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Title: Epitaphs (Latin)
Author: Samuel Johnson [
More Titles by Johnson]
Epitaphs--on his father --his wife
--Mrs. Bell
--Mrs. Salusbury
--Dr. Goldsmith
--Mr. Thrale
AT LICHFIELD.
H. S. E.
MICHAEL JOHNSON,
VIR impavidus, constans, animosus, periculorum immemor,
laborum patientissimus; fiducia christiana fortis, fervidusque;
paterfamilias apprime strenuus; bibliopola admodum
peritus; mente et libris et negotiis exculta; animo ita
firmo, ut, rebus adversis diu conflictatus, nec sibi nec suis
defuerit; lingua sic temperata, ut ei nihil quod aures vel
pias vel castas laesisset, aut dolor vel voluptas unquam
expresserit.
Natus Cubleiae, in agro Derbiensi, anno MDCLVI; obijt
MDCCXXXI.
Apposita est SARA, conjux,
Antiqua FORDORUM gente oriunda; quam domi sedulam,
foris paucis notam; nulli molestam, mentis acumine
et judicii subtilitate praecellentem; aliis multum, sibi parum
indulgentem: aeternitati semper attentam, omne fere
virtutis nomen commendavit.
Nata Nortoniae Regis, in agro Varvicensi, anno
MDCLXIX; obijt MDCCLIX.
Cum NATHANAELE, illorum filio, qui natus MDCCXII.
cum vires et animi et corporis multa pollicerentur, anno
MDCCXXXVII. vitam brevem pia morte finivit.
IN BROMLEY CHURCH.
HIC conduntur reliquae
ELIZABETHAE
Antiqua JARVISIORUM gente
Peatlingae, apud Leicestrenses, ortae;
Formosae, cultae, ingeniosae, piae;
Uxoris, primis nuptiis, HENRICI PORTER,
secundis, SAMUELIS JOHNSON,
Qui multum amatam, diuque defletam,
Hoc lapide contexit.
Obijt Londini, mense Mart.
A. D. MDCCLIII.
IN WATFORD CHURCH.
In the vault below are deposited the remains of
JANE BELL[a], wife of JOHN BELL, esq.
who, in the fifty-third year of her age,
surrounded with many worldly blessings,
heard, with fortitude and composure truly great,
the horrible malady, which had, for some time, begun to
afflict her,
pronounced incurable;
and for more than three years,
endured with patience, and concealed with decency,
the daily tortures of gradual death;
continued to divide the hours not allotted to devotion,
between the cares of her family, and the converse of
her friends;
rewarded the attendance of duty,
and acknowledged the offices of affection;
and, while she endeavoured to alleviate by cheerfulness
her husband's sufferings and sorrows,
increased them by her gratitude for his care,
and her solicitude for his quiet.
To the testimony of these virtues,
more highly honoured, as more familiarly known,
this monument is erected by
JOHN BELL.
[a] She died in October, 1771.
IN STRETHAM CHURCH.
Juxta sepulta est HESTERA MARIA,
Thomae Cotton de Combermere, baronetti Cestriensis,
filia,
Johannis Salusbury, armigeri Flintiensis, uxor,
Forma felix, felix ingenio;
Omnibus jucunda, suorum amantissima.
Linguis artibusque ita exeulta,
Ut loquenti nunquam deessent
Sermonis nitor, sententiarum flosculi,
Sapientiae gravitas, leporum gratia:
Modum servandi adeo perita,
Ut domestica inter negotia literis oblectaretur;
Literarum inter delicias, rem familiarem sedulo curaret.
Multis illi multos annos precantibus
diri carcinomatis venene contabuit,
nexibusque vitae paulatim resolutis,
e terris, meliora sperans, emigravit.
Nata 1707. Nupta 1739. Obijt 1773.
IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
OLIVARII GOLDSMITH,
Poetae, Physici, Historici,
Qui nullum fere scribendi genus
Non tetigit,
Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit:
Sive risus essent movendi,
Sive lacrimae,
Affectuum potens, at lenis, dominator:
Ingenio sublimis, vividus, versatilis,
Oratione grandis, nitidus, venustus:
Hoc monumento memoriam coluit
Sodalium amor,
Amicorum fides,
Lectorum veneratio.
Elfiniae, in Hibernia, natus MDCCXXIX.
Eblauae literis institutus:
Londini obijt MDCCLXXIV [a].
[a] This is the epitaph, that drew from Gibbon, sir J. Reynolds, Sheridan, Joseph Warton, &c. the celebrated _Round Robin_, composed by Burke, intreating Johnson to write an English epitaph on an English author. His reply was, in the genuine spirit of an old scholar, "he would never consent to disgrace the walls of Westminster abbey with an English inscription." One of his arguments, in favour of a common learned language, was ludicrously cogent: "Consider, sir, how you should feel, were you to find, at Rotterdam, an epitaph, upon Erasmus, _in Dutch_!" Boswell, iii. He would, however, undoubtedly have written a better epitaph in English, than in Latin. His compositions in that language are not of first rate excellence, either in prose or verse. The epitaph, in Stretham church, on Mr. Thrale, abounds with inaccuracies; and those who are fond of detecting little blunders in great men, may be amply gratified in the perusal of a review of Thrale's epitaph in the Classical Journal, xii. 6. His Greek epitaph on Goldsmith, is not remarkable in itself, but we will subjoin it, in this place, as a literary curiosity.
[Greek:]
Thon taphon eisoraas thon OLIBARIOIO, koniaen
Aphrosi mae semnaen, xeine, podessi patei.
Oisi memaele phusis, metron charis, erga palaion,
Klaiete poiaetaen, istorikon, phusikon.
--ED.
IN STRETHAM CHURCH.
Hie conditur quod reliquum est
HENRICI THRALE,
Qui res seu civiles, seu domesticas, ita egit,
Ut vitam illi longiorem multi optarent;
Ita sacras,
Ut quam brevem esset habiturus praescire videretur;
Simplex, apertus, sibique semper similis,
Nihil ostentavit aut arte fictum, aut cura
elaboratum.
In senatu, regi patriaeque
Fideliter studuit,
Vulgi obstrepentis contemptor animosus;
Domi, inter mille mercaturae negotia,
Literarum elegantiam minime neglexit.
Amicis, quocunque modo laborantibus,
Consiliis, auctoritate, muneribus, adfuit.
Inter familiares, comites, convivas, hospites,
Tam facili fuit morum suavitate
Ut omnium animos ad se alliceret;
Tam felici sermonis libertate,
Ut nulli adulatus, omnibus placeret.
Natus 1724. Obijt 1781.
Consortes tumuli habet Rodolphum, patrem, strenuum
fortemque virum, et Henricum, filium unicum, quem
spei parentum mors inopiua decennem proripuit.
Ita
Domus felix et opulenta quam erexit
Avus, auxitque pater, cum nepote decidit.
Abi, Viator,
Et, vicibus rerum humanarum perspectis,
Aeternitatem cogita!
[The end]
Samuel Johnson's poem: Epitaphs (Latin)
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