The epigrams of Robert Crowley (1550) and of Henry Parrot (1613) are worthless so far as form goes. John Weever’s collection (1599) is of interest mainly because of its allusion to Shakespeare. Ben Jonson furnishes a number of noble examples in his Underwoods; and one or two of Spenser’s little poems and a great many of Herrick’s are properly classed as epigrams. Cowley, Waller, Dryden, Prior, Parnell, Swift, Addison, Johnson, Goldsmith and Young have all been at times successful in their epigrammatical attempts; but perhaps none of them has proved himself so much “to the manner born” as Pope, whose name indeed is almost identified with the epigrammatical spirit in English literature. Few English modern poets have followed in his footsteps, and though nearly all might plead guilty to an epigram or two, there is no one who has a distinct reputation as an epigrammatist. Such a reputation might certainly have been Landor’s, had he not chosen to write the best of his minor poems in Latin, and thus made his readers nearly as select as his language.
The French are undoubtedly the most successful cultivators of the “salt” and the “vinegar” epigram; and from the 16th century downwards many of their principal authors have earned no small celebrity in this department. The epigram was introduced into French literature by Mellin de St Gelais and Clément Marot. It is enough to mention the names of Boileau, J. B. Rousseau, Lebrun, Voltaire, Marmontel, Piron, Rulhière, and M. J. Chénier. In spite of Rapin’s dictum that a man ought to be content if he succeeded in writing one really good epigram, those of Lebrun alone number upwards of 600, and a very fair proportion of them would doubtless pass muster even with Rapin himself. If Piron was never anything better, “pas même académicien,” he appears at any rate in Grimm’s phrase to have been “une machine à saillies, à épigrammes, et à bons mots.” Perhaps more than anywhere else the epigram has been recognized in France as a regular weapon in literary and political contests, and it might not be altogether a hopeless task to compile an epigrammatical history from the Revolution to the present time.
While any fair collection of German epigrams will furnish examples that for keenness of wit would be quite in place in a French anthology, the Teutonic tendency to the moral and didactic has given rise to a class but sparingly represented in French. The very name of Sinngedichte bears witness to this peculiarity, which is exemplified equally by the rude priameln or proeameln, of the 13th and 14th centuries and the polished lines of Goethe and Schiller. Logau published his Deutsche Sinngetichte Drey Tausend in 1654, and Wernicke no fewer than six volumes of Ueberschriften oder Epigrammata in 1697; Kästner’s Sinngedichte appeared in 1782, and Haug and Weissen’s Epigrammatische Anthologie in 1804. Kleist, Opitz, Gleim, Hagedorn, Klopstock and A. W. Schlegel all possess some reputation as epigrammatists; Lessing is facile princeps in the satirical style; and Herder has the honour of having enriched his language with much of what is best from Oriental and classical sources.
It is often by no means easy to trace the history of even a single epigram, and the investigator soon learns to be cautious of congratulating himself on the attainment of a genuine original. The same point, refurbished and fitted anew to its tiny shaft, has been shot again and again by laughing cupids or fierce-eyed furies in many a frolic and many a fray. During the period when the epigram was the favourite form in Germany, Gervinus tells us how the works, not only of the Greek and Roman writers, but of Neo-Latinists, Spaniards, Dutchmen, Frenchmen, Englishmen and Poles were ransacked and plundered; and the same process of pillage has gone on in a more or less modified degree in other times and countries. Very noticeable often are the modifications of tone and expression occasioned by national and individual characteristics; the simplicity of the prototype may become common-place in the imitation, the sublime be distorted into the grotesque, the pathetic degenerate into the absurdly sentimental; or on the other hand, an unpromising motif may be happily developed into unexpected beauty. A good illustration of the variety with which the same epigram may be translated and travestied is afforded by a little volume published in Edinburgh in 1808, under the title of Lucubrations on the Epigram—
