(No. 233), "out of some sixteen hundred epigrams unobjectionable on the score of vice and immorality." This may be a slight exaggeration, but, even when not immoral, many are nauseating descriptions of Alia's teeth, Nævia's cough, or Nestor's breath. Avoiding grosser examples, the following will serve to show the character of a large number of the epigrams with which Martial pleased his patrons and amused the Roman people. The first is a specimen of his gross flattery of Domitian (Book VIII. 54, translated by Elphinston):

Much tho' thou still bestow, and promise more;
Tho' lord of leaders, of thyself, thou be:

The people thee, not for rewards adore;

But the rewards adore for love of thee.

Gellia is scurrilously aspersed in several epigrams, as in the following (Book I. 34, translated by Hay):

Her father dead!-Alone, no grief she knows;
Th' obedient tear, at every visit flows.

No mourner he, who must with praise be fee'd!
But he who mourns in secret, mourns indeed!

Puerility reaches its climax in the next (Book I. 29, translated by Relph):

Of yesterday's debauch he smells, you say:

"Tis false-Acerra plied it till to-day.

But Martial, when it pleased him, could compose epigrams in a very different strain, which show how nobly he might have followed in the steps of the Greeks, had he preferred high poetic fame to mere popular applause. Some of his pictures of Roman life; his descriptions of scenery; his humorous, and occasionally pathetic, addresses to his friends; and his tender epitaphs on children, are amongst the most beautiful of ancient epigrams. Many, too, of his pieces, though less Greek in tone, express truths so accurately, and display the phases of human nature so clearly, that they are not less valuable to the moralist than interesting to the general reader; whilst some, again, of his lighter epigrams are so terse and brilliant, that our greatest writers have imitated and used them to point a

moral or adorn a tale. The following may be taken as examples of the higher class of epigrams. The first, to Faustinus, on the death of the daughter of his neighbour Fænius, is tender and pathetic (Book I. 115, translated by Elphinston, altered):

Near thy domain, Faustinus, Fæniuз lives,

Where a moist plot of ground contentment gives:
Here o'er Antulla's urn he makes his moan,
Her name inscrib'd where ought to rest his own:
The sire, as just, had woo'd the Stygian shade,
But sad survives, to see her honours paid.

The next, on the portrait of Camonus, touchingly illustrates the father's grief (Book IX. 75, translated by Elphinston, altered):

This picture gives the semblance of the child,
And thus in early life the infant smil'd:
His manhood's blooming looks no pencil drew,
The voiceless lips the father would not view.

In the following there is much wisdom, applicable to many things besides books (Book IX. 82, translated by Sir John Harington):

The readers and the hearers like my books,
But yet some writers cannot them digest.
But what care I? For when I make a feast,

I would my guests should praise it, not the cooks.

By comparing Martial's different styles, we find that his writings display no principle, and that for truth and purity he had no care. Though at times he wrote with grace and tenderness, with refined wit and genial humour, he more often prostituted his talents to the most unworthy purposes. He thus set an example of pandering to the low tastes of the vulgar and the depraved, which has been greedily followed by those who are incapable of reaching the higher style, either of his pathetic and elegant pieces, or of those which are pregnant with sound sense and inoffensive wit.

The stinging point and personal satire of the majority of Martial's epigrams may be considered the chief cause of the influence which he has exercised over modern epigram

matists. The wit of a point is attractive to men of refined taste, but if sting be added to it, lower tastes are gratified. Satire is fascinating to men of cultivated intellect, but if it take the form of personal invective, vulgar minds appreciate it. Consequently, Martial became popular as a writer of epigrams, in which the characteristics of stinging point and satirical personality are developed. His nobler and purer epigrams were neglected, partly on account of the great length of some of them, which almost deprive them of a right to the title, but chiefly because lively but harmless humour, and tender sentiments appear tame and uninteresting, when contrasted by the mass of mankind with grossness and coarsely-pointed satire.

