The
Maid ot Honour," Act IV. sc. 4j :

Bert. I am wholly y<jiirs.

Aurel. On this bo<-)k Hcal it.

Gonz. What, hand and lip too! then the bargain's sure.

456 MODERN EPIGEAMMATI8TS.

ON THE DEATH OF A VERY YOUNG LADY.
(" New Foundling Hospital for Wit," 1784, VI. 5.)

Scarce had the tender hand of Time

Maria's Woom brought forth,
Is or yet advanc'd to beauty's prime.

Though ripe in beauty's worth ;
When Fate untimely seal'd her doom,

And shovv'd, in one short hour,
A lovely sky, an envious gloom,

A rainbov? and a show'r.

So, Burns, in Ms "Elegy on Miss Burnet, of Monboddo " :

We saw thee shine in youth and beauty's pride,

And virtue's light, that beams beyond the spheres ;

But like the sun eclips'd at morning tide.
Thou left'st us darkling: in a world of tears.

GEOEGE HAEDIKGE,

Born in 1744, was the son of Nicholas Hardinge, Principal Clerk of the
House of Commons from 1731 to 1747. He was educated at Eton, and
Trinity College, Cambridge; in 1783 was made Solicitor General to
the Queen ; in 1787 Senior Justice of the counties of Brecon, Glamorgan,
and Radnor ; and in 1789 Attorney-General to the Queen. He sat in
Parliament as member for Old Saram. As a lawyer he ranked very
high in his profession ; and held no mean place as an author. He died
in 1816. The first Viscount Hardinge and the late Sir Charles Hardinge
were his nephews.

ON BURNING A WORK INTENDED FOR PUBLICATION.
(Nichols' " Illustrations of Literary History," III. 41.)

With laurel crown'd for murders in the field,
Or mercenary victims of the sword ;
Whose fear of shame the Hero's arms could wield.
And brav'd in mask the peril you deplor'd !

The Author — who could sacrifice his claims,
— A culprit sentenc'd by his own Review ;
Puts verse or prose into the secret flame.
Is more a Hero at the heart than you.

GEORGE HABDINGE. 457

In reference to Mr. Hardinge's work, the destruction of which he
commemorates in these lines, it is said : " On the suggestion of a gentle-
man on whose judgment he had great reliance, he destroyed one of his
early productions, on which he had bestowed much labour " (Nichols,
as above).

Joseph Scaliger has a Latin epigram on true heroism ("Delitiffi
Delitiarum," 53j :

Ambition's goal — the love of praise,
A fever in the mind doth raise :
Eenown contemn'd more greatness shows
Than Glory's self, when sought, bestows.

ON THE NAMES OF JOB'S THREE DA UGHTEBS.

(Bland's " Collections from the Greek Anthology," 1813, 490.)

Translated from the Latin by Merivale (last line altered).

Six glasses the name of Jemima will cover,

And (reckoning the h's) KLeziah claims seven ;

But alas ! Kerenhappuch's unfortunate lover
Will surely be tipsy with more than eleven.

It was anciently the custom to toast a mistress in as many glasses as
her name had letters. Martial has an epigram on this, the original
probably of Hardinge's (Book I. 72) ; translated by D :

Seven glasses Justina, and Najvia sis,

Lycas live, Lyde four, Ida three, for toasts fix ;

As each fair one determines, we'll the reck'ning keep ;

But since none will come to me, come thou, god of sleep.

Cumberland translates a fragment of Pherecrates, who flourished
B.C. 436, on the invention of large drinking glasses, in which the fault
of deep potations is laid, not upon the ladies' names, but upon their
example (" Observer," No. 78) :

Remark Iidw wisely ancient art provides

The broad-brimm'd cup, with fiat expanded sides,

A cup contriv'd for man's discreeter use.

And sober portions of the generous juice :

But woman's more ambitious thirsty soul

Soon long'd to revel in the plenteous Imwl.

Deep and capacious as the swelling hold

Of sr.me strong bark, she shnp'd the hollow mould ;

Then turning out a vessel like a tun.

Simpering excLiim'd — "Observe! I di-ink but one."

The custom of making the nuinl)er of glasses correspoiid with tlie
letters of a Uiuue, is alluded to by Butler in "Hudibrau" '^I'art II.
Canto i. 5(i5j :

158 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

I'll carve your name on barks of trees,
With trae-love-knots and flourishes,
That shall infuse eternal ypring,
And everlasting flourishing ;
Drink every letter on't in stum,
And make it brisk champaign become.

The subject recalls "The Five Reasons for Drinkiug" of Dr.
Aldrich, tlie celebrated Dean of Christ Church, at the close of the
17th century :

Good wine ; a friend ; or being dry ;

Or lest we should be by and by ;

Or, any other reason why.

HANNAH MORE.
Bom 1716. Died 1833.

ON MBS. POWELL'S SECOND MABBIA GE.

The buskin'd muse, when Powell was no more,

Her tresses rent, and deeper sable wore.

Aside her mask Thalia mournful laid.

And tragic weeds belied the comic maid ;

" Nay, let the devil wear black," his widow cried.

Disconsolate, " I'll mourn a fidler's bride."

The marriage of Mrs. Powell (relict of IMr. Powell, one of the
managers of Covent Garden Theatre) with Mr. Fidler, was obliged
to be postponed till Powell's monument was erected, which styled her
"his disconsolate widow." The epigram is ascribed to Hannah More
on the authority of the "New Foundling Hospital for Wit," 1784, I.
209, which is not always accurate, and it is certainly not in accordance
with her usual style. The thought is taken from '' Hamlet " (Act I.
BC. 2):

Frailty, thy name is woman ! —
A little month ; or ere those shoes were old,
With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears : — wliy she, even she, —
((^ heaven ! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn'd longer), — married with my uncle,
My fathers brother ; but no more like my father,
Than I to Hercules.

HANNAH MOKE. 459

EPITAPH ox THE MONUMENT OF ADMIRAL SAHtWEL
BABBINGTON; IN SHEIVENHAM CHURCH.

(Nichols' " Literary Anecdotes," VI. 6-14.)

Here re^ts the Hero, who in glory's page,
Wrote his fair deeds for more than half an age.
Here rests the Patriot, who for England's good.
Each toil encountered, and each clime withstood ;
Here rests the Christian, his the loftier theme,
To seize the conquest yet renounce the fame.
He, when his arm S. Lucia's trophies boasts,
Ascribes the glory to the Lord of Hosts ;
And when the harder task remain'd behind,
The passive courage and the will resign 'd,
Patient the veteran victor j'ields his breath,
Secure in Him who conquered sin and death.

"The action at S. Lucia, alluded to in the epitaph, conferred much
Jsonour on Admiral Banington, who repulsed the French fleet, though
far superior in force, and thus saved the transports, with provisions and
stores for the army, which would otherwise have fallen into the hands
of the enemy.

In illustration of the line, " And when the harder task remain'd
behind," may be given an epitaph in Chichester chui'chyard, 1798
(" Gentleman's Magazine," LXIX. Part II. 1072) :

Here lies an old soldier whom all must applaud,
Since he suffer'd much hiirdship at home and abroad ;
But the hardest engagement he ever was in.
Was the battle of Self in the conquest of Sin.

An anonvmous epigram may be added which is found in " Wit
Eestored " (ed. 1«17, 11. 234) :

When I was young, in wars I shed my blood.
Both for my king, and for my country's good :
In elder years, my care was chief to bo
Soldier to Him that shed His blood for me.

EPITAPH ON GENERAL LAWRENCE,

Memorable for his conquests in India, and for his clemency to the

vanquislied.

(More's Poems.)

Bom to command, to conquer, and to spare,
As mercy mild, }'ot terrible as war,

460 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Here Lawrence rests in death ; Avliile living fame
From Thames to Ganges wafts his hononr'd name.
To him tiiis frail memorial Friendship rears,
"Whose noblest monument's a nation's tears :
Whose deeds on fairer columns stand engrav'd,
In provinces preserv'd and cities saved.

Petronius Arbiter has the following lines in his " Satyricon," ed.
Amstel. 1669, 52, on Mercy, translated by Kelly :

Contempt is loathsome ; glorious 'tis to sway
Obedient minds ; I love to have my way.
The wise themselves will oft resent an ill ;
But they are victors most who spare to kill.

We may compare an epigram " Upon Cruelty," in " A Collection cf
Miscellany Poems, never before Published," 1737, 117:

Let heroes boast of hearts for slaughter made
Of iron hearts, where pity can't invade ;
Let them with joy the blood of nations spill,
And call it merit to betray and kill ;
Laugh at the fool who gives the poor relief,
Or, mov'd with pity, feels another's grief:
Yet if, with justice, we their actions scan,
The most compassionate is most a man.

ANNA SEWARD,

Daughter of the Eev. Thomas Seward, Canon of Lichfield, was born in
1747. She early showed a taste for poetry, which her father, himself a
poet, sedulously cultivated, and she afterwards became well known as
an authoress. Her celebrity, however, rests rather upon her friendship
with Sir Walter Scott, than upon her own productions. She died in
1809.

TO MAJOR ROOKE ;

On the Publication of his Diurnal Register of the Winds for the last
Two Years. October, 1796.

No gale unlucky may thy fortunes find,

Benign historian of the wayward wind !

But when it rises with proverbial swaj*",

! may it cast all fickleness away ;

On grateful wings, from blight and tempest free,

Blow only good, from every point, to thee.

ANNA SEWARD. 461

Thomas Tusser, born in 151 5, who has gaiued the title of the English
Varro, by his " Hundreth (Jood Points s of Hnsbandrie," has the follow-
ing moral retlections on the wind blowing good to men, in that cm-ious
didactic poem :

Though winds do rage, as winds Avere wood,*

And cause sf)ring-tides to raise great flood ;

And lofty .--hips leave anchor in mud,

Bereaving many of life and of blood ;

Yet true it i?, as cow chews cud.

And trees, at spring, doth yield forth bud.

Except wind stands as never it stood.

It is an ill wind tm-ns none to good.

INSCRIPTION FOR AN URN IN A GENTLEMAN'S GARDEN

Amid the mountainous parts of Scotland, where two lovers had been
killed by the fall of an impending precipice.

Blow, winter wind, these desert rocks around,

No blight from thee my cypress garland feais !

Away, ye months, with light and roses crown'd !

But, melting April, steep it in thy tears!

Here the fund lover to his fair one told

The tale of tenderness and gay delight.

When from its base, th' incumbent mountain roll'd,

And Beauty, Youth, and Love, were whelm'd in night,

Ah ! gentle stranger, pensive o'er me bend,

\\ ho, in these deathful scenes, am doom'd to prove,

A .sad memorial of the timeless end.

And living grave of Beauty, Youth, and Love !

The same event is prribably commemorated in the following " Epitaph
on Two Lovers, who \vhen sitting at the foot of a hill were buried aliv(i
by the earth falling suddenly in upon them," taken from " Newspapei
Cuttings — Poetry and Miscellaneous," in the British Jluseum :

Whether 'tis pity or compassion lead,

Or pensive thoughts tliy footsti])s hither guide,

A moment pause— the mournful tcroll to read,
Sacred to love — for here the lovers died.

Here sat the pair, untauglit in falsehood's wiles.

Truth form'd each vow, and rapture gave it birth ;

Till jealous Fate, like Hymen drfss'd in smiles.

Stole on their joys — and wedded them in death.

* Wood, i.e. mad with lage.

462 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Riot and rutleness hence be far away,

Gently, ye lovers, o'er these ashes move,

Whilst musing melancholy marks the lay,
And pity rests upon the giave of love.

Pope wrote an epitaph on two lovers, Jolm Hewet and Mary Drew,
who were struck dead by lightning whilst working together in the fields.
An account of the catastrophe and of the epitaph is given in a letter
from the poet Gay to Mr. F , in Pope's Works (ed. 1770, YIII. 153) :

When Eastern lovers feed the fun'ral fire,
On the same pile the faithful pair expire.
Here pitying Heav'n that virtue mutual found.
And blasted both, that it might neither wound.
Hearts so sincere th' Almighty saw well pleas'd ;
Sent his own lightning, and the victims seiz'd.

Lady Mary Woi-tley Montague wrote an epitaph on the lovers at
Pope's request, and sent it to the poet. It is in singularly bad taste
(Lady M. W. Montague's Letters).

Thomson's striking lines on Celadon and Amelia in the " Seasons "
will be read with interest (Summer, 1191):

The tempest caught them on the tender walk,

*****
*****

" Fear not," he said,
" Sweet Innocence ! thou stranger to oifence.
And inward storm ! He who von skies involves
In frowns of darkness, ever smiles on thee
With kind regard. O'er thee the secret shaft
That wastes at midniglit, or th' undreaded hour
Of noon, flies harmless, and that very voice
Which thimders terror thro' the guilty heart.
With tongues of seraphs whispers peace to thine.
'Tis safety to be near thee, sure, and thus
To clasp perfection !" From liis void embrace.
Mysterious Heaven ! that moment to the ground,
A blackened corse, was struck the beauteous maid.

The death of lovers recalls a beautiful Greek epigram, by Antipater
of Thpssalonica (Jacobs II. 110, liv.), on the Burial-place of Hero and
Leander, thus translated by C. :

Fair Hellespont ! Still roll thy waves that bore
Leander to young Hero's rock-bound shore.
Still stands her ruin'd Tower ; and high above
The Beacon-lamp, his guiding light of love ;
Still here their common Tomb : and in this grave
They still those wild winds mourn, that murd'routi wave.

463

FREDERICK HOWARD, FIFTH EARL OF CARLISLE.
Born 1748. Died 1825,

TO THE DUKE OF BEDFORD, ON HIS GBOUP OF THE
THREE GRACES, BY CANOVA.

(" IVIiscellaiiies," by Lord Carlisle, 1820.)

'Tis well in stone to have three Graces
With lovely limbs, and lovely faces ;
But better far, and not in stone,
To have the Three combin'd in One.

The Duchess, to whom this elegant compliment was paid, was pro-
bably Lady Georgiana Elizabeth Byng, daughter of the ith Viscount
Torrington, and first wife of the 6th Duke of Bedford.

The following was written on viewing the same group (" Gentleman's
Magazine," XCIV. Part I. 359) :

Conceal'd in marble-bed tiie Graces lay.
For safety left by Phidias there, no doubt : —
Vain was all search, — till wandering that way,
Matchless Canova found the sleepers out. *

Released by him, and to the light awake —
They breathe ! — and silently our homage take.

THOMAS, LORD ERSKINE.
Bom 1748. Died 1823

FRENCH TASTE.

The French have taste in all they do.

Which we are quite without ;
For Kature, that to them gave gout,

To us gave only gout.

Rogers' dictum on this epigram was, " Far from bad " ("'Tabl'^ T^li,"
1856, 5i).

464 MODEEN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

IMPROMPTU ON THE PUBLICATION OF SIR WALTER

SCOTT'S POEM, " THE FIELD OF WATERLOO."

(Campbell's " Lives of the Lord Chancellors," 4th ed. IX. 87.)

On Waterloo's ensanguined plain
Lie tens of thousands of the slain ;
But none by sabre or by shot,
Fell half as flat as Walter Scott.

The poem was published in 1815. Sir Walter was aware of its imper-
fections, for which he apologizes in an " Advertisement " prefixed to it,
by saying, •' that it was composed hastily, and during a short tour upou

the Continent, but its best apology is, that it was written foi

the purpose of assisting the Waterloo Subscription."

GENERAL RICHAED EITZPATRICK,

Son of John, Ist Earl of Upper Ossory, uncle of the 2nd Lord Hol-
land, ai!d of the 1st Marquis of Lansdowne, born 1748, was Secretary-
at-War in 17S3, and again in 1806, and Member of Parliament for the
county of Bedford. He died in 1815.

ON SHAKESPEARE'S MONUMENT.

Written in the Album at Stratford-upon-Avon ("Gentleman's
Magazine," LXXXV. Part 1. 390).

Stranger, to whom this monument is shown,
Invoke the poet's curse upon M alone !
Whose meddling zeal his barbarous taste displays,
And smears his tombstone, as he marr'd his plays.

The bust of Shakespeare in Stratford Church was coloured to resemble
a living countenance. Maloue, thinking this absurd and tasteless,
caused It to be covered with a coat of white paint. This may have
Vieen unjustifiable, but General Fitzpatrick would have been nearer the
truth if he had written the last line of the epigram :

And smears his tomb, though he restor'd h is plays.

GENERAL BICUARD FITZPATRIOK. 465

ON GEORGE CANNING.
(T.ord DalliDg's "Historical Characters." 1868. II. 213.-

The turning of coats so common is grown,
That no one would think to attack it ;

But no case until now was so flagrantly known
Of a school-boy turning his jacket.

Canning had originally been imbued with Whig principles, and his
friends were principally of that party ; but circumstances produced a
change in his mind, and, on his entrance into public life in 1793, he
left the Whigs, and joined the Tories under Pitt, upon which Fitz-
patrick revenged the former by the above epigram.

EPITAPH ON HIMSELF.

Inscribed on his tomb in the churchyard of Sunninghill, Berks.

(Nichols' " Illustrations of Literary History," VH. 633.)

Whose turn is next? this monitory stone
Eeplies, vain passenger, perhaps thy own.
If, idly curious, thou wilt seek to know
Whose relics mingle with the dust below.
Enough to tell thee, that his destin'd span
On earth he dwelt, — and, like thyself, a man.
Nor distant far th' inevitable day
When thou, poor mortal, shalt like him be clay.
Througli life he walk'd unemulous of fame,
Nor wish'd beyond it to preserve a name.
Content, if friendship, o'er his humble bier,
Drop but the heart-felt tribute of a tear ;
Though cotintless ages should unconscious glide,
Nor learn that ever he had liv'd, or died.

An epigram by Paul the Silentiary may be compared (Jacobs IV.
71, Ixxvii). The following traiislatidii by Cowpcr preserves well the
character nf the original, and is accurate, with the exception that in
the Greek the epigram as.sumes the form of (luestion and answer ;

My name — my country — what are they to thee ?
What, whether base or pniud my pedigree?
Perhaps 1 far surpass'd all other men —
Perhaps I fell below them all — what then ?

2 a

466 MODEEN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Suffice it, stranger ! that thou seest a tomb :
Thou know'st its use — it hides — no matter whom.

CHARLES JAMES FOX.

Born 1749. Died 1806.

TO MBS. FOX, ON THE WEITEB'S BIRTHDAY.
("The Metrical Miscellany," 2nd ed. 1803, 175.)

Of years I have now half a century past,

Yet not one of the fifty so blest as the last :

How it happens my troubles thus daily should cease,

And my happiness still with my years should increase,

This defiance to nature's more general laws,

You alone can explain, who alone are the cause.

Mr. Justice Hardin ge wrote some lines on a similar occasion, "My
Birthday, to my First Love " (Nichols' " Illustrations of Literary
History," III. 818) :

Again, the destined orbit roU'd,

An added year to life is told ;

Nor yet, by mis-adventure cmss'd,

Is love decay'd, or friendship lost.
* # * *

Mine is another natal morn :
When I was loved, then / was born ;
The day, the hour, on which it fell,
Perhaps thy register can tell ;
The birthday that's preferr'd by me
Is Time's record of Love and thee.

Samuel Bishop, iu lines presented to his wife with a ring on their
wedding-day, has :

Those virtues, whose progressive claim,
Endearing wedlock's very name,
My soul enjoys, my song approves,
For conscience sake, as well as love'a.

467

EGBERT FEEGUSSON,

The son of a mercantile clerk, was born at Edinburgh, in 1750. Being
intended for the ministry of the Scotch Establishment, he studied at the
University of S. Andrew's, but resigning all thoughts of a miiiisterial
life, he became an assistant in the office of the commissary clerk of
Edinburgh. He cultivated the poetical talents with which he was
largely endowed by nature, but unfortunately made tavern parties and
clubs the spheres for the display of his wit and his vocal powers. Spoilt
by praise, and made reckless by dissipation, he fell into habits of intem-
perance, and died miserably in a madhouse, in 1774. In 1787, Burns
erected a monument to his memory, in the Canongate Churchyard, on
which he inscribed this epitaph :

No sculptur'd marble here, nor pompous lay,

No storied urn nor animated bust.
This simple stone directs pale Scotia's way.

To pour her sorrows o'er her poet's dust.

It is surprising that Burns should have found nothing more original
for his second line than a copy from Gray's " Elegy."

Fergusson wrote much, considering the early age at which he died.
His Works, which fill an 8vo vol., were published in London in 1807.

ON BEING ASKED WHICH OF THREE SISTERS WAS THE
MOST BEAUTIFUL.

When Paris gave his voice, in Ida's grove,
For the resistless Venus, queen of love,
'Twas no great task to pass a judgment there.
Where she alone was exquisitely fair :
But here, what could his ablest judgment teach,
W^hen wisdom, power, and beauty, reign in each ?
The youth, ,non-plused, behoved to join with me,
And wish the apple had been cut in three.

Something similar is the point of a Greek epigram by Rufinus, thus
freely translated by Graves, in the " Festoon " (Jacobs III. 99, iii.) ;

Three lovely nymphs, contending for the prize,
Display'd th(.'ir charms before my critic eyes :
Superior beauties htighten'd ev'ry grace.
And seem d to mark them of celestial race:
IJut I, who, blcss'd like Paris, fear'd Ins fall.
Swore each a Venus was — and pleas'd them all.

468 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ON THE DEATH OF MR. THOMAS LANCASHIRE,

COMEDIAN.

Alas, poor Tom ! how oft, with merry heart.
Have we beheld thee play the sexton's part?
Each comic heart must now be grieved to see
The sexton's dreary part performed on thee.

Perhaps the sexton who performed the " dreary part " on " poor Tom,"
did so with as " merry heart " as the comedian when he played it, if
he were like the grave-digger in " Hamlet " (Act V. so. 1), of whom
Hamlet says: " Has this fellow no feeling of his business ? he sings at
grave-making."

ON THE NUMEROUS EPITAPHS FOR GENERAL WOLFE;
FOB THE BEST OF WHICH A PREMIUM OF £100 WAS
PROMISED.

The Muse, a shameless, mercenary jade !

Has now assumed the arch-tongued lawyer's trade ;

In Wolfe's deserving praises silent she.

Till flattered with the prospect of a fee.

The premimn was, perhaps, oftered for the epitaph for Wolfe's monu-
ment in Westminster Abbey, the money for which was voted by Parlia-
ment in 1759, and which was completed in 1773. In 1760, a monument
to his memory was placed in the church of Westerham, his native
parish, on which the following epitaph is inscribed (" Festoon," 1767,
153):

While George in sorrow bows his laurel'd head,
And bids the artist gi-ace the soldier dead, —
We raise no sculptur'd trophy to thy name.
Brave youth ! the fairest in the lists of fame.

Proud of thy birth, we boast th' auspicious year ;
Struck with thy fall, we shed the gen'ral tear :
With humble grief inscribe one artless stone, —
And from thy matchless honour date our own.

Graves, in " Euphrosyne," 1783, I. 293, has some epigrammatic lines
on Wolfe's death, which are pithy and true :

A world subdu'd unknown to Ammon's son,

What could'st thou more, great Wolfe ? Thy work was done.

Enough to Virtue and to li'ame was given —

Tho' early slain, thou died'st mature for heaven.

469

ROBERT NAEES,

Son of Dr. James Nares, for many years organist and composer to
Kings George II. and III., was born in 1753. He was Archdeacon of
Stafford, and held other Church preferment. He died in 1829.

ON HIMSELF.
(Nichols' " Illustrations of Literary History," VII. 584.)

Time has not thinn'd my flowing hair,
]Vor laid my aged temples bare ;
But he has play'd the barber's part.
And po\vder"d me with wondrous art,
Meaning, no doubt, to let me see.
He thinks to make mere dust of me ;
But let him know that on a da}^
God will re-animate this clay.
And life unchangeable w^ill give
When Time himself shall cease to live.

The epigram is stated in Nichols' "Illustrations," as above, to have
been written in 1826 ; but it is given, though with considerable varia-
tions, in the " (ientlemun"s Magazine " for the year 1817, LXXXVII.
Part I. 445, where the first line is placed within inverted commas as a
quotation. From what poet ? It is almost word for word the same as a
line in Wordswortii's " Three Cottage Girls," but that piece is amongst
Poems not published until 1821 (^Wordsworth's " Poems," 1846, IV. 162) :

Time cannot thin thy flowing hair.

JAMES DOUGLAS,

Was born not later than 1757 (the exact date is unknown ), aiul
entered the army. He afterwards became a clergj-maii, and held the
livings of Middleton in Su.ssex, and K(!nton in Suffolk. He was an
accomplished antiquary, and published several works on subjects con-
nected with his favourite study. He died in 1819.

ON MR. GROSE, ASLEEP.

Written under his portrait, "inscribed to those members of the Anti-
(ju:irian Society who adjourn to the 'Somerset,' by one of their <le-
voted brethren.''

(Nichols' " Literary Anec<l(.tes," III. G59.)
Now Grose, like bright Phoebus, has sunk into rest,
Society droops for the loss of his jest ;

470 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Antiquarian debates unseason'd witli mirth,
To genius and learning will never give birth.
Then wake, brother member, our friend from his sleep,
Lest Apollo should frown, and Bacchus should weep.

This was Francis Grose, the eminent antiquary, who travelled
through the country taking views and examining antiquities, an ac-
count of which he aftt-rwards published in his well-known Works.
WTien he died the following epitaph was proposed for him, and inserted
in the '• S. James' Chronicle " of May 26, 1791 :

Here lies Francis Grose.
On Thursday, May 12th, 1791,
Death put an end to
His Views and Prospects.

A print of the portrait of Grose sleeping in a chair, under which the
above epigram was written, is given in Hone's " Every-day Book," ed.
1831, U55.

EICHARD POESON,

The most eminent Greek scholar of modern times, was born in 1759,
at East Euston, in Norfolk, where his father was parish clerk. The
vicar, Mr. Ntjrris, discovering the boy's genius, sent him to Eton,
whence he proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1793 be-
came Greek Professor. His learning and critical acumen made him
celebrated among scholars throughout Europe. His eccentricities vexed
his friends and amused the public, and his habits of intemperance dis-
graced himself. He died in 1808.

PITT AND HENRY DVNDAS

Went, on one occasion, drunk to the House of Commons. Pitt wanted
to speak, but was prevented by those around him, who saw his con-
dition. Dundas sat silent. Person is said to have made one hundred
and one epigrams on the subject in one evening. The following is
one of the best i, Watson's " Life of Porson,'' 1861, 217) :

When Billy found he scarce could stand,
"Help, help !" he cried, and stretched his hand,

To faithful Henry calling :
Quoth Hal, '' My friend, I'm sorry for't ;
'Tis not my piactice to support

A minister that's falling."

In the 158th No. of the " Quarterly Eeview," the following story is told
in reference to the scene ia the House : " On one celebrated and single
occasion, IVIr. Pitt came into the House with Dundas, both under the in-
fluence of wine : for which the Speaker's decorum gently chided him the

RICHARD PORSON. 471

next morning, by saying that it had so disturbed the clerk at the table as
to give him a viok'ut headache. Pitt replied that ' he thought it an
excellent arrangement that he should have the wine, and the cleric the
headache.' "

The occasion was too good for the " Bolliad " to pass over, and the fol-
lowing epigram appeared in that caustic publication :

Pitt. I cannot see the Speaker ! Hal. can you ?

Dundas. Not see the Speaker ? Hang it, I see hco.

INTEMPERANCE

Never produced any shame in Porson, but from the following epigram.
1.6 seems to have considered it a privilege accorded to the learned
(" FacetisB Cantabrigienses," 1825, 3) :

I went to Frankfort and got drunk
^Vith that most learned Professor Brunck :
I went to Wortz and got more drunken
With that more learned Professor Euhnken.

This epigram gave currency to the belief that Porson had visited
Antwerp and Wortz — a mistake ; for he was never out of England. His
potations with the Professors were only imaginary, and in the matter of
drinking imagination went a long way with him. Give him anything to
drink, and he would easily fancy it to be wine or spirits. Many stories in
reference to this are told of him. Perhaps the best is. that, while
sitting with a gentleman after dinner, in the chambers of a mutual
friend, a Templar, who was ill and confined to bed, a servant came into
the room for a bottle of embrocation which was on the chimney-piece :
" I drank it an hour ago," said Porson.

HERMANN,

The editor of a work on Greek metre, accused Porson of being very
dogmatical upon that subject. This attack produced the following
epigram (" Facetiae Cantabrigienses," 1825, 39) :

The Germans in Greek
Are sadly to seek ;
Kot five in five score,
But ninety-five more, —
All, save only Hermann,
And Hermann 's a German.

This is not original. It is taken from a Greek epigram by Phocy-
lides (who flourisheil B.C. 544), with wliich, of course, Porson was
acquainted. A story is told of an occasion on which Bentley quoted tiiis
epigram (Nichols' "Illustrations of Literary History," I. 729). Mr.
Nicliolas Hardinge, formerly Fellow of King's, had suggested a correc-

472 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

tion ill some lines of Horace, which was mentioued to Bentley ;
"'Good,' said he, 'very good! — and sound; but tliat Hardinge is a
King's-man ! — is he not ? — Tliose King's-men are bad fellows— not one,
or another, but all of them — except Hardinge — and Hardinge is a
Kings-man !' He immediately recollected an epigram of Phocylides,
which he repeated, hutghing all the time."

Tlie epigram (Jacobs I. 54, x.) is translated (or rnther paraphrased,
for the original is a distich) by Mr. Justice Hardinge, the son of the
King's-man, and the relater of the anecdote :

I hate those Lyricks—thej are trump' ry men —

It is not one, or two, or nine in ten, —

I hate 'em all, Phocylides exclaim'd,

Except that Procles, whom you just have nam'd :

He's an exception to the worthless crew ;

And yet, that Procles is a Lyric too.

Demodocus has an epigram against the Chians, precisely similar
(Jacobs II. 56, i.).

In the "Gentleman's Magazine," LXXXVIII. Part II. 196, it is sug-
gested that Bentley's dislike to the King's-men " was foimded, not
upon any imperfections in their learning, but upon their Tory politics."

ON THE LATIN GERUNDS.

Person used to say he could make verses upon anything. Being asked
to do so on the Latin gerunds, he immediately produced the following
(Watson's " Life of Porson," 1861, 418):

When Dido found ^neas would not come,
She moui-n'd in silence, and was Di-do-dum.

He has been much praised for his ready wit in these lines, but unde-
servedly, forhe was, doubtless, acquainted with Owen's "Latin Epigrams,"
where, in Book VIII. 31, something similar may be seen.

ON A FELLOW OF TRINITY, WHO ALWAYS PRONOUNCED
THE "4" IN EUPHRATES SHORT.

Venit ad Euphraten rapidis perterritus undis,
Ut cito trausiret, corripuit fluvium.

The following admirable translation appeared in "Notes and Queries,"
2nd S. XII. 17, borrowing the witty rendering of Jekyll of the last few
words :

With fear on the Euphrates' shore

The wild waves made him shiver;
But he thought to puss more quickly o'er,
And so abridged the river.
The Fellow, at whose expense Porson amused himself and the world

ROBERT BURNS. 473

was not, however, without some authority for his pronunciation,
classically incorrect though it be. Spenser (" Faerie Queene," Book IV.
Canto si. 21) has:

Great Ganges ; and inuuortall Euphrates.
And Shakespeare (" Antony and Cleopatra," Act I. sc. 2) :

Labienus
(This is stiff news) hath, with his Partliian force,
Extended Asia from Euphrates.

ROBERT BURKS.
Born 1759. Died 1796.

ON ELPHINSTON'S TRANSLATION OF MARTIAL'S
EPIGRAMS.

O thou whom Poetry abhors,
Whom Prose has turned out of doors,
Heard'st thou that groan — proceed no further,
'Twas laurell'd Martial roaring murder.

James Elphinston was a Scotchman, who for some years kept a
large school at Kensington. Dr. Beattie says of his Martial : " It is
truly an unirpie. The specimens formerly published did very well to
laugh at ; but a whole quarto of nonsense and gibberish is too much."
This is rather unfairly severe. Elphinston was a scholar, but not a
poet. His renderings are generally literal ; his verse often execrable.
OocAsional use has been made of his translation in this work, and it
will be seen that he could sometimes throw otf a version of an epigram
not quite unworthy of Maitial.

As severe as Bums' epigiam is an anonymous one on Dr. Trapp's
translation of Virgil {" Poetical Farrago," 11. 61) :

Mind but thy jjreaching, Trapp ; translate no further ;
Is it not written, " Thou shalt do no murder"?

WRITTEN ON THE WINDOWS OF THE GLOBE TAVERN,

DUMFRIES.

The greybeard, old Wisdom, may boast of his treasures,

Give me with gay Folly to live ;
I grant him his cahn-blooded, time-settled plea:^ures,

But Folly has raptures to give.

Perhaps Burns was thinking of Milton's " Ii'.\llegro":
Haste thee, nymph, and bring with theo
Jest, an 1 youthl'ul jollity.

474 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles,
No.ls, and becks, and wreathed smiles,
Such as hang on Hebe's cheek.
And love to live in dimple sleek;
Sport that wrinkled Care derides,
And Lauarhter holding both his sides.

* * * *

These delights if thou canst give,
Mirth, with thee I mean to live.

There is a stanza on Wisdom and Folly in "An invitation into the
Country, from Dr. Eidlev to Mr. Spence, in imitation of Horace, Book IV.
Ode 12 " (Nichols' " Collection of Poems," VIII. 80, 1782; :

Come, let the press stand still a day :
True wisdom must have some allay,
To make it sterling ; time and place
Give Folly's self a pleasing grace.

Pope has a line in the " Essay on Man" (Epistle II. 288), which may
be compared with the last line of Burns' epigram :

In lolly's cup still laughs the bubble, joy.

POLITICS.
In politics if thou would'st mix.

And mean thy fortunes be ;
Bear this in mind, be deaf and blind,

Let great folks hear and see.

Bias, one of the seven sages, who flourished about B.C. 540, gives
advice, mutatis mutandis, of similar character. The translation is by
Merivale (Jacobs I. 87, iii.) :

■Whilst in the city 'tis your wish to dwell,
Seek how to please all men of each estate :

Thus may you prosper. Hate and Discoid fell
Too oft pursue the proud and obstinate.

EPITAPH ON ROBERT AIKEN, ESQ.

Know thou, stranger to the fame
Of this much lov'd, much honour'd name,
(For none that knew him need be told)
A warmer heart Death ne'er made cold.

Sinular in spirit is an epitaph by Charles Cotton on Mr. Robert
Port:

FREDERIC SCHILLER. 475

Here lies he, whom the tyrant's rage
Snatch'd in a venerable age ;
And here, with him, entomb'd do lie
Honour and Hospitality.

FREDERIC SCHILLER,

"Was born at Marbach in the Duchy of Wurtemberg in 1759. He was
patronised by the Duke of Saxe- Weimar, who appointed liim Professor
of History and Philosophy in the University of Jena, where he composed
his most celebrated work, the "History of the Thirty Years' War in
Germany.' He died in 1805. The following epigrams are translated
from the German by Lord Lytton.

THE CHILD IN THE CRADLE.

Within that narrow bed, glad babe, to thee

A boundless world is spread !
Unto thy 8oul, the boundless world shall be

When man, a narrow bed 1

Lord Lytton, in a note to his translation of Schiller, says. " This
epigram has a considerable resemblance to the epitaph on Alexander
the Great," a translation of which he gives from " Blackwood's
Magazine" for April, 1838:

A little tomb sufiSceth him whom not sufficed all :

The small is now as great to him as once the great was small.

In Pettigrew's "Chronicles of the Tombs," 1857, 290, a translation
(not a very exact one) is given of the Latin epitaph on Henry II. at
Fontevrault (another version is given in the " Festoon ") :

Here lies King Henry II., who many realms
Did er.st subdue, and was botli count and king;
Though all the regions of the earth could not
Sullicc- mo once, eiglit feet of ground are now
Suflicifut for me. Reader, think of death.
And look on me as what all men must come to.

The very similar words which Shakespeare puts into the mouth
of Prince Henry, when standing over the body of Hotspur ("King
Henry IV." Part I. Act v. sc. 4;, will occur to every one :

When that this body did contain a spirit,
A kingdom for it was too small a bouud ;
But now two jmccs of the vilest earth
Is room enough.

But this thought is not original in any of the passages cited. It was
expressed ages ago by the Greek epigrammatist, Leonidas of Tareutum.

476 JIODEEN EPIGRAMMATISTS. '

who has a fine epitaph " On a Rich Man ;" thus translated by Dean
Merivale, in Bland's " Collections from the Greek Anthology," ed. 1833
Jacobs I. 172, Ixix.) :

I am the tomb of Crethon : here you read

His name ; himself is number'd with the dead ;

Who once had wealth, not less than Gyges' gold ; ,v!

Who once was rich in stable, stall, and fold ; %

Who once was blest above all living men —

With lands, how narrow now ! so ample then !

THE SCIENCE OF POLITICS.

All that thou dost be right — to that alone confine thy view,
And halt within the certain rule — the All that's right to do i
True zeal the what already is would sound and perfect see.
False zeal would sound and perfect make the something
that's to be !

It might be well if this epigram were written in letters of gold on the
wall of the House of Commons.

Schiller excelled in short epigrams. In the few following, the muUum
in parvo is very striking :

THE IMMUTABLE.

Time flies on restless pinions — constant never.
Be constant — and thou chainest time for ever.

JOVE TO HERCULES.
'Twas not my nectar made thy strength divine.
But 'twas thy strength which made my nectar thine !

VALUE AND WORTH.

If thou hast something, bring thy goods— a fair return be

thine ;
If thou art something, bring thy soul and interchange with

mine.

THE BEST GOVERNED STATE.

How the best state to know ? — it is foimd out ;
Like the best woman — that least talked about.

477

EICHAKD COLLEY, MARQUIS WELLESLEY.

Born 1760. Died 1842.

(The following Epigrams are taken from the Marquiti Wellesley'3
'' Priniitiaj et Reliquije," Londini, 1840.)

ON MILTON.

Trail slated from the Latin hy C.

Blind, poor, and mark'd by party's ruthless zeal,
See Milton still siiblimest powers reveal ;
Scorn a degenerate age, and rise elate
Above the frown of fortune or of fate.
Though light no more illum'd his visual ray,
Though left to dreary poverty a prey,
Still, fancy-led, the INIuse enraptur'd pours
Visions of glory on his darken'd houis. —
Who soars at will beyond Creation's bound,
Earth's transient evils lack the power to wound.

Barry Cornwall (Bryan Procter) has some "Lines written under an
Engraving of Milton," which open with sentiments very similar to the
latter part of the Marquis' :

He, tho' he dwelt in seeming night,
Scattered imperishable light
Around, and to the regions of the day
Sent his wingeil thoughts away.
And bade theui search the ways on high
For the bright Hume of I'oetry.
* * * *

Gray's fine lines, in his " Progress of Poesy," on the cause of Milton's
blindness, cannot be omitted :

Nor second he that rode sublime

Upon the scraph-wings of ecstasy,

The secrets of the abyss to spy ;

He pass'ii the flaming bounds of space and time :

The living throne, the sapphire blaze,

Where Angi-ls trendile while they gaze,

He saw ; but, biasti^l with exce.-s of light,

Closcid his eyes in endless night.

Wordsworth, in " The Excursion," Book VI., says with reference to
Milton :

478 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

And know we not that from the blind have flowed
The highest, holiest, raptm-es of the lyre ;
And wisdom married to immortal verse ?

TO THE PROVOST OF ETON.

Dr. Hodgson, Provost of Eton, in acknowledging the receipt of the
bust of Lord Wellesley, which the Fellows desired to place in the
Library of the College, wrote some complimentary Latin verses, to which
the Marquis replied in the same language ; and afterwards thus ren-
dered his lines into English :

On my last steps Fame sheds her purest rays,

And wreaths with Bays the Cypress and the Yew ;

Eton, blest guardian of my youthful days.
Greets my retiring age with honours new.

ON THE STATUE OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON IN
FRONT OF THE ROYAL EXCHANGE, ERECTED BY THE
CITIZENS OF LONDON.

Europe and Asia, saved by Thee, proclaim
Invincible in War thy deathless name, —
Now round Thy Brows the Civic Oak we twine.
That every earthly glory may be Thine.

There is a I^atin version of this, also by the Marquis.

Angelus Politianus, an Italian poet, born in 1-154, has a Latin distich
(" Delitise Delitiarum," 124), addi-essed " To Laurentius," thus trans-
lated by James Wright :

The civic oaken crown you well may have.
Who do not one, but every subject save.

WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES,

Of a Wiltshire family, was born in 1762. He was for some years
Curate of Doiihead S. Andrew, in Wiltshire, and subsequently Vicar of
Bremhill, in the same county ; of Dumbleton, in Gloucestershire ; and
Canon of Salisbury. He resided chiefly at Biemhill, in the quitt dis-
charge of his pastoral duties, and in the pursuits of literature. He died
in 1850.

AGE.

Age, thou the loss of health and friends shalt moura!
But thou art passing to that night-still bourn,

WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES. 479

Where labour sleeps. The linnet, chattering loud.
To the May morn shall sing ; thou, in thy shroud,
Forgetful and forgotten, sink to rest ;
And grass-green be the sod upon thy breast !

The sorrows of old age are expressed in "■ Macbeth " (Act V. sc. o) :

I have liv'd long enough : my way of life
Is fiiU'n into the sear, the yellow leaf :
And that which should accompany old age.
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have.

Scott, in " The Lady of the Lake," Canto I. xxxi., sings of the rest of

the grave :

Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,

Mom of toil, nor night of waking.

No rude iound shall reach thine ear,
* * * *

Yet the lark's shrill fife may come

At the d:iy-break from the fallow,
And the bittern sound his drum,

Boomiug from the sedgy shallow.

INSCRIPTION FOR A COLD BATH,

Encompassed by rock-work, into which fell a little rill, in the garden

of Bremhill vicarage.

Mark where, above the small cascade,
Quiver th' uncertain light and shade :
Such shadows human hopes supply,
That tremble restless, and then die.
Stranger, thoughtful tread the cave —
No light is fix'd, but that beyond the grave.

Very similar in sentiment, though dissimilar in the form in which it
is expressed, arc Bishop Ileber's lines ''On Heavenly and Kiirthly
IIoi.e " :

Reflected on the lake, I love

To see the stars of evening glow.
So tranquil in the heavens above,
So reslle.-s in the wave below.

Thus heavenly hope is all serene,
But earthly hope, liow bright soe'er,

Still flnctuules o'er this changing scene
As false and fleeting as 'tis fair.

480 MODERN EPIGEAMMATIST8.

SAMUEL EOGEES.
Born 1763. Died 1855.

TO .

Go — you may call it madness, folly ;
You shall not chase my gloom away.
There's such a charm in melancholy,
I would not, if I could, be gay.

Oh, if you knew the pensive pleasure
That fills my bosom when I sigh,
You would not rob me of a treasure
Monarchs are too poor to buy.

There is a pretty song on Melancholy in Beaumont and Fletcher's
'• Nice Valoiu- : or, "Passionate Madman " (Act III. sc. 1), of which the
following is part :

There's nought in this life sweet.
If man were wise to see 't,
But only melancholy ;
Oh, sweetest melancholy !
Welcome, folded arms, and fixed eyes,
A sigh that piercing mortifies,
A look that's fasten'd to the ground,
A tongue chain'd up without a sound !

The lines near the beginning of Milton's " II Penseroso " will be re-
membered :

But hail, thou goddess, sage and holy.
Hail, divinest Melancholy,
Whose saintly visage is too bright
To hit the sense of human sight.
And therefore to our weaker view
O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue.

It is noted by Thomas Warton, that Milton was indebted for many
thoughts in "II Penseroso" to a poem prefixed to the first edition of
Burton's " Anatomic of Melancholy," written, he conjectures, about tlic-
year 1600. A few lines from this forgotten poem may be interesting ;

When I go musing all alone,
Thinking of diverse things foreknown ;
When I build castles in the air,
Void of sorrow, void of fear :
Pleasing myself with phantasms sweet,
Methinks the time runs very fleet.
All my joys to this are folly.
Nought so sweet as Melancholy !

EGBERT BLOOMFIELD. 481

ON J. W. WARD {AFTERWARDS EARL OF DUDLEY).

(Rogers' " Table Talk," 1856, 152.)

Ward has no heart, they say ; but I deny it ; —
He has a heart, and gets his speeches by it.

Eogers -wrote this epigram, " ■with some little assistance from Richard
Sharp," to revenge himself for a hostile critique on his " Columbus, "
written for the " Quarterly Review," by Ward, in 1813 r" Table Talk,
as above).

ROBERT BLOOMFIELD,

The son of a cottager, was born near Bury, in Suffolk, in 1766.
When about eleven years of age, he was taken into the service of his
uncle by marriage as farmer's boy ; but the work proving too hard for
his delicate constitution, lie went to London as a shoemaker's apprentice.
He had early shown a taste for poetry, and the publication of the
" Farmer's Boy " gave him notoriety. He ventured into the book trade,
but failed ; and the grief which this caused seriously affected his health.
He retired to Shefford, in Bedfordshire, in 1815, and died in 1823.

ON HEARING OF THE TRANSLATION OF PART OF THE
•' FARMER'S BOY" INTO LATIN BY THE REV. W. CLUBBE.

Hey, Giles ! in what new garb art dress'd ?

For lads like you methinks a bold one ;
I'm glad to see thee so caress'd ;

But, hark ye ! don't despise your old one.
Thou'rt not the first by many a boy

Who've found abroad good friends to own 'em.
Then, in such coats have shown their joy.

E'en their own fathers have not known 'em.

Of very different character are some lines by Cowper on a similar
subject: " To the Spanish Admiral Count Gravina, on his trimslating
the author's Song on a Rose into Italian Verse " :

My rose, Gravina, blooms anew,

And steep'd not now in rain,
But in Castalian streams by you,

Will never fade again.

2 I

482 MODEKN EPIGEAilMATISlS.

WILLIAM WOEDSWOETH.
Bom 1770. Died 1850.

INTENDED FOB A STONE IN THE GROUNDS OF EYDAL

MOUNT.

In these fair vales hath many a Ti-ee

At Wordsworth's suit been spared ;
And from the builder's hand this Stone,
For some rude beauty of its own,

Was rescued by the Bard :
So let it rest ; and time will come

WTien here the tender-hearted
May heave a gentle sigh for him,

As one of the departed.

A little similar, though written under very different circumstances,
are some lines by Byron, " Written in an Album":

As o'er the cold sepulchral stone

Some name arrests the passer-by,
Thus, when thou view'st this page alone,

May mine attract thy pensive eye !

And when by thee that name is read.
Perchance in some succeeding year,

Eeflect on me as on the dead,
And think mv heart is buried here.

WRITTEN IN THE ALBUM OF A CHILD.

Small service is true service while it lasts,
Of Friends, however humble, scorn not one,

The Dais J, by the shadow that it casts,

Protects the lingering dew-drop from the Sun.

fciouthwell, the Jesuit, in Queen Elizabeth's reign, has some stanzas
on the theme, " Scorn not the Least," one of which is striking, and the
last two lines illustrative of the epigram :

In Haman's pomp poor Mordocheus wept,

Yet God did turn his fate upon his foe.

The Lazar pin'd, whUe Dives' feast was kept,

Yet he to heaven, to hell did Dives go.

We trample graas, and prize the flowers of May,

Y'et grass is green when flowers do fade away.

WILLIAM WOEDSWORTH. 483

The first line of the epigram recalls another passage of Wordswonh
(" Tinterii Abbey ") :

. . . That best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love.

A LESSON.

If this great world of joy and pain

Revolve in one sure track ;
If Freedom, set, will rise again,

And Virtue, flown, come back ;
Woe to the purblind crew who fill

The heart with each day's care ;
Kor gain, from past or future, skill

To bear, and to forbear !

Shelley seems to have been one of those -who could not " bear ' with
Wordsworth, in his belief that it was not necessary continually to harp
upon the subject of freedom, which, if set, would" assuredly rise again
t" To Wordsworth"):

Poet of Nature, thou hast wept to know

That things depart which never may return I

Childhood and youth, friendship and love's first glow,

Have fled like sweet dreams, leaving thee to mourn.

These common woes I feel. One loss is mine

Which thou too feel'st ; yet I alone deplore.

Thou wert as a lone star, wliose light did shine

On some frail bark in winter's midnight roar :

Thou ha»t like to a rock-built refuge stood

Above the blind and battling multitude.

In honour'd poverty thy voice did weave

Songs consecrate to truth and liberty. —

Deserting these, thou lea vest me to "grieve,

Thus having been, that thou should'st cease to be.

Dr. Hawkesworth's lines " On Liberty " may be inserted here :

Freedom's charms alike engage
Blo<;)ming youth and hoary age;
Time itself can ne'er destroy
Freedom's pure and lasting joy :
Love and friendship never gave
Half their blessings to the slave;
None are happy but the free ;
Bliss ia \join of liberty.

484 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

SIE WALTER SCOTT.

Born 1771. Died 1832.

WRITTEN IN TEE ALBUM OF TEE SELL-BOCK LIGET-

EOVSE.

Pharos loquitur.

Far in the bosom of the deep,

O'er these wild shelves my watch I keep ;

A ruddy gem of changeful light,

Bound on the dusky brow of night,

The seaman bids my lustre hail,

And scorns to strike his timorous sail.

It is not probable that Sir Walter took this from a Greek epigram,
but the thought is almost identicitl in one, by an uncertain author,
on the Pharos at Smyrna (Jacobs IV. 196, ccclxxii.) ; translated by D :'

Dreading no more the shrouding mists of night,

The sailor boldly steers within my light :

For all who navigate the wat'ry deep,

A meteor, gleaming far, my watch 1 keep :

In mem'ry of Asclepiades' toil,

I stand aloft 'mid ocean's wild turmoil.

TO A LADY; WITE FLO WEBS FROM A ROMAN WALL.

Take these flowers, which, purple waving.

On the ruin'd rampart grew,
Where, the sons of freedom braving,

Eome's imperial standards flew.

Warriors from the breach of danger

Pluck no longer laurels there :
They but yield the passing stranger

Wild-flower wreath for Beauty's hair.

Aytoun, in "The Old Camp, written in a Roman Fortification in
Bavaria," after saying, that nothing save the thought of Rome is stir-
ring in his mind, proceeds to express the change which has passed over
the scene :

I could not feel the breezes bring

Rich odours from the trees,
I could not hear the linnets sing.
And think on themes like these.

SIE WALTER SCOTT. 485

The painted insects as they pass

In swift and motley strife,
The very lizard in the grass

Wuuld scare me back to life.

EPITAPH ON THE BEY. GEORGE SCOTT.

To youth, to age, alike, this tablet pale

Tells the brief moral of its tragic tale.

Art thou a parent ? Eeverence this bier,

The parents' fondest hopes lie buried here.

Art thou a youth, prepared on life to start,

"With opening talents and a generous heart,

Fair hopes and flattering prospects all thine own r

Lo ! here their end — a monumental stone.

But let submission tame each sorrowing thought.

Heaven crown'd its champion ere the fight was fought.

The Rev. George Scott, son of Sii- Walter's relative, Hugh Scott of
Harden, became Rector of Kentisbere, in Devonshire, in 1828, and died
there in 1830. The epitaph is inscribed on his tomb in the chancel.

Kindred in spirit is a beautiful epitaph in the churchyard of Stal-
tridge, Dorsetshire (" Notes and Queries," 1st S. VIII. 289) :

So fond, so young, so gentle, so sincere.

So loved, so early lost, may claim a tear :

Yet mourn not, if the life, resiuued l^y Heaven,

Was spent for ev'ry end for which 'twas given.

Could he too soon escape this world of sin ?

Or could eternal life, too soon begin ?

Then cease his death too fondly to deplore.

What could the longest life have added more V

The poet Waller has an epigram on " Long and Short Life " which ia
very pithy :

Circles are praised, not that abound
In largeness, but th' exactly round :
So life we praise that doth excel
Not in much time, but acting ttcII.

486 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

SYDNEY SMITH.

Born 1771. Died 184.5.

(The following epigrams are taken from Lady Holland's " Life of
Sydney Smith," 1855.)

IMPROMPTU ON SEEING MR. {AFTERWARDS LORD)
JEFFREY RIDING ON A DONKEY.

Witty as Horatius Flaccus,
As great a Jacobin as Gracchus,
Short, though not as fat, as Bacchus,
Eiding on a little Jackass.

ON A SORE THROAT FROM WHICH LORD JEFFREY
HAD BEEN SUFFERING.

That throat so vex'd by cackle and by cup.
Where wine descends, and endless words come up,
Much injured organ ! Constant is thy toil ;
Spits turn to do thee harm, and coppers boil :
Passion and punch, and toasted cheese and paste,
And all that's said and swallow'd lay thee waste !

The intimate connection between Jeffrey and Sydney Smith in the
" Edinburgh Review " is well known. The following '* Parody on a
Song in ' The Camp ;' enlisting a Critic for the ' Edinburgh Review,' "
by Archdeacon Nares, connects their names, and may therefore be given
here (Nichols' " Illustrations of Literary History," Vll. 613) :

Jeffrey. You little Reviewer, come list with me ;

But first, prithee, answer me questions three.
Reviewer. I long, master Jeffrey, to list with you,

For I'm hungry, and wish to have something to do.
Jef. First, can you rail well ?
Rev. Neatly, neatly.
Jef. Flourish in sentiments ?
Rev. Sweetly, sweetly.
Jef. Cut up an author well ?
Rev. O, completely.
Jef. The answers are honest, bold, and free,

Go on, and in time you a Sydney will be.

^\^len authors are angry, and dare you to fight,

AVill you go to the field, tho' you feel in a fright ?
Rev. I can go. sir, like you, tho' I'd much rather not ;

And would dine with three lords ere I'd fight with one Scott.

SYDNKY SMITH. 487

Jef. Next, can you lie well ?

Bev. Roundly, roundly.

Jef. Scout Universities ?

Rev. Soundly, soundly.

Jef. Prate when you're ignorant ?

Bev. O, profoundly.

Jef. The answers are honest, bold, and fair,

Come dip in this gall, and a Critic you are.

Byron, in '• English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," is equally severe

A man must serve his time to every trade,
Save censure — critics all are ready made.
Take hackney'd jokes from Miller, got by rote,
With just enough of learning to misquote ;
A mind well skill'd to find or forge a fault,
A turn for punning, call it Attic salt ;
To Jefl'rey go, be silent and discreet.
His pay is just ten sterling pounds per sheet :
Fear not to lie, 'twill seem a lucky hit ;
Shrink not from blasphemy, "twill pass for wit ;
Care not for feeling — pass your proper jest,
And stand a critic, hated yet caress'd.

ON PROFESSOR AIREY, TEE ASTRONOMER AND MATHE-
MATICIAN, AND HIS BEAUTIFUL WIFE.

Airey alone has gain'd that double prize

Which forced musicians to divide the crown :

His works have raised a mortal to the skies,
His marriage vows have drawn an angel down.

This is, prolmbly, taken from the close of Dryden's " Alexander's
Feast " :

At last divine Cecilia came.

Hf * m *

if Hf * *

Lot old Timotheus yield the prize,

Or both divifio the crown ;
Ho rais'd a mortal to the skies ;

She drew an angol down.

So, with some variation, Christopher Pitt, in his ode " To Celia Play-
ing on the Lute":

Of old to raise one shade from hell

To ( )rphouH was it given,
But every tune of yours calls down

Au angel from his heaven.

488 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.
Born 1772. Died 1834.

ON IMITATION.

All are not born to soar — and ah ! how few

In tracks where wisdom leads, their paths pursue !

Contagious when to wit or wealth allied,

Folly and vice diffuse their venom wide.

On folly every fool his talent tries ;

It asks some toil to imitate the wise ;

Tho' few like Fox can speak — like Pitt can think —

Yet all like Fox can game — like Pitt can drink.

This thought has a parallel in Lord Clarendon's fine eulogium on
Archbishop Laud, after giving the history of his trial and execution :
" His learning, piety, and virtue have been attained by very few, and
the greatest of his infirmities are common to all, even to the best men"
(" History of the Rebellion," Book VIH. year 1644).

THE EXCHANGE.

We pledged our hearts my love and I,
I in my arms the maiden clasping ;

I could not tell the reason why,
But, oh ! I trembled like an aspen.

Her father's love she bade me gain ;

I went and shook like any reed !
I strove to act the man in vain !

We had exchanged our hearts indeed.

This exchange of hearts may remind the reader of the beautiful ditty
of Sir Philip Sidney (Ellis' " Specunens of the Early English Poets,"
1803, II. 263) :

My true love hath my heart, and I have his,

By just exchange one for another given ;
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss.

There never was a better bargain dri\ en ;
My true love hath my heart, and I have his.

SABIUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 489

His heart in me keeps him and me in one,

My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides ;

He loves my heart, for once it was his o'wn,
I cherish bis, because in me it bides ;
My true love hath my heart, and I have his.

EFITAPR ON AN INFANT.

Its balmy lips the infant blest
Relaxing from its mother's breast,
How sweet it heaves the happy sigh
Of innocent satiety !

And such my infant's latest sigh !
tell, rude stone ! the passer by,
That here a pretty babe doth lie.
Death sang to sleep with lullaby.

The last two lines are almost verbatim from Herrick, "Upon a
Child":

Here a pretty baby lies
Sung asleep with lullabies;
Pray be silent, and not stirre
Th' easie earth that covers her.

EPITAPH ON AN INFANT.

Ere sin could blight or sorrow fade,
Death came with friendly care ;

The opening bud to heaven conveyed,
And bade it blossom there.

Coleridge sent the volume of I'oems, in which this epitaph was in-
cluded, to Charles Lamb before publication, proposing to leave some
out ; and suggosting particularly the omission of one piece. Ijanib
writes to diKbuade him : " Let me protest strongly against your rejecting
tlif! ' Complaint of Ninatlioraa.' .... If a vicarious substitute be
wanting, sacrifice 'und 'twill Ijc a piece of self-denial too) the ' EpUaph
fm an Infant,' of which its author seems so proud, so tenacious. Or if
your heart be set on perpf.tnatiiifit\w four-line wonder, I'll tell ynu what
do : Will the copyright of it at once to a country statuai-y ; commence
in this manner iJeath's prime poet laureate ; and let your verses be
adopted in every village round, instead of those hitherto famous ones:

490 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

* Afflictions sore long time I bore,
Physicians were iu vain.' "

(" Final Memorials of Charles Lamb," 1848, I. 66.)
Coleridge wisely declined to omit the epitaph ; and the world has not
endorsed Lamb's adverse criticism.

EPITAPH FOB HIMSELF.

Stop, Christian passer-by ! — stop, child of God,

And read with gentle breast. Beneath this sod

A poet lies, or that which once seem'd he, —

O, lift one thought in prayer for S. T. C. ;

That he who many a year with toil of breath

Found death in life, may here find life in death !

Mercy for praise — to be forgiven for fame

He ask'd, and hoped, through Christ. Do thou the same !

The following lines were written by Mrs. Hemans, " On Eeading
Coleridge's Epitaph, Written by Himself " :

Spirit ! so oft in radiant freedom soaring,

High thi-ough seraphic mysteries unconfined.

And oft, a diver through the deep of mind,

Its caverns, far below its waves, exploring ;

And oft such strains of breezy music pouring,

As, with the iioating sweetness of their sighs.

Could still all fevers of the heart, restoring

Awhile that freshness left in Paradise ;

Say, of those glorious wanderings what t?he goal ?

What the rich fruitage to man's kindred soul

From wealth of thine bequeathed ? O strong and high

And sceptred intellect ! thy goal confessed

Was the Kedeemer's Cross — thy last bequest

One lesson breathing thence profound humility.

JAMES HOGG.

The Ettrick Shepherd. Born 1772. Died 1835.

WRITTEN IN THE ALBUM AT ULVA.

I've roam'd 'mong the peaks and the headlands of Mull^
Her fields are neglected, uncultur'd and weedy ;

Her bosom is dust, and her haven is dull :

Her sons may be brave, but they're horribly greedy !

HEXKY RICECAKD VASSALL, THIRD LORD HOLLAND. 491

Under this is written the following retort by an anonymous bard :

O Shepherd of Ettrick, O why thns complain

That our boatmen are greedy of grog ?
The beauties of Staflfa, by this you proclaim,

Are but pearls thrown away on a Hogg !

HENRY RICHAED VASSALL, THIRD LORD

HOLLAND.

Born 1773. Died 1840.

INSCRIBED ON A SUMMER-HOUSE IN THE GROUNDS OF

HOLLAND HOUSE.

(" Notes and Queries," 3rd S. VII. 92.)

Here Rogers sat, and here for ever dwell
To me, those pleasures that he sings so well.

A more elegant compliment than this has rarely been paid to a poet
and friend.

" The following stanzas," says Rogers in a note to " The Pleasures
of Memory," " are said to have been written on a blank leaf of this pneni.
They present so affecting a reverse of the picture, that I cannot resist
the opportunity of introducing them here." Tliey were written by
Henry F. K. Soame, of Trinity College, Cambridge :

Pleasures of Memory ! — oh ! supremely blest,

And justly proud beyond a poet's praise;
If the pure confines of thy tranquil breast
Contain, indeed, the subject of thy lays !

By me how envied ! — for to me.

The herald still of misery,

Memory miikt-s her influence known

By sighs, and tears, and grief alone :
I greet her as the fiend, to whom belong
The vulture's ravening beak, the raven's funeral song.

She tells of time mispent, of comfort lost.

Of fair occasions gone for ever liy ;
Of hopes too fondly nursed, too rudely crossed.
Of njany a cause to wish, yet fear to die ;

For what, except the iuhtinctive fear

Lest she survive, detains me here.

When "all tlur life of life" is fied ?—

AVliat, but the deep inherent dread
Lest slie beyond thi^ grave; re.snine her reign,
And realize the hell that priests and beldams feign ?

492 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

CHARLES LAMB.

Born 1775. Died 1834.

ON MACKINTOSH.

(Talfourd's " Final Memorials of Charles Lamb," 1848, 1. 132.)

Though thou'rt like Judas, an apostate black,
In the resemblance one thing thou dost lack ;
When he had gotten his ill-purchas'd pelf,
He went away, and wisely hang'd himself:
This thou may do at last, yet much I doubt
If thou hast any bowels to gush out !

Lamb calls this " An epigram on Mackintosh, the Vindicise-Gallick-
man — who has got a place at last." It is inordinately, and, perhaps,
unfairly severe. The " Vindicias Gallicse," published in 1791, met with
the greatest applause, and at once raised the author to fame. When he
accepted from Mr. Addington the Recoidership of Bombay, his friends
were offended, and his enemies branded him as a traitor to his prin-
ciples. This was the " place" which produced the epigram. Dr. Parr
was equally severe — and to the ofl'ender's face. Mackintosh asked him
how Quigley (an Irish priest who had been executed for high treason ■>
could have been worse ? Parr replied : " I'll tell you, Jemmy ; Quigley
was an Irisliman — he might have been a Scotchman ; he was a priest
— he miglit have been a lawyer ; he was a traitor — he might have been
an apostate " (" Quarterly Review," No. CCXLVI. 406).

JAMES SMITH,

Was born in 1775, and succeeded his father as Solicitor to the Board
of Ordnance. He was celebrated for his wit and his conversational
powers. On the occasion of the re-opening of Drury Lane Theatre in
1812, he produced, in conjunction with his brother Horace, the well-
known volume of " Rejected Addresses.' He died in 1839. The first
of the following epigrams is taken from Barham's " Life and Remains
of Theodore Hook," 1849. The others from Smith's " Memoirs, Letters,
and Comic Miscellanies," 1840.

CRAFT.

Smith produced the following witty epigram, extempore, at a dinner
at Lincoln's Inn, at which Sir George Rose was present :

In Craven Street, Strand, ten attorneys find place,
And ten dark coal-barges are moored at its base :

JAMES SMITH. 493

Fly, Honesty, fly to some safer retreat.

There's craft in the river, and craft in the street.

Sir George Eose immediately replied :

Why should Honesty seek any safer retreat,
From the lawyers or barges, odd-rot 'em ?
For the lawyers are just at the top of the street,
And the barges aie just at the bottom.

ON MR. STBAHAN, THE KING'S PRINTER.

Your lower limbs seem'd far from stout,

When last I saw you walk ;
The cause I presently found out,

When you began to talk.

The power that props the body's length

In due proportion spread.
In you mounts upwards, and the strength

All settles in the head.

At a dinner-party Smith met Mr. Strahan, who was then suffering
from gout and old age, though his intellectual faculties remained un-
impaired, and the next morning sent him the above. Horace Smith,
the editor of his brother's " Memoirs, Letters, and Comic Miscellanies,"
says : " This compliment proTed so highly acceptable to the old gen-
tleman, that he made an immediate codicil to his will, by which he
bequeathed to the writer the sum of three hundred pounds ! Since the
days of Sannazarius it may be questioned whether any bard has been
more liberally remunerated for an equal number of lines."

A quaint epigram by Sir John Davies shows a man. whose " strength "
took an opposite course to that of Mr. Strahan (Ep. 12) :

Quintus liis wit infus'd into liis brain,

Mislikes the place, and fled into his feet ;

And there it wanders up and down the street.

Dabbled in the dirt, and soaJ:'.?! in the rain.
Doubtless his wit intends not to aspire.
Which leaves his head, to travel in the mire.

EDMUND BURKE.

The sage of Beaconsfield, who wrote
"^I'lie ciimos of Oaid's degenerate crew,

But little thought his name would note
The murd'rous deeds his pencil drew.

