the charming naïveté of Cowper’s lyrical letters in octosyllabics to his friends, such as William Bull and Lady Austin (1782). At the close of the century Samuel Rogers endeavoured to resuscitate the neglected form in his “Epistle to a Friend” (1798). The formality and conventional grace of the epistle were elements with which the leaders of romantic revival were out of sympathy, and it was not cultivated to any important degree in the 19th century. It is, however, to be noted that Shelley’s “Letter to Maria Gisborne” (1820), Keats’s “Epistle to Charles Clarke” (1816), and Landor’s “To Julius Hare” (1836), in spite of their romantic colouring, are genuine Horatian epistles and of the pure Augustan type. This type, in English literature, is commonly, though not at all universally, cast in heroic verse. But Daniel employs rime royal and terza rima, while some modern epistles have been cast in short iambic rhymed measures or in blank verse. It is sometimes not easy to distinguish the epistle from the elegy and from the dedication. (E. G.)
For St Paul’s Epistles see Paul, for St Peter’s see Peter, for Apocryphal Epistles see Apocryphal Literature, for Plato’s see Plato, &c.
EPISTYLE (Gr. ἐπί, upon, and στῦλος, column), the Greek
architectural term for architrave, the lower member of the
entablature of the classic Orders (q.v.).
EPISTYLIS (C. G. Ehrenberg), in zoology, a genus of peritrichous Infusoria with a short oral disc and collar, and a rigid stalk, often branching to form a colony.
EPITAPH (Gr. ἐπιτάφιος, sc. λόγος, from ἐπί, upon, and τάφος, a tomb), strictly, an inscription upon a tomb, though
by a natural extension of usage the name is applied to anything
written ostensibly for that purpose whether actually inscribed
upon a tomb or not. When the word was introduced into English
in the 14th century it took the form epitaphy, as well as epitaphe,
which latter word is used both by Gower and Lydgate. Many
of the best-known epitaphs, both ancient and modern, are merely
literary memorials, and find no place on sepulchral monuments.
Sometimes the intention of the writer to have his production
placed upon the grave of the person he has commemorated may
have been frustrated, sometimes it may never have existed;
what he has written is still entitled to be called an epitaph if it
be suitable for the purpose, whether the purpose has been carried
out or not. The most obvious external condition that suitability
for mural inscription imposes is one of rigid limitation as to
length. An epitaph cannot in the nature of things extend to
the proportions that may be required in an elegy.
The desire to perpetuate the memory of the dead being natural to man, the practice of placing epitaphs upon their graves has been common among all nations and in all ages. And the similarity, amounting sometimes almost to identity, of thought and expression that often exists between epitaphs written more than two thousand years ago and epitaphs written only yesterday is as striking an evidence as literature affords of the close kinship of human nature under the most varying conditions where the same primary elemental feelings are stirred. The grief and hope of the Roman mother as expressed in the touching lines—
“Lagge fili bene quiescas; |
find their echo in similar inscriptions in many a modern cemetery.
Probably the earliest epitaphial inscriptions that have come down to us are those of the ancient Egyptians, written, as their mode of sepulture necessitated, upon the sarcophagi and coffins. Those that have been deciphered are all very much in the same form, commencing with a prayer to a deity, generally Osiris or Anubis, on behalf of the deceased, whose name, descent and office are usually specified. There is, however, no attempt to delineate individual character, and the feelings of the survivors are not expressed otherwise than in the fact of a prayer being offered. Ancient Greek epitaphs, unlike the Egyptian, are of great literary interest, deep and often tender in feeling, rich and varied in expression, and generally epigrammatic in form. They are written usually in elegiac verse, though many of the later epitaphs are in prose. Among the gems of the Greek anthology familiar to English readers through translations are the epitaphs upon those who had fallen in battle. There are several ascribed to Simonides on the heroes of Thermopylae, of which the most celebrated is the epigram—
| “Go tell the Spartans, thou that passest by, |
| That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.” |
A hymn of Simonides on the same subject contains some lines of great beauty in praise of those who were buried at Thermopylae, and these may be regarded as forming a literary epitaph. In Sparta epitaphs were inscribed only upon the graves of those who had been especially distinguished in war; in Athens they were applied more indiscriminately. They generally contained the name, the descent, the demise, and some account of the life of the person commemorated. It must be remembered, however, that many of the so-called Greek epitaphs are merely literary memorials not intended for monumental inscription, and that in these freer scope is naturally given to general reflections, while less attention is paid to biographical details. Many of them, even some of the monumental, do not contain any personal name, as in the one ascribed to Plato—
| “I am a shipwrecked sailor’s tomb; a peasant’s there doth stand: |
| Thus the same world of Hades lies beneath both sea and land.” |
Others again are so entirely of the nature of general reflections upon death that they contain no indication of the particular case that called them forth. It may be questioned, indeed, whether several of this character quoted in ordinary collections are epitaphs at all, in the sense of being intended for a particular occasion.
Roman epitaphs, in contrast to those of the Greeks, contained, as a rule, nothing beyond a record of facts. The inscriptions on the urns, of which numerous specimens are to be found in the British Museum, present but little variation. The letters D.M. or D.M.S. (Diis Manibus or Diis Manibus Sacrum) are followed by the name of the person whose ashes are enclosed, his age at death, and sometimes one or two other particulars. The inscription closes with the name of the person who caused the urn to be made, and his relationship to the deceased. It is a curious illustration of the survival of traces of an old faith after it has been formally discarded to find that the letters D.M. are not uncommon on the Christian inscriptions in the catacombs. It has been suggested that in this case they mean Deo Maximo and not Diis Manibus, but the explanation would be quite untenable, even if there were not many other undeniable instances of the survival of pagan superstitions in the thought and life of the early Christians. In these very catacomb inscriptions there are many illustrations to be found, apart from the use of the letters D.M., of the union of heathen with Christian sentiment, (see Maitland’s Church in the Catacombs). The private burial-places for the ashes of the dead were usually by the side of the various roads leading into Rome, the Via Appia, the Via Flaminia, &c. The traveller to or from the city thus passed for miles an almost uninterrupted succession of tombstones, whose inscriptions usually began with the appropriate words Siste Viator or Aspice Viator, the origin doubtless of the “Stop Passenger,” which still meets the eye in many parish churchyards of Britain. Another phrase of very common occurrence on ancient Roman tombstones, Sit tibi terra levis (“Light lie the earth upon thee”), has continued in frequent use, as conveying an appropriate sentiment, down to modern times. A remarkable feature of many of the Roman epitaphs was the terrible denunciation they often pronounced upon those who violated the sepulchre. Such denunciations were not uncommon in later times. A well-known instance is furnished in the lines on Shakespeare’s tomb at Stratford-on-Avon, said to have been written by the poet himself—
“Good frend, for Jesus’ sake forbeare |
The earliest existing British epitaphs belonged to the Roman period, and are written in Latin after the Roman form. Specimens are to be seen in various antiquarian museums throughout
