Corner, we are inclined to number
that on Spenser, which combines in an eminent degree dignity and
simplicity, and possesses a character which at once attracts attention.
The monument on which it appears had been originally erected by Anne,
Countess of Dorset, and having fallen into decay, was restored, in 1768,
precisely in its old form:

Heare lyes (expecting the second
Comminge of our Savior CHRIST
JESUS) the body of Edmond Spencer,
The Prince of Poets in his tyme,
Other witnesse than the works
Which he left behinde him.
He was borne in London in the yeare 1553,
And died in the year 1598.

The epitaph of Michael Drayton, another of the Elizabethan poets, said by
some to be the composition of Ben Jonson, and by others to be by Quarles,
has also a species of quaint beauty and solemnity which raises it above
the ordinary level. It was originally in gilt letters:

MICHAEL DRAITON, Esq.

A memorable poet of this age,
Exchanged his laurell for a crowne of glorye,
Ao. 1631.

Doe, pious Marble! let thy readers knowe
What they and what their children owe
To DRAITON'S name, whose sacred dust
We recommend unto thy TRUST:
Protect his memory, and preserve his storye,
Remaine a lastinge monument of his glorye;
And when thy ruines shall disclaime
To be the treas'rer of his name,
His name that cannot fade shall be
An everlasting monument to thee.

We cannot say that the Latin compositions of this sort in Westminster
Abbey are much to our taste. One however, we cannot pass over--that to the
memory of Goldsmith, by Dr. Johnson--a scholar-like production, dictated by
affection, and full of grace and tenderness. In the delineation of the
personal and literary character of his friend, we recognize all the
grander traits of the honest giant's loving heart and powerful pen.
Nothing can be in better taste than his commendation of Goldsmith's
genius:

Affectuum _potens et lenis Dominator_;
Ingenio sublimis--vividus, versatilis,
Oratione grandis, nitidus, venustus--

Of the English epitaphs, one of the most remarkable for elegance and
simplicity is that on Purcell, the composer, reputed, on the authority of
Malone, to be by Dryden, It certainly is not unworthy of his pen:

Here lyes
HENRY PURCELL, Esq.
Who left this life,
And is gone to that blessed place
Wher