Noah Webster
Epitaph
EP'ITAPH, noun [Gr. a sepulcher.]
1. An inscription on a monument, in honor or memory of the dead.
The epitaphs of the present day are crammed with fulsome compliments never merited.
Can you look forward to the honor of a decorated coffin, a splendid funeral, a towering monument--it may be a lying epitaph
2. An eulogy, in prose or verse, composed without any intent to be engraven on a monument, as that on Alexander:
'Sufficit huic tumulus, cui non sufficeret orbis.'