17 JUNE 1899, page 16

Fascination By Snakes.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR"] SIR,—I was much interested in a subject recently referred to in your columns,—viz., the snake's power of fascinating its victims. Several......

[to The Editor Of The "spectator."] Sir —" J. D."

asks who composed Burton's epitaph. But was it not Burton himself ? None seem to have plagiarised Gray. 31;ght we not write?— Known little. less unknown, Here shunbereth Who was......

[to The Editor Of The "spectator:'] Sir,—the Simplest And...

literal translation of such a masterpiece of terse simplicity will be the best : and if it con- tains a few more words, that (as your correspondent "J. D." rightly points out)......

[to The Editor Of The "spectator. "]

Sin,—None of your correspondents appear to have seen that Burton's epitaph is untranslatable because we have no word in modern English bearing so extensive a meaning as Burton's......

[to The Editor Of The "spectator.1 Sir, —the Necessary...

prepositions in our language always handicaps the English translator into English from Latin, but in brevity—the soul of epitaphs, as of wit—I hardly think any modern......

[to The Editor Of The "spectator. "] Sir,—to Attempt An...

equivalent for Burton's epitaph is, as some indeed of your correspondents see, to aim at the impossible. You may get the play of words, or the terseness, or the antithesis : you......

[to The Editor Of The "spectator:']

SIR,—Conamar tomes grandia :- Few knew him, and vet fewer do not know That New Democritus who sleeps below, Whom Melancholy an immortal made And Melancholy in the silence laid.......