Attempt > Volume 1 and Select writings

46
THE ATTEMPT
Poets have not unfrequently been the composers of their own Epitaphs. Prior’s
is one of the best known:—
“ Nobles and heralds, by yonr leave,
Here lies what once was Matthew Prior,
The son of Adam and of Eve;
Can Stuart or Nassau claim higher? ”
Also that of Pirou, written in a spirit of revenge against the French Academy:—
“ Ci-git Piron qui ne fut jamais rien,
Pas memo Academicien.”
Most of us have seen the Epitaph on Erederick, Prince of "Wales, which appeared
in Thackeray’s “Lives of the Four Georges,” in the Cornhill Magazine:—
“ Here lies Fred, who was alive and is dead.
Had it been his father,
I had much rather;
Had it been his brother.
Still better than another;
Had it been his sister,
No one would have missed her;
But since ’tis only Fred, who was alive and is dead,
There’s no more to be said.”
We shall close this short selection of Epitaphs with the beautiful one composed by
Benjamin Franklin on himself:—“The hody of Benjamin Franklin, printer (like the
cover of an old book, its contents torn out, and stripped of its lettering and gilding), lies
here, food for worms; yet the work itself shall not be lost, for it will (as he believed)
appear once more in a new and more beautiful edition, corrected and amended by the
Author.”
Veronica.