Slike strani
PDF
ePub

EPIGRAMS

SELECTED BY

обм

R. M. LEONARD

Um

Others... in short poemes vttered pretie merry conceits, and these
men were called Epigrammatistes.-R. PUTTENHAM.

HUMPHREY MILFORD

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK
TORONTO MELBOURNE BOMBAY

1915

PRINTED IN ENGLAND

AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

PREFACE

THE Oxford Dictionary defines an epigram as (i) an inscription, especially one placed upon a building, tomb, statue, &c., to indicate its name or dedication; (ii) a short poem ending in a witty or ingenious turn of thought, to which the rest of the composition is intended to lead up; (iii) a pointed or antithetical saying. It is with the second definition, first employed, apparently, in English literature by Leland in 1538, that this collection chiefly complies. Mr. A. S. West, in his recently published Wit and Wisdom from Martial, declares that 'Martial's claim to literary greatness and originality rests on the fact that it was he who fixed the type of what was henceforth to be regarded as true epigram'. But such an opinion has not always found acceptance. Ben Jonson was accused, by Dekker it seems, of wanting the tongue of epigram', but he was an unrepentant rebel when he wrote:

It will be looked for, Book, when some but see
Thy title, Epigrams, and named of me,

Thou should'st be bold, licentious, full of gall,
Wormwood, and sulphur, sharp, and toothed withall;
Become a petulant thing, hurl ink or wit

As madmen stones; not caring whom they hit.

[ocr errors]

A much more modern authority has complained of the unwarrantable' restriction of the word to satirical verse, roundly declaring that an epigram

289979

may be elegy, satire, love-poem, proverbial philosophy, or bon mot. All classes of epigrams, which are not profane or obscene or outrageously vulgar, will be found in this book, but the great majority conform to the Martial standard: they are brief and witty, and many have honey and sting-or in Blake's words a hang-noose at the end'. Many epigrams have been made on the epigram, and a few of these will be found under the heading of literature. I have excluded anonymous work, except in the case of a few English translations of classical and other foreign epigrams.

[ocr errors]

The field is an immense one, for epigrammatic literature would fill a considerable library. There have been, too, many collections of epigrams, though not of late, for the art has fallen on evil days. No late gleaner should refrain from expressing his admiration of the collection made by the Rev. H. P. Dodd, of Pembroke College, Oxford, of which a second edition was published in Bohn's Library forty years ago. I have found this book especially useful in affording clues to unsuspected sources, and in helping to trace offspring to their true authors. A rough classification has been attempted, but there is necessarily some overlapping. My obligations to the owners of copyright epigrams are acknowledged in the notes, and I have to thank Mr. Charles Llewelyn Davies, who generously placed at my disposal at the eleventh hour a manuscript collection of his own compilation.

R. M. L.

EPIGRAMS

POLITICAL AND PERSONAL

Of Treason

TREASON doth never prosper : what's the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.

SIR J. HARINGTON.

On Charles II

HERE lies our sovereign Lord the King,
Whose word no man relies on,

Who never said a foolish thing

Nor ever did a wise one.

EARL OF ROCHESTER.

To an Officer in the Army

(Intended to allay the violence of Party Spirit)

God bless the King !-I mean the Faith's Defender;
God bless (no harm in blessing) the Pretender!
But who Pretender is, or who is King,

God bless us all!-that's quite another thing.

J. BYROM.

« PrejšnjaNaprej »