494 MODERN EriGRAMMATISTS.

His anti-Jacobinic work

Still lives — his name preserves it still ;
And— verb impassable — " to Burke,"

Implies to kidnap and to kill.

Although unconnected with the above, an epigram on Biu-ke may be
given here, found in "An Asylum for Fugitive Pieces," 1785, lLi7.
entitled " Burke's Glasgow Promotion " :

Unqualified in senates to declaim,

Burke gains a post well suited to his knowledge :

Scotch pedants zealous to enlarge his fame.
Have chose him lordly rector of a college.

May Burke o'er beardless and o'er bearded boys.
His pow'r sublime, unenvied, long maintain !

And though S. Stephen wUl not hear his noise,
In learned cells uurivall'd may it reign !

The absm-dity of the first line of this epigram must strike all modern
readers. The attack upon Buike was, perhaps, occasioned by the un-
popularity of the coalition ministry formed in 1783, in which he held
the office of Paymaster of the Forces.

WESTMINSTER BRIDGE.

As late the Trades' Unions, by way of a show,
O'er Westminster Bridge strutted five in a row,
" I feel for the bridge," whisper'd Dick, with a shiver,
" Thus tried by the mob, it may sink in the river."
Quoth Tom, a crown lawyer, " Abandon your fears ;
As a bridge, it can only be tried by its piers."

The same pun is in the following " Lnpromptu on the Prince's
Absence from the Ceremony of Laying the First Stone of Vauxhall
Bridge," which is found in " The Spirit of the Public Jcurnals," XV.
209. "taken from the "Morning Chronicle" of May 11, 1811. It is
signed " T. H."— Theodore Hook :

An arch wag has declar'd, that he truly can say
Why the Prince did not lay the first stone t'other day :
The Restrictions prevented — the reason is clear ;
The Kegent can't meddle in making a pier.

THOMAS CAMPBELL. 495

SLAVERY.— AN IMPROMPTU WRITTEN AT GORE MOOSE.

Mild Wilberforce, by all beloved,

Once own'd this hallow'd spot,
Whose zealous eloquence improved

The fetter'd Negro's lot.
Yet here still slavery attacks

Whom Blessington invites ;
The chains from which he freed the Blacks,

She rivets on the Whites.

Gore House, once the residence of Wilberforce, afterwards became
that of Lady Blessington.

Campbell has the same thought in a " Song on our Queen " :

Victoria's sceptre o'er the deep
Has touch'd and broken Slavery's chain ;

Yet, strange magician ! she enslaves
Oui' hearts within her own domain.

Her spirit is devout, and burns

With thoughts averse to bigotry ;
Yet she herself, the idol, tvonas

Our thoughts into idolatry.

THOMAS CAMPBELL.

Born 1777. Died 1844.

WRITTEN IN FLORINE'S ALBUM.
(" Notes and Queries," 1st S. X. 44.)

Could I recall lost youth again,

And be what I have been,
I'd court you in a gallant strain,

My young and fair Florine.

But mine's the chilling ago that chides

Ailcction's tender glow ;
And Love — ^that conquers all besides —

Finds Time a conquering foe.

496 MODEEN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Farewell ! we're sever'd by our fate,

As far as night from noon.
You came into the world so late,

And I depart so soon !

Leigh Hunt has translated some pretty lines, from the French of
Madame D'Houdetot, on " Love and Age " (Hunt's " Poetical Works ") :

When young, I lov'd. At that enchanting age
So sweet, so short, love was my sole delight ;

And when I reach'd the time for being sage,
Still I lov'd on, for reason gave me right.

Snows came at length, and livelier joys depart.
Yet gentle ones still kiss these eyelids dim ;

For still I love, and Love consoles my heart ;
What could console me for the loss of him !

The first stanza of Waller's lines, "To my Young Lady Lucy
Sidney," is very similar to Campbell's last stanza :

Why came I so untimely forth

Into a world, which, wanting thee.

Could entertain us with no worth,
Or shadow of felicity ?

That time should me so far remove

From that which I was born to love !

TO A YOUNG LADY, WHO ASKED ME TO WRITE SOME-
THING ORIGINAL FOR HER ALBUM.

An original something, fair maid, you would win me
To write— but how shall I begin ?
For I fear I have nothing original in me —
Excepting Original Sin.

A request, equally diiScult to be complied with, was made by a lady
to Mr. Pieydell Wilton, to write an epigram on " Nothing," which he
thus answered (" Geology, and other Poems," by Pieydell Wilton, 74) :

Write on nothing ? Shame so to puzzle me !
Tho' Something, lady, ne'er can Nothing be,
This Nothing must be Something, and 1 see
This Nothing and this Something — all in thee.

The celebrated Latin epigram on the infamous Caesar Borgia's motto,
" Aut Caesar aut nihil," is thus translated by the late Rev. Dr. Husen-
beth. (" Notes and Queries," 2nd S. VIII. 246) :

Borgia was Csesar, both in deeds and name ;

" Caesar or nought," he said : he both became.

497

SIE JOHN CHETHAM MOKTLOCK.

Boru 1778. Died 1845. He was a banker at Cambridge, and a
Oommissioner of the Excise. He was kniglited in 1816.

TWO OF A NAME.
('• Notes and Queries,' 3rd S. IV. 303.)

•' Simultaneously with the election of the late Professor Scholefield
to the Chair of Greek in the University of Cambridge, a namesake,
convicted of an offence then capital, with difficulty obtained a commu-
tation of his sentence. The Professor was supposed to owe liis election
to the following capricious chance. In the absence of one of the
electors, the Master of Christ's (John Kaye, also Bishop of Lincoln), the
locum tenens, not liolding tlie Master's proxy, but exercising an in-
dependent right of choice, asked a friend for whom the Master of Trinity
intended to vote ? ' For Hugh James Rose,' was the answer. ' Then I
shall vote for Scholefield,' was the ready, if not reasonable, reply of the
hcum tenens."

In reading the epigram, it must be remembered that " Golgotha '' was
the name given to the unsightly gallery which formerly ran across S.
Mary's Church, and in which the heads of houses and professors sat
during the University sermon ; and that the Johnians have the rei^u-
tation ot being the most expert punsters in Cambridge :

Two Scholefields in London and Cambridge of late

Have met, 1 am told, with a similar fate :

The one was transported to Botany Bay,

The other translated to Golgotha;

And the Johnians all say, there were lacking, that day.

The noose of Jack Ketch and the vovs of John Kaye.

This epigram was probably suggested by an anonymous one. pro-
duc<?d by tlie following circumstance. Dr. Shute Bairington, Bishoj)
of Salisbury, was translated to Dui-ham in 17!)1. About the same
time Barrington, the pickpocket, was transported f(jr stealing a foreign
nobleman's gol<l snuff-box at a court leve'e (" Notes and Queries,'
3rd S. IV. 245; :

Two of a name— both great in tlicir way—

At Court lately well did bestir "em ;
The one was transported to Botany Bay,
The other translated to Durham.

It was this noted pickpocket who spoke the often-quoted jirologue
at the opening of the theatre at Sydney, wiiich commences :

From distant dimes o'er wide-spread seas we conu',
Though nut with mucli eclat or beat of drum,
True jiatriots all— for Ix; it understood,
We left our country for our country's good.

2 K

498 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS,

THOMAS MOORE.
Born 1779. Died 1852.

A REFLECTION AT SEA.

See how beneath the moonbeam's smilo

Yon little billow heaves its breast,
And foams and sparkles for awhile, —

Then murmuring subsides to rest.

Thus man the sport of bliss and caro,

Eises on Time's eventful sea ;
And, having swell'd a moment there,

Thus melts into Eternity !

Leigh Hunt shows how this life may be compared to a moment in
reference to eternity, in lines called " Dream within Dream, or a Dream
in Heaven, or Evd Minimized " :

What evil would be, could it be, the Blest |

Are sometimes fain to know. They sink to rest,
Dream fur a moment's space of care and strife,
Wake, stare, and smile, and that was human life.

The theology in this epigram is, to say the least, peculiar ; but Leigh
Hunt held some singular views, as those who have read his Works or
his autobiography know.

Die when you will, you need not wear
At Heaven's Court a form more fair

Than Beauty here on earth has given :
Keep but the lovely looks we see.
The voice we hear, and you will be

An Angel ready made for Heaven. :i\

The original of these lines is a compliment paid by Lord Herbert
of Cherbury, to a nun in the convent of Murano, one of the isles of
Venice: "Moria pur quando vuol non e bisogna mutar ni faccia ni
voce per esser un Angeio !"

An anonymous epitaph, " On a beautiful and virtuous young Lady,"
in " Elegant Extracts," has the same sentiment :

Sleep soft in dust, wait th' Almiglity's will,
Then rise uncbang'd and be an angel still.

THOMAS MOOKE. 499

So, Sir Walter Scott, in his " Conclusion " to the "Lord of the Isles,"
says of Harriet, Duchess of Buccleuch, who died in 1814, just before the
publication of the poem :

All angel now — yet little less than all,
While still a pilgrim in our world below !

In all these verses there is a singular confusion between different
orders of created beings. That any of the descendants of Adam can
become angels in another world is a doctrine of poets but not of divines.
More correct in this respect was John Oldham, who, in liis poem ad-
dressed " To Madam L. E. upon her recovery from a late sickness,"
says (Oldham's " Remains," 1694, 52) :

Such the bright bodies of the Blessed are.
When they for raiment cloth'd with light appear.
And should you visit now the seat of bliss,
You need not wear another form but this.

Campbell is true both to Revelation and natural feeling, when, in his
lines " On Getting Home the Portrait of a Female Child," he says :

For children, in Creation, are

The only things that could be given

Back, and alive — unchanged — ^to Heaven.

A SPECULATION.

Of all speculations the market holds forth,
The be.st that I know for a lover of pelf,

Is to buy Marcus up, at the price he is worth,

And then sell him at that which he sets on himself.

Dr. Wolcot (Peter Pindar) is equally severe upon a conceited block-
head (Wolcot's " Works," 1812, IV. 138) :

See Clodio, happy in his own dear sense '.

And, hark ! the world cries, " Coxcomb in th' excess :"
Now let me undertake the fop's defence ; —

What man could ever be content with hssi

LORD WELLINGTON AND THE MINISTERS. 1813.

So gentle in peace, Alcibiades smiled,

While in battle he shone f(jrth so terriVjly grand,
That the emVjJein they graved on his seal was a child,

\\ ith a thunderbolt placed iu its innocent hand.

500 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Oh, Wellington ! long as such Ministers wield
Your magnificent arm, the same emblem will do ;

For, while they're in the council and you in the field.
We've the babies in them and the thunder in you !

The opportunity may be taken to give here an anonymous epigram
on Wellington, though very dilierent in style and subject from Moore's,
whifh is preserved in " Notes and Queries," 2nd S. III. 405. It was
occasioned by the Duke's life being once endangered by one of the
small bones of the wing of a partridge, on which he was dining,
becoming fixed in his throat :

Strange that the Diake, whose life was charm'd

'Gainst injury by ball and cartridge,
Nor by th' Imperial Eagle harm'd,

Should be endangered by a partridge !

'Twould surely every one astony.

As soon as ever it was known,
Tliat the great Conqueror of Boney,

Himself was conquer' d by a bone !

TO LADY HOLLAND.
On Napoleon's Legacy of a Snuff-Box.

Gift of the Hero, on his dying day,

To her, whose pity watch'd for ever nigh ;

Oh ! could he see the proud, the happy ray,
This relic lights up in her generous eye,

Sighing, he'd feel how easy 'tis to pay

A friendship all his kingdoms could not buy.

This lady was Elizabeth, wife of Henry Eicliard, 3rd Lord Holland.
The Earl of Carlisle (Frederick, 5th Earl) addressed some lines to her,
persuading her to reject the siniff-box which Napoleon had bequeathed.
The fii'st stanza is (" Gentleman's Magazine," XCI. Part II. 457) :

Lady, reject the gift ! 'tis ting'd with gore !

Those crimson spots a dreadful tale relate ;
It has been grasp'd by an infernal Power

And by that hand which seal'd young Engbien's fate.

On rGa<ling this, Byron, who had no love for his relative, Lord
Carlisle, wrote the following parody (Lake's '' Life of Byron ") :

Lady, accept the gift a hero wore.

In spite of all this elegiac stuff:
Let not seven stanzas written by a bore

Prevent your ladyship from taking snulf.

ROBERT SURTEES. 501

ON LORD KENMARE AND 0' CON NELL HESITATING TO
FIGHT A DUEL WITH SIR C. S A XT ON,

The one on account of his sick daughter, the other through the
iuterference of his wife.

(Lord RusseU's " Memoirs of Thomas Moore," 1853, IV. IIG.)

These heroes of Erin, abhorrent of slaughter,

Improve on the Jewish command ;
One honours his wife, and the other his daughter,

That their days may be long in the land.

This is the old story versified of a marshal, who replied to an officer,
oil his asking leave of absence at the opening of a campaign, under pre-
tence of an order of recall from his parents : " Honoiu- thy father and
mother, that thy days may be long in the land."

Moore's epigram got into print, and annoyed O'Connell so much, that
a lasting feud between the two Irishmen was the consequence.

In the "Festoon," 17G7, 7H, is an epigram addressed "To an angry
Rival," giying a very tender reason for refusing to fight a duel :

'Tis not the fear of death or smart

Makes me averse to fight ;
But to preserve a tender heart.

Not mine but C;elia's right.
Then let your fury be suppress'd,

Not me, but Ctelia spare ;
Your sword is welcome to my breast.

When Cselia is nut there.

ROBERT SURTEES.

The historian of Durham. Born 1780. Died 1834. lie was a cele-
brated aiiti<iuary, and hud considerable poetical power, especially in the
imitation of ancient ballails. In Sir AV^alter Scutl's " Border IMinstnl.sy ''
there are two, "The D( atli of lA ather.stonliaui.'h ' and " Burthram's
Dirge," whieli he wrotf, and palmed upon Sir Walter as ancient. I[e
probably only intended tlie imjxi.sition as a litei'ary joke, and did not
expect that his compDKitions would be ))rint(il ; pcriiaps did not think
tliey bad Hufiicienl merit to deceive Sir Walters critical judgment.
Hia P(X;ms were publislieii by the Surtees Society.

502 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

KING HENRY VIII.' S VISITOBS AT S. CUTEBERT'S

ABBEY.

Before them lay a glittering store,

The Abbey's plundered wealth ;
The garment of cost, and the bowl emboss'd,

And the wassail cnp of health.

And the riches still from S. Cuthbert's shrine,

The Chalice, the Alm'ry, and Pix :
The Image where gold and where ivory entwine.

And the shatter'd Crucifix.

And the Visitors three, with wicked glee.

Sit feasting full and high ;
And still as they drink, they sit and think

Of — the Devil and King Henerie.

The shrine of S. Cnthbert was especially rich, of which an account
is pciven in " The Golden Legend of S. Cuthbert " by Robert Hegge.
1626, whose grandmother, Mrs. Anne Swift, possessed, among other
jewels, "one figure of S. Cuthbert with jewels and ivory," such as the
image mrntioned in tlie epigram, and "a portion possibly of the plun-
dered stores of the Holy Shrine at the dismal p>^riod of the Dissolu-
tion." (See Taylor's ed'ition of Hegge's " Golden Legend.")

DR. GEORGE CROLY.

For many years Eector of S. Stephen's, Walbrook. Born 1780.

Died 1860.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF GEMS FROM THE ANTIQUE.

Atalanta.

When the young Greek for Atalanta sigh'd,
He might have fool'd and follow'd, till he died !
He learn'd the sex, the bribe before her roll'd,
And found, the short way to the heart is — Gold !

Allan Eamsay, in the "Morning Interview,'' gives an amusing
account of Cupid's power when he has gold to aid him. The following
lines occur in the middle of the poem :

HENRY KIRKE WHITE 503

So now the suLtle pow'r his time espies,
And threw two barbed darts in Celia's eyes:
Many were broke before he could succeed ;
J5ut "that of gold flew whizzing thro' her head:
These were his last reserve. — -When others fail,
Thau the refulgent metal must prevail.
Pleasure produc'd by money now appears,
Coaches-and-six run rattling in her ears.
O liv'ry men ! attendants ! household plate !
Court-posts and visits ! pompous air and state I

The well-known epigram will recur to many :

Lucia thinks happiness consists in state ;
She weds an idiot — but she eats on plate.

HENRY KIRKE WHITE.

Born 1785. Died 1806.
ON EGBERT BLOOMFIELD.

Bloomfield, thy happy-omen'd name
Ensures continuance of thy fame ;
Both sense and truth this A'erdict give,
\\ hile^eWs shall hloom thy name shall live !

' There is a similar play on Bloomfield's name in an " Impromptu on
eeeing Flowcrdew's Poems on the same shelf with the ' Farmer's Boy '
at Bloomfield's Cottage," by Thomas Park, a man remarkable for his
knowledge of old poetical literature, and who assisted Ellis iu his
'• Specimens of the Early English Poets " (" Poetical Register " for
1805,31):

Though scant be the poet's domain,

Most ample I know is his mind ;
Till- applauses of all he can gain.

liis applauses to none are confin'd.
Hence, even his book-stor'd retreat

This liberal thought seems to yield —
That the dam of iijloicer may be sweet;
Though it match not the bloom of a field.

504 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

GEORGE GOEDON, SIXTH LORD BYRON.

Born 1788. Died 1824.
WRITTEN AT ATHENS, 1810.

The spell is broke, the charm is flown !

Thus is it with life's fitful fever ;
We madly smile when we should groan —

Delirium is our best deceiver.

Each lucid interval of thought

Recals the woes of iS'ature's charter,

And he that acts as wise men ought,
But lives, as saints have died, a martyr.

On the tlionglit in the last line of the first stanza, Shakespeare has
two passages in " "Winter's Tale." The fii-st. Act IV. sc. 3 :

Camillo. Be advis'd.

Fhrizel. I am ; and by my fancy: if my reason

Will thereto be obedient, I have reason ;

If not, my senses, better pleas'd with madness,

Uo bid it welcome.

The second, Act V. sc. 3, where Leontes is looking at what he supposes
to be the statue of Hermione :

Paulina. I'll draw the curtain ;

My lord's almost so far transported, that
He'll think anon, it lives.
Leontes. sweet Paulina,

Make me think so twenty years together ;
No settled senses of the world can match
The pleasure of that madness. Let 't alone.

ON THE EARL OF CARLISLE.
Carlisle subscribes a thousand pound

Out of his rich domains ;
And for a sixpence circles round

The produce of his brains :
'Tis thus the difference you may hit
Between his fortune and his wit.

Frederick, 5th Earl of Carlisle, was Lord BjTon's cousin, but the
poet disliked his relative, who was a generation his senior, and was nol

GEORGE GORDON, SIXTH LORD BYRON. 505

unwilling to display liis enmity. The epigram was occasioned by a
pamphlet which the Earl, wlio was a great admirer of the classic
Irama, published, tn show the propriety and necessity of small theatres.
The donation of a thousand pounds, for some public purpose, happened
to be given on the day on which the pamplilet appeareil in print. Lord
Byron is never seen to le.ss advantage than when he shows his spleen,
as m this epigram. It is to his credit, that he publicly acknowledged
himself in the wrong in his lament tor Major Frederick Howard, of tha
] 0th Hussars, Lord Carlisle's third son, who was killed at Waterloo
(" Childe Harold," Canto III. xxix.) :

Their praise is hymn'd by loftier harps than mine ;
Yet one I would select from that jaroud throng,
Partly because they blend me with his line,
And partly that 1 did his sire some wrong,
And partly tiiut bright names will hallow song;
And his was of the bravest, and when shower'd
The death-bolts deadliest the tlann'd files along,
Even where the thickest of war's tempest lower'd.
They reach'd no nobler breast than thine, young, gallant Howard !

TO ME. H0BH0U8E ON HIS ELECTION FOB WESTMINSl'EH.

1820.

Would you get to the House through the true gate,
Much quicker than ever Whig Charley went,

Let Parliament send you to Newgate —

And Newgate will send you to — Parliament.

Mr. John Gam Hobhouse, afterwards Lord Broughton, published
" Letters to an Englishman," in which the opinions advanced were so
Radical that he was committed to Newgate. Tlie populace looked upon
him as a martyr, and soon after his release, the enthusiasm in his favour
was displayed by his return as member for Westminster in the llailical
interest.

ON THE BUST OF HELEN BY CANOVA.

In this beloved marble view,

Above the work.s and thoughts of man,
\\ hat Nature could, but ivould not, do.

And lioauty and Canova can!
Beyond imagination's power,

P>eyond tlie liard's defeated art.
With iiiiiiiortality her dower,

Behold the JJelen of the heart I

506 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Elsum, in his " Epigrams on Paintings," has one on the Helen of
Zeuxis, in which the same idea is expressed, of the work being the
creation of the artist, as by Byron. The iirst few lines are given, but
they are too rough to please after the polished elegance of that poet's
verses (Ep. 4) :

Behold a Beauty, that's the painter's creature !
A Beauty never parallel'd by Nature :
The sev'ral graces that lie soatter'd there.
Are all collected and united here.

ON WILLIAM THOMAS FITZGERALD.

What's writ on me, cried Fitz, I never read ; —
"What's wrote by thee, dear Fitz, none will indeed.
The case stands simply thus, then, honest Fitz :
Thou and thine enemies are fairly quits,
Or rather would be, if, for time to come,
They luckily were deaf, or thou wert dumb —
But, to their pens, while scribblers add their tongues,
The waiter only can escape their lungs.

Byron's " English Bards and Scotch Eeviewers " opens thus :

Still must I hear ? — shall hoarse Fitzgerald bawl
His creaking couplets in a tavern hall,
And I not sing, lest, haply, Scotch Reviews
Should dub me scribbler, and denounce my Muse ?

In a copy of the poem Fitzgerald wrote the following lines :

I find Lord Byron scorns my muse —

Our fotes are ill agreed !
His verse is safe — I can't abuse

Those lines I never read.

Lord Byron, seeing them, replied by the above severe epigram.

A note to the passage quoted from " English Bards and Scotch
Reviewers " thus explains tlie allusions : " Mr. Fitzgerald, facetiously
termed by Cobbctt the ' Small-beer Poet,' inflicts his annual tribute of
verse on the ' I-iterary Fund ' ; not content with writing, he spouts in
person, after the company have imbibed a reasonable quantity of bad
port, to enable them to sustain the operation." Byron forgot gene-
rosity. Fitzgerald was a warm-hearted and intelligent man ; and the
" Literary Fund," which he constantly patronized, thankfully accepted
his services. See a memoir of him in the "Gentleman's i\iagazine"
for 1829, the year in which he died.

507

EDMUND HENRY BARKER,

Bom in 1788, went to Trinity College, Cambridge, but, from reli-
gious scruples, took no degree. He settled at Thetford, and was
constantly engaged in literary pursuits, but fell into difficulties and
was imprisoned in the Fleet. On his release he spent his time in bad
society, and died miserably in a lodging-house in London in 1831).
The original of the following lines, written at Cambridge, gained the
medal for the best Latin epigram :

VIGOROUS IDLENESS.

Translated from the Latin in " Literary Anecdotes, &c., of Porson and
Others, from Barkers MS. Papers."

Idly-busy squirrel, say
Wherefore spend the live-long day

In hopeless, fruitless toil ?
The cylinder, you roll in vain,
Obeys you, but revolves again,

And mocks in quick recoil.
You never can and wherefore try
Y^onr whirling pa.s.sion thus to fly?

Laborious indolence !
'Tis self you follow, self you shun.
From rising to the setting sun,

Nought doing ! great pretence !
Stranger to rest, yet idling thus !
Labours the shade of Sisyphus !

So, Horace (" Epistles," Book I. xi. 28), translated by Francis :

Aiixious through seas and land to search for rest.
Is but laborious idleness at best.

The same pregnant expression, '■ Strenua inertia," is used by Barker.
But " Laborious indolence " is a happier rendering than Francis'
" Laborious idleness."

Gibbon, in his " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," says of the
Emperor Ilornunus XL, th:it his hours " were consumed in strenuoua
idleness."

508 MODERN EPIGEAMMATISTS.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.

Born 1792. Died 1822.

TO-MORROW. \

"Where art thou, beloved To-morrow ?

When young and old, and strong and weak,
Rich and poor, through joy and sorrow,

Thy sweet smiles we ever seek, —
In thy place — ah ! well-a-day !
We find the thing we fled— To-day.

Owen has an epigram on To-day and To-morrow (Book III. 50) ; thua
translated by Harvey :

This day was yesterday to-morrow nam'd :
To-morrow shall be yesterday proclaim'd :
To-morrow not yet come, nor far away,
What shall to-morrow then be call'd ? To-day.

THE BEGINNING AND THE END.

The babe is at peace within the womb.
The corpse is at rest within the tomb,
We begin in what we end.

This melancholy view of life — that before birth or in death is peace
only to be found— is common in heathen writers. A fragment of
Theognis, who flom-ished B.C. 540, is thus translated by Hookham
Frere^f" Works of Hesiod, &c.," 1856, 481):

Not to be born — never to see the sun —

No worldly blessing is a greater one !

And the next best is speedily to die.

And lapt beneath a load of earth to lie !

That not to be born is best, but without any reference to the blessing
of death, is expressed by Baccliylides, who flourished B.C. 472 ; thus
translated by Merivale (Jacobs I. S3, vii.) :

Not to be born 'twere best,
Nor view the light o' th' sun ;
Since to be ever blest
Is glv'n to none.

Prior seems to have had this in mind when he wrote in his " Solomon "
'Book III. 235) :

HARTLEY COLEKIDGE. 509

But O ! beyond description happiest he,
Who ne'er must roll on Life's tumultuous sea ;
'Who, with bless'd fieedom, from the general doom
Exempt, must never force the teeming womb!
Nor see the sun, nor sink into tlie tomb !

"Who breathes, must suti'er; and who thinks, must mourn;
And he alone is bless'd, who ne'er whis bora.

EPITAPH ON KEATS.
The first line was written by Keats for his own tomb.

" Here lieth one whose name was writ on water!"

But ere the breath that could erase it blew,

Death, in remorse for that fell slaughter,

Death, the immortalizing winter flew,

Athwai't the stream, and Time's monthless torrent grew

A scroll of crystal, blazoning the name

Of Adonais !

Hartley Coleridge has some lines on the same subject, taking as hia
text the words of Iveats, " I have written my name on water " :

And if thou hast, where could'st thou write it better

Than on the feeder of all lives that live'?

The tidi', the stream, will bear away the letter,

And all that formal is and fugitive:

Blill shall ihy Genius be a vital power,

Feeding ihe root of many a beauteous flower.

HARTLEY COLERIDGE.
Son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Born 1797. Died 1849.

WRITTEN ON THE FLYLEAF OF SWIFT'S WOliKS, IN THE
AVTUOU'S COPY OF ANDERSON'S ''BRITISH POETS.'

First in the list behold the caustic Dean,
AVhose muse was like himself compact of spleen ;
\V hoso sport was ireful, and his laugh severe,
His very kindness cutting, cold, austere.

Swift gloried ill his power of satire, as may be seen in lii.s " Dialogrie
Vjetween an Eminent Lawyer and Dr. Jonathan Swift," hi which he usks;

510 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Since there are persons who complain
There's too much satire iu my vein ;
That I am often found exceeding
The rules of raillery and breeding ;
With too much freedom treat my betters.
Not sparing even men of letters :
You who are skill'd iu lawyers' lore,
What's your advice ? Shall I give o'er V
Nor ever fools or knaves expose
Either in verse or humorous prose ;
And, to avoid all future ill,
In my scrutoire lock up my quill ?

The third line of Colerids'e's epigram recalls the celebrated Latin one
fin Erasmus, thus translated by T. Corbett (" Notes and Queries," 1st ?^.
IV 437):

Erasmus, standing 'fore hell's tribunal, said,

For writing jest I am in earnest paid.

The judge replied, jests will in earnest hurt.

Sport was thy fault, then let thy pain be sport.

ON A MAIDEN.

She is not fair to outward view

As many maidens be.
Her loveliness I never knew

Until she smiled on me ;
Oh ! then I saw her eye was bright,
A well of love, a spring of light.

But now her looks are coy and cold,

To mine they ne'er reply. -

And yet I cease not to behold
The love-light in her eye :

Her very frowns are fairer far,

Than smiles of other maidens are.

There is so much of kindred feeling in the first part of this and some
stanzas by Wordsworth, that Coleridge may have been indebted for the

thouglit to his father's friend. " To " (No. XV. of the " Poems

Founded on the AHections ") :

Let other bards of angels sing.

Bright suns without a spot ;
But thou art no such perfect thing :

Rejoice that thou art not !

THOMAS HOOD. 511

Heed not tliough none should call thee fail' ;

So, Mary, let it be,
If nought in loveliness compare

With whut thou art to me.

True beauty dwells in deep retreats,

Whose veil is uuremoved
Till heart with heart in concord beats,

And the lover is beloved.

EPITAPH ON A MOTHER AND THREE INFANTS.

From God they came, to God they went again ;
No sin they knew, and knew but little pain :
And here they lie, by their fond mother's side,
Who lived to love and lose them, then she died.

The simplicity of the close of this epitaph cannot fail to be admired,
so' finely expressive of the love of the mother, who could not live after her
children's death. A beautiful epigram on maternal love, by Wernicke,
is translated from the German in Hone's " Table-Book," ed. 1831,
II. 479 :

Ere yet her child has drawn its earliest breath
A mother's love begins — it glows till death —
Lives before life — with death not dies — but seems
The very substance of inmiortal dreams.

THOMAS HOOD.
Bom 1798. Died 1845.

YOUTH AND AGE.

Impatient of his childhood,

" Ah mo I" exclaims young Arthur,
Wliilst roving in tliu wild wood,

" I wi.sh I were my father !"

Meanwhile, to sec his Arthur
So ski]), and play, and lun,

"Ah nio!" exclaims the father,
" I wish I were my son !"

512 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

The last stanza recalls some pretty lines, translated from the Arabic
by Professor Carlyle, addressed " To Youth, by Ebn Alrabia, in his Old
Age" (^"Specimens of Arabian Poetry," 1796, 165) :

Yes, youth, thou'rt fled, and I am left,

Like yonder desolated bower.
By winter's ruthless hand bereft

Of every leaf and every flower.

With heaving heart and streaming eyes,

I woo'd thee to prolong thy stay,
But vain were all my tears and tighs,

Thou only fled'st more fast away.

Yet tho' thou fled'st away so fast,

I can rtcall thee if I will ;
For I can talk of what is past,

And while I talk, enjoy thee still.

Byron says (" Childe Harold," Canto II. xxiii.) :

Ah ! hapi^y years ! once more who would not be a boy ?

TKE HEART COMPARED TO A WATCH.

My heart's wound np just like a watch,

Ais far as springs will take —
It wants but one more evil turn,

And then the cords will break !

Herrick long ago compared, not the heart, but the life, to a wntch

Man is a watch, wound up at first, but never
Wound up again : once down, he's down for ever.
The watch once downe, all motions then do cease ;
And man'o pulse stopt, all passions sleep in peace.

HONOURABLE SIR GEORGE ROSE.

Master in Chancery ; Bencher of the Inner Temple ; and a Judge of
the Court of Review. Born 1781. Died 1873.

None of the following epigrams have, it is believed, appeared in
print, with the exceptimi of the " Record of a Case." They have been
-obtained through an intimate friend of the late Sir George Rose.

HONOURABLE Slli GEORGE ROSE. 513

WRITTEN IN THE ALBUM OF THE HOTEL AT BOSS, TEE
MOTTO OF WHICH IS " ICI L'ON RAJEUNIT."

" Ici Ton rajeunit !"— 'Tis true,

I'll prove to any man alive ;
For I came here at sixty-two,

And found myself at forty-five.
Presuming on my spring of life,

I made a sad mitstake indeed.
For, oh ! I ventur'd on a wife,

And found that I teas rajeuni'd •
" Ici Ton rajeunit," I ween,
Has only made a Grey-goose, green !

WRITTEN IN AN ALBUM.

O thou who read'st what's wi-itten here,
Commiserate the lot severe,

By which, compell'd, I write them. —
In vain Sophia 1 withstand,
For Anna adds her dread command ;

I tremble — and indite them.
Blame Eve, who, feeble to withstand
One single devil, rais'd her liand.

And gather'd our damnation ;
But do not me or Adam blame.
Tempted by two, who did the same —

His Wife — and her Relation.

THE VEILED LADY.

A morning visitor, having been shown into Sir George Rose's drawing-
room, retired on weeing a lady sittinf; thoro. whom he mistook for a
stranger. The lady was a near rcLition of Sir George, and one of his
family; and on afterwards learning his mLstuke, the visitor addressed
some verses to hor, begging pardon fur his apparent rudeness, and
ascribing his error to lier wearing a thick veil. Sir George, seeing thi;
verses, sent him the following:

Dear I)u})y ! I've pleaded in vain for your crime,
I've urg'd every reason, I've tried every rb ymo ;

li I-

514 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

I've argn'd your case both in verse and in prose,

I've brought to assist me my wife, Lady Eose —

My wife who, in ai'gument, still has the trick

To get, as I find, the best half of the stick.

Sophia will have it (Sophia has sense)

The culprit has only increas'd his offence.

To attempt to excuse with a pitiful tale,

His neglect of my charms to my wearing a veil :

I could have believ'd that with nothing to screen me,

Bedazzl'd, beblinded, he might not have seen me ;

But this very veil, be it known, I contrive it,

That mortals may venture to gaze, and survive it.

The gentleman familiarly addressed as " Dear Duhy " is a barrister,
whose name in full could less easily be accommodated to verse.

It is possible that when writing the conclusion of these amusing lines,
Sir George Rose may have had in mind a passage in " Love's Labour's
Lost " (Act IV. sc. 3), in which Biron says of Rosaline :

Who sees the heavenly Rosaline
That, like a rude and savage man of Inde,

At the tirst opening of the gorgeous east,
Bows not his vassal head ; and, strucken blind.

Kisses the base ground with obedient breast ?
What peremptory eagle-sighted eye

Dares look upon the heaven of her brow,
That is not blinded by hi^r majesty ?

BECORD OF A CASE.
(" Quarterly Review," Vol. XCI. 474.)

Mr. Leach made a speech.

Angry, neat, and wrong ;
Mr. Hart, on the other part.

Was right, but dull and long;
Mr. Parker made that darker.

Which was dark enough without;
Mr. Cook quoted his book ;

And the Chancellor said, " I doubt."

This originated in the request of a law-reporter, when leaving court,
tliat Mr. Rose would make a note of anything important which should
occur in his absence. On his return he found the jeu 6'esprit in his note-
book.

HONOUKABLE SIR GEORGE EOSE. 515

The Chancellor was Lord Eldon. Mr. Leach became Sir John Leach,
VicL-Chancellor and Muster of the Rolls. JIi-. Hart became Vice-
Chancellor of Inland.

" I doubt," was Lord Eldon's favourite expression. A few wc ks
aftir the epigi-am became public, and when it was in every one's mouth.
Sir George (thenlMr.) Eose argued a case very earnestly in the Chancel-
lor's Covirt, which was given against him. Lord Eldon, than whom no
one was more fond of a joke, looked hard at the defeated counsel, and
said : "' The judgment must be against your clients ; and here, Mr. Bose,
the Chancellor does not doubt." (Lord Campbell's " Lives of the Lord
Chancellors," 1847, VIL 640.)

On Lord Eldon's favourite expression, the following epigram, '• The
Derivation of Chancellor," is found in the " Spirit of the Public Journals"
foi ISU, XVIU. 330, taken from the " Morniug Chronicle " :

The Chancellor, so says Lord Coke,
His title from cancello took ;
And every cause before him tried.
It was his duty to decide.
Lord Eldon, he.-^itating ever.
Takes it from chancehr, to waver ;
And thinks, as this may bear liim out,
His bounden duty is to doubt.

The following epigram, " On Mr. Cafterwards Sir John) Leach going
over from the Opjjosition to the Tories," appeared in "Notes and
Queries," 1st S. XL 300 :

The Leach you've just bought shoidd first have Deen tried.

To examine its nature and powers ;
You can hardly expect it will stick to yotir side,

Having fall'n ofi" so lately from ours.

ONSAmiEL WARREN. ESQ., Q.C., AND RECORDER OF HULL,
AUTHOR OF ''TEN THOUSAND A YEAR,' ''NOW AND
THEN," dec.

AVarren, though able, yet vainest of men,
Could ho guide with discretion his tongue and his pen,
His course would be clear for — " Ten thousand a Year,"
But limited else to a brief — " Now and Then."

Tlior/j lifiea were a friendly joke, and were so received by J.Ir.
Warren.

Another epigram of Hiiiiilar cliaractor may bo added, wliich has beiu
ascribed to th(; Ilcv. William Sinclair :

Sam Warren's Ilec/mler of [lull I hear :

He's onc' of the best of mcii,
For he not only giv<-H us "'J'eii thousand a Year^"
But he adds to it " Now ud Then."

516 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

THE TWO STALLS.

A connection of Sir George Eose, living in the country, had taken a
pony belonging to him to keep through the winter : and on returning it,
wrote word that he had just been made Honorary Canon of Chichester.
Sir George replied :

If that my little grateful mare
Could vent her gratitude in prayer,
Thus would her vows incline :

" May Allen every good befall,
Be he as happy in his stall,
As he made me in mine !"

ON BANNISTER, THE ACTOR, WHEN SEVENTY YEARS 01

AGE.

With seventy years upon his back,
My honest friend is still " Young Jack,"
Nor spirits check'd, nor fancy slack,
But fresh as any daisy.

Tho' Time has knock'd his stumps about.
He cannot bowl his temper out.
And all the Bannister is stout,
Altho' the steps be crazy !

DE. EGBERT SCOTT.
Dean of Rochester.

ON DR. WISEMAN BEING AFFOINTED (TITULAR) ARCH-
BISHOP OF WESTMINSTER BY POPE PIUS, AT THE
TIME OF THE '' POPISH AGGRESSION."

Cum Sapiente Pius nostras juravit in aras ;
Impius heu ! Sapiens, desipiensque Pius !

Translated (it is believed) by the author of the epigram (" Guardian "
newspaper of March 8, 1865) :

yiv£ with Wiseman tries

unr English church to ban ;
Pins, man unwise !

impious Wise-man!

517

ANONYMOUS MODERN EPIGKAMS.

EPITAFR ON FAIR ROSMIUND.

Translated from the Latin hy Basil Kennet.
(Camden's " Britannia " — Oxfordshire.)

Rose of the world, not rose the fresh, pure flow'r,
Within this tomb hath taken up her bow'r :
She scenteth now and nothing sweet doth smell,
Which erst was wont to savour passing well.

This is the well-known monMsh epitaph in the nunnery at Godstow.
" In Corio's ' History of Milan' it is stated to have been first placed on
the tomb of Rosamunda, Queen of the Lombards, who died in the sixth
century " (" Notes and Queries," 2nd S. X. 88).

Two stanzas in Warner's " Albion's England," on Queen Eleanor's
discovery of Kosamund's bower, and treatment of her, are interesting
in connection with the epitaph. The first is singularly beautiful

(chap. 41; :

With that she dasht her on the lippes.

So dyed them doubly red :
Hard was the heart that gave the blow,

Soft were those lippes that bled.

Thus did faire Eose (no longer rose
Nor faire, in scent, or sight)

Whorno pensive Henry did inter.
And soone her wrong did right.

LINES FOUND BY MICHAEL ANGELO ON TEE PEDESTAL
OF HIS STATUE OF ''NIGHT"

Translated from the Italian hy Bland, in " Collections from the Greek
Aitthohfjy," 1813, 407.

Night in Ihis lovely posture you behold :

An angel's art to rugged mai-blo gives

This slumbering form. Because she sleeps, she lives.
Doubt you? 'J'lien wako her; by herself be told.

518 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Michael Angelo thus answered for the goddess (translated by
Bland) :

Grateful is sleep — but more to be of stone,
While guilt and shame upon the earth appear.
My lot is happy nor to see nor hear :
Then wake me not — I fain would slumber on.

The lines found by Michael Angelo on the pedestal of his statue are
attributed to Giovanni Strozzi.

GA LLATEA.—BA TTUS.

(" The Mastive, or Young- Whelpe of the Olde-Dogge. Epigrams and

Satyrs." By H. P.)

Vera Filia Patris.

Why strives young Gallatea for the wall ?

If needs you'll know the cause (quoth one) you shall :

Her father was a mason, and, they say,

It makes her ladyship lean much that way.

Ebrius Dissimulans.
Battus (though bound from drinking wine of late)
Can thus far with his oath equivocate :
He will not drink, and yet be drunk ere noon,
His manner is to eat it with a spoon.

The volume from which these epigrams are taken is ascribed by
some to Henry Parrot ; but this is, probably, a mistake, as the epigrams
are very different in style, and very inferior in wit, to those in " Laquei
Eidiculosi" by that author. Others, with better reason, ascribe it to
Henry Peacham, the author of " The Compleat Gentleman."

ON TEE GRAVESTONE OF SHAKESPEARE, IN
STRATFORD CHURCH.

(Malone's "Shakespeare," 1821, II. 506.)

Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear
To dis: the dust enclosed here : •

Bless'd be the man that spares these stones,
And curs'd be he that moves my bones.

Similar execrations are found in many ancient Latin epitaphs ; and
it is probable that such lines were common in Shakespeare's time.
They are supposed to allude to the custom of removing skeletons after

ANONYMOUS. 519

a certain period, and depositing them in charnel-houses. There is no
reason to believe that Shakespeare wrote the lines himself. They were
probably placed on his gravestone by those who had the care of his
funeral.' A correspondent of *' Notes and Queries," », 3rd S. II. 164), states
that he found a similar inscription in Wimbledon Churchyard, on u
tomb of the date of 1S47.

EPITAPH OX THE WIFE OF SIR COPE D'OYLY. 1618.
(Burke's " Extinct Baronetage.")

Would'st thou (Reader) draw to life

The perfect copy of a wife,

Eead on, and then redeem from shame,

That lost, that honourable name.

This dust was ouce in spirit a Jael,

Rebecca in grace, in heart an Abigail,

In works a Doicas, to the Church a Hannah,

And to her spouse Susanna.

Prudently simple, providently warie,

To the world a Martha, and to Heaven a Marie.

In "Wit Restored," 1G58, cd. 1817, II. 233, there is a quaint epitaph
of similar character on a matron :

Here lies a wife was chaste, a mother blest
A modest matron, all these in one chest :
Sarah unto her mate, Mary to God,
Martha to men whilst here she had abode.

In the " Gentleman's Magazine," LXXX. Part II. 527, an epitaiih
of similar character at Grays, in Esses, is given :

Behold the silent grave ; it doth embrace
A virtuous wife, with llachel's lovely face,
Sarah's obedience, Lydia's open heart,
Martha's kiud care, and Mary"s better part.

EPITAPH ON WILLIAM WHEATLY.
(Wood's " Athcnaj Oxonienses," ed. 1813, II. 639.)

The conceits of the writers known as the Metaphysical Foots, ot
whom Dr. Johiisfjn, in hiu " Life of Cowley," has given a masterly
account, were sometimes carri(!d to an extent wliich nii^lit apjicar
almost iucrelible. An example is exi.ibited in an epita|ili in Ihu

520 HODBKN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

churchyard of Banbury over the grave of William Whatelie, or Wheatly,
the vicar, a man of much learning, who died in 1639 :

Whatsoe'er thou'lt say "who passest hj.
Why ? here's enshrin'd celestial dust ;

His bones, whose name and fame can't die.
These stones, as feoffees, weep in trust.

It's William Wheatly that here lies

Who swam to 's tomb in 's people's eyes.

There is a Latin distich of a period a little earlier, by Bernardus
Bauhusius. on the death of Lipsius, in which the conceit by which
grief is expressed is almost as singular. The translation, by James
Wright, is of a date but little later (" Delitiaj Delitiarum," 204) :

Some in rich Parian stone, in ivory

And marble some, Lipsius in tears doth lie.

In " A Farther Discourse on Epitaphs," by Camden, in Hearne's
"■ Collection of Curious Discourses," an epigram is preserved " On the
Removal of Queen Elizabeth's Body from Eiclimond to Whitehall by
Water":

The Queen was brought by water to Whitehall,

At every stroke the oars tears let fall :

More clung about the barge, iish under water

Wej3t out their eyes of pearl, and swom blind after.

I think the bargemen might with easier thighs,

Have rowed her thither in her people's eyes.

For howsoe'er, thus much my thoughts have scann'd,

Sh'ad come by water, had she come by land.

Camden calls this " doleful " ; Horace Walpole says it is " a most
perfect example of the bathos."

HUGO GEOTIUS,

When confined in the fortress of Loevestein on suspicion of favour-
ing the Arminians, obtained permission to borrow books, which camu
in and were returned in chests. His wife enabled him to efl'ect his
escape by concealing him in one of these chests, supposed by the guards
to contain books. The following epigram was made on the event.
It is translated from the Latin in "Selections from the' French Anns,"
1797, IL 17:

This chest, which to its master did convey
Full many a massy volume every day.
Unconscious now of greater weight and cares,
A living library in Grotius bears.

ANONYMOUS. 521

Owen addressed a Latin epigram " To Eoger Owen, a learned
Knight " (Bouk IV. 245), wliich. Harvey tlius translates :

Thou know'st the Britons' laws, their old, new rites,
And all that their whole history recites :
In thy discourse, thou'rt so profoundly read,
A living library seems in thine head.

Cowper, in the second of his odes " On the burning of Lord Mans-
field's Library," rejoices in the care which preserved "his sacred head
from harm,'' and adds :

There Memory, like the bee that's fed

From Flora's balmy store,
The quintessence of all he read

Had treasm-ed up before.

ON A GARDENER.
(" Wit Restored," published 1658. Reprinted 1817, 11. 232.)

Could he forget his death that every hour
"Was emblem'd to it, by the fading flower ?
Should he not mind his end ? Yes, sure ho must,
That still was conversant 'mongst beds of dust.

Unhappily, it is too commonly the case that those who are " em-
blemed to " death are the very persons who think the least of their
own end. The callousness which is bred by habit is inimitably drawn
out by Shakespeare in the grave-diggers' scene in " Hamlet," where
the singing of the one clown and the play of wit of both, is only in-
terrupted by the order of the one to the other, "Go, get thee to
Yaughan, and fetch me a stoup of liquor."

COLONEL JOHN LILBURN,

Bom ill 1618, was called, says Granger, " Freeborn John," and was
the most hardened and refractory of all the seditious libelleis of the
time. He was, moreover, of such a quarrelsome di.spositidn, that it was
appositely said of him, W(jod tells us, " Ihat, if there was none living
but he, jolin would be against Lilburn, and Lilburn against John."
This sstying was jirobably the origin of the following ejiigram on his
death whi'-h is fnuud in Grey's notes to Butler's " Hudibias," cd.
180G, II. 271 ; and in other places :

Is John departed, and is Lilburn gone?
Farewell to both, to Lilburn and to John.

522 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Yet being dead, take this advice from me,

Let them not both in one grave buried be :

Lay John here, and Lilburn theieabout.

For if they both should meet, they would fall out.

Butler is supposed to allude to Lilbiu-n in his description of the
perverse haberdasher (" Hudibras," Part III. Canto ii. 437; :

For he at any time would hang,
For th' opportunity t' harangue ;
And rather on a gibbet dangle,
Than miss his dear delight to wrangle.

An old anonymous " Epitaph on a Litigious Man," given in a " Col-
lection of Epitaphs, &c.," 180G, I. 124, may be compared with the
epigram on Lilburn :

Here lies a man who in his life
With every man had law and strife,
But now he's dead and laid in grave,
His bones no quiet rest can have :
For lay your ear unto this stone.
And you shall hear how every bone
Doth knock and beat against each other ;
Pray for his soul's health, gentle brother.

M. Blainville, in his " Travels," preserves a ckoll epitaph on a man
and his wife, from a marble found near the church of S. Agnes at Rome;
thus translated from the Latin by C :

Stay, traveller— a miracle behold !
A man and wife lie here, and do not scold ;
But who we are I name not. — Then do I;
The drunken Bebrius, traveller, here doth lie.
He who calls me a drunkard. — Ha ! true wife,
That tongue still wrangles, e'en deprived of life

EPITAPH ON BOBERT BARGRAVE, WHO DIED IN 1G59,
AGED FIVE YEARS. IN CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL.

(" History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Rochester,
&c., &c.," 1723, 60.)

Farewell, sweet boy ! and farewell all in thee,
Blest parents can in their best children see ;
Thy life to woo us unto heaven was lent us.
Thy death to wean us from the world is sent us.

An epitaph by Mi-s. Barber, on a son of Lord Mountcashell. who
died in childhood, may be compared (Barber's " Poems on Several
Occasions," 1735, 147) :

ANONYMOirS.

Children are snatoh'd away, sometimes,
To punish parents for their crimes.
Tliy mother's merit was so great, j
Heav'n hasteu'd thy untimely fate, >
To make her character complete. )
Tho' many virtues fill'd her breast,
'Twas resignution crown'd the rest.

523

KING CHARLES I.

Sir Isaac Newton, when at school at Glrantham, busied himself very
much in drawing, and fm-nished his room in the house of Mr. Clarke,
the apothecary, where he lodged, with pictures of his own making. Mrs.
Vincent, whose mother was Mr. Clarke's second wife, and who lived in
the same house witli Sir Isaac, told Dr. Stukeley that he wrote the fol-
lowing verses under a picture of King Charles I., and thinks that he
made them himself (Letter from Dr. Stukeley to Dr. Mead, Nichols'
" Illustrations of Literary History," IV. 30) :

A secret art my soul requires to try,
If prayers can give me what the wars deny.
Three crowns distinguish'cl here in order do
Present their objects to my knowing view.
Earth's crown, thus at mj' feet, I can disdain,
Which heavy is, and, at tho best, but vain.
But now a crown of thorns I gladly greet.
Sharp is this crown, but not so sharp as sweet :
The crown of glory that I yonder see
Is full of bliss and of eternity.

There is something incongruous in quoting the revolutionary Milton
after tliese touching lines on tho Martyr King ; but the following passage,
at the close of tho second book of " Paradise Kegained," is applicable
lo the thought .expressed by tho monarch:

Yet not for that a crown.
Golden in show, is but a wreath of thorns,
Bnngs dangers, troubles, cares, and sleepless nights,
To him wlio wtjars the regal diadem,
AVhen on his shoulders each man's burden lies.

♦ • * *

Yet he, who reigns within himself, and rules
Passions, desires, and fears, ia more a Icing.

524 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

We may comjjare, too, Prince Hem*y's language when excusing him-
self to his father for removing the crown (" King Henry IV." Part II.
Act iv. so. 4) :

I spake unto the crown, as having sense,

And thus upbraided it. The care on thee depending,

Hath fed upon the body of my father ;

Therefore, thou, best of gold, art worst of gold.

Other, less fine in carat, is more precious,

Preserving life in med'cine potable :

But thou, most fine, most honour'd, most renown'd.

Hast eat thy bearer up.

THE COMMONS' ADDRESS TO KING CHARLES II.

(" Gentleman's Magazine," XCVI. Part I. 208.)

In all humility we crave
Our Sovereign to be our slave,
Beseeching him that he would be
Betray 'd by us most loyally ;
And if he please but once lay down
His sceptre, dignity, and crown.
We'll make him for the time to come.
The greatest Prince in Christendom.

Answer.

Charles at this time having no need.
Thanks you as much as if he did.

This lampoon was commonly circulated about the year 1670. It has
been almost invariably ascribed to the Earl of Kochester. But a cor-
respondent in the " Gentleman's Magazine," points out that it appeared,
previous to the Earl of Eochester's birth, in " A Modell of Truths ; or, a
Discovery of certaino Reall Passages of this Parliament. Printed in the
yeare 1G42, 4to." It was written on Charles I., and forms the fifth of a
poem of nine stanzas, whicii the anonymous author, in the dedication,
says, " he thought fit to deliver in habiliament of a madrigal " :

In all humility they crave
Then- Soveraigne to be their slave,
Desiring hun that he would be
Betray'd to them most loyally :
For it were weakness sure in him
To be a Vayvod unto Pym :

ANONYMOUS. 525

And if he would awhile lay downe
His sceptre, majesty, and crowne,
He should be made for time to come
The greatest Prince in Christendome.
Charles at this time not having need,
Thank'd them as much as if he did.
This is the happy wisht event
Of privilege of Parliament.

WRITTEN UNDEB A PBINT OF A LADY OF GBEAT

BEAUTY.

(Granger's " Biographical History of England," 1779, m. 148.)

Lo, here a beauty in her mom, who shakes
Day from her hair ; and whose perfection makes
The sua amaz'd, a heaven on earth to view :
So much can birth and education do.

Granger says the print is an ugly one of a great beauty, "her hair
dressed in many formal curls, which nearly resemble bottl^screws."
The lady was Elizabeth, only daughter and heiress of Laurence Wash-
ington, of Garsdon, Wilts, who married the first Earl Ferrers.

Such ascriptions of power over the sun and light by the Fair, arc
not imcommon. Davenant, in one of his songs addressed to a lady,
has :

Awake— awake ! the mom will never rise.
Till she can dress her beauty at your eyes.

Lovelace, writing to Amarantha about her hair, says :

But shake your head and scatter day.

The same idea is very beautifully expressed in Mariana's song in
" Measure for Measure " (Act IV. sc. 1) :

Take, oh take those lips away.

That so sweetly were forsworn ;
And tho.-e eyes, the break of day,

I>ights that do mislead the morn:
But my kisses bring again,
Seals of love, but seal'd in vain.

526 MODERN EPIGEAMMATISTS.

TO MR. HABCOURT. OCCASIONED BY HIS VERSES TO
LADY CATHERINE HYDE.

(" The Grove," 1721, 280.)

Dear Sim, by wits extoll'd, by wits cried down,
Each way become the proverb of the town !
To Kitty's favour with success aspire, |

The second place by merit you acquire, >

But he who wrote the verses, must be Prior. J

Nichols, in a note, in his " Collection of Poems," VII. 322, 1781, to some
verses addressed to Simon Harcourt, " On his ' Judgment of Venus,' "
says, that he much doubts whether ' ' The Female Phaeton," as well as
" The Judgment of Venus," may not be by Harcom-t, though usually
considered to be Prior's ; and thinks that the pim, intended by the
concluding word of the above epigram, may have been the cause of its
having been first ascribed to the latter poet.

The name Prior seems to be provocative of puns. In the following
epigram, " A Dialogue between Bishop Warburton and Dean Tucker,"
taken from the "New Foundling Hospital for AVit," 1784, I. 251, the
pun is not on the poet's name, but on Prior Park, the seat of Ralph
Allen, whose niece and heiress Warburton married :

Tucker. My wife, father William, is ugly and old,
Asthmatic, chest-founder'd, and lame.
Warburton. My wife, son Josiah, you need not be told.
Is as bad in the other extreme.

Tucker. I have put mine away. — ( Warburton.) The deed I applaud,
But, applauding, can only admire ;
For you are bound only by man and by God,
But my obligations are Prior.

TO HENRY PUR CELL.
(^Granger's " Biographical History of England," 1779, IV. 143.)

To you a tribute from each Mnse is due ;
The whole poetic band is rais'd by you ;
For none but you, with equal skill and ease,
Could add to David, and make D' Urfey please.

Purcell, the celebrated composer, was born in 1658, and was appointed
organist of Westminster Abbey when only eighteen. He died at the
early age of 37. He is now chiefly celebrated for his church-music,
but in his own day he was almost as famous for theatrical compositions,
and was said to be so equally divided between the Church and the

ANONYMOUS. 527

theatre, that neither could properly call liim her own. Hence the
reference, in the last line of the epigram, to his power in adding to the
beauties of David's Psalms, and in making even the second-rate plays
of D'Urfey, who was a wit and dram;itic writer of the day, acceptable
to the public. He was buiied in Westminster Abbey, where his epitaph
records, much in the taste of that period, that he " is gone to that
blessed place, where only his harmonies can be excelled.'

The following epigi-am was written "On Tom D'Urfey" ("Festoon,"
1767,137):

Here lies the Lyric, who with tale and song.
Did life to thi-eescore years and ten prolong :
His tale was pleasant, and his song was sweet;
His heart was cheerful — but his thirst was great.
Grieve, reader ! grieve, that he, too soon grown old.
His song has ended, and his tale has tokl.

ON THE DEATH OF MOLIEBE.

(Latin, in Chalmers' "Biographical Dictionary "—Moliere.)

In Moliere's play of " Le Malade Imaginaire," the chief person re-
presented is a sick man, who on one occasion pretends to be dead. It
is related that when acted for the fourth time, Feb. 17th, 1673, Moliere,
in personating the dead man, really expired. Upon this incident a
variety of jeux d' esprit were written. One of the best is a Latin one,
which has thus been translated :

Here Moliere lies, the Eoscius of his age,
Whose pleasure, while he liv'd, was to engage
With human nature in a comic strife,
And personate her actions to the life.
But surely Death, offended at his play.
Would not be jok'd with in so free a way ;
He, when he mimick'd him, his breath restrain'd,
And made him act in earnest what he feign'd.

It is not the fact that Moliere expired during the representation of
the play ; but he was taken ill whilst performing his part, and died a
few hours afterwards.

THE STAGE OF LIFE.
Our life's a journey in a winter's day ;
Some only break their fast, and so away ;
Others stay dinner, and depart full fed,
The deepest age but sups and gucs to bod •

528 MODERN EPIGEAMMATIST8.

He's most in debt that lingers out the day ;
Who dies betimes has less and less to pay.

This is taken from the " Festoon," ed. 1767, 98, but the lines are
probably much older than the date of that publication. They seem tu
have f(3rmed a very usual inscription for grave-stones. Several versions,
all more or less difi'ering from each other and from the above, may be
found in the pages of " Notes and Queries," and in the various collec-
tions of epigrams. The idea is at least as old as Quaxles, who in his
tliirteenth Hieroglyphic has :

Time voids the table, dinner's done ;
And now our day's declining sun
Hath hurried his dim'nal load
To th' borders of the western road.

Our Vjlazing taper now hath lost
Her better half ; nature hath crost
Her forenoon book, and clear'd that score,
But scarce gives trust for so much more.

The epigi-am at the close of his foui-teenth Hieroglyphic, addressed
" To the Youth," has the thought .still more complete :

Seest thou this good ohl man ? He represents

Thy future, thou his preterperfect tense :

Thou go'st to labours, he prepares to rest :

Thou break'st thy fast, he sups ; now which is best ?

In Pettigrew's " Chronicles of the Tombs," 1857, 220, the lines are
given from inscriptions in a Cumberland and a Cornish chm'chyard
(thus showing they are not confined to any one locality), but the
opening is varied by reference to an inn instead of a journey

Life's like an inn ; think man this truth upon.
Some only breakfast and are quickly gone.

This reference to an inn is found in an epitaph of similar character
in the churchyard of Meiton-Mowbray (Notes and Queries," 1st. S. VII.
178):

This world's an inn, and I her guest :

I've eat and drank and took my rest

With her awhile, and now I pay

Her lavish bill, and go my way.

Bishop Home, in a poem " "Written at an Inn," has the following
stanza (Works, 1809, I. 2-12) :

The world is like an inn ; for there
Men call, and storm, and drink, and swear.
While undisturb'd a Christian waits,
And reads, and writes, and meditates.

ANONYMOUS. 529

The same idea of the world, as only an inn in which to rest, is
found in an epitaph by R. Fletcher, who published " Martial, his Epi-
grams translated, with Sundry Poems and Fancies. London, 1656":

Earth for a while bespake his stay,
Only to bait and so away :
So that what here he doated on
Was mere accommodation.

A different view of our earthly inn appears in an epitaph in tht
churchyard of Kinver, near Stom-bridge, given in "Notes and Queries."
lat S. VII. 177:

Tired with wand'ring thro' a world of sin,
Hither we came to Nature's common inn,
To rest our wearied bodies for a night,
In hopes to rise that Christ may give us light.

So, Spenser, in the " Faerie Queene" (Book 11. Canto i. 59) :

" Palmer," quoth he, " death is an equall doome
To good and bad, the common in of rest."

And again (Book III. Canto iu. 30j :

And, if he then with victorie can liu.

He shall his dayes with peace bring to his earthly iu.

FOUND ON THE CHURCH-DOOR AT WHITEHALL,
Jan. 30, 1696.

(" Poems on Affairs of State," II. 267, 1703.)

What, fast and pray.

For the horrid murder of the day !

And at the same time drive the son away,

The royal father and the royal son ?

AVhilo by your praying you their rights do own.

Go ask your learned bishop and your dean,

What these strange contradictions mean ;

And cease to fast and pray and trouble Heaven,

Sins, whilst unrepented, cannot be forgiven.

Iu the same volume, p. 323, the last stanza of " An Allusion to thi
Seventh Epodo of Horace, 1690," refers to the same unrepented sin :

Yes, Britons, yes, you groan beneath the weight
Of Charles the Martyr's undeserved fate ;
TfX) well you know liin uiir(|i(iitrd ftill
Entails this curse, and will confound you all.

2 u

630 MODERN EPIGEAMMATISTS.

ON SORREL, THE HORSE, WHICH, BY STUMBLING OVER A
MOLEHILL, CAUSED THE DEATH OF WILLIAM III

(" Poems on Affaks of State," 11. 323, 1703.)

Illustrious steed, who should the zodiac grace,
To thee the lion and the bull give place :
Blest be the dam that fed thee, blest the earthy
Which first receiv'd thee, and first gave thee birth !
Did wrong'd Hibernia, to revenge her slain.
Produce thee, or niurder'd Fenwick strain,
Or barbarously massacred Glencoes claim?
Whence e'er thou art, be thou for ever blest,
And spend the remnant of thy days in rest ;
No servile use thy noble limbs profane.
No weight thy back, no curb thy mouth restrain ;
No more be thou, no more mankind a slave.
But both enjoy that liberty you gave.

In the same volume, p. 408, there is an answer to this panegyric
commencing :

Insulting ass ! who basely could'st revile
The guardian angel of our wretched isle.

And ending :

And may for ever that unlucky steed
Only on'briars and on thistles feed !

Sorrel was caressed and honoured by the Tories for causing William's
death, and in their merry meetings they used

To di'iuk the horse's health that tkrew him down.

Even the mole, over whose hill Sorrel stumbled, came in for his share
of praise, and was toasted as " The little gentleman in black velvet" by
those who looked upon the revolution in the same light as the author of
the following epigram, "To an Usm-per" :

Usurpers are the giddy faction's tools,

They know not what they're doing ;
Chose not because of parts, but that they're fools,

And smell not what the world's a-brewing.
Poor thoughtless Thing ! how bitter is thy cup !

How tott'ring is thy empty crown !
Despis'd alike by those who set thee up,

And those who strive to pidl thee down.

This is taken from " Poems on Various Subjects and Occasions. By
the Honourable Alexander Itobertson of Struan, Esquire," Edinburgh,
no date, 187, a volume of which Gough, the antiquary, thus speaks in a

ANONYMOUS. 531

letter to the Eev. Michael Tyson : '• I liave looked into the poet ot
Struan. which Pennant so praises, and lind a strange m jtley mixture of
Jacobitism, obscenity, devotion, and some fancy, in his Poematia"
(Nichols' " Literary Anecdotes," VIII. 584).

EPITAPH ON EIXG WILLIAM. 1702.
('• Poems on Affuii-s of State," II. 267, 1703.)

William the Third lies here, th' Almighty's friend,
A scourge to France, a check t' imperious Kome,
\Vho did our rights and liberties defend,
And rescu'd England from its threaten'd doom ;
Heav'n snatch'd him from us whom our hearts caress'd, |
And now he's king in heaven among the blest ; I

Grief st^ps my pen ; reader, pray weep the rest. j

The following epigram by Alexander Robertson ("Poems on Various
Subjects and Occasions," 107) takes a very dift'erent view of the Dutch
Prince's worth :

Bright is his diadem in he;iv'n's abode
Who lust his crown rather than change his God ;
While the pertidious wretch who stole the prize,
Pines in eternal dread of earth and skies.

ARCHBISHOP TENISON'S PETITION.

(Noble's continuation of Granger's " Biograjjhical iiiistory of England,"

ISOG, n. 203.;

Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovel, in command of a portion of the
English Fleet, was wrecked on tlie rocks called the "Bishop and his
Clerks," oJf the Scilly Isles, in October, 1707, and was buried in Wcst-
iiiinster Abbey, where a monuiiient was erected to his memory. In the
previous April. Archbishop Teni.'iou, in a formulary to be used " for hu-
ploring the Divine blessing on our fleets and armies," had used the ex-
pression, " The Kfjck of our might," which the wits of the day did mii
fail to remeruber, and the followiugepigram wasluidonSir Cloudesley'u
tomb :

As Lambeth pray'd, so was the dire event,

Else we had wanted here a monument :

That to our fleet kind Heaven would be a rock ,

Nor did kind Heaven the wise petition mock :

To what the Metropolitan did pen.

The " Jji.shop and his Cieiks" replied, Amen.

