Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1862-07-17
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EPIGRAMSro

saiS.a..s s.i EPIGRAMS.,o5} = ~ q,
|SoxE OF THE Witty SAVINGS OF WITTY MEN.
1t would be difficult to give better definition
of the word epigram than that conveyed IN Mar
tails famous couplet:
An epigram is like bee-a thing
Of little size, with honey and sting. j ~EI-
/ Martial was. himself, one of the most success
full epigrammatists that, ever lived but as he
wrote in Latin, the points Of his best efforts have
been lost in the translation. Burns does not
seem to have thought much of Elphinstone's at
tempts to render Martials compositions into En-
glsh for, on being handed volume, the result
of it, he 'perpetrated on the fy-leaf the follow
ing: E "a .r.54 .,,at, .-...c ' IA I'LL
o. thou, whom poesy abhors, ... ..-.... T.
Whom prose has turned out of doors.
Heard st thou that groan proceed no further !;
Twas laurelled Martial roaring I" murther." IL
Serious epigrams were formerly more popular
than comic ones the reverse is now the case.
There is not probably in the English language q
verse which has been so extensively initiated as
Drydens tribute to Milton. Indeed, it is not
unusual to find scholars of no mean attainments
forgetting the real author and attributing it to
an imaginary one. 1t is worth reproducing:
Three poets, in three distant ages born,
Greece, Italy and England did adorn;
The first in loftiness Of thought surpassed,
The next in majesty, in beth the last
The force of nature could no further go;
To form third she Joined the former two.
A Latin jeau d'esprit of Thomas Wharton,
which was written to be placed under a statue of
Somnus, is thus turned into English by Wolcot,
and has been called gem:
Come, gentle sleep attend thy votary's prayer,
And though deaths image. to my couch repair,
How sweet, though lifeless, yet with life to lie,
And without dying, o how sweet to die!
Montgomery once wrote an epitaph for mon
ument which was to be erected over the grave of
three little innocents. As it is essentially an
epigram, we print it: s-...E .-.-
Bold inidelity turn pale and die '' +'
Beneath this stone three infants ashes lie:
Say, are they lost Or saved
If deaths by sin, they sinned, because they're
here,
If Heavens by works, in Heaven they can't ap.
Reason Oh, how depraved
Revere the sacred page the knots united;
They died, for Adam sinned-they live, for Jesus
died.
Boileau used to say that the best epigrams
originated in conversation; and of all of his
own, of which he wrote enough to fill volume,
he gives the preference to the following:
Here lies my wife, and heaven knows,
Not more for mine than her repose. ...
Allan Ramsay, whose "Gentle Shepherd is
so much admired, having been handed an Or
ange by the Countess of Aboyne, acknowledged
it in these happy terms:
Now, Priam's son. thou may be mute,
For can proudly vie with thee;
Thou to the fairest gave the fruit,
The fairest gave the fruit to me.
Sir Jonah Darlington tells of an eccentric lit
erary man who imagined he was born with pc
culiar knack for making epigrams. The editors
of the periodicals of his time however, did not
seem to appreciate his faneied vocation; and
were it not for Sir Jonah, it is doubtful whether
the light of print. This is specimen of the
eccentric gentleman's ability as a bel esprit:
SIR SIDNEY SMITH AND MISS .RUMBoLD.
Says Sidney I'll put all white slavery down,
All Europe I'll summon to arms, 2"
But fair Rumbold replied, :I'll reverse my
For all men shall be slaves to my charms
If thus, lovely champion, that tongue and
Can set all mankind by the ears,
Go fire off your glances, explode few sighs,
And make captive the Dey of Algiers. ,'f
Thus you'll rival Sir Sidney in glory and gains ::
He may conquer the tyrant-youu lead him in
chains. Pa
The German Leasing is credited with the fol
lowing: -@ '5r 's." "a Is
He's gone at last-old Myers dead r.
Last night twas said throughout the city;
Each quidnunc gravely shook his head
And hag the town cried, "What q pity !"
The news proved false twas all cheat
The morning came the fact denying;
And all the town to-day repeat
What half the town last nohf cYvip0.
There is spirit enough in the subjoined to JUS
originally appeared; having been written by
Thackeray:
" Is my wife ont of spirits?' said John with a
sigh, @3e4 ~ in 4 ~
As her voice of tempest gave warning, f..f d
"Quite out sir, indeed" said the maid in reply,
- For she finished the bottle this morning."
Rousseau has left an epigram, the English
version of which equals the original. Here it
is: -,..1s.
The world is but comic play.
Where men their varied parts essay.
In dress dramatic. on the boards live g.. -
Strut bishops. ministers, and lords
While we poor people sit below,
Despised, though paying for the show, 81.
For which we are allowed to hiss,
Whene'er the farce is played amiss.
1t will be almost superAous to inform the read
err that Tom Moore is the author of the follow
ing: G ~ a.. ..-s
They say thine eyes, like sunny skies,
Thy chief attraction form
see no sunshine in those eyes,
They take me all by storm. ... . +
Oliver Goldsmith, during his F." literary vaga-
bondage" wrote few epigrams, some Of which
have been omitted from his works. 1t is said
that he penned this at one of the London tav-
ems, and handed it to friend by way of prao-
teal joke -. g., s...s.,',.f.-
Is 1t is a maxim in the schools,
That women always dOat on fools
If so, dear Jack, Inn sure your wife
Must love you as she does her life.
On Ay-leaf of one of Shakspeares plays,
these lines were discovered some years ago, in
the green-room of an English theatre :N
Shakespeare, tbs said by some, stole deer
Oh shame IL don't believe the story;
Yet harris are deer, and hearts he stole,
Which makes the theft his dearest glory. p m
In the present age epigrams are numerous
enough and, as before intimated, lean to the
comic side Of things. About a year ago, re-
portorial wag of the Erenirg Post altered an
old epigram to suit the title of a" Wall street,"
and had it printed as original in these columns.
The plagiarism was, however, speedily discov.
cred. In noticing it, contemporary remarked
that our reporters version was different, in other
respects than the title, from the original. This
is mistake. The stolen lines were spoken i'm
promptu by the eminent Englishman, James
Smith, and were soon answered by Sir j. Clark.
We reprint them = ai'al ~ 8. l7sfs4 ,..., 81.