— Yes, my Arvida,
Beyond the Sweeping of the proudest Train
That shades a Monarch’s Heel, I prize these Weeds,
For they are sacred to my Country’s Freedom.14
Here this abandoned Son of Liberty makes a full Discovery of his execrable Principles, the Tatters of Gustavus, the usual Dress of the Assertors of these Doctrines, are of more Divinity, because they are sacred to Freedom than the sumptuous and magnificent Robes of Regality itself. Such Sentiments are truly detestable, nor could any Thing be an Aggravation of the Author’s Guilt, except his ludicrous Manner of mentioning a Monarch.
The Heel of a Monarch, or even the Print of his Heel is a Thing too venerable and sacred to be treated with such Levity, and placed in Contrast with Rags and Poverty. He that will speak contemptuously of the Heel of a Monarch will, whenever he can with Security, speak contemptuously of his Head.
These are the most glaring Passages which have occurr’d, in the Perusal of the first Pages; my Indignation will not suffer me to proceed farther, and I think much better of the Licenser, than to believe he went so far.
In the few Remarks which I have set down, the Reader will easily observe that I have strained no Expression beyond its natural Import, and have divested myself of all Heat, Partiality, and Prejudice.
So far therefore is Mr. Brooke from having received any hard or unwarrantable Treatment, that the Licenser has only acted in Pursuance of that Law to which he owes his Power, a Law which every Admirer of the Administration must own to be very necessary, and to have produced very salutary Effects.
I am indeed surprised that this great Office is not drawn out into a longer series of Deputations, since it might afford a gainful and reputable Employment to a great Number of the Friends of the Government; and I should think instead of having immediate Recourse to the Deputy-licenser himself, it might be sufficient Honour for any Poet, except the Laureat, to stand bare-headed in the Presence of the Deputy of the Deputy’s Deputy in the nineteenth Subordination.
Such a Number cannot but be thought necessary if we take into Consideration the great Work of drawing up an Index Expurgatorius to all the old Plays; which is, I hope, already undertaken, or if it has been hitherto unhappily neglected, I take this Opportunity to recommend.
The Productions of our old Poets are crouded with Passages very unfit for the Ears of an English Audience, and which cannot be pronounced without irritating the Minds of the People.
This Censure I do not confine to those Lines in which Liberty, natural Equality, wicked Ministers, deluded Kings, mean Arts of Negotiation, venal Senates, mercenary Troops, oppressive Officers, servile and exorbitant Taxes, universal Corruption, the Luxuries of a Court, the Miseries of the People, the Decline of Trade, or the Happiness of Independency are directly mentioned. These are such glaring Passages as cannot be suffered to pass without the most supine and criminal Negligence. I hope the Vigilance of the Licensers will extend to all such Speeches and Soliloquies as tend to recommend the Pleasures of Virtue, the Tranquillity of an uncorrupted Head, and the Satisfactions of conscious Innocence; for though such Strokes as these do not appear to a common Eye to threaten any Danger to the Government, yet it is well known to more penetrating Observers that they have such Consequences as cannot be too diligently obviated, or too cautiously avoided.
A Man who becomes once enamour’d of the Charms of Virtue is apt to be very little concerned about the Acquisition of Wealth or Titles, and is therefore not easily induced to act in a Manner contrary to his real Sentiments, or to vote at the Word of Command; by contracting his Desires, and regulating his Appetites, he wants much less than other Men, and every one versed in the Arts of Government can tell, that Men are more easily influenced in Proportion as they are more necessitous.
This is not the only Reason why Virtue should not receive too much Countenance from a licensed Stage; her Admirers and Followers are not only naturally independent, but learn such a uniform and consistent Manner of speaking and acting, that they frequently by the mere Force of artless Honesty surmount all the Obstacles which Subtlety and Politicks can throw in their way, and obtain their Ends in spite of the most profound and sagacious Ministry.
Such then are the Passages to be expunged by the Licensers: In many Parts indeed the Speeches will be imperfect, and the Action appear not regularly conducted, but the Poet Laureat15 may easily supply these Vacuities by inserting some of his own Verses in praise of Wealth, Luxury, and Venality.
