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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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( 68 ) '
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To the Editor of the Monthly Repository .
sir , Sep . IS , 1 S 08 . I was lately lot king info the Memoirs of General Lurflow , that consistent and enlightened republican , who could discover and
re ( ect a despot in a Protector , as readily as in a King , I mention his work however at present with reference , not to politics , but to poetry . In a passage which you may deem worthy of quotation for its own sake , I have , I think , discovered a source of imitation
by Pope , who is now well known to have been indebted for phrases and sentiments to writers of all descriptions 3 while he has generally the merit of having improved what he borrowed . I am not
aware that the following probable instance of such imitation has ever yet been mentioned . Ludlow , having noticed the death of I re ton , the son in law of
Cromwell , and Lord Deputy of Ireland for the commonweal th which happened in 1651 , has the fo ! 1 o wi ng passage :
** Some of General Cromwell ' s relations , who were not ignorant of his vast designs now on foot , caused the body of the Lord Deputy Freton to be transported into England , and solemnly interred at Westminster , in a magnificent monument , at the public charge : who ,
if he could have foreseen what was done by them , would certainly have made k his desire that his body might have found a grave where his soul left it , so much did be despise those pompous and exp ^ iv * sive vanities ; Latfjrtir erected far himself a
more giorickts monument in the btart * of good men , T > y his aflfectiSn to his country , his abilities of mind , his impartial justice , his diligence in the public service and his other virjtuei *; . which * rere a far greater henttur to his memory , than a dormitory am t , rig ibs a * b * 5 of kings ^ who for fchc
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most part , as they had governed othea * by their passions , so were they themselves as much governed by them . * — I ^ ndlow ' s Mem . 8 vo . i . 384 . The words in this passage which I have marked as Italics , may , I think , be fairly supposed to have
suggested to Pope the following concluding lines in his Epitaph or * Gay : « ' These are thy honours ! not that here ' thy bust Is mix * d with heroes , or with kings thy dust ; But that the worthy and the good shall
say , Striking their pensive bosoms—Hers lies GAY . " I quote these lines from the first volume , ( p . 363 . ) of the projected edition of Pope , by VVakcfield , who subjoins the following note , on the last line , which he has marked ag a quotation .
'* Here : in this bosom . Others may be reposited in tombs and sepulchres , as their proper memorials : but Gay is enshrined in the Aosoms of the virtuous * ' * It is well known , and has been justly regretted , by the lovers of English literature , that Wakefield , for reasons which he deemed
satisfactory , abandoned his design after the appearance of the first volume ; publishing the further materials lie had collected under the title of " Observations on
Pope . " In that volume , ( p . 1270 is the following additional note ^ ' on the concluding lines of Ga ^ s Epitaph : ' ' *
( e This thought is originally in Craz sbaivs epitaph dn Mr . Henrys ; ' Enough : now , if thou canst , pa s * on ^ * For now" alass ! not , in thh stone , c Passenger ! whoe ' er thou art , * It be etttomb'd i but in thy bear *? "
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LUDLOW ' S CHARACTER OF IRETON TIIK ORIGIN OF POT E * S EPITAPH . ON GAY .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1809, page 68, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1733/page/12/
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