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In epitaphs, the deceased person is sometimes introduced by way of prosopopaeia, speaking to the living, of which the following is an instance, wherein the defunct wife thus addresses her surviving husband: "Immatura peri; sed tu, felicior, annos Vive tuos, conjux optime, vive meos." The following epitaphs, out of several others, are worth preserving. That of Alexander:
First came Cradell, and leaning on his arm, I regret to say, was Mrs Lupex Egyptia conjux! Then there came Miss Spruce with young Roper; Amelia and her mother brought up the rear together. There was no longer question of flight now; and poor Eames, before he knew what he was doing, was carried down into the dining-room with the rest of the company.
John Whitefoot, in the 'Minutes' which, at the request of the widow, he drew up after Sir Thomas's death, and which contain the most that is known of his personal appearance and manners. Evidently the marriage was a happy one for forty-one years, when the Lady Dorothy was left mæstissima conjux, as her husband's stately epitaph, rich with many an issimus, declares.
Hic jacet sepultum Omne quod mortale fuit LETITIAE ELISABETHAE McLEAN, Quam, egregia ornatam indole, Musis unice amatam; Omniumque amores secum trahentem, In ipso aetatis flore, Mors immatura rapuit, Die Octobris XV., A.D. MDCCCXXXVIII, Atat 36. Quod spectas viator marmor, Vanum heu doloris monumentum, Conjux moereng erexit.
Natus Cubleiae, in agro Derbiensi, Anno MDCLVI. Obiit MDCCXXXI. Apposita est SARA, conjux, Antiqua FORDORUM gente oriunda; quam domi sedulam, foris paucis notam; nulli molestam, mentis acumine et judicii subtilitate praecellentem; aliis multum, sibi parum indulgentem: aeternitati semper attentam, omne fere virtutis nomen commendavit. Nata Nortoniae Regis, in agro Varvicensi, Anno MDCLXIX;
I would beg leave respectfully to answer that the way is dubious, long and dreary; and though, unfortunately, I cannot allege the excuse of "me pia conjux detinet," still I would fain crave a little repose. I have already been a long while errant: Longa mihi exilia, et vastum maris aequor aravi, Ne mandate mihi, nam ego sum defessus agendo.
She addresses him by the term Magnifice Conjux, which certainly does not betoken a very great degree of intimacy between husband and wife; and the letter concerns the unbearable conduct of the poet Poliziano, who was then an inmate of their house and the private teacher of their children.
Valerius Maximus, in his anecdotes, mentions him slightingly, as an evil man is spoken of who has forced himself into notice. Virgil has stamped his name with everlasting ignominy. "Sequiturque nefas Egyptia conjux." I can think of no Roman writer who has named him with honor. He was a Roman of the day what Rome had made him brave, greedy, treacherous, and unpatriotic.
It sneers in doubtful taste at the lady's learning: "sit non doctissima conjux, Sit nox cum somno, sit sine lite dies;"
She put up a most splendid monument to her departed lord over the family vault of the Bluebeards. The rector, Dr. Sly, who had been Mr. Bluebeard's tutor at college, wrote an epitaph in the most pompous yet pathetic Latin: "Siste, viator! moerens conjux, heu! quanto minus est cum reliquis versari quam tui meminisse"; in a word, everything that is usually said in epitaphs.