532 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

DR. WHITE KENNET,

Dean of Peterborough (afterwards Bishop of that See), gave great
offeuce to the High Church and Tory party in church and state by
his change of opinions, and the support which he gave by his
writings to the Whigs. When, in 1710, the Tories came into power
consequent upon the trial of Sacheverell, an address was presentetl
to the Queen by the Bishop and clergy of London, which the Dean, who
laeld the living of S. Botolph, Aldgate, refused to sign. For this he
was represented as an enemy to the Queen and her Ministers, and
various methods were taken to expose him ; one, in particular, by Dr.
Welton, Rector of Whitechapel, who caused an altar-piece of the Last
Supper to be placed in his church, in which Judas was painted so closely
to resemble Dr. Kennet, that no one could mistake the likeness. Upon
this a Latin epigram was made, which has been attributed to Atterbury,
but there is not sufficient authority for ascribing it to him. It is,
perhaps, one of the most severe strokes of satii-e ever penned :

Falleris liac qui te pingi sub imagine credis?
Non similis Judas est tibi — pcenituit.

Think not that here thou art represented,
Thou'rt not like Judas — for he repented.

Compton, Bishop of London, ordered the picture to be removed.
It is said to have been purchased by a Captain Polehampton and given
to S. Alban's Church, where it formed the altar-piece for many years,
but was afterwards removed to the chapel behind the high altar.

A print of this singular picture is (or was) in the Library of the
Society of Antiquaries, and has the following manuscript lines by
Mr. Maittaire attached to it :

To say the picture does to him belong,
Kennet does Judas and the painter wrong.
False is the image, the resemblance faint ;
Judas comparVl to Kennet is a saint.

See Nichols' "Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century," I.
396, and VIII. 369, where some further curious particulars respecting the
picture are given.

ON THEOBALD (PRONOUNCED AND OFTEN WRITTEN
TIBBALD), THE POET AND CRITIC.

(" Certain Epigrams in Laud and Praise of the Gentlemen of the
Dunciad." Without date. Ep. 19.)

'Tis generous, Tibbald ! in thee and thy brothers^
To help us thus to read the works of others :
Never for this can jiist returns be shown ;
For who will help us e'er to read thy own ?

ANONYMOUS. 533

" For some time, once a week or fortnight, he (Theobald) printed in
Mist's Journal a single remark, or poor conjecture, on some word or
pointing of Shakespeare, either in his own name, or in letters to himself
as from others without nome." f Annotator of the " Dunciad," in 1729.)

In 1725, Pope published his edition of Shakespeare, and early in the
following year Theobald published a criticism upon it, which so oflended
that irritable poet, that in the *' Dunciad " he revenged himself by giving
to Theobald the pbice of Hero, or King of the Dunces, who before his
elevation to that diguitv is thus seen by the Goddess of Duluess
{Svo edition of 172t», Book I.) :

She ey'd the bard, where supperless he sate,
And pin'd unconscious of his rising fate ;
Studious he sate, with all his books around,
Sinking from thought to thought a vast profound !
Plinig'd for his sense, but found no bottom there ;
Then writ and flounder'd on in mere despair.

Such accumulated insults induced Theobald to prove his capacity by
publishing an edition of Shakespeare, which might be compared by the
public with that of Pope. Th© verdict of the world showed that his
position in Pope's satire was a great blemish in that clever but scurrilous
poem, and consequently in the edition of 1742, Pope deposed him from
his high estate, and Colley Cibber reigned in his stead.

Theobald gave Pope an advantage over liim, and exposed himself to
the keenest severity of his satire by the escape of one unlucky line in
his •• Double Falsehood " :

None but himself can be his parallel.

And yet the line is not original. The Eev. E. Kynaston, in the
'' Gentleman's Magazine," L. 507, says that Theobald " might have
pleaded the authority of Seneca ; in whose ' Hercules Furens ' we hav^
the following very extraordinary passage :

" ' quicris Alcidfe parent ?

Nemo est nisi ipse : bella jam secum gerat. ' "

Granger, in his "Biog. Hist." 1779, III. 378, gives a passage yet
more exactly similar. It occurs in the following lines under the por-
trait of Colonel Giles Strangeways, of M('lbury Sampfird, in Dorset-
shire, who was Member of Parliament for that county, and one of the
Privy Council to Charles II. :

The rest fame speaks, and makes his virtues known,

By 's zeal for the church, aTid loyalty to the throne.

The artist in his draught doth art excel,

None but himself, himself can parallel.

But if his steel coubl his great mind express,

That would appear in a much nobkr dress.

Granger remarks upon this : " The thought is so very singular, that
it is extremely imi)ioi)able that two persons should have hit ujion it,
and varied so little in the expression. Sir AViliiam Tcinplo has varied

MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ni'ire : where, speakiiig of Cajsar, he says, that he was ' equal only to
himself.' See the ' Essay on the Gardens of Epicurus.' "

On the ill feeling which existed between Theobald and Fope.
William Duncombe has an epigram, entitled, " The Judgment of
Apollo, or the Controversy between Mr. Pope and Mr. Theobald, 1729 "
(Nichols' " Collection of Poems," VI. 7, 1780) :

In Pope's melodious verse the Graces smile ;

In Theobald is display'd sagacious toil ;

The critic's ivy crowns his subtle brow,

While in Pope's numbers wit and music flow.

These bards (so Fortune will'd) were mortal foes,

And all Parnassus in their quarrel rose.

This the dire cause of their unbounded rage,

Who best could blanch dark Shakespeare's blotted page.

Apollo heard, and weigh'd each party's plea,

Then thus pronoune'd th' immutable decree :

'• Theobald, 'tis thine to show what Shakespeare writ ;

But Pope shall reign supreme in poetry and wit."

APOLLO'S REVENGE ON DAPHNE.

(" Certain Epigrams in I^aud and Praise of the Gentlemen of the
Dunciad." W^ithout date. Ep. 13.)

AVhen Phoebus gave the skittish Daphne chase,
And grasp'd a tree in his deceiv'd embrace ;
The god, in pique prophetic, thus express'd
His certain vengeance, and the nymph address'd :
Thou hast, fair vegetable, 'scap'd my pow'r,
But to that form art chang'd in luckless hour ;
Since thy coy pride the god of wit declin'd,
Tliy leaves still curst shall witless temples bind.

Many epigrams were produced by the publication of the " Dunciad,'
several of which are given in the notes to that cruel poem. Colley
Gibber, tlie king of the dunces, vice Theobald deposed, was attacked on
all sides. He and Pope had long been at variance, and when he
resented the insults of the latter he was treated with contempt by all
the Pope clique. The following epigram is a specimen (Notes to the
•• Dunciad ") :

Quoth Cibber to Pope, though in verse you foreclose,
I'll have the last word ; for by Jove I'll write prose.
Poor Colley I thy reas'ning is none of the strongest.
For know, the last word is the word that lasts longest.

ANONTMOTTS. 535

TEE RIVAL SINGEIiS.

■; Noble's continuation of Granger's " Biographical History of England,"

18UG, III. -illi.)

Faustina Bordoni and Francesca Cuzzoni were rival singers at thu
Italian Opera in London, in the reign of George I. The former wps
of extreme beauty. The latter was of the worst character ; she afterwards
married Signor Sandoni, whom she poisoned, for which she was tried
and condemned to death, but the puni.shment was remitted. Both had
their backers. The Coimtess of Pembroke and her party asserted the
pre-eminence of Cuzzoni ; the Countess of Burlington that of the
lovely rival. The cantatrices came to blows, and tlie countesses were
with difficulty i)revented from taking the same course. The whole
town V. as divided between the two factions, and innumerable squibs and
t-pigrams kept up the excitement. Lady Pembroke was accused of
encouraging the cat-calling of Faustina, which produced the following
epigram, noticeable, not for its merit, but for the evidence it exhibits
of the bitterness of the party feeling :

Old poets sing, that beasts did dance

Whenever Orpheus pleas'd ;
So to Faustina's charming voice,

Wise Pembroke's asses bray'd.

Faustina won the day, and Cuzzoni's popularity ceased ; upon
v.-hich these lines appeared as the introduction to " Faustina : or the
Roman Songstress, a Satyr on the Luxury and Efieminacy of the Age,"
London, without date ; but, in Lord WharnclifTe's " Letters and Works
3f Lady Mary Wortley Montague," stated to have been published
in 1726:

Cuzzoni can no longer charm,

Faustina now does all alarm.

And we must buy her pipe no dear

With hundreds tweuty-live a year:

Either we've money over jilenty.

Or else our skulls are wondrous empty !

But if Fau.stiua or Cuzzoni

E'er touch a penny of my money

I'll give 'em leave to call me Tony.)

Ambrose Pliilips has some very pretty lines on Cuzzoni, whom he
aeems to have thought a dangerous guest :

Little Siren of the stage,
Charmer of an idle age.
Empty warbler, breathing lyre.
Wanton gale of fond desire,
Bane of every manly art.
Sweet eufeebler (if the heart !

536 MODERN EPIGKAMMATIST8.

O, too pleasing in thy strain,
Hence, to southern climes again ;
Tuneful mischief, vocal spell,
To this island bid farewell ;
Leave us as we ought to be.
Leave the Britons rough and free.

" The Devil to Pay at S. James's : or a full and true account of a
most horrid and bloody battle between Madam Faustina and Madam
Cuzzoni," is the title of one of Dr. Arbuthnot's humorous pieces. See
his "Miscellaneous Works," 1751, I. 213.

TO MBS. ROBINSON, A CELEBRATED ACTRESS.

("Festoon," 1767, 21.)

When Salvia sings, or acts the heroine's part,

The fiction's ill-supported by her art :

Still something vulgar, thro' the rich disguise,

Betrays the mimic, and offends the eyes :

But when your voice is heard, and beauty seen,

You seem a goddess, whilst you act a queen.

This was Anastasia Eobinson, of whom the celebrated Earl of Peter-
borough was enamoured. He married her privately, but before his
death acknowledged her as his wife. Her character was never called
in question, but of her beauty a less favom-able notion is given in an
epigram by Mallet, " On a certain Lord's Passion for a Singer" :

Nerina's angel-voice delights ;

Nerina's devil-face aifrights:

How whimsical her Strephon's fate,

Condemn'd at once to like and hate !

But be she cruel, be she kind.

Love ! strike her dumb, or make him blind.

DR. BODY'S FOETRY.

(Noble's continuation of Granger's " Biographical History of England,"

1806, n. 116.)

Dr. Humphrey Hody, successively elia])lain to Archbishops Tillotson
and Teuison, and Greek Profes.sor at Oxford, was a man of great
learning. He published several works on Biblical criticism, which
proved his erudition; but his attempts at poetry were miserable
failures, which occasioned the following epigram :

Of old, we read, there was nobody
Made verses like to Humphrey Hody ;

ANONYMOUS. 537

But now each chandler knows full well
That Lloyd and Gardiner bear the hell.

" Lloyd was probably the head of a house at Oxford. Gardiner was
Warden of All Souls' " (Noble, as above).

MORNING.

(" Epiga-ams in Distich," 1740, 14.)

The dawn increases, and retires the shade:
Boors quit their bed, and Beaux the masquerade.

This recalls a story told, by Rogers, of the Duke of Devonshire,
husband of the beautiful Duchess Georgiana : " The Duke when walk-
ing home from Brookes's, about daybreak, used frequently to pass the
stall of a cobbler who had abeady commenced his work. As they were
the only persons stirri^jg in that quarter, they always saluted each
other. ' Good night, friend,' said the Duke. ' Good morning, sir,' said
the cobbler" (Roge'-s' "Table Talk," 1856, 191 j.

EPITAPH ON EDWARD RICHARDS, AN IDIOT BOY, WHO
DIED IN 1728, AGED 17. IN EDGBASTON CHURCH.

If innocents are the favourites of Heaven,
And God but little asks where little's given.
My great Creator has for me in store
Eternal joys ; what Avise man can have more ?

Much interest attaches to this epitaj)h, from the fact that it was cut
on the tombstone by the celebrated tyi)0grapher, Baskcirville. It is
given in " A Description of Modern Birmingham ; whereunto are an-
nexed, Observations made during an Excursion round the Town, &c.,
in the Summer of 181.S." ]{y Charles I'y(!. After mentioning a tomb-
stone witli ;ui iiiHorijition cut by liaskerville at Handsworth, tiie aiitlior
prf/Wicds: "Mr. Baskirville was origiiiiilly a stonecutter, and after-
wards kept a sc1io(j1 at Birmiiighani. 'J'lierc is only one more of his
cutting known to be in existence, and that has lately been rcniovcd
and placed within the church at J^dgbaston. The stone being of a
llaky nature, tlie inscription is not quite perfect, but whoever takes
delight in kxjking at well-formed letters, may here be gratified " In
tlie "Gentleman's Magazine" for 182."), XCV. Parti. 'M-l, a corrc-
sj)onilcnt htatiH, tliat the inscription was ■wriltm as well as cut by
i'a.skervillc, but he givc'S 7io jiroof. Ife also states, that wlicii Ik! was
at ivlglisiHton two years belore, tint stone wiis "on the iKirtli-caHt side
of thechiirfhyard." lie gives the epitaph, with a very slight variation
in the first line.

538 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ON MILTON'S EXECUTIONER.
(Disraeli's "Curiosities of Literature," 1st S. Art. "Bentley's Milton.")

Did Milton's prose, Charles ! thy death defend ?

A furious foe, unconscious, proves a friend ;

On Milton's verse, does Bentley comment? know,

A weak officious friend becomes a foe.

While he would seem his author's fame to further,

The murderous critic has aveng'd thy murder.

This severe epigram appeared at the time of the publication of Dr.
Bentley's edition of Milton. On Milton's treatment of King Charles
in his prose Works, Yalden has some striking lines, " On the reprinting
Miltdu's Prose Works with his Poems." The following is tlie last
stanza :

Like the fall'n angels in their happy state,
Thou shar'dst their nature, insolence, and fate :
To harps divine, immortal hymns they sung,
As sweet thy voice, as sweet thy lyre was strimg.
As they did rebels to th' Almighty grow.
So thou profan'st his image here below.
Apostate bard ! may not thy guilty ghost,
Discover to its own eternal cost.
That as they heaven, thou paradise hast lost !

LIFE.
(" Collection of Epigrams," 1735, 11. Ep. 395.)

In travel, pilgrims do oft ask, and know,
What miles they've gone, and what they have to go,
Tlieir way is tedious, and their limbs opprest.
And their desire is to be at rest.

In life's more tedious journey, man delays
T' enquire out the number of his days :
He cares, not he, how slow his hours spend.
The journey's better than the journey's end.

The unwillingness to part with life is beautifully expressed in the
following lines by IMrs. Barbauld, written when she was very old —
the last stanza of "Life"— of \\hich Rogers said, "I know few lines
tiner " :

ANONYI'IOCS. 539

Life ! we've been long together,
Thi-ough pleasant and through cloudy weather .
'Tis hard to part when friends are dear ;
Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear ;
Then steal away, give little warning,
Choose thine own time,
Say not Good Night, bnt in some brighter clime
Bid me Good Morning.

Happy are those who can seriously feel that they require but "little
warning "' to prepare them for a '' brighter cUme."

FRONTISPIECE OF THE " DVNCIAD."

A correspondent of " Notes and Queries," 2nd S. 11. 182, states that
he found the following epigram on the fly-leaf of a copy of the
" Dunciad.' 8vo ed. 1729 ; with a note that it appeared in the " Daily
Gazetteer" about Dec. 18, 1738:

Pallas for wisdom priz'd her favourite owl,
Pope for its dulness chose the self-same fowl :
AVhicli shall we choose, or which shall we despise ?
If Pope is witty, Pallas is not wise.

It is well known that the early editions of the " Dunciad " had an
owl as the frontispiece. Some false editions appearing with the same,
the true ones discarded the owl, and placed an ass laden with authors
Ho the distinguishing mark. This being also copied in a t-purious re-
print, the owl again appeared in the octavo edition. Thus the editions
came to be known as those of the owl and those of the ass.

An interesting collection might be made of such emblems on title-
pages. One prefixed to the " Scribleriad " is worth noticing, — Satire
leading an ass carrying an unconscious Sphinx (representing false
science), which Satire has overthrown.

ON THE DEATH OF GENERAL WOLFE.

(" New Foundling Hospital for Wit," 1784, V. 188.)

All-conq'ring, cruel death, more hard than rocks,
Thou should'st have spar'd the Wolfe and took the Fox.

At the {leriod of the taking of Quebec and the death of Wolfe, Mr.
Fox (afterwards Lord Holland) was Paymaster of the Forces, and iiad
rendered Jiimsolf unpojiular by accumulating a considerable fortune
by the pcrquisitcH of oliice and the intcri st of money in hand. Ht-nce
the satirifal jjlay ujjon his mime in the epigram. That his i)cciilulions
had been enormous is evident from the fact, that after his dcatli his
executor was compelled to pay into the Treasury the .--Anii of £200,000,

540 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

In the latter part of his life he amused himself by building, at a vast
expense, a fantastic villa at Kingsgate, near IMargate. Some very severe
stanzas by Gray were suggested by a view of this seat. The following
are the opening lines :

Old and abandon'd by each venal friend,
Here Holland took the pious resolution
To smuggle a few years, and strive to mend
A broken character and constitution.

ON MRS. COLLYER DEDICATING " THE DEATH OF ABEL "

TO THE QUEEN.
(" Poetical Calendar," 1763, XI. 97.)

When Cain and Abel their first offerings made,
Abel's alone th' Almighty pleas'd survey'd ;
Sullen and vex'd, unpitying Cain withdrew,
And soon in private virtuous Abel slew.
But Britain's Queen, when Collyer homage paid,
And at the throne her book of Abel laid,
Fearing lest envy might attend regard,
Eeceiv'd the offering, but denied reward !
She fear'd lest Abel might again be slain,
And every critic prove another Cain.

Mrs. Collyer, who resided at Islington, was the wife of Joseph
Collyer, the author of some historical and geographical Works, who
died in 1776. " The Death of Abel " was translated from the German
of Gesner.

Another epigram on the history of Cain and Abel is not amiss. It

is a play upon the name of Dr. Abel , to whom it was addressed

when he was ill, by Graves ("Festoon," 1767, 199) :

Abel ! prescribe thyself; trust not anotHer :

Some envious leech, like Cain, may slay his brother.

ON MRS. BARBIERE'S FIRST APPEARANCE ON THE

STAGE.
("Festoon," 1767, 11.)

No pleasure now fiom Nicolini's tongue,

In vain he strives to move us with his song ;

On a fair Siren we have fix'd our choice,

And wait with longing ears for Barbiere's voice :

When, lo ! the nymph, by bashful awe betray'd,

Her fait' ring tongue denies her looks its aid :

ANONYMOUS. 541

But so miicli innocence adorns her fears,
And with such grace her modesty she wears,
By her disorder all her charms increase.
And, had she better sung, she'd pleas'd us less.

This lady seems to have overcome her " bashful awe," and to have
attained reputation as a singer ; but the only notice of her in the
" Gentleman's Magazine " is in the obituary for 1737 : " Feb. 5. Mrs.
Barbier, formerly a noted singer in the operas."

There is a severe epigram " On Nicolini's Leaving the Stage," in
Steele's collection (possibly by Steele himself), of which the latter half
only can fitly be given here (Nichols' " Collection of Poems," IV. 75,
178bj :

Hence with thy ciu-st deluding song ! away !

Shall British freedom thus become thy prey?

Freedom which we so dearly us'd to prize.

We scorn to yield it — but to British eyes.

Assist, ye gales ; with expeditious care

Waft this preposterous idol of the Fair ;

CJousent ye Fair, and let the trider go,

Nor bribe with wishes adverse winds to blow r

Nonsense grew pleasing by his Siren arts.

And stole from Shakespeare's self our easy hearts.

TRUE RICHES.
(" Festoon," 1767, 99.)

Irus, tho' wanting gold and lands,

Lives cheerful, easy, and content ; — ■
Corvus unbless'd, with twenty hands

Employ'd to count his yearly rent.
Sages of Lombard ! tell me which

Of these you think possesses more ?
One, with his poverty, is rich ;

And one, with all his wealth, is poor.

There are many Greek epigrams which express this truth. An
amusing one, by Lucian, on the gout (Jacobs III. 26, xxvii.), may,
perhaps, come home to some readers who have experienced this accom-
paniment of wealth and luxury. Tlie transliition, which is rather
free, ia from a '• Selection of Greek Epigrams for the Use of Wiuchcbtei
School," 17'Jl:

(joddesH who shunu'st tho cottage gate,

Comiiauion of the rich and great;

To feet of straugens you coulide ;

Your arms a crutch on either side :

54.2 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Whilst tottering round the gilded room,
You tling the costly rich perfume ;
To you the talile's sumptuous fare
And rose-encircl'd wreath are dear ;
For you the mantling bowl shall flow,
Joys, which the poor can never know,
In whose sad path, with th jrns o'erspread,
Your pamper'd form shall never tread ;
But to the purple couch shall go,
Where lies in state the great man's toe.

BEYNOLDS' PORTE AIT OF MES. COLLYEB.

(Northcote's " Life of Keynolds," 1819, I. 156.)

In 1766, Sir Joshua Eeynolds i^ainted a portrait of Mrs. CoUyer, an
eminent beauty of that time. Her face is seen in profile, and has a
pensive air, as if contemplating the death of a favourite sparrow,
which appears laid on the table before her.

Sorrow too deep for him to trace,

Timantlies did conceal ;
The anguish in the father's face,

He covered with a veil.

The lightning of bright Collyer's eyes

Keynolds despairs to show ;
That vivid fire his art defies ;

He bids a tear to flow.

Timanthes was a painter of Sicyon in the reign of Philip, the father
of Alexander the Great. He executed a celebrated pictiu-e of Iphigenia
about to be immolated, with her father Agamemnon standing by,
whose face he covered with a veil, thus leaving his deep sorrow to be
realized by imagination. In Elsum's ■' Epigrams on Paintings," 1700,
there is one on this picture (Ep. 1) :

See how her near relations all lament

To lose a virgin fair and innocent.

The under-mourners are so full of grief,

The painter's puzzled to express the chief;

He finds the pencil is for this too frail,

And therefore o'er his eyes he casts the veil.

Thus wisely covering Agamemnon's face,

He turns the art's defect into a grace.
Waller refers to the pictiu-e in his poem, " Of his Majesty receiving
the news of the Duke of Buckingham's death " :

The famous painter could allow no place

For private sorrow in a prince's face :

Yet, that his piece might not exceed belief.

He casts a veil upon supposed grief.

ANONYMOUS. 543

W BITTEN ON A LEAF OF LOWTE'S GRAMMAR, FUE-
SENTED TO A YOUNG LADY.

(" Newspaper Cuttings, Poetry and Miscellaneous," in the
British Museum.)

Fair miniature of all thy mother's grace,
Gentle Theresa ; whose first op'ning bloom,
Foretells a lovely flower of rich perfume :

Now that thy tender mind doth quick embrace
Each character impressed ; these pages trace
"With studious eye, and let thy thoughts assume,
Such classic dress as grac'd the maids of Rome ;
Free, elegant, and, as thy manners, chaste.

These lines, which have all the simplicity and elegance of a Greek
epigram, are stated to be by the Dean of Waterfbrd, but as there is no
date to the newspaper cuttings, which seem to range over many years
of the second half of the last century, it cannot be decided who is the
dean meant. Bishop Lowth's " Short Introduction to English Granunar "
was first published in 17G2, but, as it has gone through many editions,
this gives little clue to the date of the epigram.

ON ARCHBISHOP MOORE.

(Nichols' " Literary Anecdotes," VIII. 94.)

Dr. John Moore was in 1771 appointed Dean of Canterbury, and in
1775 consecrated Bii^hop of Bangor, which occasioned the folhnving
" Word of Comfort from Bangor to Canterbury on the Loss of her Dean " :

Cease, Canterburj-, to deplore

The loss of your accomplish'd Moore,

Kepining at my gain ;
I soon may have most cause to mourn :
To you he'll probably return.

With vie will scarce remain.

This was answered from Canterbury :

To me, you prophesy, our mitred Moore
Revolving years may probably restore.

And thus in vain attempt my tears to diy :
I scarcely know my masters but by name.
Triennial visits, and the voice tif fame,

For, ah! my palaces in luins lie.

544 MODERN EPIGPvAMMATISTS.

On the death of Dr. Cornwallis in 1783, the archiepiscopal see was
offered to Bishops Hurd and Lowth, who both declined it, the one
from advancing years and love of lettered ease, the other from aftection
to his diocese. It was reported that, upon this, the King desired each
of them to recommend the bishop whom they thought most fitted for
the primacy, and that, without any previous concert of opinion, they
both mentioned Dr. Moore, who was, in consequence, appointed Metro-
politan. After his promotion, " Bangor's Word of Comfort to Canter-
bury no Prophecy " appeaxed (Nichols, as above, 95) :

An impartial and competent judge of desert
At sucli a conclusion must have needs been expert :
And to bafifle detraction I'll venture thus far —
If Moore rose like a meteor, he'll shine a true star.

KING GEORGE III. AND Dli. FRANKLIN.

("Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin." By his Grandson,
W. T. Franklin, 1818, II. 81.)

In the year 1777 an angry controversy arose, in consequence of Dr.
Franklin having advocated pointed lightning-conductors, as preferable
to the rounded ones. George III., who detested Franklin for the part
he took in the American rebellion, was unwise enough to show his
dislike by having the old pointed conductors removed, and replaced
by rounded ones at Buckingham Palace, then called " The Queen's
House." This was during the heat of the American war, and occa-
sioned the following epigram :

While you, great George ! for safety hunt,
And sharp conductors change for blunt,

The empire's out of joint :
Franklin a wiser course pursues ;
And all your thunder fearless views,

By keeping to the point.

In the " New Foundling Hospital for Wit," II. 158, there is another
epigram on the same subject and occasion :

Our public buildings to defend

From the keen lightning's brunt,
Stme pointed rods would recommend,

Others prefer the Blv.rd.

Let nle, too, midst this learned throng

Show how to save our structures ;
Alas ! we've tried the blunt too long,

We now want Sharp Conductors.

ANONYMOUS. 545

KEPPEL AND RODNEY.

(" Gentleman's Magazine," L. 149.)

The freedom of the city of London was presented to Admiral
Keppel in a box made of oak ; and subsequently to Admiral Rodney in a
gold one. After the coui-t which decided on the latter presentation.
the following epigram appeared in the public papers :

Your wisdom, London's council, far

Our highest praise exceeds ;
In giving each illustrious tar

The very thing he needs.

For Eodney, brave, but low in cash,

You golden gifts bespoke :
To Keppel, rich, but not so rash,

You gave a heart of oak.

Admiral Sir George Rodney nearly ruined himself, in 1768, in a con-
tested election for the borough of Northampton.

Admiral (afterwards Viscount) Keppel was tried for neglect of duty
in an engagement with the French fleet off Ushant, July 27, 1778,
upon charges brought by Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, the second in
command. Keppel was not only acquitted, but received the thanks of
both Houses of Parliament. Palliser was then tried, when the unfor-
tunate escape of the French fleet was clearly proved to have been caused
by his own neglect of orders. He was only censured, but the popular
feeling against him was so strong, that he was compelled to resign his
offices under Government and his seat in Parliament. Notwithstanding
the general opinion in favour of Keppel, the last two lines of the epi-
gram refer to the Ushant engagement, as there were some who took a
different view, and sought to make him unpopular.

In a letter from Horace Walpole to Sir Horace Mann, the following
epigram is given on the freedom of the city being presented to Pitt
and Fox (Walpole's " Letters to Sir Horace Mann,'^ 1833, HI, 2G2) :
The two great rivals London might content.
If what he values most to each were sent :
HI was the franchise coupled with the box,
Give Pitt the freedom, and the gold to Fox.

2 N

546 MODEEN EPIORAMMATISTS.

OlS THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE

Canvassing for Charles James Fox at the Westminster Election in 1780

(" Asylum for Fugitive Pieces," 1785, 61.)

Array 'd in matchless beauty, Devon's Fair
In Fox's favour takes a zealous part :

But, oil ! where'er the pilf'rer comes — beware !
She supplicates a vote and steals a heart.

This is the duchess with whose name Lord Macaulay winds up hia
magnificent description of Westminster Hall, at the opening of the
1 rial of Warren Hastings : '' And there the ladies whose lips, more per-
,-uasive thun those of Fox himself, had carried the Westminster elec-
tion against palace and treasury, shone round Georgiana, Duchess of
I »evonshire."

THE EARL OF CHATHAM.

The following epigram, from Owen's " Weekly Chronicle" for 1761,
appeared at the time of the fall of the elder Pitt's cabinet in that year,
when, as a reward for his services, his wife was created Baroness
Chatham, and a pension of £3000 was settled on the lives of himself,
his wife, and his eldest son :

No letters mors full or expressive can be

Than the once so respectable W. P. ;

The first stands for wisdom, war, wonder, and wit,

The last points to peerage, and pension, and Pitt.

When, in 1766, Pitt was himself created a peer, he was attacked in an
epigram found in the " New Foundling Hospital for Wit," 1784, IV. 83 :

Says great William Pitt, with his usual emotion,
" The peers are no more than a drop in the ocean."
The city adores him ; how charming a thing !
To pull down the peers, and to humble the king ;
But summon'd to court, he reflects on his words.
And to balance the State, takes a seat with the lords.

But after his death, the epigrams on the great statesman were of a
very different character. The following, " Written in 1782, upon the
Bust of the Earl of Chatham," id from " An Asylum for Fugitive
Pieces," 1785, 33 :

Her trophies faded, and revcrs'd her spear,
See England's genius bend o'er Chatham's bier.
No more her sails through every clime unfurl 'd,
Siiall spread his dictates o'er th' admiring world;

ANONYMOUS. 547

No more shall accents nervous, bold, and strong,
Flow in full periods from his matchless tongue.
Yet shall thy name, great Shade, from age to age,
Bright in poetic and historic page,
Thine, and thy country's fate congenial tell.
By thee she triumph' d, and with thee she fell.

ThB triumphs of England under the administration of Lord Chatham
are the theme of every historian. How great was her danger offalliruj.
in the year in which the above epigram was written, is thus expressed
by Sir A. Alison : " Russia, Sweden, Denmark, were united in a hostile
league — America, Spain, and France in an armed confederacy against
(5reat Britain ; the combined fleets rode triumphant in the British
Channel ; and, however strange it may sound to modern ears, it is his-
torically certain that England was more nearly subdued by the wisdom
of Louis XVI. and the talent of Vergennes, than by the genius of
Napoleon and the address of Talleyrand" (Alison's "History of
Europe," 1849, I. 318).

Lord Chatham and his illustrious son, William Pitt, are commemorateti
together in the following epigram, preserved in Lord Stanhope's " Mis-
cellanies," 1863, 92, who says: "These lines were sent to me in
November, 1861, by the Rev. Thomas Pascoe, of S. Hilary's, Marazion,
Cornwall, who states in his letter that he was born in 1788, and that
he remembers hearing them recited ' when quite a boy ' " :
Great Chatham, who from humbled France

Acquired a deathless fame,
The first of statesmen stands confessed.
And nations owned the claim.

Yet by one act he weaker made
His claim instead of stronger ;
He gave the admiring world a son,
And then was first no longer.
Inferior in merit as an epigram, but equally complimentary to the
two great statesmen, is the following, found in "An Asylum for Fugi-
tive Pieces," 1785, 53 :

When Chatham died, Britannia bow'd,

And njourn'd his absence long in vain •
Till Ileav'n iinotlier Pitt bestow'd,
And Chatham's spirit rais'd again 1
But even the younger Pitt could not give universal satisfaction.
In 1784, when First Lord of the Ti'easury and Chancellor of the
lOxchequer, he raised the window-tax, and continued the imposition of
the camlle-tax. This produced an epigram which appeared in the
"Gentleman's Magazine" for that year, LIV. 693. It is sai<l that the
author was a We.stminsttjr sclndar, who sent it to the minister :
God said, "Let there be light"— and lo.
It instant was, and freely given.
To every creature under heaven ;
Saya Pitt, " I will n(jt have it bo —

548 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Darkness much better suits my views ;

Let darkness o'er the land diffuse.

Henceforth I will, that all shall pay

For every light by night and day."
He said — and, as he'd been a God,
The venal herd obey'd his nod.

When Pitt's statue by Nollekens was placed in the Senate House at
C.imbridge, the emblematic statue of " Glory," by Barotta of Florence,
was removed to the Law Schools to make room for it ; upon which a
lady wrote :

Sons of Sapience ! you here a fair emblem display.
For wherever Pitt went, he drove Glory away !

Tliis was answered by a Pittite of the University :

Why thus exclaim, and thus exert your wit,
At making Glory here give way to Pitt ?
We'll raise his statue of the finest stone,
For never here a brighter Glory shone.

The following " Extempore on the Death of Mr. Pitt," is by Theo
rlore Hook (" Spirit of the Public Journals," X. 150) :

To heav'n he wings his glorious flight.

In death immortal, as in living bright ;

He' sinks to rise— his earthly course now run,

Clasp'd in his father's arms lives Chatham's son !

Almighty Lord, attend to England's pray'r,
Thy wonted goodness to our isle declare
Grant her the aid she most requires.
When Nelson falls, and Pitt expires !

ON A BLACK MARBLE STATUE OF A SLAVE WHICH
SUPPORTED A SUN-DIAL IN CLEMENT'S INN.
(" New Foundling Hospital for Wit," 1784, VI. 222.)
In vain, poor sable son of woe,

Thou seek'st a tender ear ;
In vain thy tears with anguish flow.

For mercy dwells not here.
From cannibals thou fliest in vain ;

Lawyers less quarter give ;
The first won't eat you till you're slain,
The last will do't alive.

Lawyers, like physicians, have proved a prolific source of epigram-
matic wit. Butler, in one of his " Miscellaneous Thoughts " on this
.subject, is as caustic as usual:

ANONYMOUS. 549

The law can take a purse in open court,
Whilst it condemns a less delinquent for 't.

Fergusson, the Scotch poet, has an epigram " On a Lawyer desiring
3ne of the Tribe to look with respect to a Gibbet " (" Poetical Works,''
1807, 209) :

The lawyers may revere that tree,

Where thieves so oft have strung,
Since, by the law's most wise decree,
Her thieves are never huug;.

WRITTEN, IN THE TIME OF WAR, ON A BEAUTIFUL
LITTLE BOY BEING KILLED BY THE FALL OF A
STONE FROM A CHURCH-TOWER.

("Asylum for Fugitive Pieces," 1785, 165.)

One summer's day, invited by the shade,
As near a time-shook tower an Infant play'd,
From the high summit whence a Pigeon fled,
A sever'd fragment crush 'd his harmless head !
Ye ruthless hosts, whose desolating skill
Make lightnings flash, and mimic thunders kill ;
Destructive engines, need your rage employ,
AVhen Time can temples, Doves can life destroy ?

With this may be compared Martial's epigram, On a Boy killed by
the Fall of an Icicle (Book IV. 18). The translation is by Hay :

'Twas from a spout which pours into the street,
And makes the pavement slippery to the feet.
An icicle depending grew, until
By its own weight the ponderous ruin fell ;
Struck on the neck a boy upon the ground ;
Wounded to death ; then melted in tlie wound.
From cruel fortune can we more endure ?
If waters stab, where can we be secure ?

ON A YOUNG LADY WISHING TO ASCEND IN A

BALLOON.

Forbear, sweet girl, your scheme forego,
And thus our anxious troubles end ;

Swiftly you'll mount, full well wo know,
And greatly lear — you'll not descend !

550 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS,

When angels see a mortal rise,

So beautiful, divine, and fair.
They'll not release you from the skies.

But keep their sister-angel there !

The young lady, on wliom this epigram was written, seems to have
had a high spirit, for it must refer to a very early balloon ascent. It
ajipeared in " An Asylum for Fugitive Pieces," published in 1785 (P. 52).
The first recorded ascent took place in France on the '21st of November,
1783", when the Marquis d'Arlandes and M. Pilatre de Eozier per-
formed the feat, which was considered very marvellous, from the
Chateau de la Muette, near Passy. The first aerial voyage made in
England was by Vincentio Lunardi, from the London Artillery Ground,
September 15, 1784. On this ascent the following epigram was
• made, found in the same " Asylum for Fugitive Pieces," 54 :

When brave Lunardi soar'd on high,

And danger boldly spurn'd ;
What breast but heav'd an anxious sigh.

And wish'd him safe retm-n'd ?

Of heroes Britain owns her share.

In water, earth, and flame ;
But yet ao hero had in air.

Till great Lunardi came !

Lunardi gained so much fame by this balloon ascent, that various
articles of dress were called after his name.

In a small volume published at Florence in 1784, entitled "The
Arno Miscellany, being a Collection of Fugitive Pieces written by
Members of a Society called the Oziosi at Florence." is the following
epigram, " On the Air Balloon, as it appeared in the ' Florence Gazette,'
by the Abbe C. ; translated from the Latin by Mr. N." :

The land alone sufHced of yore

To glut pale Death's destructive train ;

Next 'mid the waves was felt his power,
And now he rules th' aerial plain.

Mankind to surer ruin run,

Death has three realms instead of one.

GREEK PROVERB.

Hesiod has a Greek proverb, "The half is better than the whole,"
originating in the advice to a friend, to accej^t a friendly accommoda-
tion rather than enter upon a litigious lawsuit. Upon this proverb
the following epigram is based :

What means then Hesiod ? " Half excels the whole."
Kead me the riddle, there's a clever soul.

ANONYMOUS. 551

Lady, the answer in yourself appears,
, For twenty-five, you'ld give your fifty years.

Addison heads the 195th No. of the "Spectator" with another
adaptation of the proverb :

Fools, not to know that half exceeds the whole,
How blest the sparing meal and temperate bowl !

This version is, however, incorrect in the use of the word " exceeds."
The Greek is irKeov, a well-known term for " of more worth or value " •
" exceeds " hardly expresses this in modern usage.

EPITAPH ON THOMAS EVANS.
(" Gentleman's Magazine," LIV. Part I. 396.)

Cropt by th' untimely hand of death, here lies,
If " life's a jest," one who was truly wise ;
If cares were jests, its jests were all his care,
Till life and jest dispers'd in empty air.
Then take this sigh, thou poor departed shade !
For all the pleasantries thy life display'd :
Alas! 'tis all that's now in friendship's power;
The sad exchange for many a cheerful hour.

The quotation " Life's a jest " is from Gay's epitaph for himself.

Thomas Evans was a London bookseller of eminence, who died in
178-1:. He possessed a more than ordinary share of wit and humour,
and his love of pleasantry was a passion strung in death ; for in his will,
after directing that his funeral should be conducted in a very plain
manner, ho added, " it would be ridiculous to make a coxcomb of a
grave man." Goldsmith has a similar joke in his lines on Caleb White-
foord, a postscript to " Eetaliation " :

Here Whitefoord reclines, and deny it who can,
Though ho merrily liv'd, he is now a grave man.

Evans was the bookseller, who inserted an article offensive to Gold-
brnith in the " Universal Magazine," of which ho was editf>r, upon
which the poet went to his shop and caned him, but by tlio inter-
ference of friends the matter was adju.sted. One of these friends wu.s
Johnson, which is amusing when it is remembered that he himsi If
treated Osborne, another l)ook8eller, in much the same way. Cradock,
in his " Memoirs," gives an extempore epigram on Johnson's feat :

When Johnson, with tremendous step and slow.

Fully deterriiiu'd, deigns to fell the foe.

E'en the earth trembles, thunders roll around,

And mighty Osborne's self lies levell'd with the gnmnd.

552 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

A DISTINGUISHING CHABAVTEBISTIC.
(" Select Epigrams," 1797, II. 125.)
Can you tell me (cried Celia to Damon) from whence
I may know a coquette from a woman of sense ?
Where the difference lies ?— Yes, said Damon, I can ;
Ev'ry man courts the one, t'other courts every man.

This is sound advice for a man who is seeking a wife. A Greek
epigram by Rutiuus will give him some help in choosing between two
extremes. The translation, taken from " Select Epigrams," is correct
but free (Jacobs III. 106, xxxv.) :

The damsel too prudishly shy.

Or too forward, what swain would possess ?
For the one will too often deny.

And the other too soon will say Yes.
Martial has an epigram of similar character (Book I. 58), thus freely
translated in the " Collection of Epigrams," 1735 :

Dick, would you know, if I should change my life,
What kind of girl I'd choose to make my wife ?
I would not have her be so fond to say,
YeB at first dash ; nor dwell too long on Nay :
These two extremes I hate ; then let her be
'Twixt both ; nor too hard-hearted, nor too free.

MISS HOBNSBTS L0VEB8.
(" Notes and Queries," 2nd S. XI. 233 and 295.)
A fellow of Brazenose, named Halliwell, obtained the sobriquet of
Dr. Toe from his lameness. He wooed and won Bell Hornsby, the
daughter of the Professor of Astronomy. The day was fixed for the
wedding, but ere it arrived Bell eloped with her father's footman. This
occasioned the following epigram, ascribed by some to the daughter of
Canon Burton, of Christ Chm-ch, who was usually known as Jack
Burton ; by others, and probably with more truth, to Heber, then resi-
dent in' Oxford; it was perhaps the joint production of some of the
Common-room wits :

'Twixt footman John and Dr. Toe

A rivalship befell,
Which of the two should be the beau

To bear away sweet Bell.
To footman John she gave her heart ;

Who could blame her? no man.
The whole succeeded 'gainst the part,
Footman versus Toeman.

AI^ONTMOUS. S53

The following seems to have been written on the same occasion
(ibid. 296) :

Dear lady, think it no reproach.

It show'd a generous mind,
To take poor John within the coach,
Wlio rode before behind.

This, however, is not original, as the same point is found in an
epigram in " Select Epigrams," 1797, U. 106, published previously :

When Trot in coach his foot first set,
He blush'd, and back a step reclin'd ;

For Trot himself could not forget
How many years he rode behind.

An anecdote told of Secretary Craggs may possibly have produced
this epigram. He began life as a footman, and " in the days of his
opulence he once handed some ladies into their carriage, and then
from the mere force of habit got up behind himself " (" Quarterly
Review," LIX. 406).

ON TWO DEANS.

(" Notes and Queries," 2Dd S. XI. 170 and 296.)

Cyril Jackson, Dean of Christ Church, was understood to have
refused a bishopric out of proud humility. Nathan Wetherell, father
of the better-known Sir Charles Wetherell, was Master of University
and Dean of Hereford. He had purchased shares in the Oxford Canal
at the time of their extreme depreciation, and ultimately realized a
large fortune by the advance in their price.

As CjTil and Nathan were walking by Queen's,
Said Cyril to Nathan, " We're both of us Deans,

And both of us Bishops may be :"
Said Nathan to Cyril, " Bo that as it will,
I shall stick to my little canal,

And you may go to the see."

" The Duke of York told mc that Dr. Cyril Jackson most conscienti-
ously did his duty as tutor to him and his brother, the Prince of Wales.
' Jackson,' said the Duke, ' used to have a silver pencil-case in his hand
while we were at our lessons ; and he has frequently given us sucli
knocks with it upon our foreheads, tliat the blood followed them ' "
(Rogers' " Table Talk," 1856, 161).

554 MODEEN EPIGEAMMATISTS.

FORENSIC WIT.

THE lawyers' glee.

(Lord Campbell's " Lives of the Chief Justices," 1849, II. 183.)

A woman having a settlement

Married a man with none ;
The question was, he being dead,

If what she had was gone ?

Quoth Sir John Tratt, the settlement

Suspended did remain,
Living the husband ; but him dead,

It doth revive again.

Chorus of Puisne Judges.

Living the husband ;_ but him dead,
It doth revive again.

Chief Justice Pratt's decision with regard to suspension was reversf^i
by Chief Justice Ryder, which produced another glee ilbid).

A woman having a settlement,

Married a man with none :
He flies and leaves her destitute ;

What then is to be done ?

Quoth Ryuer, the Chief Justice,

In spite of Sir John Pratt,
You'll send her to the parish

In which she was a brat.

Suspension of a settlement

Is not to be maintained ;
That which she had by birth subsists

Until another's gained.

Chorus of Puisne Judges.

That which she had by birth subsists
Until another's gained.

Sir John Pratt was Chief Justice of the King's Bench from 1718 to
1724 ; and Sir Dudley Ryder from 1754 to 1756.

i\JS'ONYJIOUS.

555

Some years ago aE action was brought, at Cardifl" Assizes, by a rich
pliiintilf against a poor defendiint. who was unable to pay counsel,
when Abraham IMoore, Esq., of Exeter, a barrister, volunteered to
defend him. Upon this the following epigram was written, entitled
" Dives and Lazarus," which is ascribed to Jekyll, and which appeared
in the " British Press " for July 3, 1812 (" Spirit of the Public Journals,"
1813, XVI. 235):

Dives, the Cardiff Bar retains,

And counts thi-ir learned noses,
Whilst the defendant Lazarus

On Abraham's breast reposes.

Mr. Scarlett, afterwards Lord Abinger, counsel for a Mr. Cole, de-
fendant in a breach of promise case, tried at the Lancaster Spring
Assizes in 1818, pleaded that some love-letters, likely to damage his
client's case, could not be admitted in evidence, not being stamped :
the judge overruled this, and a young counsel wrote and handed round
the following ("Notes and Queries," 2nd S. I. 148 and 418):

'Tis said o'er his cheek the scarlet blush stole,
As he asked for a stamp to a deed black as cole ;
If requests such as these in " the Pleas " are admitted,
Our fair countrywomen will quite be outwitted :
Unless in their reticules bhmk stamps they carry,
And take a receipt for each kiss till they marry.

The same lawyer's name caused a joke of similar character in a trial,
about the year 1827, in which Grimaldi, the famous clown, was a wit-
ness. The anecdote is given in the " Life of Grimaldi," by Dickens.
Sir James Scarlett commenced his examination by saying, " Dear me !
Pray, sir, are you the great Mr. Grimaldi, formerly of Covent Garden
Theatre ?" The witness reddened and replied, " I used to be a panto-
mime actor, sir." Sir James paused u few seconds, and looking up in
his face said, " And so you really are Grimaldi, are you ?" The wit-
ness got redder and redder. " Pray don't blush, Mr. Grimaldi, there is
not the least occasion for it," said Sir James. This, of course, made
(irimaldi hlush more and more, though lie replied, " I'm not blushing,
sir." The spectators tittered, and Sir James, smiling blandly, said, " I
assure you, Mr. Grimaldi, that you are blushing violently." Grimaldi
was angry and nervous, but he had his wits about him, and replied,
" I beg your pardon, sir, but you are really quite mistaken. The flush
which you observe on my face is a Scarlet one, I admit, but I assure you
that it is nothing more thau a reflection from your own." The people
shouted with laughter, and Sir James bantered the witness no more.

The following " Retort Legal," by the witty James Smith, is amusing
'j Memoirs, Letters, &c., of the late James Smith," 1840, 1. 204 i :

" What with briefs and attending the court, self and clerk,
I'm at my wits' end." muttered Drone, the attorney.
" J fear 'tis a medical case," answered Shark —
" You're so terribly tired by bo little a journey."

656 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

The cause of lawsuits is well put by Samuel Bishop (Works, 1796,
Ep. 161):

In indenture or deed,
The' a thousand you read,

Neither comma nor colon you'll ken :
A stop intervening
Might determine the meaning ;

And what would the lawyers do then ?
Chance for change of construction gives chance for new flaws ;
When the sense is once iix'd, there's an end of the cause.

ON BISHOP BLOMFIELD.
(" Memoir of Charles James Blomfield, D.D.," 1863, I. 95.)

Dr. Blomfield (Bishop of London) was successively Rector of Chester-
ford, of Bishopsgate, and Bishop of Chester. The following epigram,
on his promotion to that see in 1824, was written by one of the boys of
the Grammar School of his native town, Bury S. Edmund's :

Through Chester-ford to Bishops-gate

Did Blomfield safely wade ;
Then leaving ford and gate behind,

He's Chester's Bishop made.

ON NASH, THE ARCHITECT, WHO INTRODUCED THE USE
OF ROMAN CEMENT IN LONDON HOUSES.

Augustus at Rome was for building renown'd,
And marble he left what but brick he had found ;
But is not our Nash, too, a very great master ?
He found London brick, and he leaves it all plaster

This is an adaptation of another epigram, on the creation of paper-
money in time of war ; found in the " Spirit of the Public Journals for
1806," X. 153 :

Of Augustus and Rome the poets still warble,
That he found it of brick and left it of marble :
So of Pitt and of England, they say, without vapour,
That he found it of gold, and he left it of paper.

ANONYMOUS. 557

INSCRIPTION FOR THE ENTRANCE OF A " GENTLE" -
WOMAN'S GARDEN.

(From a Manuscript.)
Pan speaks.

Let no rash hand invade these sacred bowers,
Irreverent pluck the fruit, or touch the flowers ;
Fragrance and beauty here their charms combine,
And e'en Hesperia's garden yields to mine ;
For tho' no golden apples glitter round,
A dragon yet more furious guards the ground.

This seems to have been suggested by the inscription on the portico
of the Villa Ludovisia, at Frescati, near Rome ; a flragon being borne
in the arms of the Borghese family. It is given in Mons. Blainville's
Travels :

Thessala quid Tempe ? Quid quaevis Adonidis hortos ?

Hffic tibi pro cunctis VUla Draeonis erat.
Hesperidum nostris quantum viridaria cedunt
Gustos est tanto mitior ore Draco.

ON GIBBON.

In Lord Sheffield's edition of Gibbon's " Miscellaneous "Works," is en-
graved the well-known shade portrait of the historian, which, from its
unfortunate singularity, gave occasion in 17;)7 to a severe poetical
attack upon the then dead original, by an Oxonian. This satire pro-
duced at a later period the following epigram by C. :

What valiant scribe, from Isis' hallow'd glade,

Dares thus to arms this Shadow of a Shade?

Does blund'ring Chehum breathe th' envenom'd strain ?

Has mitro-hunting Davis risen again?

'Tis great, 'tis nublc to insult the dead.

And heap reproaches o'er a prostrate head.

A}'©, strike tho fall'n, 'tis all that Dulness can.

And spurn tho Shadcjw who had'st fear'd tlic Man.

Dr. Chelsum, and Henry Edwards Davis r)f Balliol College, wore
writers against (Mlihon ; tjotli were men of Icurriiug. hut they t'i'll iiitu
some inaccuracies, of whi'-li (iWilxni waHiiotslow toaviiil hiiiiHcIf Davis
is supp08(td to have desired to bring him8(;lf into notic(!, as an ()[iin)iiciit
of tho anti-Cliristian historian, with a view to advancement in the
Church, but he died at an early age.

558 MODERN EPIGBAMMATI8TS.

The point is similar in an epigram, " On Mr. Mason's Abuse of the
late Dr. Johnson, in his Memoirs of W. Whitehead" (" Gentleman's
Magazine," LXXVIII. Part I. 429):

When Johnson spake, poor Mason's wrath was dumb ;
But, Johnson silenc'd, prattles o'er his tomb :
Thus, at some eagle slain, once frighted crows,
With dastard vengeance, aim their puny blows :
Mason ! what wreath shall grace that critic's head,
Who fear'd the living, but insults the dead ?
On the general subject of attacks upon the dead, Moschion, a Greek
dramatist, writes in strains of striking power. The translation is by
Cumberland (" Observer," No. 105) :

Wound not the soul of a departed man !

'Tis impious cruelty ; let justice strike

The living, but in mercy spare the dead.

And why pursue a shadow that is past ?

Why blander the deaf earth that cannot hear,

The dmnb tliat cannot utter ? When the soul

No longer takes account of human wrongs.

Nor joys nor sorrows touch the mouldering heart,

As well you may give feeling to the tomb,

As what it covers— both alike defy you.

The poet Hayley has a fine sonnet addressed to Gibbon on the publi-
cation of his second and third volumes in 1781. The latter part is
prophetic of the lasting fame of the history :

Thou may'st deride both Time's destructive sway,
And baser envy's beauty-mangling dirk ;

Thy gorgeous fabrick, plann'd with wise delay.
Shall baffle foes more savage than the Turk :
As ages multiply its fame shall rise ;
And earth must perish ere its splendour dies.

Upon few men of literature have so many epigrams been written as
upon Gibbon. The tone which he adopted in his history towards
Christianity, is the point on which they generally turn. The two
following are specimens (" Notes and Queries," 3rd S. IX. 45 and 84) :

Enthusiasts, Lutherans, and Monks,
Jews, Syndics, Calvinists, and Puniis,

Gibbon an Atheist call ;
Whilst he, unhurt, in placid mood,
To prove himself a Christian good.

Kindly forgives them all.

Wiiich was answered thus:

To smile, or to forgive, we ask thee not ;

Thy hatred we prefer, and cherish well :
No Christian hesitates thy name to blot,

Obscene, mendacious, sneering infidel !

ANONTMOUS. 559

As a politician too, Gibbon was attacked. He is said to have pub-
licly declared, that it was necessary for the safety of the country that
halt' a dozen of tlie members of the cabinet should be executed ; and
yet within a few weeks of this declaration, he accepted (1779) the
officeof one of the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, worth
about £700 per annum. Upon this an epigram appeared, which h;is
been ascribed to Charles James Fox (" Notes and Queries," Ist S. VIII.
312), but upon insufficient authority :

King George in a fright

Lest Gibbon should write
The story of Britain's disgrace,

Thought no means more sure

His pen to secure
Than to give the historian a place.

But his caution is vain,

'Tis the curse of his reign
That his projects should never succeed ;

Tho' he wrote not a line,

Yet a cause of decline
In our author's example we read.

His book well describes

How corruption and bribes
O'erthrew the great empire of Rome ;

And his writings declare

A degeneracy there,
Which his conduct exhibits at home.

SHEEPSnANKS.—SnELFORD.

f" Notes and Queries," 2nd S. XII. 98.)
Mr. William Sheepshanks, tutor of Jesus College, Cambridge (who
took hLs degree in 1814), wrote satyrs instead of satires in giving an
exercise from Horace or Juvenal. This produced the following epigram,
which was fastened on the door of the tutor's room.

The satyrs of old were satyrs of note,
With the head of a man, and the shanks of a goat ;
Vmt the satyrs of Jesus these satyrs surpass.
With the shanks of a sheep and the head of an ass.

This is ascribed to Mr. H. A. Wedgwood, who graduated at J(hu.s
College in 1821. The Haine wit embiilmed Shelford of Corpus, wln)
was public ex;iniiner in 1821, uiul not(;i] for plucking men. Sin Mord
fen is near Cambridge! :

I've seen a man pluck geese on Sholford fen,
And now I've Been a Shelford go(jse pluck men.

561

SUPPLEMENT OF
MODEKN EPiaKAMMATISTS.

SIR JOHN SUCKLING

Was born at Whitton, in Middlesex, in 1609. He was a man of
fortune, and spent his time and his money amongst the wits of the age.
In the civil war he espoused the royal cause, and raised a troop of horse
for the King. He died in 1641. The following pieces, though strictly
admissible into this collection, are, like some by Sir Charles Sedley, on
the border-land between epigrams and vers de society, and may be
called by either name. They are taken from Tonson's edition of
Suckling's Works, 1709.

WHY SO PALE?

Why so pale and wan, fond Lover ?

Prithee why so pale ?
Will, when looking well can't move her,

Looking ill prevail ?

Prithee why so pale ?

Why so dull and mute, young sinner ?

Prithee why so mute ?
Will, when speaking well can't win her,

Saying nothing do't?

Prithee why so mute ?

Quit, quit, for shame, this will not move.

This cannot take her;
If of herself she will not love,

Nothing can make her : —

The devil take her.

George Wither, wlio was contemporary with Suckling, writes in tbi,
same strain. The following is the lirst, of several stanzas (Kills'
"Specimens of the Early English Po(;ts," 1803, HI. 83):

Shall I, Witstiug in despair.
Die bccnum: a woman's fair?
Or make pale my cheeks with caro
'Cause another's rosy are ?

2 o

562 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Be she fairer than the day,
Or the flowery meads in May ;

If she be not so to me.

What care I how fair she be ?

Lord Nugent has an epigram on the happy effects of a lady's disdain
when constantly shown (Dodsley's "Collection of Poems," 1782. II.
244):

Since tirat you knew my am'rous smart.

Each day augments your proud disdain ;
'Twas then enough to break my heart,

And now, thank heav'n ! to break my chain.
Cease, thou scorner, cease to shun me !

Now let love and hatred cease !

Half that rigour had undone me,

All that rigour gives me peace.

Possibly, however, Suckling's heroine was not indifferent, but carried
too far the advice given by a lady in the following lines, and lost her
lover by over anxiety to keep him (" The Grove," 1721, 56) :

She, that would gain a constant lover,

Must at a distance keep the slave,
Not by a look ber heart discover,

Men should but guess the thoughts we have.

Whilst they're in doubt, the flame increases,

And all attendance they will pay ;
When we're possess'd, their transport ceases,

And vows, like vapours, fleet away.

CONSTANCY.

Out upon it, I have lov'd
Three whole days together;

And am like to love three more.
If it prove fine weather.

Time shall moult away his wings

Ere he shall discover
In the whole wide world again

Such a constant lover.

But the spite on't is, no praise

Is due at all to me ;
Love with me had made no stays

Had it any been but she.

SIE JOHN SUCKLING, Obd

Had it any been but she.

And that very face,
There had been at least, ere this,

A dozen dozen in her place !

Sir Charles Sedley, in an epigram " To Celia," acknowledges that,
like Suckling, he would not be constant for an hour together, were not
the object of his love the most charming of her sex (Sedley's " Poetical
Works," 1707, 7) :

Not, Celia, that I juster am

Or better than the rest :
For I would change each hour, like them,

Were not my heart at rest.

But I am tied to very thee,

By every thouglit I have :
Thy face I only care to see.

Thy heart 1 only crave.

All that in woman is adored

In thy dear self I find,
For the whole sex can but afford

The handsome and the kind.

Why then should I seek farther store.

And still make love anew ?
When change itself can give no more

'Tis easy to be true.

The ladies to whom these poets professed such constancy, must have
been the equals of her on whose girdle Waller wrote his elegant
stanzas, the last of which forms in itself a beautiful little ei^igram ;

A narrow compass ! and yet there
Dwelt all that's good, and all that's fair:
Give me but what this ribljand bound,
Take all the rest the sun goes round.

LOVE TURNED TO HATRED.

I will not love one minute more I swear,

No not a minute ; not a sigh or tear

Thou gctt'st from mo, or one kind look agen,

Tho' tliou should'st court me to 't, and would'st begin.

I will not tliink (>{ th<* but as men do

Of debts and siiis, and then I'll curse thee too ;

564 MODEEN EPIGEAMMATISTS.

For thy sake Woman shall be now to me
Less welcome than at midnight ghosts shall be :
I'll hate so perfectly, that it shall be
Treason to love that man that loves a she ;
Nay, I will hate the very good, I swear,
That's in thy sex, because it does lie there ;
Their very virtue, grace, discourse, and wit.
And all for thee. What ! wilt thou love me yet ?

Charles Cotton translated the following from the Italian of Guarini :

Fair and false, I burn 'tis true,

But by love am no ways moved ;
Since your falsehood renders you

So unfit to be beloved ;

Tigress, then, that you no more,

May triumpli it in my smart,
It is lit you know before

That I now have cured my heart.

Henceforth then if I do mourn,

And that still I live in pain,
With another flame I burn ;

Not with love ; but with disdain.

These poets, perhaps, excused the change in their sentiments upon
the principle laid down in the following epigram by Lord Nugent
(Dodsley's " Collection of Poems," 1782, it 243):

I lov'd thee beautiful and kind.

And plighted an eternal vow ;
So alter'd are thy face and mind,

'Twere perjury to love thee now.

But in Suckling's epigram, the hatred was probably assumed to try
the strength of the maiden's affection — who loved notwithstanding.
It recalls Moore's epigram, entitled " The Surprise " :

Chloris, I swear by all I ever swore,

That from this hour I shall not love thee more. —

" What ! love no more ? Oh ! why this alter'd vow ?"

Because I cannot love thee more — than now 1

Sm WILLIAM TEMPLE — SIR CHARLES SEDLEY. 565

SIE WILLIAM TEMPLE.

Bom 1628. Died 1700.

WRITTEN WHEN IN LOVE, ON A WINDOW OPPOSITE A
STATUE OF LEDA.

(" Gentleman's Magazine," New Series, VII. 9.)

Tell me, Leda, wliich is best,
Ne'er to move, or ne'er to rest ?
Speak, that I may know thereby,
Who is happier, yon or I ?

To which Leda is supposed to have answered :

Mr. Temple, hear me tell :

Both to move and rest are well.

Who is happier, you or I ?

To that question I reply —

If you^ll stand here, and let me go.

Very shortly you will know.

On the strength of the answer obtained by Sir William Temple, a
statue in Hampton Court Gardens was questioned, with an equally
favourable result :

Q. Prithee, statue, tell me how

I can be as fair as thou ?
A. The means I speedily will name,

I got whitewashed — do the same.

Some license must be allowed to those who, like Sir William Temple,
are in love, but the practice of scratching upon windows, especially a
mail's own name, is severely and sensibly reprobated ii. the following
lines " Written in pencil on the Sash of a Window of the Roadside Inn
l*y Lodore " (" Notes and Queries," 4th S. VIII. 85) :

When I see a man's name

Scratched upon the glass, x

I know he owns a diamond

And his father owns an ass.

SIR CHARLES SKDLEY,

A dramatic writer, a wit, and a courtier, was bom about 1(J39. As
a critc he was an oracle amongst the poets of the day. His own
^(Of^t* wiis gi-ncndly lic<;iiti<>UH, but some of lijs shorter pieces are
elegant and lively. Il<' <li<d in 1701. The following cpigrums are
token from the e<litiou of liis Works printed in 1707.

566 MODERN EPIGUASIMATISTS.

CONSTANCY.

Fear not, my dear, a flame can never die,
That is once kindled by so bright an eye ;
View but thyself, and measure thence my love.
Think what a joassion such a form must move;
For though thy beauty first allur'd my sight,
Kow I consider it but as the light
That led me to the treas'ry of thy mind.
Whose inward virtue in that feature shin'd.
That knot, be confident, will ever last,
AVhich fancy tied and reason has made fast ;
So fast, that time, altho' it may disarm
Thy lovely face, my faith can never harm ;
And age, deluded, when it comes, will find
My love i emov'd, and to thy soul assign'd.

With the third line, compare an epigram " To a Mirror," from the
Spanish of Boscan, a poet born about the end of the fifteenth centnrv,
(" Poetical Register," for 1802, 213) :

Since still my passion-pleading strains

Have fail'd her heart to move,
Show, mirror ! to that lovely maid.

The charms that make me love.
Eeflect on her the thrilling beam

Of magic from her eye.
So, like Narcissus, she shall gaze.

And, self-enamour'd, die.

On the general subject, compare a stanza by Sir George Etherege,
who -was contemporary with Sedley :

Fear not, though love and beauty fail.

My reason shall my heart direct :
Your kindness now shall then prevail,

And passion turn into respect.
Celia, at worst, you'll in the end
But change a lover for a fi'iend.

Madame la Mareschale de Mirepoix, when in the winter of her days,
sent to her old admirer the Due de Nivernois, a lock of her grey hair,
accompiinied by some elegant verses. The Duke's reply, thus translated
from the French by Bland, is, says he, " one of the sweetest specimens
of gaiety and tenderness that I ever remember to have met with ".5

Talk not of snowy locks — have done —
Time runs the same, and let him run ;

SIK CHARLES SEDLEY. 5G7

To us what bodes the tyrant's rage ?
He knows not tender hearts to sever.
The little Loves are infants ever,

The Graces are of every age.

To thee, Themira, when I bow,
For ever in my spring 1 glow.

And more in age approve thee.
Could I to gay eighteen return.
With longer ardour I might bum,

But dearer could not love thee.

DISINTERESTED LOVE.

Phillis, men say that all my vows

Are to thy fortune paid ;
Alas, my heart he little knows,

Who thinks my love a trade.

Were I, of all these woods the lord,

One berry from thy hand
More real pleasure would afford

Than all my large command.

My humble love has learnt to live

On what the nicest maid.
Without a conscious blush, may give

Beneath the myrtle shade.

A stanza iu Tennyson's " Lady Clare," may be compared :

" He does not love me for my birth,

Nor for my lands so broad and fair ;
He loves me for my own true worth,
And that is well," said Lady Clare.
Alartial has an amusing epigram on a man who courted wealth
(Book I. xi ). The translation in the " Westminster Review," of April,
1853, is more amusing than strictly accurate :

Strcphon most fierce Ijesieges Cloe,
A nymph not over young nor showy.
What then can Strephon's love provoke ? —
A charming paralytic stroke.

568 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

JOHN LEWIS

Was born in 1675. He was Minister of Margate, and Vicar of Jlinster,
in Thanet. He resided at tlie former place from 1705 until Lis death
in January, 1746-7. He published many theological books and tracts,
but is chiefly known now as the author of " The History and Antiqui-
ties of the Isle of Thanet."

EPIGRAM SENT TO THE DUCHESS OF DORSET.

("Notes and Queries," 4th S. VI. 270.)

In a MS. volume in the handwriting of Jeremy Bentham, in the
possession of Mr. Bowring, the following occurs : " The Eev. Mr. Lewis,
Archdeacon of Kent and Minister of Margate, having received from the
Duchess of Dorset a card of compliments with an invitation to dinner,
it happened to be the ten of hearts, upon which Mr. Lewis returned
her Grace by way of answer the following verse " :

Your compliments, lady, I pray you forbear,
Our old English service is much, more sincere :
You sent me Ten Hearts, the tithe's only mine ;
So give me one heart, and burn t'other nine.

This is a stock epigram in the Collections of the last century, but
the name of the author is not given, nor that of the lady to whom the
lines were sent.

HANS DE VEIL.

