XIV.

ON EDMUND DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.*

WHO DIED IN THE NINETEENTH YEAR OF HIS AGE, 1735.

5

If modest Youth, with cool Reflection crown'd,
And ev'ry op'ning Virtue blooming round,
Could save a Parent's justest Pride from fate,
Or add one Patriot to a sinking state;
This weeping marble had not ask'd thy Tear,
Or sadly told, how many hopes lie here !
The living Virtue now had shone approv'd,
The Senate heard him, and his Country lov’d.
Yet softer Honours, and less noisy Fame
Attend the shade of gentle BUCKINGHAM : 10
In whom a Race, for Courage fam'd, and Art,
Ends in the milder Merit of the Heart;
And-Chiefs or Sages long to Britain given-
Pays the last Tribute of a Saint to Heav'n.

NOTES.

Only son of John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, by Katherine Darnley, natural daughter of James II.

Ver. 1. If modest Youth, &c.] This Epitaph Mr. Warburton prefers to the rest, but I know not for what reason. To crown with reflection, is surely a mode of speech approaching to nonsense. Opening virtues blooming round, is something like tautology. The six following lines are poor and prosaic. Art, is in another place used for arts. The six last lines are the best, but not excellent.

Johnson. The above Epitaph is written with a degree of feeling, which would atone for greater blemishes than Dr. Johnson has been able to point out.

XV.

FOR ONE WHO WOULD NOT BE BURIED IN

WESTMINSTER-ABBEY.

Heroes and Kings! your distance keep:
In peace let one poor Poet sleep,
Who never flatter'd folks like you:
Let Horace blush, and Virgil too.

Koris

ANOTHER, ON THE SAME.
UNDER this Marble, or under this Sill,
Or under this Turf, or e'en what they will ;
Whatever an Heir, or a Friend in his stead,
Or any good creature shall lay o'er my head,
Lies one who ne'er car'd, and still cares not a pin
What they said, or may say, of the mortal within:
But, who living and dying, serene still and free,
Trusts in God, that as well as he was, he shall be.
Imitated from the following lines of Ariosto:

Ludovici Areosti humantur ossa
Sub hoc marmore, vel sub hoc humo, seu
Sub quicquid voluit benignus hæres
Sive hærede benignior comes, seu
Opportunius incidens Viator :
Nam scire haud potuit futura, sed nec
Tanti erat vacuum sibi cadaver
Ut utnam cuperet parare vivens,
Vivens ista tamen sibi paravit.
Quæ inscribi voluit suo sepulchro
Olim siquod haberetis sepulchrum.

END OF VOL. III.

J. M'Creery, Tooks Court,
Chancery Lane, London,