THE EPIGRAMMATIC MIND [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I
would thank the reviewer of my anthology of epigrams, The Soul of Wit, for his interesting remarks in your issue of January 31st. There are, however, two. points which I should like to mention, if you can afford me a little space. It was, I think, not quite fair to quote me as writing that " the seventeenth-century epigram was clumsy, obscene and dull." I used those adjectives of " the common run of seventeenth- century epigram," after noticing the fact that " the seventeenth century produced epitaphs of astonishing beauty."
And, secondly, is your reviewer applying quite a fair test to the mode-r-71 English epigrammatist ? We English are pro- bably too kind, as be suggests, to rival Martial in his own field ; but Martial's is not the only field : why, for instance, leave the Greek Anthology out of account ? As Dr. Mackail has observed, Martial, like all the Latin epigranunatists, " belonged to a debased period in literature." His epigrams " as a rule lead up to a pointed end, sometimes a witticism, sometimes a verbal fancy;and are quite apart from the higher imaginative qualities. No good epigram sacrifices its finer poetical substance to the desire of making a point." (Intro- duction to Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology.) Martial's
epigrams have indeed their own excellence, but surely not the only excellence, and surely not the highest.—I am, Sir, &c.,
21 Upper Mall, Hammersmith. G. R. HAMILTON.
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