"If beauty tempted-fhe faid Nay;
"No Pride fhe took in Sceptre's fway.
"She only high, herself debas'd,

"A Lady only fair and chafte."

Funeral Monuments, p. 234.

This is poor enough; but the Epitaph "which was," Weever fays, "no doubt penned with applaufe in thofe days," may be quoted as truly ridiculous:

"Rex Ethelbertus hic clauditur in Poliandro,

"Fana fidus certus Chrifto meat abfque Meandro."

"King Ethelbert lies buried here,

"Clofed in this Poliander;

For building churches fure he goes

"To Chrift, without Meander!"

The former Epitaph may put the reader, perhaps, in mind of a beautiful line of Spenfer's:

"Gently he took all that ungently came."

Among the more modern Epitaphs a laboured elegance feems too much to prevail, at the expence of fimplicity, and thofe appropriate touches of character, which conftitute the chief beauty, as well as difficulty, of this fpecies of writing. There are few more elegant, and at the fame time more affecting and characteristic, than the lines often ascribed to Dr. Hawkefworth, but certainly written by the late Lord Palmerston :

"Whoe'er, like me, his heart's whole treasure brings," &c. T. Warton's Latin Epitaph on Mrs. Serle, in Teftwood church, near Southampton, is claffical, appropriate, and beautiful.

I.

ON CHARLES EARL OF DORSET,

IN THE CHURCH OF WITHYAM IN SUSSEX.

DORSET, the Grace of Courts, the Muses' Pride,
Patron of Arts, and Judge of Nature, dy'd.
The fcourge of Pride, tho' fanctify'd or great,
Of Fops in Learning, and of Knaves in State:
Yet foft his Nature, tho' fevere his Lay,'
His Anger moral, and his Wisdom gay.
Bleft Satirift! who touch'd the Mean fo true,
As fhow'd, Vice had his hate and pity too.
Bleft Courtier! who could King and Country please,
Yet facred keep his Friendships, and his Ease.
Bleft Peer! his great Forefathers ev'ry grace
Reflecting, and reflected in his Race;

Where other BUCKHURSTS, other DORSETS shine,
And Patriots ftill, or Poets, deck the line.

NOTES.

Epitaphs.] These Epitaphs are in general over-run with point and antithefis, and are a kind of panegyrical epigrams; they are confequently very different from the fimple fepulchral infcriptions of the ancients; of which that of Meleager on his Wife, in the Greek anthology, is a model and mafter piece. WARTON.

Dr. Johnson has been particularly fevere on these Epitaphs. Some of his obfervations are very juft, and his definition of the fpecies of writing is accurate. There are very few things, how. ever, that would ftand the teft of fuch feverity of investigation.

II.

ON SIR WILLIAM TRUMBAL,

One of the principal Secretaries of State to King WILLIAM III. who having refigned his Place, died in his Retirement at Easthamfted, in Berkshire, 1716.

A

PLEASING Form; a firm, yet cautious Mind;
Sincere, tho' prudent; conftant, yet refign'd:

Honour unchang'd, a Principle profest,

Fix'd to one fide, but mod'rate to the rest:
An honeft Courtier, yet a Patriot too ;
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;

5

10

Such this Man was; who now, from earth remov'd, At length enjoys that Liberty he lov'd.

NOTES,

VER. 5. a Patriot too ;] It was unfuitable to the nicety re quired in fhort compofitions, to close his verse with the word too; every rhyme should be a word of emphasis, nor can this rule be fafely 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 feventh line the word filled is weak and profaic, having no particular adaptation to any of the words that follow it.

JOHNSON.

III.

ON THE HON. SIMON HARCOURT, ONLY SON OF THE LORD CHANCELLOR HARCOURT; At the Church of Stanton-Harcourt in Oxfordshire,

1720.

To this fad Shrine, whoe'er thou art! draw near, Here lies the Friend moft 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 Reafon, Eloquence how weak!
If Pope must tell what HARCOURT cannot speak.
Oh let thy once-lov'd Friend infcribe thy Stone,
And, with a Father's forrows, mix his own!

NOTES.

VER. 4. but when he dy'd.] These were the very words used by Louis XIV. when his Queen died, 1633; though it is not to be imagined they were copied by Pope. Such coincidences in writers WARTON.

are not uncommon.

VER. 6 If Pope must tell ] Whoever ufed the words, they were contemptible, and almoft burlesque.

.IV.

ON JAMES CRAGGS*, ESQ.

In Westminster-Abbey.

JACOBUS CRAGGS

REGNI MAGNE BRITANNIE A SECRETIS

ET CONSILIIS SANCTIORIBUS,

PRINCIPIS PARITER AC POPULI AMOR ET DELICIE:

VIXIT TITULIS ET INVIDIA MAJOR

ANNOS, HEU PAUCOS, Xxxv.

OB. FEB. XIV. MDCCXX.

Statesman, yet Friend to Truth! of Soul fincere,
In Action faithful, and in Honour clear!

Who broke no Promise, ferv❜d no private End,
Who gain'd no Title, and who loft no Friend,
Ennobled by Himfelf, by All approv❜d,

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

NOTES.

* He was the only fon of James Craggs, who has been before mentioned. He had his education at a French feminary in Chelfea; from thence he went to Hanover, thence to the Court of Turin. He removed to Barcelona, and, in the abfence of Lord Stanhope, he afterwards ferved as Under-Minister to the Emperor. Upon the death of Queen Ann, he was

fent