ART. II.-Epigrams, Ancient and Modern:
Humorous, Witty, Satirical, Moral, Pa-
negyrical, Monumental. Edited, with an
Introductory Preface, by the Rev. JOHN

Blande puer, lumen, quod habes, concede sorori :

Sic tu cæcus Amor, sic erit illa Venus."

It is somewhat curious to trace this blunBOOTH, B.A., Cambridge. London: Long-der of Mr. Booth's to its source, as we think

we can do. The German poet Kleist had condensed this Latin epigram into a couplet, and to make it intelligible, had prefixed to it what the critics call a lemma, being a clumsy contrivance by which the title of the epigram furnishes a part of the explanation which the epigram itself should give. Kleist's title is thus given in German :-"An zwei sehr schöne, aber einäugige Geschwister." Mr. Booth, or the authority from whom he borrows, has translated Kleist's production, but seems to have supposed that Geschwister meant sisters, whereas it here means a sister and brother.

We subjoin two translations of the original

"Worth makes the man, and want of it the epigram, one of them by Charles Cotton, but

fellow,

The rest is all but leather and prunella;
What can ennoble fools, or knaves, or cowards?
Nothing; not all the blood of all the Howards.
DRYDEN."

Here we have two disconnected couplets
from Pope's Essays, well enough known to
be hackneyed, forced into union so as to do
service as an epigram, the fourth line spoiled
in the transcription, and the whole ascribed
to Dryden.

One of Prior's best epigrams is the following, said to have been made extempore :"Nobles and heralds, by your leave,

Here lies what once was Matthew Prior; The son of Adam and of Eve.

Can Bourbon or Nassau claim higher?"

This spirited and harmonious verse is thus transmuted in Mr. Booth's collection :"Gentlemen, here, by your leave,

Lie the bones of Matthew Prior:

A son of Adam and Eve,

Can Bourbon or Nassau go higher?" Take another, in a different style of blundering

neither, we fear, very successful :

"Acon his right, Leonilla her left eve

Doth want; yet each in form the Gods outvie. Sweet boy, with thine thy sister's light improve,

So shall she Venus be, and thou blind Love."

"Acon his right eye, Leonilla mourns

Her left; yet each a god-like grace adorns.
Let but your eye, sweet boy, your sister's be;
Blind Cupid you'll become, bright Venus she."

Malone, in his Life of Dryden, has given us another version by George Russell, which is more elegant, but more diffuse :

แ

"But one bright eye young Acon's face adorns,
For one bright eye fair Leonilla mourns.
Kind youth, to her thy single orb resign,
To make her perfect, and thyself divine;
For then, should Heaven the happy change
allow,

She would fair Venus be, blind Cupid thou."

So much for the execution of Mr. Booth's task. Let us now offer some remarks on the subject of the book.

Except in the single article of length, or rather of shortness, the Epigram presented to us in the Garland of Meleager is essentially different from the Epigram of Martial and of the modern school. The Greek model is chiefly marked by simplicity and unity, and its great beauties are elegance and tenderness. The other form of Epigram is, for the most part, distinguished by a duality or combination of objects or thoughts, and its excellence chiefly lies in the qualities of wit and pungency. The one kind sets forth a single incident or image, of which it details the particulars, in a natural and direct seThe other deals with a diversity of sinis-quence. ideas, which it seeks to connect together by some unexpected bond of comparison or con

"ON TWO BEAUTIFUL ONE-EYED SISTERS. "Give up one eye, and make your sister's two, Venus she then would be, and Cupid you." With half an eye one may see that a oneeyed sister, even by becoming wholly blind, could not be a Cupid. But the lines are, in truth, an abridged translation of the elegant Latin epigram on a one-eyed brother and sister, by Hieronymus Amaltheus, which is to be found in Pope's Selecta Poemata Italorum, as well as in other collections:"Lumine Acon dextro, capta est Leonilla tro; Et potis est formâ vincere uterque Deos.

trast. To minds familiar exclusively with the | understood, so as to pass freely from mouth later style of Epigram, its more ancient name- to mouth, and fasten readily in every sake appears at first sight tame and insipid; memory. but a better acquaintance with the beautiful epigrams of the Anthology reveals by degrees their true merit, and their high place in literature.

