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THE
LAST WORDS OF DISTINGUISHED
MEN AND WOMEN




  THE LAST WORDS
  (REAL AND TRADITIONAL)
  OF DISTINGUISHED
  MEN AND WOMEN

  COLLECTED FROM VARIOUS SOURCES
  BY
  FREDERIC ROWLAND MARVIN


                      The tongues of dying men
  Enforce attention like deep harmony;
  Where words are scarce they're seldom spent in vain,
  For they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain.
                                                  --_Shakspeare_


  NEW YORK    CHICAGO    TORONTO
  FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
  1901


  Copyright 1901
  by
  FREDERIC ROWLAND MARVIN
  (June)


  To my Wife
  this Book is most Lovingly
  Dedicated


  Neither is there anything of which I am so inquisitive, and delight
  to inform myself, as the manner of men's deaths, their words, looks,
  and bearing; nor any places in history I am so intent upon; and it
  is manifest enough, by my crowding in examples of this kind, that I
  have a particular fancy for that subject. If I were a writer of
  books, I would compile a register, with a comment, of the various
  deaths of men: he who should teach men to die, would at the same
  time teach them to live.--MONTAIGNE.




Last Words of Distinguished Men and Women.


ADAM (Alexander, Dr., headmaster at the High School in Edinburgh, and
the author of "Roman Antiquities"), 1741-1809. "_It grows dark, boys.
You may go._"

    "It grows dark, boys. You may go."
      (Thus the master gently said,
    Just before, in accents low,
      Circling friends moaned, "He is dead.")

    Unto him, a setting sun
      Tells the school's dismissal hour,
    Deeming not that he alone
      Deals with evening's dark'ning power.

    All his thought is with the boys,
      Taught by him in light to grow;
    Light withdrawn, and hushed the noise,
      Fall the passwords, "You may go."

    Go, boys, go, and take your rest;
      Weary is the book-worn brain:
    Day sinks idly in the west,
      Tired of glory, tired of gain.

    Careless are the shades that creep
      O'er the twilight, to and fro;
    Dusk is lost in shadows deep:
      _It grows dark, boys. You may go._
                              _Mary B. Dodge._


ABD-ER-RAHMAN III. (surnamed An-Nasir-Lideen-Illah or Lidinillah, that
is to say, "the defender of the religion of God," eighth Sultan and
first Caliph of Cordova. Under Abd-er-Rahman III. the Mohammedan empire
in Spain attained the height of its glory), 886-961. "_Fifty years have
passed since I became Caliph. Riches, honors, pleasures--I have enjoyed
all. In this long time of seeming happiness I have numbered the days on
which I have been happy. Fourteen._" Though these sad words correctly
express the spirit of the man who is reported to have spoken them, they
are purely traditional.


ADAMS (John, second President of the United States), 1735-1826.
"_Independence forever!_"

He died on the Fourth of July, the anniversary of the Declaration of
Independence; and it is thought that his last words were suggested by
the noise of the celebration. Some say his last words were, "Jefferson
survives;" if so, he was mistaken, for Jefferson passed away at an
earlier hour the same day.


ADAMS (John Quincy, sixth President of the United States), 1767-1848.
"_It is the last of earth! I am content!_" On the twenty-first of
February, 1848, while in his seat in the Capitol, he was struck with
paralysis, and died two days later.


ADDISON (Joseph, poet and essayist), 1672-1719. "_See in what peace a
Christian can die!_" These words were addressed to Lord Warwick, an
accomplished but dissolute youth, to whom Addison was nearly related.


ADRIAN or HADRIAN (Publius AElius, the Roman Emperor), 76-138. "_O my
poor soul, whither art thou going?_"

Adrian wrote both in Greek and Latin. Among his Latin poems (preserved
by Spartianus, who wrote his life), are these lines addressed to his own
soul:

              Animula vagula blandula,
              Hospes comesque corporis,
              Quae nunc abibis in loca?
              Pallidula, rigida, nudula,
              Nec, ut soles, dabis jocos.

    Soul of me! floating and flitting, and fond!
    Thou and this body were house-mates together;
    Wilt thou begone now, and whither?
    Pallid, and naked, and cold;
    Not to laugh, nor be glad, as of old.

Adrian is known in history as one of the greatest of the Roman Emperors.
It is hardly too much to say that, by his progress through all the
provinces and his policy of peace, he was the consolidater of the empire
founded a century and a half before by Augustus. He was the author of
the Roman Wall between England and Scotland; he beautified the city of
Athens; he founded the modern Adrianople; he built for his own mausoleum
what is now the Castle of St. Anglo at Rome. He was also a patron of
the fine arts and of literature.

Of the famous lines, "The Dying Adrian's Address to His Soul," no fewer
than one hundred and sixteen translations into English have been
collected, the translators including Pope, Prior, Byron, Dean Merivale,
and the late Earl of Carnarvon. It should be added that Pope's familiar
version, beginning "Vital spark of heav'nly flame," is a paraphrase
rather than a translation. I quote Prior's version:

    "Poor little, quivering, fluttering thing,
      Must we no longer live together?
    And dost thou prune thy trembling wing,
      To take thy flight thou know'st not whither?