| Εἰ μὲν ᾖν μαθεῖν ἆ δεῖ παθεῖν, καὶ μὴ παθεῖν, καλὸν ἦν τὸ μαθεῖν εἰ δὲ δεῖ παθεῖν ἆ δ᾽ ᾖν μαθεῖν, τί δεῖ μαθεῖν; χρὴ γὰρ παθεῖν. |
The two collections of epigrams most accessible to the English reader are Booth’s Epigrams, Ancient and Modern (1863) and Dodd’s The Epigrammatists (1870). In the appendix to the latter is a pretty full bibliography, to which the following list may serve as a supplement:—Thomas Corraeus, De toto eo poëmatis genere quod epigramma dicitur (Venice, 1569; Bologna, 1590); Cottunius, De conficiendo epigrammate (Bologna, 1632); Vincentius Gallus, Opusculum de epigrammate (Milan, 1641); Vavassor, De epigrammate liber (Paris, 1669); Gedanke von deutschen Epigrammatibus (Leipzig, 1698); Doctissimorum nostra aetate Italorum epigrammata; Flaminii Moleae Naugerii, Cottae, Lampridii, Sadoleti, et aliorum, cura Jo. Gagnaei (Paris, c. 1550); Brugière de Barante, Recueil des plus belles épigrammes des poètes français (2 vols., Paris, 1698); Chr. Aug. Heumann, Anthologia Latina: hoc est, epigrammata partim a priscis partim junioribus a poëtis (Hanover, 1721); Fayolle, Acontologie ou dictionnaire d’épigrammes (Paris, 1817); Geijsbeck, Epigrammatische Anthologie, Sauvage, Les Guêpes gauloises: petit encyclopédie des meilleurs épigrammes, &c., depuis Clément Marot jusqu’aux poètes de nos jours (1859); La Récréation et passe-temps des tristes: recueil d’épigrammes et de petits contes en vers réimprimé sur l’édition de Rouen 1595, &c. (Paris, 1863). A large number of epigrams and much miscellaneous information in regard to their origin, application and translation is scattered through Notes and Queries.
See also an article in The Quarterly Review, No. 233.
EPIGRAPHY (Gr. ἐπί, on, and γράφειν, to write), a term
used to denote (1) the study of inscriptions collectively, and (2)
the science connected with the classification and explanation of
inscriptions. It is sometimes employed, too, in a more contracted
sense, to denote the palaeography, in inscriptions.
Generally, it is that part of archaeology which has to do with
inscriptions engraved on stone, metal or other permanent
material (not, however, coins, which come under the heading
Numismatics).
See Inscriptions; Palaeography.
EPILEPSY (Gr. ἐπί, upon, and λαμβάνειν, to seize), or Falling
Sickness, a term applied generally to a nervous disorder,
characterized by a fit of sudden loss of consciousness, attended
with convulsions. There may, however, exist manifestations
of epilepsy much less marked than this, yet equally characteristic
of the disease; while, on the other hand, it is to be borne in
mind that many other attacks of a convulsive nature have the
term “epileptic” or “epileptiform” applied to them.
Epilepsy was well known in ancient times, and was regarded as a special infliction of the gods, hence the names morbus sacer, morbus divus. It was also termed morbus Herculeus, from Hercules having been supposed to have been epileptic, and morbus comitialis, from the circumstance that when any member of the forum was seized with an epileptic fit the assembly was broken up. Morbus caducus, morbus lunaticus astralis, morbus demoniacus, morbus major, were all terms employed to designate epilepsy.
There are three well-marked varieties of the epileptic seizure; to these the terms le grand mal, le petit mal and Jacksonian epilepsy are usually applied. Any of these may exist alone, but the two former may be found to exist in the same individual. The first of these, if not the more common, is at least that which attracts the most attention, being what is generally known as an epileptic fit.
Although in most instances such an attack comes on suddenly, it is in many cases preceded by certain premonitory indications or warnings, which may be present for a greater or less time previously. These are of very varied character, and may be in the form of some temporary change in the disposition, such as unusual depression or elevation of spirits, or of some alteration in the look. Besides these general symptoms, there are frequently peculiar sensations which immediately precede the onset of the fit, and to such the name of aura epileptica is applied. In its strict sense this term refers to a feeling of a breath of air blowing upon some part of the body, and passing upwards towards the head. This sensation, however, is not a common one, and the term has now come to be applied to any peculiar feeling which the