Of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he took his degree in 1724,
and afterwards entered into holy orders. He was a son of Sir Thomas
de Veil, an active Middlesex magistrate, of whom Graves, in lines
entitled " Liberty in Danger. On the Act against Swearing, 1747,"
writes :

The loss of money, sure, if not of soul,
Must strike vice dumb, and blasphemy controul.
Sailors themselves henceforth shall grow more civil,
And dread De Veil at least, if not the devil.

ON MOLLY FOWLE, A CAMBRIDGE BEAUTY.
(" Gentleman's Magazine," LIV. 317.)

Is Molly Fovple immortal ? No.
Yes, but she is — I'll prove her so :
She's fifteen now, and was, I know,
Fifteen full fifteen years ago.

HANS DE VEIL. 569

In the obituary of the " Gentleman's IMagazine " (as above, year
1784), is the following : " At Cambridge, aged 81, Mrs. Mary Fowle,
youngest and last-surviving daugliter of Mr. Alderman F., woollen-
draper in that town. Being in her younger years long a celebrated
toast, she was distinguished in the University by the name of Immortal
Molly."

Rett, iu his "Flowers of Wit," ISU, I. 70, suggests that De Veil
may have taken the idea of the epigram from Cicero, who, when Fabia
Dolabella said she was thirty years of age, remarked, " This must be
true, for I have heard her say so many times in the coiirse of the last
twenty years."

I'here is a satirical Greek epigram by Nicarchus on an old coquette
(Jacobs III. 61, xii.), which is thus translated by Major Macgregor in
his " Greek Anthology " :

A. Niconoe once was young and fair.

B. And so say I — what time
Deucalion saw the boundless main, she then was in her prime !

A. Of matters past so long ago we nothing know nor speak —

B. But it behoves her now a tomb, and not a husband, seek.

Martial wrote a similar epigram (Book X. 39), thus effectively
rendered by " The Rev. Mr. Scott " of Trinity College, Cambridge,
who ''translated, imitated, and adapted" the epigrams of Martial
in 1773:

Why do you swear that you wore bom

In good Queen Anna's reign ?
You're out, for by your face forlorn

In James's it is plain :
Kay, here you're out : for sure your age

Does show, as one may say.
That you were form'd, and in a rage,

Of the Promethean clay.

The Frenchman Daceilly has some lines on a lady's age, translated
by Bland :

Look at me well ; then Adeline behold.
In the same week we both began to live ;
Three days between our births our parents told:
Six months ago I counted thirty-iivc —
That charming object is but twenty still.

The " charming object " was no doubt well " made up," like the
heroine of tlie following anonymous epigram (" Notes and Queries,"
4th S. IV. 408):

Lothario, ravished with a smilo
From Chloe in a public plac(!,
ICxclaimcd, in true theatric style,
" Nature nii'er formed so fair a face !"
By chance tln^ fop for once was right;
'TwuH merely paint and cuudlc-light.

570 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

DK. JAMES MOOE.

Professor of Greek in the University of Glasgow. Born 1711.

Died 1779.

IMPROMPTU ON THE VISIT OF THE BEAUTIFUL DUCHES.'f
OF ARGYLE TO VIEW THE TRANSIT OF VENUS, 1769,
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW.

(" Notes and Queries," 2nd S. IV. 101.)

They tell me Venus is in the sun,

But I say that's a story —
Venus is not in the sun.

She 's in the observatory.

This is more complimentary than poetical. Moor, perhaps, took the
idea from the far better epigram of Horace Walpole, who, on the occa-
sion of the previous transit of Venus, June 5, 1761, placed the follow-
ing lines in a telescope, which he handed to the Duchess of Grafton :

Ye simple astronomers lay by your glasses ;

The transit of Venus has proved you all asses :

Your telescopes signify nothing to scan it ;

'Tis not meant in the clouds, 'tis not meant of a planet :

The seer who f )retold mistook or deceives us,

For Venus's transit is when Grafton leaves us.

The Duchess of Argyle, on whom Moor wrote the epigram, was
Elizabeth Gunning, the younger of the two celebrated sisters, of whom
the late Mr. Jesse in " George Selwyn and his Contemporaries," 1843,
I. 163, says : " The surpassing loveliness of the Gunnings has almost
become matter of history; nor perhaps is there any instance of mere
beauty having excited so extraordinary a sensation as that produced by
the appearance in the fasliionable circles of London of these two por-
tionless Irish girls." The following epigram was written on these
lovely sister? :

Sly Cupid, perceiving our modem beaux' hearts

Were proof to the sharpest and best of his darts,

His power to maintain, the young urchin, grown cunning,

Has laid down his bow, and now conquers by Gunning.

SIB WILLIAM MEADOWS — THOMAS, LORD EKSKINE. 571

SIR WILLIAM MEADOWS,

The gallant general who so nobly seconded Lord Cornwallis at the
siege of Seringapatam.

IMPBOMPTU ON LORD CORNWALLIS BEING VOTED A
PLUM AFTER THE CONQUEST OF SERINGAPATAM,
WHILE SIR WILLIAM MEADOWS WAS ONLY MADE FREE
OF THE CITY BY THE GROCERS' COMPANY.

(" Memoir of Charles Mayne Young," by J. C. Young, 1871, I. 330.)

From Leadenhall the reasons (raisins) come

AVhy Grocers made me free :
To you, my Lord, they vote a plum,

But say a, fig for me.

The epigram is curious from the pun upon reasons and raisins, show-
ing that the pronunciation of the latter word like the former was allow-
able in that day, though very uncommon now, notwithstanding that
Walker in his " Pronouncing Dictionary " upholds it, alleging a pun
of Shakespeare as his authority (" King Henry IV. Part I." Act II.
Sc. 4), who makes Falstaft' say: "Give you a reason on com]»id.sion !
If reasons were as plenty as blackberries I would give no man a reason
upon compulsion, I." It is doubtful, however, whether any pun is
intended.

THOMAS, LORD BRSKINE.

Bom 1748. Died 1823.

(In addition to epigrams at page 4G3.)

IMPROMPTU ON SEEING ONE OF THE CROYDON BELLES
IN THE COURT AT KINGSTON, DURING THE ASSIZES.

("Select Epigrams," 1797, II. 135.)

Whilst petty offences and felonies smart.

Is there no jiirisdiction for stealing a heart?

You. my fair one, will cry, "Laws and Court I defy you!"

Concludiiig no peers can be summon'd to try ytiu.

But tliink ricjt, fair Shorey, this plea will secure you,

Since the Muses and Graces will just make a jury.

To the Author of tlio above.

Sir, tlie lady must sniile, and your menace deride,
For the jury you mention are uU on her bide.

572 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

The lines are given anonymously in " Select Epigrams," but are
known to have come from the pen of Lord Ertkine, when practising aa
a barrister.

Hookham Frere severely criticised the epigram. Moore in his Diary
writes (Lord Russell's " Memoirs, &c., of Moore," 1853-6, V. 102) : " Frere
rather agreeable. . . . Talked a good deal about Lord Erskine ; said
how odious he thought those verses of his, ' The Muses and Graces
will just make a jury,' when he first heard them; introducing law
terras into love verses. This, however, rather hypercritical."

The lady upon whom the lines were written seems to have been an
acknowledged beauty of the day. In " Select Epigrams," II. 92, there
is another epigram complimentary to her :

If found among thieves, an unfortunate stranger
May oft bring himself into imminent danger ;
But if taken with Shorey, you've made her your wife,
'Tis an hundred to one you're transported for life.

IMPROMPTU ON EETUBNING A PENCIL LENT BY
"MONK" LEWIS.

(" Life and Correspondence of M. G. Lewis," 1839, II. 1.)

Your pencil I send you with thanks for the loan ;

Yet writing for fame now and then.
My wants I must still be content to bemoan,

Unless I could borrow your pen !

This recalls the happy compliment which Landor paid to Hood :

Jealous, I own it, I was once.
That wickedness I here renounce.
I tried at wit ... it woidd not do . . .
At tenderness . . . that fail'd me too,
Before me on each path there stood
The witty and the tender Hood.

The acknowledgment by one writer of the superiority in any respect
of another, was commented on by Martial in a fine epigram on friend-
ship in literary fame (Book VIII. 18), the last few lines of which were
translated and quoted by Bishop Jeremy Taylor :

Land, gold, and tr'fies many give or lend,
But he tiiat stoops in fame is a rare friend.
In friendship's orb thou art the brightest star:
Before thy fame mine thou preferrest far.

573

ON A TEDIOUS COUXSEL WHO DETAINED HIM ON THE
WOOLSACK BEYOND THE HOVE AT WHICH HE WAS
ENGAGED TO A TURTLE DINNER IN THE CITY.

(Lord Campbell's " Lives of the Lord Chancellors," VI. 659.)

Oh that thy cursed balderdash
Were swiftly changed to callipash !
Thy bands so stiff and snug tuupee
Corrected were to callipee ;
That since I can nor dine nor sup,
1 might arise and eat thee up.

Being observed busily writing, the Chancellor was supposed to be
taking a note of the cause, but Lord Holland, who caught sight of his
note-book, found that it contained the above lines. The " Quarterly
Keview" for July, 1874, p. 119, speaks of them as " among the best of
his recorded verses."

JOHN SCOTT, EARL OF ELDON.

Lord ChanceUor. Bom 1751. Died 1838.

ON FOUR GIRLS PLAYING AT SEE-SAW.

(Lord Campbell's " Lives of the Lord Chancellors," 1847, NIL 693.)

'• On some occasion, when going to call on IVIr. Caleraft, who resided
in the neighbourhood of Encombe, he (Lord Eldon) saw, on passing
through the grounds, two daughters of his fri£nd and two other girls
playing at ' see-saw ' — two at each end of an oak tree, which had been
cut rlown "

In days of yore, as Eoman poets tell,

One Venus lov'd in mjTtle groves to dwell :

In modern days no less than four agree

To consecrate to fame our oaken tree —

Blest tree ! the monarch shelter'd by thy arms !

The goddess from thy boughs displays her charms.

This epigram is interesting aa one of the very few specimens of I^rd
Eldon's mabc.

574 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

EICHAED BEINSLEY SHEEIDAN.

Bom 1751. Died 1816.

ON THE RECEIPT TAX DEVISED FOB THE FIBST TIME
IN 1783 BY MR. FOX AND LOBD JOHN CAVENDISH.

(Lord Campbell's " Lives of the Chief Justices," 1849, IL 535.)

Said Charles, " Let us a tax devise

That will not fall on me ;"
" Then tax Eeceipts," Lord John replies,

" For those you never see."

Lord Campbell says : " The epigram was told me many years ago by
an old lawyer, who pretended that he had made it on this occasion, to
celebrate Fox's extravagance and poverty."

Mr. Timbs in his " Century of Anecdotes," 18G4, 1. 179, gives the
epigram with slight variations, " Lord North " being substituted for
" Lord John " ; aud states that it was written by Sheridan.

Fox, like most other public men, was satirized by the wits of the
day. The following anonymous epigram refers to the same period as
the one above, when Fox was one of the Secretaries of State in the
Duke of Portland's administration, and brought in his famous East
India Bill, which wrecked the government. (" New Foundling Hos-
pital for Wit," 1784, IV. 98):

When Samson, full of wrath, devis'd

Vengeance on false Philistia's race,
Three hundred foxes scarce suffic'd

To blaze destruction o'er the place.
Three hundred, says his Grace, and smiles :

Alas ! in my administration
One single Fox alone had wiles

Sufficient to destroy a nation.

Englishmen seldom show much discontent with regard to taxes, but
some have excited great displeasure. The Hearth Tax, cummonly
known as Chimney Money, established in the reign of Charles II., and
repealed in 1689, was one of the most unpopular bm-dens ever laid
upon the people. It was not only the subject of ballads, but even
figured on tomb-stones, as is shown by the following curious epitaph
in Folkestone churchyard, on Rtbecta Rogers, who died in 1688.
("Notes and Queries," 4th S. VII. 112) :

A house she hath ; it's made of such good fashion,
The tenant ne'er shall pay for reparation ;
Nor will her landlord ever raise her rent,
Or turn her out of doors for non-payment.
From chimney money too this cell is free.
To such a house who would not tenant be ?

RICHAED BBINSLEY SHERIDAN. OiO

Samuel Wesley has an epigram on the heavy taxes imposed by Sir
Robert Walpole (Wesley's " Poems," 18G2, 632) :

F<nir shillings in the pound we see,

And well may rest contented,
Since war — Bob swore't should never be —

Is happily prevented.
But he, now absolute become,

May plunder every penny ;
Then blame him not for taking some,

But thank for leaving any.

The epigram refers to the year 1737, when the nation was anxious
for war with Spain, which Walpole opposed, h-st the necessary imposi-
tion of fresh taxes should fill up the measure of popular resentment
against him.

Some French epigrams furnish specimens of bitter invective against
financiers of France, and not without just cause. The Abbe' Ten(;iu
converted the Scotchman Law to the Roman Catholic faith, in order to
qualify him for undertaking the financial plans of the pious Regent
Orleans. When France was prostrated by his bankruptcy, and he had
fied from public indignation, the Abbe' was attacked in an epigram,
thus translated from the French (" Notes aud Queries," 2nd S. VI.
525) :

Thou Priest of too seraphic zeal.

Plague on thy power to convince.
Who teaching Law at Mass to kneel,
Made France do penance ever since.

When Law died in 1729, a mock epitaph appeared, thus translated
from the French (Ibid) :

Here lies a Scot of reputation.

Adept unmatched in calculation ;

Whose algebraical equation

Has to tiie " poor house" brought the nation.

Davenport translated a French epitaph on Colbert, minister of
Lf.uia XIV. ("Poetical Register" for 1806-7, 41):

Hero lies the father of taxation :
May Heaven, his faults forgiving.
Grant him repose; wliicli he, while living.

Would never grant the nation.

These epigrams on taxes may be concluded with one found in
"Elegant Extracts," entitled "Nothing New under the Sun":

There's notliing new beneath tlie sun.
So auf^ieiit wits' dei'lsions run :

IJul wit no inatch for jX)ets is,
For I know tilings, and so do you,
Tho' everlasting, over new !

What tliink you. Sirs, of taxes?

676 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

OJV THE ELECTION OF HAYDN INSTEAD OF SHERIDAN
TO THE FRENCH INSTITUTE.

(Moore's " Life of Sheridan," 1825, 592.)

The wise decision all admire ;

'Twas just beyond dispute —
Sound taste ! which, to Apollo's lyre,

Preferr'd — a German flute.

The epigram was anonymous, and Moore remarks : " The manner in
which he avails himself of his anonymous character to speak of his
own claims to distinction, is, it must be owned, less remarkable for
modesty than for truth. But Vanity, thus in masquerade, may be
allowed some little license."

An amusing instance of a poet speaking of his own claims to dis-
tinction is recorded in Lockhavt's " Life of Sir Walter Scott." When
Sir Walter was at Limerick, a brother poet, by name O'Kelly, a scare-
crow figure, was ushered in, who must needs pay his personal respects
to the author of " Marmion " ; and who had produced on the occasion
this modest parody of Dryden's famous epigram :

Three poets, of three different nations bom,
The United Kingdom in this age adorn ;
Byron of England, Scott of Scotia's blood,
And Erin's pride— O'Kelly, great and good.

ON WALTZING.
(" Gentleman's Magazine," LXXXI. Part IL 62.)

How Arts improve in this aspiring age !
Peers mount the box and horses tread the stage ;
While waltzing females, with unblushing face.
Disdain to dance but in a man's embrace !
How Arts improve when Modesty is dead,
And Sense and Taste are, like our Bullion, fled !

This appeared in the " Morning Chronicle" of May 3, 1811, when,
on account of the war, the small amount of bullion in the country pro-
duced serious inconvenience.

The fashionable rage for waltzing seems to have given great oifence
„o Slieridan. In " Sheridaniana " some severe verses by him are given
— part of a longer piece :

With tranquil step, and timid downcast glance,

Behold the well-pair'd couple now advance.

In such sweet posture our first parents mov'd

While, hand in hand, through Eden's bowers they rov'd,

Ere yet the devil, with promise foul and false,

Turu'd their poor heads and taught them how to waltz.

577

JOSEPH JEKYLL

Was flescended from Sir Joseph Jekyll, Master of the EoUs in the
reign of George I. He was born in 1752, educated at Westminster and
Christ Cliurch, called to the Bar in 1775, returned to Parliament for
Calne in the popular interest in 1787, and appointed Solicitor-General
to the Prince of Wales in 1805. He died in 1837. His reputation was
chiefly formed by his ready talent in epigram, repartee, and bon-mots.

TEE WALGHEREN EXPEDITION.
(Lord Dalling's " Life of Viscount Pahnerston," 1870, I. 117.)

Lord Chatham with his sword undrawn,

Stood waiting for Sir Eichard Strachan ;

Sir Kichard, eager to get at 'em,

Stood waiting — but for what ? — Lord Chatham !

There are various readings of this epigram. The above may be con-
sidered the correct one, for it is given in a letter from Lord Palmerstou
to his sister, dated February 27, 1810, in which he says : " Did you see
the following epigram the other day in the ' Chronicle ' ? If you did
not it is a pity you should miss it, and I send it to you ; it is bv
Jekyll."

Lord Chatham, son of the great Earl, who had the chief command
in the disastrous Walcheren expedition, was totally destitute of the
activity and decision required; while Sir Eichard Strachan, wlio com-
manded the naval force, was competent, but powerless to act with any
effect while the sword of the Earl remained " undrawn."

Mr. Cox, in his "Recollections of Oxford," ]8tJ8, 62, gives an epi-
giam by a member of that university, " A Dialogue between Lord
Chatham and a Friend " :

Friend. " Wtien sent fresh wreaths on Flushing's shores to reap.
What didst thou do, illustrious Chatham ?"

Chatham. " Sleep."

Friend. "To man fatigued with war repose is Bweet,
But when awake, didst thou do nothing ?"

aiatham. " Eat !"

The idea of the following epigram, " The Impatient Generals," may
po.ssibly have been taken from Jekyll's, as it appeared in the " Morn-
in" Chronicle" during the same year. ("Spirit of the Public
Journals," XV. HO):

Says Wellington brave to Massona the great,

" Come Oil ! — quite impatient fo iij^ht you — -I wait."

Says MiiHsena the great to brave Wellington,

" I wait ! — quite impatient to fight you— Come on !"

This recalls another epigram on English and French generals. " On
M lirat's summons to Sir John Stuurt to surrender Sicily, in order U>

578 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

spare the effusion of blood " (" Gentleman's Magazine," LXXX.
Part II. 646) :

Says Murat to Stuart, " Of blood I'm so tender,

I beg, without fighting, your force you'll surrender."

Says the hero of Maida to Murat—" Excuse me ;

And much your fine feelings amaze and amuse me.

Here determin'd we stand; you may come when you will.

Every drop in our veins we are ready to spill."

Aside mutter'd Murat, " Parbleu ! when I sent,

'Twas my own blood to spare, and not yours, that I meant."

HANDED AT EXETER ASSIZES TO SERJEANT (AFTER-
WARDS BARON) GARRO W, WHO TRIED TO ELICIT FROM
AN OLD WOMAN THAT A TENDER HAD BEEN MADE FOR
SOME PREMISES IN DISPUTE.

("Notes and Queries," 2nd S. II. 168, 238.)

Garrow forbear ! that tough old jade
Can never prove a tender maid.

Another punning epigram by JekyU is on the purple robes of the
Serjeants. (" Notes and Queries," 3rd S. X. 5.) :

The Serjeants are a grateful race.
Their robes and speeches show it ;

Their purple robes do come from Tyre,
Their arguments go to it.

The following, " A Legal Quibble," is in Jekyll's style, but is not
ascribed to him. (" Spirit of the Public Journals," 1815, XVIII. 73.
From the " Morning Chronicle" of February 12, 1814):

Two learned Serjeants in the law.
For a rich prize together draw ;
To Serjeant Shepherd when it fell,
Best, hiding his chagrin, cried " Well ;"
While lucky Shepherd, in a jest.
Tells him, "" Whatever is, is Best."

In a cause at the Appleby Assizes, Jekyll was retained for the defen-
dant, and Serjeant Raine for the plaintiff — a Mr. Hay. On hearing
who was his opponent, Jekyll said, " I am glad to hear it, for rain
never did hay any good." The joke was hitched into rhyme (" Notes
and Queries," 4th S. VI. 364) :

Serjeant Eaine was one day

The counsel for Hay,
In a cause that for Appleby stood.

Quoth Jekyll the wit,

" I have never heard yet
Of the rain that did hay any good 1"

JOSEI'H JEKYLL. 5/ 'J

In connection with Jekyll's wit, a few general epigrams on lawyers
may be given.

A very amusing epigram by the Greek Nicaichus (Jacob-i III. QQ^
xxxiii.) is thus translated by the Rev. G. C. Swayne in Dr. Welleslev'-s
" Anthologia Polyglotta " :

Defendant and plaintiff were deaf as a post,
And the judge in their cause was deafer almost ;
The plaintift', he sued for a five-montlis' rent ;
The defendant thought something different meant,
And answer'd, " By night I did grind the corn ;"
And the judge, he decided with anger and scorn,
" Tlie woman 's the mother of both — why then,
Maintain her between you, undatiful men."

Martial has an epigram on the long speeches of certain pleaders
(Book VI. 35. Translated by Elphiuston):

Seven glasses, Cecilian, thou louilly didst crave ;

Seven glasses the judge, full reluctantly, gave.

Still thou bawl'st, and bawl'st on ; and as ne'er to bawl off,

Tepid water in bumpers supine dost thou quaff.

That thy voice and thy thirst at a time thou niay'st slake.

We entreat from the glass of old Ghronos thou take.

The glasses here mentioned were the clepsydrsc, cylindric vessels
used in the law courts for measuring time by the fall of a certain quan-
tity of water. The time occupied in emptying each clepsydra was an
hour, and the number of hours allowed to an advocate was tktermincd
by the judge. Martial proposes that tedious pleaders, instead of drink-
ing from ordinary vessels, should drain the time-glass itself, and thus
at once quench their thirst and hasten the close of their orations.

Borbonius has a satirical epigram on easily earning a fee. The
translation is by Merivale :

A thief once consulted a lawyer of note,
How best to ensure from the halter his throat.
Said the sage, as he pocketed gravely his fee,
" Kun away if you can, and perhaps you'll be free."

Boileau wrote a Latin epigram, " On a Young Lawyer, the son of a
Country Bea-lle" (Poesies Latines). The translation is in " Tlie Works
uf Monsieur Boileau. Made English by several liaiids," 1712, II. 187 :

While the fierce beadle's brat does loudly bawl,
How silent are the mob ! how still the hall !
Yet think not that his rhr-.ton'ck 's rever'd.
The Hon is liarmless, but iha father 's feared.

The fdlowing, " The Lawyer and Client," is in "Select Epigrams,"
1797, IL 'J7:

Two lawyers when a knotty case was o'er,
Shook hands, and were as good friends as before.

580 MODERN EPIGEAMMATI8TS.

" Say," cries the losing client, " how came yaw
To be such friends, who were such foes just naw ?"
" Thou fool ! " one answers, " Lawyers, tho' so keen,
Like shears, ne'er cut themselves, but what's between."

Lawyers in this show some common sense for their own interests, but
that common sense can be discovered in the law itself, a Lancashire
lawyer denies in the following epigram (" Notes and Queries," 4th S.
II. 605) :

Jack says that of law, common sense is the base ;

And, doubtless, in this he is right :
Though certain am I, that in many a case

The foundation is quite out of sight.

Tliough the common sense of the law be out of sight, it is satisfac-
tory to know that light is sometimes thrown upon it. These epigrams
on lawyers cannot therefore be better concluded than by one by Lord
Erskine, who, before his elevation to the Woolsack, daily practised
before Mr. Justice Ashurst, on whose long, lanky visage he penned the
following couplet. (Lord Campbell's " Lives of the Lord Chancellors,"
1847, vi.) :

Judge Ashurst, with his lantern jaws.

Throws light upon the English laws.

In his " Lives of the Chief Justices " (Life of Lord Kenyon), Lord
Campbell makes Mr. Justice Grose, instead of Mr. Justice Ashurst,
the hero of the epigram.

DK. WILLIAM LORT MANSEL,

Born about 1752. Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge ; became
Public Orator of that University ; in 1798 appointed Master of Trinity ;
and in 1808 consecrated Bishop of Bristol. He was an elegant scholar,
a man of much learning, and celebrated for his wit. He died in
1820.

ON DR. DOUGLAS' MARRIAGE WITH MISS MAINWARING.

(Professor Pryme's " Autobiographic Recollections," 1870, 99).

S. Paul has declared that persons, though twain,

In marriage united one fle.sh shall remain :

But had he been by when, like Pharaoh's kine pairing,

Dr. Douglas of Bene't espoused Miss Mainwaring,

The Apostle no doubt would have altered his tone,

And said these " two splinters shall make but one bone."

Dr. Philip Douglas was Master of Corpus Christi formerly called
Bene't, College, from 1795 to 1822.

DK. WILLIAM LOKT MAXSEL. 581-

Professor Pryme gives also an epigram by the Rev. James Chartres
of King's College, Cambridge, " On the marriage of Dr. Webb with
Miss Gould," which was written in Latin as well as English (" Recol-
lections," 277) :

Single no more, a double Webb behold :
Hymen embroidered it with Virgin Gould.

Dr. William Webb was Master of Clare College, formerly Clare Hall,
from 1815 to 1856

Bishop Hansel's epigram may be illustrated by a Greek one by
Argentarius, thus freely translated in Bland's " Collections from the
Greek Anthology " (Jacobs II. 244, xi.) :

Dear Lyce, thou art woad'rous thin,
And I'm a bag of bone and skin ;

Yet thou'rt to me a Venus !
Fat lovers have not half our bliss.
Our very bouls each other kiss.

Fur there's no flesh between us.

An epigram by Graves, " On a Droll Couple," is in " Euphrosyne,"
1783, I. 268 :

The wife so plump, thyself so thin ;
She's flesh and blood, thou bone and skin.

Epigrams which play upon the names of the bride and bridegroom
nre numerous, but few are so elegant as Mr. Chartres'. The following,
•'Sent to the Rev. Mr. Grylls, Rector of Bodmin, on hearing hnn
publisli the Banns of Marriage between Job Wall and Mary Best,
November 24th, 18GG," is by Mr. Hicks, and is found in " A Memoir of
Charles Mayne Young," 1871, II. 303 :

Job, wanting a partner, thought he'd be blest.

If, of all womankind, he selected the Best ;

For, said Ije, of all evils tliat compass the globe,

A bad wife would most try the patience of Job.

The Best, then, he chose, and made bone of his bone.

Though 'twas clear to his friends she'd be Best left alone ;

For, though Best of her sex, she's the weakest of all.

If 'tis true that the weakest must go to the Wall.

ON SPRAY, A BAD SINGING MAN IN TRINITY COLLEGE
CHAPEL, CAMBRIDGE.

(Professor Pryrae's " Autobiographic Recollections," 1870, 278.)

"A Hiiip;inf^-nian and yet not ninj^!

You ill icijnitc your psitron's l)oiinty."
" ExcuKo mo, you niiistako the thing :

My voice in in another county !"

582 MODERN EPIGEAMMATISTS.

Spray was appointed by Bishop Hinchliffe, then fhe Master ol
Trinity. The explanation is, that he had been recommended by the
old Lord Sandwich for the Choristers' place, in return for a vote for the
county or borough of Huntingdon.

Ecclesiastical appointments upon the " lucus a non lucendo " prin-
ciple have been common at all times. The Trinity chorister who could
not sing, recalls an epigram by Sir Thomas More. The author of
"Fasciculus," an eleorant book, printed for private circulation in 1869,
will perhaps not object to his translation being used :

So ill thou chantest, one might almost deem
Tbee destined as the lord of some rich see ;

So well thou reade.-t, one can never dream
Aught better than thou art that thou wilt be.

Chanting and reading well, in simple troth.

If thou woulds't thrive i' the Church, eschew them both.

This thriving by demerit recalls " An Author's Epitaph. Written
by Himself," in Nicholas Amhurst's "Terrse Filius" 1726, 1. 142:

Here lies the author of the " Apparition,"
Who died. God wot, but in a poor condition :
If, reader, you would shun his fate.
Nor write, nor preach for Church or State ;
Be dull, exceeding dull, and you'll be great.

The " Apparition," a poem occasioned by one of the publications of
the deistical writer, Matthew Tindal, was by Dr. Evans of St. John's
College, Oxford, who was commonly called " Dr. Evans, the Epigi'am-
matist." The poem, which is full of clever satire, is printed in Nichols'
" Select Collection of Poems." 1780, III. 118.

Sir Thomas More's epigram recalls also one written in a copy of
Garrick's pamphlet, " Directions how to read Prayers with proper
Emphasis " (" Gentleman's Magazine, LXXIX. Part I. 160):

Dumb dogs that knew not how to bark,
The Priests were term'd in Israel's day :

But now they catch Devotion's spark.
When Flayers teach them how to pray.

Herrick has an epigram on a parson who had voice on six days,
but, like Mansel's Smging-Man, had none for his clerical duty. It is
probably a fair representation of the hfe of many of the country clergy
tf his day :

Old Parson Beanes hunts six days of the week,
And on the seaventh, he has his notes to seek.
Six (layes he hollows so much breath av.-ay.
That on tlve seaventh he can nor preach nor pray.

The hunting clergy were dying out, when Bishop Blomfield's
"Charge " was put into the form of an epigram, ascribed to that witty
priest, Sydney Smith, which, however, says Mr. Timbs, he " solemnly

DB. WILLIAM LORT MANSEL- 583

declared he did not write." (Timbs' " Century of Anecdote, from
1760 to 1S60," 1864, II. 188) :

Hunt not, fish not, shoot not,

Dance not, fiddle not, flute not ;

Be sure you have nothing to do with the Whigs,

But stay at home and feed your pig3 :

And above all I make it my particular desire.

That at least once a week you dine with the squire.

As God's glory was not considered in the appointment of the Singing-
Mcin to Trinity College Chapel, so has it very often been neglected in
appointments to the highest ecclesiastical offices. This is reprobated in
a very severe epigram in the " Festoon," 1767, 35, and the " Poetical
Farrago," 1794, II. 90, " On a Prelate's going out of Church to wait on
the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland." It was printed anonymously, but is
now known to be from the pen of Dean Swift :

Lord Pam in the church (could you think it?) kneel'd down;

\Vlien, told that the Duke was just come to town,

His station despising, unaw'd by the place,

He flies from his God to attend on his Grace :

To the court it was fitter to pay his devotion.

Since God had no share in his lordship's promotion.

The prelate was Dr. Josiah Hort, Bishop of Kilmore and afterwards
Archbishop of Tuam. He owed his promotion to his zeal and services
in support of the Hanover succession. In Swift's Works there is a
humorous paper by him, entitled, " A New Proposal for the better regu-
lation and improvement of Quadrille." It is said that the bookseller
was imprisoned for the original publication of this, and that Swift's
wrath was excited, and the epigram written, in consequence of the
Bishop not indemnifying the printer.

An epigram on a prelate of very diflTcrent character, is given by
Horace Walpole in his "Letters to Sir Horace Mann," 1833,11.43,
"On Bishop Berkeley's Tar- Water." Walpole's dictum is, " very good
epigram :"

Who dare deride what pious Cloyne has done ?
The Church shall rise and vindicate her son ;
She tills us all her Mislmifs shepherds an^ —
And shepherds h<al their rotten shet-p with tar.

Another epigram in reference to a bishop may be given. It is by
Domitius Cuiderinus, an Italian of considerable literary eminence, born
ill 144r>. The BuVjjtct is "the e.xcessive devotion, maiiifcsted es|iecinlly
by the Roman lollies of those days, at tlie funeral ccrciiionii s of a
supnnii- jiontifl"." The trarishition from the I^atin isby W. Parr (Jrcswi 1!
(GresweU's " Memoirs ol Angelus I'olitiaiius, &c.," 1H05, 84):

AH.sembled round the breathless pontiff's bier,
1 haw, as throtig'd inch sex tlic kiss to share.
His pallid <iie< ks by virgin iips currsa'd,
BenselesB what rosy lips the kiss impress'd;

58 i MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Each future pontiff, might I dare advise,
Living, would antedate his obsequies.

To come again to modern times, a clever epigram may be quoted
from the "Church Times-" of August 7,1874, entitled "An Omen."
Archbit^hops Tait and Thompson had, a few days before, nominated
Lord Penzance, formerly judge of the Divorce Court, to be the judge
of tlie new court established by the Public Worship Regulation Act :

Penzance, by Tliompson named and Tait,
To bind together Church and State

With Worsliip Regulation;
Accustomed only to divorce.
Will bring about in speedy course,

Judicial Separation.

RICHARD rOLWHELE,

A Cornish clergyman, born at Truro in 1759. He published several
poetical and historical works. He died in 1838. The following
epigrams are taken from his " Reminiscences in Prose and Verse," in
three volumes, published in 1836.

ON HIS WIFE PLACING HIS PORTRAIT BY OLD OP IE
UNDER HER OWN PORTRAIT BY YOUNG OP IE.

" The husband subject to his wife,
His portrait shows him to the life ;

I thought he would knock under .'"
Determin'd to elude the stricture,
Above her straight he placed his picture.

When cried the wicked wit, "No wonder!
Whisk 'd from the bottom to the top,
The poor man is knocked up !"

THE GOUT.

When, sated with rich calipee,
I had my claret quaft'd, good me !

And scoop'd the fragrant melon ;
Lo! ghastlier than he whilom was,
Gout, grinning on the ruby glass,

Handcuff'd me like a felon !

EICHAUD POLWHELE. 585

i'olwbele wrote another epigram on the same subject :

"Why thus incontinently groan ?

His entrails almost eaten out,
The Spartan uttered not a moan. —

The Spartan — oh, had not the gout !

But the Greeks were certainly subject to the gout, as various epi-
grams show; for instance, this by Hedyhis (Jacobs I. 235, x. Trans-
lated by Graves) :

Of Love and Bacchus nerve-relaxing.

Too frequently, no doubt,
Is born that nei-ve-relaxing offspring.

The toe-tormenting Gout.

Claret and melon and other good things are commonly supposed to l>e
the parent of gout, but it is satisfactory to know that a nobkr origin is
sometimes assigned to it. The following lines occur in a poetical epistle
from Dr. Waldren (a Devonshire physician) to Dr. Chetwood. (Nichols'
'• Select Collection of Poems,' 1780, III. 178) :

The learned Sydenham does not doubt
But profound thought will bring the gout,
And that with back on couch we lie
Because our reason's soar'd too high ;
As cannons, when they mount vast pitches,
Are tumbled back upon thcLr breeches.

Those who have once experienced the malady.

That does oft in privy council wait,
Guarding from drowsy sleep the eyes of state ;
And that upon the bench is mounted high.
Warning the judges how they tread awry,

are not very likely to feign it ; but Martiiil has an amusing epigram to
warn his readers against the danger of doing so (Book VII. 39,
Translated by Hay) :

His lordship's mornings were in hurry spent.
What with a levee, news, and compliment;
That his griod lordship was quite wearied out ;
And for his e;ise gave out he liad the gout.
'Tis fit a man of honour should say true :
To show he did, what did his lordship do?
His f'lot, not founder'd, he in flannels bound ;
Limp'd on a crutch; nor touch'd with toi- the ground.
What may not man with can; and art obtain 1
By feigning, long his lordship did not feigu.

586 MODERN EPIGKAMMATISTS.

THOMAS PARK,

Born in 1759, was brought up as an engraver, but made literature
his study. He was an accomplished scholar in old Englisli poetry and
biography, and was himself a poet. He edited Walpole's " Catalogiu;
of Royal and Noble Authors," and other valuable books. For many
years he resided at Hampstead, where he took an active interest in the
religious and charitable societies of the parish, and where he died in
November, ISSi.

CBESCIT AMOR NUMMI, QUANTUM IPSA PECUNIA

CBESCIT.

(Park's " Sonnets and other Small Poems," 1797, 81.)

Ten thousand pounds Avarus iiad before
His father died, and left him twenty more.
Till then a roll and egg he could allow.
But eggs grow dear, a roll must dine him now.

Avarus was like the miser commemorated by Lucillius (Jacobs III.

iiO, ci. Translated by Merivale) :

A rich man's purse, a poor man's soul is thine,
Starving thy body, that thy heirs may dine.

He had better have taken the advice of Horace (Satires I. I. 92.
Translated by Francis) :

Yet somewhere should your views of lucre cease,
Nor let your fears of poverty increase
As does your wealth.

Misers have at all times been a fertile subject of epigrammatic wit.
An epigram by Nicarchus (Jacobs IH. 63, xviii.) is thus translated by
Major Macgregor :

The stingy wretch had hang'd himself to-day.
But for the halter tliat he grudg'd to pay:
He thought its cost at sixpence all too high.
Hoping perchance a cheaper death to die.
Such of the dying miser the sad end,
He could not part in peace — so much to spend.

The first two lines of an epigram by the same author (Jacobs III.
63, xix.) are amusing, and are thus translated in " Notes and Queries,"
5th S. 1.226:

So Pheidon weeps, poor miser, —

Not because death is near ;
But because he bought a cofBn,

And paid for it too dear.

I THOMAS PARK. 587

Similarly, Nicholas Borboniiis ■writes ("DelitisB Delitiarum," 41.
Translated by James Wright) :

Dying Avarus weeps, not to lament

His death, but coin in cake and coflBn spent.

Bland imitates this epitaph from the French of Maynard :

Here lies a miser, who, beside

Ten hundred other niggard shifts,

On New Year's Eve expressly died
For fear of making New Year's gifts.

And Merivale translates the following epigram from the Latin :

At church Harpax heard that to trample on riches.
Is the holiest thing that a Christian can do ;

So he forthwith took out his bank-notes from his breeches,
And sew'd them all up in the sole of his shoe.

In " Notes and Queries," 4th S. VIII. 446, two epigrams are given
on Lord Chancellor Eldon's parsimony, entitled, " Inquests Extraor-
dinary " :

Died suddenly — surprised at such a rarity !

Verdict^Saw Eldou do a little bit of charity.

Found dead, a rat — no case could sure be harder :
Verdict — Confined a week in Eldon's larder.

MORAL ARITHMETIC.
(Park's " Sonnets and other Small Poems," 1797, 86.)

Flam to my face is oft too kind.

He over-rates both worth and talents ;

But then he never fails, I find.

When we're apart — to strike the balance.

Ben Jonson has a quaint distich "To One who Flattered and
Slandered Him" (Ep. 61):

Thy praise or dispraise is to me alike :

One doth not stroke me, nor the other strike.

Joeiab Relph has the following :

No, Varus hates a tiling that's base ;

1 own, indeed, lie's got a knack
Of lliitt'ring [KOple to their face,

iJut scorns to do't behind their back.

Claude Mermet, Ixjrn about IfiSO, wrote an amuaing French epigriiir
on Friends, which has been tlius trunslated :

Friends are like melons. Shall I tell you why ?
To find one good you muat a hundred try.

588 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

For too many are like the parasite desciibed in an epiufram by Mar-
tial (Book IX. 15), thus translated by Thomas May (May's " Selected
Epigrams of Martial, Englished," 1629) :

Think'st thou his friendship ever faithful proves,
Whom first thy table purchas'd '? No, he loves
Thy oysters, mullets, boars, sows' paps, not thee :
If I could feast him so, he would love me.

Landor has a fine epigram on the outward fairness and inward false-
ness of pretended friends :

How calm, how bland, appears the moon above us !
Surely there dwell the Spirits who most love us.
So tliink we, and gaze on ; the well-pois'd glass
Suddenly bids the sweet illusion pass.
And tells us, bright as may be this outside,
Within are gulphs and desolation wide.
Craters extinct and barren rocks around,
And darkest depths no plummet-line could sound ;
Then on the heart these jarring words descend . . .
Man ! hast thou never found such in a friend ?

A CONCEIT.
(Park's " Nugse Modernss," 1818, 76.)

Ned calls his wife his counter-part,

With truth as well as whim ;
Since every impulse of her heart

Runs counter still to him.

An amusing epigram on husbands and wives running counter, is given
by Mark Lemon in his " Jest Book," 1864, 12. Lady Holland, at one
of her dinner parties, observed in reference to Crockford's Club, then
forming, that the female passion for diamonds was less ruinous than
the rage for play among men. " In short, you think," said Eogera,
" that clubs are worse than diamonds." Upon this, Sydney Smith wrote
the following impromptu on a playing-card :

Thoughtless that " all that's brightest fades,"
Unmindful of that Knave of Spades,

The sexton and his subs :
How foolishly we play our parts !
Our wives ou diamonds set their hearts,

We set our hearts on clubs !

589

DR. EDWAED WALSH

Was born at Waterford, but the date is uncertain. He graduated
M.D. at Edinburgh, and commenced his professional career as physician
to a West India packet. He was next appointed surgeon of a regiment,
and serred during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. He aft^^rwards went with
the Baltic fleet to Copeuliagen, and subsequently was in the Peninsula
and at Waterloo. He died in 1832. He published "Bagatelles or
Poetical Sketches " in 1793.

A RHYMING LOVER.

A frigid rhymer, tho' an ardent lover,
The reason readily thou may'st discover
That Phillis with tby passion is not pleas'd —
Thy verse puts out the spark thy love had rais'd.

The following anonymous epigram is on the same subject :
A swain deep in love, and suitor to Nell,
His prentice hand tried in verse to the belle :
She'd readily sworn to him she would cling,
But false were his rhymes — there ne'er was a ring.

ON HIMSELF. FROM THE FRENCH OF LA FONTAINE.

His accounts honest John hath now settled with Fate,
And he finds — that just nothing remains ;

All he got in this world he drank and he ate,
Thus balancing losses and gains.

Into twro equal portions his time he divided.
Well knowing man's share was but small

In sleeping the one imperceptibly glided,
And one — doing nothing at all.

This is a picture of a man who did not even pretend to work. Tiio
next epigram is a pirture of the " Idly Busy" ('' Gentlema;i's Maga-
zine," XC. Part II. 448) :

'Till seven at night he cannot dine.

Nor eat his meat nor drink hi.s wine ;

'Twould disarrange liLj active powers.

And Waste some of his precious hours.

And what is his employment, say ?

He docs just nothing all the day.
This recaUfl Martial's epigram "To Attains " (Book II. 7), thu<
tmublated by Sir Charles Elton :

Fine lectures Attaius rehearflcs.

Pleads finely, writes tiuu tales and verses ;

590 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Fine epigrams, fine fdvcea, vie
With grammar and astrology ;
He finely sings, and dances finely;
Plays tennis ; fiddles most di\dnely :
All finely done, and nothing well :
Then, if a man the truth may tell.
This all-accomplioh'd Punchinello
Is a most busy, idle fellow.

Walsli's epigram, being taken from the Frencli of La Fontaine,
recalls one iu which that pout's name occurs, entitled, " A Courtier's
Response " (" Correspondence of the First Earl of Malmesbury,"
1870,1. 141):

The greatest of honours that Prior can gain

Is still to be reckoned the English Fontaine ;

And De la Fontaine can never go higher

Than to be esteemed as the French Matthew Prior.

Thus, when Elizabeth desired

That Melville would acknowledge fairly,

Whether herself he most admired

Or his own mistress, Lady Mary,

The puzzled knight his answer thus exprest,

" Iu her own country, each is handsomest."

This appears in a letter from " IMr. Harris to his mother," dated
" Leyden, November 28, 1765," in which he describes a ball at the
Princess Weilbourg's, sister of the Prince of Orange. The Princess
asked him whether he had ever seen a set of Englisli ladies that danced
so well or were so handsome. To which he replied : " En Angleterre
les Anglaises me frappent le plus, et en HoUande les Hollandaises."
He adds, " Had she been well versed in English, I should certainly
have presented her Highness with this epigram, which I had then in
my head."

The equivoque in the " Courtier's Response," and in the anecdote,
recalls a clever one by John Byrom, " Intended to allay the violence of
party spirit " :

God bless the King, I mean the Faitli's Defender,
God bless — no harm in blessing — the Pretender;
But who Pretender is, or who is King,
God bless us all — that's quite another thing.

A clever reply, such as that of the Courtier, is always pleasant to read,
but not so amusing as ti^e witty response in the following old epigram,
found in " Elegant Extracts " :

A haughty courtier, meeting in the streets
A scholar, him thus insolently greets:
" Base men to take the wall I ne'er permit,"
The scholar saitl, " I do ;" and gave him it.

Or Paddy's reply to the Yankee (" Notes and Queries," 4th S. VII.
71. From an old volume of the " County Magazine ") :

EICHARD COLLET, MARQUIS WELLE8LEY. 591

As a Yankee so cute and Paddy quite sly

Were riding to town, tl)ey a gallows pa?sM by.

Said the Yankee to Pat, " If I don't make too free,

Give that galLcws its due, and pray where would you be ?"

Said Pat to the Yankee, "Sure, that's easily known ;

Pd be riding to town by myself, all alone."

EICHAED COLLEY, MAEQUIS WELLES LEY.

Born 1760. Died 1842.
(In addition to Epigrams at page 477.)

INSCRIPTION ON THE TOMB OF THE DA UGHTER OF LORD
BROUGHAM, WHO DIED AT THE AGE OF EIGHTEEN.
AFTER A LIFE OF CONTINUAL ILLNESS.

("• Primitiae et Eeliquia)." Londini, 1840, 19.)

Doomed to long suffering fiom your earliest years.
Amidst your Parents' grief and pain alone

Cheerful and gay, you smiled to soothe their tears ;
And in their agonies forgot your own ;

Go, Gentle Spirit ! and among the Blest

From Grief and Pain eternal be thy Kest !

The Marquis wrote the inscription iu Latin, and trauslated it.

" She (Lord Brougham's daughter) was buried in the cloister (of
Ijincoln's Inn Chapel) at her father's earnest entreaty to the Benchers,
and with a promise to be also himself interred there. . . . There is on
the chapel staircase a mural slab in mrmory of Miss Brougham, con-
taining some lines in Latin written by Lord Wdlesley. Far away lies
her celebrated father imdi r tlie blue sky of France. How diti'erent
are their resting-places ! Hers with a company of ancient lawyers, and
close to the ' busy hum of men.' His where tlic air is scented by the
sweetest flowers, and musical with the soft murmur of a tiileless sea."
(Profes.sor Pryrae's "Autobiographic Kecolloetions," 1870, 3G4).

Tiie atfecting picture of the Dying Daughter by the (jireek poetess
Anyte, might have bf(!n written of the sad parting between Lord
Brougliara and his sulllring daughter (Jacobs I. 133, xviii. Traus-
lated by C.) :

Then Erato, in tears, her fond arms threw
Around his neck, and thus her last sighs drew : —
My Father ! f'm no more! O'er my dim sight
Death draws his dark'uing cloud of cold and night

592 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

EPITAPH FOB HIMSELF.

Translated from the Latin hy the late Lord Derby.

(" Translations of Poems Ancient and Modern," by Edward Geoffrey,
Lord Derby, 1862, 89.)

Long tost on Fortune's waves, I come to rest,

Eton, once more on thy maternal breast.

On loftiest deeds to fix th' aspiring gaze,

To seek the purer lights of ancient days,

To love the simple paths of manly truth, —

These were thy lessons to my op'ning youth.

If on my later life some glory shine.

Some honours grace my name, the meed is thine !

My Boyhood's nurse, my aged dust receive,

And one last tear of kind remembrance give!

The expressive beauty of the original is finely rendered by the trans-
lator, and thus English lines have been produced which are almost
perfect in their graceful tenderness.

JOHN HOOKHAM FREEE.

Bom 1769. Died 1846.

EPITAPH ON CANNING.

(Frere's " Works in Verse and Prose," 1872, I. 313.)

I was destroyed by Wellington and Grey.
They both succeeded. Each has had his day.
Both tried to govern, each in his own way ;
And both repent of it — as well they may.

Prime Ministers have been the heroes of many epigrams in praise or
blame of their conduct. Perhaps none have been abused more heartily
than Lord Bute, as in this epigram (" New Foundling Hospital for
Wit,"1784, n. 118):

Lord Bute, his ambition and wisdom to show,
Resign'd the green ribbon, and put on the blue.
To two strings already, the Peer's been preferr'd, —
Odd numbers are lucky — pray give him a third.

On the elder Pitt, on the other hand, praise was constantly lavished.
When he was at the height of his popularity in 1757, and Bath and
other cities followed the example of London in giving him the Freedom
in a gold box, the following epigram appeared, " To the Nymph of

JOHN HOOKHAM FKERK. 593

Bath" (Horace Walpole's "Letters to Sir Horace Mann," 1833,
III. 261) :

Mistaken Nymph, thy gifts withhold ;

Pitt's virtuous soul despises gold ;

Grant him thy boon peculiar, health ;

He'll guard, not covet, Britain's wealth.

Of the numberless epigrams which were directed against Addington,
very few are worth reproduction. The following is from the '■ Spirit of
the Public Journals," for 180i. The wits of the day, it must be re-
membered, called him " The Doctor," his father having been a
physician :

" What can ennoble knaves and fools and cowards ?
Alas ! not all the blood of all the Howards."
True Master Pope ; but had you liVd till now,
You'd sttir'd to see the Howard humbly bow
To beg S. George's Cross from Blister's son,
The " Honi Soit," from Doctor Addington.

Another from the same volume :

Wit is to madness always an ally ;

If so, ye ministerial hearts, be glad,
For though the Doctor, all must know, can die.

We all must likewise know he can't die mad.

But when, in 1804, Addington resigned, a really fine epigram ap-
peared in the " Times," signed T. M., possibly Thomas Moore (" Spirit
of the Public Journals," for 1804, and " Gentleman's Magazine," New
Series, XXI. 424) :

Let others, prostrate, hail the rising sun.
Prouder, I bow to that whose course is run ; —
For never did the flaming orb of day.
When westward darting his descending ray,
From the vast empire of the .skies retire.
With brighter splendour, or with purer fire.

Chancellors, as well as prime ministers, have elicited many epigrams
tVom the wits. Here is one from " Punch, " on Lord Brougham and
Vaux :

" I wonder if Brougham thinks as much as he talks?"

Said a punster perusing a trial ;
" I vow siacf; his lordship was made Baron Vaux,
He's been Vaux (vox) et prroterea nihil."

But the f-arcd-ms on Lord Westbury were, perhaps, more severe than
on any other occupant of Iho Woolsack. "Tlie following is from the
" Church Times," of March 18, 18G5 :

Jacob of did, with reverent zeal

And filled with lioiivcidy light.
Placed and endowed the first Bethel

On the lonely mountain's height.

694 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

The Chancellor now, with iron rod,
Would rule " The House of God ;"
And looks around with anxious care
To place a Bethell everywhere.

" Punch " produced a good epigram entitled " Dividing the Wool
Back " :

" This Edmunds case," said Westbury,
Sarcastic, smooth, and cool,
" Will prove a case of ample cry.
But very Little wool."

Quoth Chelmsford, as on Westbury
He tui'ned a scornful back,
" Though we perhaps don't get the vjool,
You ought to get the sack."

FRANCIS WEANGHAM.

Born in 1769. He was of Magdalen College, and afterwards of
Trinity Hall, Cambridge ; was third Wrangler, second Mathematical
Prizeman, and first Classical Medallist. He became Rector of Huu-
manby, on the east coast of Yorkshire, Archdeacon of Cleveland, and
subsequently of the East Riding. He died in 18 13. It is said that
Wrangham missed his election to a Fellowship and Tutorsliip of Trinity
Hall through a severe epigram on Dr. Jowett, Fellow of that Hall and
Regius Professor of Civil Law, who fenced in a small angle of the
college from the public way and converted it into a garden (Professor
Pryme's " Autobiographic Recollection," 1870, 248) :

A little garden little Jowett made,
And fenced it with a little palisade ;
A little taste hath little Doctor Jowett,
His little garden doth a little show it !

Jokes being passed on the diminutiveness of the garden, Jowett
turned it into a gravelled plot, upon which the author added two lines
to the epigram :

Because this garden made a little talk.
He changed it to a little gravel walk.

An inferior man was elected to the fellowship, the whole university
w^as astonished, and no reason was assigned. If the epigram were the
cause, it was a gross piece of injustice, for Wrangham told Professor
Pryme many years afterwards, that he did not write it, but only, think-
ing it clever, repeated it. It has been attributed to Porson. The style
is similar to many of his playful pieces.

FRANCIS WEANGHASf. 595

OX A COUPLE OF WOODCOCKS KILLED AT ONE SEOT BY
SIR FRANCIS CHANTREY WHEN ON A VISIT AT HOLK-
HAM. IN NOVEMBER. 1829, AND AFTERWARDS SCULP-
TURED ON A MARBLE MONUMENT TO THEIR MEMORY.

(Professor Muirhead's " Winged Words on Chantrey's Woodcocks,''
1857.)

Written in Latin and English.

Shall Chantrey be call'd a Destroyer, or not ?
He slaughters, indeed, his two birds at one shot :
But pitying his victims, with generous endeavour
To make more amends, by his chisel so clever
He revives them to live on in marble for ever !

To us twin birds, who by one twin wound fell,
The hand that smote, by some strange miracle.
Gave back a life, — for ever to remain !
" How may this be ?" you ask, " I pray explain :"
Chantrey's great name resolves the mystery ; —
The twain his aim destroy'd, his art forbade to die.

Closely in form, in life, in death allied,

The hand that kill'd us and reviv'd was one ;

For He, by whose sure sportsmanship we died.
Has bid us live immortally in stone.

A few more, from the large number of epigrams which Chantrey's
beautiful work of art called forth, will prove interesting. They are
taken from Muirhead's " Winged Words."

This is translated by Professor Muirhead from the Greek of Dr. Scott.
Deau of Rochester :

Swift fire dt-stroy'd, sharp steel restor'd their lives : —

Kare sliot ! Nor hapless who, thus slain, revives !

One death to both, — one life from death again,

By one skill'd hand bestow'd upon the slain.

They slumber, — but how lightly 1 — Passer-by,

Be still, lest thou awake theui, and they fly.

The next is by the late Bishop Wilberforce :

Life in Death, a mystic lot.

Dealt thou to the wiugJ-d band : —
Death, — from 'J'Jiine unerring shot.

Life, — from Thine undying hand.

Lord Jeffrey wrote this distich :

Their good, and ill, from tlie same source they drew ; —
Here shria'd in marble by the hnud that slew !

596 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

The following is by Professor Muirhead :

Amaz'd I view the consecrated spot
Where Chantrey kill'd two woodcocks at a shot ;
For yonder, lo ! his brtathing victims are,
More deathless than in life, and lovelier far.
Baron Alderson, at the time of the Reform Bill, was taiiiing with
Bishop Maltby of inscriptions for the marble; and upon the Bishop
producing a Greek one, he took his pen and wrote the following, avail-
ing himself, in a contrary spirit to that of its originators, of the cry
repeated all over the kingdom at the general election of 1831 (" Selec-
tions from the Charges, &c., of Baron Alderson. With Life." By
Charles Alderson, 1858, 165.) :

Behold the fruits of Chantrey's gun —
Two woodcocks, and the shot but one;
But happier far for Cliurch and State,
Had it but been the artist's fate
To miss the body, and to kill
" The Bill and nothing but the Bill."

Professor Muirhead gives this epigram in his " Winged Words," but
in a shorter and inferior form.

A playful epigram may be added here, sent " To a Gentleman in
Return for a Brace of Snipes " :

My thanks I'll no longer delay

For the birds which you shot with such skill ;

For though there was nothing to pay,
Yet each of them brought in his bill.

I mean not, my friend, to complain,

The matter was certainly right ;
And when bills such as these come again,

I'll always accept them at sight.

Cowper's elegant " Thanks for a Gift of Plieasants " may also be
placed amongst these epigrams on birds and bills :

In Copeman's ear this truth let Echo tell :
" Immortal bards like mortal pheasants well,"
And when his clerkship's out, I wish him herds
Of golden clients, for his golden birds.

JOHN OWEN.

Of Corpus Christi, formerly called Ben't, College, Cambridge.

(Gunning's "Reminiscences of the University, Town, and Countv
of Cambridge," 1854, I. 212.)

Some mischievous ruffians having injured some, and destroyed many,
of the newly-planted shrubs and trees in S. John's garden, l<^dward
Ghxistian (afterwards Professor), fellow of the college, and a barrister.

GEORGE CANNING. 597

was requested to draw up a liandbill oflfering lOOZ. reward for the dis-
covery of the offenders. The lunguage of the bill was extraordinary
and absurd, describing the deed as a capital offence, punishable with
death under tlie Black Act; and recommending tlie perpetrators to
come forward, but not offering impunity for doing so. This occasioned
the following epigram :

Wheu Brunswick's great Duke, on a visit to France

Led Austrians, and Prussians, and Hessians a dance,

He thought to gain over the brave sans culottes.

By kindly engaging to cut all their throats :

So the Johnians, whose trees were most cruelly mawjled,

And delicate sucklings atrociously strangled,

Invite the sly culprit who did the black act,

To swing at the gallows by owning the fact.

The epigram refers to the celebrated proclamation by the Duke of
Brunswick, dated Coblentz, July 25, 1792.

GEOEGE CANNING.

Born 1770. Died 1827.
ON A CARICATURE OF HARROW OUTWEIGHING ETON.

What mean ye by this print so rare ?

Ye wits, of Eton jealous :
Behold ! your rivals soar in air,

And ye are heavy fellows !

The caricature represented two periodical publications, brouglit out
respectively by the boys of Eton and Harrow, suspended in a balance,
the former of which is made to '• kick the beam.'' (" Biographical
Memoir of the late Bight Hon. George Caniung,' 1827, 39.)
To Canning's epigram Theodore Hook rejilied thus :
Cease, ye Etonians ! and no more

With rival wits contend ;
Feathers, we know, will float in air,
And bubldes will ascend.

ON THE EFFORTS MADE JlYrELUAM, BTSUOI' OF EXETER,
TO OliTAlS THE lilSHOl'RIC OF WISCHESTER OS THE
DEATH OF BROW SLOW NORTH IN 1820.

Says priggish I'olham, " May I liint on

The shoiti Kt road irom Exeter to Wiiiton?"

Says Bl<joiiifi('ld, "Sure you cannot I'ail to light on

The shoitest road through Hertford and through I'righton."

698 MODEKN EPIGEAMMATI6TS.

Pelham failed. He was translated to Lincoln in the room of Tomline,
who succeeded to Winchester.

Sir Benjamin (afterwards Lord) Bloomfield was Private Secretary
and Keeper of the Privy Purse to the Prince Ecgent.

Lord Bailing, in his '• Historical Characters," 1868, II. 280, speaks
thus of Lady Hertford, to whom allusion is made in the last line of the
epigram : " The popular cry was loud against the influence of Hertford
House, as may be seen by the speeches of the day, and particularly by
a speech from Lord Donougbmore, in which lie talks of the Marchion-
ess of Hertford, to whose veteran seductions the Prince Regent was
then supposed to have fallen a victim, as ' a matured enchantress ' who
had by ' potent spells ' destroyed all previous prepossessions, and taken
complete possession of the royal understanding."

Opportunity may be taken of the mention of Bishop Brownlow
North, to give an epigram by Graves (" Euphrosyne," 1783, II. 167) on
him and his brother, Lord North, the former of whom suffered from
deafness. " On Ancient Music :"

A virtuoso friend, a man of worth,

With much surprise address'd my good Lord North :

" I wonder how your Lordship can forbear

The pleasures of our famous club to share ,

Who meet the ancient Music to restore :

Such harmony ! you never heard before.

Pray come, my Lord ; the eflect's beyond belief;

Brownlow attends " — " Yes, Sir, but I'm not deaf."

The sarcasm upon the " harmony !" at the concerts of ancient music
recalls an amusing Greek epigram by Leonidas of Alexandria, which
is applicable to Bishop Brownlow North, as that Prelate, suffering frcm
deafness, lived to his eightieth year. (Jacobs, II. Ylf), vi.). The trans-
lation, taken from " A Selection of Greek Epigrams for the Use of
Winchester School," 1791, is a paraphrase rather than a literal render-
ing, but gives forcibly and correctly the playfulness of the Greek :

Simillus, long in nature's spite.

His patient powers of music tried ;
And toil'd through each discordant night,

Till every neighbour fled or died ;
Except Origenes, to whom

Kind fate (the same misfortune fearing)
To save him from an early tomb.

Denied the dangerous sense of hearing.

Bishop Tomline, who was translated from Lincoln to Winchester on
the death of Brownlow North, had formerly the name of Pretyman,
which he changed for Tomline whilst holding the former see. The
following original epigram, " The Barber's Wit," is given in a volume
entitled " Fasciculus," printed for private circulation in 1869 :

When barber King shaved lordly Pretyman,
" Not every one," the latter straight began,

GEORGE CANNING. 599

" Like you can boast to have shaved a bishop." " True,"
The barber said, '' neither, my lord, like you
Can every bishop boast so rare a thing
As to be shaved, as you are, by a king !"

" The incident above recorded took place at Ayscoughfee Hall,
Lincolnshire."

In "Criticisms on the Rolliad," 1785, there are some very severe
epigrams entitled '• Pretymaniana.'* One of these (Ep. 37) may be
given as a specimen :

Pitt and Prety came from College

To serve themselves, and serve the state ;

And the world must all acknowledge
Half is done — so half may wait:

For Prety says, 'tis rather new.
When even half they say is true.

Pretyman was private secretary to Pitt.

DESPATCH SENT IN CYPHER TO SIR CHARLES BAGOT,
BRITISH AMBASSADOR AT THE HAGUE, RESPECTING
A TREATY OF COMMERCE THEN UNDER DISCUSSION
BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND HOLLAND.

("Notes and Queries," 4th S, I. 267, 302, and 438.)

In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch
Is offering too little and asking too much.
The French are with equal advantage content —
So we clap on Dutch bottoms just 20 per cent.

Chorus.

20 per cent., 20 per cent.

Chorus of English Custom-House Officers and French Douaniers.

English.
We clap on Dutch bottoms just 20 per cent.

French.
Vous frapperez Falk avec 20 per cent.

Falk was the Dutch AmbaHsudor in London at this time.

The jeu d'esprit was written without break, as tliou^li it were jiro.sc.
was commenced and aif^ncd in the usual ofliciiil manner, and dated
" Foreign Oilice, Januiiry 'Slat, 1820." Upon receipt of it Bir Cliarles
Ba^'ot wrote a formal Irtter, Mtntiiig that he did not poH.sosH any kev
enabling hiru to derypher the den[)ateli, trimting that the ••ircnm.slancc
would not be productive of public incouvoniencc, and requostiiig the

600

MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

proper cypher to be forwarded. Canning, with equal formality, replied,
regretting the delay, and forwarding the cypher. The next communi-
cation was a most amusing private letter from Sir Charles to Canning
which concluded thus : " It was not till after an hour of most inde-
scribable anxiety that we were put ' out of our fear ' by finding what it
really was, and that ' you Pyramus' were not Pyramus, but only 'Bottom
the weaver.' I could have slain you ! but I got some fun myself, for I
afterwards put the fair decypher into Douglas's hands (the Secretary
to the Embassy), who read it twice without moving a muscle; or, to
this hour, discovering tliat it was not prose ; and returned it to me,
declaring that it was ' oddly worded, but he had always had a feeling
that the despatch must relate to discriminating duties.' "

WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.

Born 1775. Died 1864.
TO lANTEE.

Proud word you never spoke, but you will speak
Four not exempt from pride some future day.

Resting on one white hand a warm wet cheek,
Over my open volume you will say,
" This man loved me !" then rise and trip away.

Two other epigrams, amongst many, by Landor on lanthe ought to be
read in connection with these fine lines. The first, of lanthe's'pride in
his love, so it were not an open love :

lanthe took me by both ears and said,

You are so rash, I own I am afraid.

Prop, or keep hidden in your breast, my name,

But be your love as lasting as your fame.

All men are liars, said a sage of old.

He was not, he who this sad tale hath told.

The second, of Landor's faith that througli his works lanthe's name
would be handed down to future generations :

Well I remember how you smiled

To see me write your name upon
The soft sea-sand ..." 0.' what a child!

You think you're writing upon stone J"
I have since written what no tide

Shall ever wash away, what men
Unborn shall read o'er ocean wide

And find lanthe's name agen.

WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR. 601

lanthe seems to have been to Landor what Laura was to Petrarch —
the inspirer of his verse. But the halo of romance which the poet
throws aroimd her, is rudely dissipated by a It-tter to his sister Ellen in
1829, in which he says that the dearest of all the friends he ever had or
ever should have, his lanthe of former years, had appeared at Florence,
having buried two husbands, and having then an English earl and a
French duke offering their addresses to her. (Forster's " Biography of
Landor.- 1869. II. 222, 223).

But Landor's tender feeling for lanthe could not be destroyed by two
or even three marriages, for he peuned the following mournful epigram
on her death :

I dare not trust my pen it trembles so ;
It seems to feel a portion of my woe,
And makes me credulous tliat trees and stones
At mournful fates have uttered moumful tones.
While I look back again on days hmg past
How gladly would I yours might be my last.
Sad our first severance was, but sadder this,
When death forbids one hour of mutual blisB.

ON ROSE AYLMEB.

Blest are the bad alone while here ;
Alone they never shed a tear,
The wise and virtuous grieve the most . . .
Southey, until all sense was lost,
Bewail'd a son's untimely end,
And Tennyson embalra'd a friend.
I dare not place my name with those,
But have not I, tuo, Avept for liosc ?

" At Swansea in fcirmer years ho (Landor) had made the acquaintance
of some ladies of Lord Aylmcr's family, one of whom, regarded hj him
always with a very tender scutimi-ut, went shortly afterwards to India,
and tliid suddenly while yet very young.' Forster's " Biography of
Landor," 18f/J, I. 407j.

