The Works of William Mason ... In Four Volumes |
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| VII. | EPITAPH VII.
ON LAUNCELOT BROWNE, ESQ.
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 | The Works of William Mason |  |
143
EPITAPH VII. ON LAUNCELOT BROWNE, ESQ.
IN THE CHURCH OF FEN-STANTON, HUNTINGDONSHIRE.
Ye Sons of Elegance; who truly tasteThe simple charms which genuine Art supplies,
Come from the sylvan scenes his Genius grac'd,
And offer here your tributary sighs:
But know, that more than Genius slumbers here;
Virtues were his, that Art's best powers transcend:
Come, ye superior train! who these revere,
And weep the Christian, Husband, Father, Friend!
This and the foregoing Epitaph, with some others, come under that stricture, which Dr. Johnson has imposed on several of Mr. Pope's. The Author knows, but despises it. Personal appellatives in Greek appear gracefully in the Anthologia. In English poetry they almost constantly induce an air of vulgarity. That species of criticism, therefore, which either in the verse or prose of any language militates against what Horace calls its jus et norma loquendi, he holds to be futile. Besides this, when, on a monumental tablet, a prose inscription precedes (as is ever the modern mode) the verses, why should these be loaded with any unnecessary repetition?
| The Works of William Mason | |