I.

ON CHARLES EARL OF DORSET,

IN THE CHURCH OF WITHYAM IN SUSSEX.

D

ORSET, the Grace of Courts, the Mufes' Pride,
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:
Yet foft his Nature, tho' fevere his Lay,
His Anger moral, and his Wisdom gay.
Bleft Satirift! who touch'd the Mean fo true,

As fhow'd, Vice had his hate and pity too.
Bleft Courtier! who could King and Country please,
Yet facred keep his Friendships, and his Eafe.
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.

Epitaphs.] Thefe Epitaphs are in general over-run with point and antithetis, and are a kind of panegyrical epigrams; they are confequently very different from the fimple fepulchral infcriptions of the ancients; of which that of Meleager on his Wife, in the Greek anthology, is a model and master-piece.

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 Easthamfted, in Berkshire, 1716.

A

PLEASING Form; a firm, yet cautious Mind;
Sincere, tho' prudent; conftant, yet refign'd:

Honour unchang'd, a Principle profest,

Fix'd to one fide, but mod'rate to the rest:
An honest Courtier, yet a Patriot too ;
Juft to his Prince, and to his Country true :
Fill'd with the Sense 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;

5

10

Such this Man was; who now, from earth remov'd, At length enjoys that Liberty he lov'd.

NOTES.

VER. 5. A Patriot too ;] Dr. Johnfon objects to the clofing this verse with the word too, and to the word fill'd in the seventh line, as weak and profaic, having no particular adaptation to any of the words that follow it. The whole of this epitaph is one ftring of antithefes throughout.