Rose Aylmcr's memory is enshrined also in the following exquisite
lines:

All, what avails the sceptred race.

Ah, what tlie ioriM divine !
What every virtue, every grace !

Rose Aylmer, all were thine

602

MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Eose Aylmer, whom tlieve wakeful eyes

May weep, but never see,
A night of memories and of sighs
I consecrate to thee.

Of tliis piece, Charles Lamb, in a letter to Landor, thus writes : " Many
things I liad to say to you which there was not time for. One, why
should I forget? 'Tis for Eose Aylmer, which has a charm I cannot
explain. I lived upon it for weeks." (Forster's " Biography," as above.)

Another of Landor's charming epigrams on Eose Aylmer must be
added :

I see a man whom age should make more wise,
Unable to repress his swelling sighs
At sight of you. Ah ! let him be forgiven . . .
Thus swells old Ocean when the queen of heaven
In fullest, brightest, majesty appears.
Ascending calmly mid attendant stars

ON DICKENS.

You ask me what I see in Dickens . . .
A game-cock among bantam chickens.

The following appeared in the " Carthusian," on tlie " Sketches by
Boz." 1836, and was reproduced in the " Times " of June 10, 1870 :

Who the Dickens " Boz " could be

Puzzled many a learned elf ;
But time unveiled the mystery.

And " Boz " appeared as Dickens' self.

TEE DEBTOR.

A sage of old hath gravely said
Man's life is hung upon a thread.
* * * I ^]jg cheated tradesmen hope
That thine may hang upon a rope.

There is no fear of debtors being hung now-a-daya. The following
excellent epigram, " To the Court of Insolvent Debtors," was written in
Latin. The translation is " said to be by the late Eev. E. H. Barham."
('• Notes and Queries," 2nd S. I. 490):

A blackleg late and prisoner hence I go

In whitewashed splendour, pure as unsunned snow ;

Dissolved my bonds ; dissolved my cares and fears ;

My very creditors dissolved — in tears ;

All questions solved: the act resolves me fre' ,

Absolved in absolute Insolvency.

WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR. 603

The 7th Stanza of " Faustina : or, the Roman Songstress, a Satyr on
t'ne Luxury and Effeminacy of the Age," written about 1726, may bo
compared :

Our very Cits are grown above tlieir trades ;
They talk of Operas and Masquerades :
They visit, they intrigue, they dress, they game,
And Bankruptcy's so common, 'tis no shame.

Martial describes a man to whom non-payment was no sliame (Book
VIII. 10. Translated by Elpbinston) :

Gay Bassus, for ten thousand, bought

A Tyrian robe of rich array :
And was a gainer. How ? Be taught :

The prudent Bassus did not pay.

But Martial sarcastically allows that he is not in debt who is insol-
vent. (Book n. 3. Translated by Hay) :

You say, you nothing owe ; and so I say :
He only owes, who something hath to pay.

The following may be added, "Imitated from the French," in
" Elegant Extracts " :

His last great debt is paid — poor Tom's no more ;
Last debt ! Tom never paid a debt before.

In past days " cheated tradesmen " had not, indeed, the pleasure of
seeing their debtors hung, but of condemning them to a fate almost as
liopeless as the gallows. The following epigram is by Henry Parrot.
{" Laquei Ridiculosi," 1613. Ep. 99) :

Jocus in 's humour weareth out the day.
Counting it sin to take thought for to-morrow,
And makes a jest when he should come to pay ;
But pleads good earnest when he means to borrow.
You see how Jocu.s' jests at length deceive him,
That in the hole of Wood Street Counter leave him.

The unhappy fate of such men as Jocus, is sarcastically described in
an old epigram quoted in " Notes and Queries," oth S. II. 16 :

Uf old, to delators who insolvent died,
Egypt the rites of sepulture denied :
A diiferent trade enlightened Christians drive,
And charitably bury them alive.

But rJripuH was determined not only to deny the rites of ecpuituro,
but even death (" Elegant Extracts") :

O let me die in peace ! Eumenes cried

To 11 ban! (;ri;<litor at his bedside.

How! di«! roar'd (;ripus ; thus your debts evade I

No, no, fjir, you shan't die till I am paid.

604 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ON SOME OBSCURE POETRY.

In vain he beats his brow who thinks
To get the better of a Sphynx,

Alexander Robertson of Struan lias a satirical distich " To an
Epigrammatist who wrote obscurely," which, like Landor's, applies
well to much of the modern poetry (" Poems on Various Subjects and
Occasions," Edinburgh. No date. 187) :

Thy thoughts in deep obscurity to fetter,
Write not at all, thy silence does it better.

Donne, also, wrote a distich " On an Obscure Writer " :

Philo with twelve years' study hath been griev'd
To be understood. When will he be believed ?

Samuel Wesley has an epigram " On certain Miltonics " :

" What makes you write at this odd rate ?"

" Why, Sirs, it is to imitate."

" What m;ikes you rant and ramble so ?"

" Why, 'tis to do as otljers do."

" But there's no meaning to be seen ? "
" Why that's the very thing I mean."

Perhaps Wesley had an epigram by Martial in his mind (Book X. 21),
thus translated by Hay :

What pleasure is it, that your writings are
Almost too hard for Bentley or for Hare ?
You write not to be read, but criticis'd:
Persius you follow; Virgil is despis'd.
This be your praise : but may my every Une,
Or with a comment, or without it shine.

TIME.

The burden of an ancient rhyme

Is " By the forelock seize on Time."

Time in some corner heard it said ;

Pricking his ears, away he fled ;

And, seeing me upon the road,

A hearty curse on me bestow'd.

" What if 1 do the same by thee ?

How wouldst thou like it ?" thunder'd he

And, without answer thereupon,

Seizing my forelock ... it was gone.

WALTKB SAVAGE LANDOR. 605

It IS necessary to seize Time by the forelock, for he will wait for no
mau, as Henry Erskine said " To one who was grieving for the loss (if
his watch." (" Notes and Queries," 3rd S. X. 63) :

Fret not, my friend, and peevish say,

Your loss is worse than common '
For " gold makes wings, and flies away,"

And time will wait for no man.

" Monk " Lewis has an epigram on " Love and Time," in which the
latter is shown to be as angry with Cupid as he was with Landor.
(" Life and Correspondence of M. G. Lewis," 1839, 1. 210) :

" Why dost thou shun me 7" — thus with wrath inflamed,
One day, accosting Cupid, Time excUiim'd.
" "SV iiy must complaints for ever stun my ears,
That Love still flies the moment Time appears ?"
'• Yours is the fault," said Love ; " so swift your pace,
Speed how I may, your wings still win the race :
Morn, noon, and night, some nymph or siiepherd sighs,
' When Love is with us, oh ! how swift Time flies ! ' "

THE WHIGS.

Landor — Kenyon, I've written for your delectation

A short imaginary conversation.
Kenyon — Landor, I much rejoice at the report ;

But only keep your promise — be it short.

Father and Child.

Father — 'What, my boy, is the rhyme to Whig ?
Child — Can it, papa, be whirligig ?

"On his return from Paris with his son, Landor passed

some days vfith me, while the Whigs were making their last unMic-
cessful resistance to Peel ; and it was in my library, as he always after-
warrLs said, he composed the shortest of all his Convcrs:itions. It was
sent ti) Kenyon." (P'orster's " Biography of Landor,' ISti'.), II. 31)8).

There is an amusing " K|iit;i[)h on the Whigs," at the time of the
bursting of the South Bea Bubbh.-, by Nicholas Amhurst in his " Ternc
Fiiius":

Crossing o'er the Fioulh Sea in the late stormy weather,
Down sank the jKxir Whigs and their lenders together:
bo fiilse, boys, at lust, is our old proverb I'ouiid,
That born to be hanged — Ihey woulil never be ilrown'd.

To this venal period may Ixi applied an cpigrum found iu " An
Asylum for Fugitive Pieces," 1785:

606

MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Midas, 'tis said, possess'd the art of old
Of turning whatsoe'er he toucli'd to gold :
This, modem statesmen can reverse with ease,
Touch them witli gold, they'll turn to what you please.

There is a punning anonymous epigram " Accounting for the Apos-
tacy of Ministers " in Mark Lemon's " Jest Book," 186i, 160 :

The Whigs, because tliey rat and change

To Toryism, all must spurn ;
Yet in the fact there's nothing strange,

That Wigs should twist, or curl, or turn.

And another, designed as a defence for them (ibid. 36) •

The Whigs 'tis said have often broke
Their promises which end in smoke ;

Thus their defence I build ;
Granted in office they have slept.
Yet sure those promises are kept
Which never are fulfilled.
Whitbread, the brewer, who lield a high position amongst the Wliio-g,
le<l the attack on Lord Melville (a Knight of the Thistle), wliich pro-
duced a caricature and the following epigram (Wright's " Caricature
History of the Georges," p. 611) :

Sansterre forsook his malt and grains,
To mash and batter nobles' brains,

By lev'] ling rancour led ;
Our Brewer quits brown stout and washey,
His malt, his mash-tub, and his quashea.

To mash a Thistle's head.

An epigram, which is " said to liave been written on the window of
an inn about the time of her present Majesty's accession," is triveu in
'• Notes and Queries," 2nd S. VH. 26 :

" Tlie Queen's with us," the Whigs exulting say,
" For, when she found us in, she let us stay."
It may be so ; but give me leave to doubt
How long she'll keep you, when she finds you out.

The same periodical (1st S. VI.) gives an epigram on the removal
of Lord Palmerston from the Whig Cabinet of Lord John Russell in
1852, which " has been ascribed to an eminent literary character of tlie
Russell party " :

Never fear, my Lord John, since Palmerston goes,
That the popular breath you will catch less ;

For, rid of that Lucifer, every one knows
Your Cabinet then will be matchless.

Since that time, another gentleman has sat in Downing Street, who
has obtained the sobriquet of '■ Lucifer Lowe," whose " matchless "
efforts are commemorated in the following, amongst many other
epigrams which his ill-advised Budget of 1871 called forth:

WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR. 607

Quoth Lucifer Lowe,

Ez luce I'll show
Lucellum — light profit crescendo ;

But, alas ! not a spark

Has illumined the dark
Of his " lucus a non lucendo."

As so many Whigs have diifted into radicalism, it may not be out of
place to give here two epigrams by Mr. Hanuay. (" Characters and
Criticisms : A Book of Miscellanies," 1865.) The first, " A Radical
Reformer " (p. 213) :

Tomkins will clear the land, they say.

From every foul abuse :
So chimneys in the olden day,

Were cleansed by a goose.

The second, " A Radical Mystery explained " (ibid. p. 204) :

Can you tell why it is, that in country or city,
The Rads never puflf the productions of Whitty ?
He's so sharp, shrewd, and honest, the pitiful elves
Think he cannot be possibly one of themselves.

The reference is to "the late Edward Michael Whitty, the most bril-
liant democratic writer of his time."

THE PRINCE OF WALES, AFTERWARDS GEORGE IV.

First Carlton House, my country friend,
And then the playhouse you should see ;

Here comedies in marriage end,
There marriages in tragedy.

Tragedy, indeed, such as tlic present generation looks back upon
with shame. The following melancholy lines appeared on the death of
Queen Caroline, who is suppoaed to speak (" Notes and Queries " 4th S.
VIIL ■6'6\) :

I ask no grave beneath the British sod.
Whose rulers poisoneil every step I trod.
I ask no rest Ijenr-ath the British fane,
Whose preachers pray not tint iroiii hope of gain.
Aliki; a slraiiger to their land and prayers,
In bruriawick lay this monument of cares.

608 MODEBN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

MATTHEW GEEGORY LEWIS,

Whose father was Deputy-Secretary at War, was born in London in
1775. At the age of nineteen he published " Ambrosio ; or, The Monk,"
ti remarkable novel, which gave him the sobriquet of " Monk " Lewis,
and which caused him to be courted for his talents, and condemned for
the immorality of his pen. In private life he was warm-hearted and
free from all open vice ; and it appears that though he painted immo-
rality, he had no intention of inculcating it. He wrote other novels
and many dramatic pieces, and was celebrated for his art in the com-
position of ballads. On the death of his father he came into posses-
sion of large West India property, and visited Jamaica, where he
s bowed great kindness to the slaves. He died at sea on his voyage
home in 1818. The following epigrams are taken from " The Life and
Correspondence of M. G. Lewis," in two volumes, 1839.

A PALPABLE FALSEHOOD.

In your last book, friend Mat, you really tell
A lie so gross that ev'ry one descries it ;

Your title-page asserts, " Sold by John Bell."

How can you say " 'tis sold," when no one buys it ?

This appears to have been written by Lewis, when very young, upon
making the discovery that the poetry of an unknown writer, such as
he then was, commanded very little sale.

An epigram by Dr. Grainger on Smollett is good. (Nichols'
" Literary Illustrations," VII. 234) :

Smollett libell'd you lately, and yet you don't heed it !
'Tis needless. — Why ? — None but his booksellers read it.

Grainger quarrelled with Smollett on account of an unfavourable
critique in the " Critical Review " on his translation of Tibullus, pub-
lished in 1758, which he supposed to proceed from personal pique on
the part of Smollett.

Grainger probably took his epigram from Martial (Book III. 9), thug
translated by Hodgson:

Jack writes severe lampoons on me, 'tis said :
But he writes nothing, who is never read.

A French epigram on booksellers' speculations is thus translated by
Davenport (" Poetical Register " for 1805, 132) :

Old John, a bookseller, renowned in the trade,

By this traffic a fortune prodigious has made ;

While young John, his son, who scrawls prose, sir, and verse,

By the bookselling trade has quite emptied his purse.

MATTHEW GRKGORY LEWIS. 609

Can yoii guess why so different a fate is assign'd
For a pair to the same occupation confin'd ?
Old John speculates, like a shrewd one, alone )

On the works of those authors for merit well known ; \
But young John, alas ! speculates on his own. I

RAILING AT MARRIAGE.

Lord Erskine, at women presuming to rail,
Says, wives are tin canisters tied to one's tail ;
AVhile fail- Lady Anne, as the subject he carries on,
Feels hurt at his lordship's degrading comparison.
Yet wherefore degrading ? Considered aright,
A canister's useful and polish'd and bright ;
And should dirt its original purity hide.
That's the fault of the fuppy to whom it is tied !

To this Lord Ei-skine Immediately rejoined :

When smitten with love from the eyes of the fair

If marriage should not be your lot,
A ball from a pistol will end your despair —

It's safer than canister-shot!

A large party was assembled at the Duke of York's at Oatlaud:?,
including Erskine, Lady Anne Culling Smith, Lewis, and Sheridan,
when Lord Erskine declared that " a wife was only a tin canister tied
to one's tail," which produced the above admirable epigram. It has
been sometimes erroneously ascribed to Sheridan.

With Lewis' epigram may be compared " A Fragment of Chaucer,"
by James Harris, the learned author of " Hermes," and the father of
the first Lord Slalmesbury (Dodsley's " Collection of Poems," 1782,
V. 316,:

Right wele of lernid clerkis is it sod,
That womenhu<l for mannis' use is made ;
But niiu;.'hty man liketh not one, or so.
Hi; luoti-'th aye unthriflily f(jr mo;
And whom he whiloinc cherished, when tied
By holy church he cannot her abide.
Liki- unto dog which lighteth of a bone,
His tail he waggeth, glad therefore y-grown.
But thilke sume bone if U> his tail thou tye,
PunJic, he fearing it away doth tly.

There have been cpigrunmiatiHtH "at womrn presuming to rail " in
all ages, and with r'f'<T<-ni-e to all lirnea. John Straight (•xi'rci«fs bin
wit even on our firBt father. (Dodaley's " Collection of I'oeniH," 17«2,
V. 272; :

2 i:

610 MODEEN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Adam alone could not be easy,
So he must have a wife, au't please ye :
But how did he procure this wife.
To cheer his sohtary life?
Why, from a rib ta'en out his side
Was form'd this necessary bride.
But how did he the pain beguile ?
Pho ! he slept sweetly all t!ie while.
But when this rib was re- applied,
In woman's form, to Adam's side,
How then, I pray you, did it answer ?
He never slept so sweet again, Sir.

The heroine of one of Martial's epigrams (Book IX. 16) appears not
to have allowed her husbands rest either asleep or awake, — at any rate
she quickly sent them to the grave. The translation in the " West-
minster Keview " of April, 1853, is rather wide, but fairly reproduces
the sense of the Latin :

In Stepney churchyard seven tombs in a row

For the reader's soft sympathy call ;
On each — " My dear husband lies buried below,"

And Chloe's the widow to all.

The mediaeval epigrammatists showed very little appreciation of
marriage, as witness this distich, for instance, by Johannes Auratus,
taken from the Greek of Palladas (" Delitiae Delitiarum," 35. Trans-
lated by James Wright in his " Sales Epigiammatum.") :

Women sweet evils are, and twice good those ;
Both in their wedding, and their winding clothes.

Ninian Paterson is an honourable exception amongst this class of
writers in his praise of conjugal affection, and in his right view of
woman. The following epigram is a good specimen of the Glasgow
poet's style. It is translated by the Rev. James Davies in the " Con-
temporary Eeview," XIV. 631 :

To men, from Eden erst thro' woman driven,
Woman restores the forfeit realm of heaven ;
An all-wise Maker's latest work is she.
His best, if good, His worst, if bad she be.

A good epigram on Milton's married life is given in " Notes and
Queries," 3rd S. XI. 417 :

Milton in fretful wedlock tost.
Found that his Paradise was Lost ;
But once more free and unrestrained,
He found his Paradise Regained.

In 1765, John Cunningham, the poet, lodged at the " Golden Lion "
Ian at Scarborough. The landlord was peaceable ; the landlady a
shrew. One day she was soimdly rating her husband and all who

MATTHEW GREGORY LEWIS. 611

came in her way. Cunningliam, to avoid her, went out taking tlie
landlord with him, and, pointing to the sign which swung over the
door, said (" Life of Cunningham" in Bell's edition of the Poets, 1784) :

Friend W n ! if you would get rid of a scold.

And live without trouble or strife,
I'd advise you to take down your Lion of Gold,

And hang up your brazen-fac'd wife.

These lines were afterwards re-cast by the author, but the form in
which they appear in his Works spoils the anecdote, as they are not
addressed to the landlord.

One of the most celebrated epigrams on wives is by S. T. Coleridge.
"On Job": °

Sly Beelzebub took all occasions

To try Job's constancy and patience.

He took his honour, took his health ;

He took his children, took his wealth.

His servants, horses, oxen, cows, —

But cunning Satan did not take his spouse.

But Heaven, that brings out good from evil,

And loves to disappoint the devil,

Had predetermined to restore

Two-fold all he had before ;

His servants, horses, oxen, cows, —

Short-sighted devil, not to take his spouse !

Landor has an epigram on a scholar who was about to marry. Was
he thinking of Hooker ?

A Scholar was about to marry,
His friend said, Ere thou dost, be wary.
So wise art thou that I foresee
A wife will make a fool of thee.
Foolishest of all fools are those
Wise men led daily by the nose.
It hardly seems a woman's while
The fond half-witted to beguile :
And yet I must confess, my friend,
Sometimes they do so condescend.

" Punch " gives a picture of a useful wife, which may close these
very ungidlant epigrams, " To a rich Widow " :

I will not ask if thou can'st touch

The tuneful ivory key.
Those sili-nt uDtm of thine are such

As quite Bulhce for mo.

I'll make no question if thy skill

Thi- [M-ncil coni|)r(!heiidn,
Enough for me, love, if tliou still

Cun'st dravc, — thy dividends.

612 MODERN EPIGKAMMATISTS.

A MATRIMONIAL DUET.

Lady Termagant.

Step in, pray Sir Toby, my picture is here, —

Do you think that 'tis like ? Does it strike you ?

Sir Toby.

Why it does not as yet ; but I fancy, my dear,
In a moment it will — 'tis so like you !

The striking picture leads to an epigram by Mr. Justice Hardinge on
a speaking one. " To a Lady who Drew my Portrait." (Nichols'
" Literary Illustrations," III. 835) :

By her taleot a secret will Celia discover.

As the picture will speak — and will say that I love her.

In an epigram by the Greek Lucian on the portrait of a cantatrice,
the painter is told it was beyond his power to make the picture speak.
(Jacobs III. 22, iv.). The translation is by C. :

Painter, you've stolen the lovely form, 'tis true :
To steal her voice was more than Art could do.

But in one by the mediaeval Latin poet Franciscus Eainerius, " On
the Picture of Pythagoras," it is said that the painter could, if he would,
have given the portrait a voice. (" Delitiae Delitiarum," 106). The
translation is by James "Wright :

The painter could have made Pythagoras speak ;
But then he should his laws of Silence break.

A Greek epigram, by an unknown author, describes a portrait too
correct to be pleasant (Jacobs IV. 138, c), thus translated by Dr.
Wellesley :

The likeness, hang the artist, is so true !
Instead of one fat brute, we now see two.

Leonidas of Alexandria, on the other hand, describes one too incor-
rect to be recognized (Jacobs II. 175, v.), also translated by Dr,
Wellesley :

When Diodorus sketch'd your phiz,

Menodotus, 'tis true
A likeness was produced, for 'tis
Like ev'ry one — but you.

Boileau wrote an epigram on his own portrait, which must have been
painted by such an artist as Diodorus (" Poesies Diversee "). The 1 1 ans-
lation is anonymous :

MATTHEW GREGOBY LEWIS. 613

Behold the true likeness ('tis said) of Boileau ;

What he the great critic, Apollo thy son !
Wherefore looks he so sadly, perliaps you would know ; —

Why truly to find he's so very ill done.

An anonymous epigram on a badly painted portrait of a painted
lady is found in " Elegant Extracts " :

The gay Flirtilla show'd her mimic bust,
And ask'd blunt Senso if 'twere fashion"d just :
" Ma'am,' he replied, " in this 'tis much like you,
The face is painted, and that badly too."

One of the" most curious epigrams on the subject of a portrait is the
direction given to the painter by Balthasar Bonifacius (" Delitiaj Deli-
tiarum," 93). Translated by the Rev. James Davies in the " Contem-
porary Review," XIV. 627) :

Painter, my Phillis' features do not doubt
To paint with their sole blemish— one eye out !
Love closed her left eye, not to spoil or maim,
But that her right might take more certain aim.

" One has heard of it being said," wittily remarks Mr. Davies, " of
a pretty girl, similarly circumstanced, that if she had only one eye, that
was a piercer!"

FOR THE COLLAR OF A DOG BELONGING TO LADY
CHARLOTTE CAMFBELL.

Stranger ! if other dogs beguile
Me from my mistress fair to stray,

Eestore me ; — she'll vouchsafe a smile,
Which might e'en Avarice repay !

The following (taken from the French) was written for the collar
of a dog belonging to a lady, the fairest of the fair, who lived at liarnea
Elms. Tiie author, who bears a well-known name, will not object, it
is hoped, to ita insertion here :

To Barnes Elms take me back if I stray,
For, if you're a wise man that bones me,

You'll find yourself paid beyond pay
In seeing my mietress that owns me.

A distich written on the collar of a pretty little dog, ia found in
Mark Lemon's "Jest Bo(;k." 18G4:

This collar don't l)clong to you. Sir,
I'asH on — or you may have one too, Sir,

For two more dog-collar epigrama see page 323.

614 MODEEN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

ON THE DUCHESS OF YORK LAMENTING HER VAIN
EFFORTS TO RECLAIM AN UNWORTHY OBJECT OF HEB
BOUNTY.

The wretch to guilt and misery flies,
And royal Frederica sighs,

O'er gracious plans defeated ;
Yet deem not, Princess, for yourself,
Tho' lost by that unworthy elf.

Your object not completed :

For long ere this, to heavenly climes,
Your wish to save his soul from crimes,

Has made its blest ascension ;
And in the book that angels read,
The page that should have held your deed

Is filled with your intention !

This is a happy specimen of Lewis' graver style. The point of the
epigram recalls the language of the Psalmist : " Nevertheless, when
they were sick, I put on sackcloth, and humbled my soul with fasting :
and my prayer shall turn into mine own bosom."

JOHN DUNCAN.
Late Master of Arts and Fellow of New College, Oxford.

HERTFORD COLLEGE AND NEW INN HALL. CAPUT, ET
SINE NOMINE CORPUS.

(Cox's " Recollections of Oxford," 1868, 60.)

You have heard of acephalous verses

In this temple of metrical knowledge ;
Things stranger my Muse now rehearses.

For behold an acephalous college.
But wonder succeeds yet to wonders,

(Of greater you scarcely have need,)
Here — a Head lives without any body,

There, a Body without any head.

Reply.

By (or rather for) Mr. Hewett, Self-created Principal of
Hertford College.

Cease, babbler, cease ; a greater wonder see,
A Head, a Body, College all in me.

DB. RICHARD WHATELY — THEODORE EDWARD HOOK. 615

This epigram appeared in the "Oxford Herald," of August 1, 1809.

In 174:(t, Dr. Eichard Newton, Principal of Hart Hall, obtained a
charter for erecting it into Hertford College, which he endowed witli
four fellowships of 13Z. 6s. 8rf. each per annum. The college never
flourished, and on the death of Dr. Hodgson, Dr. Newton's successor,
no one would accept the poor headship of so scantily endowed a house.
Mr. Hewett, one of the fellows, constituted himself vice-principal ; but
at length, the university authorities assumed the power of shutting-up
the college. The ruinous buildings were pulled down, and Magdalen
Hall was erected on the site. But, by the liberality of Mr. Baring, a new
foundation has been created for Hertford College, which has novv taken
the place of Magdalen Hall, whose property is vested in the revived
College.

Dr. Blackstone, Principal of New Inn Hall, held the headship of
that house for thirty-seven years. He was generally non-resident, and,
with the exception of himself, there was not one member on the books.
He resigned in 1831.

DE. EICHARD WHATELY.

Archbishop of Dublin. Bom 1787. Died 1863.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.

(" Notes and Queries," 2nd S. II. 487.)

A proctor of All Souls' College, Oxford, fined an undergraduate for
an offence of which he had not been guilty, and when expostulated
with, replied, " I have the power to fine him, and I shall do so." Upon
this, Whately, then resident at Oriel, produced the following :

" Knowledge is Power," so saith the learned Bacon,
And sure in that, the sage w^as not mistaken ;
But happy would it be for All Souls' College,
If, on the contrary, Power gave Knowledge.

Holy Writ supplies another saying, " Knowledge puffeth up." On
this Sir Thomas More wrote an epigram, which ia tlius translated in
" Fasciculus," 1809, 29 ; " The Portly Priest " :

Much knowledge puffeth up, thou say'st,

And what thou say'st is true:
But, looking at thy breadth of waist,

Scant kiiowle<lge doth it too.

THEODORE EDWARD HOOK,

Celebrated for his wit and ])ow('rH of converMaHoii as well as for his
novels and dramuH, was horn in i7H8, and (•(liicateil ut llarmw. [ii
1813 he wuH ui)|K)irited Acc/)Untnnt-(;eiierftl of tlie iMaiiriliiiH, init a fi w
years afterwards he became resiKjnsible for a large sum which had been

616 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

stolen by his deputy, and in consequence of this, he was for some time
an inmate of the King's Bench, where he employed himself in literary
pursuits. He died in 18-41.

ON THE LATE PAPER WAR BETWEEN ANACREON MOORE
AND THE EDITOR OF A REVIEW.

(" Spirit of the Public Journals," X. 283.)

Wlien Anacreon would fight, as the poets have said,

A reverse he display'd in his vapour ;
For while all his poems were loaded with lead,

His pistols were loaded with paper.

For excuses old custom Anacreon may thank,

The indulgence dcn't let him abuse;
For the cartridge, you'll own, is always made blank,

That is fired away at Eeviews,

Anotlier epigram, " The Hibernian Poet v. the Caledonian Critic ''
(ibid.) espouses tlie other side in the quarrel:

" Send coals to Newcastle," each child may read.
Were, as the proverb teaches, waste indeed !
So Moore aims paper pellets at that head.
By Nature rich — in Caledonian lead.

These epigrams refer to a duel between Bloore and Jeffrey, caused by
the severity of the latter's criticism in the " Edinburgh Review," of
Moore's " Odes and Epistles " published in 1806. The duel, fought at
Chalk Farm, was a ludicrous one, for the seconds put no bullets in the
pistols, and the combatants, ignorant of the cause, were dehghted at
their mutual escape, and became fii'm friends. Byron, in " English
Bards and Scotch Eeviewers," has some amusing lines on the duel :

Health to great Jeffrey ! Heaven preserve his life,

To flourish on the fertile shores of Fife,

And guard it sacred in his future wars,

Since authors sometimes seek the field of Mars !

Can none remember that eventfiU day,

That ever-glorious almost fatal fray,

When Little's leadless pistol met his eye.

And Bow Street myrmidons stood laughing by ?

In Moore's Diary, March, 1844, is tlie following good-natured
' Criticism of Lord Jeffrey " (Lord Russell's " Memoirs, &c., of Thomas
Moore," 1853-6, VII. 367) :

What thanks do we owe, what respects and regards
To Jeffrey, the old nursery-maid of ua bards :
Who, resolved, to the last, his vocation to keep,
First whipped us all round, and now puts us to sleep.

THEODORE EDWARD HOOK. 617

ON THE POPISH PART OF THE CABINET OBJECTING TO
SIT WITH A CLERK.

(Barham's " Lu''e and Eemains of Theodore E. Hook," 1849, II. 45).

The Papists say they will not wait

The Cabinet to clericize —
Their cry is, " Let's exterminate

All Heretics and Herrieses."

'' The appointment of Blr. Herries to the Chancellorship of the
Exchequer was strongly opposed by certain members of the adminis-
tratioQ ; one of whom, Mr. Tierney, is reported to have said, that having
sat forty years in Parliament, he would rather starve, and see all his
family starve, than sit in the same Cabinet with a ' Treasury Clerk !' "
(Xote by the Editor. Ibid.)

ON MB. SHELLEY'S POEM '' PROMETHEUS UNBOUND."
(Barham's " Life and Eemains of Theodore E. Hook," 1849, II. 241).

Shelley styles his new poem "■Prometheus Unbound,"
And 'tis like to remain sc while time circles round ;
For surely an age would be spent in the finding
A reader so weak as to j^ay for the binding.

This is an instance of what Graves, in his " Essay on the Nature of
the Epigram," calls " mixt wit." On punning in general and {luiming
epigrams in particular, there is an esssy in the " Gentleman's Maga-
zine," LXXXV. Part I. 100, a few words from which are worth
quoting : " Punning . . . what then is it ? Is it wit ? Certainly
not. Is it stupidity ? As clearly not. What then is it? In one woni,
it is playing the fool. ' Dulce est desipcre in loco,' it is delightful to be
fooli.sh at tit times: so thinks tlie witty man, and does it for his own
amusement; but he times it well, and he amuses others also. . .
Hence it is, that a punning epigram is generally inferior to any othi r.
For wiiat is formed into an epigram has been the subject of thought
and consideration ; and who would seriously consider liow to jjlay the
fool? Yet there are puns so whimsical, and so unexpected, that they
are amusing even when written down." The author cites the fdUowintc
old epigram, and says: "Was it a stupid man, tiiink you, who maiie
that epigram ? He would be much more stupid who should affirm it.
Yet clearly it is a pun."

Tom prais'd his friend, who chang'd his state,
For binding fast himself and Kate

In union so divine.
" Wedjfxjk 's the end of life," he cried ;
" TfK; true, alas !" said Jack, and wigh'd,

" 'Twill be the end of mine !"

618 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

A few punning epigrams, which, whetlier strictly witty or not, are ai
any rate amusing, may be inserted here as cognate to Hook's epigram,
upon the principle, "Dulce est desipere in loco."

The following was made on Dr. Philemon Holland's translation of
Suetonius Tranquillus :

Pliilemon with ti-anslations does so fill us,
He will not let Suetonius be Tranquillus.
This worthy was commonly called the " Translator-General of his
age." He made this epigi-am upon writing a large f(jlio with a single
pen. (Granger's " Biographical History of England ") :

With one sole pen I writ this book,
Made of a grey goose quill ;
A pen it was when it I took,
And a pen I leave it still.

There were two well-known Sir Thomas Robinsons ; one, of Rokeby
Park, Yorkshire, who was tall and thin, and called " Long Sir Thomas ;"
the other, the diplomatist, afterwards created Lord Grantham, who
was short and fat. On the tall Sir Thomas, Lord Chesterfield com-
posed the following couplet, on the former soliciting his lordship to
honour him with some poetical notice. (Jesse's " George Selwyn and
his Contemporaries," 184:^, I. 160, note) :

Unlike my subject will I frame my song ;
It shall be witty, and it sha'n't be long.

Baptist Noel Turner wrote this on " Tom Tippler " (Nichols' " Literary
Illustrations," VL 190):

As Tom like his father the liquor woidd tip.
He was commonly call'd of the old block a cliip ;
But, as this was not quite the right phrase, by-the-bye,
For your chips are poor drinkers, tho' apt to be dry ;
So Miss Chloe desired, as the merry thought struck her,
That Tom might henceforward be call'd " a young sucker."

The same author wrote the following on himself, " Renunciation of
Poetic Fame " (ibid. 192) :

No, to fame I aspire not, for what can it boot,
That I loiter sometimes at Parnassus' foot ;
Since e'en there I'm a mere accidental sojourner,
Scarce worthy the name of an epigram-Turner.

Samuel Bishop is the author of the next (Bishop's " Poetical Works,"
1796) :

When a bard, o'er his pipe, a dull ditty composes,
And critics, unmerciful, turn up their noses,
With anonymous praises the p:ipers he stuffs,
And the offspring of lohiffs is the parent oi puffs !

Dr. Samuel Goodenough, Bishop of Carlisle, preached before the
House of Commons on tLie Fast Day in 1795, and before the House o'
Lords on a similar solemnity in 1809. It was on one of these occasions

THEODORE EDWARD HOOK. 619

that the following epigram was written (Nichols' " Literary Illustra-
tions," VI. 251) :

'Tis well enough that Goodenough

Before the House should preach, —
For sure-enough full bad-enough

Are those he has to teach.

Henry Hawkins, son of Sir John Hawkins, wrote an epigram, " On a
Lady far advanced in years, and who was a great card-player, having
married her gardener " (Miss Hawkins' " Anecdotes," I, 351) :

Trumps ever ruled the charming maid,
Sure all the world must pardon her ;

The destinies turn'd up — a spade.
She married John, the gaidener.

Cowper wrote this " Impromptu on reading the chapter on Polygamy
in Madan's ' Thelypthora ' " :

If John marries Mary, and Mary alone,

'Tis a very good match between Mary and John.

Should Juhn wed a score, oh, the claws and the scratches !

It can't be a match — tis a bundle of matches.

The next epigram is well known in some of the different versions in
whicii it has appeared. The following, from PuUeyn's " Churchyard
Gleanings and Epigrammatic Scraps," 1830, is perhaps the best :

A vicar, long ill, who had treasured up wraith.
Told his curate each Sunday to pray for his health ;
Which oft having done, a parishioner said,
That the curate ought ratlicr to wish he were dead.
"By my troth," says the curate, " let credit be given,
I ne'er prayed for his death, but I have for his livinp."

In the " Spirit of the Public .Journals," 1815, XVIII. 242, an epigram
is given " On Platoff and Blneher being made Doctors of Civil Law,"
which appeared in the " Morning Chronicle," of July, 19, 1814 :

Platoff and Blneher, thunderbolts of war.
Long taught successfully the Cdniton law,

And slaughter'd hapless millions;
But [K-ace returns — when, as we've lately seen,
They tlirow ai-ide Wut'h fierce, ungentle mien.

And quickly turn Civilians.

The following is by Lord Holland. Moore in his Diary says : " 'I'liis
epigram is very good " ( Lord KuhboU's " Memoirs, &c., of Thomas
Moore," 1853-G, VII. 282) :

A minister's answer is always so kind !

I htarvfjfind lie tells me iie'll keep iik; in mind.

Half hi.-i jironiise', (iud knows, would my spirits restore, —

Let Lim keep me, and, faith, I will ask for no more.

620 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

James Smith, one of the witty authors of " Rejected Addresses," wrote
the following " Impromptu under a Marquee at Fleming House " :

When Parliament-people petition their friends.
The state of the poll on the canvass depends ;
But here we submit to a diif'rent control.
The state of the canvas depends on the pole.

He also wrote an epigram on John Kemble having one of the windows
of his house in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, made double :

Rheumatic pains make Kemble halt,

He, fretting in amazement,
To counteract the dire assault,

Erects a double casement.
Ah ! who from fell disease can run ?

With added ills he's troubled ;
For when the glazier's task is done

He finds his panes are doubled.

This distich is by Rogers, " On the departure of a certain Count
for Italy ; whence he had sent some Italian music in score for the
Opera " :

He has quitted the Countess — -whnt can she wish more ?
She loses one husband and gets back a score.

George Colman, the younger, penned the following epigram, in
which wit and pathos are strikingly combined :

BIy Muse and I, ere youth and spirits fled.
Sat up together many a night no doubt :

But now I've sent the poor old lass to bed,
Simply because my fire is going out.

Dr. Copleston, Bishop of Llandaif, published a collection of Letters,
&c., with a Memoir of J. W. Ward, Earl of Dudley. On tlie appear-
ance of this work, an epigram was circulated ascribed to Croker (Crabb
Robinson's " Diary, &c." 1869, I. 456, note) :

Than the first Martyr's, Dudley's fate

Still harder must be owned,
Stephen was only stoned to death,

Ward has been Coplestoned.

Mr. (afterwards Lord) Brougham, when a candidate for the repre-
sentation of the Coimty of York, made a speech on slavery at a meeting-
house of the Wesleyan Methodists at Newcastle, which produced
the following epigram by Mr. (afterwards Baron) Alderson (" Selec-
tions from the Charges of Baron Alderson. With Life." By Charles
Alderson, 1858,45):

Old Harry of late to a meeting-house went,

And he talked (how he talked !) to their joy and content :

But what did he talk of, to suit that connexion ?

Why, you goose, do you ask ? Sure he talked of Election.

THEODORE EDWARD HOOK. 621

A clever epigram on "Eed Hair " was written by a boy at Tonbridge
Sohool, who was often laughed at for his "carrots" ("Notes and
Queries,"3rdS. IX. 319):

Oh ! why do you laugh at red hair ?

'Tis really a great want of charity ;
'Mougst the Greeks, it is certainly known,

Two at least of the Graces were xop'T*.

The point lies in the use of the dual number, which is entirely lost
in the very incorrect version of this epigram which has occasionally
appeared.

An epigram, entitled, " A Punning Vindication " by " a gentleman
of the Itgal profession in Lancashire, recently deceased," is given in
" Notes and Queries," -ith S. II. 605 :

Hal's blamed for not leading a soberer life.
For spending his cash and neglecting his wife.
Just list to the truth, and then judge for yourself,
If the man's not belied by some slanderous elf:
He, in love with a girl, went discreetly to court her,
Got married, and now scarce does aught but sup-porier.

The same periodical (4th S. III. 488) gives an amusing play upon
the word hishop, a favourite University potation, by Mr. William
Bates :

^Vhen young, I pious learning sought

From many a tome to iish up ;
And then, I'm sure, I always tliought

That Beveridge was a Bishop.

But, come to Granta's bowers, I found —

Oh ! marvel of this clever age ! —
My old idea was twisted round,

For Bishop was a Bevernge !

Horace Smith wrote a clever epigram " On Mr. Gully, the Pugilist,
being returned M.P. for Pontefract ' ("Notes and Queries," 4th S. X.
165):

Strange is it, proud Pontefract's borough sliould sully
Its fame by returning to Parliament, Gully ;
The etymological cause, I suppose, is,
His breaking the bridges of so many noses.

Jenny Lind gave a concert at the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford,
December 1, 1849, the tickets being half a guiiieii. Klit^ left £100 of
the profits to be applied in aid of the local charities. This liberal act
called forth the following lines (Cox'a " Kccollections of Oxford," 18G8,
347):

When warbling throats produce i7aji7i:-note8

Norif griidgt! the bright half-guinea;
The fruits we see of tli<' Linden tree :

God bless thee, vocal Jenny I

622 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

These jesting epigrams, of which, perhaps, the reader may tliink too
many have been given, may be closed by one " On Jesting," by Dr.
James Fordyce (Fordyce's " Poems," 1786, 144) :

Among the follies that discourse infest,

I count the passion for perpetual jest.

Grant the jest good : his judgment were not nice,

Who still should load your plate with salt and spice.

CHAELES TOWNSEND.

Born 1791. Educated at Winchester, and Emmanuel College, Cam-
bridge. Rector of King.ston-by-Sea, Sussex. For many years the friend
and correspondent of W. Stewart Rose, Sir Walter Scott, and most of
the literary celel:>rities of the day. Died 1870.

ON HIS PARSONAGE BEING ENTERED AND ROBBED.
(The " Guardian " newspaper of March 2, 1870.)

They came and prigg'd my stockings, and my linen, and

my store ;
But they could not prig my sermons, for they were

prigg'd before.

Graves makes the prigging of sermons a very venial sin in his
epigram " The Innocent Theft ' (" Euphrosyne," 1783, I. 235):

You tell us. Doctor, " 'Tis a sm to steal ;"
We to your practice from your text appeal :
You steal a sermon, steal a nap ; and pray,
From dull companions, don't you steal away ?

But there is "prigging" and "prigging." The preacher who prigs
a good sermon is readily forgiven, whilst he who prigs a bad one is
looked upon as botli knave and fool. This distinction in stealing is
the point of an epigram on Plagiarism by Janus Pannonius (" Delitise
Delitiarum," 239), thus translated by the Rev. James Davies in the
" Contemporary Review," XIV. 626 :

Pirating Virgil, thou art apt to use
His loans on Homer as a fair excuse.
Quit slialt thou be : nay, placed on poet-roll.
If only thou wilt steal as Virgil stole.

On the subject of stealing the tlioughts of others, John Byrom has
some lines in his " Verses intended to have been spoken at the break-
ing-up of the Free Grammar School in Manchester in the year 1748 "
(Byrom's " Poems," 1773, I. 136.) :

Crime in a poet. Sirs, to steal a thought ?
No, that 'tis not ; if it be good for aught :

CHARLES TOWNSEND. 623

'Tis lawful theft ; 'tis laudable to boot ;

'Tis want of genius if he does not do't :

The fool admires — the man of sense alone

Lights on a happy thought — and makes it all his own.

In Lloyd's prologue to Colman's " Jealous Wife," it is said of the
author of the comedy :

Books too he read, nor blush'd to use their store ;
He does but what his betters did before.
Shakespeare has done it, and the Grecian stage
Caught truth of character from Homer's page.

An anonymous epigram " To a Living Author," in the " Poetical
Register " for 1802, 102, gives very practical, if not very moral,
aiMce :

Your comedy I've read, my friend,

And like the half you pilfer'd best ;
But sure the piece you yet may mend ? —

Take courage, man, and steal the rest.

UPON A DEAD BIRCH-TREE.

(Townsend's "Few Leaves collected together in the Autumn of 1S60.")

A birch of elegant and graceful form,

Loved by the Zephps, spared by every storm,

Lost, tho' refreshing Kotha murmured by,

Its health and beauty, and I'll tell you why —

An active, leam'd scholastic teacher came

To be its owner — of distinguished fame —

The tree in fear of being put by Fate,

To ut^e both savage and indelicate,

Fell sick upon the thought, nor could abide

The shame of its disgrace — but droop'd and died.

The birch-tree wa.s too fastidious. It might have been an honoured
in.strumiTit in the training of many a scholar. Without it, the owner's
school may have been n-diifed to tho htate of the one descrilKil in an
"Epigram on a Icanied but la.\ Pedagogue, In imitation of Dr. Donne"
(<' Gentleman's Magazine," X(JV. Part I. 352) :

Of Lf;mno'H scholars it Ui truly said.
He spares their bmiks iinil ceases to 1x3 head ;
Thus rodiess, ruhlea.s, Lemno finds inoBt clearly.
His scholars masters, he a scholar merely.

624 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

WINTHROP MACKWORTH PRAED,

Bom in 1802, was the son of William Mackworth Praed, serjeant-at-
law, and for many years chairman of the audit board. He was educated
at Eton, and Trinity College, Cambridge, was called to the Bar iu 182^,
and became M.P. for S. Germains, and subsequently for Yarmouth.
He died in 1 839. The following epigrams are taken from his " Poems '
iu two volumes, 1864.

SCBIBIMU8 INDOCTI DOCTIQUE.

Written in Greek and English.

Both the wise and the witless scribble ;
But the wight whom here we bury,

By the grace of the skies

Must have been very wise,
Or very foolish, — very !

He never wrote a stanza :

Small weight will Charon find him ;

The only ghost

Who comes to the coast.
And brings no harp behind him !

This in Greek was one of the Cambridge prize epigrams in the year
1824.

The wisdom of the wight who " never wrote a stanza," is exempliiied
by the merciless sarcasms which in ail ages have been showered upon
scribblers.

A Greek epigram by Lucillius is thus translated by Goldwin Smith
(Jacobs III. 44, Ixxviii.):

Bewail no more that brat of thine,
Marcus, the deadlier death is mine.
To me is due thy elegy
That murdered by thy stanzas lie.
Whoe'er he was that showed to men
The use of paper and of pen.
Heaven grant, to expiate his crimes.
He may be doomed to hear thy rhymes.

Another, by Pollianus, is translated by Dr. Wellesley (Jacobs III
146, ii.):

Some Furies snre possess'd the Nine, what time
They dubb'd thee poet, with thy trashy rhyme.
Scribble away ! If madness be a curse.
What greater can I wish thee than thy verse ?

WINTHROP MACKWORTH PRAED. 625

Martial lashes a tedious poet (Book II. 77). The epigram is amus-
ingly, but inaccurately, translated by Sir Charles Sedley. The point
is, however, correctly rendered :

Coscus, thou say'st my epigrams are long ;

I'd tuke thy judgment on a pot of ale :
So thou may'st say the elephant's too strong,

A dwarf too short, the Pyramid too tall ;
Thinfi:s are not long, where we can nothing spare ;
But. Coscus, even thy distichs tedious are.

One of the mediaeval Latin epigi-ammatists, Janus Pannonius, thus
dispels the hopes of a candidate for fame. (•' DelitisB Delitiarum," 241.
Translated by the Kev. James Davies in the " Contemporary Review,"
XIY. 026) :

The verses, Paul, you sent me to correct.
Return, by pencil-marks at faults unspecked :
Yet boast not, nor delusive hope prolong,
'Tis idle to mark faults, where all is wrong.

Sir John Bowring translates from the Dutch an epigram by Constan-
tijn Huijgens, born in 1596 ("Batavian Anthology; or Specimens
of the Dutch Poets," 1824, 164) :

When Peter condescends to write,
His verse deserves to see the light.
If any further you inquire,
I mean — the candle or the fire.

Freeman, in his " Runne and a great Cast," 1614, Ep. 83, writes:

One told me once of verses that be made
Riding to London on a trotting jade ;
I should have known, had he conccal'd the case,
E'en by his verses of his horse's pace.

Bland has imitated an epigram from the French :

A certain rhymer, who can no'er repose,
Toll! me with tiars of triumph in liis eyes —

"Now, on my kouI, I cannot write in prose."
His verso will prove how nhockingly he lies.

And also the following mock epitaph :

Here lies a youth wlio.se lofty rhymo
Will rciich the goal of latest time,
But hastening on to Fame's abode,
lie died of hunger on the road.

Dr. Walsh inay have taken his epitaph on Otway from the French
one (Walsh's " Bngatellcs," 1793, 63);

Here rests a poet of no vulgiir name,
Who ejnmli'riiig up the unliiouM stoops of Fame,
Just — ere he (-iitTed lier Hiiljliuii' abode,
Dropp'd down, and died with hunger on tlie roud.

2 H

626 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Schlegel wrote an epigram on Kotzebue's play " Ubel Laune," wliicl
is thus translated in Crabb Eobinson's " Diary, &c." 1869, 1. 206 :

Justly and wisely this piece by the author 's entitled " 111 Humour" .
Though in the play 'tis not found, still hy the play 'tis engender'd.

" I thought it (the play) did not justify the epigram," is Crabb
Robinson's remark.

THE ALBUM.

Simples and sages

All write in these pages ! —
As many a weary witling knows,
I'm Susan's Album ! I enclose
Within my green morocco covers
The triflings of a score of lovers,
Roses, lilies, sighings, sadness.
All the armoury of madness.
In Susan's Album, — for it's true
That Susan is a little blue, —
All sorts of people rave and rant,
Both those who can, and those who can't;
And Susan smiles on each sweet ditty
In which her witless slaves grow witty,
And says to all her scribbling suitors —
" Queen Venus is the best of tutors !"

The following, " On a Request to Write in Miss I.'s Album," is by
Captain Morris (" Lyra Urbanica ; or Social Effusions of the ci le-
brated Captain Charles Morris of the late Life-Guards," 1840, II. 263):
To write in an album's a dedicate matter :
If the book be a lady's of course we must flatter ;
But if great mental powers the lady inherit.
Such frivolous folly's the mockery of merit.
Then here, where kind Nature her favours has granted,
Take a truth, where no flourish of Fiction is wanted :
That this album, in all its clioice charms and selections,
Is a very true type of its owner's perfections.

One more album epigram. A lady, witty as fair, pressed a geutln-
man to contribute to her album. Pleading " Nothing to write abimi,
the lady rejoined that she would be quite satisfied if he would vvri'
about " Nothing " (" Notes and Queries," 4th S. IX. 305) :

To please the fair, a luckless wight

Vainly attempts on nil to write.

Brainless ! — Can he her wish fulfil ?

The proverb's true — " Ex nihilo nil."

627

GEORGE VALENTINE COX.

Master of Arts of New College, Oxford ; formerly Master of the New
College School, Esquire Bedel, and Unirersity Coroner. In 18tJ8.
Mr. Cox published a most interesting volume, entitled, "• Recollections
of Oxford," containing many epigrams and anecdotes, and whit tlie
elder Disraeli would have called '• secret history " of University affairs.
The following excellent epigrams, which appeared anonymously in the
" Recollections," are inserted here by the kind permission of their
venerable author.

While these pages were in the press Mr. Cox passed away in his 9 1st
year, leaving many to regret the kindly old man who had lived through
so many changes in the University with which he was connected.

CANNONS AND CANONS.
On the enrolment of the Oxford University Volunteer Corps early in
this century, several clergjmen joined the ranks, conspicuous amongst
whom was Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Barnes, whose active services as Major
were said to have gained him his Canonry at Christ Church. Tliis
produced the fallowing epigram on the difference between a Major and
a Minor Canon :

'Twixt cannons and canons the diff'rence is small,

They can both make a noise, can you say which is louder?

The one fires away from his puli^it and stall,

Quite as much as the other with shot and with powder.

Reply.
I laugh, my good sir, at your late very silly taunt ;
" Great f/uns" are well plac'd in a Church which is " militant.'"

Robert Heath long since pointed out the union between the learning
of the clergy and the valour of the military (''Clarastella," Ib'oU.
Epigrams, Bofjk II 37):

A .soldier found at first the way to print,
And twas a (ierniau 3Ionk did guns invent :
Thus like- arm'd Pallas, 1< arning doth depend
On arniH, nor can they without tliis defend.

EPITAPH FOR CONSTANTINE DEMETRIADKS.
Here in his dirt lies poor old Demctriadcs ;

Your tricks, ye wanton boys, no more can try Jiim ;
Laugh not, ye scouts, weep rather, like the Ilytwies,

But see yo wake him not, — his .stall" lies by him.

Ml. C'lX Htnt^'sthat fVjnstKiitine Demftria<le8, who died in ISK!, wu^
a dirtv old (Jreek who hung altfiut Oxford, takiu'^ rcl'iigr in tiic d' Mriid
rofinis of Hertford College. \\>- was profc«.'<edly a teai-lii-r of niodnn
Sreek, but in reality lived by «i)ongiug ui>on tlie undergnulualcK. Jli

628 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

was never seen without a thick staff to keep off the dof;s ami scouts.
He was the butt of the young men, and was hated and sometimei-
roughly treated by the scouts, for not only devouring breakfasts, but
carrying off the fragments, as he said, eV TroKeTeaa-iv.

The epitaph has much of the Greek style about it, suggested, perhaps,
by the nationality of the old man. It would have been dangerous
Leonidas of Tarentum tells us, to wake Hipponax ; and Hegesippu.-:
advises passers-by to avoid the grave of Timon (Jacobs I. 1S9, Viii.
Translated by Dr. Wellesley) :

Sharp thorns and stakes beset this tomb all round :
Stranger, approach it not, your feet you'll wound.
Timon the misanthrope dwells here. Pass on,
And vent your corses as you pass. Begone.

An epitaph in the " Festoon," by Lord Bristol, shows the danger of
waking one who has been laid in the dust :

Tread softly, reader, lest you wake
The greatest talker that e'er spake :
'Tis chance, but, if her dust you move.
Each atom there a tongue may prove :
And, tho' she rises all alone.
You'll think it a general resurrection.

Can this be the same talkative lady upon whom Aaron Hill wrote
an epitaph ? (Aaron Hill's " Works," 1753, III. 269 ) :
How apt are men to lie ! how dare they say
When life is gone, all learning fleets away ?
Since this glad grave holds Chloe, fair and young,
Who, where she is, first learnt to hold her tongue.

THE OXFORD MEDICAL TRIO.
I would not call in any one of them all,
For only " the weakest will go to the wall ;"
The second, like Death, that scythe-armed mower,
Will speedily make you a peg or two lower ;
While the third, with the fees he so silently earns.
Is " the hourn whence no traveller ever returns."

The trio consisted of Dr. Wall ; Sir Christopher Pegge, who was
Eegius Professor of Medicine from 1801 to 1822 ; and Dr. Bourne.

It is, perhaps, because the greatest benefits are commonly received
with the least gratitude, that epigrammatic wit, both in ancient and
modem times, has been lavishly expended on the professors of the
healing art. Certain it is, whatever be the cause, that they have
called forth many excellent epigrams, and none more witty than Mr.
Cox's. The few which are brought together here will probably be
read with as much amusement by the doctors as by their patients.

An anonymous Greek epigram (Jacobs IV. 137, xcvi.) is thus trans
lated by Shepherd :

GEORGE VALENTINE COX. 629

A sexton and a grave physician

Once made a jiainful coalition.

The sexton gave his friend the garment

Of each corpse brought him for interment ;

The doctor all his patients hurried

Off to the sexton to be buried.

.Jartial is equally severe (Book VIII. 74:. Translated by Hay) :

A Doctor lately was a captain made :
It is a change of title, not of trade.

Again, he writes on a pilfering doctor in an epigram, the idea of
whicli is common to himself and the Greek epigrammatist, Callictti
(Book IX. 97. Translated by Hay) :

A Quack, who stole his patient's cup, did cry.

Caught in the fact, " What ! would you drink, and die ?"

One of the mediaeval epigrammatists, Jlaximilianus Urientius, writes
on '• The Phvsician, the Surgeon, and the Hangman" (Dclitise Deli-
t:arum," 173) :

How differs, I pray, the Physician's part
From his brother, the Surgeon's healing art '■:
I tell you, the one by his drugs and pills,
By his knife the other, the churchyard fills :
This diff'rence only from the Hangman's seen.
Their work's clumsy and slow, his quick and clean.

Ben Jonson writes wittily on "The Disease and the Doctor"
(Ep. 13):

When men a dangerous disease did 'scape,
Of old, they gave a cock to iEsculape ;
Let me give two, that doubly am got free,
From my disease's danger, and from thee.

Herrick looks upon " Leech " as one who thinks much more of his
own advantage than of bis patient's cure, though the patient was his
father :

Leech boasts, he has a Pill, that can alone.
With speed give sick men their salvation :
'Tiw strange, his Father long time has been ill.
And credits Physick, yet not trusts his Pill :
And why ? be knowes he must of Cure despaire,
Wiio iijiikes Ihe alio Physitian his Heire.

Graves gives a picture of three doctors, in whom self-interest was the
iroiiiinent characteristic ("' Euphrosyne," 1783, I. 251):

Three Doctors, met in consultation.
Proceed with great dclibiTiition.
The case was desperate, all agreed;
But wbat of that? they must be feo'd.

630

MODEEN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

They write then (as 'twas fit they should)
But for their own, not patient's good.
Consulting wisely (don't mistake, Sir)
Not what to give, but what to take, Sir.

Another epigram by Graves, " On Dr. Eadcliffe and Sir Godfrey
ft.neller," is well known (Ibid I. 271) :

Sir Godfrey and Radcliife hud one common way
Into one common garden — and each had a key :
Quoth Kneller, " I'll certainly st(ip up that door.
If ever I find it lock'd up any more."
" Your threats," replies Kadcliffe, " disturb not my ease ;
And so you don't paint it, e'en do what you please.' '
" You're smart," rejoins Kneller ; " but say what you will,
I'll take any thing from you — but potion or pill."
if Dr. Eadcliife had been such a physician as the one described ir.
the next epigram. Sir Godfrey's decision would have been wise. It is
by Boileau, one of his epigrams addresstd to Perrault (Ep. 24.), thus
translated in the " Gentleman's Magazine," LXXXIV. Part II. 6-4 :
You s:iy without either reward or fee,

Your uncle cur'd me of a dangerous ill :
I say, he never did prescribe for me ;

The proof is plain — you see I'm living still.
In the middle of the last century there was a quack oculist named
Taylor, who called himself "The Clievulier Taylor." On this man
Horace Walpole wrote the following epigram (Walpole's " Letters to
Sir Horace Mann," 1833, III. 348) :

Why Taylor the quack calls liimself Chevalier,

'Tis not easy a reason to render ;
Unless he would own, what his practice makes clear.
That at best he is but a Pretender.

The point of the epigram refers, of course, to the Chevalier de
S. George.

The next epigram shows the Faculty quite at fault. It is translated
by Bland from the French, and is found in the notes to his "Collections
from the Greek Anthology," 1813, 469 :

A fat old friar of seraphic face.

Who thirty years of meagrim had complain'd,

Convened one day the Hippocratic race.

And to the synod thus himself explain'd.

Grave sons of Pharmacy, your aid bestow —

But in my case I warn you to forego

All drugs, herbs, unguents, lenitive and bleeding,

And every other medical proceeding.

At this each doctor shook his sapient head.

Till, hemming thrice, the elder gravely said,

" What treatment. Sir, demand you for your pair ?"

—Treatment ! exert your art — prescribe— ordain

To make it last me thirty years again.

GEORGE VALENTINE COX G31

The nest epigram, by the witty Jekyll, shows tlmt life is dependent
upon the absence of one, still more of a plurality of physicians
(••Xotes and Queries," 5th S. I. 228, 358). The epigram is given witli
some variations in Nichols' " Select Collection of Poems," 1780, VI. 308 :

See one physician, like a sculler, plies,
The patient lingers and by inches dies.
But two physicians, like a pair of oars,
"Waft him more swiftly to tfie Stygian shores.
Tlie following, " On an Amorous Doctor," by S. T. Ccleridge, is quite
touchingly romantic :

From Rufa's eye sly Cupid shot his dart,

Aud left it sticking in Sangrado's heart.

No quiet from that moment has he known.

And peaceful sleep has from his eyelids flown ;

And opium's force, and what is more, alack !

His own orations cannot bring it back.

In short, unless she pities his afflictions.

Despair will make him take his own prescriptions.
Richard Polwhele, a witty Cornish clergyman, horn in 1759, wrote
an epigram, " Die of the Doctor," the point of which was probably taken
from a Greek epigram by NicHrchus or from a similar one by Martial.
See page 52. (Polwhele's '■ Keminiscences in Prose and Verse," ISiiti,
I. 161) :

" The Doctor ! the Doctor !" he made such a rout,

But now he's clean gone, all is coming about ;

The pulse in each patient, too quick or too slow,

Tlie moan of despondence, the visage of woe —

Where are tliey ? — Say, where is the tic iloloureux?

'Twas his ominous phiz of dire import that shock'd her ! —

And well nigh my daughter had " died of the Doctor !"

The following humorous epitaph from " Nuga Canoraj," 1827, is by
William Wadd, a London surgeon of mucli celebrity in his day :

Here lies in repose, after great deeds of blood,

An Hospital Surgeon thorough !
Who hied for liis own and his (Jduntri/n good

At Saint Thomas's Hosfiital, Borough.

After these highly-seasoned epigrams, one which is not satirical
make.-i a pleasant change. It is tranrtiated from the French of Ticmiirn
bv Arclideacon Nares (" CJiiitleinan's Magazine," LXXXVII. r;iii I
445) :

Nature and Sickness fight ;— a Man the prize ; —
If Nature wiriM, hi- lives; — if Sickness — dits.
I'liiid Men CcalI'd DucturH) come, the fray t" part,
With random btrokoH of weajHiMs forg'd by Art.
If ehancf they hit the f«M-, the day's tlioir own ;
If Nature gets tlie hurt, the patii rit's gone.

As the last of these epigrnms on the medical proh ssion, one of a very

632 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

different character may be given, and will be admired. It was ad-
dressed by James Smith (of " Rejected Addresses " memory) to the
celebrated Dr. Paris on his birthday :

Namesake of Helen's faYOurite boy.

Who shunn'd the martial fray,
May all your days be days of joy,

Like this, your natal day.
My votive glass — not pledg'd by stealth,

I fill at Bacchus' shrine ;
And thus, convivial, drink your health,
Whose skill establish'd mine.

QN APPROACHING THE LARGE TOMB OF A LITTLE BOY.

A young chorister of Magdalen College, Oxford, named Bird, was
bui'ied on November 7, 1856, at the burying-ground of S. Cross. A
monument was soon after raised to his memory, upon a scale rather
large and grand for its little occupant, which produced the following
epigram :

I saw the tomb and cried, with, deep surprise,
" Surely some great one 'neath that structure lies."
I read, and found a little " Bird " at rest,
A bird too humble for so large a nest.

The following epitaph on Mrs. Susanna Bird, who died in 1784, at
the age of twenty-four years, is on a tombstone in Midnapore burial-
ground ("Notes and Queries," 4th S. VII. 280, from the "Man-
chester Guardian " of December 14, 1870) :

The Bird confined within this cage of gloom,
Tho' faded lier fine tints, her youthful bloom.
Tho' no soft note drop from her syren's tongue.
By sleep refresh'd more beauteous, gay, and young.
Will rise from earth, her seraph's wings display, *»

And chaunt her anthems to the God of day.
Epitaphs which play on the name of the deceased, are often heavy
and far-fetched, but the following from Langford Church, Berkshire, of
the date 1691, is both quaint and simple (" Notes and Queries,"
3rd S. X. 410) :

Within this little howse three Howses lye,

John Howse, James Howse, the short-liv'd twins, and I

Anne, of John Howse, once the endeared wife.

Who lost mine own to give those babes their life.

We three, though dead, yet speak, and put in mind

The husband, father, whom we left behind.

That we were howses only, made of clay,

And call'd for could no longer with him stay ;

But were layd here to take our rest and ease.

By death, who takcth whom and where he please.

633

DE. BENJAMIN HALL KENNEDY.

Kegius Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge, and
Canon of Ely. Formerly Head Master of Shrewsbury School.

ON A BOOK ENTITLED " WHO WROTE ICON BASILIKE:'
BY DR. CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH, MASTER OF
TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

(" Notes and Queries," 2nd S. III. 417).

Who wrote, " Who wrote Icon Basilike ?"

I, said the Master of Trinity,

With my small ability,

I wrote, " Who wrote Icon Basilike ?"

This has sometimes been ascribed to Archbishop WLately, but that
prelate had no connection with Cambridge. A correspondent of
" Notes and Queries " (at above reference) writes : " I have always
heard it ascribed to Benjamin Hall Kennedy, who being, at the timo
Dr. Wordsworth's book appeared, a fellow of S. John's, wrote it, and
placed it on tlie screen at Trinity."

The ei^igram is a parody of the nursery song ;

Who kill'd Cock Eobin?

I, said the Sparrow,
With my bow and arrow,

I kill'd Cock Kobin.

Some good epigrams have been written, from time to time, on Masters
of Trinity. Two or three may be collected here.

The f(jllowing is by Gray, "On Dr. Robert Smith, Master of Trinity,
who had published a celebrated book on optics, when nearly blind, and
cut down a row of chestnut trees " (Professor Pryme's " Autobiographic
Recollections," 1870, 277) :

Do you ask why old Focus Sylvanus defies,
And won't sulfcr a chestnut m being?
'Tis not for the prospect, because he's no eyes,
But because he has writ about seeing.

Gray had probably an unfiivourable opinion of Dr. Smith on account
of the a.ssistiince wliicli the latter, to liis di.scredit, gave to the licen-
tious Earl of Sandwich, when a candidate for the oflice of Iligli Steward
of tlic University in 17()i ; wlalst (Jray UHcd cvc'ry etfort for tin; reHpcct-
ablo and suca-SHfuJ caniiidatc, the Ivul of llardwick"-. Sen ])agi iO'.i.

The late celfbiatcd Mast/er of Trinity, Dr. VVhi well, was a man of
too marked a character to escupc criticism, as shown ijy the following
epigi am :

634 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

Should a man thro' all worlds to far galaxies travel,
And the mystery of planets remotest unravel,
He would find, tho' he vt-ntur'd to fathom infinity,
That the great work of God is — the Master of Trinity.