In what way these two different forms of composition came to pass under the same name, is not very easily understood; but perhaps the best explanation of it is that which has been suggested by Lessing. The original epigrain was merely an inscription, and presupposed some column, statue, or other visible monument on which it was inscribed. The object thus presented was necessarily such as to excite attention and interest, and the inscription was framed to answer the inquiry to which the object gave rise. The more recent epigram is not properly an inscription, and has no visible or external counterpart to which it corresponds. But it supplies this want by something within itself. It sets out with some proposition calculated to excite curiosity, and to call for an answer or solution, which, after a short suspense, the close of the epigram proceeds to supply. From the nature of the case, the tendency of such a composition must be, to seek out relations of thought which will produce surprise; and hence it will come to deal chiefly with those ingenious analogies which are the essence of wit: a paradox stated, and reconciled to common sense; a groundless reproach turned into a compliment, or a compliment into a banter; a foolish jest exposed and refuted by a clever repartee; any difficulty propounded and dexterously evaded,-these, and similar developments of ideas, seem to constitute the true epigram of the more recent school. This view of Lessing's has been the subject of controversy, and it must be owned, that many things pass for epigrams that scarcely comply with his definition or description. Many a mere bon-mot receives, when versified, a name that it does not deserve. So also may a short story, or anecdote, or epitaph. But the model epigram of this class must, we think, consist of the two parts to which we have referred, and which may be termed the preparation and the point. Its best merits are exhibited in the startling or perplexing enunciation of the subject, in the unexpected and yet complete explication of the mystery or difficulty raised, in the dexterity with which the solution is for a time kept out of sight, and in the perfect propriety and felicity of the language employed throughout. The true epigram-whether serious or comic whether sentimental or satirical--must always be short; for its object is to be quite portable, easily remembered, easily repeated, and easily

The respective merits of the pointed and the pointless epigram will always be differently estimated by different tastes. A man celebrated in his time, Navagerio or Naugerius, a Venetian senator of high classical attainments, had such a dislike to the style of Martial, that he kept, with solemn observance, a day in the year, when he committed to the flames three copies of that author, as a sacrifice to the manes and memory of Catullus, of whom he was an ardent admirer. Perhaps, however, this exhibition of feeling on his part had not reference merely or mainly to the epigrammatical style of the two poets. It was connected probably with the known preference which Navagerio gave to the preAugustan Latin writers, over those even of the Augustan age. The best poems of Catullus are far superior in delicacy and tenderness to any of Martial's; and if the address to Sirmio is to be called an epigram, Catullus is about the first epigrammatist that ever wrote. But according to modern ideas, few even of his minor poems can properly be called epigrams; and anything that he has written in that epigrammatic style seems to us of no very high order. There is scarcely room, therefore, for a comparison between the two poets, and men of catholic taste will be content to admire both writers in their several spheres without seeking to disparage either. In the pointed epigram, it seems undeniable that Martial was eminently successful, and that his best specimens abound, not only with wit and ingenuity, but with good sense and good feeling.

We do not intend here to enter on the consideration of the Greek Anthology. That subject was, in our own time, and at our own door, so admirably and exhaustively illustrated by one whose genius as a poet was most conspicuous in his criticisms on poetry, that it would be unpardonable in us to re-open the theme without having some ideas to offer more new or more striking than any we can hope to bring to the task. Neither shall we attempt to travel over the wide extent to which Epigram has been diffused through all modern literatures, whether clothed in classical or in vernacular language. That field, though hitherto but little explored, is too large and comprehensive, and the relations of its different parts are too complex and recondite to be embraced in any discussion of ordinary dimensions. The object of this paper will be to show the general principles which regulate the Modern Epigram, and to bring out the beauties and structure of our English epigrams, with such reference to compositions

This playful allusion to the double relation of the name SIMON had a twofold effect on Owen's fate. It gained him a place in the Pope's Index Expurgatorius, and it lost him one in the will of a rich Catholic uncle. The same general idea we have seen, elsewhere embodied in these lines

"The Pope claims back to Apostolic sources;
But when I think of Papal crimes and courses,
It strikes me the resemblance is completer
To Simon Magus than to Simon Peter."