    "Thy humorous vein, thy pleasing folly
      Lie all neglected, all forgot:
    And pensive, wavering, melancholy,
      Thou dread'st and hop'st thou know'st not what."

This is the only certain composition of Adrian that has been preserved,
though he is reported to have attempted many forms of literature. The
authenticity of a letter ascribed to him with a reference to the
Christians, is open to grave doubt. But now the sands of Egypt, which
are daily yielding up so many secrets of antiquity, have given us what
purports to be a private letter addressed by the Emperor Adrian to his
successor, Antoninus Pius, and--what is more interesting--it is written,
like the address to his soul, in view of his approaching death.
Unfortunately the papyrus is very fragmentary, but its general meaning
seems clear. We have evidently only the commencement of an elaborate
epistle. After the assertion that his death is neither unexpected, nor
lamentable, nor unreasonable, he says that he is prepared to die, though
he misses his correspondent's presence and loving care. He goes on:

"I do not intend to give the conventional reasons of philosophy for this
attitude, but to make a plain statement of facts.... My father by birth
died at the age of forty, a private person, so that I have lived more
than half as long again as my father, and have reached about the same
age as that of my mother when she died."

All this accords with the known facts about Adrian. He died at the age
of sixty-two, after a long illness, during which he was assiduously
tended by Antoninus. Just before the end he withdrew to Baiae, leaving
Antoninus in charge at Rome. His father had died when his son was ten
years old; of his mother we know nothing. _Prima facie_, there is no
improbability that letters of Adrian should be in circulation in Egypt,
which he visited at least once. His freedman Phlegon is reported to have
published a collection of them after his death.

On the other hand, it should be frankly admitted that some suspicious
circumstances attach to the letter. Of the antiquity of the papyrus
there is no doubt, for the handwriting cannot be later than the end of
the second century A. D., bringing it within sixty years (at farthest)
from Adrian's death. But it is written as a school exercise on the back
of a taxing-list, which naturally gives rise to the suspicion that it
may be merely the composition of the schoolmaster. The actual form of
the document is interesting. At the top are about fifteen lines, written
in a clear cursive, or running, hand. Below, the first five lines are
repeated in large, irregular uncials, or capital letters. It is
impossible not to recognize here an exercise set by a schoolmaster and a
copy begun by a pupil.

The papyrus is one of the many found by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt while
excavating in the Fayoum on account of the Egypt Exploration Fund, and
appears in the volume issued by the Graeco-Roman Branch of Egypt
Exploration Fund, called "Fayoum Towns and Their Papyri."
                          _J. S. Cotton in Biblia for November, 1900._


AGIS (King of Lacedaemonia, strangled by order of the Ephori. He was
charged with subverting the laws of his country, but was in reality a
brave and good man according to the light of the age in which he lived.
He died with great calmness and courage),--240. "_Weep not for me._"


AGRIPPA (Henricus Cornelius, German physician, theologian and
astrologer, skilled in alchemy and occult sciences), 1486-1535.
"_Begone, thou wretched beast, which hast utterly undone me._" The story
is that he was always accompanied by a devil in the shape of a black
dog. When he perceived that death was near he wished, by repentance, to
free his soul from the guilt of witchcraft, and so took off the collar
from his dog's neck. This collar was covered with magical characters. As
he removed the collar he muttered these, his last words: "Begone, thou
wretched beast, which hast utterly undone me." The familiar dog
disappeared with Agrippa's death, and was never more seen. This curious
story was for a long time believed by the common people, and is to be
found in one form or another in many old books.

Agrippa lectured on theology at Cologne, Pisa, Turin, and Pavia, and
practiced medicine in France. Henry VIII. invited him to England, but he
preferred the court of Margaret of Austria, regent of the Low Countries.
He died poor, leaving behind him a number of books, and among them "On
the Vanity of the Sciences," which has been translated into English and
other languages.


AGRIPPINA (mother of the Emperor Nero. She was one of the worst of
women, and was condemned to death by her own son),--60. "_Strike here!
Level your rage against the womb which gave birth to such a monster._"
These words she said, placing her hand over her womb, to the man sent to
dispatch her.


ALBERT (Francis-Augustus-Charles-Emmanuel, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and
Gotha. He married Queen Victoria, his cousin, the tenth of February,
1840), 1819-1861. "_I have had wealth, rank and power, but if these
were all I had, how wretched I should be!_" A few moments later he
repeated the familiar lines:

    Rock of Ages cleft for me,
    Let me hide myself in Thee.

