St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1858-07-22
Cge gntelligenttr.
A CHAPTER OF EPIGRAMS.
From the Old English Poets.

than the modern, us the epigram was once held
on n par with the sonnet. The poets of the
present day indulge more in the direct expires.
sion of thought and feeling, and less in mere
conceits of words. Many of the old epigram.
matte couplets and stanzas which were SO pop.
ular in their day were satircs on public men
and measures, and have passed out of memory
with these. But many others of a different
and more general character, still remain. Some
of these have perhaps become even more rich
by quaintncss which time has added. We
give our readers a few chance quotations
marked during an hours leisure in turning
over the pages Of our good old English Litera-
turc.
Sir Thomas Wyatt, cotcmporary and
friend Of the Earl of Surrey, both of whom
lived before the time of Spenscr, addressed the
following to a lady, urging her to answer di-
rectly, yea or nay. 1t is exceedingly fluent
and metrical for SO early a period of the Ian
guage
Madam, wthoucn many words,
Once am you will, or no:
And if you will, then leave your bourds
And use your wit, and shew II
For with beck you shall me call ;
And if Of one that burns Away,
Ye have pity or ruth at ALL
Answer him fair with yea or nay
II II be yea, I shall be fair
II il be nay, friends as before
You shall another obtain,
And mine own, aud yours no more"
He thus describes how some pleasure is
mixed with every pain:
venomous thorns that are 20 sharp and keen
Bear flowers we see, full fresh and fair of hue
Poison Is also put in medicine
And unto man his health doth oft renew
The hrc that all things exc consumcth clear
May hurt and heal then If that this be true,
Itrgst sometime my harm may be my health,
Since every woe is joined with some wealth.
Mr.. Donne wrote a score or more of cpl
grams, some of which show more ingenuity
than wit. The following, On Burnt Ship,
is good specimen of a style of writing which
was very common in his time, and which con-
sisted in the artiul framing together of odd
conceits or antitheses, regardless of sentiment
and sometimes of meaning
"Out Of fired ship. which, by no way
But drowning, could be rescued from the flame,
Some men lcapcd forth, and even they came
Near the foes ships, did by their shots decay
~ all were lost, which in the ship found,
They in the sea being burnt they in the burnt shiT
drowned"
There is neither beauty, wit, nor poetic feel.
ing in these lines and in our day, in the
prevalence of better taste, so fine Il writer as
DIR. Donne would not have written SO studious
trihe. In the following however, there is
genuine wit-at the expense of - Lame Beg
gar:
90 am unable, yondcr beggar cries,
To stand if he say truth he lies"
The antithcsis and the double meaning OF
the last line are very forcible and striking
We mentioned a few weeks ago, that Ms
had been recently discovered, containing
several epigrams 10y Donne, which have new
er before been published. The best among
these is the following
- Snug, the smith, for ale and spice
Sold all his tools, but kept his--vicc,"
The poems of George Herbert abound in
epigrammatic expressions, most of which hav,
a moral significance, and are not mere oddities
of wit. Some of the best occur among
'Charms and Knots
| =" Who shuts his hand hath lost his gold
Who opens ii hath il twice told
who goes To bed and doth not pray,
| Maketh two nights of every day"
| d" Take one from ten and what remains
Ten still II sermons go for gains"
The latter is somewhat obscure the mean
ing is, that the tithcs of the priests are repaic
by his services.
Here is an instance from the same author
of the peculiar style Of writing which We hav,
already noticed in DR.. Dome:
| " Jesus in my heart his sacred name
| l. deeply carved there. But tn other week
| great affection broke the little fame,
| Fen all To pieces which went 10 seek
And fret found the corner where wasJ,
| After where Is and next where was graved.
When had got these parcels, instantly
| Isat me down To spell them, AMI perceived
That to my broken heart he was ease you,
And 10 my whole /. JsSu."
What tender and delicate beauty pervade
|
Sweet:
All my dcasc, angrie Lord
| siuce thou dost love, yet strike,
Cast down, yet help afford;
Sure Will do the ike.
will complain, yet praise
will bewal approve
All, all my sour.sweet days
| / will lament and love ~
Sir John Harrington who lived about tn
time of Spenser, wrote several pointed epi
grams. He says of Fortune:
Fortune, men say, doth give too much to many,
But yet she never gave enough to any
This is still better, on Treason
Treason doth never prosper what's the reason'
For if ii prosper, none dare call ii treason -
Cartwright, a friend of Ben Jonson, thu
speaks of Love:
s!Who can hide GreS Irt be uncovered, light
If cover'd, smoke betrsys it to the sight
Love is that ire, which still some sign affords
If hid they're sighs If open, they are words"
The following, on Justice, has never bee
traced to any known author:
'sJustee like lightning ever should appear,
To few mems ruin, but to all mems fear"
Dryden has the following lines on Milton ::
"Three poets in three distant ages born,
Greece, Italy, and England did adorn
The first in loitiness Of thought surpassed,
The next in majesty in both the last,
The force of nature could no further go;
To make a third she joined the other two"
Nathaniel Lee, a contemporary of DIVA.
thus speaks of Love, in women and in mel
A woman loquitur:
'.Poor love Is lost in mems capacious minds
In ours, il fills up all the room it finds"
Butler, the author Of Hudibras, says OF
Club of Sots; -