It has been observed by Lessing that it is impossible to read much of Owen at a time without a strong feeling of weariness, which he ascribes to the fact that the style of his epigrams is pedantic, and that he deals too much in abstract ideas, without the life-like pictures that a man of the world would have presented. There may be something in this view; but it should be remembered that epigrams are not food, but condiment, and that any large dose of them is both repulsive and unwholesome. The continued tension in which the mind is kept, and the rapid and renewed exertion that is constantly occasioned by passing from one unconnected set of ideas to another, produce the same sense of fatigue that we feel in an exhibition of pictures, even when the individual works are of high excellence.

Owen's epigrams, which are many hundreds in number, are of various merit; but they display a large amount of ingenuity and fertility of thought and fancy, with much rectitude of feeling, great neatness and terseness of expression, and no inconsiderable degree of learning and acquaintance with affairs. Some of them are not worth translating, and some are untranslatable, such as those which turn on mere verbal wit, as where Jacob and Esau are each said to have given omne jus suum to his brother. Others are excellent exercises in versification, and several translations of a great part of them have appeared. It is not within our purpose to dwell long upon them here; but we venture to subjoin a few of the more remarkable as a specimen :"Vis bonus esse? velis tantum, fiesque volendo:

Is tibi posse dabit, qui tibi velle dedit." "Would you be good? then will to be; you'll be so from that hour; For He that gave you first the Will, will give you then the Power."

"VOTUM SALOMONIS.

"Cur Regis sapientis erat Sapientia votum?
Optasset Salomon, si sapuisset, opes:
Non optavit opes Salomon; sapientius optat:
Nam sapere optavit: Cur? quia non sa-
puit."

Solomon, had he been wise, would for Wealth
have preferred his petition;

Needless it were to have wished what be already had got:

Wisely he asked not for Wealth, but for Wisdom to mend his condition;

Was it because he was wise? No, but because he was not."

"Dat Galenus opes, dat Justinianus honores, Dum ne sit Patiens iste, nec ille Cliens." "Physic brings wealth, and Law promotion, To followers able, apt, and pliant; But very seldom, I've a notion, Either to Patient or to Client." "Hoc quod adest Hodie, quod nomen habebat heri? Cras.

Cras Hodie quodnam nomen habebit? Heri. Cras lentum, quod adest nunquam, nec abest procul unquain,

Quonam appelletur nomine cras? Hodie."
"This day which now you call To-day,
What yesterday you called it, say :'
We called it then To-morrow.
'And what its name to-morrow, pray?'
Why then, the name of Yesterday
"Twill be compell'd to borrow.
"To-morrow, too, which ne'er is here
But ever is advancing near,

A like fate will befall it:
It will to-morrow change its name,
And quite another title claim:

To-day we then must call it."

Theiologis animam subjecit lapsus Adam,

Et corpus Medicis, et bona Juridicis." "From Adam's fall behold what sad disasters! Both us and ours it sells to various masters: Our soul to Priests, our body to the Doctors, Our lands and goods to Pleaders and to Proctors."

While on the subject of Latin Epigrams written by Englishmen, we may notice one of considerable merit, occasioned by the remarkable controversial incident said to have Reynoldses, William and John: "Of which happened in the sixteenth century to the two two brothers, by the way," so Peter Heylyn tells us in his Cosmographie (p. 303), “it is Protestant of the Church of England, and very observable, that William was at first a John trained up in Popery beyond the seas. William, out of an honest zeal to reduce his him; where, on a conference between them, brother to this Church, made a journey to his brother's argument, returned into Engso fell it out that John, being overcome by land, where he became one of the more strict or rigid sort of the English Protestants; and