But

It is possible, however, that had the pure and delicate Greek models been before modern epigrammatists, they might have chosen the good and refused the evil. the choice lay only between the good and the evil of Martial, and the latter largely preponderated. The Greek Anthology was not only unread, but was well-nigh unknown, for at the period at which Martial's manner most strongly affected epigrammatic literature, the few and inferior editions were so scarce as to be difficult to obtain. The study of Greek, too, was much neglected, and many of those who could read Martial were unable to translate the Greek epigrams. Thus it came to pass that, from want of acquaintance with the purest style of epigram as displayed by the Greek writers, Martial was looked upon as the true model, and his prevailing and inferior, instead of his best, style was accepted as the correct pattern for epigram writing.

The injurious effect of Martial's influence upon our epigrammatic literature may be seen in the popular collections of the last century. Rough satire, unchaste wit, and stinging point take the place of the elegant simplicity, the guileless humour, and the inoffensive point which were held in estimation among the Greeks. Thus, the character of the modern epigram has been so lowered, that critics have not hesitated to speak of it as unworthy of a place in our literature, and as fit only to be the vehicle for party malice and private spite. Happily, however, there

have never been wanting epigrammatists who scorned to imitate either the grossness or the folly of Martial, who copied him in his virtues and not in his vices; and a few, too, who knew and appreciated the Greek models, and studied to reproduce their beauties. Of late years the inferior character of the majority, and also the delicate humour and beauty of many, of Martial's epigrams have been more clearly discerned, and it may be hoped that the deleterious influence of his lower style, as a pattern for epigram writers, is no longer paramount.

We now come to the period when the Gothic arms had driven literature from the West; and when at the Byzantine court the last uncertain sounds of the Grecian lyre were struggling with victorious barbarism. But whilst darkness for centuries hung over Europe, and the light of learning was so feeble that it was lost in the gloom, far away in the East the Muses were courted, and monarchs and courtiers vied for the bays. Epigrammatic literature flourished among the votaries of Mahomet. Arabian poetry is little known in England, and even translations are rarely to be found. At the close of the last century, however, Mr. Carlyle, Cambridge Professor of Arabic, published a volume of great interest, "Specimens of Arabian Poetry from the Earliest Time to the Extinction of the Khaliphat.' This work contains translations of Arabian poetry of various kinds, but a very considerable number of the pieces are of an epigrammatic character, not in the style of the Roman, but rather approximating towards the Greek, epigram, though a few are more humorous than was usual among the earlier Greek writers, and the majority are longer than the terse inscriptions of that people. The following example displays the character of many of these Arabian pieces. The author is Abou Teman, who was born in the year of the Hegira 190; i.e., A.D. 812. He addresses his mistress, who had found fault with him for profusion (Specimens of Arabian Poetry," 1796, 64):

Ungenerous and mistaken maid,

To scorn me thus because I'm poor'
Canst thou a liberal hand upbraid

For dealing round some worthless ore?

To spare's the wish of little souls,
The great but gather to bestow;
Yon current down the mountain rolls,
And stagnates in the swamp below.

Turning again to the West, the revival of learning in Europe, and the resumption of epigram-writing, claims attention. The commencement of the fifteenth century is the period generally assigned as that at which the first marked attempts were made to dispel the darkness, and to rekindle the flame of literature. But, as in all revivals, it is usually one man who takes the lead, and directs the efforts of others, so, at this time, Lorenzo de Medici, the munificent patron of men of letters, stands prominently forward as the centre whence emanated the exertions for the restoration of learning. Succeeding to the chief place in the Republic of Florence, at the death of his father in 1469, Lorenzo the Magnificent bent all his energies to his favourite project--the revival of literature. He it was who employed learned men to discover and purchase the valuable relics of antiquity; who despatched John Lascaris (the editor of the first printed edition of the Greek Anthology) into the East to collect manuscripts; and who directed the labours of Italian scholars in collating the remains of ancient authors, for the purpose of disseminating them by means of the newly-invented art of printing. He was greatly aided in his efforts by learned Greeks, who, at the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, had taken refuge in Italy, and who gladly resorted to a city which was graced by one so noble in rank and in mind as Lorenzo. The result was the establishment of an academy at Florence for the cultivation of the Greek language and literature, under the direction of Greeks and Italians, by means of which the study of that tongue was extended throughout a great part of Europe, though it was afterwards unfortunately allowed to fall much into desuetude.

From this period may be dated the restoration of Latin epigrammatic literature. But, though Latin was the language, the ancient Latin writers were not the models. The Anthology of John Lascaris, and the study of the Greek