WIT ON TOMBSTONES.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 5, Issue 233, 23 November 1861, Page 6

WIT ON TOMBSTONES.

A vast amount of wit is to be gathered from tombstones, and mortuary puns have long been famous. The epitaph of the witty divine, Dr. Thos. Puller, is worthy of himself, simply — Fuller's Earth. There is a professional point in* the epitaph of the eminent barrister, Sir John Strange — Here lies an honest lawyer— that is Strange. And by what an outrageous quibble has the name of William Button, Esq., been handed down ..to immortality ! The epitaph is to be seen in a churchyard near Salisbury— O sun, moon, stars, and ye celestial poles! Are graves, then, dwindled into Button-holes ? There is something quaint and. touching in: this epitaph of Grixnaldi the distinguished clownHere I am. One of the best of this briefer kind was proposed by Jerrold, whose wit did not always wear so courteous a dress. Charles Knight, the Shaksperian critic, was the subject, and the wordsGood Knight. Professional rivalry produced this . ill-natured inscription for the tombstone of a Western editorHere lies an editor. It is added that the injured man recommended the author to use the inscription as a motto for' bis own journal. Of histrionic epitaphs the.best. is this on one of Shakespeare's actors — Exit Burbage: In a similar vein a wit gave a, couplet, to Mrs. Oldfield, the most celebrated actress of her day — This we must own, injustice to her shade, The first had exit Oldfield ever made. Something of compliment is here sacrificed to make the point. It ia the reverse to Malcolm's Eulogy on Cawdor — Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving of it. The comedian Foote takes his turn thus— Foote from his earthly stage, alas ! is hurl'd : Death took him off who took off all the world.