Inscription on the "Memorial Cairn" on a high mountain overlooking
Balmoral Palace: "To the beloved memory of Albert the great and good
Prince Consort, erected by his broken-hearted widow, Victoria R., 21
August, 1862." Upon another dressed slab, a few inches below the above,
is this quotation: "He being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a
long time: for his soul pleased the Lord, therefore hasted he to take
him away from among the wicked."
                                _Wisdom of Solomon, chap. iv: 13, 14._

One year after Prince Albert died, the Queen erected a costly mausoleum
in the grounds of Frogmore House, which is legally a part of the domain
of Windsor Castle. The mausoleum is cruciform, eighty feet long, with
transepts of seventy feet. As soon as it was completed and consecrated
by the Bishop of Oxford, the remains of the Prince Consort were there
deposited. Over the entrance is a Latin inscription, which in English
reads as follows:

          WHAT WAS MORTAL OF PRINCE ALBERT
         HIS MOURNING WIDOW, QUEEN VICTORIA,
    HAS CAUSED TO BE DEPOSITED IN THIS SEPULCHER.
             FAREWELL, MY WELL BELOVED!
         HERE AT LAST SHALL I REST WITH THEE.
         WITH THEE IN CHRIST SHALL RISE AGAIN.


ALEXANDER (Jannaeus, son of John Hyrcanus, succeeded his brother
Aristobulus as King of Judea in 105 B. C. The Pharisees rose in
rebellion against his authority; they hated him during his life, and
cursed his memory when he was dead)--B. C. 78 "_Fear not true Pharisees,
but greatly fear painted Pharisees_," to his wife.


ALFIERI (Vittorio, eminent Italian tragic poet), 1749-1803. "_Clasp my
hand, my dear friend, I die!_" Addressed to the Countess Stolberg, who
derived the title Countess of Albany from being the wife of Charles
Edward Stuart, "the Pretender." After the death of Stuart, the countess
lived with Alfieri, to whom it is believed she was privately married.

In the church of Santa Croce, Florence, reposes the body of Alfieri, and
over it is an imposing monument erected by Canova for the Countess of
Albany. It was while walking amongst the tombs of the illustrious dead
in the great "Westminster Abbey of Italy" that the poet first dreamed of
fame.


ALFORD (Henry, commonly called "Dean Alford," English poet and divine,
Dean of Canterbury), 1810-1871. "_Will you tell the Archdeacon?--will
you move a vote of thanks for his kindness in performing the ceremony?_"
He wished the Archdeacon to assist in the services at his funeral.

He had expressed a wish to be buried in St. Martin's churchyard. The
spot chosen for his grave is beneath a yew-tree on the brow of the hill
on the south side of the path which leads from the lich-gate to the
western door of the ancient church. At the distance of about half a mile
to the west the towers of the Cathedral look down upon his tomb.

Among his papers was found the following memorandum, which, of course,
was carefully obeyed:

"When I am gone, and a tomb is to be put up, let there be, besides any
indication of who is lying below, these words, and these only:

    DEVERSORIUM VIATORIS HIEROSOLYMAM PROFICISCENTIS.

i. e., the inn of a traveller on his way to Jerusalem."


AMBROSE ("Saint," Latin Father, author of many books of varying value
and interest, and author of a method of singing known as "the Ambrosian
Chant"), 340-397. "_I have not so behaved myself that I should be
ashamed to live; nor am I afraid to die, because I have so good a
Master._"


AMES (Fisher, distinguished American statesman, leader of the Federal
party in the House of Representatives during the administration of
Washington), 1758-1808. "_I have peace of mind. It may arise from
stupidity, but I think it is founded on a belief of the gospel. My hope
is in the mercy of God._"


ANAXAGORAS (the most illustrious philosopher of the Ionian school, and
"The Friend of Pericles"), B. C. 500-428. "_Give the boys a holiday._"

After his banishment he resided in Lampsacus and there preserved
tranquillity of mind until his death. "It is not I who have lost the
Athenians; it is the Athenians who have lost me," was his proud
reflection. He continued his studies, and was highly respected by the
citizens, who, wishing to pay some mark of esteem to his memory, asked
him on his death-bed in what manner they could do so. He begged that the
day of his death might be annually kept as a holiday in all the schools
of Lampsacus. For centuries this request was fulfilled. He died in his
seventy-third year. A tomb was erected to him in the city, with this
inscription:

    This tomb great Anaxagoras confines,
    Whose mind explored the heavenly paths of Truth.
            _Lewes' Biographical History of Philosophy._


ANDRE (John, major in the British army at the time of the American
Revolution, and executed as a spy, October 2, 1780), 1751-1780. "_It
will be but a momentary pang._"

The order for execution was loudly and impressively read by
Adjutant-General Scammel, who at its conclusion informed Andre he might
now speak, if he had anything to say. Lifting the bandage for a moment
from his eyes he bowed courteously to Greene and the attending officers,
and said with firmness and dignity: "All I request of you, gentlemen,
is that you will bear witness to the world that I die like a brave man."
A moment later he said, almost in a whisper, "It will be