Clamosissimus omnium virorum,

Qui verborum operam omnibus locabat,
Nunc raptus Rhadamanthium ad tribunal,
Conducit miser antè quæ locabat.

ON A LAWYER.

Theodore Beza.

O FICKLE Fortune, cruel, heartless jade!
This brawler who his voice his fortune made,
Summoned to plead in Rhadamanthus' court
Finds what he sold before must now be bought. S.

FORMIDO mortis morte pejor, non potes

Vitare mortem, sed potes contemnere.

J. J. Scaliger.

ALL men must die: no man need fear to die; Therefore the fear of death is worse than death. S.

PAUPERIS SENIS.

PAUPER eram; mihi parva domus, mihi vilis agellus, Et tenui in mensa parva salina mihi.

Non stomacho capitive meo dolor obfuit unquam:
Nec secuit vetulos tarda podagra pedes.

Nec mea sollicitæ vexerunt tempora curæ ;
Nec timui parco mixta venena mero.
Sic vixi, et perii; Cræso felicior ipso:
Namque deesse nihil, nec superesse dolet.
Ut fuit ad victum jam vivo terra, sepulto
Sic erit ad tumulum nunc mihi parva satis.

Julius Capilupus.

POOR I, poor home I had, and garden poor,
And on my table poor, poor fare was spread,
Yet never ached my belly or my head.
Nor gout tied up my sore old feet: secure
From poison's fear I drained my sober glass,
My throbbing brain no anxious cares oppressed,
Happier than Crœsus lived I, happier rest.
Taxing nor want nor surplus. So I pass
Living on what my garden gave, and, dying,
Within my narrow grave contented lying.

S.

HELLUONIS.

VENTER edax, gutturque bibax tumulo jacet isto;
Ac tumulatus adhuc esurit atque sitit.

Quid fuerit rogitas? Haud vir fuit iste: quid ergo?
Carneus iste cadus, viva culina fuit.

At vixit? minimè; sed ne putresceret olim,
Dii dederant animam, quæ salis instar erat.

Balthaser Bonifacius.

A GLUTTON.

A GUTLING paunch and thirsty throat do fill

Then what?

This grave; though dead, athirst and hungry still.
What was it, ask you? It was no man.
A fleshy cask it was, a living pot.

It was alive then? No. But lest it stink
A soul was given to salt it, not to think.

S.

ON A MENDICANT.

NULLA mihi vivo domus, at nunc certa sepulto est,
Vitaque paupertas, mors mihi divitiæ.

Vita mihi exilium, requies et certa sepulchrum :
Nudus eram vivus, mortuus ecce tegor.

Jovianus Pontanus.

ALIVE no home I had; I have one here.
My life brought poverty, but wealth my bier.
In life I wandered, but in death I rest:
Naked in life, in death at last I'm drest.

ON GIACOPO SANNAZARO.5

DA sacro cineri flores. Hic ille Maroni,
Sincerus, musa proximus ut tumulo.

S.

Cardinal Bembo.

FOR Actius' dust strew flowers of fairest bloom,
The next in fame to Maro as in tomb. 7. Booth.

Though the Latin language is generally admitted by most competent judges, such as Dr. Johnson, Dr. Parr,

5 Sannazaro, who lived in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (1458-1530), distinguished himself amongst the scholars of that age for his proficiency in Greek and Latin literature. He assumed a Latin appellation, and called himself Actius Sincerus, a custom followed by scholars at that period, and was the first of the moderns who wrote Latin verse with purity. His poems obtained the warm applause of Pope Leo X.

and Mr. Pettigrew, the author of "Chronicles of the Tombs," as most adapted for monumental inscriptions, it is now but little used. It must be acknowledged, too, there have been other authorities, equally great, who are decidedly of opinion that the vernacular language of a country was the proper one for a mortuary inscription. Though confessing it might not be so durable as the Latin, yet that it was sufficiently so to be intelligible as long as it was likely to be preserved, with the advantage of being more universally understood. Perhaps no man of recent times wrote more Latin epitaphs than Dr. S. Parr, besides many in the English language. He seems to have had a perfect mania for this species of composition, if we may judge from what passed at a dinner party, when Lord Chancellor Erskine having delighted the company with his conversation, the Dr., in an ecstasy, called out to him, “My lord, I mean to write your epitaph." Erskine, who was a younger man, at once replied, “Dr. Parr, it is a temptation to commit suicide."

SECTION II.

BY ENGLISH AND OTHER AUTHORS.