To some one who said, " Whewell's forte is science," Sydney Smith
replied, " Yes, and his foible is omui-science." The epigram, like this
remark, is severe, but very witty. Dr. Whewell, however, could atford
to smile at all such sarcasms, for to him the Greek epigram of Oneste^
might have been addressed (Jacobs III. 3, iii. Translated by Major
Macgregor) :

Tho' hard the laboxu* to ascend the Heliconian mount.
Yet there one sips the nectar-drops from Pegasus' pure fount ;
So Wisdom's road is also steep ; but if its utmost height
One reach, Pierian Muses there with favours shall requite.

It is well remarked by Lord Neaves, in reference to this epigram,
that " in classical writers the Muses do not represent, as they do with
us, the power of poetry or even of literature only, but embrace the
whole range of the sciences, including physical science." The epi-
gram is, therefore, singularly appropriate to tlie famous Master of
Trinity.

It is well known that Dr. Whewell and Sir David Brewster were
opponents on the subject of the " Plurality of Worlds." Their rival
books produced the following epigram in " Punch " :

Says Brewster to Whewell, " Let's fi-ght a star duel.
Though you're very cruel to raise such a strife :

What ! Nature make worlds for mere lanterns or fuel !
I tell you all planets are swarming with life."

Says Whewell to Brewster, '' You old cock o' rooster,
Why will you anew stir the question with me ?

Excepting our planet, Creation's whole cluster
Is as empty as you and your volume, Sir D."

In connection with epigrams on Masters of Trinity, perhaps Person's
witty epitaph on a Fellow of Trinity may be introduced :

Here lies a Doctor of Divinity ;

He was a Fellow too of Trinity ;
He knew as much about Divinity,

As other Fellows do of Trinity.

The following amusing translation, by Mr. James Crossley, of some
Latin lines on drinking, supposes that at any rate the Master, if not
the Fellows, of Trinity are learned in Divinity ("Notes and Queries'
4th S. V. 9) :

When a bottle of excellent wine I've been drinking,
It makes me look wise and talk Latin like winking ;
But after three bottles, in arts and divinity
I am then a full match for the Master of Trinity.

635

JAMES HAXNAY.

A cadet of au ancient Galloway family. He was for a few years iu
the Royal Navy, and after leaving the service dedicated the remainder
of his life to literature. The folldwino; epigrams are taken from his
" Characters and Criticisms : a Book of Miscellanies," 1865.

THE JEALOUS LORD.

Lord Booby hates Disraeli ; — Stop a bit ;

His principles? A\Tiat then ? He hates his wit!

.\ French epigram (translated by Bland) shows the state of an envious
man. whetlier his envy proceed from hatred of the wit, or any other
good, iu another person :

What makes the envious Phorbas walk

Alone, and sad, in the parterre ;
And raise his eyes, and inly talk.

And stamp his foot, and rend his hair ?
Say, has he met with some distress ?

Far from it — all his agitation
Only proceeds from the success

Of some acquaintance or relation.

Byron, in " English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," has :
While Canning's colleagues hate him for his wit.

HOW TO WHITE A BIOGRAPHY.
Take your facts from the last man ; — let no theft appal ye ;
Then, take thought from Carlyle, and take style from

Macau lay ;
Throw in plenty of " sympathy," — rubbing your eyes

about
Men whom, if living, you'd snub and tell lies about :
Pass the word to the critics, and fling your pen down.
And your bran-new biography's out on the town.

It may be amusing to give a receipt for a particular biography,—
tliut of Dr. Parr. "On the Doctor's (Dr. Parr) disparaging Mason as
a feeble poi-t and without nerve, Green (Thomas Green, Imrn at Mon-
mouth in 17(jl», who devoted himself to literature, and kejjt a diary
witii undcviating exactness, whence this anccih^te is extracted), us a
proof cf the contrary, recited to liim the following epigram. The
Doctor was greatly agitated at the recital, but allowed that here was
energv and power enough" ("Gentleman's Magazine,'' New Series
III. V6\):

To half of Buxhy'it skill in mood and tense,
Add JJentley's pedantry without his uensw ;

636 MODEKN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

From Warhurton take all the spleen you find,

But leave the genius and the wit behind ;

Squeeze Churchill's rancour from the verse it flows in,

And knead it stiff with Johnson's turgid prosing ;

Take all the piety of loose Voltaire,

Mix the gross compound— _/iaf Dr. Parr !

It need hardly be remarked that there is more energy than accuracy
in this receipt for a biography of the celebrated scholar.

Ben Jonson has an epigram on a Plagiary of other men's " facts " and
" thoughts " and " style " (Ep. 81) :

Forbear to tempt me, Proule, I will not show

A line unto thee, till the world it know ;
Or that I've by two good sufficient men,

To be the wealthy witness of my pen :
For all thou hear'st, thou swear'st thyself did'st do.

Thy wit lives by it, Proule, and stomach too.
Which, if thou leave not soon (though I am loth)

I must a Hbel make, and cozen both.

It was Dr. Johnson's misfortune that he tiusted Mrs. Piozzi in a way
Ben Jonson would not trust Proule, and thus enabled her to send a
" bran-new biography out on the town," in the shape of the Doctor's
private and confidential letters. In the publication of this volume, she
was thought to have been actuated more by vanity and interest (Proule's
wit and stomach) than a regard to the literary reputation of her friend,
whose ghost, offended at the liberty she had taken, is supposed to
address her in the following amusing epigrammatic lines (" Gentle-
man's Magazine," LXXVIII. Part I. 429) :

Where Streatham spread its plenteous board,

I open'd Learning's valued hoard,
And, as I feasted, pros'd :

Good things I said, good things I eat,

I gave you knowledge for your meat.
And thought th' account was clos'd.

If obligations still I ow'd,

You sold each item to the crowd ;

I sufter'd by the tale :
For God's sake, Madam, let me rest.
Nor longer vex your quondam guest —

I'll pay you for yom* ale.

DAME IDA PFEIFFEB.

Through regions by wild men and cannibals haunted,
Old Dame Ida Pfeiffer goes lone and undaunted ;

But, bless you, the risk's not so great as it's reckon'd,
She's too plain for the first, and too tough for the second.

JAMES HANNAT. 637

The " unprotected female " is becoming a being of the past, for ladies
now profess to be able not only to protect themselves, but the men also
The " change time affords " in feminine habits is amusingly shown in
an epigram, " On the Ladies of the Close of Salisbury acting ' Elvira,' "
found iu the " Correspondence of the first Earl of Malmesbury," 1870,
I. 285 :

In good Queen Elizabeth's reign,

In a decent and virtuous age,
That they ne'er might give modesty pain,

No female appeared on the stage.
But lo, what a change time affords !

The ladies, 'mong many strange things.
Call for helmets, for breeches, and swords,
And act Senators, Heroes, and Kings.

The Editor of the " Correspondence " states that these lines appeared
in the " Bath Journal " of November 17, 1774.

Maloni', in his " Historical Account of the English Stage," informs
us that Desdemona was the first cliaracter ever performed by a female
in this country, and that the occasion was probably December 8, IGGO,
at the theatre in Vere Street, near Clare Market. The prologue, written
to introduce a female, was by Thomas Jordan, and contained the
following lines (Boswell's edition of Malone's " Shakespeare," 1821,
III. 128):

In this reforming age

We have intents to civilize the stage.

Our women are defective, and so siz'd,

You'd think they were some of the guard disguis'd :

For, to speak truth, men act, that are between

Forty and fifty, wenches of fifteen ;

With lx)ne so large, and nerve so iiicompliant.

When you call Desdemona, enter Giant.

BLOGG ON THE CLASSICS.
" I'll put down Latin," Blo<;g says, " for I hate it :
Blogg can't destroy, moic than he can translate it.

" When Latin's settled, I will put down Greek, too. '
Doe.s he know Homer ? — Yes, but not to speak to.

Martial has an epigram on a conceited but ignorant man (Book
51). The tranwlation is anonymous:

H(! whoso left arm loadon with books you see,
And throng'd with busy clerks to tliat degree,
Whose face cfmiposed jittentivily does bear
CauHCH and snitw jKiiir'd in at cither ear.
Most like a Cato, 'I'ully, or a Brute,
If put upon the rack could not naluto
In I>Htin, Arn, or x°'h" '" the (Ircek :
And, if thou doubt the trutli, let's to hiui speak.

638 MODERN EPIGBAMMATI8TS.

In another epigram, entitled, "Blogg on Family," Mr. Hannay
says :

^logg sneers at ancient birth ; — yes, Blogg, we see.

Your ears are longer than your pedigree.

He was, probably, therefore, not an " essenced fop," as gentlemen of
that kind usually aifect good birth, though they have it not. Still the
following epigram applies partly, at any rate, to him, and entirely to
many who " know Homer, but not to speak to." It appeared in the
"Morning Chronicle," at the time that Toby, the Sapient Pig, was
exhibited in London (" The Book of Table Talk," 1836. II. 88,^ :

I passed through London's gorgeous shops

And London's daily fogs.
And wondered at her essenced fops,

And educated hogs.
Methinks, if these would change, 'twere well,

And might improve the nation.
Did pigs aspire to savoury smell,

And men to education.

THEOLOGICUS INDOCTUS " LIBERA LEM" SE JACTANS

Quoth Principal Jubbles, that " Liberal " card.

Let us widen our doctrine, old Calvin was hard.

Ah, ha! cries a student, that's just why you hate bim,

You find him too hard when you've got to translate him.

An epigi-am " On three Preachers of S. Mary's, in Cambridge, attack-
ing Calvin," refers to men very unlike Principal Jubbles (Professor
Pryme's " Autobiographic EecoUections," 1870, 155) :
Butler in clearness and in force surpass'd :
Malthy with sweetness spoke of ages past :
Whilst Marsh himself, who scarce could farther go,
With criticism's fetters bound the foe.
As the following epigram refers to Scotland, and the statement on
which it is founded may refer, i^erhaps, to the teaching of such men as
Principal Jubbles, it may be inserted here. It was written at Cam-
bridge, and is said to be founded on an assertion made by Mr. Froudo
at Edinburgh, that clerical writers are not truthful, and on another by
Canon Kingsley, that no truth is to be found in historians (" Notes and
Queries," 5th S. II. 100) :

Froude informs the Scottish youth
That parsons have no care for truth ;
While Canon Kiugsley loudly cries
That history is a pack of lies.
What cause for judgment so malign?
A brief reflection solves the mystery ;
For Froude thinks Kingsley a divine.
And Kingsley goes to Froude for history.

639

ALFRED TENNYSON.

Poet Laureate.

TO CERISTOPHEB NORTH.

You did late review my lays,

Crusty Christopher ;
You did mingle blame and praise,

liusty Christopher.
When I learnt from whom it came,
I forgave j'ou all the blame,

Musty Christopher ;
I could not forgive the praise.

Fusty Christopher.

This was addressed to Christopher North in reply to a critique in
" Blackwood's Magazine." The lines arc now a literary curiosity.
They are printed in the edition of 183;-$ of Mr. Tennyson's "Poems,"
l)iit have been omitted in subsequent editions.

Tlie poet'.s forgiveness of the Keviewer's blame, and rejection of his
praise, recalls (jMre the shade of clever old Christopher North) an
amusing epigrammatic fable by the Spanisii poet Don Tliomas de
Yriarte, bom about 1750, translated by Roscoe in Sismondi's " Litera-
ture of the riouth of Europe." A dancing bear happens, in the exercise
of his profession, to be ridiculed by a monkey and praised by a pig ;
the eulogy of the one, however, offends him more than the sneers of
the other :

When the sly monkey called me dunce,

I entertained a slight misgiving ;
But, pig, thy praise has proved at once.

That dancing will not earn my living.
Let every candidate for fame

Rely upon thi.i wholesome rule,
Your work i.s bad if wise men l)lame,
lint w(jr.se if lauded by a fool.

The danger of praise from the unworthy or the incompetent li is Ikcii
pointed out in all ag<:s; and it is charitalile to believe tiiat anectinnate
eon^ideration for the best interests of tiioso addressed is tiie cause
of th<; l;itter severity of many modern epigrams. The writi'rs have
certniidy car(;fully followed tlioso pungent rctu'ipts which apply lo Ihe
Uonian and the French rather than to tin; (Jreek e|)igrani.

A few re<.'eiptH for making epigrams (in addition to those given al
[Kige 432) may form a suitable chmn to this volunio.

An epigram l)y ISIurtial, addresH<-d to an epigranimatiHt wlioni hti
calls bad, i<ut who, perhaps, wrote after the (iretk maninr, niiiy have
ftuggestcd wjmcof the modem receipts (Book VII. '2Ci. Translati'd by
Hay):

640 MODERN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

In all the epigrams you write, we trace
The sweetness, and the candour of your face.
Think you a reader will for verses call,
Without one dram of salt or drop of gall ?
'Tis vinegar gives relish to our food :
A face that cannot smile, is never good.
Smooth tales, like sweet-meats, are for children fit :
High-season'd, like my dishes, be my wit.

The following receipt is anonymous (" Contemporary Keview," XIV.
617):

Take a portion of wit.
And fashion it fit.
Like a needle with point and with eye,
A point that can wound,
An eye to look round.
And at folly or vice let it fiy.

The next is by Dr. Walsh (Walsh's " Bagatelles," 1793, 50) :

An epigram should be — if right

Short, simple, pointed, keen, and bright,

A lively little thing !
Like wasp with taper body — bound
By lines — not many, neat and round.

All ending in a sting.

Some modern epigrammatists would complain of want of seasoning
in the following — a receipt which might have been used by many of
the Greek writers (" Notes and Queries," 3rd S. VII.) :

An epigram should, like a pin, conjoint

In its small compass, thow both head and point.

These receipts may be concluded with some lines which are appli-
cable to the finest epigrams both of ancient and modern times. They
were placed on the title-page of one of the earliest of the English
Collections to show that the chief virtues of an epigram are brevity
and sweetness ("Collection of Epigrams," 1735):

If true that notion, which but few contest.
That, in the way of wit, short things are best ;
Then in good epigrams two virtues meet;
For 'tis their glory to be short, and sweet.

641

APPENDIX.

BOOKS CONNECTED WITH EPIGRAMMATIC
LITERATURE.

The following list of books may be useful to students of
Epigrammatic Literature. It is not requisite to mention
any of the works which must form the basis of all study
of this subject — such as the Greek and Latin Antho-
logies ; the principal English poets, major and minor,
from Chaucer to the present time ; and the well-known
writers of Latin epigrams — Buchanan, Owen, and others ;
whilst the ordinary sources whence translations from the
Greek and Latin may be obtained are too generally known
to require to be specified. The chief object of the list is to
call attention to scarce volumes of epigrams by authors of
the 17th century, whose names are now little known;
to indicate some of the numerous collections of scattered
pieces, which issued thick and fast from the press in the
18th century, and a few of those works in which epigrams
are found imbedded in the midst of other matter, chief
among which are the " Gentleman's Magazine," and one
of the most valuable of modern periodicals, " Notes and
(Queries." The liht is only a selection from the mass of
volumes which it has been found necessary to examine for
this work ; and it is needless to say, that it does not
contain a lithe of the works connected with Epigrammatic
Literature which are accessible in the British Museum and
other public libraries.

The edition given is that which has been used.

"John IIcywood'H Workn. A <linlf)f(uo containing t\ic. niiinhor of the
effoctuul provorbH, &c. &c. Witli one hundred of oi)igiuni,i : and threci
hundred of epigrama upon three hundred proverba: and a tilth hundred

2 T

642 APPENDIX.

of epigrams. Whereunto are newly added a sixth hundred of epigrams
by the said John Heywood." London, 1576.

" Chrestoleros. Seven Books of Ei:ugranis, written by T. B." (Thomas
Bastard). London, 1598.

" Laqiiei Ridicidosi : or Springes for Woodcocks. By Henry Parrot."
London, 1613.

" Linsi-W'oolsie, or Two Centuries of Epigrams. Written by William
Gamage, Bachelor in the Arts." Oxford, 1613.

" Rubbe and a Great Cast." And " Eunne and a Great Cast. The
second bowle." "Epigrams by Thomas Freeman, Gent." London,
1614.

" New Epigrams and a Satyre. Written by Jos. Martyn, a Well-
wisher to Study." London, 1621.

" Quodlibets lately come over from New Britaniola, Old Newfound-
land. Epigrams and other small parcels, both moral and divine. The
lirst four books being the author's own ; the rest translated out of that
excellent Epigrammatist, Mr. John Owen, and other rare authors.
With two epistles of that excellently wittie Doctor Francis Eablais.
Translated out of his French at large. All of them composed and
done at Harbor-Grace, in Britaniola, anciently called Newfound-Land.
By R. H. (Robert Hayman), sometime Governor of the Plantatiou."
London, 1628.

" The most Elegant and Wittie Epigrams of Sir John Harington,
Knight. Digested into Four Books." London, 1633.

" IMirror of the New Reformation. Epigrams on the Reforpaers."
(In the British Museum copy this title is in MS., taken from a book-
seller's catalogue.) Paris, 1634.

" Delitiaj Delitiarum. sive Epigrammatum ex optimis quibusque
hujus et novissimi seculi poetis in amplissima ilia Bibliotheca Bod-
leiana, &c. Opera Ab. Wright, Ait. Bac. et S. Joan. Bapt. CoU. Socii."
Oxonise, 1637.

" Two Books of Epigrams and Epitaphs. Dedicated to two top-
branches of Gentry, Sir Charles Shirley, Baronet, and William Daven-
port, Esquire. Written by Thomas Bancroft." London, 1639.

"ClarasteUa; together with Poems occasional, Elegies, Epigrams,
Satires. By Robert Heath, Esquire." London, 1650.

" Epigrams, Theological, Philosophical, and Romantic. Six Books.
Also the Socratic Session, or the Arraignment and Conviction of Julius
Scaliger ; with other Select Poems. By S. Sheppard." London, 1651.

"Paradoxes, Problems, Essays, Characters written by Dr. Donne,
Dean of Paul's. To which is added a book of epigrams written in
Latin by the same author; tran.slated into Englishby J. Maine, D.D.
As also Ignatius his Conclave, a Satire, &c. &c." Loudon, 1652.

APPENDIX. 643

•* Recreation for Ingenious Head-pieces. Or a Pleasant Grove for
theii- Wits to Walk in." London, 1654.

" Ex Otio Negotium, or MartiaU his Epigrams translated. Wit)
6Tmdry Poems and Fancies. By E. Fletcher." London, 1656.

" UuTpiKSv SSipov, or a Legacy to his Sons : Being a Miscellany o.
Precepts, Theological. Moral, Political, CEconomical. Digested into
Seven Centuries of Quadrins. By Henry Delaune." 2nd edition,
1657.

"Poems or Epigrams, Satires, Elegies, Songs and Sonnets upon
several Persons and Occasions." By John Eliot. London, 1658.

" Pariiassi Puerperivmi." Consisting of Translations from Owen and
Sir Thomas More : and a Century of Epigrams, by Thomas Pecke.
London, 1659.

•' Sales Epigrammatum : Being tiie choicest Distichs of Martial's
Fourteen Books of Epigrams ; and of all the chief Latin Poets that liave
writ in these last two centuries. Together with Cato's Morality. Made
English by James Wright." London. 1663. (Tliis volume contains
the distichs from Abraham Wright's " Delitiae Delitiarum.")

" Epigrams of All Sorts, made at several Times, on several Occasions
By liichnrd Flecknoe. Being ratiier a new work than a new impression
of the old." London, 1671.

" Wit's Interpreter. The English Parnassus. Songs, Epigrams,
Epitapiis, Drolleries, &c. The Third Edition, with many Additions. Bv
J. C." London, 1671.

" Miscellaneous Poems, by Andrew Marvell, Esq." London, 1681.

" John Cleveland's revised Poems, Orations," &c. &c. London,
1687.

" All Ovid's Elegies : Three Books. By C. M. (Christopher Miirlowe).
Epigrams by J. D. (Sir John Davies). At Middluburg." (No date.)

" Tiie Mastivc, or Young- Whelpe of the Olde-Doggo. Epigrams ami
Satires." (No date.) (The Preface is signed " H. P."j

" Epigrams upon the Paintings of the most eminent Masters, Ancient
and Modern. With Kcfloctious upon the several Schools of Painting,
by J. E., Esq." (Joim IClsum). London, 1700.

" Poems on AflGairs of State." 4 vols, London, 1703-1707.

" Oxford iiud Cambridge Miscellany Poems." (Edited by Fenton.)
London, 1709.

" Poetif-al MiscellanieB,coi)8iHting of original Poems and translations
by the best handa. Publislied by Mr. Steele." London, 1714.

" Misi-ellnny Poems. Containing a variety of now tnuisiHtionH of the
Ancient Poets: together with Hovfrnl original I'ociuh. l{y tiie inciHt
eminent bfind-!. Published by Mr. Drydon. The Fourth Edition." Cvolb.
Loudon, 1716.

644 APPENDIX.

'' A New Miscellany of Original Poems, Translations, and Imitations.
By the most eminent hands." (Edited by Hammond.) London, 1720.

" The Grove ; or a Collection of Original Poems, Translations, &c., by
W. Walsh, Dr. J. Donne, &c. &c." (Edited by Walsh.) London, 172L

" The Works of Mr. Henry Needier. Published by Mr. Duncombe."
London, 1728.

'' Tlie London Medley ; containing the Exercises spoken by several
young Noblemen and Gentlemen at the Annual Meeting of the West-
miiister Scholars, on the 28th of January, 1730-1, at Westminster
School."

" The Honey-Suckle, consisting of original Poems, Epigi-ams, Songs,
Tales, Odes, and Translations. By a Society of Gentlemen.'' London,
1734.

" A Collection of Epigrams. To which is prefixed a Critical Disser-
tation on this Species of Poetry." 2 vols. London, 1735-37.

" Poems on Several Occasions." By Mary Barber. London, 1735.

"Poems on Several Occasions." By Stephen Duck. London, 1736.

" Wit's Cabinet ; or Companion for Young Men and Ladies." London,
1737.

'' Tiliscellany Poems. By a Gentleman of Oxford." London, 1737.

" A Collection of Miscellany Poems, never before published." London,
1737.

" Epigrams in Distich." London, 1740.

"The British Apollo, containing two thousand answers to curious
questions in most arts and sciences, serious, comical, and humorous,
&c. &c. Performed by a Society of Gentlemen." Fourth edition.
8 vols. London, 1740.

" The Foundling Hospital for Wit ; intended for the reception and
preservation of such brats of Wit and Humour, whose parents choose to
drop them." London, 1743, &c.

" A Collection of Original Poems and Translations. By John Whaley,
M.A., Fellow of King's Coll., Cambridge." London, 1745.

" Theatre of Wit ; or a Banquet of the Muses." London, 1746.

" Poems on Various Subjects and Occasions. By the Honourable
Alexander Eobert.son of Struan, Esq." Edinburgh. No date. (1750 ?)

" The Works of the late Aaron Hill." 4 vols. London, 1753.

" Certain Epigrams in laud and praise of the Gentlemen of the
Dunciad." (No date.)

" Poems by Eminent Ladies.'' 2 vols. London, 1755.

Tolderv/s (William) " Select Epitaphs." London, 1755.

" A Collection of Select Epigrams, in which are many originals
never before printed. By the most eminent hands. Published by Mr.
Hackett." London and Canterbury, 1757.

'' Select and Remarkable Epitaphs on Illustrious and other Persons in
several Parts of Europe, with Translations of such as are in Latin and

APPENDIX. 645

Foreign Languages ; and compendious accounts of the Deceased, their
Lives and Works. By John Hackett, late Commoner of Balliol Coll.,
Oxford." 2 vols. London, 1757.

" Fugitive Pieces in Verse and Prose." By Horace Walpole (Lord
Orford). Printed at Strawberry Hill, 1758.

" The "Works of Mr. Thomas Brown, Serious and Comical. In prose
and verse: with his Remains, &c. By James Drake, M.D." 4 vols.
London, 1760.

" The Poetical Calendar. Containing a Collection of Scarce and
Valuable Pieces of Poetry : with variety of Originals and Translations
by the most eminent hands. Intended as a Supplement to Mr. Dods-
lev's Collection. Written and selected by Francis Fawkes, M.A., and
William Woty." 12 vols. Loudon, 176B.

" The Festoon : a Collection of Epigrams, Ancient and Modern. With
an Essay on that Species of Composition." By the Kev. Richard Graves,
M.A. "ind edition. London and Bath, 1767.

" A Collection of the most esteemed pieces of Poetry that have ap-
peared for several years, with variety of originals, by the late IMosea
Mendez, Esq., and other contributors to Dodsley's Collection, to which
this is intended as a Supplement." 2nd edition. London, 1770.

" A Collection of Curious Discourses written by eminent AnticjuHrios
upon several heads in our English Antiquities. Together with Mr.
Thomas Hearne's Preface and Appendix to the former edition. To
which are added a great number of Antiquary Discourses written by
the 6ame authors. Most of them now first i)ublished from the original
MSS." Two vols. Loudon, 1771.

" Epigi'ams of Martial, &c., with Notes from Horace, &c., Translated,
Imitated, Adapted, and Addrest to the Nobility, Clergy, and Gentry;
with Notes moral, historical, explanatory, and humorous. By the Rev.
Mr. Swjtt, M.A., late of Trinity College, Cambridge." London, 1778.

" Poems of John Byrom." 2 vols. Manchester, 1773.

"The Wit's Miscellany, or a Companion fur tlu; Choice S])irits, cousist-
ing of a grt-at varii.ty of odd and uncommon Epigrams, Facetiouy
Drolleries, Whimsical RIottoe.s, Merry Tale.s, Fables, &c. &c." Dedicated
to Garrick, Colman, aud Foote. London, 1774.

"The Repfjsitory : a Select Collection of Fugitive Pieces of Wit aud
Humour in jiroso and verse by thi: most eminent writers." Collected by
loaac Heed. 4 vols. London, 1777-H.3.

" The New Paradise of Dainty Devices." London, 1777.

" Walpoliana." Collected by John Pinkerton. 2 vols. London,
1779.

r;rnngcr'H '■ iJifigniphiciil History of Kngliind." 4 vols. 1771*. And
Noble's "Cfmtinnatioii of tirangcr." ;^ vols. 1806.

"A Select O^fiUction of Pf>em8 : with Notes, biogrii|)bii!il and liis-
torical." H vols. London. Ni<'holH, 17H0-82.

"A Collection of Pocma in six volume s, by several hands. With

646

APPENDIX.

Notes." London, Dodsley, ] 782. (A copy of the edition of 1748, &c., in
the British Museum, has MS. notes by Horace Walpole. i

" A Collection of Poems in four volumes, by several hands.'' London,
Pearch, 1783.

" Euphrosyne, or Amusements on the Road of Life." By the Rev.
Richard Graves, M.A. 3rd edition. 2 vols. London, 1783.

"The New Foundling Hospital for Wit: Being a Collection of
Fugitive Pieces in prose and verse, not in any other collection. With
several pieces never before published." A new edition. 6 vols. London
1784.

" The Arno Miscellany : Being a Collection of Fugitive Pieces written
bv the members of a society called the Oziosi at Florence." Florence,
1784.

" Poetical Works of David Garrick, Esq." 2 vols. London, 1785.

" An Asylum for Fugitive Pieces in prose and verse, not in any other
Collection : with several pieces never before published." London, 1785.

" Criticisms on the RoUiad." London, 1785.

" Poems by James Fordyce, D.D." London, 1786.

" Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry." With Remarks by
Henry Headley, A.B. 2 vols. London, 1787.

" Tracts, Philological, Critical, and Miscellaneous." By Dr. Jortin.
2 vols. London, 1790.

" The English Anthology." 3 vols. London, 1793.
" Imitations of some of the Epigrams of Martial." By Nathaniel
Brassey Halhed. Four Parts. 1793-4.

" The Poetical Farrago : Being a Miscellaneous Assemblage of Epi-
grams and other Jeux d'Esprit, selected from the most approved
writers." 2 vols. London, 1794.

" Specimens of Arabian Poetry, from the Earliest Time to the Extinc-
tion of the Khaliphat, with some account of the authors. By J. D.
Carlyle, B.D., F.R.S.E., Chancellor of Carlisle, and Professor of Arabic
in the University of Cambridge." Cambridge, 1796.

" The Poetical Works of the Rev. Samuel Bishop, A.M." 2 vols.
London, 1796.

" Selections from the French Anas : containing remarks of eminent
scholars on men and books. Together with anecdotes and apophthegms
of illustrious persons. Interspersed with pieces of poetry." 2 vols.
Oxford, 1797.

" Select Epigrams." Edited by the Rev. Philip S. Dodd, M.A. 2 vols.
London, 1797.

" The Works of Horatio Walpole, Earl of Orford." 5 vols. London,
1798.

" Poems by the Rev. Josiah Relph, of Sebergham." Carlisle, 1798.

" Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin." 4th edition. London, 1801. (A later
edition by Charles Edmonds gives the names of the authors of the
various pieces.)

APPENDIX. 647

" Memoirs of Angelus Politianus, Actius Sincenis Sannazarius. &c.
&c. By the Eev. W, Parr Greswell, Cm-ate of Denton, iii Lancashire."
Manchester, 1801.

(In the British Museum are some vols, of newspaper cuttings of the
18th century. " Poetry and Miscellaneous. Extracted from various
newspapers." And "Miscellaneous Poetical Extracts from News-
papers." In which are a large number of Epigrams and other Jeux
d'Esprit.)

" The Spirit of the Public Journals : Being an impartial Selection of
the most ingenious Essays and Jeux d'Esprit that appear in the News-
papers and other Periodicals." 18 vols. London, 1798-1815.

" The Poetical Register and Repository of Fugitive Poetry." 8 vols.
London, 1802-14.

" The Metrical Miscellany ; consisting chiefly of Poems hitherto un-
published." 2nd edition. London, 1803.

" Specimens of the Early English Poets ; to which is prefixed an His-
torical Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the English Poetry and
Language. By George Ellis, Esq." 3rd edition. 3 vols. London,
1803.

" Nugse Antiquse." Park's Edition. 2 vols. London, 1804.

" Elegant Extracts— Poetry." Edited by Dr. Knox. London, 1805.

" A Collection of Epitaphs and Jlonumental Inscriptions, Historical,
Biographical, Literary, and IMiseellaneous." 2 vols. London, 1806,

" The Works of Robert Fergusson." Lomlon, 1807.

"The Paradise of Dainty Devices. A reprint from the edition of
157G, with an appendix containing additional ])ieces from the editions
of 1580 and IGOO. With introductory remarks, biographical and critical,
by Sir Egerton Brydges, K.J." London, 1810.

" England's Helicon. A Collection of Pastoral and Lyric Poems,
first published at the close of the reign of Queen Elizabeth (IGOO)."
3rd edition. Ix)ndon, 1812.

" The Works of Peter Pindar, Esq." 5 vols. London, 1812. '

" Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century ; comi)rising Bio-
graphical Memoirs of William linvvyer, I'rinter, F.S.A., and many of his
learned friends, &c. &c. By Jolm "Nichols, F.S.A." 9 vols. Loudon,
1812-15.

" Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century, &c
&C Intended as a Sequel to tlie Literary Anecdotes. By John Nichols,
F.S.A." U vols. Loudon, 1817-^^8.

"The Flowers of Wit; or a Choice Collection of Bon Mots, both
Ancient and Modern ; with Biograiihical and Critical Remarks. By
the Rev. Henry Kett." 2 vols. London, 1814.

" Original Poem.s, nevir before published, by William Browne, of the
Inner Temple, (;<nt. With a Preface and Not.s, by Sir Egerton
BrydgcH, iJart., K.J." Private Press of L(;e Priory, 181.').

"Facfctiaj. Musarum Dclitiaj ; or the Mubch' Recreation, coutaining

648 APPENDIX.

several pieces of poetic wit by Sir J. M. and Dr. J. S. (Sir John Mennia
and Dr. James Smith), 1656." " "Wit Restored in several select poems,
not formerly published, 1658." " Wit's Recreations, selected from tha
finest fancies of modern muses, &c., 16i0." Reprinted in two vols., with
Memoirs of the Authors and Collectors, Sir John Mennis and Dr. James
Smith. London, 1817.

" Anecdotes, Observations, and Characters of Books and Men. Col-
lected from the Conversation of Mr. Pope, and other eminent persons of
his time. By the Rev. Joseph Spence. Now first published from the
original papers, with Notes and a Life of the Author, by Samuel Weller
Singer." London, 1820.

" The Oxford Sausage." A Collection of Jeux d'Esprit, &c. By
Thomas Warton. Cambridge, 1822.

" Facetiae Cantabrigienses : consisting of Anecdotes, &c. &c., by or
relating to celebrated Cantabs." London, 1825.

" Nugse Canoras ; or Epitaphian Mementos in Stone-cutters' verse of
the Medici Family of Modern Times. By Unus Quorum " (William
Wadd, Esq.). London, 1827.

" The Flowers of Anecdote, Wit, Humour, Gaiety, and Genius.
With Etchings by T. Landseer." London, 1829.

"Papers relating to Sufiblk." (This is the title of a vol. in the
British Museum, containing cuttings from " Raw's Ladies' Fashionable
Repository," preserved by the Rev. J. M. Mitford.)

"Poems Original and Translated, by the Rev. W. Shepherd."
London, 1829.

" Churchyard Gleanings and Epigrammatic Scraps : Being a Collec-
tion of Remarkable Epitaphs and Epigrams." By William PuUeyn.
London. No date (about 1830).

" The Every-Day Book and Table Book; or Everlasting Calendar of
Popular Amusements, &c. &c. By William Hone." London, 1831.

" Primitiae et Reliquiae." By the Marquis Wellesley. Londini,
1840.

Warton's " History of English Poetry." 3 vols. London, 1840.

" Chronicles of the Tombs. A Select collection of Epitaphs. With
an Essay by Thomas Joseph Pettigrew, F.R.S., F.S.A." London,
1857.

" The Gentleman's Magazine."

•' Kotes and Queries."

INDEXES

651

INDEX OF THE EPIGEAMMATISTS.

The figures after a name in capitals denote the page on which icill be
found the principal Epigrams of the Author in his chronological place.

The figures after a name in Binall type denote the pages on irhich icill be
found the Epigrams of the Author used for illmtration or comparison.

Addison, Joseph, 301

Addison, Joseph, 551
^gidius, Petrus, xxv.
jEmiliancs, 46
Agathias, 59

Agatbias, 4
Alcatus of Mitylene, 197
Alciatls, Akdiikas, 122
Alderson, Sir Edward Hall, 596, 620
Aldricb, Dr. Heury (Dean of Chrbt Church),

45*
Alighieri, Dakte, 101
Alph*-us of Mityltne, 163
Amalthkcs, IIikkonymcs, 127
Amhurst, J«icliola?i, G05
Ammlanns, xvii., 28

ASACKKOS, 9

Anacreon, 75, 131, 349, 391
Angtlo, Michael. S-'C Buonarroti
Angkkia.sls, HiF.1!0NY>IL-.S, 118

Angeriarius, lllerunynius, 319
Anonvmous, Ancik.vt Latin, 94
Akonymou.s, Grff.k, 64

Anonymous, Greek, 5, 15, 22, 23, 27, 39,
43, 62, 76, H9, 141, 149, 203, 234, 24«,
320, 3G1, 427, 444, 612, 628
ASONTMOLS, MullEKK, 517

Anonymous, .Mud'-rn. I'awiiu
AnfvliiiiiH, 'j.orpiu-, 140
Antii'atkk of Shkis, 34

Antlpater of Sidon, 4, 6

ASTIPATK.It OF 'I'lIfXSAUJSICA, 43

AntiputiT of Tbcji.ialouico, 462
AiiiipliiluH, 1^3
Anvtk, 22

Anytc, XV., 591

AUAIllAN El'IGICAMMATmTd, 96

Arabian fcrroKAMB. Unknowk Authors,

Arabian Kplgranuf, xxll., 60, 115. 201,372,

51*

ArbuUmot, Dr. John, 278

Archelaus, 156
Archias, 41

Archias, 91, 205
Archilocrus, 1
Argentarius, 5S1
Arii'hron of Sicyon, 14
Artemidorus, xiiL
Astydamas, 34
Atterbury, Dr. Francis (Bishop of

Rochester), 280
AuDOENUs, Johannes. See Owen
Auratus, Johannes, 610

AUSOHIUS, 91

Ausonios, 17

Bacchylldes, 508
Bancroft, Thomas, 236

Bancroft, Thomas, xxix., 252, 280, 345
Barber, Mary, 197, 274, 522
Baruerinuu, Maphaus (I'ope Urban viii.),

152
Barkf.r, P^dmcnd Henrt, 607
Ba.stard, Thomas, 185
Bates, William, 021
BAUHU.slltt, Bkrnardus, 151

Baulm8iU8, BernardUB, 344, 520
Baxlus, Nicola8, 170
Bkaumont, Francis, 211
Bkal'mont, Sir John, 204
Df.i.laius, Joaciiimus, 136

UelluiUD, JoachimuH, 32, 109
Bki.loki, John 1'etkr, 161
Bkmuuh, 1'f.trcs (Oanlltiul), 108

UcmbuH I'clrus (Cardinal), 61, 328, 329
Benedlctu,H, (jiorgiuH, '12'J
Hknskrai>f., Isaac vk, 248
Kk/.a, Tiif.ooouus, 133
Bioit, 474
BiHIIOI-, .Sami.'f.i., 441

BiHkop, ttaniU'l, xxxiv., 7H, |42, 161, S5«,
618
BUcklock, Dr. Thumiui, 404

652

INDEX OF THE EPIGEAMMATISTS.

Bloomfield, Robert, 481
BoiLEAC, Nicholas Desperaux, 272

Boileau, Nicholas Desperaux, 13S, 579,
612, 630
BoNiFACins, Balthasar, 157

Bonifacius, Balthasar, 613
Boiinefonius, Johannes, 217
Borbonius, Nicholas, 579, 587
Boscan, John Almogaver, 566
BoDRNE, Vincent, 357

Bourne, Vincent, 360
Bowles, William Lisle, 478

Bowles, William Lisle, 436
BowYER, William, 363
BoYSE, Samuel, 382

Boyse, Samuel, 237
Bkebede, George de, 257

Brebeuf, George de, 315
Bristol, Earl of, 628
Broome, William 441
Brown, Thomas, 269
Browne, Isaac Hawkins, 376
Browne, Sir William, 310
Browne, William, 217

Browne, William, 139

BUCHANANUS, GeORGIDS, 124

Buchananus, Georgius, 106, 141, 149
Buonarroti, Michael Angelo, 518
Burns, Robert, 473

Burns, Robert, 369, 467
Burton, Dr. John, 114
Butler, Samuel, 117, 129, 176, 548
BrROM, John, 337

Byrom, John, 590
Byron, George Gordon, Sixth Lord, 504

Byron, George Gordon, Sixth Lord, 482,
500

C, 557

Calderinus, Domitius, 583

Callicter, xxxv.

Callimachus, 31

Callimachus, 13, 191, 282, 408

Campbell, Thomas, 495
Campbell, Thomas, 495

Canning, George, 597

Capilupus, Hippolttus, 121

Capito, 72

Carew, Thomas, 216

Carey, Dr. John, 344

Carlisle, Frederick Howard, Fifth
Earl of. See Howard

Carter, Elizabeth, 342

Casakovas, Marcus Anionics, 120
Casanovas, Marcus Antonius, 134

Catullus, 69

Cavendish, William, Fifth Duke of Devon-
shire, 452

Chartrea, James, 581

Chatterton, Thomas, 424

Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope,
Fourth Earl of. See Stanhope

Chevreau, Urban, 335,

Clarke, William, 352

Cleobulus, 8

Clifford, Henry, Fifth Earl of Comber-

LAND, 230
Coleridge, Hartley, 509

Coleridge, Hartley, 509
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 488

Coleridge, SaiLuel Taylor, 611, 631
Colman, George, the Younger, 620
CONGREVE, William, 299

Congreve, William, 37, 343
Conyers, Dr., 305

Corbet, Dr. Richard (Bishop of Norwich),
202

Corbet, Dr. Richard, 204
CoRors, Euiucics, lio
Cotton, Charles, 266
Cotton, Charles, 474
Cotton, Dr. Nathaniel, 377
Cotton, Dr. Nathaniel, 381
Coventry, Francis, 448
Cowley, Abraham, 254
CowPER, William, 438

Cowper, William, 267, 304, 359, 416, 481,
596, 619
Cox, George Valentine, 627
Crashaw, Richard, 251
Crashaw, Richard, 298
Crates of Thebes, 18
Cratlnus, 66

Croker, Dr. John Wilson, 620
Croly, Dr. George, 502
Cumberland, Henry Clifford, Fifth

Earl of. See Clifford
Cunningham, John, 433
Cunningham, John, 364, 611

CUNBADINUS, 158

Daceilly, 569

Dante. See Alighieri

Da VIES, Sir John, 181

Davies, Sir John, 493
Davies, Dr. Sneyd, 389
Delany, Dr. Patrick (Dean of Down),

321
Delaune, Henry, 262
Demodocus, 258
Denham, Sir John, 250
Des Houlieres, Antoinette de la Garde, 365
Devonshire, William Cavendish, Fifth Duke

of. See Cavendish
Diodorus, 132, 185
Dioscorides, 56
Diotimus, 26

Diotimus, 162
Doddridge, Dr. Philip, 370
Dodsley, Robert, 371

Dodslev, Robert, 240
Donne, Dr. John (Dean of S. Paul's), 183

Donne, Dr. John, 140, 298, 604
Douglas, James, 469
Deummond, William, 205

Drummond, William, xxix., xxx., 122
Dryden, John, 267

Dryden, John, 55

INDEX OF THE KPIGKAMMATISTS.

653

D'CK. Stephen, 366

Duck, Stephen, 436
Duncan, John, 614
Duncombe, John, 391
DuNCOMBE, Lewis, :i93
Duncombe, William, 333

Duncombe, William, 534

Eagles, John, 424

Edwards, Bryan, 455

Eldon, Jobs Scott, First Earl of. See

Scott
Eliot, John, 264

Eliot, John, 230, 236
EUum, John, 134, 149, 173, 542
Empedocles, 334
Eeinna, 6
Erskine, Henry, 605
Erskink, Thomas, First Lord, 463 and

571

Erskine, Thomas, First Lord, xxxvi., 580
609
Eubulus, 63
Euphorion, 11
Evans, Dr. Abel, 305

Evans, Dr. Abel, 582
Evbemond, Charles de St., 247
ErNDius, Jacobus, 119

Fergcsson, Robert, 467
Ft-rgusson, Robert, 549
Fitzgerald, William Thomas, 506
FiTZPATRiCK, Richard, 464
Flaminius, Marcus Antonius, 123
Fletcher, Phineas, 209
Fletcher, K., 529

FORCATILUS, StEPHANUS, 144

FoRDvcE, Dr. James, 418

Fordyce, Dr. James, 622
Fox, Charles James, 466
Free, Da. John, .394
Freeman, Thomas, 229

Freeman, Thomas, 625
Freke, John Hookham, 592

Frere, John Hookham, 338

Gamage, William, 202

Garcilasso de la Vega, 54

Gabkick, David, 410

Garth, Sir Samuel, 270, 284, 298

Gay, John, 330

OiKABDUs, .Johannes, 132

GUiuciiB, 254

Goldsmith, Oliv Eli, 428

Gombaulil, John Ozier de, 331

GoLvjH, UiciiAhD, 449

Graham, David, 426

uRAiiAU. James, Marquis op Montrose,

243
Grainger, Dr. .rames, 608
Granville, Gk<jim;e,Vi.scountLan8DOwne,

294
Granville, George, Vl.scouiit Lunsdowne,

31»
Graves, Ricuabd, 400

I Graves, Richard, 203, 238, 277, 370, 388
413, 443, 444, 468, 540, 581, 598, 622,
I 629, 630

Gray, Thomas, 407
I Gray, Thomas, 633
I Greek Epigkam.matists, 1
I Greek Epigrams. Unknown Authors, 64
[ Greek Epigrams. Unknown Authors.
See Anonymous, Greek

Green, Matthew, 354

Gregory Naztanzen, St., 54
Gregory Nazianzen, St., xxxii.

Grimoald, Nicholas, 161
'■ Gringore, Pierre, 166

Guarini, Giovanni Battista, 564
j Gwinnett, Richard, 300

Hackett, John, 51, 182

Halikax, Charles Montague, First Earl

of. See Montague
Hall, Db. Joseph (Bishop of Norwich),
187
I Hall, Dr. Joseph, 253
j Hamilton, William (of Bangour), 378
Hannay, James, 635

Hannay, James, 607
Hardinge, George, 456

Hardinge, George, 612
Harington, Sir John, 175

Harington, Sir John, 165
Harris, James, 609
Harrison, William, 360
Hawkesworth, Dr. John, 483
Hawkins, Henry, 619
Hatman, Robert, 197

Hayman, Robert, 99, 403
Heath, John, 208

Heath, John, xxviii., 150, 230, 402
Heath, Robert, 214

Heath, Robert, 150, 627
Heber, Dr. lieginald (Bishop of Calcntta),

479
Hebus, Tareus, 165
Hedges, Charles, 401
Hedylus, 585
Hegesippus, 628
Heggk, Robert, 238
Henley, John, xxxvi.
Herbert, op Cherburv, Edward, Lord,

198
Herbert, George, 233
Herrick, Robert, 223

Herrick, Robert, xxvi., xxvii., 11, 38, 40,
45, 47, !I0, 129, 158, 174, 193, 279,343,
489, 512, 582, 629
Hervcy, John, Lord, 396
Hkywood, John, 169

Hoywooil, .fohn, xxviii.

Hicks, , 581

Higgons, Bkvil, 296
Hill, Aaron, 313

Hill, Aaron, .xxxiv., 195,219,329 U28
Hogarth, William, 366
Hogg, Jamkb, 490

654

INDEX OP THE EPIGRAMMATISTS.

HoLLANr, Henry Richard Vassall, Third

Lord. See Vassall
Holland, Hugh, 196

Holland, Hugh, 291
Holland, Dr. Philemon, 618
Home, John, 422
Hood, Thomas, 511

Hood, Thomas, 299
Hook, Theodore Edward, 615

Hook, Theodore Edward, 494, 548, 597
Hopkins, John, 171
Hoskins, John, 262
Houdetot, Elizabeth Fran^oise Sophie, Com-

tesse de, 496
Howard, Frederick, Fifth Earl op Car-
lisle, 463
Huddesford, Dr. George. 106
Hdghes, John, 303

Hughes, John, 40
Huijgens, Constactijn, 625
Hunt, Leigh, 498

Jackson, Andrew, 348
Jago, Richard, 407
Jeffrey, Francis, Lord, 596
Jekfrevs, George, 307

Jeffreys, George, 439
Jektll, Joseph, 577

Jekyll, Joseph, 375, 555, 631
Jenner, Dr. Edward, 445
Jentns, Soame, 374
Jerningham, Edward, 42i
Johannes Secdndl's, 131
Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 383

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 362, 414
Joxson, Benjamin, 189

Jonson, Benjamin, xxvi., 169, 233, 587,
629, 636

Jordan, Thomas, 261

Jordan, Thomas, 221, 264
JoRTiN, Dr. John (Archdeacon of London),
360

JULIANUS jEgTPTUS, 57

Julianus .Sgyptus, 53

Kendal, Richard, 410

Kennedy, Dr. Benjamin Hall (Regius

Professor of Greek, Cambridge, and

Canon of Ely), 633
Killigrew, Anne, 276
Killigrew, Lady Catherine, 171
King, Dr. Henry (Bishop of Chichester), 222

Lamb, Charles, 492
Lambert, .Tames, 420
Landor, Walter Savage, 600
Landor, Walter Savage, 20, 89, 119,

572, 588, 611
Langbaine, Dr. Gerard, 242
Langhorne, Dr. John, 450
Lansdowne, George Granville, Viscount.

See Granville
Laiin Epigrammatists, Ancient, 69

Latin Epigrams, Ancient. Unknowk

Authors, 94
Latin Epigrammatists, Medim'vai, and

Early Modern, 101
Lee, Nathaniel, 297
Lemierre, 631
Leonidas of Alexandria, 43

Leonidas of Alexandria, 593, 612
Leonidas op Tarentum, 23

Leonidas of Tarentum, 11, 101, 215, 287,
475
Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim, 434

Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim, 132
Lewis, John, 568
Lewis, Matthew Gregory, 608

Lewis, Matthew Gregory, 605
Lloyd, Robert, 445
Lluellin, Martin, 143
Lovelace. Richard, 257
Lovibond, Edward, 403
LowTH, Dr. Robert (Bishop of London), 393

LUCIANUS, 47

Lucianus, xvii., 82, 198, 444, 541, 612,
LuciLLitis, 48

Lucillius, 113, 114, 124, 175, 284, 292,
586, 612, 624
Luttrell, Henry, 113, 298,
Lylly, John, 172
Ltttelt^n, George, First Lord, 387

Ly.erm, George, First Lord, xxxiv.,
" >A, i98, 338, 352

Macedonius, 121

Macentinus, Raph., 164

Maittaire, Michael, 532

Mallet, David, 247, 536

Mansel, Dr. William Lort (Bishop of

Bristol), 580
Marini, John Baptist, 282
Markland, Jeremiah, 411
Martial, 74

Martial, xix., xx., 3, 28, 30, 35, 48, 52, 71,
74, 100, 110, 135, 140, 146, 149, 150, 158,
165, 169, 175, 177, 183, 186, 193, 194,
201, 213, 255, 265, 280, 290, 300, 358,
439, 442, 457, 549, 552, 567, 569, 579,
585, 588, 589, 603, 604, 608, 610, 625,
629, 637, 639
Martialis Monerius, 103
Martyn, Joseph, 212
Martyn, Joseph, 76
MaruUus, Michael Tarchaniota, 22
Marvell, Andrew, 93
Mason, William, 423
Mason, William, 635
Maynard, Francis, 587,
Meadows, Sir William, 571
Meleagek, 36

Meleager, 2, 7, 111, 137, 193, 379, 401
Menage, Giles, 245
Mennis, Sir John, 220
Mermet, Claude, 587
Meursius, Johannes, 154
Meyrick, James, 352

ETOEX OF THE EPIGRAMMATISTS.

655

MiLTOK, JOHK, 159

MNASAicrs, 19

MoDERx Epigrammatists, 166
Modern Epigrams, Anostmocs, 517
Modern Epigrams, Anonymous. Passim

MOSTAGDE, CuAELES, FlBST EaEL of HALI-
FAX, 277

MoxTAGrE, Lady Mart Woktlet, 332

Monrgomery, James, 85, 402

Montreuil, Matthieu de, 288

MosTROSE, Jam£S Grauam, Marquis of.

See Graham
Moor, Dr. James, 570
Moore, Thomas, 498
Moore, Thomas, 318, 564, 616

M JRF, Ha>T> AH, 458

iloBE, Sir Thomas, 112

More, Sir Thomas, 5, 51, 87, 122, 582, 615
Morris, Charles, 375, 626
MoKTLOCK, Sir Johk Chetham, 497

MOSCHCS, 30

Muirhead, James Patrick (Professor of Civil

Law, Edinburgh), 596
MuRETcs, Marcus AjnoNins, 137
MjTO, 153

Naees, Robert (Archdeacon of Stafford),

J 69
Naugerius, Andreas, 58
Neeuler, Hekry, 335
NiCARCHCS, 51

Nicarchus, 569, 579, 586
Nicius, 19

Nivemois, Louis Jules Mancini, Duo de, 566
Nossis, 21
NCGENT, Robert Craggs, Eabl, 379

Nugent, Pvobert Craggs, Eiirl, 378, 562,
564

O'Kelly, ,576

Oldts, William, 353

Onettes, 634

Opitz, Martin, 83

Orford, Horace Walpole, Folbth Earl

OF. See Walpolb
OwEK, John (Audoenus, Johannes), 145
Owen, John, 41, 107, 130, 136, 165, 195,

199, 2(13, 208, 210, 238, 240, 358, 403,

431, 508, 521
Owes, Jobs (of Ben't. Coll., Cambridge),

596

Palladab, 55

Palladas, xviil., 20, 54, 78, 90, 100, 147,
151,315,
Pamphllus, 20
Pa-nsonius, Janub, 102

Pannonius, JanuH, 622, 625
Park, Thomas, 5h6

Park, Thomas, 503
Parm'.Tiion, 434
Parn'-ll, \>r. 'IhomaK, 263
Parrot, Uenby, 199

Parrot, Henry, xxvlii., 68, 434, 442, 603

Parsons, Philip, 376

Parsons, Richard, First Viscount Rosse.

271
PAscHASirs, Stephanus, 138

Paschasius, Stephanus, 132, 133
Passeratius, Johannes, 142
Pateesonus, Niniaxus, 163

Patersonus, Ninianns, 610
Patrix, Peter, 210
Paulus, Silentiabius, 62

Paulus Silentiarius, 226, 465
Pecke, Thomas, 265
Petronius Afranius, 137
Petronius Arbiter, 84, 184, 460
Philemon, 4
Philippus of Thessalonica, 44

Pbilippus of Thessalonica, 9
Philodemus, 40
Phocylides, 472
Pindar, Peter. See Wolcot
PiBON, Alexis, 331
PrrcAiRNE, De. Archibald, 276
Plato Comicus, 66
Plato Philosophts, 16

Plato Philosophns, 8, 58, 168, 326
Politianus, Angelus, 478
PoUianus, 624
Polwhele, Richard, 584

Polwhele, Richard, 631
Pope, Alexander, 321

Pope, Alexander, xxxiii., 109, 110, 182,
306, 341, 357, 462
POBSON, Richard, 470

Person, Richard, 404, 634
Posidippus, 173

Praed, Winthrop Mackworth, 624
Prior, JIatthew, 281

Prior, Matthew, 24, 52, 83, 170, 270, .303,
330, 403
Ptolemy, 336

Quables, Frakcis, 231
Quarles, Francis, 528

Rabutln, Roger, Count de Bussy, 1 10
Painerius, Franciscus, 612
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 186
Ramsav, Allan, 317

Ramsay, Allan, 417
Regnier, Francis, 271
Relpii, Josiah, 397

Helph, Josiah, 79, 195, 209, 587
Rhianus, xvi.
Ricliardson, Samuel, 313
Ridley, Dr. Gloster, 274
Robertson, Alexander, 630, 531, 604
Rochester, John VVilmot, Second Karl

OF. See Wilmot
Rogers, Samuel, 4^0

RoRcrs, Samuel, 14H, 620
Roll, Richard, 212
Rose, Hon. Sir Gkobge, 512

Rose, Hon. Sir George, 493

656

INDEX OP THE EPIGRAMMATISTS.

RossE, Richard Parsons, First Viscodht.

See Parsons
RowE, Nicholas, 302

RUFINUS, 52

Rufinus, 467, 552
Russell, Dr. William, 309

SABINTJS, 6EORGI0S, 130

Saint-Gellais, Melldj de, 120
Sannazakius, ACTirrs, lfi5
Santoltos, Johannes, 162
Sappho, 4

Sappho, 45,
Savage, Richard, 362
Scaliger, Josephcs Justus, 144

Scaliger, Josephus Justus, 457
Scaliger, Julius C^sar, 117
Scarron, Paul, 246
Schiller, Frederic, 475
Schlegel, Friedrich von, 626
Scott, John, First Earl of Eldon, 573
Scott, Dr. Robert (Dean of Rochester), 516

Scott. Dr. Robert, 595
Scott, Sir Walter, 484
Sedley, Sir Charles, 565

Sedley, Sir Charles, 563
Selden, John, 243
Selis, Nicolas Joseph, 258
Selvaggi, 267
Seward, Anna, 460

Seward, Anna, 22, 426
Seward, Thomas, 395
Shakespeare, William, 179
Shelley, Percy Bvsshe, 508
Shenstone, Williaw, 399

Shenstone, William, xxxv.
Sheppard, Samuel, 248

Sheppard, Samuel, .\xix., 196
Sherburne, Sir Edward, 259

Sherburne,, Sir Edward, 70, 128, 394
Sheridan, Richard Brinslet, 574
Shirley, James, 234

Shirley, James, 144, 146, 222
Shuttleworth, Dr. Philip Nicholas (Bishop

of Chichester), 233
Silos, Michael, 135, 251
Simmias of Thebes, 15

SiMONIDES, 12

Simonides, xv., xxxi., 10, 14, 19, 54, 433
Sinclair, Reverend William, 515
Smith, Horace, 621
Smith, James, 492

Smith, James, xxxvi., 139, 555, 620, 632
Smith, Dr. James, 220,
Smith, Sydney, 486

Smith, Sydney, 583
Smythe, Baron, 452
Solon, 98, 125, 221
SoMERviLE, William, 343
Southwell, Robert, 173
Spenser, Edmund, 104
Speusippus, xiv.

Stanhope, Philip Dormer, Fourth Eabl
OF Chesterfield, 345

Stanhope, Philip Dormer, Fourth Earl of
Chesterfield, 618
Steele, Anne, 437
.Stephanus, Henricus, 141
Sto"', Thomas, 181
S^^,JIGHT, John, 381

Straight, John, 609
Strato, 53, 80, 84, 240
Strodi. /)r. William, 239
StrozaJ Hercules, 109
Suckling, Sir John, 561
Surtees, Robert ''ni

Swift, Dr. Jonat> f (Dean of S. Patrick's),
2is8

Swil . Dr. Jonathan, 49, 80, 102, 125, 324,
350, 368, 387, 583

Tadlow, Dr., 305
Tate, Nahum, 275
Taylor, John, 200
Tebaltius, Antonius, 104
Temple, Sir William, 565
Tenn"yson, Alfred, 639

Tennyson, Alfred, 18
Theocritus, 26

Theocritus, 2, 11, 90
Theognis, 67, 508
Theophile, 51
Theosebia, 323
Thomas, Paulus, 154
■ Thompson, William, 105, 318
Thomson, James, 369
Tollet, Elizabeth, 347
TowNSEND, Charles, 622

Townsend. Charles, 29
Trapp, Db. Joseph, 309
Turner, Baptist Noel, 453

Turner, Baptist Noel, 618

Urientius, Maximilianus 629

Valebianus, Pierius, 111

Vassall, Henry Richard, Third Lord
Holland, 491
Vassall, Henry Richard, Third Lord Hol-
land, 619

Veil, Hans de, 563

Voltaire, Francois Marie Arocet de,349

Vulto, Gilbertus Ducherius, 149

Wadd, William, 50, 232, 631
Waller, Edmund, 241

Waller, Edmund, 485, 563
Walpole, Horace, Fourth Earl of
Orford, 415

Walpole, Horace, Fourth Earl of Orford,
xxxiv., 341, 570, 630
Walsh, Dr. Edward, 589

Walsh. Dr. Edward, 625, 640
Walsh, William, 279

Walsh, William, 380
Wabton, Dr. Joseph, 420
Warton, Thomas, 430

Warton, Thomas, 108, 286, 337

INDEX OF THE EPIGRAMMATISTS.

657

tVedgwood, Henry Allen, 559
Welleslet, Richard Collet, Makquis,

477 and 591
Welsted, Leokard, 330
Wernicke, Christian, 511
Wesley, Samuel, 339

Wesley, Samuel, 98, 100, 330, 575, 604
West, Gilbert, 351
West, Richard, 422
Whalet, Johx, 365

AVhaley, John, 233, 375
Whatelt, Dr. Richard (Archbishop of

Dublin), 615
Whtie, Henky Kirke, 503
Whitehead, William, 405

Whitehead, William, 121 |

Wilberforce, Dr. Samuel (Bishop of Win- |

Chester), 595 i

Wilkes, Dr. Richard, 386 I

Williams, Sir Charles Haneury, 3S8

Williams, Sir Charles Hanbury, 319 |

Williams, Dr. John (Archbishop of York), ■

145 I

Wllmot, John, Second Earl of Rochester,
274
Wilmot, John, Second Earl of Rochester,
49
Wilton, Pleydell, 496
WoLCOT, Dr. John (Peter Pindar), 450
Wolcot, Dr. John (Peter Pindar), xsxvii.,
499
Wordsworth, William, 482
Wrangham, Feakcis (Archdeacon of the

East l;iding), 594
Wyat, Sir Thomas, 168
Wyat, Sir Thomas, 178

Xenarchus, To

YoDNG, Dr. Edward, 310
Yriarte, Don Thomas de, 433, 639

Zenodotus, 137
Zevecotius, Jacobus, 140
Zuberus, MatthaBUS. 398

^ i;

658

INDEX OF TEANSLATOES OF THE EPIGRAMS.

Addison, Joseph, 71, 74, 90

Barbara, R. H., 602

Bishop, Samuel, 110

Bland, Rubert, xvi., xvii., xviii., 25, 35, 41,
54, 611, 62,B:i, 121, 247, 248, 258, 326, 517,
518, 566, 569, 5^7, 625, 630, 635

Blomfitld, Dr. Charles James (Bishop of
London), 22, 57

Bowring, Sir John, 625

Boyd, Hugh Sluart, xxxii., 55

Boyse, .Samuel, 430

Brown, Thomas, 71

Browne, William, 240

C. 2. 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24,
V6, 27, 31, 39, 41, •12, J3, 44, 46,48,50, 51,
52, 61, 64, 66, 67, 68, 75, 89, 90, 114, 122,
141, 153, 155, 157, 161, 173, 282, 433, 462,
477, 522, 591, 612

Calverley, C. S., 2, 11, 27, 29, 90

Carlyle, Joseph Dacre, xxii , 60, 95, 96, 97,
98, 99, 100, 11.5, 201, 372, 512

Gary, Henry Franci.s, 120, 106

Chapman, Dr. M. J., 28, 29

Coleridge, Henry Nelson, 32

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 435

Corbett., T., 510

Cotton, Charles, 564

Cowley, Abraham, 213

Cowper, William, 14, 32, 47, 48, 5", 56, 67,
76, 113, 147, 148, 150, 160, 175, 357, 358,
465

Crathaw, Richard, 43

Croly, Dr. George, 42

Crossley, James, 634

Cumberland, Richard, 4, 63, 66, 70, 132, 185

v., 21, 103, 118, 119, 120, 122, 136, 139, 140,

141, 143, 144, -152, 153, 154, 156, 194, .;57,

484
Davenport, Richard Alfred, 258, 288, 332,

5V5
Davios, Reverend James, 45, 108, 152, 610,

613, 622, 625
Derby, Edward Geoffrey Smith Stanley,

Fourteenth Karl of. See Stanley

Elpbintton, James, six., xx., 52. 81, 85, 86,
1»6, <ii6, 579, 60S

Elsum, John, 135, 251

Elton, Sir Charles Abraham, xvi., 5, 72, 73.

92, 93, 589
Evelyn, John, 107

Fanshawe, Sir Richard, 3

Fawkes, Francis, 37, 53, 55, 59, 131, 349, 391,

427
Fletcher, R., 28, 79
Frere, John Hoolcham, 67, 94, 508
Fuller, Dr. Thomas, 171, 297

Graham, .John, 276

Granville, George, Viscount Lansdowne,

143, 147, 349
Graves, Richard, xxxv., 467, 585
Greswell, W. Parr, 103, 123, 583

Hackett, John, 101

Halhed, Nathaniel Brassey, 358

Hall, Peter, 188, 253

Hamper, William, 243

Hardinge, George, 472

Harington, Sir John, xx., 1-16, 150

Harvey, Thomas, 107, 130, 136, 145, 147, 148,

149, 150, 195, 203, 208, 210, 238, 35K, 403,

508, 521
Haweis, Kev. John Oliver Willvams, 125
Hay, William, xix., 30, 48, 74, 75, 77, 82, 83,

H.5, 87, 100. 110, 140, 149, 158, 165, 177,

183, 193, 201, 265, 280, 290, 439, 442, 549,

585, 603, 604, 629, 639
Hayman, Rubert, 41, 1-16, 105, 431
Hemans, Felicia Dorothea, 54, 61
Heywood, John, 134
Hill, Aaron, 135, 2:.2
Hoadly, Dr, John, 7 I, 76, 78
Hodgson, Dr. 149, 608
Hunt, Leigh, 18, 88, 49 ;
Husenbeth, Dr. F. C, 496

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 96, 245

Jones, Sir William, 99

Jortin, Dr. John (Arclideacon of London), 49

Keen, Benjamin, 379, 401
Kelly, Walter K., 460
Kenuet, Basil, 268, 306, 517

Lamb, Charles, 359

INDEX OF TRANSLATORS OF THE EriGRAMS.

659

Lamb, George, 70, 83

Lansdowne, George Granville, Viscount.

See Granville
Lewis, F., 91
Lovelace, Richard, 51, 91
Lytton, Edward Bulwer, First Lnrd, 475,

476

Macgregor, Major Robert Guthrie, xvii., 6,

7, 9, 10, 78, 569, 586, 634
Maine, Jaspar, isi, 185
May, Thomas, 77, 87, 583
Merivale, Dr. Charles (Dean of El}-), 162,

476
Merivale, John Herman, siv., xv., xviii,

ssxi., 1, 19, 28, 33, 34, 40, 62, 80. 83, 84,

101, 114, 137, 197, 198, 221, 226, 259, 284,

287, 334, 361, 408, 457, 474, 476, 508, 579,

586. 587
Meyrick, James, 361
Monk, Hon. Mary, 315
Monteith, Robert, 106
Moore, Thomas, 16, 58, 111, 168, 344
Muirhead, James Patrick (Professor of Civil

Law, Kdiuburgh), 595
Mure, William (of Caldwell), 3, 4, 8

Xares, Robert (Archdeacon of Stafford), 631

Ogle, George, 58

Pecke, Thomas, 112, 113
Pepys, Sir William Weller. 96
HciZ/.i, Hester Lynch, 3S4
Polwhele, Richard, xiii.
Pope, Alexander, 116, 326
Prior, Matthew, 53, 111

Relpb, Josiah, xix., 125, 129, 169
Robinson, Ilenrj- CYabb, 626
Rogers, Samuel, 43
Roscoe, Thomas, 639

Poscoe, William, 113
Rymer, Thomas, 247

Scott, " Rev. Mr.," 569

Sedley, Sir Charles, 625

Sewell, Dr. George, 35

Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 17

Shepheard, Sir Fleetwoud, 159

Shepherd, William, 18, 20, 22, 30, 38, 53, 64.

