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EPITAPH S.

His faltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani
Munere!

VIRG.

DORS Pride,

I.

On CHARLES Earl of Dorset,

In the Church of Withyam in Suffex.

ORSET, the Grace of Courts, the Mufes'

Patron of Arts, and Judge of Nature, dy'd. The scourge of Pride, tho' fanctify'd or great, Of Fops in Learning, and of Knaves in State:

NOTES.

Epitaphs.] Thefe little compofitions far exceed any thing we have of the fame kind from other hands; yet, if we ex cept the Epitaph on the young Duke of Buckingham, and perhaps one or two more, they are not of equal force with the rest of our Author's writings. The Nature of the composition itself is delicate; and generally it was a task impofed on him ; though he rarely complied with requests of this nature, but where the fubject was worthy of his pen; as we may fee by the small number of thefe poems.

Yet foft his Nature, tho' severe his Lay,
His Anger moral, and his Wisdom gay.
Bleft Satirift! who touch'd the Mean fo true,
As show'd, Vice had his hate and pity too.
Bleft Courtier! who could King and Country please,
Yet facred keep his Friendships, and his Ease.
Bleft Peer! his great Forefathers ev'ry grace
Reflecting, and reflected in his Race;
Where other BUCKHURSTS, other DORSETS
fhine,

And Patriots ftill, or Poets, deck the Line.

NOTES.

For random praife the Work would ne'er be done:
Each Mother afks it for her booby Son:
Each Widow afks it for the best of Men;
For him fhe weeps, for him fbe weds again.

Yet when these elegiac movements came freely from the heart, he mourns in such strains as fhew he was equally a master of this kind of Compofition with every other he undertook, as the following lines in the Epifle to Jervas may witnefs; which would have made the finest Epitaph in the world:

Call round her Tomb each object of defire,
Each purer frane inform'd with purer fire:
Bid her be all that chears or fiftens life,
The tender fifler, daughter, friend, and wife:
Bid her be all that makes mankind adore;
Then view this marble, and be vain no more!

A

II.

On Sir WILLIAM TRUMBAL,

One of the Principal Secretaries of State to King WILLIAM III. who having refigned his Place, died in his Retirement at Easthamsted, in Berkshire, 1716.

Pleafing Form; a firm, yet cautious Mind;
Sincere, tho' prudent; conftant, yet re-
fign'd:

Honour unchang'd, a Principle profest,
Fix'd to one fide, but mod'rate to the reft:
An honest Courtier, yet a Patriot too;
Juft to his Prince, and to his Country true:
Fill'd with the Senfe of Age, the Fire of Youth,
A Scorn of Wrangling, yet a Zeal for Truth;
A gen'rous Faith, from Superftition free;
A Love to Peace, and Hate of Tyranny;
Such this Man was; who now, from earth remov'd,
At length enjoys that Liberty he lov'd.

III.

On the Hon. SIMON HARCOUrt,

Only Son of the Lord Chancellor HARCOURT; at the Church of Stanton-Harcourt in Oxfordshire, 1720.

O this fad Shrine, whoe'er thou art! draw near,

Here lies the Friend most lov'd, the Son moft dear: Who ne'er knew Joy, but Friendship might divide, Or gave his Father Grief but when he dy'd.

How vain is Reason, Eloquence how weak! If Pope must tell what HARCOURT cannot speak. Oh let thy once-lov'd Friend infcribe thy Stone, And, with a Father's forrows, mix his own!

IV.

On JAMES CRAGGS, Efq.

In Westminster-Abbey.

JACOBUS

REGI MAGNE BRITANNIE A SECRETIS

ET CONSILIIS SANCTIORIBUS,

PRINCIPIS PARITER AC POPULI AMOR ET DELICIÆ:

CRAGGS

VIXIT TITULIS ET INVIDIA MAJOR

ANNOS, HEU PAUCOS, XXXV.

OB. FEB. XIV. MDCCXX.

Statefman, yet Friend to Truth! of Soul fincere,
In Action faithful, and in Honour clear!
Who broke no Promife, ferv'd no private End,
Who gain'd no Title, and who loft no Friend,
Ennobled by Himself, by All approv'd,
Prais'd, wept, and honour'd, by the Mufe he lov'd.