EPIGRAMS, ANCIENT AND MODERN.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 2, 15 May 1863, Page 1 (Supplement)

EPIGRAMS, ANCIENT AND MODERN.

Epigrams, Ancient and Modern, By the Rev. J. Booth. Mr. Booth has adopted a somewhat narrow and technical idpa of the epigram. " In our own day and our own language," he says, " an epigram is understood to mean a poem distinguished for its point, elegance, and brevity ;" but the definition is surety imperfect. The word, as the compiler allows, originally meant an inscription, and in England its use is certainly not vestvicted to verse. No Englishman thinks of questioning that Voltaire uttered an epigram when he said the " Frenchman was a cross between an ape and a tiger — tiger predominating ;" or Disreali, when be wrote on the Duke of Newcastle, "the house of Pelham has been distinguished for the last century by an incapacity for statesmanship and a genius for jobbing;" or the Legitimists, when they voted for Proudhon, because " one must pass through the Red Sea to reach the promised land." Even Mr. Booth would scarcely deny that the man who said " all the Luttrells have curley teeth and straight hair" maid an epigram, or that Macaulay's description of Atterbury's defence of the Fetters of Phalaris, as " the vpry best book ever written on the wrong side of a question, of both sides of which the writer was profoundly ignorant," belonged to the same class of composition. Jn English, too, we submit, the word carries with, it, by usage, though not by nature, the idea that the sentence or verse shall bite, shall be branded, as it were, upon some body or something, an idea admirably put in the verse Mr. Booth has used for a motto : — ■

"An Epigram, should he, if right, Short-, simple, pointed, keen, and bright, A lively little thing ! liilce wasp with taper hotly — bound By lines — not many — neat and round, All ending in a sting." If " lines" be taken to include lines of prose, and "point" be held to include all varieties of effective meaning, that defininition is good, though it is still too limited. An epigram may occur " within" a poem -which, in itself, is not one ; as for example, these lines in Moore's terrible song on the Prince Regent's treatment of Sheridan —

" No, not for the wealth of all those that despise thee, Though that would make Europe's whole opulence mine."

After all definitions, there is still an inslinct required to tell an epigram from a mpre comic rhyme, but Mr, Booth scarcely adheres to his own idea over two pages of his collection. This, for example, is a retort related in rhyme, hut in no conceivable sense an epigram : —

" John Trott was desired by two witty peers, To tell them the renson why assps had ears. ' Ant please you,' quoth be, ' I'm not given to

letters, Nor dare I presume to know more than my bet-

ters ; Howe'er from this time I shall ne'er see your

graces, As I hoped to be saved, without thinking on asses.' " — Goldsmith.

With this, though it comes within the range of his rule, will seem to a stricter taste rather a rhymed pun than an epigram : —

" "Tis well enough that Goofanougli Before the House should preach ; For sum enough, full bad enough Were those he had to teach." Compare that with Pope's, " And moonstruck poets midnight vigils keeps, Sleepless themselves to give to others sleep ;" or the excellent epigram given Iw Carlvle, as written ovei the door of Bishop Pompignan, who translated the Lamentations, and the difference will be at once perceived,. So, too, a verse like this of Swift's is no more an epigram in the true English sense than any other bad pun or silly jest,

"When two score throans together squall, It may be called a Mad-rig-al ;" ■which is only a little better than this, cut, we suppose, from some Yankee paper : — " A correspondent, something new Transmitting, signed himself K. Q. The editor his letter rend And begged he might be K. Q. Z."

While, despite the excessive breadth of the subject. Moore's description of ftlahomedans constitutes a true specimen. " Men of the saintly murderous brood, To carnage and the Koran spven, Who think, through unbeliever's blood Lies the directest path to heaven."

Brevity is an absolute necessity, and consequently Swift's scorching verses upon Marlboroagh, incisive as they are, are rather a string of epigrams than a complete one.

"This world he cumber'd long enough, He burnt his candle to the snuff; And that's the reason,. some folks think, He left behind so great a stink. Behold his funeral appears, Ifor widow's sighs, nor orphan's tears, Wont at such times each heart to pierce, Attend the progress of his hearse. But what of that ? his friends may say, He bad those honors in his day ; True to his profit and his pride, He made them weep before ho died. Come hither, all ye empty things \ Ye bubbles raised by breath of kings I Who float upon the tide of state ; Come hither and behold your fate ! Tiet pride be taught by this rebuke How very mean a thing's a duke ; From all his ill-got honors flung, Turn'd to that dirt from whence he sprung." —Bean Shift.

It is not sufficient that a verse to be embalmed in a collection like this should be an epigram, but it should also be a good one. Mr. Booth is catholic in his tastes ; he translates Martial, and also quotes Punch ; but his notion of catholicity seems to be to publish all the funny verses be can find in his scrap-book without attention to, quality. Many of them are wretched, and some are on subjects so local or so fleeting that they are almost unintelligible. The following; are about as bad in all ways as it is possible for epi-; grams to be : — " Two butchers thin* Call'd Bone and Skin, Would starve the town, or near it ; But be it known, To Skin and JBoiie, '- f: That flesh and blood won't bear it."

" Flata, to my face, is oft too Kind, He. overrates both worth and talents : But then he never fails, I find, tf "When 7 we're apart— to strike the balance-

'' I've lost the comfort ofmy life, Death came and took away my wife ; And now I don't know what to do, Lest death should come, and take me too."

"'Tis said, O Cambria ! them has tried in vain To form great poets ; and the cause is plain. Ap-Jonesi Ap- Jenkins, and Ap-Evans found Among thy sons, but no Ap-ollo's found."

While this, which at the moment was excellent, bow needs a gloss as long as itself : — "Apollo was mighty in doctoring, we're told, When doctoring was found, in the good days of

But there's doctoring' more mitey in Shaftesbury s

sees, For it's bred by corruption and comes from a Cheese." — PuncJi.

There are too many of this kind, while many of the very best In the language are omitted ; but we must do Mr. Booth the justice to extract two or three^ which are good : —

" Ward has no heart, they say ; but I deny it He has a heart; and gets his speeches by it."

" Charles keeps a secret well, or I'm deceived For nothing Charles can say will be believed 1 "

" Lie on ! while my rerenge shall be, To speak the very truth of thee."

" Vile Stanhope ! demons blush to tell, In twice two hundred places, Has shown his son the road to hell, Escorted by the Graces. " But little did th* ungenerous lad Concern himself about them ; For base, degenerate, meanly bad, He sneak'd to hell without them."

" Borgia Ctesar erafe, factis et nomine Csesnr ; Autmihil, aufc Cffisar, dixit, utrumque fuit."

" He preferred Hanover to England, He preferr'd two hideous mistresses To a beautiful and innocent wife. He hated arts and despised literature; But he liked train-oil in his salads, And gave an enlighten'd patronage to bad oysters, And he had Walpole as a minister, Consistent in his preference for every kind of corruption." — W. M. Thackeray.

Mr Booth should issue a new edition, as perfectly printed as this is, put in some 500 of the best English epigrams, leave out all he has quoted from Punch, omit ihe " monumental epigrams." which are specimens, not of polish, but of funny ignorance, and take nothing which is not an epigram unless it be as grood as this enigma upon the vowels : —

" We are little airy creatures, All of different voice and features; One of us in glass is set, One of us you'll find in jet. T'other you may see in tin, And the fourth a box within. If the fifth you should pursue, It can never fly from you." — Swift, — Spectator.