EPIGRAMS, ANCIENT AND MODERN..

MR. Boom has adopted a somewhat narrow and technical idea of the epigram. "In our own day an d our own language," he says, "an epigram is understood to mean a poem distinguished for its point, elegance, and brevity ;" but the definition is surely imperfect. The word, as the compiler allows, originally meant an in- scription, and in England its use is certainly not restricted to verse. No Englishman thinks of questioning that Voltaire uttered an epigram when he said the "Frenchman was a cross between an ape and a tiger—tiger predominating ;" or Disraeli, when he wrote on the Duke of Newcastle, "the house of Pelham has been distinguished for the last century by an incapacity for states- manship and a genius for jobbing;" or the Legitimists, when they voted for Proudhon, because "one must pass through the Red Sea to reach the promised land." Even Mr. Booth would scarcely deny that the man who said "all the Luttrells have curly teeth and straight hair" made an epigram, or that Macaulay's description of Atterbury's defence of the letters of Phalaris, as "the very best book ever written on the wrong side of a question, of both sides of which the writer was profoundly ignorant," belonged to the same class of composition. In English, too, we submit, the word carries with it, by usage, though not by nature, the idea that the sentence or verse shall bite, shall be branded, as it were, upon some body or something, an idea admirably put in the verse Mr. Booth has used for a motto :

"An Epigram should be, if right, Short, simple, pointed, keen, and bright, A lively little thing ! Like wasp with taper body—bound By lines—not many—neat and round, All ending in a sting."

If " lines " be taken to include lines of prose, and " point " be held to include all varieties of effective meaning, that definition is good, though it is still too limited. An epigram may occur within a poem which, in itself, is not one ; as, for example, these lines in Moore's terrible song on the Prince Regent's treatment of Sheridan.

"No, not for the wealth of all those that despise thee, Though that would make Europe's whole opulence mine."

* 13pigranu, Ancient and Modern. By Re,. J. Bonh. Longman.

After all definitions, there is still an instinct required to tell an epigram from a mere comic rhyme, but Mr. Booth scarcely adheres to his own idea over two pages of his collection. This, for example, is a retort related in rhyme, but in no conceivable sense an epigram :—

" John Trott was desired by two witty peers

To tell them the reason why asses had ears.

'Ant please you,' quoth John, I'm not given to letters, Nor dare I presume to know more than my betters ; Howe'er from this time I shall ne'er see your graces

As I hope to be saved, without thinking on asses."— Goldsmith.

While this, though it comes within the range of his rule, will seem to a stricter taste rather a rhymed pun than an epigram :—

" 'Tis well enough that Goodenough Before the House should preach ; For sure enough, full bad enough Were those he had to teach."

Compare that with Pope's, "And moonstruck poets midnight vigils keep, Sleepless themselves to give to others sleep ;" or the excellent epigram given by Carlyle, as written over the door of Bishop Pompignan, who translated the Lamentations, and the difference will be at once perceived. So, too, a verse like this of Swift's is no more an epigram in the true English sense than any other bad pun or silly jest,

"When two-score throats together squall, It may be called a Mad-rig-al ;"

which is only a little better than this, cut, we suppose, from some Yankee paper :— "A correspondent, something new Transmitting, signed himself X. Q. The editor his letter read,

And begg'd he might be X. Q. Z."

While, despite the excessive breadth of the subject, Moore's description of Mahomedans constitutes a true specimen.

"Men of the saintly murderous brood,

To carnage and the Koran given,

Who think, through -unbelievers' blood,

Lies the directest path to heaven.'

Brevity is an absolute necessity, and consequently Swift's scorching verses upon Marlborough, incisive as they are, are rather a string of epigrams than a complete one.

"This world he cumber'd long enough, He burnt his candle to the snuff ;

And that's the reason, some folks think,

He left behind so great a stink.

Behold his funeral appears, Nor widow's sighs, nor orphan's tears, Wont at such times each heart to pierce, Attend the progress of his hearse.

But what of that l his friends may say, He had those honours in his day ; True to his profit and his pride,

He made them weep before he died.

Conic hither, all ye empty things ! Ye bubbles Lised by breath of kings!.

Who float upon the tide of state ; Come hither and behold your fate!

Let pride be taught by this rebuke How very mean a thing's a duke ; From all his ill-got honours flung,

Turn'd to that dirt from whence he sprung."—Dean Swift.

It is not sufficient that a verse to be embalmed in a col- lection like this should be an epigram, but it should also be a good one. Mr. Booth is catholic in his tastes ; he translates Mar- tial, and also quotes Punch ; but his notion of catholicity seems to be to publish all the funny verses he can find in his scrapbook without attention to quality. Many of them are wretched, and some are on subjects so local or so fleeting that they are almost unintelligible. The following are about as bad in all ways as it is possible for epigrams to be :— "Two butchers thin, Call'd Bone and Skin,

Would starve the town, or near it;

But, be it known To Skin and Bone, That flesh and blood won't bear it."

"Firm, to my face, is oft too kind,

He overrates both worth and talents: But then he never fails, I find, When we're apart—to strike the balance."

"rye lost the comfort of my life, Death came and took away my wife ; And now I don't know what to do,

Lest Death should come, and take me too.' "'Tis said, 0 Cambria! thou bast tried in vain To form peat poets ; and the cause is plain.

Ap-Jones, Ap-Jenkins, and Ap-Evans found

• Among thy sons, but no Ap-ollo's found."

While this, which at the moment was excellent, now needs a gloss as long as itself :—

" Apollos was mighty in doctrine, we're told, When doctrine was found, in the good days of old : But there's doctrine more mitey in Shaftesbury's sees, For it's bred by corruption and comes from a Cheese.' —Punch.

There are too many of this kind, while many of the very best in the language are omitted ; but we must do Mr. Booth the jus- tice to extract two or three which are good :—

" Ward has no heart, they say ; but I deny it :

He has a heart, and gets his speeches by it."

"Charles keeps a secret well, or I'm deceived:

For nothing Charles can say will be believed."

"Lie on ! while my revenge shall be,

To speak the very truth of thee."

"Vile Stanhope! demons blush to tell, In twice two hundred places, Has shown his son the road to hell, Escorted by the Graces.

"But little did th' ungenerous lad Concern himself about them ; For base, degenerate, meanly bad, He sneak'd to hell without them."

"Borgia Caesar erat, factis et nomine Caesar; Ant nihil, ant Caesar, disit, utrumque full."

"He prefered Hanover to England, He preferr'd two hideous mistresses To a beautiful and innocent wife.

He hated arts and despised literature ; But he liked train-oil in his salads,

And gave an enlighten'd patronage to bad oysters.

And he had Walpole as a minister ;

Consistent in his preference for every kind of corruption."

W. Al. Thackercty.

Mr. Booth should issue a new edition, as perfectly printed as this is, put in some 500 of the best English epigrams, leave out. all he has quoted from Punch, omit the "monumental epigrams,' which are specimens, not of polish, but of funny ignorance, and take nothing which is not an epigram unless it be as good as this enigma upon the vowels :—

" We are little airy creatures

All of different voice and features;

One of us in glass is set, One of us you'll find in jet.

T'other you may see in tin, And the fourth a box within.

If the fifth you should pursue

It can never fly from you."—!Swift.