But alas! all those pernicious Sentiments which we shall banish from the Stage, will be vented from the Press, and more studiously read because they are prohibited.
I cannot but earnestly implore the Friends of the Government to leave no Art untry’d by which we may hope to succeed in our Design of extending the Power of the Licenser to the Press, and of making it criminal to publish any Thing without an Imprimatur.16
How much would this single Law lighten the mighty Burden of State Affairs? With how much Security might our Ministers enjoy their Honours, their Places, their Reputations, and their Admirers, could they once suppress those malicious Invectives which are at present so industriously propagated, and so eagerly read, could they hinder any Arguments but their own from coming to the Ears of the People, and stop effectually the Voice of Cavil and Enquiry.
I cannot but indulge myself a little while by dwelling on this pleasing Scene, and imagining those Halcyon-days in which no Politicks shall be read but those of the Gazetteer,17 nor any Poetry but that of the Laureat; when we shall hear of nothing but the successful Negotiations of our Ministers, and the great Actions of—.
How much happier would this State be, than those perpetual Jealousies and Contentions which are inseparable from Knowledge and Liberty, and which have for many Years kept this Nation in perpetual Commotions.
But these are Times rather to be wished for than expected, for such is the Nature of our unquiet Countrymen, that if they are not admitted to the Knowledge of Affairs, they are always suspecting their Governors of Designs prejudicial to their Interest; they have not the least Notion of the pleasing Tranquillity of Ignorance, nor can be brought to imagine that they are kept in the Dark, lest too much Light should hurt their Eyes. They have long claimed a Right of directing their Superiors, and are exasperated at the least Mention of Secrets of State.
This Temper makes them very readily encourage any Writer or Printer, who, at the Hazard of his Life or Fortune, will give them any Information; and while this Humour prevails there never will be wanting some daring Adventurer who will write in Defence of Liberty, and some zealous or avaricious Printer who will disperse his Papers.
It has never yet been found that any Power, however vigilant or despotick, has been able to prevent the Publication of seditious Journals, Ballads, Essays and Dissertations, Considerations on the present State of Affairs, and Enquiries into the Conduct of the Administration.
Yet I must confess, that considering the Success with which the present Ministry has hitherto proceeded in their Attempts to drive out of the World the old Prejudices of Patriotism and publick Spirit, I cannot but entertain some Hopes that what has been so often attempted by their Predecessors, is reserved to be accomplished by their superior Abilities.
If I might presume to advise them upon this great Affair, I should dissuade them from any direct Attempt upon the Liberty of the Press, which is the Darling of the common People, and therefore cannot be attacked without immediate Danger. They may proceed by a more sure and silent Way, and attain the desired End without Noise, Detraction, or Opposition.
There are scatter’d over this Kingdom several little Seminaries in which the lower Ranks of People, and the younger Sons of our Nobility and Gentry are taught, from their earliest infancy, the pernicious Arts of Spelling and Reading, which they afterwards continue to practise very much to the Disturbance of their own Quiet, and the Interruption of ministerial Measures.
These Seminaries may, by an Act of Parliament, be at once suppres
sed, and that our Posterity be deprived of all Means of reviving this corrupt Method of Education, it may be made Felony to teach to read, without a License from the Lord Chamberlain.
This Expedient, which I hope will be carefully concealed from the Vulgar, must infallibly answer the great End proposed by it, and set the Power of the Court not only above the Insults of the Poets, but in a short Time above the Necessity of providing against them. The Licenser having his Authority thus extended will in Time enjoy the Title and the Salary without the Trouble of exercising his Power, and the Nation will rest at length in Ignorance and Peace.
An ESSAY on EPITAPHS.1
Tho’ Criticism has been cultivated in every Age of Learning, by Men of great Abilities and extensive Knowledge, till the Rules of Writing are become rather burdensome than instructive to the Mind; tho’ almost every Species of Composition has been the Subject of particular Treatises, and given Birth to Definitions, Distinctions, Precepts and Illustrations; yet no Critic of Note, that has fallen within my Observation, has hitherto thought Sepulchral Inscriptions worthy of a minute Examination, or pointed out with proper Accuracy their Beauties and Defects.
