Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/515

Rh EPITAPH 495 character, as being from its supposed permanence the most suitable medium of communication to distant ages. It is only, in fact, within recent years that Latin has become unusual, and the more natural practice has been adopted of writing the epitaphs of distinguished men in the lan guage of the country in which they lived. While Latin was the chief if not the sole literary language, it was, as a matter of course, almost exclusively used for epitaphial in scriptions. The comparatively few English epitaphs that remain of the llth and 12th centuries are all in Latin. They are generally confined to a mere statement of the name and rank of the deceased following the words Hie jacet.&quot; Two noteworthy exceptions to this general brevity are, however, to be found in most of the collections. One is the epitaph to Gundrada, daughter of the Conqueror (il 1085), which still exists at Lewes, though in an im perfect state, two of the lines having been lost; another is that to William de Warren, earl of Surrey (d. 1089), believed to have bsen inscribed in the Abbey of St Pancras, near Lewes, founded by him. Both are encomiastic, and describe the character and work of the deceased with con siderable fullness and beauty of expression. They are written in leonine verse. In the 13th century French began to be used in writing epitaphs, and most of the inscriptions to celebrated historical personages between 1200 and 1400 are in that language. Mention may be made of those to Robert, the third earl of Oxford (d. 1221), as given in Weever, to Henry III (cl. 1272) at AVestminster Abbey, and to Edward the Black Prince (d. 1376) at Canterbury. In most of the inscriptions of this period the deceased addresses the reader in the first person, describes his rank and posi tion while alive, and, as in the case of the Black Prince, contrasts it with his wasted and loathsome state in the grave, and warns the reader to prepare for the same in evitable change. The epitaph almost invariably closes with a request, sometimes very urgently worded, for the prayers of the reader that the soul of the deceased may pass to glory, and an invocation of blessing, general or specific, upon all who comply. Epitaphs preserved much of the same character after English began to be used towards the close of the 1 4th century. The following to a member of the Savile family at Thornhill is probably even earlier, though its precise date cannot be fixed : &quot; Bonys emougg stonys lys ful stcyl gwylste the sawle wan- deris were that God wylethe that is, Bones among stones lie full still, whilst the soul wanders whither God willeth It may be noted here that the majority of the inscriptions, Latin and Eng lish, from 1300 to the period of the Reformation, that have been preserved, arc upon brasses. (See BRASSES, MONUMENTAL.) It was in the reign of Elizabeth that epitaphs in English began to assume a distinct literary character and value, entitling them to rank with those that had hitherto been composed in Latin. There is one on the dowager countess of Pembroke (d. 1621), remarkable for its successful use of a somewhat daring hyperbole. It is usually attributed to Ben Jonson, but there seems reason to believe that it was written by William Browne, author of Britannia s Pustorah : &quot; Underneath tins marble hearse Lies the subject of all verse ; Sydney s sister, Pembroke s mother ; Death, ere thou hast slain another Fair and learn d and good as she, Time will throw his dart at thce. Marble piles let no man raise To her name for after days ; Some kind woman, born as she, Reading this, like Niobe, Shall turn marble, and become Both her mourner and her tomb.&quot; If there be something of the exaggeration of a conceit in the second stanza, it needs scarcely to be pointed out that epitaphs, like every other form of composition, necessarily reflect the literary characteristics of the age in which they were written. The deprecation of marble as unnecessary suggests one of the finest literary epitaphs in the English language, that by Milton upon Shakespeare : &quot; What needs my Shakespeare, for his honoured bones, The labour of an age in piled stones ? Or that his hallowed reliques should be hid Under a star-ypointing pyramid ? Dear Son of Memory, great heir of fame, AVhat need st thou such weak witness of thy name ? Thou in our wonder and astonishment Hast built thyself a live-long monument. For whilst, to the shame of slow-endeavouring art, Thy easy numbers flow ; and that each heart Hath, from the leaves of thy unvalued book, Those Delphic lines with deep impression took ; Then thou our fancy of itself bereaving, Dost make us marble with too much conceiving ; And so sepulchred, in such pomp dost lie, That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.&quot; The epitaphs of Pope are generally considered to possess very great literary merit, though they were rated higher by Johnson and critics of his period than they are now. Two are quoted in most collections as, each in its own way, a typical specimen. The first is on Mrs Corbet : &quot; Here rests a woman, good without pretence, Blest with plain reason and with sober sense; No conquests she, but o er herself, desired, No arts essayed, but not to be admired. Passion and pride were to her soul unknown, Convinced that virtue only i s our own. So unaffected, so composed a mind; So firm, yet soft; so strong, yet so refined; Heaven, as its purest gold, by tortures tried; The saint sustained it, but the woman died.&quot; The other, to Sir Isaac Newton, is not inscribed upon any monument: &quot; Nature and Nature s laws lay hid in night ; God said, Let Newton be ! and all was light.&quot; Objection has been taken to it as &quot; savouring of pro fanity,&quot; a criticism which will be differently estimated by different minds. Dr Johnson, who thought so much of Pope s epitaphs, was himself a great authority in both the theory and prac tice of this species of composition. His essay on epitaphs is one of the few existing monographs on the subject, and his opinion as to the use of Latin had great influence. The manner in which he met the delicately insinuated re quest of a number of eminent men that English should be employed in the case of Oliver Goldsmith was characteristic, and showed the strength of his conviction on the subject (see Boswell s Life, vol. vi. c. 7). The arguments in favour of Latin were chiefly drawn from its inherent fitness for epitaphial inscriptions and its classical stability. The first of these has a very considerable force, it being ad mitted on all hands that few languages are in themselves so suitable for the purpose ; the second is outweighed by con siderations that had considerable force in Dr Johnson s time, and have acquired more since. Even to the learned Latin is no longer the language of daily thought and life as it was at the period of the Reformation, and the great body of those who may fairly claim to be called the well- educated classes can only read it with difficulty, if at all. It seems, therefore, little less than absurd, for the sake of a stability which is itself in great part delusive, to write epitaphs in a language unintelligible to the vast majority of those for whose information presumably they are intended. Though a stickler for Latin, Dr Johnson wrote some very beautiful English epitaphs, as, for example, the follow ing on Philips, a musician :