The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-08-22

|
ned near their dying moments. The
REFUSES and canting mottoes OF olden
days show how fond men are OF catch
| ing at any tancied inner Specification IN
the name they bear; and this being so,
! il is but little ep farther 10 plan be-
forehand an epitaph which may pro
woke q smile at the pleasantly which IS
post fatd sHperSfes. There is but little
harm in this. IL is better, certainly.
than sitting down, like Pope. to write
sentimental epitaph for ones self. which
might have been good had it been true
/ was well acquainted with the eecen.
trio author, who was also the subject of
the following, which he wrote on him
self. He was = pedagogue that board
ed round OF disappointed ambition.
and once when in sickness, he thought
he saw the gates OF the grave open to
receive hun, ne wrote and requested
that this should adorn his everlasting
bed:
Samuel Vail. below he lies,
Nobody laughs aud nobody cries;
Where he l., and how he fares,
Nobody knows and nobody cares.
Some epitaphs of humorous charac
ter contain more than humOr, aud few
can equal one on Arthur Elphinston,
Baron Baimerino, who suffered on the
scafFold after the battle of Culloden.
written, it would appear, by his widow:
Here lies a baron bold. Take carel
There may be treason in a tear;
And yet my Arthur may find rOOm,
Where greater folks don teome. "a
Charles Wesley adds to his wit.
severes rebuke and censure on The in
consistency of his times, in his epitsph
on Butler mOnument-he who was the
author of the once popular "Hudibras:"
When Butler, needy wretch, while yet alive,
10 generous patron would dinner give
See him, when starved 10 death and turned
10 dust,
Presented with a monumental bust;
The poets fate is here in emblem shown
He ask for bread and he received stone.
The folloBi, epitaph on Mrs. Sexton
illustrates the charm there is in CON-
parsons, even though they are called
odious:
Here lies the body Of Sarah sexton,
Who was the wife that never vexed one;
You can't say that for her on the next stone.
Another effusion commentaries a
youth who, when he died, was only
seventeen years of age:
Yet in that time such wisdom had he shown
That Death mistoOk seventeen for seventy
one.
A philosopher and speculative rustic,
INDUCING in witticism and pressging
hope IN the temperance OF g village
crockeryware dealer placed this on the
tomb Of his respected friend:
Beneath this stone lies Catherine Grey
Turned 70 q lifeless lump Of clay;
Il was by clay she made her pelf,
But now she's turned 20 clay herself.
Ie weeping friends dry up your tears,
nhO knows but in a course of years,
In some tall pitcher or brown pan
She in her shop may be again!
Perhaps the three following cannot
be classed, strictly, among humorous
epitaphs, but they are toe good for me
to omit in this connection: The author,
Alane Watts, bids faith and hOpe breathe
freely in this, Upon an Idiot Child
II innocents are fayorites of heaven.
And God but little asks where Titles given,
Thy inst Creator hath for thee in store
Eternal joys Can wisest men have more?
Few are so good. in all the wide range
J of English epitaphs as this of Sir II.
! Wotton, ION sir Albertus MOreton and
His Wife,"
He first deceased-she for little tried
To live without him, liked il not and died.
Or this "On an Infant" from an an
nOnymous pen:
Just 70 her lips the cup Of life she pressed.
/ Found the taste bitter, and refused the rest.
she felt averse TO lies returning day,
Il And softly sighed her little soul away.
will, perhaps, be pardoned for in
PRODUCING here, the subject being the
same, however, a reflection on a re-
nOuned name. as a writer, by these i'll
written epitsphs that follow. Whatever
may De the opinion entertained Of the
authorship Of the Shakespeare" plays
and sonnets, and the doubts on the
Suthenticity of the claims made for
VIM. Shakespeare, the playhouse man
sger. as the author of the plays pro-
duced during his Management, and
wears after his death published for the
first time with his name, the following
epitaphs are iudlsputably from his
brain and hand and they certainly must
make the lterati, while remembering
the plays and poems, and looking at
these, exclaim: The author Of these
was not Of thosel" The Shakespearean
Society do not dispute the claim OF VIM.
Shakespeare as the author Of the fol-
lowing epitsphs, with few Others, do
not give here.
Epitaph on "Tom-a-Combe. other
wise, Thinbeard:"
Thin In beard and thick In purse,
Never man beloved worse;
He went 10 the grave with n-any q curse,
The devil and he had but one parse
Epitsph on Elias James:
When God was pleased, the world unwilling
vet, .....-r
Elias James TO nature paid his debt,
And here reposeth; as he lived, he dyde;
The saving in him strongly verified
such life. such death; then the known truth
10 tell.
He lived a gOdly lyfe. and dyde as well.
son John Combe. q covetous rich
man. Mr. VIM. Shakespeare wright this
att his request while he was yeti living
for his epitaphe."
Ten in a hundred lies here engraved;l@
It's ahundred 70 ten his soul IS not saved;
n auv one asks s'WhO lies IN this tomby''
aHo- hori 0uoth the devil, Ills my John
COmbe,'l
(The wit or pun is on the Warwick
shire dialect Of John A Combe, :. {,
. | Tohr, has Gomez