tongue, gave a tone to the authors which removes them far from the style of Martial and his compeers. The Medieval and Early Modern Latin Epigrammatists comprised Italian, German, Belgian, French, and English writers. The subjects of their epigrams are as various as those of the Greeks. Love is, perhaps, the predominating theme, but treated generally with remarkable chastity. Many caustic epigrams are to be found, but rarely personal bitterness; and many witty ones in which the humour is delicate, and, although the conceit is sometimes strained, as in our metaphysical poets, it very seldom sinks into puerility. The influence of country is scarcely perceptible in these Epigrammatists. They took no part in wars or political combinations, and did not seek to stir up their countrymen to patriotic deeds. They were actuated by love of learning rather than of nationality, and were consequently homogeneous in their thoughts and writings. Their rank or their profession had little effect on their poetry, and their productions may be studied without discovering a clue to their history. l'opes and cardinals, high dignitaries and their secretaries, lawyers and physicians, are found in the roll of these authors, whose pure latinity and graceful sentiments display classic polish and refined mental cultivation. An Anthology, containing a large number of the epigrams of these writers, was published in 1637 by Abraham Wright, a Fellow of S. John's College, Oxford, entitled "Delitia Delitiarum," a volume which it is impossible to peruse without pleasure or to study without improvement. The only fault of the work is the absence of chronological or other definite arrange

ment.

But these Epigrammatists have fallen into unaccountable neglect. They were well known to Pope and a few of our greater poets, and have exercised a most important influence over those who were acquainted with them, by displaying a style of epigram-writing, pure as the Greek, but more humorous, and lively as Martial, but generally free from his coarseness, his personality, and his puerile trifling. That they have been neglected is another evidence of the debasing ascendency which the Roman school has acquired;

and it is curious to observe in some of the collections of the last century, translations and imitations of a few of the epigrams of these writers, given generally without any hint of their foreign origin, and almost invariably the very worst specimens which could be selected, evidently chosen because in accordance with the Martial type. As, for instance, the following, given as an original English epigram in the "Poetical Farrago":

How fitly join'd the lawyer and his wife!
He moves at bar, and she at home, the strife.

Which is a translation from the Latin of Petrus Ægidius, or Giles, a native of Antwerp ("Delitiæ Delitiarum," 165). Wright does not include in his "Delitiæ Delitiarum any of the epigrams of Sir Thomas More, or of John Owen, the Cambro-Briton. The latter was one of the most voluminous of the Latin Epigrammatists, and had he written less, he would, perhaps, have been even more famous than he is, for he is apt to reproduce himself, and to allow his wit to wear itself out by too much exercise. His epigrams are not of the Greek type, for his vein of satire was far too strong to be subdued; but his thorough knowledge of human nature, his rough good sense, quaint wit, and generally kindly feeling, make them pleasing, though they seldom attain much beauty or elegance. But the writing of Latin epigrams never gained a firm hold in Great Britain. When to More and Owen have been added the Scotchmen, Buchanan and Ninian Paterson, and, at a later period, Vincent Bourne, the Usher of Westminster School, the list is complete of those who obtained any eminence as Latin Epigrammatists. Our countrymen preferred their own language, and to English writers our attention shall now be given.

Many names of note, during the period previous to the Restoration, at once occur. Of these it is only necessary to mention Ben Jonson and Robert Herrick. As an Epigrammatist, the style of the former is very varied. He well understood the Greek manner, and when he strays from it, as he too often does, into scurrilous and coarse language, he shows at once that he is doing violence to his

own taste and principles. Not so, when he is simply humorous -a style in which he is thoroughly at home; and which, though it be not the highest, is yet a legitimate type of epigram. His skit "On Play-wright," may be taken as an example (Ep. 100):

Play-wright, by chance, hearing some toys I'd writ,
Cried to my face, they were th' elixir of wit;
And I must now believe him; for, to-day,

Five of my jests, then stol'n, past him a Play.

But it is upon his monumental inscriptions that Jonson's fame as an Epigrammatist must chiefly rest. These are exquisitely pure and beautiful. If they have a fault it is in the matter of length, which is beyond that of the earlier Greek epitaphs; yet who would wish such perfect pieces to be curtailed?

