ON EURIPIDES, BY ION. So fair, is not a monument for thee, So much as thou for it, since all will own Thy name and lasting praise adorn the stone. "The thought here is fine, but its fault is, that it is general, that it may belong to any great man, because it points out no particular character. It would be better if, when we light upon such a turn, we join it with something that circumscribes and bounds it to the qualities of our subject. He who gives his praise in gross, will often appear either to have been a stranger to those he writes upon, or not to have found any thing in them which is praiseworthy. ON SOPHOCLES, BY SIMONIDES. "This epigram I have opened more than any of the former: the thought towards the latter end seemed closer couched, so as to require an explication. I fancied the poet aimed at the picture which is generally made of Apollo and the Muses, he sitting with his harp in the middle, and they around him. This looked beautiful to my thought; and because the image arose before me out of the words of the original as I was reading it, I ventured to explain them so. ON MENANDER, THE AUTHOR UNNAMED. The very bees, O sweet Menander, hung "This epigram has a respect to the character of its subject; for Menander writ remarkably with a justness and purity of language. It has also told the country he was born in, without either a set or a hidden manner, while it twists together the glory of the poet and his nation, so as to make the nation depend upon his for an increase of its own. "I will offer no more instances at present to shew, that they who deserve praise have it returned them from different ages let these which have been laid down shew men that envy will not always prevail. And to the end that writers may more successfully enliven the endeavours of one another, let them consider, in some such manner as I have attempted, what may be the justest spirit and art of praise. It is indeed very hard to come up to it. Our praise is trifling when it depends upon fable: it is false when it depends upon wrong qualifications; it means nothing when it is general; it is extremely difficult to hit when we propose to raise characters high, while we keep to them justly. I shall end this with transcribing that excellent epitaph of Mr. Cowley, wherein, with a kind of grave and philosophic humour, he very beautifully speaks of himself (withdrawn from the world, and dead to all the interests of it) as of a man really deceased. At the same time it is an instruction how to leave the public with a good grace. EPITAPHIUM VIVI AUTHORIS. Hic, O viator, sub lare parvulo Sorte, supervacuaque vita; Non indecora pauperie nitens, Divitiis animosus hostis. Possis ut illum dicere mortuum, Terra sit illa levis, precare. Hic sparge flores, sparge breves rosas, Vatis adhuc cinerem calentem. THE LIVING AUTHOR'S EPITAPH. From life's superfluous cares enlarg'd, With decent poverty content; Bring flow'rs, the short-liv'd roses bring, And sweets around the poet strow, Whilst yet with life his ashes glow." The publication of these criticisms having procured me the following letter from a very ingenious gentleman, I cannot forbear inserting it in the volume,* though it did not come soon enough to have a place in any of my single papers. "MR. SPECTATOR, Having read over in your paper, N° 551, some of the epigrams made by the Grecian wits, in commendation of their celebrated poets, I could not forbear sending you another, out of the same collection; which I take to be as great a compliment to Homer as any that has yet been paid him. Τίς ποτε τον Τροίης πόλεμον, &c. Who first transcribed the famous Trojan war, No more let Homer boast they are his own. "If you think it worthy of a place in your speculations, for aught I know (by that means) it may in time be printed as often in English as it has already been in Greek. "4th Dec. "I am (like the rest of the world), "G.R." The reader may observe that the beauty of this epigram is different from that of any in the foregoing. An irony is looked upon as the finest palliative of praise; and very often conveys the noblest panegyric under the appearance * The translation of Cowley's epitaph, and all that follows, except the concluding letter signed Philonicus, was not printed in the Spect. in folio, but added in the 8vo edition of 1712. of satire. Homer is here seemingly accused and treated as a plagiary; but what is drawn up in the form of an accusation is certainly, as my correspondent observes, the greatest compliment that could have been paid to that divine poet. "DEAR MR. SPECTATOR, "I am a gentleman of a pretty good fortune, and of a temper impatient of any thing which I think an injury. However, I always quarrelled according to law, and instead of attacking my adversary by the dangerous method of sword and pistol, I made my assaults by that more secure one of writ or warraut. I cannot help telling you, that either by the justice of my causes or the superiority of my counsel, I have been generally successful; and to my great satisfaction I can say it, that by three actions of slander, and half a dozen trespasses, I have for several years enjoyed a perfect tranquillity in my reputation and estate: by these means, also, I have been made known to the judges; the serjeants of our circuit are my intimate friends; and the ornamental counsel pay a very profound respect to one who has made so great a figure in the law. Affairs of consequence having brought me to town, I had the curiosity the other day to visit Westminster-hall; and, having placed myself in one of the courts, expected to be most agreeably entertained. After the court and counsel were with due ceremony seated, up stands a learned gentleman, and began, When this matter was last "stirred" before your Lordships; the next humbly moved to "quash" an indictment; another complained that his adversary had snapped" a judgment; the next informed the court that his client was stripped of his possession; another begged leave to acquaint his lordship that they had been "saddled" with costs. At last up got a grave serjeant, and told us his client had been "hung up" a whole term by a writ of error. At this I could bear it no longer, but came hither, and resolved to apply myself to your honour to interpose with these gentlemen, that they would leave off such low and unnatural expressions: for surely though the lawyers subscribe to hideous French and false Latin, yet they should let their clients have a little decent and proper English for their money. What man that has a 66 value for a good name would like to have it said in a public court, that Mr. Such-a-one was stript, saddled, or hung-up? This being what has escaped your spectatorial observation, be pleased to correct such an illiberal cant among professed speakers, and you will infinitely oblige, "Your humble servant, "PHILONICUS.' 99* "Joe's Coffee-house, Nov. 28." No 552. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1712. A Qui prægravat artes Infra se positas, extinctus amabitur idem.-HOR. 2 Ep. i. 15. Although, when dead, they are belov'd and blest.-Creech.、 SI was tumbling about the town the other day in a hackney-coach, and delighting myself with busy scenes in the shops on each side of me, it came into my head, with no small remorse, that I had not been frequent enough in the mention and recommendation of the industrious part of mankind. It very naturally upon this occasion touched my conscience in particular, that I had not acquitted myself to my friend Mr. Peter Motteux. That industrious man of trade, and formerly brother of the quill, has dedicated to me a poem upon tea. It would injure him, as a man of business, if I did not let the world know that the author of so good verses writ them before he was concerned in traffic. In order to expiate my negligence towards him, I immediately resolved to make him a visit. I found his spacious warehouses filled and adorned with tea, China, and India-ware. I could observe a beautiful ordonnance of the whole; and such different and considerable branches of trade carried on in the same house, I exulted in seeing disposed by a poetical head. In one place were exposed to view silks of various shades and colours, rich brocades, and the wealthiest product of foreign looms. Here you might see the finest laces held up by the fairest hands; and there, examined by the beauteous eyes of the buyers, the most delicate cambrics, * No. 551 is not lettered in the Spect. in folio, nor has it any signature in the 8vo. or 12mo. editions of 1712. |