Euripides, Medea, lines 1-7—
Εἴθ' ὤφελ' Ἀργοῦς μὴ διαπτάσθαι σκάφος κ.τ.λ. ]
MY EPITAPH.[16]
Youth, Nature, and relenting Jove,
To keep my lamp in strongly strove;
But Romanelli was so stout,
He beat all three—and blew it out.
October, 1810.
[First published, Letters and Journals, 1830, i. 240.]
FOOTNOTES:
[16] ["The English Consul ... forced a physician upon me, and in three days vomited and glystered me to the last gasp. In this state I made my epitaph—take it."—Letter to Hodgson, October 3, 1810, Letters, 1898, i. 298.]
SUBSTITUTE FOR AN EPITAPH.
Kind Reader! take your choice to cry or laugh;
Here Harold lies—but where's his Epitaph?
If such you seek, try Westminster, and view
Ten thousand just as fit for him as you.
Athens, 1810.
[First published, Lord Byron's Works, 1832, ix. 4.]