What mean'st thou, _Tucca_, with Tocay to join The vapid Refuse of dull Rhenish Wine? Do you the cordial Juice such Treach'ry owe, Prepost'rous Charity the Cut-throat show? To spoil Tocay, however fare your Guest, Is Murder, without Benefit of Priest. Poison allow the Merit of your Friend; But the poor Cask deserv'd a better End.
This, I should think, is the best kind of Epigram; for if the Nature of it in general consists in being acute, whatever is satirical, must always be so. Not but that there are other proper Subjects of it. Some panegyrical, directly contrary to the former; many of which we have in _Martial_ upon the Emperor _Domitian_, and in others. That of _Virgil_ is famous.
_Nocte pluit tota, redeunt spectacula mane; Divisum imperium cum Jove Cæsar habet._
The Show'rs brought on the Night, the Shews the Day: Thus _Jove_ and _Cæsar_ bear an equal Sway.
And the Inscription by a Modern design'd for the Palace of the late King of _France_:
_Non orbis gentem, non urbem gens habet ullam, Urbsve domum, dominum nec domus ulla, parem._
The world no Realm, no Realm a City sees, No City House, no House a Lord like this.
In which, tho' there is not that witty Turn which is usually reckon'd essential to Epigram; yet the Climax is so finely work'd up, that it well deserves the great Praises that have been given it. There are other Epigrams of the Love Kind; as the following one in the Anthology of _Italian_ Poets:
_Me lætis Leonilla oculis, me Lydia torvis Aspicit; hæc noctem nuntiat, illa diem. Has Cytherea meo stellas præfecit amori; Hæc meus est Vesper, Lucifer illa meus._
One with a sleepy, one a smirking Ray, _Fusca_ the Night foretels, _Lucy_ the Day. _Venus_ ordain'd, that each by Turns shou'd move, The Morning, and the Ev'ning Star of Love.
Here, indeed, we have the true _Form_ and _Shape_ of an Epigram, it has all the _Appearance_ of Wit and Elegance; but I fear it offends against right Reason and Nature. Some there are, upon various Circumstances or Events, which are scarce reducible to any Class. As this of _Martial_, upon the City _Ravenna_, where there is a great Scarcity of Water:
_Callidus imposuit nuper mihi caupo Ravennæ; Cum peterem mixtum, vendidit ille merum._