The epigrammatists : a selection from the epigrammatic literature of ancient, mediæval, and modern times. With notes, observations, illustrations, and an introduction / by the Rev. Henry Philip Dodd.

  • Dodd, Henry Philip, 1828?-
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The epigrammatists : a selection from the epigrammatic literature of ancient, mediæval, and modern times. With notes, observations, illustrations, and an introduction / by the Rev. Henry Philip Dodd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    INTEODUCTION. No FORM of poetic composition is more universally popular than the epigram. The orator uses it in the Legislature to point his satire; the conversationalist at the dinner- table to display his wit; and the correspondent in his Letters to enliven his subject. Short, it is easily retained in the memory; pithy, it contains in the compass of a few lines the sum of an argument; and the result of experience, it often expresses the wisdom of ages. Changed much in its character, it has yet retained its essentials, and, though shorn of its elegant simplicity, it has gained in the breadth of its application. So ancient is the epigram, that its earliest use must be sought in the uncertain traditions of an age, the literature of which has descended but in fragments. So varied has been its form, that at one time largely employed for monu- mental inscriptions to honour the dead, at another it has been commonly used for satire to vilify the living. For example, Artemidorus, the Greek, composed the following for the tomb of Theocritus (Jacobs 1. 194, i., translated by Polwhele): Theocritus my name—of Syracuse— I claim no kindred with the Chian Muse. Praxagoras’ and Philinna’s son, I scorn The foreign bays that others’ brows adorn. With this let a well-known and worthless modern epi- gram be compared, on James Moore, or More, who was not averse to wear the bays belonging to others :