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Article AN ESSAY ON EPITAPHS. ← Page 3 of 4 →
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An Essay On Epitaphs.
whose learning and poetry were his lowest merits : Aurea dum late volitant tua scripta per orbem , Et fama eternum vivis , divine Pocta , Hie placida jaceas requie , custodiat urnam Caua Fides , vigileutque perenui Jampade Musa 3 !
Sit sacer ilie locus , nee quis temerarius ausit Sacrilega turbare nianu venerabile bustum . Intacti mauoant , niaueaut per ssecula dulces
Oowleii cineres , serventque immobile saxum . To pray that the ashes of a friend may lie undisturbed , and that the divinities that favoured him in his life , may watch for ever round him to preserve his tomb from violation and drive sacrilege
away is only rational in him who believes the soul interested in the repose of the body , and the powers which he invokes for its protection able to preserve it . To censure such expressions as contrary to religion or as remains of heathen
superstition would be too great a degree of severity . I condemn them only as uninstructive and unaffecting , as too ludicrous for reverence or grief ; for Christianity and a temple .
That the designs and decorations of monuments ought likewise to be formed with the same regard to the solemnity of the place cannot be denied ; it is ait established principle that all ornaments owe their beauty to their propriety . The
same glitter of dress that adds grace to gaiety and youth would make age and dignity contemptible . Charon , with his boat , is far from hei ghtening the awful grandeur of the universal judgment , though drawn by Angelo himselfnor is it
, easy to imagine a greater absurdity than that of gracing tho walls of a Christian temple with the figure of Mars leading a hero to battle or Cupids sporting round a virgin . The pope who defaced the statues of the deities at the tomb of Sannazarius
is , in my opinion , more easily to be defended than he that erected them . It is for the same reason improper to address the Epitaph to the passenger , a custom which an injudicious veneration for antiquity introduced again at the revival of letters , and which , among mauv
others , Passeratius suffered to mislead him in his Epitaph upon the heart of Henry king of France , who was stabbed b y Clement , the monk , which yet deserves to be inserted , for the sake of showing how beautiful even improprieties may become
in the hands of a good writer : Adsta , viator , et dole regum vices . Cor Regis isto conditur sub marmore , Qui jura Gallis , jurr Sarmatis dedit . 'Pectus cucullo hunc sustulit sicarius . Abiviatoret dole regum vices .
, , In the monkish ages , however ignorant and unpolished , the Epitaphs wei'e drawn up with far greater propriety than can be shown in those which more enli ghtened times have produced . Orate pro Auima—miserrimi Peccatoris
was an address to the last degree striking and solemn , as it flowed naturally from the religion then believed , and awakened in the reader sentiments of benevolence for the deceased and of concern for his own happiness . There was nothing trifling or
ludicrous , nothing that did not tend to the noblest end , the propagation of piety and the increase of devotion . It may seem very superfluous to lay it
down as the first rule for writing Epitaphs that the name of the deceased is not to be omitted , nor should I have thought such a precept necessary had not the practice of the greatest writers shown that it has not been sufficiently regarded . In most of
the poetical E pitaphs , the names for whom they were composed may be sought to no purpose , being only prefixed on the monument . To expose the absurdity of this omission it is only necessary to ask how the Epitaphs , which have outlived the stones
on which they were inscribed , would have contributed to the information of posterity had they wanted the names of those whom they celebrated . In drawing the character of the deceased there are ho rules to be observed which do
not equally relate to other compositions . The praise ought not to be general , because the mind is lost in the extent of any indefinite idea , and cannot be affected with what it cannot comprehend . When we hear only of a good or great manwe
, know not in what class to place him , nor have any notion of his character , distinct from that of a thousand others , his example can have no effect upon our con-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
An Essay On Epitaphs.
whose learning and poetry were his lowest merits : Aurea dum late volitant tua scripta per orbem , Et fama eternum vivis , divine Pocta , Hie placida jaceas requie , custodiat urnam Caua Fides , vigileutque perenui Jampade Musa 3 !
Sit sacer ilie locus , nee quis temerarius ausit Sacrilega turbare nianu venerabile bustum . Intacti mauoant , niaueaut per ssecula dulces
Oowleii cineres , serventque immobile saxum . To pray that the ashes of a friend may lie undisturbed , and that the divinities that favoured him in his life , may watch for ever round him to preserve his tomb from violation and drive sacrilege
away is only rational in him who believes the soul interested in the repose of the body , and the powers which he invokes for its protection able to preserve it . To censure such expressions as contrary to religion or as remains of heathen
superstition would be too great a degree of severity . I condemn them only as uninstructive and unaffecting , as too ludicrous for reverence or grief ; for Christianity and a temple .
That the designs and decorations of monuments ought likewise to be formed with the same regard to the solemnity of the place cannot be denied ; it is ait established principle that all ornaments owe their beauty to their propriety . The
same glitter of dress that adds grace to gaiety and youth would make age and dignity contemptible . Charon , with his boat , is far from hei ghtening the awful grandeur of the universal judgment , though drawn by Angelo himselfnor is it
, easy to imagine a greater absurdity than that of gracing tho walls of a Christian temple with the figure of Mars leading a hero to battle or Cupids sporting round a virgin . The pope who defaced the statues of the deities at the tomb of Sannazarius
is , in my opinion , more easily to be defended than he that erected them . It is for the same reason improper to address the Epitaph to the passenger , a custom which an injudicious veneration for antiquity introduced again at the revival of letters , and which , among mauv
others , Passeratius suffered to mislead him in his Epitaph upon the heart of Henry king of France , who was stabbed b y Clement , the monk , which yet deserves to be inserted , for the sake of showing how beautiful even improprieties may become
in the hands of a good writer : Adsta , viator , et dole regum vices . Cor Regis isto conditur sub marmore , Qui jura Gallis , jurr Sarmatis dedit . 'Pectus cucullo hunc sustulit sicarius . Abiviatoret dole regum vices .
, , In the monkish ages , however ignorant and unpolished , the Epitaphs wei'e drawn up with far greater propriety than can be shown in those which more enli ghtened times have produced . Orate pro Auima—miserrimi Peccatoris
was an address to the last degree striking and solemn , as it flowed naturally from the religion then believed , and awakened in the reader sentiments of benevolence for the deceased and of concern for his own happiness . There was nothing trifling or
ludicrous , nothing that did not tend to the noblest end , the propagation of piety and the increase of devotion . It may seem very superfluous to lay it
down as the first rule for writing Epitaphs that the name of the deceased is not to be omitted , nor should I have thought such a precept necessary had not the practice of the greatest writers shown that it has not been sufficiently regarded . In most of
the poetical E pitaphs , the names for whom they were composed may be sought to no purpose , being only prefixed on the monument . To expose the absurdity of this omission it is only necessary to ask how the Epitaphs , which have outlived the stones
on which they were inscribed , would have contributed to the information of posterity had they wanted the names of those whom they celebrated . In drawing the character of the deceased there are ho rules to be observed which do
not equally relate to other compositions . The praise ought not to be general , because the mind is lost in the extent of any indefinite idea , and cannot be affected with what it cannot comprehend . When we hear only of a good or great manwe
, know not in what class to place him , nor have any notion of his character , distinct from that of a thousand others , his example can have no effect upon our con-