Note 7 — ACT I.
Reading edition
These lines seem a parody on the following one in "Bonduca," by Beaumont and Fletcher, act iv. sc. 3—
"Lie lightly on my ashes, gentle earth."
The time when Prior wrote his beautiful Ode to the Memory of Colonel George Villiers, drowned in the river Piave, in Friuli, 1703, is so near the period in which Mr Pope composed his elegy to the memory of an unfortunate lady, that it is difficult to say which of these great men borrowed from the other. It appears certain, however, that one of them, in the following lines, was indebted to his friend, unless it can be supposed that both of them were obliged to the above line of Beaumont and Fletcher. Prior says—
"Lay the dead hero graceful in a grave (The only honour he can now receive), And fragrant mould upon his body throw. And plant the warrior laurel o'er his brow; Light lie the earth, and flourish green the bough."
Mr Pope writes thus—
"What though no sacred earth allow thee room, Nor hallow'd dirge be mutter'd o'er thy tomb; Yet shall thy grave with rising flowers be drest, And thy green turf lie lightly on thy breast."
I know not why we should suppose that Pope borrowed from Prior, or that either of them was indebted to Beaumont and Fletcher on this occasion. Sit tibi terra levis! is a wish expressed in many of the ancient Roman inscriptions. So in that on Pylades—
"Dicite qui legitis, solito de more, sepulto, Pro meritis, Pylade, sit tibi terra levis!"
Again, in the sepulchral dialogue supposed to pass between Atimetus and Homonœa—
"Sit tibi terra levis, mulier dignissima vita!"
Again, in Propertius, El. xvii. lib. 1—
"Et mihi non ullo pondere terra foret."
Again, in Ovid—
"Et sit humus cineri non onerosa tuo!"
Thus also Juvenal, Sat. vii.—
"Di majorum umbris tenuem et sine pondere terram, Spirantesque crocos, et in urna perpetuum ver!"
Again, in Persius, Sat. i.—
"Non levior cippus nunc imprimit ossa? ... nunc non e manibus illis, Nunc non e tumulo fortunataque favilla Nascentur violæ?"
On the contrary, Sit tibi terra gravis and Urgeat ossa lapis were usual maledictions, the ancients supposing that the soul remained for some time after death with the body, and was partner in its confinement. The latter of these wishes is ludicrously adopted by Dr Evans, in his epitaph on Sir J. Vanbrugh—
"Lie heavy on him, earth! for he Laid many a heavy weight on thee."
It may be observed that such ideas, however poetical, have no great degree of propriety when introduced into Christian elegies, as we have no belief that the soul is in danger of being oppressed by a monument or stifled in a grave.—Steevens.