65, 146, 628
Sht-rburne. Sir Edward, 117, 282
Smart, Christopher, 137
Smith, Goldwin, 11, 56. 63, 123, 624
Smyth, Philip, 4, 124, 24 0, 336
Sprat, Dr. Thomas (Bishop of Uocuester)

292
Stanley, Edward Geoffrey Smith, Fourteenth

Earl of Derby, 393, 592
Steele, Sir Richard. 300
Sterling, John, 10, 12, 14, 19, 51
Stokes, Edward, 20, 434
.Swayne, Kev. George Carless. 9, 579
Swift, Dr. Jouathan (Dean of S. Patrick's),

320

Theobald, Lewis, 24
Thomas, Dr. Timothy, 366
Tm-nbuU, Dr. George, 134

Wakefield, Gilbert, 360

Walsh, Dr. Edward, 199

Wartoti, Thomas, 66

Wellesley, Dr. Henry, 4, 59, 72, 91, 137, 203,

315, 612, 621, 628
AVesley, Samuel, 54, 156, 323
Whuley, John, 23, 131
Wraiigham, Fi ancis (Archdeacon of the East

Riding), 7, 115
Wright, James, 102, 108, 109, 132, 134, 140,

141, 151, 165, 170, 229, 314, 398, 478, 520,

587, 610, 612

660

INDEX OF AUTHOES WHOSE WOEKS AEE QUOTED
IN THE NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS.

Afidison, Joseph, 33, 74, 190, 318

jEsop, 41

Akeiiside, Dr. Mark, 29, 348

Alexandpr, William, Earl of Stirling, 39

Alexis, 350

Alison, Sir Archibald, 547

Amos, Andrew, 77, 94

Anacreon, 64, 281. 413

Antiphanes, 191, 235

Atterbury, Dr. Francis (Bishop of Roches-
ter), 287

Ayle»ford, Heneage Finch, Second Earl of.
See Finch

Aytomi, William Edmonstomie, 244, 276,
484

Bagot, Sir Charles, 600

bulde, James, 46

Harbauld, Anna Lastitia, 538

Bargrave, Dr. John, 251

Barham, Rev. Ricliard Harris Dalton, 617

Beattie, Dr. James, 43, 473

Beaumont and Fletcher, 36, 156, 262, 314,

431, 480
Beaumont, Francis, 435
Bentley, Dr. Richard, 472
Bishop, Samuel, 466
Blakeway, Juhn Brickdale, 386
Bland, liubert, 566
Bliss, Dr. Philip, 202
Boswell, James, 306, 385
Bourne, Vimeut, 415
Broome, William, 317
Brougham and Vaux, Henry, First Lord

265
Brown, Thomas, 275
Browne, William, 261
Buckinghamshire, John Sheffield, First

Duke of. See Sheffield
Bulwor, Henry Lytton Earle, Lord Dalling

and Bulwer, 598
Burnet, Dr. Gilbert (Bishop of Salisbury),

372, 373
Burns, Robert, 225, 456
Burton Robert, 257, 480
Butler, Samuel, 2, 103, 164, 374, 457, 522
Byroni, John, 622

Bvron, George Gordon, Sixth Lord, 68, 102,
"269, 342, 487, 505, 506. 512, 616, 635

Calamy, Dr. Edmund, 355

Calmet, Augustine, 151

Camden, William, 263, 520

Campbell, John, First Lord, 439, 515, 573,

574
Campbell, Thomas, 12, 68, 239, 316, 370, 394,

446, 499
Carew, Thomas, 62
Carlisle, Frederick Howard, Fifth Earl of.

See Howard
Carlyle, Joseph Dacre, 97, 98
Charnock, John. 415
Chattertun, Thomas, 147
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 69
Chesteifield, Philip Dormer Stanhope,

Fourth Earl of. See .Stanhope
Chettle, Henry, 46
Churchill, Charles, 304, 357, 410
Cicero, 569
Clarendon, Edward Hyde, First Earl of.

See Hyde
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 16, 191
Collins, William, 10
Congreve, William, 373
Corbet, Dr. Richard (Bishop of Norwich),

167, 181
Cornwall, Barry See Procter
Cowley, Abraham, 3, 87. 254, 336, 429
Cowper, William, 25, 210, 286, 386, 396,

521
Crashaw, Richard, 190
Croft, Sir Herbert, 311
Croker, Dr. John Wilson, 363, 386
Croly, Dr. George, 119
Cumberland, Richard, 192
Cunningham, John, 272
Curll, lilmund, 371

Dalling and Bulwer, Henry Lytton E^irle

Bulwer. Lord. See Bulwer
Daniel, Samuel, 315
Davenant, Sir William, 325
Davies, Rev. .Tanies, 613
Davie;-, Dr. John, 327

INDEX OF AUTHORS WHOSE WORKS ARE QUOTED.

661

Demosthenes, 2

I>'nUaru, Sir John, 219

Disraeli, Isaac, 102

Drayton, Michael, 112

Drummond, William, 4 31

Drvden, Charles, 63

Drvden, John, 49, 183, 207, 268, 487

Duko, Ri.hard. 164

Duncombe, John, 27, 326, -SOS

Dyer, John, 145

Earle, Dr. John (Bishop of Salisbuiy). 220

Edwards, Richard, 172

Ellis, George, 253

Elsum, John, 2s2, 506

Erinmi, 45

Etherege, Sir George, 566

Evans, Dr. Abel, 305, 395

Farmer, Dr. Richard, 319

Fentou, Elgah, 190

Fergusson, Robert. 147

Finch, Heneage, Second Earl of Aylesford,

393
Flaiman, Thomas, 81
Fletcher, Phineas, 70
Kordyce, Dr. James, 339, 418
Forster, John, 119, 601, 605
Freeman, Thomas, 29
Fuseli, Henry, 47

Garth, Sir Samuel, 239, 325

Gay, John, 322, 404

Gibbon, Edward, 63, 131, 257, 258, 507

Gilchrist, Octavius, 176, 181

Godolphin, Sidney, 294

Goldsmith, Oliver, 25, 61, 155, 249, 258, 423,

446, 551
Gosenkyll, Edward, 235
Gouph, Rii hard, 530
Granger, James. 521, 525, 533
Granville, George, Viscount Lansdowne,

48, 119, 211, 323
Graves, Richard, xxxviii , 399, 450, 568, 617
Gray, Thomas, 150. 2'i7, 325, 421, 477, 540
Green. Matthew, 313
Greene, Robert, 168, 213, 320

Habingtoii, William, 168

Hall, l)r. Joseph (Ulshop of Norwich), 167,

326, 341, 363
Hall, William, 424
Hallam, Henry, 109, 12A, 141
Haimav, Jame.s, 6u7
HariliiiL'e, Gcrge, 392, 460, 472
HaringU)ii, John, 146, I7h, 204
Hurley, Ivlward, .S.< oiid Earl of Oxford and

Mortimer, 373
HarrJH, James, First liirl of Malmesbury,

590
Hayley, Willlnm, 3-.2, 353, 558
Headley, Henry. 205
Heame, Tlionias, .'167
llegge, lio'.x-rt, 502

Hemans, Felicia Dorotliea, 490
Herbert, of Cherbury, Edward, Lord, 498
Herb 'rt, George, 266
Herodotus, 215
Herrick, Robert, 81, 231, 405
Hesiud, 550
Heywood, John, 397
Higgons, Devil, 317
■Hill, Aaron, 262
Homer, 40, 42
Hood, Thomas, 351
Horace, 21, 31, 75, 84, 124, 213, 260, 275,

507, 586
Home, Dr. George (Bishop of Norwich"),

528
Howard, Frederick, Fifth Earl of Carlisle,

383, 500

Hughes, John, 18, 198, 216, 256, 296

Hume, David, 423

Hyde, Edward, First Earl of Clarendon, 488

.Tekyll, Joseph, 578
Jerninjiham, Edward, 426
Jesse, John Heneate, 570
Johnson, Dr. Samuel, xxxii., 91, 114, 133,
269, 295, 328, 335, 346, 304, 363, 370, 3^3,

384, 396

Jonson, Benjamin, 348, 397, 448

Jordan, Thomas, 637

Jortin, Dr. .John (Archdeacon of London), 2

Juvenal, 262

I Keble, .John, 283, 421
1 Kendall, Timothy, 48
Eenncdy, Dr. Benjamin Hall (Rpfrius Pro-
fessor of Greek, Cambridge, and Canon of
Ely), 102
Rett, Henry, 142, 184, 371, 380, 443
I Kynaston, E., 533

i Lamb, Charles, 489, 602

, Langhorne, Dr. John, 47

I Lansdowne, George Granville, Viscount.

j See Granville

Leeke, William, 283

Lloyd, Roliert, 2SI, 623

Ixmgfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 209, 228

Lovelace, Richard, .'■|25

l.owth. Dr. Robert (Bishop of London), 447

T^ytteiton, George, Kirst Lord, 32, 444

Lytton, Edward Bulwer, First Lord, 475

Macaulay, Thomas Babington, Lord, 120,

546
Mallet, David, 273
Malmesbury, James Harris, First Earl of.

See Harris
Martial, 79, 395, 572
MasKinger, Philip, 1, 35, 124, l,'i7, IBS', 183,

342, 455
Mlllon, John, 34, 81, 92, 113, 126, ISO, 248

305, 390, 4 73, 4K0, 523
Montagu, Kli/abelh 127
Monte-Mayor, George di-, 70

662

INDEX OF AUTHORS WHOSE WORKS ARE QUOTED

A'oore, Thomas, 157, 248, 572, 576, 619

Moschion, 558

Mosheim, Dr. John Lawrence, 385

Nares, Robprt (Archdeacon of Stafford), 4S6

Neavps, Charles, Lord, 634

Nichols, James, 3G9

Nichols, John, 44 9, 457

Noble, Mark, 301, 537

Norron, Hon. Mrs. Caroline, 429

Nugent, Robert Craggs, Earl, 313

Oldham, John, 200, 219, 370, 499

Orford. Horace Walpolo, Fourth Earl of.

See Walpole
Otway, Thomas, 92
Ovid, 46, 60, 79, 152, 256
Oxford and Mortimer, Edward Harley,

Second Earl of. See Harley

Palmer.ston, Henry John Temple, Third

Viscount. See Temple
Parr, Dr. Samuel, 3(;o, 492
Percy, Dr. Thomas (Bishop of Dromore), 424
Petronius Arbiter, 197, 23/
Pha?drus, 291
Pherecrates, 333, 457
Philips, Ambrose, 26, 127, 246, 535
Pindar, Peter. See Wolcot
Piozzi, Hester Lynch, 96, 310
Pitt, Christopher, 487
Plautus, 407
Pliny, the Elder, 415
Pope, Alexander, 13, 15, 57, 73, 84, 89, 109,

141, 112, 155, 160, 202, 211, 226, 267, 268,

283, 303, 314, 324, 325, 329, 330, 362, 367,

377, 399, 474, 533
Porson, Richard, 330
Prestwich, Edmut-d, 216
Prior, Matthew, 101, 130, 177, 241, 285, 336,

508
J'rocter, Bryan AValler (Barry Cornwall),

159, 477
Propertius, 73
J'rynie, Georgi', 591
Pye, Charles, 537

Quarles, Francis, 528
Quin, James, 413

Racine, Jean, 339
Raleigh, Sir \Valter, 349
Ramsay, Allan, 206, 502
Ridley, Dr. Gloster, 474
Robinson, Henry Crabb, 6^6
Rogers, Samuel, 32, 88, 113, 249, 298, 376,
463, 491, 537, 538, 5j3, 588

Sappho, 224

Schaw, Quintyn, 178

Scott, Sir Walter. 42, 464, 479, 499

Sedley, Sir Charles, 406

Seneca, 533

Shakespeare, AVilliam. Passim
Sharp, Dr. John (.\rchbishop of York), 364
Sheffield, John, First Duke of Buckingham-
shire, 278
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 188, 429, 483
Shenstoiie, William, 313. 451
Sherburne, Sir Edw.od, 387
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 86, 576
Sican, Dr. J., 273
Sidney, Sir Philip, 218, 488
Simonides, 8, 12
Singer, Samuel W., 285
Skelton, John, 132, 348
Smart, Christopher, 300
Smith, Horace, 493
Smith, Sydney, 634
Smollett, Dr. Tobias, 338
Smylh, William, 339, 448
Soame, Henry F. R., 491
South, Dr. Robert, 401
Southey, Robert, 13, 449
Southwell, Robert, 177, 295, 482
Speed, Samuel, 167
Spence, Joseph, 3 1 2
Spenser, Edmund, 3, 8, 10, 20, 38, 53, 180,

18.i, 223, 2:5, 250, 256, 299, 308, 343, 451,

473, 529
Sprat, Dr. Thomas (Bishop of Rochester),

430
Stanhope, Philip Dormer, Fourth Earl of

Chesterfield, 315
Stanhope, Philip Henry, Fifth Earl, 547
Stanley, Thomas, 224
Steele, Sir Richard, 75, 157, 322
Steevens, <ieorse, 425
Stewart, Dugald, 80
Stirling, H illiam Alexander, Earl of. See

Alexander
Suetonius, 259
Sutton, Dr. Christopher, 1 79
Swift, Dr. Jonathan (Dean of S. Patrick's),

127, 182, 266, 279, 291, 306, 355, 364, 366,

372, a09

Taylor, Dr. Jeremy (Bishop of Iiowu and

Coimor), 2, 84
Temple, Henry John, Third Visrount

Palmerston, r>77
Temple, Sir William, 324
Tennyson, Alfred, 126, 128, 285, 447, 567
Theobald, Lewis, 533
Thomson, James, 20, 446, 462
Tihullus. 31, 46, 80
Tickell, Thomas, 334
Timbs, John, 582
Turbervile, George, 206
Tusser, Thomas, 161

Veel, Robert, 440
Virgil, 25, 37, 92, 93, 441

Wadd, William, 110

Waldreii, Dr. George, 231, 585

Waller, Edmund, 32, 376, 436, 449, 496, 542

IN THE NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS.

663

Walpole, Horace, Fourth Earl of Orford, 284,
322, 401. 520, 583

Walsh, William, 140

Warburton, Dr. William (Bishop of Glou-
cester), 436

Warmstrey, Dr. Thomas, ?31

Warner, AVilliam, 517

Warton, Dr. Joseph, 128

Warton, Thomas, 136, 199

Watt, Dr. Robert, 24S

■VVeslev, Samuel, 325

West, Gilbert, 3Y4

WTiite, Henry Kirke, 65

AVhite, T. H., 311

Wither, George, 398, 561

Wolcot, Dr. John (Peter Pindar), 61, 123

AVood, Anthony A., 208, 262, 440. 521

Wordsworth, Dr. Ciiristopher (Bishop of

Lincoln), 21
AVordsworth, AVilliam, 11, 188, 226, 245

249. 366, 396, 432, 469, 477, 483, 510

Yalden, Dr. Thomas, 239, 538
Young, Dr. Edward, 135, 238, 311

( 664 )

INDEX OF FIEST LINES OF THE EPIGKAMS.

A bard grown desirous of saving his pelf

Abel ! prescribe thyself ; trust not another

A birch of elegant and graceful form

A blackleg late and prisoner hence I go

A blooming youth lies buried here

A Brook, whose stream so great, so good

Accept a miracle instead of wit

Accept, loved nymph, this tribute due .

A certain rhymer, who can ne'er repose

A cobbler and a curate once dirjputed .

A cobweb serv'd a tiuy elf .

A countenance so strong, and so severe .

Adam alone could not be easy

A Doctor lately was a captain made

A doctor, who, for want of skill .

Adorn not more your body than your brain

A drop of amber, from a poplar plant .

A farmer-general, to all virtue lost

A fat old friar of seraphic face

A fool and knave with different views .

A foreign land enwraps its dust around thee

A frigid rhymer, tho' an ardent lover

Against this pillar tall thou taper spear

Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appeared

Age, thou the loss of health and friends shall

mourn

A haughty courtier, meeting in the streets

A headstrong wife who oft came in for blame

Ah, faithless women ! when you swear .

Ah, hapless Troy ! the flame which Maro sings

Ah ! Leshia, now, or never, pity show .

A holy offering at Diana's shrine .

Ah ! once dear partner of my days

A house-she hath ; it's made of such good fashion

Ah ! sore disease, to men why eiiviest thou

A hum'rous fellow In a tavern late

Ah, what avails the sceptred race

Ah ! Why sad Thyrsis, blind both your eyes

Aiiey alone has gain'd that double prize

A kiss I begged ; but, smiling, she

Alas, madam, for ^tealing of a kiss

Alas, poor Tom ! how oft, with merry heart

Alas ! we rectors must resign

Alas ! what pains, what racking thoughti

proves

A learned work, Severus, where you teach

Alexander sells the Keys, the Altars and Christ

Alike in temper and in life .

A little garden little Jowett made

A little tomb sufficeth him whom not sufficed all

Swift .

. 290

Graves .

. 540

Tounsend

. 623

Anon.

. 602

S. Gregory

. 54

Crashaw

. 298

Toung .

. 312

Thomson.

. 369

Anon.

. 625

Parrot .

. 201

T.More .

. 51

Elsum .

. 149

Straight .

. 610

Martial .

. 629

Graves .

. 445

Delaune

. 263

Martial .

. 84

Piron

. 331

Anon.

. 630

Bishop .

. 443

Simonides

. 13

E. Walsh

. 589

Simonides

Cowper .

. 267

Bmvles .

. 478

Anon.

. 590

Stephanus

. 142

Xenarchus

. 70

Paterson

. 163

Sannazarius .

. 107

Mnasalcus

. 19

Anon. .

. 138

Anon. .

. 574

Simonides

. 54

Sannazarius .

. 106

Landor .

. 601

Theocritus

S. Smith

. 487

Sherburne

. 394

Wyat .

. 168

Fergusson

. 468

Turner .

. 454

Congreve

. 299

Panvonius

. 102

Anon.

. 106

Martial .

. 169

Anon.

. 594

Anon. . . •

. 475

INDEX OF FIEST LINES OF THE EPIGRAMS.

665

All are not born to soar — and all ! how few .
All buildings are but monuments of death
All-conq'riug, cruel death, more hard than rocks
All Jlemory's Pleasures his choice book contains
All meu are worms : but this no man. In silk
All Nature's charms in Sunderland appear .
All night I sigh with cares of love opprest
All. that accomplish'd body lends mankind .
All that of love can be exprcss'd .
All that thou dost be right — to that alone confiu

thy view .......

All things decay with time : the forest sees .
All things I thought I knew ; but now confess
All things you know : what all ? If it be so
All think now Chatterton is dead .
All to the lofty ode that genius gives .
All whom I love die young ; Zoilus, I'll try .
All wives are bad — yet two blest hours they give
A lord of senatorial fame ....

A lover once of the Septembrian juice .
A maid of bronze am 1, and here will stand .
A man was about to hang himself
Amaz'd I view the consecrated spot
Amazement seized Mnemosyne
Ambition's goal — the love of praise
A mechanic his labour will often discard
Amidst the waves profound ....

A minister's answer is always to kind .

Among the chiefs of British race .

Among the follies that discourse infest .

A monster, in a course of vice grown old

Amusement which exceeds the measure

An arch wag hasdrclar'd, that he truly can say

A narrow compass ! and yet there

Ance Wisdom, Majesty, an' Beauty

Anchises, Paris, and Adonis too .

And, doctor, do you really think .

And If thou hast, where could'st thou write i

Ijetter

And is Miss Tabby from the world retir'd ? .

And why so stupid as to lend an ear

And will Volatio quit this world so soon

An epigram should be — if right .

An epifrram should, like a pin, conjoint

An estate and an earldom at seventj'-four

An impartial and competent judge of desert .

An object this, so wonderfully bright .

An original something, fair maid, you would win

Another Leonora once inspired

Antigenes of Gela, when oppress'd

Antonius is arriv'd at seventy-five

A pair of right hands and a single dim eye .

A plague on Kuypt's aHs, I say .

A poem wrote without a thought .

A poor and friendless boy was he, — to whom

A priest one day accompanied a thief

A yuuck, who stole his patient's cup, did cry

A queen by birth, a prisoner by mishap

Arachne once, as poets tell ....

A rich man's purse, a poor man's soul is thine

Arra/d in matchless Ix^anty, Devon's I'air

Arthur, they gay, ha.s wit; for what? .

Artist, I own thy genius; but the touch

PAGE

S. T. Coleridge

. 488

Anon.

. 222

Arion.

. 539

Tovyiisend

. 29

Jonson .

. 190

E. of Halifax

. 278

Ayathias

mil

. 196

Lyttelton

. 295

Schiller .

. 476

Herrick .

XX vi

Ouen

. 150

J. Heath

. 150

Anon.

. 425

A. Seward

. 426

Bonifacius

. 157

Palladas

xviii

Anon.

. 30

Ckobulus

Flato .

Muirhead

. 596

Ant ipa ter of Sidon

1 . J. Scaliger .

. 457

Hood

. 299

Drummond .

. 205

Lord Holland .

. 619

Nugent ,

. 378

Fordyce .

. 622

Wesley .

. 341

Des Hmileres .

. 365

Hook

. 494

Waller .

. 563

Bam say .

. 319

A7ion. Greek .

. 24

Wolcot .

. 453

H. Coleridge .

. 509

Harriso7i

. 360

r. More .

. 112

Doddridge

. 371

E. Walsh

. 640

Anon.

. 640

Walpole .

. 416

Anon. .

. 514

Elsum .

. 173

Campbell

. 496

Milton .

. 160

Antipater of Tliessa

lonica 42

Martial . ,

. 87

Arabian.

O'arrick .

. 413

Ramsay .

. 41?

Kagles .

. 424

Sabinus .

. 130

Martial .

. 029

Southwell

. 1 74

Garrick

. 412

Lucillius ,

. 586

Anon.

. 646

Sirifl .

. 102

IJoviea .

. 437

6G6

INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF THE EPIGEAMS.

A sage of old batb gravely said .

A Sage to whom all learned lure was dear

As a Yankee so cute and Paddy quite sly

As both physic and verse to Phoebus belong .

A Scholar was about to marry

A scornful dame invited over night

As Cyril and Nathan were walking by Queen's

As death alone the marriage knot unties

A secret art my soul requires to try

As, erst, in Eden's blissiul bow'rs

A sexton and a grave physician .

As Gilly flowers do but stay

A shepherdess who long had kept her flocks .

As Sherlock at Temple was taking a boat

As Sherlock the elder with his jure divine .

" A singing-man and yet not sing ...

As in smooth oil the razor best is whet .

Ask who lies here, but do not weep

As Lambeth pray'd, so was the dire event

As lamps burn silent, with unconscious light

As late I sought the spangled bowers .

As late the Trades' Unions, by way of a show

As Lucifer once, fair star oi the morn .

As o'er the cold sepul'.hral stone .

A soldier found at first the way to print

As on a stepdam's tomb, a young child laid .

A Spartan 'scaping from the fight .

Assembled roimd the breathless pontiffs bier

As this auspicious day began the race .

As Thomas was codg^-U'd one day by his wife

As those we love decay, we die in part .

As Tom like his father the liquor would tip .

As true as turtle to her tender mate

A student at his book so plast

As virgin lilies pluck'd from off their stems .

A swain deep in love, and suitor to Nell

As you are young, if you'll hf also wise

At Barton's feet the god of Love .

At Bristol, Tom from the Mayor's feast was led

At church Harpax heard that to trample on riches

At 1 lelphos shrine, one did a doubt propound

At Dr. Goldsmith's merry play

At Fate's approach, see Oroonoko moan

A thief once consulted a lawyer of note

At length must Suffolk's beauties shine in vain

At morn we placed on his funeral bier .

At sight. Love drew your picture on my heart

Augustus at Rome was for building renown'd

Augustus still survives in Maro's strain

Aurispa nothing writes thou<ih leam'd, for he

Averse to pamper'd and high mettled steeds .

A vicar, long ill, who had treasured up wealth

A virgin blossom in her May

A virtuoso friend, a man of worth

A Welshman and an Englishman disputed

A wife you took deform'd, yet rich 'tis said .

A woman having a settlement

A woman may be fair, and her mind

A world subdu'd unknown to Ammon's son .

Battus (though bound from drinking wine of late)
Beautiful infant who dost keep
Beauty devoid of grace, is but a bait
Because I'm silent, for a fool

Lanilnr .

Alciatiis

Avon.

Anon.

Landor .

Parrot .

Anon.

Dodsley .

Anon.

Carey

Anon. Greek

Herrick .

F. Beaumont

Anon.

Mansel .

Toung .

Shakespeare

Anon.

mil

Naugerius

J. Smith,

Ansonius

Byron

R. Heath

CaUimachus

PaUadas

Calderinus

Jeffreys .

Swift .

Thomson.

Turner .

Martyn .

T. More .

Buchanan

Anon.

A. Killigrew

Anon.

Martial .

Anon.

F. Beaumont

Anon.

Wlialey .

Borbmdus

Johhson.

CaUimachus

Sayman

Anon.

Johnson .

Pannonius

Anon.

Graves

Parrot

Girardus

Anon.

Anr/ii.

Graves

Ation.
fiourne
Capita
Ouen

INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF THE EPIGRAMS.

667

Before my face the picture hangs .

Before them hiy a glittering store .

Be frugal, ye wives, live in silence and love .

Behold ! a proof of Irish sense

Behold the fruits of Chantrey's gua

Behold the lordly pedant in his school .

Behold the silent grave ; it doth embrace

Behold the true likeness ('tis said) of Boileau

Believing hear, what you deserve to hear

Bell-man of night, if I about shall go .

Beneath a myrtle Cupid lay .

Bene;ith, a slei/piug infant lies

Beneath these moss-grown roots, this rustic cell

Beneath this flowery mound she rests, whose zone

Beneath this marble stone here lies

Be not dismaide, though crosses cast thee dowue

Be open evermore, thou my door

Bestride an ant, a pigmy great and t.ill .

Be this dark spot for ever to verdure unknown

B?wail no more that brat of thine .

Bewail not much, my parents ! me, the prey

Beware smooth words and smiling face .

Black locks hath Gabriel, beard that's white

Blest are the bad alone while here

Blest in thy spirit, in thy huslmnd blest

Blind, poor, and mark d" by party's ruthless zeal

Blogg sneers at ancient birth;— yes, Blogg, w

see •

Bloomfield, thy happy-omen'd name

Blow,' winter wind, these deseri rocks around

Boast not thy actions ; for if bad they be

Boa>t'st thou of beauty? The sweet-scented rose

Bold and erect the Caledonian s:ood

Books take their doom from each peruser's will

Borgia, thou once wert almj-^t too august

iioruia was Ca;sar, b<3tli in dced^ and name

Born at the first to bring another forth .

Bom to be slaves, our fathers freedom sought

Bom to command, to conquer, and to spare .

Born under kini^s our fathers freedom sought

Bother't ! quoth Time lo ("homas Hearne

Both the wise and the witless scribble .

Bottomless pit of gold ! Slave to thy chest .

lireak not my sweet repose ....

Bright is liis diadem in heaven's abode .

Bright martial maid, queen of the frozen zone

liriiain with Greece and Iliime contended long

llrunus, which deems himself a fair sveet youth

liu^y, curious, thirsty fly .

Mat twrne, and like a short delight

HutUr in cl'-arn'ss and in foice surpasa'd

I'ut one bright eye young Aeon's face adorns

By fashion led, 1 spent my life at ease .

I'.'y her talent a secret will Celia discover

By hostile sp"ars lj<jrne down brave Lycus falls

By I'luto's hand, by sacred Hecate's bed

By shame of flight was Cleodcmus led .

By showering wealth and title.-, splendid

Cailla stole Ixjve's quiver while he slept
roaar and IlitrcuUit applaud toy fame .
(^n you tell me (cried C'l.lia to Damon) from
whenw- .......

Can you tell why It In, that In country or city

PAGE

Southwell

. 174

Surtees

. 502

T. More .

Swift

. 293

Alderson .

. 596

Straight .

. 3»1

Anon.

. 619

Boileau ,

. 613

Martial .

. 439

Jlerrick .

. 226

Bussell .

. 309

Wi's/ey .

. 342

G. West .

. 351

Anon. Greek .

. 90

Swift

. 292

Uerrick .

. 174

Anon.

. 243

Liu'.illius .

. 292

A7ion.

. 176

Lacillius .

. 624

Lucianus .

. 'i7

Solon

. 125

Macentinus

. 165

Landor .

. 601

Martial ,

. 290

Wellesley .

. 477

Hanna;/ .

. 638

Kirke White .

. 503

A. Seward

. 461

Baxins

. 170

Strato

. 53

Some

. 423

Anon.

. 134

handor .

. 119

Anon.

. 496

Ayum.

. 227

M. W. Montague

. 332

Jf. More .

. 459

M. ir. Montague

. 332

Anon.

. 422

fraed

. 624

Donne

. 184

JJrummond

. 205

Bobertson

. 531

Milton

. 159

Toilet

. 347

J. Oavies

., 182

Oldi/S

. 353

Ifi-rrick .

. 47

. Anon.

. 638

Aiiiallheus

. r28

. Anon.

. 402

liar din (fe

. 612

Ca.piliipus

. 121

Malear/a- .

. 2

S'lHOII itics

. 10

, O nnhnuld

. 332

Angeriantts

. 118

Anon. . •

. 268

. Anon.

ii'y'Z

llannay . .

'. . C(i7

668

INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF THE EPIGRAMS.

Carlisle subscribes a thousand pound .

Carteret was welcom'd to tbe shore

Carlhy, you say, writes well — his genius true

Cease, Canterbury, to deplore

Cease, Greece, to boast of Aristophanes .

Cease, ye Etonians ! and no more .

Celia her sex's foible shuns ....

Celsus takes off by dint of skill

Censure no more the hand of Death

Charm 'd with the empty sound of pompous words

Cheat not yourselves as most ; who then prepare

Children are snatch'd away, sometimes .

Chloe, you well my future fate may show

Chloris, I swear liy all I ever swore

Ci git Piron, qui ne fut rieu ....

Circles are praised, not that abound

Cling to thy home ! If there the meanest shed

Closely in form, in life, in death allied .

Close to her husband, Frances joiii'd once more

Cloy'd with ragouts, you scorn my simple food

Cold Nilus through my burning eyes doth flow

Cold pillars ! Sirens mute ! and thou, sad urn

Come, fill the South Sea goblet lull

" Come kiss me !" said Colin. I gently said " No

Come, Leila, fill the goblet up . . .

Come, Lesbian maids, to blue-eyed Juno's shrine

Come shepherds, follow me ....

Come, stretch thy limbs beneath these shady trees

Come then, my friend, thy sylvan taste display

Conceal'd in marble-bed the Graces lay

Conservatives of Hatfield House .

Contemplate when the sun declines

Contempt is loathsome ; glorious 'tis to sway

Coscus, thou say'st my epigrams are long

Could but our tempers move like this machine

Could he forget his death that every hour

Could Homer come himself, ilistress'd and poor

Could i recall lost youth again

Could our first father, at his toilsome plough

Cries Sylvia to a reverend Dean

Cropt by th' untimely band of death, here lies

Crossing o'er the South Sea in the late stormy

weather

Cruel Amynta, can you see .
Cumsean sybils could not more descry .
Cum Sapiente Pius nostras juravit in aras
Cupid and my Campaspe play'd
Cythera from this craggy steep

Dacus doth daily to his doctor go .

Dan Clarke and his namesake for honour applied

Dark are our fates— to-morrow's sun may peer

Daughter of him who rul'd th' Athenian plains

Deaf, giddy, helpless, left alone

Dear Bell, to gain money, sure, silence is best

Dear boy ! whom, torn in early youth away .

Dear child, farewell ! that didst in worth

Dear Chloe, well I know the swain

Dear Diiby ! I've pleaded in vain for your crime

Dear lady, think it no reproach

Dear Lyce, thou art wond'rous thin

Dear Sim, by wits extoU'd, by wits cried down

Death brings us peace : Oh ! fear him not

Deep, deep, in Sandy's blundering head .

Byron

Swift

Sicift

Anon.

Sheppard

Book

Bishop

Callicter.

Belph

Graves

Velaiine

Barber

Needier

Moore

Piron

Waller

Leonidas of Tarentum

Wrangham

Anon.

Graves

Owen

Erinna

Pope

Anon.

Arabian.

Anon. Greek

Anon.

Anon. Greek

Shenstone

Anon.

Jekyll

Oicen

Petronius Arbiter

Martial

Byrom

Anon.

Cov'per

Campbell

Green

Dodsley

Anon.

Amhurst
Con gr eve
T. More
R. Scott
Lylly
Anyte

Parrot

Anon.

Palladas

Simonides

Suift .

J. Smith

Jfartial

Lowth

Wolcot

Pose

Anon.

Argentarius

Anon.

Agathias

C. II. Williams

INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF THE El'KiRAMS.

669

Deep down I drew my latest breatli in a gi)ld cup
of wine .......

Deep in a grove we found tU' unconscious boy

Defendant and plaintiff were deaf as a post .

Democritus, dear drull, revisit earth

De Retz in egotisms tails short of thee .

Determined beforehand, we gravely pretend .

Dexionica, with a limed thread

Dick, Would you know, if I should change my life

Did he, who thus inscrib d the wall

Did love, Uke agues, ever intermit

Did Milton's prose, Charles ! tliy death defend ?

Died suddenly— surprised at such a rarity

Die when you will, you need not wear .

Disguis'd Uke a ploughman, Love stole from the

sky

Dives, the Cardiff Bar retains

Divine Euripides, this tomb we see

Does any ask ? I answer from the dead

Do not mine affection slight ....

Doomed to long suffering from your earliest years

Do, pious marble, let thy readers know

Do right; though pain and anguish be thy lot

" Do this," cries one side of S. Stephen's great hall

Do you ask why old Focus Sylvanus defies .

Drawn by Parrhasius, as in person view'd

Dreading no more the shrouding mists of night

Dreams are monitions sent us from hii^h Ilcav'ii

Drink now, and love, my friend, for mirth and wine

Drink to me, only with thitie eyes .

Dumb dogs that knew not how lo bark .

Dunces, rejoice ; forgive all censures past

Dying Avarus we<ps, not to lament

Each pontiffs talents morals, life, and end .

Each softening charm of Clio's smiling song .

Earth for a %vhile bcspake his slay

Eat mutton once, and you need eat no more .

Eight sons Demajneta at Sparta's call

Eld"St born of powers divine

EnipIoj''d to cure a love-distracted swain

Empty the flask, discharg'd the score

England, Netherland, the Heavens and the Arts

Enjoy the sweets of life's luxuriant May

Enough ; and leave the rest to fame

Enougli, cold stone ! suffice lier long-lov'd name

Enthusiasts, lyUtberaiis, and Monks

Envy, if thy searclnng eye ....

Erasmus, standing 'fore hell's tribunal, said .

Ere sin could blight or sorrow fade

Ere yet her child has drawn its earliest breath

EuphemluH slumbers in this hallow'd ground

Europe and Asia, saved by 'I'hee, proclaim

Euseia, rich In gold and land

Ever eating, never defying .

Exalt«l soul, thy variou-. sounds could please

Exquisite wines and conif*tible8 .

Extremes of lortune are true wisdom's test

Faces may alter, names can't change

Fair and falw', I burn 'tis tii:e

Fairest and latest of the Ixauteous race

Fair Ilellesi>oiit ! Still roll thy waves that bore

talr lole I Unknown the nuptial rite .

CunradiiiKS
Plato

Ificarchus

Prior

Anon.

Ixkianus

Martial .

Clarke .

Anon.

A)ion,

A7ion.

Moore

J/oschns .
Jekyll

Anon. Greek
Sapplio .
fiutler ,
Wellesley
(ju'irles .
Sli uttletronh
/iisluyp .
Gray
Glaucus .
Anon. Greek
Anon.
Strata .
Jon son .
Anon.
l:-irl(in .
BorUuniuS

Sannazarius

Savage .

R. Fletcher

Anon.

JJioscorides

Ariphron

Jeffreys .

JIud'lesford

lialcigk .

Garcilasso

Marvell .

Hill

Anon.

Iluglies .

Anon.

S. T. Coleridge

Wernicke

S. Gregory

Welksley

AgalhUis

Snift .
Wilkes .
Martial .
/'Iiilemon

Lee

Guarini

K. of llaUfnT.

A'ltljiiitcr of

Mnaealcus

153

579
403
373
86
xvi
652
353
215
53S
587
498

30
555
234
5
129
591
232
234

XXXV

633
254

484
238
84
191
582
114
587

108

362

529

278

3U8

106

186

219

553

304

510

4«9

511

xxxii

478

350

386

297

504
277
'hessalunica 463

670

INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF THE EPIGEAMS.

I''air lady, take a special care

Fair marble, tell to iunire days . . .

Fair miniature of all thy mother's grace

Fair Nature's sweet simplicity

Fair, rich, and young ! how rare is her perfection

Falleris hac qui te pingi sub imagine credis .

False is the tule ; a htro m.-ver dies

Fame I am called, marvel you nothing .

Fame, register of Time ....

Fame says. Pope Julius once the sword did wield

Farewell, great painter of mankind

Farewell, sweet boy ! and farewell all in thee

Farewell, thou child ot my right hand and joy

Farewell to wine ! or if thou bid me sip

Far from Tarentum's native soil I lie .

Far happier are the dead, methinks, than they

Far in a savage Cappadocian dell .

Far in the bosom of the deep

Fear no more Love's shafts, for he

Fear not, my dear, a flame can never die

Feed, gentle swain, thy cattle far away .

Few were Erinna's w ords, and brief her lays

Fie, B')zzy ! heclor, and talk big .

Fill high the bowl with sparkling wine

Fine lectures Attains rehear»es

First Carlton House, my country friend

First in the list behold the caustic Dean

Flam to my face is oft too kind

Flavia the least and slightest toy .

Flint dream 'd he gave a least, 'twas regal fare

Folly is not feign'd, nor with false wit lies

Fond Piogne, chatt ring wretch .

Fond Vulgar, canst thou think it strange to find

Fools, not to know that half exceeds the whole

Forbear, sweet girl, your scheme forego .

Forbear to tempt me, lYoule, I will not show

Forbear to weep where Poussin's ashes lie

Fur ever dear, for ever dreaded Prince .

Forgive, blest shade, the tributary tear .

For Greece and glory they who lie beneath

For me the-Koman circus echo'd lo its height .

For me thy wrinkles have more charms

For Phoebus' aid my voice I raise .

For Tully late a tomb I gan prepare

Foitune, men say, doth give too much to many

Found dead, a rat — no case could sure be harder

Four Forgers, bom in one prolific age .

Four shillings in the pound we see

Fraternal love in such strong currents runs .

Freed from the toils of war, and long distress

Freedom's charms alike engage

Freind, for your epit;iphs I'm grieved .

Frenchmen, no more with Britons vie .

Fresh rising from the ocean foam .

Fret not, my frifnd, and peevish say

Friend, Ortho of .Syracuse gives thee this charge

Friends are like melons. Shall I tell you why ?

Friend W n ! if you would get rid of a scold

From ancient custom 'tis (they say)
From fiow'r to flow'r, with eager pains •
From God thty came, to God they went again
From Leadeiihall the reasons (raisins) come .
From mortal hands my being I derive .
From Kufa's eye sly Cupid shot his dart

Duck

Anon.

Lyttdton

Martial .

Anon

FarmenioH

r. More .

Urmnmond

Vulto

Garrick .

Anmi.

Jonson .

Agatli ias

Leonidas of Torent

Lucillius.

Martial .

W. Scott.

Paulus Silentiarius

Sedley .

Anacreon

Antipater of Sidon

Anon.

Martial .

Landor .

M. Coleridge

Park

Atterbury

Lucillius

Martial .

Liriinimond

Hall

Addison .

Anon.

Jonson ,

Bellori ,

Harington

Steele .

Simonides

Martial .

Paidus Silent

Helph .

Griinoald

Harington

Anon.

Mason

Wesley .

Martial .

Anon.

Haickesaorth

Pope

Anon.

Leonidas of Tarent.

S. Erskine

Theocritus

Mermet .

Cminingham

Hopkins .

Anon.

H. Coleridge

Meadows

Plato .

S. T. Coleridge

INDEX OF FIRST LINES OP THE EPIGRAMS.

671

From sunset to daybreak, when folks are asleep
Fioudf informs the Scottish youth
Full oft (iotij Mat. with 1 op.i/. dine
Full twenty years, through all the courts

Callus would make me heir, but suddenly

Garruw forbear ! that tough old jade

Gay Bassus, for ten thousand bought

Gazing on thee, sweet ma:d ! all tilings I see

Gellia the hangman doth, not doctor choose

Gift of the Hero, on his dying day

Gil's history appears to me .

Give but Cupid's dart to me .

Give nie three kis^es, Phillis; if not three

God and a soldier all people adore

God bless the King, 1 mean the Faith's Defeuder

Goddess who shunn'st the cottage gate .

God has to me sufEcieutly been kind

God is best pleas' d, when men forsake their sin

God of hearts, prithee begone

God said, " Ijit there be light" — and lo .

Good Irieud, for Jesus' sake forbear

Good friend, this message to my owner bear

Good health for mortal man Is best

Good unexpected, evil unforseen .

Good wine; a Iriend ; or being dry

Go— you may call it madness, folly

Grateful is sleep — but more to be of stone

Great Bacchus, born in thunder and in tire

Great Chatham, who from humbled France

Great! Good! and Just! Could 1 but rale

Great Homer's birth sev'n rival cities claim

Great Pompey's ashes in vile fcgypt lie

Greece boasts her Homer, Rome her Virgil's i

Greece Justly boiv>ts her Homer's mighty name

Had Cowley ne'er spoke, Killigrew ne'er writ
Had Marlborough's troops in Gaul no better fought
Had this fair form the inlniic art displays
Hail, great in war ! all hail, by glory cherish'd
Hail, lieav nly Pair I by whose conspiring aid
Hail, Niobe! Unbind iliy braided hair .
Hail ! thou first sacrifice in th' martyrs' roll .
Half of my soul yet breathes :. the rest .
Hal's blamed for not leading a soberer life
Hang it ! cries Hcarne, in furious fret .
Happy, oh happy he who, not affecting .
Hark how chimes the passiig bell
Hark I she's not marble, with gentle heaving
Harpalus to the poor his wealtli would leave .
Har]>, that did'st soothe my cares, when openin

life

Hast<; to Clarinda, and reveal

Hast'ning lo battle, betray'd by thy friends .

Ha.it thou a friend ? thou hast indeed .

Health, rose-llpp'd cherub, haunts this spot .

He batb'd with us, brisk ; and be supp'd with us,

gay

Hn has quitted the Countess — what can she wis!

more? ......

He is most happy sure that knoweth nought
Hence a blessed houle is fled .
Herdnnian and herd, nay Myron I deceive
Here Adclmautua rcbta — tho same wua he

Wesley .

Anon.

Prior

Martial .

• Bastard .
Jekyll
Martial .
MeUayer
Zevecotius
Moore
Green
Sedges
Owen
Jordan
Byrom
Lucianus
Anon.
Jonson
Sheppard
Anon.
Anon.
Johannes Secundus
Sim/m ides
FaWidas
Aldrieh .
Ruijers .
Michael Angela
Mdeager
Anon .

M. of Montrose
T. ^'eward
Martial .
Selvaggi
Anun.

Oenhain

Evans .

Jerningham

SimonideS

Needier .

Meleager

t:. of Uumberlund

Caliimachus

Anon.

li. West .

Anun,

i^kirley .

HarOerinus

Faschasius

Mellin .
Granville
I'aiseratius
Anon. Greek
Anon.

Martial .

llugirrs .
n. Ileatk
Her ride .
/'/licluuias
Siiiionidai

PAGB

, 340

, 63d

, 283

. 358

. 1S6

, 578

. 6U3

, 37U

. 1-lU

, 500

. 355

, 4U1

. 240

. 2B1

. 590

. 541

. 133

. 192

, xxix

. 547

. 518

. 131
14

. 147

. 458

. 480

. 518

. m

. 547

. 243

. 396

. 135

. 267

. 249

. 250

. 305

. 427

. 336

. 39

. 230

. 4U8

. 621

. 422

. 222

. 153

. 140

. 12«

. 2'.i4

. 143

. 70

. 406

. 62U

. 150

. lis

. I ;ri

. xx\i

672

INDEX OF FIEST LINES OF THE EPIGRAMS.

Here a pretty baby lies

Here a solemn fast we keep .

Here, dead to fame, lives patriot Will .

Here fair Albina lies, yet not alone

Here free from Riot's hated noise .

Here from the hand of genius, meets your eye

Here, happy Doctor, take this sonnet .

Here, here she lies, a budding rose

Here in his dirt lies poor old Demetriades

Here Innocence and beauty lies, whose breath

Here learn, from moral truth and wit refin'd

Here lies a babe, that only cried .

Here lies a Doctor ot Divinity

Here lies a man who in his life

Here lies a miser, who, beside

Here lies an honest man ! without pretence .

Here lies an old soldier whom all must applaud

Here lies a Scot of reputation

Here lies a wife was chaste, a mother blest .

Here lies, aye, here doth lie, inort-hleu .

Here lies a y nth (ah, wherefore breathless lies !)

Here lies a youih whose lofty rhyme

Here lies Dean Donne : enough ; those words alone

Here lies he, whom the tyrant's rage

Here lies his parents' hopes and fears .

Here lies in repose, after great deeds of blood

Here lies John of Mlrandola ; what else there is to

tell

Here lies Jonson with the rest

Here lies King Henry II.. who many realms .

Here lies Lord Coningsby ; be civil

Here lies my wile ; and Heaven knows .

Here lies Prince Henry, I dare say no more .

Here lies Sir Horatio Palavozeene

Here lies the author of the " Apparition "

Here lies the best and worst of Fate

Here lies the father of taxation

Here lies the Jew .....

Here lies the Lyi-lc, who with tale and song .

Here lies Timocreon : were his deeds supplied

Here lies to each her parents' ruth

Here lieth one that once was born and cried .

" Here lieth one whose name was writ on water ! "

Here Moliere lie.s, the Roscius of his age

Here Ninim lies buried, who always aspired .

Here o'er the tomb where Dealtry's ashes sleep

Here plac'd near Chaucer, Spenser claims a room

Here quench your thirst, and mark in me

Here Raphael lies, by whose untimely end

Here Raphael lies. Wljile he lived. Nature's dread

Here rests a poec of no vulgar name

Here rests a womnn, good without pretence .

Here rests Myrillo's drunken wife

Here rests the Hero, who in glory's page

Here Rogers sat, and here for ever dwell

Here she lies a pretty bud ....

Here, shunning idleness at once and praise .

Here sleeps a daughter by her mother's side .

Here sleep, whom neither life, nor love .

Here strive lor empire, o'er the happy scene .

Here the shrewd physiognomist Eusthenes lies

Here Wesley lies in quiet rest

Here, who but once in 's life did thirst, doth lie

Her father dead '—Alone, no grief she knows

Serrick .

Serrick ,

C. H. Williams

MaruUus

Cowper .

A. Se:>:ard

Ramsay .

Shenstone

Cox

Anon

Bowyer .

Anon.

Porson .

Anon,

JJaynard

N. Cotton

Anon.

Benserade

Whitehead

Anon.

C. Cotton

Mennis or Dr.

Wadd .

Smith

Stroza .

F. Beaumont

Anon.

Pope

Boileau .

Sheppard

Anon.

Evans .

Shirley .

Anon.

Pope

Anon.

Simonides

Jonson .

Anon.

Shelley .

Anon.

Mason .

Anon.

T. Wai-ton

T. Wartun

Bembus .

K. Walsh

Pope

Leonidas of Tarentuni

H. More .

Lord Holland

Serrick .

Pope

Antipate.r of Sidon

Anon.

Paulus SUentiarius

Theocritiis

Wesley .

R. Heath

Martial ,

INDEX OF FIEST LINES OF THE EPIGRAMS.

Her honour and her freedom sav'd . .

Hermes ihe volatile, Arcady's president

Hermit hoar, in solemn cell .

Heroes and kings ! your distance keep .

Her trophies faded, and revers'd her spear

Her virgin zone unloosed, Clea^ra's charms

Her wit and beauty for a court were made

He strives for more, though he his thousands tench

He that hath such acuteness and such wit

He was and is (see then where lies the odds)

He, who his wealth to generous ends applies

He who>e left arm loaden with books you see

He wrongs the dead who thinks this marble Irame

Hey, Giles ! in what new garb an dress'd

Hie conjunita suo recubat Krancisca marito .

Hid lies the nymph from whom this bounty flows

His accounts honest John hath now settled with

fate

His country's muses join with those of Greece
His foes, when dead great Atterbury lay
His last great debt is paid— poor Tom's no more
His Life is lifeless, and his Death shall die .
His lordship's mornings were in hurry spent .
His valour's proofe, his manlie virtue's prayse
" Hoa there ! Who art thou ? Answer me. Art
dumb?" .......

Homer, though blind, yet saw with his soul's eye

Hope, heav'n bom cherub, still appears

How apt are men to lie ! how dare they say .

How Arts improve in this aspiring age .

How calm, how bland, appears the moon above us

How can I choose but like Mount Etna glow.

How comes it, Perrault, I would gladly know

How comes it. Sleep, that thou

How differs, 1 pray, the Physician's part

How do I thank thee, Death, and bless thy power

How falsely does Dorinda's glass .

How fine the illusion ! Bramarbas breath'd shorter

How fitly join'd the lawyer and his wife

How ill the motion with the music suits

How little grief thy father's ashes claim

How many between east and west

How much are they d^ceiv'd who vainly strive

How often, Lycid, shall 1 bathe with tears .

How strangely Providence Its ways conceals .

How sweetly careless Delia seems

How the best state to know ? — it is found out

How wretched do' s Prometheus' stale appear

Hunt not, fish not, shoot not

I am called niiUlhof>d, in play is all my mind

I am his HighiK ss' dog at Kew

I nm the man who m.ide a prey to grief .

1 am the tomb of Creth(in here you read

" 1 am unable," yonder U;cgar cries

1 and Time 'gainst luiv two .

lanthe to<jk me by \xii\i ears and said .

1 afiked my fair one happy day

I ask no grave beneath the Hrilifih sod .

I cannot see the Speaker ! Hal, can you ?

" Id Ton rajeiinit :"— 'Tis true .

I dare not tru»t my pen it trpinbles so .

I die well paid, wliilHt my expiring breath

idly-busy iqulirel, say .

Casavoims

Philippus

Johnson ,

lope

Anon.

ileleager

Lyttelton

Maitial .

Corbet .

Anon.

Lucianus

Martial .

Wadd .

Bloomfield

Anon.

E. Walsh

Buchanan

A7}on.

Anon.

I. H. Broivne

Martial .

Anon.

Plato Comicus
Sheppard
Anon.
Hill

Sheridan
Landor .
Sheppard
BoiUau .
Drummond
I'riintius
Corbet .
I.ucHli'iS
I.tssing .
jEgidius
Jeffreys .
Brebeiif .
Covper .
n'. Walsh
Aiion. (Iretk
Markland
WlinUy .
Scliilhr .
Con ley .
Ano^i.

T. More .

J'ope

Menage .

Letmidas of Tarentum

Ih'Une

Anim.

Ixindor .

I nesting .

Anon.

J<otc

Landor ,

Ikmne .

Barker .

673

PAGE

. 120
9

. 385

. 329

. 546
7
xxxiv

. 177

. 204

. 212

. 82

. 637

. 232

. 481

. 116

. 430

. 589

. 127

. 287

. 603

. 376

. 5«5

. 298

. 248

. 429

. 628

. 576

. 688

. 250

. 273

. .\xi.ic

. 629

. 2112

. 124

. 436

. x.w

. 307

. 258

. 439

. 27'J

. 361

. 411

. 366

. 476

. 254

, 583

. lie

. 323

. 246

. 476

. 298

. 351

. 600

. 435

. 607

. 471

. 513

. 601

. IBS

. 507

674

INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF THE EPIGRAMS.

I do not love thee, Dr. Fell ....

I dreamt, that, buried in my fellow clay

I dreamt the roses one time went .

If death's the end of life, why then

If ere in human grief there breathe a spell

If found among thieves, an unfortunate stranger

If goddesses for mortal men might weep

If Reav'n be pleas' d, when sinners cease to sin

If humour, wit, and honesty could save

I find Lord Byron scorns my muse

If in his study he hath so much care

If innocents are the favourites of Heaven

If it be true, celestial Powers

If James, the king of wit ....

If John marries Mary, and Mary alone .

If law, if rhetoric, my muse avow

If, Mildred, by thy care, he be sent back, whom

request .......

If Nape bares her snowy breast or arm .

If neither brass nor marble can » ithstand

If one have serv'd thee, tell the deed to many

If only when they're dead, yuu poets praise .

If Tarquin's wrong, Lucretia, pleased your soul

If that my little grateful mare

If this great world of joy and pain

If this pale rose offend your sight .

If thou do ill, the joy fades, not the pains

If thou hast something, bring thy goods— a fair

return be thine

If thou wilt meds be proud, mark this, friend mine

If true that notion, which but few contest

If tyrant Love with cruel dart

If Venus, as the lie of poets goes .

If well to die be valour's noblest part .

If vhat you advance, my dear Doctor, be true

I hate those Lyricks — they are trump'ry men

I have some kinsfolk rich, but passing proud .

I know not whether in Narcissus' glass

I know the thing that's most uncommon

I like your German singers well .

lU-busi'd man ! why should'st thou take such care

lUe hie est Raphael. Timuit, quo sospite, vincl

I'll not oiT»nd thee with a vain tear more

" I'll put down Latin," Blogu says, •' for I hate it"

111 thrives the hapless family that bhows

Illustrious steed, w-ho should the zodiac grace

I lov'd thee beautiful and kin 1

I'm in search of a Cupid that late went astray

Immortal Newton never spoke

I mourn Antibia — whose paternal gate .

Impatient of his childhood ....

" I'm very much surprised," quoth Harry

In a dark corner of the house

In age, youth, and manhood, three wives have

tried

In all humility we crave ....

In all the epigrams you write, we trace

In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow

In Beatrice did all perfections grow

In bed we laugh, in bed we cry

In bonds of love united, man and wife .

In characters so fair, we trace

In Copeman's ear this truth let Echo tell

In cottages and homely cells ....

Martial .
Patrix .
Eerrick .
Anon.
Catullus.
Anon.

Anon. Latin
Anon.
Duck

FiLzgerald
Donne .
Anon.
Swift .
Theophile
Cowper .
Peace

C. Killigrew

Amaltheus

S'Hft

Opitz

Cordus

Beza

Rose

Wordsworth

Scmervile and

G. Herbert

Congreve

Schiller .

Seyvjood

Anon.

Lloyd

Muretus .

Simonides

J. Warton

Phocylides

Freeman

Buchanan

Pope

Anon.

King

Bcmbtn .

Jonson .

Hannay .

Anon. .

Anon.

.\ugent .

Meleager

E. of Chesterfield

Anyte

Sood

Anon.

Prior

Paschasius
Anon.
Martial .
Martial
J. Heath
Benserade
Hall

Jeffreys .
Caliper .
Soinervih

I^'DEX OF FIRST LIXES OF THE EPIGRAMS.

G75

In court to serve decked with fresh array

In Craven Street, Strand, ten attorneys tind place

In days ot yore, as Roman pnets tell

Indulgent Nature to each kind bestows

I never bark'd when out of season

I never did the gods importune

Inexorable Death I Why, why destroy

Ingenious Cowley ! while we view'd

Ingenious Nature's zeal for friendship's laws

In good Queen Elizabeth's reign

J n indenture or deed ....

In kinsman friend, of old, was comprehended

In matters of commerce the fanlt of the Dutch

In merry old England it once was a rule

In midnight cups yoti grant all we propose .

In mind and body crook'd, 'tis Nature's plan

In pleasure's bowers whole lives unheeded fly

In politics if thou would'st mix .

In Pope's melodious verse the Graces smile

In sacred sleep here virtuous Saon lies

In Stepney churchyard seven tombs in a row

Insulting rival 1 never boast

In tears I came into this world of woe .

In these fair vales hath many a Tree .

In this beloved marble view

In this little wreath unite

In travel, pilgrims oft do ask, and know

In vain he beats his brow who thinks .

In vain my little foe inflicts the smart .

In vain, poor sable son of woe

In vain to live from age to age

Invite not me a trencherman well-skill'd

Invoke who will the prosp'rous gale behind

In wanton .--port, my Doris from her fair

In yonder thicket springs the secret rill

In you, my dear friend, we've a proof that the Nine

In yonr last Ixjok, friend Mat, you really tell

In youth we sent thee from thy native soil

" I owe," says Melius, " much to Colon's care

I passed through London's gorgeous shops

Iru8, tho' wanting gold and lands

I saw a flie within a beade .

I saw fair Cloris walk alone

I saw, in secret to mj' dame .

I saw the tornb and cried, with deep surprise

I see a man vJiom age should make more wise

1 sent for Iladcliffe; was so ill

Is ./ohn departeii, and is Lllbum gone ?

Is Molly Kowle immortal ? No

Is there a virtue which the prudent fair

Is there, t' enroll amongst tho friendly few

I aUkxX and saw my inlstrcsg dance

I ttootl, sir, patient at your feet .

Is't thus. Jade Chance, that thou with men do»t

play

It is not for nothing that sometimes wc sec

It is not for our go'Kl in ease to rett

It puzzles much the sagi-'« brains

Its balmy lips the Infant blest

I've dispatch 'd, my dear madam, this scrap of

letter

I've seen a man x>luck geese on Shelford fen

I've roum'd 'mong the peaks and the beadlande of

Mull

tVyat .

J. Smith

F. of Kldon

Conyers or Tjdlon

Blacklock

Martial .

Anon. Greek

Parsons

Palladas

Anon.

Bishop .

Eliot

Canning

Anon.

Martial .

Palladas

Lucianus

Burns. .

W. Duncombe

Callimaclius

Martial .

Lord liosse

Palladas

Wordsworth

Byron .

Bonnefonius

Anon. ,

I.andor .

Free

Anon.

Cuwper .

Palladas

Anon. Greek

PaidiiS Silenii

Anon. Greek

Turner .

M. G. Lewis

S. Gregory

Wdtted .

Anon.

Nerrick .

Strode .

Spenser .

Cox

jMndor .

Prior

Anon.

lie Veil .

Ausimlus

Martial .

Shirley .

Prior

Bauhvsius
T. More .
Shcppard
N. Cotton
H. T. Coleridge

Jenner .
WedgKOod

Hogg

PAGE
178
492
573
305
404

89
376
315
637
556
230
599
384
280

90
198
474
534
191
610
271

20
482
505
217
538
604
394
548
440

24
226

22
■155
60S

55
330
638
541
158
239
lli4
632
602

52
521
568

76
144
286

152
114
249
378
489

415

559

490

676

INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF THE EPIGKAMS.

I wail not those ......

I want, and stand in need of Croesus' store .

I was destroyed hf Wellington and Grey

1 weep upon thy grave— thy grave, my child

I went to Frankfort and got drunk

I were indeed indifferent to fame .

I, whom no living beauty yet could warm

I will not ask if thou (-au'st touch

I will not love one minute more I swear

"I wish thou hadst a little narrow mouth, wife

I wish thy lot, now bad, still wor^e, my friend

" I wonder if Brougham thinks as much as he

talks?" . . "

I would not call in any one of them all

Jack finding gold, left a rope on the ground .
Jack (quoth his father), how shall I ease take ?
Jack says that of law, common sense is the base
Jack's fathers dead ; and left him without hope
Jack writes severe lampoons on me, 'tis said .
Jacob of old, with reverent zeal .
.Jealous, I own it, I was once
Jest fairly, freely : but exempt from it .
Joannes jacet hie Mirandola ; cwtera norunt
Job, wanting a partner, thought he'd be blest
Jocus in 's humour weareth out the day
Johnnie Carnegie lais heer ....
John the illustrious. B. John the mortal, say
John Trott w;is desir'd by two witty peers .
Joy follow thee ; if joy can reach the dead
Judge Ashurst, with his lantern Jaws .
Justly and wisely this piece by the author's entitled

"lil Humour"

Just wedded, to the bath Cleopatra flew
Juventia, might I kiss those eyes .

Kenyon, I've written for your delectation
Kind Katherine to her husband kiss'd these words
King George in a fright ....
Kings, statesmen, scholars, soldiers, here are dust
Kisses my Phillis takes, but ne'er bestows .
Kneller, by Heaven, and not a master taught
Knighthood's come on thee (as a man should

throw

" Knowledge is Power," so saith the learned Bacon
Know thou, stranger to the fame

Ladies that are young and wise .

Lady, accept the gift a hero wore

Lsetus, that late a great divine did meet

Lais, when time had spoil'd her wonted grace

Lately by clear Thames's side

Laura, would you know the passion

Learning and wealth the wise and wealthy End

Leech huasts, he hiis a Pill, that can alone .

Leila! whene'er I gaze on thee .

Leo lack'U the last Sacrament. " Why," need we

tell?

Le.-s by his birth than by his merit known .

Lit all chaste matrons, when they chance to see

Let faire or foule my mistress be .

Let heroes boast of hearts for slaughter made

Let his mcinnment be the world .

Let no rash hand mvade these sacred bowers

J. Heath
Marty n .
Frere
Bellaius
Porson .
Coicper .
/. S. Browne
Anon .
Suckling
Heynood
Ouen

Anon.
Cox

Plato
Heywood
Anon.
Martial .
Martial .
'Anon.
LiOndor .
Haytnan
Stroza .
Hicks
Parrot .
Anon.
Julianus
Golds mith
Astydamas
Lord hrskine

Schlegel
Mart ial
Catullus

Landor .

Panot .

Anon.

Owen

Pope

Bancroft
Whately .
Burns .

Jordan .
Byron .
Parrot .
Julian us
Sherburne
roltaire
Theognis
Herrick .
Arabian

Sannazarius
Martial .
Herrick ,
Herrick .
Anon.
Anon.
Anon.

INDEX OF FIEST LINES OF THE EPIGRAMS.

677

Ijet others, brittle beaiitips of a year

Let others, prostrate, hail the rising sun

Letters from abstnt friends, extinsuish fear .

Lf't them bestow on every airth a limb

Let the self-lover these strict lessons learn .

Ijet us, my friend, in joy refine

Lie here embalm'd, from age to age

Lie on ! while my revenge shall be

Life in Death, a mystic lot ....

Life is a jest, and all things show it
Life's but a stage ; then learn to sport .
Life's like an inn ; thinls man this truth upon
Light lie the earth, Nearchus, on thy clay .
Like sheep we're doom d to travel o'er .
" Live, while you live'' — the epicure would say
Lo, dead ! he lives that whilome lived here .
Lo, here a beauty in her morn, wh^i shakes .
Lo ! here's the bride, and there's the tree
LoUius, with head bent back and close shut eyes
Long in the senate had brave Vernon rail'd .
Long tost on Fortune's waves, I come to rest
Look at me well ; then Adeline behold
Lord Booby hates Disraeli ; — Stop a bit
Lord Bute, his ambition and wisdom to show
Lord Chatham with his sword undrawn
Lord Erskine, at women presuming to rail .
Lord Pam In the church (could you think it?)
kneel'd down ......

Lost in a labyrinth of doubts and joys .
Lo ! such was Selden, and his learned fame .
Lothario, ravished with a smile . . .
Lov'd Shade ! For thee we garlands wear
Loveliest of nature's works, ah ! why .
Love's like a landscape which doth stand
Love ! tell me ; may we Celia's eyes esteem .
Love through our eyes doth tirst an entrance find
Love : when I met her first whose slave I am
Lo, where he shineth yonder
Lucasta, frown, and let me die
Lucia thinks happiness consists in state
Lucia wa-i form'd by Ileav'n in courts to shine
Luther still vaunts hims"lf to be the first
Lycus was ask'd the reason, it is said
Lysippe's infant near'd the steep cliff's brow
Lyslppus' art can brass with life inspire

Hade to engage all hearts, and charm all eyes

Man, husband exisf-nce : ne'er launch on the sea

Man is a watch, wound up at first, but never

Man's hopes are spirits with fast-fleeting wings

Man's life is but a cheating game

Man to the last is but a froward child

Many lived proudly, Cato died : now say

Mark well my shade and seriously attend

Mark where, aljove the small cascade .

Martial, thou gav'st far nobler epigrams

^lay 1 just take a cabhage-plaut

May names, liispir'd by ardent love

May she for whom these lines are penn'd

Mead's not dead then, you say ; only sleeping a

little

Meek Francis lies here, friend : withont Btop or

stay

Midas, 'tis said, possese'd the art of old .

Avon.

Alton.

Hill

M. of Montrose

BoiUau .

Rufinus

Montgomery

yugent .

Wilberforce

Gay

Palladas

Anon.

Ammianus

Arabian

Doddridge

Anon.

Helph

Walpole .

Wellesley

Daceilly

ffannay

Anon.

Jekyll ,

M. G. Lewis

Swift .

Granville

Langbaine

Awm.

Anon. Greek

Chevreau

Begge .

