A DISSERTATION ON THE EPITAPHS E WRITTEN BY POPE. VERY Art is best taught by Example. Nothing contributes more to the Cultivation of Propriety than Remarks on the Works of those who have most excelled. I shall therefore endeavour, at this Visit, to entertain the young Students in Poetry, with an Examination of Pope's Epitaphs. To define an Epitaph is useless; every one knows that it is an Inscription on a Tomb. An Epitaph, therefore, implies no particular Character of Writing, but may be composed in Verse or Profe. It is indeed commonly Panegyrical; because we are feldom diftinguished with a Stone, but by our Friends; but it has no Rule to restrain or modify it, except this, that it ought not to be longer than common Beholders may be expected to have Leisure and Patience to peruse. I. On CHARLES Earl of Dorset, in the Church of Wythyham in Sufsex. DORSET, the Grace of Courts, the Muses Pride, • Patron of Arts, and Judge of Nature, dy'd. The 6 The Scourge of Pride, tho' fanctify'd or great, • Of Fops in Learning, and of Knaves in State; Yet foft his Nature, tho' severe his Lay, His Anger moral, and his Wisdom gay. Bleft Satyrift! who touch'd the Mean so true, • As show'd, Vice had his Hate and Pity too. • Blest Courtier! who could King and Country please, Yet facred keep his Friendships, and his Eafe. Bleft Peer! his great Forefathers ev'ry Grace Reflecting, and reflected on his Race ; • Where other Buckhursts, other Dorfets shine, 'And Patriots still, or Poets, deck the Line.' The first Distich of this Epitaph contains a Kind of Information which few would want, that the Man, for whom the Tomb was erected, died. There are indeed some Qualities worthy of Praise ascribed to the Dead, but none that were likely to exempt him from the Lot of Man, or incline us much to wonder that he should die. What is meant by Judge of Nature, is not easy to say. Nature is not the Object of human Judgment, for it is vain to judge where we cannot alter. If by Nature is meant, what is commonly called Nature by the Criticks, a just Representation of Things really existing and Actions really performed, Nature cannot be properly opposed to Art; Nature being, in this Sense, only the best Effect of Art. The Scourge of Pride- Of this Couplet, the fecond Line is not, what is intended, an Illustration of the former. Pride, in the Great, is indeed well enough connected with Knaves in State, though Knaves is a Word rather too ludicrous and light; but the mention of fanctified Pride will not lead the Thoughts to Fops in Learning, but rather to some Species of Tyranny or Oppreffion, fomething more gloomy and more formidable than Foppery. VOL. II. Yet Yet foft his Nature This is a high Compliment, but was not first bestowed on Dorset by Pope. The next Verse is extremely beautiful. Blest Satyrist! In this Distich is another Line of which Pope was not the Authour. I do not mean to blame these Imitations with much Harshness; in long Perform-ances they are scarcely to be avoided, and in flender they may be indulged, because the Train of the Composition may naturally involve them, or the Scantiness of the Subject allow little Choice. However, what is borrowed is not to be enjoyed as our own, and it is the Business of critical Justice to give every Bird of the Muses his proper Feather. Blest Courtier! Whether a Courtier can be properly commended for keeping his Eafe facred may perhaps be difputable. To please King and Country, without facrificing Friendship to any Change of Times, was a very uncommon Instance of Prudence or Felicity, and deserved to be kept separate from so poor a Commendation as Care of this Ease. I wish our Poets would attend a little more accurately to the Use of the Word facred, which surely should never be applied in a ferious Composition, but where some Reference may be made to a higher Being, or where fome Duty is exacted or implied. A man may keep his Friendship facred, because Promises of Friendship are very awful Ties; but methinks he cannot, but in a burlesque Senfe, be faid to keep his Eafe facred. Bleft Peer! The Bleffing afcribed to the Peer has no Connection with his Peerage; they might happen to any other Man, whose Ancestors were remembered, or whose Pofterity were likely to be regarded. I know not whether this Epitaph be worthy either of the Writer, or of the Man entombed. II. 1 L Ön Sir WILLIAM TRUMBUL, One of the Principal Secretaries of State to King WILLIAM III. who having refigned his Place, died in his Retirement at Easthamsted, in Berkshire, 1716. : A pleasing Form, a firm, yet cautious Mind, Sincere, tho' prudent; conftant, yet resign'd; Honour unchang'd, a Principle profest, Fix'd to one Side, but mod'rate to the reft: An honest Courtier, yet a Patriot toe, Juft to his Prince, and to his Country true. • Fill'd with the Sense of Age, the Fire of Youth, A Scorn of Wrangling, yet a Zeal for Truth; A gen'rous Faith, from Superstition free; A Love to Peace, and Hate of Tyranny: Such this Man was; who now, from Earth remov'd, At length enjoys that Liberty he lov'd. In this Epitaph, as in many others, there appears, at the first View, a Fault which I think scarcely any Beauty can compenfate. The Name is omitted. The End of an Epitaph is to convey some Account of the Dead, and to what Purpose is any Thing told of him whose Name is concealed? An Epitaph, and a History, of a nameless Hero, are equally abfurd, fince the Virtues and Qualities so recounted in either, are scattered at the Mercy of Fortune to be appropriated by Guess. The Name, it is true, may be read upon the Stone, but what Obligation has it to the Poet, whose Verses wander over the Earth, and leave their Subject behind them, and who is forced, like an unskilful Painter, to make his Purpose known by adventitious Help? This Epitaph is wholly without Elevation, and contains nothing striking or particular; but the Poet is not to be blamed for the Defects of his Subject. He faid perhaps the best that could be faid. There are however some Defects which were not made ne ceffary by the Character in which he was employed. There is no Opposition between an honest Courtier and a Patriot, for an honest Courtier cannot but be a Patriot. It was unfuitable to the Nicety required in short Compofitions, to close his Verse with the Word too; every Rhyme should be a Word of Emphasis, nor can this Rule be safely neglected, except where the Length of the Poem makes flight Inaccuracies excufable, or allows Room for Beauties sufficient to overpower the Effects of petty Faults. At the Beginning of the seventh Line the Word filled is weak and prosaic, having no particular Adaptation to any of the Words that follow it. The Thought in the last Line is Impertinent, having no Connection with the foregoing Character. nor with the Condition of the Man described. Had the Epitaph been written on the poor Conspirator who died lately in Prison, after a Confinement of more than forty Years, without any Crime proved against him, the Sentiment had been just and pathetical; but why should Trumbul be congratulated upon his Liberty, who had never known Restraint? III. On the Hon. SIMON HARCOURT, only Son of the Lord Chancellor HARCOURT; at the Church of StantonHarcourt in Oxfordshire, 1720. To this fad 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 dy'd. How vain is Reason, Eloquence how weak! |