DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6887#0140
WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
105
James Thomson,
jEtatis 48, obiit 27 August, 1748.
" Tutor'd by thee, sweet Poetry exalts
" Her voice to ages; and informs the page
" With music, imago, sentiment, and thought,
" Never to die."
(104). Nicholas Rowe, Esquire..-A female figure, intended to represent
his widowed lady, appears lamenting over the bust of the poet; and on a pyramid
is the medallion of his daughter. The epitaph is oh the front of the pedestal.
" To the memory of Nicholas Rowe, Esquire, who died in 1718, aged forty-
" five; and of Charlotte his only daughter, wife of Henry Fane, Esquire, who,
" inheriting her father's spirit, and amiable in her own innocence and beauty,
" died in the twenty-third year of her age, 1739."
Beneath are these lines from the muse of Pope:
Thy reliques, Rowe! to this sad shrine we trust,
And near thy Shakspeare place thy honour'd bust.
Oh ! skill'd next him to draw the tender tear;
For never heart felt passion more sincere:
To nobler sentiments to fire the brave;
For never Briton more disdain'd a slave.
Peace to thy gentle shade, and endless rest,
Blest in thy genius, in thy love too blest:—
And blest, that, timely from our scene remov'd,
Thy soul enjoys that liberty it lov'd.
To these so mourned in death, so lov'd in life,
The childless mother, and the widowed wife,
With tears inscribes this monumental stone,
That holds their ashes, and expects her own.
Vol. II. p
105
James Thomson,
jEtatis 48, obiit 27 August, 1748.
" Tutor'd by thee, sweet Poetry exalts
" Her voice to ages; and informs the page
" With music, imago, sentiment, and thought,
" Never to die."
(104). Nicholas Rowe, Esquire..-A female figure, intended to represent
his widowed lady, appears lamenting over the bust of the poet; and on a pyramid
is the medallion of his daughter. The epitaph is oh the front of the pedestal.
" To the memory of Nicholas Rowe, Esquire, who died in 1718, aged forty-
" five; and of Charlotte his only daughter, wife of Henry Fane, Esquire, who,
" inheriting her father's spirit, and amiable in her own innocence and beauty,
" died in the twenty-third year of her age, 1739."
Beneath are these lines from the muse of Pope:
Thy reliques, Rowe! to this sad shrine we trust,
And near thy Shakspeare place thy honour'd bust.
Oh ! skill'd next him to draw the tender tear;
For never heart felt passion more sincere:
To nobler sentiments to fire the brave;
For never Briton more disdain'd a slave.
Peace to thy gentle shade, and endless rest,
Blest in thy genius, in thy love too blest:—
And blest, that, timely from our scene remov'd,
Thy soul enjoys that liberty it lov'd.
To these so mourned in death, so lov'd in life,
The childless mother, and the widowed wife,
With tears inscribes this monumental stone,
That holds their ashes, and expects her own.
Vol. II. p