Allan Ramsay. [A biography.] - National Library of Scotland

146 FAMOUS SCOTS
that determinate deftness so characteristic of Horace,
as well as those subtle nuances of double-meaning
wherein Pope and Arbuthnot excelled, and of which the
latter's terrible ' Epitaph on Colonel Chartres ' is a
favourable example. Ramsay hits with the hammer of
Thor, when he should tap as lightly as 'twere reproof
administered by a fair one with her fan. Witness his
portrait of Talpo in Health—a poem in many respects
one of Ramsay's best. With what airy satiric touches
Pope or Gay would have dashed off the character.
Note the laboured strokes wherewith Ramsay produces
his picture
—
—
' But Talpo sighs with matrimonial cares,
His cheeks wear wrinkles, silver grow his hairs,
Before old age his health decays apace,
And very rarely smiles clear up his face.
Talpo's a fool, there's hardly help for that,
He scarcely knows himself what he'd be at.
He's avaricious to the last degree,
And thinks his wife and children make too free
With his dear idol ; this creates his pain,
And breeds convulsions in his narrow brain.
He's always startled at approaching fate,
And often jealous of his virtuous mate ;
Is ever anxious, shuns his friends to save
Thus soon he'll fret himself into a grave ;
There let him rot'
But Ramsay's distinguishing and saving characteristic
in satire was the breadth and felicity of his humour.
To satire, however, humour is less adapted than wit,
and of wit Ramsay had, in a comparative sense, but a
scanty endowment. He was not one of those who
could say smart things, though he could depict a
humorous episode or situation as felicitously as anyone
: