the inscription to the Pindar, Horace, and Virgil of England, and the delight, ornament, and admiration of his age.' Cowley was zealously devoted to the cause of Charles I., but was cruelly neglected by Charles II., though, on hearing of his death, the king is reported to have said that 'he (Cowley) had not left a better man behind him.' The popularity of Cowley had already waned in the days of Pope, who wrote 6 Who now reads Cowley? If he pleases yet, His moral pleases, not his pointed wit: But still I love the language of his heart.' (Above Chaucer) an epitaph to John Roberts, 1776, the 'very faithful secretary' to Henry Pelham.. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882. A bust set up in 1884. John Dryden, 1700. A monument erected by Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, with a bust by Scheemakers, given by the poet's widow in 1730. Pope wrote the couplet 'This Sheffield raised; the sacred dust below Was Dryden once: the rest who does not know?' Dryden, who succeeded Sir William Davenant as poet-laureate, was educated at Westminster School. He shifted his politics with the Restoration, having previously been an ardent admirer of Cromwell. His twenty-seven plays are now almost forgotten, and so are his prose works, however admirable. His reputation rests chiefly on his Ode for St. Cecilia's Day,' and the musical opening lines of his 'Hind and Panther,' written after his secession to the Church of Rome, in the second part of which he represented the milk-white hind (Rome) and the spotted panther (the Church of England) as discussing theology. He was buried at the feet of Chaucer. Near Dryden lies Francis Beaumont, the dramatist, 1616. Archibald Campbell Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1882. A bust by Armstead. Returning to the south entrance, and turning left, we find monuments to Ben Jonson, 1637, who was educated at Westminster School, but afterwards became a bricklayer, then a soldier, and then an actor. His comedies found such favour with James I. that he received a pension of a hundred marks, with the title of poet-laureate, in 1619. His pension was increased by Charles I., but he died in great poverty in the neighbourhood of the Abbey, where he was buried in the north aisle of the nave. 'Every Man in his Humour and The Alchymist are perhaps the best of his comedies; but there is hardly one of his pieces which, as it stands, would please on the stage in the present day, even as most of them failed to please in his own time.' 1 His allegorical monument, by Rysbrach, was erected in 1737. Samuel Butler, 1680, buried at St. Paul's, Covent Garden; the author of 'Hudibras,' a work which, when it came out, 'was incomparably more popular than "Paradise Lost ;" no poem in our language rose at once to greater reputation.'2 'By the first paragraph the reader is amused, by the next he is delighted, and by a few more constrained to astonishment. But astonishment is a tiresome pleasure; he is soon weary of wondering, and longs to be diverted.'-Johnson. The bust was erected by John Barber, Lord Mayor, 'that he who was destitute of all things when alive, might not want a monument when dead.' Edmond Spenser, 1599, with the epitaph, 'Here lyes, expecting the second comminge of our Saviour Christ Jesus, the body of Edmond Spencer, the Prince of Poets in his tyme, whose divine spirrit needs noe othir witnesse then the workes which he left behinde him.' He died in King Street, Westminster, and was buried here at the expense of Devereux, Earl of Essex, the spot being selected for his grave on account of its vicinity to the burial-place of Chaucer. 'His hearse was attended by poets, and mournful elegies and poems, with the pens that wrote them, were thrown into his tomb. What a funeral was that at which Beaumont, Fletcher, Jonson, and, in all probability, Shakespeare, attended!--what a grave in which the pen of Shakespeare may be mouldering away!'—Stanley, 'Memorials of Westminster.' It is by his Faerie Queene' that Spenser is chiefly known now, but his 'Shepheardes Calendar' was so much admired by Dryden that he considered it 'not to be matched in any modern language.' 'Our sage and serious Spenser, whom I dare be known to think a better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas.'-Milton. The grave and diligent Spenser.'--Ben Jonson. 'Here's that creates a poet.'-Quarles. Thomas Gray, 1771, buried at Stoke Pogis, chiefly known as the author of the 'Elegy written in a Country Churchyard,' which Byron justly calls 'the corner-stone of his glory.' The monument is by John Bacon. The Lyric Muse is represented as holding his medallion-portrait, and points to a bust of Milton. Beneath are the lines of Mason 'No more the Grecian muse unrivall'd reigns; A Pindar's rapture in the lyre of Gray.' John Milton, 1674, buried at St. Giles's, Cripplegate. The monument, by Rysbrach, was erected in 1737, when Dr. Gregory said to Dr. Johnson, 'I have seen erected in the church a bust of that man whose name I once knew considered as a pollution of its walls.' It was set up at the expense of Auditor Benson, who 'has bestowed more words upon himself than upon Milton,' 4 whence Pope's line in the Dunciad 'On poets' tombs see Benson's titles writ.' 1 Schlegel's Lectures on Dramatic Art and Lit. 4 Johnson. William Mason, 1797, buried at Aston in Yorkshire, of which he was rector. His dramatic poems of Elfrida' and 'Caractacus' are the least forgotten of his works. His monument, by the elder Bacon, bears a profile medallion, with an inscription by Bishop Hurd-' Poetae, si quis alius, culto, casto, pio.' Thomas Shadwell, 1692, who died the victim of opium, and is buried at Chelsea. He was poet-laureate in the time of William III. He endeavoured to make the stage as grossly immoral as his talents admitted,' but was not destitute of humour.'1 Rochester said of him that if he had burnt all he wrote, and printed all he spoke, he would have had more wit and humour than any other poet. His rivalry with Dryden excited the ill-natured lines 'Mature in dulness from his tender years, The monument, erected by the poet's son, Sir John Shadwell, bears his pert-looking bust crowned with laurel, by Ryswick. Matthew Prior, 1721, educated at Westminster School, whence he was removed to serve as a tapster in the public-house of an uncle at Charing Cross. His knowledge of the Odes of Horace here attracted the attention of Lord Dorset, who sent him to St. John's College at Cambridge, and under the same patronage he rose to be Gentleman of the Bedchamber to William III. and Under Secretary of State, &c. 'Alma' and 'Solomon' were considered by his contemporaries his best works; now no one reads them. He died at Wimpole in Cambridgeshire, and was buried by his own desire at the feet of Spenser. His bust, by Coysevox, was a present from Louis XIV. His epitaph, by Dr. Freind, tells how, while he was writing the History of his own Times, Death interfered, and broke the thread of his discourse.' Granville Sharp, 1813, buried at Fulham. His monument, with a profile medallion by Chantrey, was erected by the African Institution, in gratitude for his philanthropic exertions for the abolition of slavery. Charles de St. Denis, M. de St. Evremond, 1703, the witty and dissolute favourite of Charles II. A tablet and bust. Christopher Anstey, 1805, whose fame rests solely upon the 'New Bath Guide,' which, however, made him one of the most popular poets of his day! Thomas Campbell, 1844, the author of 'Hohenlinden' and 'Gertrude of Wyoming. He died at Boulogne. Beneath his statue, by Marshall, are engraved some striking lines from his 'Last Man.' Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1834, the poet and philosopher, buried at Highgate, a bust by Thornycroft, given in 1885 by an American admirer. Mrs. (Hannah) Pritchard, 1768, the actress, 'by Nature for the stage designed,' as she is described in her epitaph by Whitehead. Robert Southey, poet-laureate, 1843, buried at Crosthwaite. A bust by Weekes. He left above fifty published works, but is immortalised by his 'Thalaba," Madoc,' 'Roderick,' and the 'Curse of Kehama.' William Shakspeare, 1616, buried at Stratford-on-Avon. 'In poetry there is but one supreme, Though there are other angels round his throne, Mighty and beauteous, while his face is hid.'-W. S. Landor. The monument, by Kent and Scheemakers, was erected by public subscription in 1740. The lines from the Tempest inscribed on the scroll which the figure holds in his hand seem to have a peculiar application in the noble building where they are placed 'The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, 1 Hallam, Introd. to Lit. of Europe, 2 MacFlecknoe. James Thomson, 1748, buried at Richmond. His monument, designed by Robert Adam, is a figure leaning upon a pedestal, which bears in relief the Seasons, in commemoration of the work which has caused Thomson to rank amongst the best of our descriptive poets. Robert Burns, 1796. A bust by Steel, the cost defrayed by a subscription in Scotland in 1883. Nicholas Rowe, 1718, poet-laureate of George I., the translator of Lucan's 'Pharsalia,' and author of the Fair Penitent and Jane Shore. His only daughter, Charlotte Fane, is commemorated with him in a monument by Rysbrach. The epitaph, by Pope, alludes to Rowe's widow in the lines 'To thee so mourn'd in death, so loved in life, But, to the poet's excessive annoyance, after the stone was put up, the widow married again. John Gay, 1732, chiefly known by his 'Fables,' and by the play called the Beggar's Opera, which was thought to do so much towards corrupting the morals of his time, and which gave its author the name of the 'Orpheus of Highwaymen.' His monument, by Rysbrach, was erected by the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry, who 'loved this excellent person living, and regretted him dead.' The Duchess was the 'lovely Kitty' of Prior's verse, when Gay was 'Nursed in Queensberry's ducal halls.' Under a medallion portrait of the poet are his own strange lines- And beneath is an epitaph by Pope, who was his intimate friend. Oliver Goldsmith, 1774, buried at the Temple, author of the 'Vicar of Wakefield' and the 'Deserted Village.' Sir J. Reynolds chose the site for the monument, and Dr. Johnson wrote the inscription in Latin, flatly refusing to accede to the petition of all the other friends of Goldsmith (expressed in a round-robin), that he would celebrate the poet's fame in the language in which he wrote. The medallion is by Nollekens. Beyond this, we may consider ourselves to pass from the Poet's Corner, and to enter upon the 'historical and learned side of the south transept.' John, Duke of Argyll and Greenwich, 1743, buried in Henry VII.'s Chapel. A Roman statue with allegorical figures, by Roubiliac. Canova considered the figure of Eloquence (deeply attentive to the Duke's oratory) 'one of the noblest statues be had seen in England.' The epitaph is by Paul Whitehead. 