In Herrick's "Hesperides" there are a large number of epigrams, specially so designated, which are absolutely worthless, and the majority quite unpresentable. They are of the worst Roman type. One of the least objectionable, but quite after Martial's own heart, is "Upon Urles":

Urles had the gout so, that he could not stand;
Then from his feet, it shifted to his hand :
When 'twas in 's feet, his charity was small;
Now 'tis in 's hand, he gives no alms at all.

But, although the pieces which Herrick particularly styles epigrams are thus valueless, he nobly vindicates his claim to be considered one of the very best Epigrammatists, by numberless epigrams to which he does not give that name, apparently because they are free from stinging point. He was well acquainted with the Greek writers, as is shown by the translations and imitations from the Anthology, which are found in his Works, and he sufficiently appreciated them to write much in their manner. As, for example, an epigram on the decay of all things:

All things decay with time: the forest sees
The growth and down-fall of her aged trees;
That timber tall, which threescore lustres stood
The proud dictator of the state-like wood:
I mean the sovereign of all plants, the oak,
Droops, dies, and falls without the cleaver's stroke.

Again, an address "To the Western Wind":

Sweet Western Wind, whose luck it is,

Made rival with the air,

To give Perenna's lip a kiss,

And fan her wanton hair.

Bring me but one, I'll promise thee,
Instead of common showers,

Thy wings shall be embalm'd by me,
And all beset with flowers.

But it is in epitaphs that Herrick, like Ben Jonson, excels more than in any other kind of epigrammatic poetry, though there is little similarity in the character of their inscriptions. This, for the tomb of a young mother of many children, has all the terseness and the pathos of the purest Greek type:

Let all chaste matrons, when they chance to see
My num'rous issue, praise and pity me.

Praise me, for having such a fruitful womb;
Pity me too, who found so soon a tomb.

Again, this "Epitaph upon a Virgin" is singularly touching:

Here a solemn fast we keep,

While all beauty lies asleep,

Husht be all things; no noise here,

But the toning of a tear:

Or a sigh of such as bring
Cowslips for her covering.

A different class of writers now demands consideration. The period from the reign of Mary to the Restoration was prolific in Epigrammatists; men who, not content to throw off only occasional epigrams, wrote volumes containing hundreds, under every possible name which that species of poetry could assume. Among these authors are found Heywood the dramatist, and one or two more of note; but the majority are unknown to fame, and their epigrams, having never been reprinted, are very scarce. It is difficult to refer their productions to either a Greek or Roman type. There is an absence of the elegant simplicity of the one, and of the fulsomeness and scurrility of the other.

There is much satire, but little unkindness; a great deal of sound common sense and knowledge of human nature; and a flow of quaint humour, which is irresistibly amusing. Coarseness there is, but generally rather of language than of feeling; and in some, a religious and pathetic tone recalls the manner of the Greeks. The poetry is, for the most part, rough, but it is forcible, and the sentiments are commonly expressed with singular terseness. The effect of writing whole volumes of epigrams is seen in the wit often degenerating into forced conceits, and in exhaustion of thought causing the reproduction of the same ideas in different language. There is, however, abundance of originality, and the richness of fancy is strikingly apparent. It is remarkable how entirely these Epigrammatists have been neglected. They are unnoticed in any of the collections of epigrams of the last and present centuries. An occasional piece is here and there found, but given as an anonymous production; and a wide field, from which many flowers may be culled, has thus been abandoned, and its very existence ignored. A few examples will show that these authors had merit of various degrees. John Heywood writes of "Two, Arm in Arm" (Ep. 19):

One said to another taking his arm,

By license friend, and take this for no harm.
No. Sir, quoth the other, I give you leave
To hang on my arm, but not on my sleeve.

John Heath has an epigram on blind Love (Second Century, 93):

Love through our eyes doth first an entrance find;
How is it, then, they say that Love is blind?
Know ye not how both these may well agree?
Though he be blind, yet can his mother see.

Henry Parrot is more witty than any of his contemporaries, but his volume, "Laquei Ridiculosi," is marked by such coarseness of thought and language, that the greater number of his epigrams are unpresentable. The following is humorous, and might be justly applied to many young men of the present day (Book II. 161):