1899.] on Epitaphs. 19 



The following is said to have been taken from the tomb of an 

 Athenian at Meioe on the Upper Nile : — 



Fear not in death far from thy home to be, 

 'Tis one — all one — Athens or Meroe. 

 Since from each country whatsoe'er its name 

 The wind that blows to Hades is the same. 



Although it is upon a city, and not upon an individual, I must not 

 pass by the epitaph on Corinth so happily translated by Goldwin 

 Smith :— 



Where Corinth, are thy glories now, 



Thy ancient wealth, thy castled brow, 



Thy solemn fanes, thy halls of state, 



Thy high-born dames, thy crowded gate ? 



There's not a ruin left to tell 



Where Corinth stood, how Corinth fell. 



The Nereids of thy double sea 



Alone remain to wail for thee. 



No one disapproves more strongly than I do of the monstrous 

 loss of time involved in setting boys and young men, most of whom 

 are absolutely destitute of the slightest poetical talent, to write Latin 

 and Greek verses ; but every now and then this atrocious custom leads 

 to the production of something of value, and I have always thought 

 that the Greek epitaph on the Admirable Crichton, written by the late 

 Mr. George Butler, elder brother of the Master of Trinity, and pub- 

 lished in the ' Anthologia Oxoniensis,' deserved a place amongst the 

 best inscriptions of a similar kind by the writers of Ancient Greece. 



I am addressing, no doubt, a good many people who know vastly 

 more about Greek epigrams in general and Greek epitaphs in par- 

 ticular, than I can pretend to do. To those, however, who do not 

 chance to have given attention to these subjects, and have a mind 

 to do so, I should like to recommend an excellent chapter in the 

 volume on the Greek Poets by the late Mr. Symonds, and the not 

 less delightful book, by Mr. Mackail, published under the name of 

 ' Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology.' It is high time, how- 

 ever, to pass from what is, after all, only a section of my subject, and 

 to turn from Greek to Latin. 



Although the language of Eome was destined to be pre-eminently 

 that of epitaphs, and to supply the wants of the speakers of other 

 tongues, in that behalf, for many generations, the earlier Latin 

 epitaphs had no alliance with any of the muses save that of history. 

 Gradually they became a little more copious, and we find such ex- 

 pressions as : " Eogo ut discedens terrain mihi dicas levem " — " I ask 

 thee as thou departest to pray that the earth may lie lightly upon 

 me." The four most remarkable early Koman epitaphs, in verse, 

 are, I think, well known, but I am not aware that any of them was 

 ever inscribed upon a monument. They are those of Naevius, 

 Pacuvius, Ennius and Plautus. The first three are said to have 



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