'It is said that, through the influence of Sir Edward Walpole, the monument in memory of John, Duke of Argyll and Greenwich, was confided to the hands of Roubiliac. The design is a splendid conceit-the noble warrior and orator is stretched out and expiring at the foot of a pyramid, on which History is writing his actions, while Minerva looks mournfully on, and Eloquence deplores his fall. The common allegorical materials of other monuments are here. Even History is inscribing a conceit she has written John, Duke of Argyll and Gr there she pauses and weeps. There is a visible want of unity in the action, and in this work at least Roubiliac merits the reproach of Flaxman, that "he did not know how to combine figures together so as to form an intelligible story.' Yet no one, before or since, has shown finer skill in rendering his figures individually excellent. Argyll indeed seems reluctant to die, and History is a little too theatrical in her posture; but all defects are forgotten in looking at the figure of Eloquence, with her supplicating hand and earnest brow.'-Allan Cunningham. George Frederick Handel, 1759. The tomb is the last work of Roubiliac, who cast the face after death. The skill of Roubiliac is conspicuous in the ease which he has given to the unwieldy figure of the great musician. 'He who composed the music of the Messiah and the Israel in Egypt must have been a poet, no less than a musician, of no ordinary degree. Therefore he was not unfitly buried in Poet's Corner, apart from his tuneful brethren. Not less than three thousand persons of all ranks attended the funeral.'-Stanley. William Makepeace Thackeray, 1863, buried at Kensal Green, the honoured author of 'Vanity Fair,' 'Esmond,' and 'The Newcomes.' A bust. 1 Joseph Addison, 1719, whose contributions to the Tatler and Spectator have caused him to be regarded as the greatest of English essayists, and whose character stood equally high as an author, a man, and a Christian. His statue, by Westmacott, stands on a pedestal surrounded by the Nine Muses. As we look at it we may remember how he was accustomed to walk by himself in Westminster Abbey, and ineditate on the condition of those who lay in it. 'It represents him, as we can conceive him, clad in his dressing-gown, and freed from his wig, stepping from his parlour at Chelsea into his trim little garden, with the account of the Everlasting Club, or the Loves of Hilpa and Shalum, just finished for the next day's Spectator, in his hand. Such a mark of national respect was due to the unsullied statesman, to the accomplished scholar, to the master of pure English eloquence, to the consummate painter of life and manners. It was due, above all, to the great satirist, who alone knew how to use ridicule without abusing it, who, without inflicting a wound, effected a great social reform, and who reconciled wit and virtue, after a long and disastrous separation, during which wit had been led astray by profligacy, and virtue by fanaticism.'-Macaulay. Thomas Babington Macaulay, the poet and historian, 1859. A bust. On his gravestone is inscribed, 'His body is buried in peace, but his name liveth for evermore." Isaac Barrow, 1677, the wit, mathematician, and divine. He was the college tutor of Sir Isaac Newton, whose optical lectures were published at his expense. He died (being Master of Trinity, Cambridge) at one of the canonical houses in the cloisters. In the words of his epitaph, he was 'a man almost divine, and truly great, if greatness be comprised in piety, probity, and faith, the deepest learning, equal modesty, and morals in every respect sanctified and sweet.' James Wyatt, the architect, 1813. A tablet. (Above.) Dr. Stephen Hales, 1761, philosopher and botanist. The monument, by Wilton, was erected by Augusta, 'the mother of that best of kings, George III.' Religion stands on one side of the monument lamenting the deceased, while Botany, on the other, holds his medallion, and, beneath, the Winds appear on a globe, in allusion to the invention of ventilation by Hales. ་། Isaac Casaubon, 1614, the famous critic and scholar, editor of Persius and Polybius, who received a canonry of Westminster from James I. On the monument, erected by Bishop Morton, is to be seen the monogram of Izaak Walton, scratched by the angler himself, with the date 1658. Johann Ernst Grabe, 1711, the Orientalist, buried at St. Pancras. He was induced to reside in England by his veneration for the Reformed Church, and was editor of a valuable edition of the Septuagint, and of Athenaeus. William Camden, 1623 (buried before St. Nicholas's Chapel), the antiquary-'the British Pausanias,' who, a house-painter's son, became headmaster of Westminster. The office of Clarencieux King-at-Arms, which was bestowed upon him in 1597, gave him time to become the author of the Britannia,' which caused him to be looked upon as one of the glories of the reign of Elizabeth: he was afterwards induced by Lord Burleigh to write the annals of that reign. The nose of the effigy was injured by some Cavaliers, who broke into the Abbey to destroy the hearse of the Earl of Essex, but it was restored by the University of Oxford. 'It is most worthy to be observed with what diligence he (Camden) inquired after ancient places, making hue and cry after many a city which was run away, and by certain marks and tokens pursuing to find it; as by the situation on the Roman highways, by just distance from other ancient cities, by some affinity of name, by tradition of the inhabitants, by Roman coins digged up, and by some appearance of ruins. A broken urn is a whole evidence; or an old gate still surviving, out of which the city is run out. Besides, commonly some new spruce town not far off is grown out of the ashes thereof, which yet hath as much natural affection as dutifully to own these reverend ashes for her mother.'-Fuller. |