III. ON THE HON. SIMON HARCOURT, Only Son of the Lord Chancellor HARCOURT; at the Church of Stanton-Harcourt T in Oxfordshire, 1720. this sad shrine, whoe'er thou art! draw near; Here lies the Friend most lov'd, the Son most dear; How vain is Reason, Eloquence how weak! IV. ON JAMES CRAGGS, ESQ. REGI MAGNE BRITANNIE A SECRETIS PRINCIPIS PARITER AC POPULI AMOR ET DELICIÆ: OB. FEB. XVI. MDCCXX. Statesman, yet Friend to Truth! of Soul sincere, Who broke no Promise, serv'd no private End; Prais'd, wept, and honour'd, by the Muse he lov'd3. THY V. INTENDED FOR MR ROWE, In Westminster Abbey 4. HY relics, ROWE, to this fair Urn we trust, 1 These were the very words used by Louis XIV., when his Queen died, 1683; though it is not to be imagined they were copied by Pope. Warton. 2 [As to Craggs, v. ante, p. 442. Horace Walpole sent to Sir Horace Mann a very illnatured epitaph on the same Craggs, whose father had been a footman: 'Here lies the last, who died before the first of his family.' (Jesse.) As Craggs's death alone arrested the enquiry into the charge of peculation brought against him in connexion with the South Sea frauds (his father committing suicide shortly afterwards) the praise in the third line of Pope's Epitaph is singularly bold.] 3 These verses were originally the conclusion of the Epistle to Mr Addison on his Dialogue on Medals, and were adopted as an Epitaph by an alteration in the last line, which in the Epistle stood 5 'And prais'd unenvied by the Muse he lov'd.' Roscoe [cf. p. 264]. 4 [As to Rowe, see note to Epil. to Jane Shore, p. 94.] 5 Beneath a rude] The Tomb of Mr Dryden was erected upon this hint by the Duke of Buckingham; to which was originally intended this Epitaph, This SHEFFIELD rais'd. The sacred Dust below Was DRYDEN once: The rest who does not know? which the Author since changed into the plain inscription now upon it, being only the name of that great Poet. J. DRYDEN. Naturs Aug. 9, 1631. Mortuus Maij 1, 1700. JOANNES SHEFFIELD DUX BUCKINGHAMIENSIS POSUIT. P. 6 [The above epitaph was subsequently altered by Pope, the following lines being added: H VI. ON MRS CORBET, Who died of a Cancer in her Breast1. ERE rests a Woman, good without pretence, Blest with plain Reason, and with sober Sense: No Conquests she, but o'er herself, desir'd, No Arts essay'd, but not to be admir'd. Passion and Pride were to her soul unknown, So firm, yet soft; so strong, yet so refin'd; VII. 10 ON THE MONUMENT OF THE HONOURABLE ROBERT DIGBY, AND OF HIS SISTER MARY, Erected by their Father, the Lord DIGBY, in the Church of Sherborne Just of thy Word, in ev'ry thought sincere, Who knew no wish but what the world might hear: Lover of peace, and friend of human kind: Go live! for Heav'n's Eternal year is thine, And thou, blest Maid! attendant on his doom, 'Peace to thy gentle shade, and endless rest! Blest in thy Genius, in thy Love too blest! One grateful Woman to thy fame supplies What a whole thankless land to his denies.' But further alterations and additions were made in the inscription, until it read as it now stands on the monument in Westminster Abbey to Rowe and his daughter.] This epitaph is on a monument in St Mar- was the Mrs Corbet who was a sister of Pope's mother. Carruthers. [Hunter enumerates Mrs Corbet among the Roman Catholic members of the Turner family; and as the notice preceding the epitaph on the monument speaks of her as the daughter of Sir Uvedale Corbett, Bart., it is irreconcileable with Hunter's statement.] 2 [Robert Digby was a frequent correspon ent of Pope's during the years 1717 to 1724 He died in 1726; and Pope laments his death in a letter to his brother Edward Digby.] VIII. ON SIR GODFREY KNELLER, In Westminster-Abbey, 17231. NELLER, by Heav'n, and not a Master, taught, K Whose Art was Nature, and whose Pictures Thought; Now for two ages having snatch'd from fate 5 ance. IX. ON GENERAL HENRY WITHERS, Thy Country's friend, but more of human kind. For thee the hardy Vet'ran drops a tear, And the gay Courtier feels the sigh sincere. 1 Pope had made Sir Godfrey Kneller, on his death-bed, a promise to write his epitaph, which he seems to have performed with reluctHe thought it 'the worst thing he ever wrote in his life." (Spence.) Roscoe. [Sir Godfrey Kneller was born at Lübeck in 1648, and after being introduced by the Duke of Monmouth to King Charles II., filled the office of Statepainter under that monarch and his successors up to George I., in whose reign (in 1726) he died.] 2 Imitated from the famous Epitaph on Raphael. Raphael, timuit, quo sospite, vinci 3 [The following is the prose inscription on General Withers' monument in Westminster Abbey, which is also believed to be by Pope: Henry Withers, Lieutenant-General, de 5 10 scended from a military stock, and bred in arms 78, Both Withers and Disney (who rests beside his comrade) are mentioned among Pope's friends by Gay, who alludes to the hospitality panegyrized in the above epitaph.] X. ON MR ELIJAH FENTON, At Easthamstead in Berks, 17301. HIS modest Stone, what few vain Marbles can2, A Poet, blest beyond the Poet's fate, Whom Heav'n kept sacred from the Proud and Great: Content with Science in the Vale of Peace. Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear; From Nature's temp'rate feast rose satisfy'd3, Thank'd Heav'n that he had liv'd, and that he died. OF XI. ON MR GAY, In Westminster-Abbey, 1732. F Manners gentle, of Affections mild; And uncorrupted, ev'n among the Great: 1 [Elijah Fenton was born in 1683. Fenton, together with Broome, wrote part of the translation of the Odyssey in a style so similar to Pope's that most readers would fail to distinguish between the work of the latter and that of his coadjutors. A survey of Fenton's works shows a striking reproduction on his part of most of the species of poetry cultivated by Pope. Fenton has a pastoral (Florelio) to correspond to Pope's fourth and favourite Pastoral; a paraphrase of the 14th chapter of Isaiah to correspond to Pope's Messiah; an epistle from Sappho to Phaon, Epistles, Prologues, and Translations and Imitations of Horace. Fenton was a thorough master of versification, and excelled Pope in his command of a variety of metres. His Ode to Lord Gower (which Pope placed next in merit to Dryden's 2 The modest front of this small floor Crashaw, Epitaph upon Mr Ashton. Johnson. [There is a very striking coincidence between XII. INTENDED FOR SIR ISAAC NEWTON, ISAACUS NEWTONUS: Testantur Tempus, Natura, Cœlum: Hoc marmor fatetur, Nature and Nature's Laws lay hid in Night: XIII. ON DR FRANCIS ATTERBURY, Bishop of Rochester, Who died in Exile at Paris, 1732, (his only Daughter having expired in his arms, immediately after she arrived in France to see him3.) DIALOGUE 4. VES, we have liv'd-one pang, and then we part! Y now Yet ah! how once we lov'd, remember still, HE. Dear Shade! I will: Then mix this dust with thine-O spotless Ghost! |