not long. He died [at Chelsea] in 1707, and is buried in Westminster Abbey, with this epitaph, which Jacob transcribed : H. S. E. GEORGIUS STEPNEIUS, Armiger, Ob Ingenii acumen, Morum Suavitatem, Virorum Amplissimorum Consuetudinem Sua ætate multum celebratus, Spem in illo repositam Post longum honorum Cursum Brevi Temporis Spatio confectum, Cum Naturæ parum, Fama satis vixerat, On the left hand : G. S. Ex Equestri Familia Stepnciorum, Sancti Petri Westmonast. A. 1676. It is reported that grey authors blush. the juvenile compositions of Stepney made I know not whether his poems will appear By Oldisworth. See p. 43. 1663-1707. CHARACTER AS A POET. 17 such wonders to the present age. One cannot always easily find the reason for which the world has sometimes conspired to squander praise. It is not very unlikely that he wrote very early as well as he ever wrote; and the performances of youth have many favourers, because the authors yet lay no claim to public honours, and are therefore not considered as rivals by the distributors of fame. He apparently professed himself a poet, and added his name [1693] to those of the other wits in the version of Juvenal; but he is a very licentious translator, and does not recompense his neglect of the author by beauties of his own. In his original poems, now and then, a happy line may perhaps be found, and now and then a short composition may give pleasure; but there is, in the whole, little either of the grace of wit, or the vigour of nature.5 5 The Diplomatic Correspondence of Stepney is now in the British Museum, but does not add anything to our knowledge of his poetic life. VOL. II. C |