The Reasons of this Neglect it is useless to enquire, and perhaps impossible to discover; it might be justly expected that this Kind of Writing would have been the favourite Topic of Criticism, and that Self-Love might have produced some Regard for it, in those Authors that have crowded Libraries with elaborate Dissertations upon Homer; since to afford a Subject for heroick Poems is the Privilege of very few, but every Man may expect to be recorded in an Epitaph, and, therefore, finds some Interest in providing that his Memory may not suffer by an unskilful Panegyrick.
If our Prejudices in favour of Antiquity deserve to have any Part in the Regulation of our Studies, EPITAPHS seem entitled to more than common Regard, as they are probably of the same Age with the Art of Writing. The most ancient Structures in the World, the Pyramids, are supposed to be Sepulchral Monuments, which either Pride or Gratitude erected, and the same Passions which incited Men to such laborious and expensive Methods of preserving their own Memory, or that of their Benefactors, would doubtless incline them not to neglect any easier Means by which ye same Ends might be obtained. Nature and Reason have dictated to every Nation, that to preserve good Actions from Oblivion, is both the Interest and Duty of Mankind; and therefore we find no People acquainted with the Use of Letters that omitted to grace the Tombs of their Heroes and wise Men with panegyrical Inscriptions.
To examine, therefore, in what the Perfection of EPITAPHS consists, and what Rules are to be observed in composing them, will be at least of as much use as other critical Enquiries; and for assigning a few Hours to such Disquisitions, great Examples at least, if not strong Reasons, may be pleaded.
An EPITAPH, as the word itself implies, is an Inscription on a Tomb, and in its most extensive Import may admit indiscriminately Satire or Praise. But as Malice has seldom produced Monuments of Defamation, and the Tombs hitherto raised have been the Work of Friendship and Benevolence, Custom has contracted the Original Latitude of the Word, so that it signifies in the general Acceptation an Inscription engraven on a Tomb in Honour of the Person deceased.
As Honours are paid to the Dead in order to incite others to the Imitation of their Excellencies, the principal Intention of EPITAPHS is to perpetuate the examples of Virtue, that the Tomb of a good Man may supply the Want of his Presence, and Veneration for his Memory produce the same Effect as the Observation of his Life. Those EPITAPHS are, therefore, the most perfect, which set Virtue in the strongest Light, and are best adapted to exalt the Reader’s Ideas, and rouse his Emulation.
To this End it is not always necessary to recount the Actions of a Hero, or enumerate the Writings of a Philosopher; to imagine such Informations necessary, is to detract from their Characters, or to suppose their Works mortal, or their Atchievements in danger of being forgotten. The bare Name of such Men answers every Purpose of a long Inscription.
Had only the Name of Sir ISAAC NEWTON2 been subjoined to the Design upon his Monument, instead of a long Detail of his Discoveries, which no Philosopher can want, and which none but a Philosopher can understand, those by whose Direction it was raised, had done more Honour both to him and to themselves.
This indeed is a Commendation which it requires no Genius to bestow, but which can never become vulgar or contemptible, if bestow’d with Judgment; because no single Age produces many Men of Merit superior to Panegyrick. None but the first Names can stand unassisted against the Attacks of Time, and if Men raised to Reputation by Accident or Caprice have nothing but their Names engraved on their Tombs, there is Danger lest in a few Years the Inscription require an Interpreter. Thus have their Expectations been disappointed who honoured Picus of Mirandola, with this pompous Epitaph,
Hic situs est PICUS MIRANDOLA, cætera norunt
Et Tagus et Ganges, forsan et Antipodes.3
His Name then celebrated in the remotest Corners of the Earth is now almost forgotten, and his Works, then studied, admired, and applauded, are now mouldering in Obscurity.
Next in Dignity to the bare Name is a short Character simple and unadorned, without Exaggeration, Superlatives, or Rhetoric. Such were the Inscriptions in Use among the Romans, in which the Victories gained by their Emperors were commemorated by a single Epithet; as Cæsar Germanicus, Cæsar Dacicus, Germanicus, Illyricus.4 Such would be this Epitaph, ISAACUS NEWTONUS, Naturæ Legibus investigatis, hic quiescit.5
But to far the greatest Part of Mankind a longer Encomium is necessary for the Publication of their Virtues, and the Preservation of their Memories, and in the Composition of these it is that Art is principally required, and Precepts therefore may be useful.
