EPITAPH

(Gr. ivi, androttpos, a toinb.) Literally an inscription on a tomb. As has been well observed, inscriptions in honour of the dead are perhaps as old as tombs themselves; though they were by no means bestowed in such profusion in ancient as in modern times. Among the Greeks, for instance, this honour was paid only to the tombs of heroes, as in the case of Leonidas.and his gallant comrades. {Her. vii. 228.) The Romans were the first to deviate from this course. Every Roman family who consecrated a tomb to the i prelations had the privilege of inscribing an epitaph thereon; and as their tombs were usually situated on the highway, the attention of pa ers-by was sought to be arrested by the words " sta viator," — the formula with which all their epitaphs were prefaced. But how much soever the epitaphs of the ancient Greeks and Romans differed in point of number, there were three qualities which they po e ed in common — brevity, simplicity, and familiarity; qualities which a modern critic, Boiieau, has pronounced to be indispensable in thiu species of writing. At what period sepulchral inscriptions came into use in England, has not been precisely ascertained; though there can be little doubt that this practice was introduced by the Romans at the period of their invasion of Britain. During the first twelve centuries i>f the Christian era, the monumental inscriptions of this country were all written in Latin. About the 13th century, the French language was adopted, and continued to be used for this purpose till the middle of the 14th century; at which time monumental inscriptions in the vernacular tongue became common, though the clergy and learned of that time, as might have been expected, still preferred the Latin, as their more familiar idiom. The modern English, French, and German epitaphs, of which several collections have been made, are infinitely more numerous than those of any time or nation, and exhibit every variety of style and sentiment; from the most chaste and majestic grayity, impre ive tenderne , and laconic terse408 EPULOTIC. ne , to the most puerile epigrammatic conceits, pointed satire, and heraldic prolixity. It would be out of place here to give specimens of all the various kinds of epitaphs included in this category; but we cannot refrain from citing, in illustration of our a ertion, one or two instances, exhibiting each in an eminent degree the different characteristics of the cla to which it belongs. Epitaph on the Counte of Pembroke, by Ben Jonson. Underneath this sable hearse I^ies the subject of all verse; Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother: DeatJi, ere thou canst find another <TOod and fair and wise £is she. Time shall throw a dart at thee. • Epitaph on Robes pierre. J^ Pa ant, ne pleure point mon sort; Si je viva is, tu serais mort! Epitaph on a French General. Siste, viator; heroem calcas! Stop, traveller; thou treadest on a hero! [s. 421]