Sherburne

J. Eeath .

W. Browne

H. Holland

Lovelace .

Anon.

Graves .

Anon.

Macentinus

Leonidas of Alexandria

Archelaus

LytteUnn

Theocritus

Hfrrick

Diutimus

Bancroft

Rogers .

Hebus

N. Cotton

Bowles .

Jonson .

Fhilippus

Anon.

Montgomery

Hackeit .

Prior
Avon. .

PAGE

, 316

. 593

. 314

. 244

. 274

. 53

. 380

. 595

. 330

. 57

. 528

. 99

. 370

. 161

. 525

. 235

. 2U9

. 415

. 592

. 569

. 635

. 592

. 577

. 609

. 583

. 294

. 242

. 569

. 68

. 336

. 239

. 260
xxviii

. 217

. 196

. 257

. 503

. 383

. 136

. 164

. 43

. 156

. 388
11

. 512

. '62

. 236

. 148

. 165

. 377

. 479

. 233
9

. 435

. 402

. 61

. 287

. 606

678

INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF THE EPIGRAMS.

Mighty is Love — most mislity-once again .

Mild Wilberforce, by all beloved .

Milton in fretful wedlock tost

Mind but thy preaching, Trapp ; translate

further .......

Minerva last week (pray let nobody doubt it)
Minerva wand'ring in a myrtle prove .
Mistaken Nymph, thy gifts withhold
Mr. Leach made a speech ....

Mr. Temple, bear me tell ....

Modest my colour, modest is my place .

Moore always smiles whenever he recites

More than his Name were less : 'Twould seem to

fear .

Motions to ill resist in their first grass .

Mountains their tallness lose, but valleys grow

Much knowledge puifeth up, thou say'st

Much tho' thou still bestow, and promise more

My book to you, Zoilus, seems too small .

My cause concerns nor battery, nor treason .

Mycilla dyes her locks, 'tis said .

My Fair says, she no spouse but me

My friend, an eminent physician .

My friend judge not me ....

My heart's wound up just like a watch .

My love and I for kisses play'd

My Muse and I, ere youth and spirits fled

My name — my country — what are they to thee ?

" My neighbour Thornton caimot live a day "

My rose, Gravina, blooms anew . . .

Myrtle unsheath'd his shining blade

My soule would one day goe and seeke

My soul, my soul, by cares past all relief

My soul, the seas are rough, and thou a stranger

My statue's gone ! By Dtedalus 'twas made .

My thanks I'll no longer delay . . .

My wife, father William, is ugly and old

Naked Love did to thine eye

Namesake of Helen's favourite boy

Nature and all her works lay hid in night

Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night .

Nature and Sickness fight ; — a Man the prize .

Nature in this small volume was about

Nay, Chloe, gaze not on his form .

Near thy domain, Faiistinus, Fa?nius lives

Ned calls his wile his cuunter-part

Ned will not keep the Jewish Sabbath he

Need from excess — excess from folly growing

Ne lepores vendas alienos : prome leporem .

Neptune saw Venice on the Adria stand

Nerina's angel-voice delights

Never fear, my Lord .John, since Palmerston goes

Nicander, who fain would be reokon'd a wit .

Niconoe once was young and fair .

Night in this lovely posture you behold

Nobles and Heralds by your leave

No day, no hour, no moment is my house

No gale unlucky may thy fortunes find .

No letters more full or expressive can be

No longer, nestling the green leaves among .

No longer, Orpheus, shall thy sacred strains .

No mischief worthier of our fear .

No more let calumny complain

PAGE

Meleager

. 137

J. Smith

. 495

Anon.

. 610

Anon.

. 473

Thompson

. 318

, Ramsay .

. 318

Anon.

. 593

Base

. 514

Anon.

. 565

Begnier .

. 272

Anon.

. xiv

Hill

. 317

Delazme .

. 262

Bancroft

. 345

T. More .

. 615

Martial .

. xix

Beza

. 134

Martial .

. 265

Lucillius

. 175

Catullus

Lucianus

. 444

Anon. .

. 263

Hood

. 512

Strode .

. 240

Caiman .

. 620

Paulus Silerdiarius

. 465

Fordyce .

. 419

Cou-per .

. 481

Anon.

. 292

Herrick .

. 225

Archilochus

Quarles .

. 232

Cratinus

Anon. .

. 596

Anon.

. 526

Sherburne

. 260

J. Smith

. 632

Pope

. 329

Pope

. 329

Ijemierre

. 631

W. Browne

. 220

Lessing .

. 436

Martial .

Park

. 68»

J. Heath

. 203

Bishop .

. 442

Anon. .

xsxvi

Sannazarius

. 107

Mallet .

. 536

Anon. .

. 606

Lessing .

. 435

JSicarchus

. 569

Anon.

. 517

Prior .

. 285

Paschasius

. 138

A. Seward

. 460

Anon.

. 546

Pamphilus

. 20

Antipater of Sidon

. 34

Lucianus

. 48

Anon.

. 290

INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF THE EPIGBAMS.

679

No more, no more, on leafy spray .
No more shall tbou, by fruitful fuiTOWs sitting
No more the Grecian muse unrivall'd reigns .
No native Trachis, land of many stones
None without hope e'er lov'd the brightest fair
No, not for those of woman born .
No, no — the season to inspire
No pleasure now from Nicolini's tongue
No rood of ground poor Cerdo call'd his own .
No sculptur'd marble here nor pomi)ous lay .
Not, Celia, that I juster am . . • .
Not Deucalion's deluge, nor Phaeton's roast .
Nothing in Tadcaster deserves a name .
Not long agone a youthful swain .
Not monumental stone preserves our fame .
No, to fame I aspire not, for what can it boot
Not self-secure on earth can Icnowledge dwell
Not to be born —never to see the sun
Not to be born 'twere best
No, Varus hates a thing that's base
Now fie on foolish love, it not befits
Now giddy Libitina mounts the pyre
Now Grose, like bright Phoebus, has sunk into rest
No wonder virtue comes not near thy heart
Now, Priam's son, thou may'st be mute
Now upon sale, a banlcrupt Island
Nunmia, th' astroloser foretold that thou
Nymph of the grot, tlifse sacred springs I keep
Nymphs of this lucid stream ! Whose white feet
tread ......

clear that cruel, doubting brow .

O cloud-capi Geraneia, rock unblest !

O cursed Pilate ! Villain dyed in grain

O death thy certainty is such

O'er Bampfylde's woods by Nature's beauties grac'

O'er crackling ice, o'er gulphs profound .

O'er Nature's laws, God cast the veil of night

O'er the hills, p;picyde8, the hunter will go

Of all speculations tlje market holds forth

Of all til'! pens which my poor rliymes molest

Of all these forces raised against the king

Of Augustus and Rome the poets still warble

Of famed Megistias here behold the tomb

Of gentle blood, his parents' only treasure

Of great connections with great men

Of Lemno's K'liolars it is truly said

Of Love and Hacclius nerve-relaxing

Of old, to deljlors who insolvent died

Of old, we read, there was nobody

Of sweet sim)ili'ity, of generous breast .

Oft did I wonder why the setting sun .

Oft had Britannia sought, midst dire alarms

Oft when 1 look I may descry

Of years 1 havi' now half a century past

Of yesterday's ilebauch he smells, you say

Oh dry that tear so round and big

Oh ! forbear to bid me slight her .

Oh ! give to Lydiu, ye blest pow'rs, I cried

Oh, how 1 loved, when, like the glorious sun

Oh let not death, unwept, uiihonour'd be

Oh ! mother earth, his boily lightly press

Oh my Joy, niy chann, my treasure

Oh that 1 were the wind ! whose gentle gales

Nidus .
Mnasalcus
Mason .
i'vphorion
Lyttelton
Wesley .
St. Evremond
Anon.
Paschasius
Burns .
Sedley .
LuciUius
Anon.
W. Browne
Shakespeare
Tamer .
T. Seward
Theognis
Bacchylides
Belph .
Shirley ,
Martial .
Douglas .
Be ncd ictus
Ramsay ,
Byrimi .
Martial ,
Anon.

Myro

Edwards
Simonides
Silos

Luttrell .
Langhorne
Anon.
Bill

Callimachus
Moore
Boileau .
Drummond
Anon.
Simonides
IJryden .
Bishop .
Anon.
Jledylus .
Anon.
Aiion.
./ortin .
J. Uealh.
J), of Devonshir
Carew .
Fox

Martial ,
mAcot ,

Jim

Jerningham
Strato .
Solon
Meleager
Ausoniiis
Anon. (I'reek

FAOE
19

19
426

11
387

9S
247
540
141
467
563
114
306
139
ISO
61S
396
508
50S
587
235
186
469
229
318
337

87
326

153

455

13
251
113
450

96
329

31
499
272
207
556

55
443
623
585
603
f)36
362
208
452
216
466
xix
xxxvii
xx.xiv
428

80
221
193

680

INDEX OP FIRST LINES OF THE EPIGEAMS.

Oh that thy cursed balderdash

Oh ! why do you laugh at red hair?

Old age am I, with locks thin and hoar .

Old Harry of late to a lupeting-house went

Old Jacob by deep judgment swayed

Old John, a bookseller, renowned in the trade

Old Parson Beanes hunts six days of the week

Old poets sing, that beasts did dance

Old South, a witty Churchman reckon'd

O'Leary was as poor as Job .

let me die in peace ! Eumenes cried .

Memory ! thou fond deceiver

On Britain Europe's safety lies

Once at a potent leader's voice it stay'd .

Once by the muse alone inspir'd .

Once fondly lov'd, and still remember'd dear

On Death, thy niurd'rer, this revenge I take

One day, in Christ-Church meadows walking

On Edward's brow no laurels cast a shade

One half this canvass shows of that great sage

One of your predecessors pleas'd to tell .

One Prior '. and is this, this all the fame

One said to another taking his arm

One summer's day, invited by the shade

One told me once of verses that he made

On Folly's lips, eternal tattlings dwell .

Only mark how grim Codrus' visage extends

On me, my love Hiella casts her eyes .

On me you gaze surpris'd, as though

On my last steps Fame sheds her purest rays

On parents' knees, a naked new-born child

On Reason, Faith, and mystery high

On Silence this ! What next you write .

On this tree when a nightingale settles and sings

On Waterloo's ensanguined plain .

Opus for need consum'd bis wealth apace

Regina orbis prima et pulcherrima : ridens

O Shepherd of Ettrick, why thus complain

sleep, of death although the image true

" O sun, fijrewell ! "—from the tall rampart's height

that the lluse might call, without offence .

O thou whom Poetry abhors

thou who read'st what's written here ,

O thou, who, with a happy genius bom

Our God and soldier we alike adore

Our life's a journey in a winter's day ,

Our master, who, within his school

Our public buildings to defend . ,

Out upon it, 1 have lov'd ....

you, who mark what flow'rets gay . ,

Painter, my Phillis' features do not doubt
Painter, you've stolen the lovely loan, 'tis true
Pallas, destructive to the Trojan line
Pallas for wisdom priz'd her favourite owl
Pallas saw Venus arm'd. and straight she cried
Pass gently by this tomb — lest, while he dozes
Pass not whoe'er thou art this marble by
Paul, you have chosen the best of all titles .
Pausanias — not so nam'd without a cause
Pause, and scan well Archilochus the bard of elder

days

Pensive Strephon, cease repining .
Penzance, by Thompson named and Tait

Lord Erskine

Anon.

T. More

Alderson

Anon.

Merrick

Anon.

Graves

Anon.

Goldsmith

Swift .

Hamilton

Lyttelton

Burns

J. Beaumont

T. iVarton

Anon.

Beza

Pecke

Dodsley .

Hey wood

Anon .

Freeman

Bishop .

Amaltlieus

Lessing .

Wellesley

Arabian.

Anon.

I. H. Browne

Luttrell .

Lord Erskine

Parrot .

C. H. Williams

Anon.

T. Warton

CalUmaclius

Byram .

Burns .

Rose

Hughes .

Jordan .

Amm.

Anon,

Anon.

Suckling

Lovibond

Boni/acius

Lxicianus

Garth

Anon.

Anon. Greek

Leonidas of Tarentuni

Porson ,

Bellaius .

Empedodes

Theocritus
Selph .
ATion.

PAGE

. 573

. 621

. 117

. 620

. 269

. 608

. 582

. 535

. 401

. 133

. 60?

. 429

. 288

. 378

. 3%7

. 369

. 204

. 432

. 302

. 135

. 265

. 372
xxviii

. 549

. 625

. 151

, 442

. 129

. 132

. 478

. 99

. 346

. 377

. 298

. 464

. 200

. 319

. 491

. 431

. 33

. 339

. 473

. 513

. 304

. 2?1

. 52.'

. 3>^2

. 544

. 562

. 403

. 613

. 612

. 270

. 539
43

. 287

. 405

. 136

. 335

. 398

. 5>t4

INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF THE EPIGRAMS.

681

Perfidious art thou. Death, and thy commands

Perrault, the Frenchman, needs would prove .

Persuasions to freedom full oddly from you .

Phido nor hand nor touch to me applied

Philemon with translations does so fill us

Philip and Francis have no tomb .

I'hillips, whose touch harmonious could remove

Phillis, men saj' that all my vows

Philo with twelve years' study hath been griev'd

Pha-bus thy verse did envy ; he, thy fate

y^irating Virgil, thou art apt to use

Pitt and Prety came from College .

Pius with Wiseman tries ....

Plagues take me if 1 ever did a thing .

Platoff and Bhicher, thunderbolts of war

Plato's dead form this earthly shroud invests

Play-wrigh!, by chance, hearing some toys I'd writ

Poets are great men's trumpets, poets feign .

Poor Cassim ! thou art doom'd to mourn

Poor in my youth, and in life's later scenes .

Poor Cjueen ! twice doom'd disastrous love to try

Pope came off clean with Homer; but tliey say

I'ope Paul and Judas they agree full well

Possess'd ot one great hall for state

" Praise premature is idle breath .

Pratt oddly is made

Pray steal me not; I'm Mrs. Dingley's .

Pray to the Herald of the Gods, that, to Timonax.he

Priscus, you've often ask'd me how I'd live .

Prithee, Statue, tell me how ....

Proclus' hand can never wipe his nose .

Proud word you never spoke, but you will speak

Prove, traveller, now that you honour the bravo

Pultney, no friend to truth, in fraud sincere .

Puzzlud she is to know, which amorous speeches

Quintia is beauteous in the million's eye
(juintus his wit infus'd into his brain .
Quotli c'iljber to Pope, though in verse you foreclose
t^uotl) Lucifer Lowe .....
yuoih Principal Jubblcs, that " Liberal" card
Quoth Sir Robert, " Our ribands, I find, are too few

Pjilph Is love sick, and thinks he shall run mad

Rant Is, they say, indicted fur a wit

Rare presents wrought of gold I brought: but you

Raym./nd, thou hast beneath tliy care .

Reach, with your whiter liands, to me .

Reader, stand still and look ; lo ! here I am .

Pi^ad in these roses the sad story

Reflectid on the lake, 1 love ....

Religion's gems can ne'er adorn

Report, thou sometimes art ambitious .

Respect to Dryden, Slieffleld justly paid

Rheumatic pains make Kemble halt

Rich, dost thou the virtuous poor despise

Rich friends, for rich friends, will rid«', run, and

row .

Rich Gripe does all his thoughts anil cunning bend

Right wele of lerniil clerkis is it sed

I'.ipe in virtue, green in years

Rome, all the worM, ami R^nie the Pujk', suWu'd

Rose of til'" world, not rose the fresh, pure floT/'r

Roses at first were white ....

SantoUus

Anon.

Johnson .

Xicaichus

Anoii.

Slotr

Johnson .

Sedley .

Bonnie .

Zuberus

I'annonius

Anon.

Ii. Scott .

.S'. Davies

Anon.

Speusippus

Joiison .

C. Cotton

Arab ion.

Anon, lireek

Ausonius

Henley .

Buchanan

Hervey ,

Rabutin.

S. Davies

Sinft .

Anacreon

Martial .

Anon.

Ammianus

Landor .

Theocritus

C. H. ViiUiam.s

Anon.

Catullus .
J. Davies
Anon.
Anon.
Hannay .
Wesley .

Eliot
Jordan .
Forcatulus
Mnntreuil
Herrick .
Kliot
Carew .
Ileier .
Arabian,
I'arrot ,
I'ope
J. .'<mith
Meuiiius

Ilayman
W. WaUh
Harris

mil

llcza.

Anon.

Uerii'lc

PAGE
162
273
384
52
618
181
3S6
5B7
604
398
622
59il

."lie

392

619

xiv

xxvi

266

xxxvi

lOG

395

110

391

324

565

xvii

600

3S9

133

72
493
534
607
638
340

26 1
264
144
2s9
223
236
216
47'J
95
434
341
6'20
154

197
3M0
609
317
135
617
343

682

INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF THE EPIGRAMS.

Rugosa waxen old hath broke her glass .

Sacra sub extrema, si forte requiritis, hora

Sacred marble, safely keep ....

Said Charles, " Let us a tax devise

S. Paul has declared that persons though twain

S. Peter arm'd exclaim'd, behold two swords .

Sam Warren's Recorder of Hull, 1 hear

Sansterre forsook his malt and grains .

Say, lovely Tory, why the jest

Say not, be sick, and gratis I'll prescribe

Says Brewster to Whewell, " Let's fight a star duel

Says Gooch to old Wilcox, Come take t'other bout

Says great William Pitt, with his usual emotion

Says Murat to Stuart, " Of blood I'm so tender

Says my lord to his cook, " You son of a punk

Says priggish PeLham, " May I hint on .

Says Tom to Ricliard, " Churchill's dead ! " .

Says Wellington brave to Mass^na the great .

Say, to the Drapier's vast unboimded fame

Scarce had the tender hand of Time

Scarce from Privation's dreary lap

Scorn me not, fair ones ! 'Tis as sad as true .

Scribbletoniiis, by volumes, whene'er we peruse

Secure from scandal, Delia still may rail

See Clodio, happy in his own dear sense '.

See fam'd Timomachus sublimely trace .

See how beneath the moonbeains saiile .

See how her near relations all lament .

See one physician, like a sculler, plies .

Seest thou this good old man .' He represents

Self spoils the sense of all mankind

" Send coals lo Newcastle," each child may read

Serjeant Raine w.as one day ....

Seven glasses, Cecilian, thou loudly did'st crave

Seven glasses Justina, and Njevia six .

Seven wealthy to-,vns contend for Homer dead

Shall Chaiitrey be c^U'd a Destroyer, or not ?

Shall 1 tell you how the rose at first grew red

Sharp himger is tbe cure of love .

Sharp thorns and stakes beset this tomb all round

She is not fair to outward %iew

Shelley styles his new poem "Prometheus Cn-

bound ".......

She, that would gain a constant lover .

Should a man thro' all worlds to far galaxies

travel .......

Should Flatman for his client strain the laws
Silence, to thee Instruction owes .
Simillus, long in nature's spite

.Simples and sages

Sioce first you knew my am'rous smart

Since Milo rallies Sacred Writ

Since my oUi friend is grown so great .

Since etiU my passion-pleading strains .

Since the vile ra\'isher my honour stains

Since thou, relentless maid, cans't daily hear .

Since we can die but once, what matters it .

Single no more, a doubt" Webb behold .

Sir, can you tell where .^oung Pandorus lives

Sir Godfrey and Radcliffe had one common way

Sir, the lady must smile, and your menace deride

Six glasses the name of J ima will cover .

Skill'd hands these traits, best Prometheus ! drew

Parrot .

Sannazarius

G. Herbert

Sheridan

Man-sel .

Owen

Sinclair

Anon.

E. of Chesterfield

Paschasius

Amm.

Anon.

Amm.

Anon.

Canning

Cunningham

Anon.

Cunningfiam

Edivards

Graves .

Lambert.

Anon.

Wolcot .

Antiphilus

Moore

Ehum .

Jekyll

Quarles .

rddhy .

Anon.

Martial .

T. Seivard

W7-angham

Anon.

Crates .

Hegesippus

H. Coleridge

Hook
Anon.

Anon.

Oldys

Palladas

Leonidas of Alexandria

Praed .

Nugent .

Barber ,

Pope ,

Boscan .

Elsum .

■lenyns .

Chatterton

Chartres

Parrot .

Graves .

Anon.

Eardinge

Erinna .

PAGE
, 58

INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF THE EPIGRAMS.

683

Sleep binds the senses, but at liberty

Sleep soft in dust, wait th' Alrai;;lity's will .

Slow faring on, o'er many a land and sea

Sly Beelzebub took all oicasions .

Sly Cupid, perceiving our modern beaux' hearts

Small service is true service while it lasts

Smollett libell'd you lately, and yet you don't heed

So bright is thy beauty, so charming thy song

So careful is Isa and anxious to last

So fond, so young, so gentle, so sincere .

Soft as the balm the gentlest gale distils

Soft sounds that ste:il from fair Forcalquier's lips

So gentle in peace, Akibiades smiled .

So ill thou chante^t. one might almost deem .

Sol Daphne sees, and seeing her admires

So look the mornings when the sun

Some ask'd me where the Rubies grew .

Some Furies sure possess'd the Nine, what time

Some in rich Parian stone, in ivory

Some laugh, while others mourn .

Some say the Uuke was gracious, virtuous, good

Some wicked men are rich, some good men poor

So much, dear Pope, thy English Iliad charms

Sons of Sapience ! you here a fair emblem display

So Pheidon weeps, poor miser

Sorrow too deep for him to trace .

So sets the sun, veild with the shades of night

Sosil, the butcher, has become a leech. 'Tis nothing

new

So then— the Vandals of our isle .
Statesman, yet friend to truth ! of soul sincere
" Statue ! your sculptor whence ?" ' From Sicyon'

clime '

Stay, passenger, and though within

Stay, traveller — a miracle behold .

Step in, pray Sir Toby, my picture Is here .

Stem guardian of this gloomy shore

Sternhold and Hopkins iiad great qualms

Still hovering round the fair at sixty-four

Still in our ears Andromache complains

Slop, Christian passer-by! — Slop, child of God

Stop that Dacchanle ! see, tho' form'd of stone

Strange Claudia's married to a friend ol mine

Strange is it, proud Pontcfract's borough should

sully

Stranger, by this worn rock thy limbs repose

Stranger! If other dogs beguile

Stranger, kneel here ! to age dHc homage pay

Stranger, this stone, though small, deliance bids

Stranger, lo whom this monument Is shown .

Strange that the Duke, whose life was charm 'd

Strephon most fierce besieg' 8 Cloe

Strike ! at my womb ? It tjore thee. At my breast

Such as thy life, a soft and dancing wave

Such Helen was ! and wl o can blame the boy

Sure Heav'n's unerring » olce decreed of old .

Sure never yet was Antelope

Sweet babe ! whose image here express'd

Sweet Benjamin, since thou art young .

Sweeter than life thou com'st, who from disease

Sweet Juliet, fare tine well I but why this prayer

Sweet, b-t 'by soul be smooth as is thy skin

Sweet Western Wind, whose luck It is .

Baiicroft

Anon.

Catullus

S. T. Coleridge

Anon .

Wordsworth

Grainger

Pope

Arabian

Anon.

Ano^i.

Walpde .

Moore

T. More .

Cowley .

Eerrick .

Merrick .

Pollianus

BauhiMius

Wesley .

Anon,

Solon

Anon.

Aicarchtis

Anon.

Anselmus
Couper .
Pope

Posidippus

Merrick .

Anon.

M. G. Leiiis

Archias.

E. of Rochester

Maiht .

Alpheus

S. T. Coleridge

Anon. Greek

Martial .

ff. Smith

Anyte

M. G. Leiiis

Coven I ry

Martial .

Pitzpatrick

Anon.

Martial .

Anon. Greek

Ilaiihnsius

WnUir .

T. llrown

Tennyson

Coirper .

Hoskins .

Antm. Greek

Arum.

Owen

Eerrirk .

PAGE

, 237

. 498

. 73

. 611

. 570

. 4S3

. 608

. 322

. 2iil

. 485

. 400

. 417

. 499

. 582

. 255

. 225

. 223

. 624

. 520

. luO

. 236

. 98

. 347

. 548

. 586

. 542

. 383

. 140
. 438
xxxiii

173
352
522
612
205
274
247
163
490
66
79

621

22
613
448

89
464
500
567

64
151
241
269

18
359
262
203
438
146
xxvti

684

INDEX OP FIRST LINES OF THE EPIGRAMS.

Swift favours charm ; but when too long they stay
Swift fire destroy'd, sharp steel restor'd their lives
Swift for the Ancients has argu'd so well
Swift o'er the level how the skaters slide
Sylla declares the world shall know
Sylvius that nothing gratis gave ; being dead

Take a portion of wit

Take away from young Cupid his wings and hi
bow ........

Take, take, poor babe ! the last warm stream that
now .......

Take, take this flow'ring wreath from me
Take these flowers, which, purple waving .
Take your facts from ihe last man ; — let no theft

appal ye

Take your night-cap again, my good lord, I desire

Talk not of snowy locks — have done

Talk of war with a Briton, he'll boldly advance

Tell me Leda, which is best ....

Tell me, Lycidice, what meanings have

Tell me, my Muse, how Canius spends his time

Tell me, say you. and tell me without fear .

Tender-handed stroke a nettle

Ten in the himdred the devil allows

Ten thousand pounds Avarus had before

Ten thousand tailors, with their length of line

Thanks for this miracle ! it is no less .

Than the first Martyr's, Dudley's fate .

That heaven's thy home, I grieve not, soul most

dear .......

That heav'uB are void, and that no gods are there

That he was born it cannot be denied .

That houre-glasse, which there ye see .

'i'hat 1 love thee and yet that 1 hale thee, I feel

That I your invitation should decline .

That morne which saw me made a bride

That mortal has imperfect trnst .

That on her lap she casts her humble eye

That strain again ! that strain repeat .

That the first Charles does here in triumph ride

That throat so vex'd by cackle and by cnp

That tongue, which set the table on a roar

That tree, how drawn : 1 know by whom

That you, like Thrasea. or like Cato, great .

That you would wed Sir John is very wise .

The ancients all your veneration have .

The astrologers did all alike presage

The babe is at peace within the womb .

The bean-fiower is in blossom, and the rose .

The bee enclos'd, and through the amber shown

The bench hath oft 'posed us, and set us a-scofflng

The Bird confined within this cage of {^loom .

The bit of wood, you so disdain

The burden of an ancient rhyme .

The buskin'd muse, when Powell was no more

The Chancellor, so says Lord Coke

The civic oaken crown you well may have .

The covetous man, whose life's a living death

"The crowd proclaim thee wondrous wise

The Cyprian Queen, drawn by Apelles' hand .

The damsel too prudishly shy

The dawn increases, and retires the shade

The diamond's and the niby's blaze

Anon. Greek
B. Scott .
Barber .
Pepys
Anon.
Buchanan

Anon.

Meleager

jSmiliamis
Rufinus .
W. Scott

Hannay .

Wolcot .

I), de Nivernois

Garrick ,

Temple .

Antipater of Sidon

Martial .

Hill

Shakespeare

Park

Evans .

E. of Rochester or Swift

Croker .

Anon.
Martial .
Cunningham
Herrick .
Catullus
Martial .
Herrick .
Landor .
Crashaw
J. Warton
Walkr .
S. Smith
Garrick
Jerningham
Martial .
Martial .
Martial .
Lucillius
Shelley .
Philodemus
Martial .
Walpole .
Anon.
Martial .
Landor .
H. More .
Anon.
Poliiianus
Stephanus
T. More ,
Higgons
Rufinus .
Anon. .
Fordyce .

PAGE
149
595
274
96
380
141

640

401

46
52

484

635

451

566

412

565

315

179

586

307

620

73
150
433
129

71
201

21
251
421
241
486
414
428
165
lUO
110
113
508

41
159
416
632
255
604
458
515
478
141

s7
296
552
537
418

INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF THE EPIGRAMS.

685

" The Doctor ! The Doctor !" ho maJe such a rout

Thee, P«ta, death's relentless hand

The famous Swiss no little skill hath shown .

The first refiner of our native lays

The foeman glories in my shield .

The French have taste in all they do

The gay b'lirtilla show'd her mimic bust

The gentle herd return'd, at evening close .

The Germans in Greek ....

The glass, by lovers' nonsense blurr'd .
The god of wine grows jealous of his art
The Graces bath'd here ; and enchanted gave
The Graces bathing on a day . .

The Graces sought in yonder stream
The grave, great teacher, to a level brings
The greatest of honours that Prior can gain .
The greybeard, old Wisdom, may boast of h
treasures ......

The hand of bim here torpid lies .

" The husband subject to his wife .

The hymns were sung upon thy bridal day .

Their good, and ill, from the same source they drew

The jolly mi-mbers of a toping club

The king, observing with judicious eyes

The king to Oxford sent a truop of horse

The land alone sufficed of yore

The law can tal<e a purse in open court

The lawyers may revere that tree

The Leach you've just bought should first have been

tried .

The learned say laughter is denied
The lepers by the warning clack are known .
The likeness, hang the arti?t, is so true
The line of Vere, so long renownd in arms .
The lofty arch his hisih ambition shows
The lulty oak from a small acorn giows
The lover I let pa.-s, the thief did seize
The lover in melodious verses .
The minnows, as through this vast arch they pass
The monument which thou beholdest here
The Muse, a shameless, mercenary jade
Then Erato, in tears her fond arms threw
'I'lie noble art trom Cadmus took its rise
Theocritus my name — of Syracuse
The one clotlied in velvet, the other in stuff .
The painter could have made I'ythagoras speak
The Papists say tliey will not wait
The Paris cits, a jiatrii;tic band
The pavlours Ijless liis st<pa where'er they come
The poets sinu', but faith tliey're wrong
The ports of deatli are sins; of life, good deeds
The potent lord, that this bright villa plann'd
'ITie qualities all in a bee tliat we meet .
The queen like Heav'n shines equally on all
"The t^ueen's with us," tlie Whins exulting say
The Queen wa.s bnuglit by water to Whiteliall
The readers and tii'- licnrers like my Iwioks .
There hang, my lyre ! This aued liand no more
There's a lie i^n tliy cheek hi its ni>es .
There's none wen- fitter than tliou to endite .
There's notliing new lieneatli tlie sun .
There's scarce a point whereon m mldnd agree
The rest fame speaks, and makes his virtues
kinown

PAGE

Folirhele

. 631

JoHin .

. 361

Silos

. 135

. Jackson .

. 348

. Archilochiis .

Lord Erskine .

. 463

Anon.

. 613

IJiotimas

Forsoii .

. 471

Swift

. 387

Garth .

. 296

Anon, (.'reek .

, 66

Anon. Greek . .

Anon. Greek ,

Walpole .

. 341

Anon.

. 590

Burns .

, 473

Johnson

. 415

Folii'hele

. 584

PhiUppus

. 44

V Jeffrey .

. 595

Butler .

. 118

Trapp .

. 309

Sir W. Browne

. 310

Anon.

. 550

Butler .

, 549

Fergusson

. 549

Anon.

. 515

Jielph .

. 79

Grin gore

. 166

Anon. Greek ,

. 612

E. of Halifax

. 277

Evans .

. 306

L. Duncombe .

. 393

Bellaius .

. 109

Bourne .

. 358

Pope

. 306

Lord Herbert .

. 198

Fergusson

. 468

Anyte

. 591

Brebeiif .

. 315

Artemidonis .

. xiii

J. J. Scaliger .

. 144

Rainerius

. 612

Hook

. 617

Frere

. 333

Arum.

. 307

Brebeuf .

. 2.')9

Jonson .

. 191

T. Seward

. 395

Triarte .

xvii 433

Gwinnett

. 300

Anon.

. 606

Anon.

. 520

Martial

Macedonius .

. 121

Buchanan

. 125

J. Heath

. 230

Arum.

. 575

Vdtaire

. 350

Atwii.

533

686

INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF THE EPIGRAMS.

The saffe of Beaconsfield, who wrote

The sailor curses land's uneven tides

The same allegiance to two kings he pays

The satyrs of old were satyrs of note

The scythe of time, alas ! alas

These heroes of Krin, abhorrent of slaughter .

These little atoms that in silence pour .

The Serjeants are a grateful race .

These trophies, Slanhope, of a luvrly dame .

The snowdrop peeps from evei y glade .

The sot Loserus is diuiik twice a day .

The spell is broke, the charm is flown .

Thessala quid Tempe? Quid cjusvis Adonidis

hortus? .......

The .-tingy wretch had hang'd himself to-day

The strains that flow from young Aminta's lyre

The sun which shines amid the heav'n so bright

Th' eternal ferryman of fate

The things that make a life to please .

The thresher Duck could o'er the Queen prevail

The tomb of great Timocritus behold

The town has found out different ways .

The truth told, they've in France a most excellent

plan .

'' he turning of coats so common is grown

The two great rivals London mii^ht content .

The various ills below content I'll bear

The verses, Paul, you sent me to correi t

The very bees, sweet Menander, hung

The voice of love still tingles in my ears

The way to make a Welshman thirst lor bliss

The Whigs, because they rat and change

The Wliigs 'tis said have often broke

The white rose was crimson d in the dire cause

The wife so plump, thyself so tliin

The wise decision all admire

The worst of ills and hardest to endure .

The worst of rebels never arm

The wretch, condenin'd with life to part

The wretch to guilt and misery flies

They came and prigg'd my stockings, and my linen

and my store ......

They tell me I am slight and frail

They tell me Venus is in the sun .

They told me, Heraclitus, thou wert dead

Thieves may break locks, and with your cash retiri

Th' impression which this seal shall make

Th' incentive of duty urg'd him long .

Thine infant lips, Frascator, nature seal'd

Think all yai speak; but speak not al) you think

Think not that here thou art represented

Think'st tbou his friendship rver faithful proves

This babbling stream n't uninstructive flows

This breathing iniag" shows M'-linna's grace

This charming bed of fiow'rs when Klora spied

This chest, which to its master did convey

This collar don't bflong to you. Sir

This day was yesterday to-morrow nam'd

This dust was Timas, who, or ere she weJ

" This Edmunds case," said Wcstbury .

This figure that thou here seest put

This hair's my own, Phil swears; none saw her

buy it

This heifer is not cast, but rolling years

J. Smith
Paterson
T. Broun
Wedgivood
Landor. .
T. Moore
Amaltheus
Jekyll
Jenyns .
Meleager
J. C. Scaliger
Byron .

Anon.

Nicarchus

Philodemus

Bastard

Anon.

Martial .

Sioift

Anacreon

Kendal .

Piron

Fitzpatriclc

Anon.

Boyse

Pannonius

Anon. Greek

Mdeager

Taylor .

Alton.

Anon.

T. More .

Graves .

Sheridan

Akceas .

Butler .

Goldsmith

M. G. Lewis

Tounsend

Leonidas of Tarentum

Moor

Callimachus

Martial

Lloyd

Martialis Monerias

J. C. Scaliger

Delaune ,

Ajion.

Martial

Graves

Nossis

Anon.

Arum.

Owen

Sapplu)

Anon.

Jonscm

Martial ,
Anon. Greek

INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF THE EPIGUAMS.

687

This heifer sure will low ....

This house and inhabitants both well agree .

This is God's House ; but 'tis to be deplor'd .

This is my rule, and to this rule I'll hold

This lottery can never thrive

This oar, and net, and fisher's wicker'd snare .

This picture gives the semblance of the child

This quack to Charon would his penny pay .

This Sh' ffield rais'd. The sacn-d dust below .

This .Sheffield rais'd to 1 iryden's ashes just .

This statue, bloody Nero, does present .

This t"mb be thinn, Anacreon! All around .

This wept for his times, the defaults, and crimes

This work is Nature's ; every tittle in 't

This world's an inn, and I her guest

Tho' Britain's Genius hung his drooping head

Tho' every atheist, all Christians know

The' George, with respect to the wrong and the

right

Tho' hard the labour to ascend the Heliconian

mount

Tho^e envic/us flakes came down in haste

Thou flower-fed bee! Why leave the buds of

spring

Thou pavest good ointment, 'tis confest
Though a sable cloud b'-nigbt
Though British accents your attention fire
Though British skies first beam'd on Claudia'

face

Thougli but the being of a day
Thougli doom'd to small-o)al, yet to arts allied
Thoush from the North the damsel came
Thougli here in death thy relics lie
Though infant y»-ars no pompous honours claim
Though in the Commons House you did prevail
Though many soarch, yet few the cause can find
Though mean thy rank, yet in thy huniible tell
Though Nature thf-e of thy right hand bereft
Though now to heav'n thy travels are confin'd
Though once a pupi'y, and though Kop by name
Thou ghost of HoiiuT, 'twere no fault to call
Thoos-'li scant >«• the poet's domain
Thougli thou'rt like .fudas, an apostate black
Thoughtless that "all that's brightest fades "
Thou hast a swift running tongue ; howbeil .
Tliou liast gone to the grave, and abandon'd thy

son ........

Thou know'st the Briton's laws, their old, ne

rites

"Thou little rogue, what brings thee to my house !■

Tiiou may'st of tloubh- ignorance boast .

Thou need'st no tomb, my wife, lor thou hast one

Thou nothing glv'st, but dying wilt: then die

'I'hou Priest of t(jo S('raphic zeal

'I'hou'rt welcome, honest friend ; walk in, make

free

'I'hou llic stern monarch of dismay

'I'hou Trifles thought'st not, what thon so didst

call

'I'tiou water tum'st to wine (fair Friend of life)
Thou wi'it the morning star among the living
'I'hou, whom (if fallli or honour recommends .
Tliraclans ! who howl around an infant's birth
Thraso picks quarrels when he's drunk at night

Antipater of .^idon
Parnell .
Anon.
Diodoras
Anon.
Sappho .
Martial .
Wadd .
Pope

Atterbury
Marini .
Antipater of .'^idon

11671

Graham

Anon.

J. Buncombe .

Given

Bishop .

Onestes .
DodiJcy .

Meleager
Martial .
Sherburr.e
Walpole

Martial .
Ptolemy .
Prior
MTialey .
Wokot .
Carter .
Pone

Ilarington
Iluyhes .
n. Holland .
P. Fletcher .
Covper .
Anon.
Park
Lamb
S. .'^'mith
Hey wood

Theccritus

Owen

Lucillius

(nven

H'. Browne

Owen

Anon.

Selden .
Bembus .

<Jv:en
Crathaw
Plato
Martial .
Arckias .
W. Waltk

PAGB

263

167

13'2

327

110

281

282

403

426

528

391

150

442

634
240

38
77

128

417

80
336
303
366
453
312
302
165
303
297
209
440
347
503
492
588
170

521
■19
l.'>0
221
14{
57»

243
6!

1.16

252

280

688

INDEX OF FIEST LINES OF THE EPIGRAMS.

Three Doctors, met in consultation . .
Three dwarf:* contended by a state decree
Three faces wears the doctor ; when first sought
Tlaree lovely njonphs, contending for the prize
Three playlul maids their fate would try
Three Poets, in three distant ages born .
Three poets, of three different nations bom .
Three years in London Bobadil had been
Through Chester-ford to Bishops-gate .
Through regions by wild men and cannibals

haunted

Thuscus writes fair, without blur or blot
Thus slain, thy valiant ancestor did lie .
Tlius Tophet look'd ; so grinn'd the brawling
fiend ......

Thy beard and head are of a different die

Thy beard grows fair and large ; thy head grows

thin

Thy constant life doth from thy youth express
Thy death, Dundee ! has crush'd thy country'
cause .......

Thy father all from thee, by his last will

Thy father (jenoese, tliy mother Greek .

Thy guardian, blest Britarmia, scorns to sleep

Thy hands are wash'd, but oh, the water's spilt

Thy praise or dispraise is to me alike .

Thy statue, stature, thine estate, thy book

Thy suit depends in law : better suspend

Thy thoughts in deep obscurity to fetter

Thy verses are inmiortal, O, my friend

Thy verses, friend, are Kidderminster stuff .

Thy wit in vain tlie feeble critic gnaws

Till seven at night he cannot dine

Time changes all things ; and beneath his sway

Time flies on restless pinions — constant never

Time has not tbinn'd my flowing hair .

Time once complained of Thomas Hearne

Time wears all his Ioc'ks before

Time, which had silver'd o'er my aged head .

Tired with wand'ring thro' a world of sin

'Tis done ; I yield ; adieu, thou cruel fair

'TIs generous, Tibbald ! in thee and thy brothers

Tis Niobe ! by vengeance harsh bereft

'Tis not the fear of death or smart

'Tis one of Cloe's qualities ....

'Tis said o'er his cheek the scarlet blush stole

' I'is true I am ill ; but I need not complain .

'Tis well enough that Goodenough

'Tis well in stone to have three Graces

' Tis well to see the cheeks with blushes drest

Titas, the brave and vjlorous young gallant

To a deep scholar said bis wile . .

To all the Tabtiy kinc alone

To Barnes Elms kike me back if I stray

To bru>h the cheeks of ladies fair .

To conciliate my sweet Kair

To Damon's self his love's confin'd

To Death's dark home our wand'rings lead

To deck with arts a roiiKh barbarian race

To Echo, mute or talkative .

To gild o'er avarice with a specious name

To half of Busby's skill in mood and tonse

To heal the wound a bee bad made

To heaVn he wings his glorious flight .

PAGH

Graves . . ... 629
Nicarchus . . .51
Cordus .... 110
Mufinus . . . 467

Avon. Greek ... 67
Dryden .... 267
O' Kelly . . . .576

Arwn 181

Anon 556

Hannay . . . 636

Freeman . . . 229

Lluellin .... 143

Gray . . . .408
Martial .... to

Owen and Eayman . 1 C5
Owen .... 203

Pitcairne . . . 276
Donne . . . .140
Buchanan . . .149
Bowe .... 302
Crashaw . . .251

Jonsmi .... 587
J. Williams . . 145

Owen . . . 358

Rohertson . . . 604
Anon. . . . XXXV

Shenstone . . xxxv

Higgons . . .297

Anon 589

PUto .... 8
Schiller .... 476
Nares .... 469
Anon. .... 422
Southwell . . .173
Anon. .... 378

Arwn 529

Anon 18

Anon 532

Barberinus . . . 152

Anon 501

Freeman . . . 229

Anm\ 555

Lord Frskine . xxxvi

Anon. . . . .619
F. of Carlisle . . 463

Meursius . . . 155
J. Davies . , . 181

Anoi' 184

Bourne .... 300

Arwn 613

Anon 356

Ptiicliasius . . . 139
Anon. . . . .154

Palladas . . . lOO

W. Duncombe , . 333

Arch las . . .91

WlMley . . . .365
Maayil . . . .635

Anon 39

Mook .... 548

INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF THE EPIGRAMS.

689

To him whose heavy grief hath no allay

To John I ow'd great obligation .

To Love I wako the silver string .

To men, from Eden erst thro' woman driven

To me the wanton girls insulting say .

To me 'twas given to die : to thee 'tis given .

To me you prophesy, our mitred aioore

Tomkins will clear the land, they say .

Tom prais'd his friend, who chang'd his state

Tom thoueht a wild profusion great

Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune

I'o please the fair, a luckless wight

To rob the public two contractors come

To say the picture does to him belong .

To slothful men the day, night, month and year

To smile, or to forgive, we ask thee not .

To stone the gods had chang'd her — but in vain

To these, whom Death again did wed .

To the thief Bardella, condemnd to die .

To this great ship, which round the globe has run

To this sad shrine, whoe'er thou art, draw near

To those of Lacedsmon, stranger, teU .

To Mse the tongue in speech is great

To us twin birds, who by one twin wound fell

To write in an album's a delicate matter

To you a tribute from each Muse is due

To youth, to age, alike, this tablet pale

Tread softly ; make no noise

Tread softly, reader, lest you wake

Treason doth never prosper ; what's the reason ?

Tres quondam nudas vidit Priameius heros .

Troy fell with Hector, and no champion's spear

True to his master, generous, brave

True wit is like the brilliant stone

Trumps ever ruled the charming maid . .

Tutor of human life ! auspicious guide .

'Twas from a spout which pours into the street

'Twas not my nectar made thy strength divine

'Twixt cannons and canons the diff'rence is small

'Twixt footman John and Dr. Toe

Two ears and but a single tongue

Two goddesses now must Cyprus adore

Two lawyers when a knotty case was o'er

Two learned Serjeants in the law .

Two millers thin

Two neighbours furiously dispute

Two of a name — both great in their way

Two Scholefields in London and Cambridge of late

Underneath this greedy stone
Underneath this marble stone
Underneath this sable liearse . . .

Under this marble, who lies buried here?
Under this stone, reader, survey ...
Unde rubor vestris, et nou sua purpura, lymphis
Ungallant youth ! aiuld royal ICdward see .
Ungenerous and mistaken maid . . .
Unhappy bird ! A Colchian guest .
Unhappy Chremcs, neighlxiur to a peer
Unhappy mortals, on how fine a thread
Ullhappy Paiitalus, amidst the flood
Unlike my subject will 1 frame my song
Unmarkd by trophif.-s of the great and vain .
Unqualified in senates to declaim

PAGE

Hayman . . .19?

Prifrr .... 83
Anacreon . . . 349
Paterson , . . 610

Palladas . . .55
Prior .... 330
Anon. .... 543
Hannay , . . 607

Anon. . . . .617

Nugent . . . . OSiii
Gray .... 409
A7ion. .... 626
T. Warton . . .337
Maittaire . . . 532
Owen .... 147

Anon 558

Anon. Greek ... 39
C'rashaiv . . . 252

Owen . . . .130
Cowley .... 254
Pope . . . xxxiii

Simonides . . .12
Bauhusius . . . 151
Wrangham . . . 595
Morris .... 626
Anon. .... 526
W. Scott . . .485

Scar r on . , .246

E. of Bristol . . .628
Harington . . .175
Angerianus . . .319
Archias . . . .42
Graves .... 404

Anon 312

Hawkins . . .619

S. Davies . , .390
Martial .... 549
Schiller . . . .476
Cox ... . 627

Anon. .... 552
Anon. .... 434
Anon. Greek . . . 320
Anon. .... 579

Anon 578

Byrom .... 337
Bourne .... 357

Anon 497

Mortlock . . .497

Martial .... 88
Cowley . . . .256
W. Browne . . . 21><
Anon. .... 143
Evans .... 306
CrasUaw . . . 252
Morris .... 375
Arabian . . . xxii
Alciatus . . .122
Anon. .... 358
Petronius Arliiter . . 84
Petronius Arbiter . .185
E. of Chesterfield . .618
Nugent . . . .381
Anon 494

2 Y

690

INDEX OP FIRST LINES OP THE EPIGRAMS.

Untouch'd by love, unmov'd by wit . .
Unwise the man who heareth Mass, I wist .
Upon thy sacred dust be flow'rets spread
Urles had the gout so, that he could not stand
Usurpers are the giddy faction's tools .

Vagus, advanc'd on high, proclaims his skill .

Vain, foolish man, why dost thou always laugh ?

Vain gallants, look on Waller, and despair .

Vainlove is ill ; his illness is his bed .

Vain man, wilt thou the monarch's anger dare?

Vain our pursuits of knowle<3ge, vain our care

Vain painter, why dost thou strive my face to draw

Vast blessings, lucky child, attend

Venit ad Kuphraten rapidis perterritns undis

Venus, take my votive glass

Venus whipt Cupid t'other day

Victoria's sceptre o'er the deep

Virtue's a bridge (near to the Cross whereby

Virtue we praise, but practise not her good .

Waking, we burst, at each return of mom

Want's bitter path 1, Epictetus, trod

Ward has no heart, they say ; but I deny it .

Warren, though able, yet vainest of men

Wealth, honour, friends, wife, children, kindred,

all

We cry, being bom ; from thence thus argue I

We Dorian Epicharmus praise in Dorian

Weep with me all you that read . . .

We live to die, and die to live : O why .

Well I remember how you smiled

We pledged our hearts my love and I .

Were women wise, their names on glass

Wert knighted, that thy wife should love thee

more ?

Wesley, if Wesley 'tis they mean
What are those ever-tuming heavenly spheres
■' What can ennoble knaves and fools and cowards
What, Cupid, are thy shafts already made ? .
What ! Dares made a knight ! No ; don't be frighted
What evil would be, could it be, the Blest

What, fast and pray

What hopes, what terrors, does this gift create

What is an epigram ? a dwarfish whole

What is there, whelp Bembino, that thy lord denies

to thee

What is the voUied bolt's corporeal maim

Wh&t makes the envious Phorbas walk

" What makes you write at this odd rate ?" .

What? Mars his sword? fair Cjrtherea say .

What means Callista's mimic wit ?

What means then Hesiod ? " Half excels the whole

What mean ye by this print so rare ? .

What oft alive I sung, now dead I cry .

What place to keep your fish in I approve

What pleasure is it, that your writings are .

What ! praise my rosy cheeks and youthful face

What's Gyges or his gold to me .

AVbatsoe'er thou'lt say who passest by .

What's writ on me, cried Fitz, I never read .

What thanks do we owe, what respects and regard;

What think you, Marcus, of my muse ,

What though the Dean hears not the knell .

Garrick
Gringore
Bembus
Herrick .
Robertson

Belph

Hayman

St. Eoremond

Martial .

Meursius

Somervile

Ausonius

Duck

Porson .

Plato

Thompson

Campbell

Bancroft

Freeman

PaUadas
Anon. Greek
Rogers .
Rose

Ddaune .

Owen

Theocritus

Jonson ,

Owen

Landor .

S. T. Coleridge

HUl

Owen

Pope

Bancroft

Arum.

Qttarles ■

Graves .

Sunt

Anon.

Johnson .

Anon.

Bembus .

S. Bavies

Arum.

Wesley .

Leonidas of Alexandria

Anon.

Canning

Julianus

Martial .

Santolius

ArchHochus

Anon.

Byron

Moore

Martial

Anon.

INDEX OF FIKST LINES OF THE EPIGEAMS.

■What though the sea be calme ? Trust to the shore
■\VTiat valiant scribe, from Isis' hallow'd glade
What we gave, we have .....
" AVhat with briefs and attending the court, self and

clerk

What woes must such unequal union bring

" What ! you're afraid, then?" " Yes, I am; you're

right

When a bard, o'er his pipe, a dull ditty composes
When a bottle of excellent wine I've been drinking
When all the blandishments of life are gone .
When Anacreon would fight, as the poets have said
WTien Arria from her wounded side
When as I ask thee money, thou repliest
When barber King shaved lordly Pretyman .
When beauteous Helen left her native air
When Billy found he scarce could stand
When bom, in tears we saw thee drown'd
When brave Limardi soar'd on high . Z .
When Bnmswick's great Duke, on a visit to France
When Csesar, and when Cromwell, saw their crown
When Cain and Abel their first offerings made
Whence deathless Kit-Cat took its name
When Charles, at once a monarch and a wit .
When Chatham died, Britannia bow'd . ,
When Christ, at Cana's feast, by pow'r divine
When Cloe's picture was to Venus shown
When comic Plautus first departed . .
When Cupid did his grandsire Jove entreat .
When Dido found ^neas would not come
When Diodorus sketch'd your phiz
When doom of peers and judges fore-appointed
When doubting of some stars, thus Clavius cried
When Eastern lovers feed the fun'ral fire
■Whene'er thy nectar'd kiss I sip .
When Emily, sweet maid, appears
When equal charms, in different colours dress'd
When fam'd Varelst this little wonder drew .
When Fame did o'er the spacious plain .
When fell strong Agathon, Abdera here .
When first the Tatler to a mute was turn'd .
When Fortune seems to smile, 'tis then I fear
When frenzied zealots light the penal fires
■When 'gainst Cales the Gallic forces drove
When God was pleas'd, the world unwilling yet
When 1 do Bleep, I seem as I were dead
■When I see a man's name ....
■When I sent you my melons, you cried out with

scorn

When I the busy fruitless cares .

When I was young and dcjbonnaire

When I was young, in wars 1 shed my blood

When Jack was poor, the lad was frank and free

When Johnson spake, poor Mason's wrath was

dumb

When Johnson, wiih tremendous step and slow

When late a simple rustic lass

When lately Pyni doscendiKl into hell ,

"When Ljitln's settled, I will put down (ireek, too"

When I.*Hbia firHt 1 saw wj heavenly fair

When Ijovelflc/! married Lady Jenny

When Magnus pass'd below, Dis, trembling said

Wlien men u dangerous disease did 'scape .

When mosing on this evanescent state .

Herrick .

Anon.

J. Smith
Broome .

Graves .

Bishop .

Anon.

Martial

Hook

Martial .

Martyn .

Anon.

Walpole .

Parson .

Arabian

Anon.

Owen (of Cambridge)

S. Davies

Anon.

Arbuthnot

Anon.

Crashaw

Prior

Anon. Latin

Sioift .

Porson .

Leonidas of Alexandria

Harington

Bauhusiiti

Pope

Plato .

Anan.

Bill

Prior

Garth .

Anacreon

Tate

Granville

Flaminius

Martialis Monerius

Shakespeare

Ouen

Anon. .

Arabian
(fruves .
Lyttelton
Anon.
Hackett .

Arum.

Anon.

Lloyd

Drummond

Banruiy .

Congreve

Avon.

Lucillitu

Jonson .

Uclany ,

691

FAGB
. 11
. 557
. S3

. 555
. 441

. 277

. 618

. 634

. 35

. 616

. 74

. 214

. 598
xxxiv

. 470

. 550

. 597

. 392

. 540

. 278

. 242

. 547

. 252

. 24

. 94

. 288

. 472

. 612

. 177

. 344

. 462

. 168

. 300

. 314

. 284

. 275

. 295

. 123

. 103

. 179

. 431

. 565

. 100

. 402

. 29«

. 459

. 182

. 658
. 551
. 446

. XXX

. 637
. 299
. 132
50
. 629
. 321

692

INDEX OF FIPvST LINES OF THE EPIGRAMS.

When Narva asks a friend to dine

When Nature wrought upon her mould so well

\Vhen noble thoughts with language pure unite

When on the wind streams Lucia's golden hair

When on Time's precipice AUworthy stood .

^^'^len Paris gave his voice, in Ida's grove

When Parliament-people petition their friends

W^hen Peter condescends to write .

When Phoebus gave the skittish Daphne chase

\Vhen Priscus, rais'd from low to high estate

When quacks, as quacks may by good luck, to be

sure

AVhen Radcliffe fell, afflicted Pliysic cried

When Salvia sings, or acts the heroine's part

When Sampson, full of wrath, devis'd .

When, sated with rich Caillipee

^Vhen sent fresh wreaths on Flushing's shores to

reap

When seventy (as 'tis sometimes seen) .

When sly Jemmy Twitcher had smugg'd up his

face .......

When smitten with love from the eyes of the fair

When Stella joins the blooming throng

AVhen sun doth bring the day

When Tadlow walks the streets, the paviours cry

When the sly monkey called me dunce .

When the young Greek for Atalanta sigh'd .

When this crystal shall present .

When thou do'st play and sweetly sing

When Trot in coach his foot first set

When, wanton fair, the snowy orb yon throw

AVhen warbling throats produce i/a?ifc-Notes .

When we are born, our friends rejoice ; we cry

When we'd exalt some heavenly fair

AVhen will Belisa's envious tongue

When with her, Nesera is always disdaining .

When Xerxes saw proud Sparta's chieftain dead

When young, I lov'd. At that enchanting age

When young, I pious learning sought . .

When your foe dies, let all resentment cease .

When you told us our glances soft, timid and mild

Wliere art thou, beloved To-morrow i" .

AVhere did you borrow that last sigh

Where Drake first found, there last he lost his fame

Where'er a hatchment we discern

■Where'er old Ocean's boundless waters roll .

WTierefore does 'Venus beat her boy

Where Streatham spread its plenteous board .

Whether at Rome Peter e'er was or no .

Whether the heavens be foul or fair

Whether thy locks in jetty radiance play

Whether 'tis pity or compassion lead

Which gave the Drapier birth two realms contend

Which is my home-land, which the stranger-shore

While Caroline to learning just

While cruel Nero only drains

While dazzling honours crown the deathless name

While, fair Seltnda ! to our eyes .

While faster than his costive brain indites

While Fell was reposing himself on the hay .

While for my fair a wreath I twined

WTiile George in sorrow bows his laurel'd head

While Gibbs displays his elegant design .

While Greenham writeth of the Sabbath's rest

Lucillius
Bastard .
Richardson
Jiyndius
Martial .
Fergusson
J. Smith
Huijgens
Anon.
J. Davies

Bishop .

Theosebia

Anon.

Polivhele

Anon.
Bishop .

Gray

Lord JErskine ,

Graves .

Drummond

Evaris .

Yriarte ,

Croli/

Shirley .

Herrick ,

Anon.

Petronius Afn

Anon.

Haynian

Granville

Turner .

Buchanan

Philippus

D'Houdetot

Bates

Diodorus

Arabian

Shelley .

Anon.

J. Smith

Anon.

Tebaltius

Anon.

Oxven

Anon.

Anon. Greek

Anon.

Bovyer and Nichols

Hall

Anon. .

Prior

Smythe .

Boyse

Prior

Demodocus

Julinnus

Anon.

T. Martm

Hall

INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF THE EPIGRAMS.

693

While haughty Gallia's dames, who spread .
While heavenly fire cunsum'd his Theban dame
While here for the fair Amaryllis 1 die .
While I those hard cummands obey
While on the cliff with calm delight she kneels
While Prince to Spain and King to Cambridge goes
While Seeker liv'd, he show'd how seers should live
While she pretends to malie the graces known
While Sylvia at her glass her charms unfolds
While tlie enamour'd queen of joy.
While the fierce beadle's brat does loudly bawl
While you, great George ! for safety hunt
Whilst Butler, needy wretch ! was yet alive
Whilst Fate allow'd I sung of kings and gods
Whilst his Redeemer on his canvass dies
Whilst I in prison or in court look down
Whilst in the city 'tis your wish to dwell
Whilst in the dark on thy soft hand I hung
Whilst petty offences and felonies smart
Whilst thus a lew kisses I steal .
Whisp'ring close a maid long courted .
Who can doubt, Rice, but to th' eternal place
Who dare deride what pious Cloyne has done?
Whoe'er thou art, approach — Has med'cine fail'd?
Whoe'er thou art, thy lord and master see
Whoever has recourse to thee ...
Who first transcribed the famous Trojan war .
Who lives with death, by death in death is lying
Who liveth in courts, must mark what they say
Who long would live, wretched although and poor
Who make this earth their heaven whereon they

dwell

Who only in his cups will fight, is like .

Who says that Giles and Joan at discord be .

Who sculptured Love beside this fountain ? — Fool

Whose turn is next f this monitory stone

" Who shall decide when doctors disagree " .

Who the Dickens "Boz" could be

Who wrote, " Who wrote Icon Baailike ? "

Why did thy parents thee misname their joy?

Why dost thou come, great censor of thy age

Why dost tliou gaze upon the sky .''

"Why dost thou shun mei" thus with wrath in

flamed

Why doth the gout, which doth to age belong

Why do you swear that you were bom

Why, favourite of Heaven, most fair

Why, foolish painter, give those wings to Love ?

Why love so often themes each writer's pen ,

Why Lucrece better might herself have slain

Why, Madam, will ye longer weep

Why o'er Timareon's bark, no wealthy prey ,

Why should Honesty seek any safer retreat .

Why should 1 blush that Fortune's frown

Why Bo pale and wan, fond Ix)ver ?

Why strives young Gallatisa for the wall ?

Why i'aylor the quack calls himself Chevalier

Why thus exclaim, and thus exert your wit .

Why thus inci.iiliriMitly (;roan ? .

William tbe Third lies herp, tli' Almighty's friend

Wind, gentle evergreen, to form a shade

Wisdom, hlow yirixJuct of laborious years

With age o'crwhclni'd, deep sunk in dire disease

With oU the virtues blest, and every grace .

PAGE
Addison .... 301

Valtrianus . . .111
Menage .... 246
Xugent .... 379
Leonidas of Alexandria . 44
6'. Herbert . . . 233

Anon 416

Waller . . . .241

Anon 321

Anon 344

Boileau .... 579

Anon &14

Wesley . . . .340
Dante .... 101
Toung .... 310
Prior .... 282
Bias . . .474

Martial . . . .300
Lord Erskine . , .571
Strata . . . .240
Hill . . . .316
Corbet .... 203

Anon 583

Whitehead . . . 406

Voltaire .... 349
Arabian . . . 115

Anon. Greek . . .248
F. FUtcher . . .210
Harington . . . 178
Owen .... 208

J. Heath . . .402

Bancroft . . , 280
Jonson .... 169
Zenodotits . . .137
Fitzpatrick . . . 465
Ovugh .... 449

Anan 602

Kennedy . . . 633
Sanriazarius . . . 107
Martial .... 74
Plato .... 16

M. G. Lewis . . .605
(hven ... 195

Martial . . . .569
Bancroft . . .252
Eubulus ... 63

R. Heath . . .215
Casavovas . . .134
Herrick . . . 228

Leonidas of Tarentum . 1 1
Hose .' . . .493
Arabian ... 97

Suckling . . .561

Anon. .... 518
WalpoU . . . .630

Anan 548

Polwhele . .585

Anrni. .... 531
Simmias . . .15

M. W. Montague . . 333
J(/rtin .... 360
Wokot . . . .462

694

INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF THE EPIGEAMS.

With Beauty and Pleasure surrounded, to languish

With blamelesse carriage, I llv'd here .

With doubtful strife, Humanity and Art

With fear on the Euphrates' shore

With Industry 1 spread your praise

Within that narrow bed, glad babe, to thee .

Within this grave a bachelor lies .

Within this little bowse three Howses lye

Within this tomb, Jane, wife of More, reclines

With lace bedizen'd comes the man

With laurel crown'd for murders in the field .

With leaden foot Time creeps along

With leering look, buU-fac'd, and freckled fair

With me while present may thy luvely eyes .

With my own dugs this wolfish cub I feed .

With one sole pen I writ this book

With self-love Celsus burns : is he not blest ?

With seventy years upon his back

With stranger and with citizen the same

With what strange raptures would my soul be blest

With women and apples both Paris and Adam

Wit is to madness always an ally .

Witty as Horatius Flaccus .

Wit, wisdom, pity, folly, friends .

Women sweet evils are, and twice good those

World-wasting Time, thou worker of our woes

Would God, no ships had ever crost the sea .

Would'st thou hear what man can say .

Would'st thou (Reader) draw to life

Would you be free ? 'tis your chief wish, you say

Would you get to the House through the true gate

Would you, my friend, a finish'd sceptic make

Wreaths to your lost one's tomb you neither bring

Write on nothing ? Shame so to puzzle me .

Ye active streams, where'er your waters flow

Yearnings for home, Cleenor's venturous son

Ye muses, weep ! ye sons of Phoebus, motim

Ye parents Pronto and Flocilla here

Ye radiant fair ! ye Hebes of the day

Ye rascals of ringers, ye merciless foes .

Yes, I can see and envy not .

Yes, I'm in love, I feel it now

Ye simple astronomers lay by your glasses

Ye sons of Westminster, who still retain

Yes ! 'twas politic, truly, my very good friend

Ye swains, whom radiant beauty moves

Yes, youth, thou'rt fled, and I am left .

Ye, to whom heaven imparts its special fires

Yon eye, that into shade the sunlight throws

You always are making a god of your spouse

You are so witty, profligate, and thin .

You ask me what I see in Dickens

You call it luxury, when, in all his glory

You did late review my lays

You feed so fast — and run so very slow.

You give me nothing now : when you expire

You have heard of acephalous verses

You purchase every thing, which makes it plain

Your comedy I've read, my friend

Your compliments, lady, 1 pray you forbear

Your favours to me 1 remember well .

Your fond preferments are but children's toys

Your hand and voice the judging ear delight .

Gray

Herriek .

W. Buncombe

Person .

Buchanan

Schiller .

Selis

Anon.

T. More .

Martial .

Sardinge

Jago

Dryden .

Lyttelton

Anon. Greek

P. Bolland

Thomas .

Rose

Theocritus

W. Walsh

Moore

Anon.

S. Smith

Anon.

Auratus

Gamage .

Callimachus

Jonson .

Anon.

Martial .

Byron .

Duck

Bonifacius

Wilton .

Prior

Anacreon

Roll

Martial .

Jerningham

Voltaire .

Anacreon

Whitehead

Walpole .

Anon.

Hughes .

Arabian

Whaley .

Bonifacius

SxHft .

Yrmng .

Laiidor .

Graves .

Tennyson

Lucianus

Martial

Duncan

Martial

Anon.

J. Levins

Martial

Anon.

Jeffreys

INDEX OF FIRST LIKSS OF THE EPiaRAMS.

695

Your lower limbs seem'd far from stout

Your pencil 1 send you with thanks for the loan

" Your servant, sir," says surly Quin .

Your virtues, like this silver screen

Your wife's possest of such a face and mind

Your wisdom, London's council, far

Yon say, to me-wards your affection's strong

You say without either reward or fee .

Yon say, you nothing owe ; and so 1 say

You see the goodly hair that Galla wears

You should call at his house, or should send him a

card .

You talk of Silurus that turns wood to stone
You tell us, Doctor, " 'Tis a sin to steal "
You think it, censor, mighty strange
You wotild bewail next month to meet dull deatli

PAGE

J. Smith

. 493

Lord Erskine .

. 572

Hogarth

. 3S6

Eliut

. 264

Johannes Secundus

. 131

Anon,

. 545

Herrick .

. 279

Boileau .

. 630

Martial .

. 603

Earington

. 175

Garrick

. 411

Ji. Heath

. 214

Graves .

. 622

Duck

. 367

T. Mare .

. 113

THE END.

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