IN STRETHAM CHURCH. JUXTA sepulta est HESTERA MARIA, Thomæ Cotton de Combermere, baronetti Cestriensis, filia, Johannis Salusbury, armigeri Flintiensis, uxor, Ut domestica inter negotia literis oblectaretur; Literarum inter delicias, rem familiarem sedulo curaret. Multis illi multos annos precantibus diri carcinomatis veneno contabuit, nexibusque vitæ paulatim resolutis, e terris, meliora sperans, emigravit. Nata 1707. Nupta 1739. Obijt 1773. IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. OLIVARII GOLDSMITH, Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit : Affectuum potens, at lenis, dominator : Sodalium amor, Lectorum veneratio. Elfiniæ, in Hibernia, natus MDCCXXIX. Londini obijt MDCCLXXIV. IN STRETHAM CHURCH. HIC conditur quod reliquum est Qui res seu civiles, seu domesticas, ita egit, Ut quam brevem esset habiturus præscire videretur; In senatu, regi patriæque Vulgi obstrepentis contemptor animosus; Amicis, quocunque modo laborantibus, This is the epitaph, that drew from Gibbon, sir J. Reynolds, Sheridan, Joseph Warton, &c. the celebrated Round Robin, composed by Burke, intreating Johnson to write an English epitaph on an English author. His reply was, in the genuine spirit of an old scholar," he would never consent to disgrace the walls of Westminster abbey with an English inscription." One of his arguments, in favour of a common learned language, was ludicrously cogent: "Consider, sir, how you should feel, were you to find, at Rotterdam, an epitaph, upon Erasmus, in Dutch!" Boswell, iii. He would, however, undoubtedly have written a better epitaph in English, than in Latin. His compositions in that language are not of first rate excellence, either in prose or verse. The epitaph, in Stretham church, on Mr. Thrale, abounds with inaccuracies; and those who are fond of detecting little blunders in great men, may be amply gratified in the perusal of a review of Thrale's epitaph in the Classical Journal, xii. 6. His Greek epitaph on Goldsmith, is not remarkable in itself, but we will subjoin it, in this place, as a literary curiosity. Τὸν τάφον εἰσοράας τὸν ΟΛΙΒΑΡΟΙΟ, κονίην ED. Consiliis, auctoritate, muneribus, adfuit. Ut omnium animos ad se alliceret; Consortes tumuli habet Rodolphum, patrem, strenuum fortemque virum, et Henricum, filium unicum, quem spei parentum mors inopina decennem proripuit. Ita Domus felix et opulenta quam erexit Et, vicibus rerum humanarum perspectis, POEMATA. MESSIA. Ex alieno ingenio poeta, ex suo tantum versificator. TOLLITE concentum, Solymææ tollite nymphæ, Immatura calens rapitur per secula vates SCALIG. Poet. d This translation has been severely criticised by Dr. Warton, in his edition of Pope, vol. i. p. 105, 8vo. 1797. It certainly contains some expressions that are not classical. Let it be remembered, however, that it was a college exercise, performed with great rapidity, and was, at first, praised, beyond all suspicion of defect.—This translation was first published in a Miscellany of Poems by several hands. Published by J. Husbands, A. M. fellow of Pembroke college, Oxon. 8vo. Oxford, 1731. Of Johnson's production, Mr. Husbands says, in his preface, "The translation of Mr. Pope's Messiah was delivered to his tutor as a college exercise, by Mr. Johnson, a commoner of Pembroke college in Oxford, and 'tis hoped will be no discredit to the excellent original." Mr. Husbands died in the following year. Compositis pax alma suas, terrasque revisens Volvantur celeres anni! lux purpuret ortum Auditur Deus! ecce Deus! reboantia circum Nunc saltu capreas, nunc cursu provocat euros. Ut, qua dulce strepunt scatebræ, qua læta virescunt. |