In writing EPITAPHS, one circumstance is to be considered, which affects no other Composition; the Place in which they are now commonly found restrains them to a particular Air of Solemnity, and debars them from the Admission of all lighter or gayer Ornaments. In this it is that the Stile of an EPITAPH necessarily differs from that of an ELEGY. The Customs of burying our Dead either in or near our Churches, perhaps originally founded on a rational Design of fitting the Mind for religious Exercises, by laying before it the most affecting Proofs of the Uncertainty of Life, makes it proper to exclude from our EPITAPHS all such Allusions as are contrary to the Doctrines for the Propagation of which the Churches are erected, and to the End for which those who peruse the Monuments must be supposed to come thither. Nothing is, therefore, more ridiculous than to copy the Roman Inscriptions which were engraven on Stones by the Highway, and composed by those who generally reflected on Mortality only to excite in themselves and others a quicker Relish of Pleasure, and a more luxurious Enjoyment of Life, and whose Regard for the Dead extended no farther than a Wish that the Earth might be light upon them.
All Allusions to the Heathen Mythology are therefore absurd, and all Regard for the senseless Remains of a dead Man impertinent and superstitious. One of the first Distinctions of the primitive Christians was their Neglect of bestowing Garlands on the Dead, in which they are very rationally defended by their Apologist in Minutius Felix. We lavish no Flowers nor Odours on the Dead, says he, because they have no Sense of Fragrance or of Beauty.6 We profess to Reverence the Dead not for their Sake but for our own. It is therefore always with Indignation or Contempt that I read the Epitaph on Cowley, a Man whose Learning and Poetry were his lowest Merits.
Aurea dum late volitant tua Scripta per Orbem,
Et fama eternum vivis, divine Poeta,
Hic placida jaceas requie, custodiat urnam
Cana, Fides, vigilentque perenni Lampade Musæ!
Sit sacer ille locus, nec quis temerarius ausit
Sacrilega turbare manu venerabile bustum,
Intacti maneant, maneant per sæcula dulces
COWLEII cineres, serventq; immobile Saxum.7
To pray, that ye Ashes of a Friend may lie undisturbed, and that the Divinities that favoured him in his Life, may watch for eve
r round him to preserve his Tomb from Violation and drive Sacrilege away, is only rational in him who believes the Soul interested in the Repose of the Body, and the Powers which he invokes for its Protection able to preserve it. To censure such Expressions as contrary to Religion, or as Remains of Heathen Superstition, would be too great a Degree of Severity. I condemn them only as uninstructive and unaffecting, as too ludicrous for Reverence or Grief, for Christianity and a Temple.
That the Designs and Decorations of Monuments, ought likewise to be formed with the same Regard to the Solemnity of the Place, cannot be denied; It is an established Principle that all Ornaments owe their Beauty to their Propriety. The same Glitter of Dress that adds Graces to Gayety and Youth, would make Age and Dignity contemptible. CHARON with his Boat is far from heightening the awful Grandeur of the universal Judgment, tho’ drawn by Angelo8 himself; nor is it easy to imagine a greater Absurdity than that of gracing the Walls of a Christian Temple with the Figure of Mars leading a Hero to Battle, or Cupids sporting round a Virgin. The Pope who defaced the Statues of the Deities, at the Tomb of Sannazarius9 is, in my opinion, more easily to be defended than he that erected them.
It is for the same Reason improper to address the EPITAPH
to the Passenger, a Custom which in injudicious Veneration for Antiquity introduced again at the Revival of Letters, and which, among many others, Passeratius suffered to mislead him in his EPITAPH upon the Heart of Henry King of France, who was stabbed by Clement the Monk, which yet deserves to be inserted, for the Sake of showing how beautiful even Improprieties may become in the Hands of a good Writer.
Selected Essays (Penguin Classics) Page 60