Graveyard Guru – January 21, 2010

Churchyard Literature: A Short Essay on Epitaphs
by Stephanie Lincecum

I have been studying epitaphs quite a bit lately and decided to make them the subject of this edition of Graveyard Guru. The word epitaph is from the Greek word epitaphios and translates literally to “on the gravestone.” Epitaphs take on many forms, from simply a name with dates, to a long dissertation about the deceased. It might be in the form of a quote, poem, Bible scripture, or a humorous one-liner. While today, short and simple inscriptions are common, much longer ones were more the norm from roughly the 14^th through the 19^th centuries.

Epitaphs are sometimes used to speak to the visitor of a particular gravesite. A fairly well-known epitaph of this nature is the following:

Stranger, stop and cast an eye,

As you are now, so once was I.

As I am now, so you will be,

Prepare for death and follow me.

An epitaph such as this can also be described as “Memento Mori.” An often artistic creation used for the purpose of reminding people of their own mortality.

E. R. Shushan, in the book Grave Matters: A Curious Collection of 500 Actual Epitaphs, describes epitaphs as “a continuing dialogue between the dead and the living, providing histories, warnings, prayers, and comfort to those who come after.” Dr. S. Johnson, in Gleanings from God’s Acre, states the intention of epitaphs is to honor the person deceased and perpetuate their “examples of virtue.” However, as stated in an 1876 New York Times article, “The annals of the poor, and of the rich, as they are recorded on the venerable tombstones of the quaint old parish graveyards in England and this country, are not always sweet and simple.”

Shushan goes on to describe how the Ancient Egyptians recorded the history of the deceased and reminded the living of their own mortality with the building of tombs and pyramids. The Greeks did not put importance on identifying the deceased, but chose to write verses that remind the reader of the universality of death.

Many early societies employed “sepulchral iconography,” the use of beautiful, elaborate, and detailed scenes or panoramas portraying the life of the deceased, as well as written inscriptions.

The Romans buried their dead alongside major highways as a constant reminder to the living. They also identified the dead with a portrait and inscription. Many of their epitaphs began with “Sta, viator!” This translates to “Stop, reader!” The Romans were the ones to introduce tombstone inscriptions to England.

W. Fairley, in Epitaphiana: The Curiosity of Churchyard Literature, cites a common, early English epitaph: Affliction sore long time I bore.

The collecting and studying of epitaphs is not new. According to Fairley (Epitaphiana, published 1873), there are books on the subject dating back to 1645. Dr. S. Johnson (Gleanings from God’s Acre, published 1883) says epitaphs are entitled to more than a common regard because they “are probably of the same age with the art of writing.”

I consider epitaphs to be a form of cemetery art. A disappearing art, in fact. As stated in the 1876 “Churchyard Literature” article in the New York Times, “…many of the most venerable inscriptions are becoming obliterated, and there is no enthusiastic Old Mortality in these days wandering about from the Atlantic to the Pacific restoring the inscriptions on the stones over the graves of the pioneers of American colonization.”

Even as the hobby of genealogy becomes more and more popular, this lack of respect for the epitaph is still alive today. I have noticed this myself, when checking to see if a particular gravestone I have transcribed and/or photographed has been entered in to the huge Find A Grave database. There are many stones that I know for a fact contained an epitaph more than just the name and dates of the deceased, yet that is all the contributor felt necessary to include in the memorial. While there is a chance the few lines of poetry added to the stone meant nothing to the deceased, I suggest to you that is rarely the case. Those few lines might have been from their favorite poem. Knowing that, for example, would give you further information about your ancestor.

While it is impossible for me to show you in this article examples of all the different epitaphs written over their long history, I can share with you a few. My favorite category of epitaphs are the ones that describe how an individual died. Even though the subject is somber, sometimes I cannot help but chuckle at the wording used. I will list three. The first is quite serious and beautiful in its own way, and the other two gave me a grin.

---

“In Memory of Joseph Salter, aged 17 years, son of Capt. Richard Salter of Portsmouth, N. H., the beloved youth ascended in the flames of a mansion house on yonder hill Saturday morning, Feb. 6, 1802 at 4 o’clock A.M.

Glorify ye the Lord in the Fires. Isaiah 24, 5

As from Manoah’s rock in ancient days

Uprose the Angel from surrounding blaze

Thus rose the spirit of the son of Love

On fiery pinneons to the realms above.”

From New Hampshire. Source is The Magazine of History with Notes and Queries, Volume 19 (published 1914).

---

“Here lies the body of Mary Ann Lowder,

She burst while drinking a seidlitz powder.

Called from this world to her heavenly rest,

She should have waited till it effervesced.”

From St. Mary’s Churchyard in Burlington, New Jersey. Source is NY Times article already mentioned.

---

“To the azure depths of the upper air

His body had flewn, flewn, flewn.

A bit of him here, and a bit of him there,

And over the landscape everywhere --

It now lies strewn, strewn, strewn,

But his soul, I believe, and am willing to swear

Is grandly climbing the golden stair,

To an anti-glycerine tune:

Gone where they don’t put up in cans.”

Supposedly for an individual who sat down on a can of nitro-glycerin and… (from same source as above).

---

Sources and further reading ( * = can be found online in Google Books):

Shushan, E. R., Grave Matters: A Curious Collection of 500 Actual Epitaphs. (New York: Ballantine Books, 1990).

Fairley, W., Epitaphiana: The Curiosities of Churchyard Literature. (Samuel Tinsley, 1873).*

The Magazine of History with Notes and Queries, Volume 19. (W. Abbatt, 1914).*

Perkins, Frank A., Handbook of Old Burial Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts. (Massachusetts: A. S. Burbank, 1902).*

Briscoe, John Peter, Gleanings from God’s Acre: A Collection of Epitaphs. (London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co., 1883).*

Crissman, James K., Death and Dying in Central Appalachia. (University of Illinois Press, 1994).