Editing Miser (section)

===Poetry===
Misers are frequent figures of fun in the epigrams of the [[Greek Anthology]].<ref>A group of eight in Book XI are numbered [https://archive.org/stream/greekanthology04newyuoft#page/150/mode/2up 165-73]</ref> It is charged of them that they are not masters of their own money if they do not spend it. Niarchus tells of one who does not commit suicide because of the cost of the rope to do so; Lucillius tells of another who dies because funeral expenses are cheaper than calling in a doctor. Elsewhere in the anthology is another epigram by Lucillius of a miser's encounter with a mouse that assures him he only wants lodging, not board.<ref>The Greek anthology for schools, [https://books.google.com/books?id=7u4pAAAAYAAJ&dq=Greek+Anthology+miser&pg=PA33 poem 29]</ref> In one more, a miser dreams that he is in debt and hangs himself.<ref>Poems of the Orient [https://archive.org/details/poetryorient00algegoog/page/n339 <!-- quote=Greek Anthology miser. --> p.323]</ref>

The Latin writer [[Horace]] put miserly behaviour at the centre of the first poem in his first collection of satires, dealing with extremes of behaviour.<ref>''Satires, Epistles and Ars Poetica'', Loeb edition translated by H. Rushton Fairclough, London 1942 [https://archive.org/stream/satiresepistlesa00horauoft#page/4/mode/2up p.5 ff]</ref> In writing an imitation of it, an English poet who provides only his surname, Minshull, was to emphasise this by titling his work ''The Miser, a Poem'' (London, 1735).<ref>{{Cite book |last = Kupersmith |first = William |year = 2007 |title = English Versions of Roman Satire in the Earlier Eighteenth Century |location = Cranbury, NJ |publisher = [[Associated University Presses]] |page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=imPB3_3EPxYC&pg=PA95 95]}}</ref>

In [[Dante Alighieri|Dante Alighieri{{'}}s]] ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'', misers are put in the fourth circle of hell, in company with [[spendthrift]]s as part of their mutual punishment. They roll weights representing their wealth, constantly colliding and quarreling.<ref>{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RnhlOrCgf-UC&pg=PA40 |title=Dark Way to Paradise |author=Jennifer Doane Upton|date=March 2005 |isbn=9781597310093 }}</ref>

During the 16th century, [[emblem books]] began using an illustration of [[an ass eating thistles]] as symbol of miserly behaviour, often with an accompanying poem. They appeared in various European languages, among them the illustrated [[Trencher (tableware)|trencher]] by [[Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger]], dating from about 1630, on which an ass laden with rich foods is shown cropping a thistle, surrounding which is the quatrain:
{{blockquote|<poem>The Asse which dainty meates doth beare
And feedes on thistles all the yeare
Is like the wretch that hourds up gold
And yet for want doth suffer cold.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?assetId=213402&objectId=1527520&partId=1|title=British Museum - Image gallery: Scenes from Aesop's Fables|work=British Museum}}</ref></poem>}}

In the third book of ''[[The Faerie Queene]]'', [[Edmund Spenser]] created a portrait of a man trapped between conflicting desires in Malbecco, who appears in cantos 9–10. He is torn between his miserliness and love for his wife Hellenore. Wishing to escape with a lover, she sets fire to his storeroom and forces him to choose between them:
{{blockquote|<poem>Ay when to him she cryde, to her he turnd,
And left the fyre; love money overcame:
But when he marked how him money burnd,
He left his wyf; money did love disclame.<ref>III.10, stanza 15</ref></poem>}}
Eventually losing both, he becomes the embodiment of frustrated jealousy.

The 18th century, so culturally rich in miser lore, furnished some notable poetic examples. [[Allan Ramsay (poet)|Allan Ramsay]]'s "Last speech of a wretched miser" dates from 1728 and is written in modified [[Scots language|Scots dialect]]. The miser bids farewell to his riches in a comic monologue and details some of his shifts to avoid expense.<ref>''The Poems of Allan Ramsay'', London 1800, [https://archive.org/details/poemsofallanrams01rams/page/304 pp.304-11]</ref> [[Alexander Pope]] created another masterly portrait in the character of Cotta in his ''[[Moral Essays|Epistle to Bathurst]]'' (1733). Reluctance to spend confines this aristocrat to his ancestral hall, where he refuses to engage with the world.<ref>Moral Essays III, [http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=2278&chapter=216010&layout=html&Itemid=27 lines 177-196]</ref> Later in the century another Scottish poet, William Stevenson (1719–83), included nine satirical epitaphs on misers among his collected works, of which the last begins: 
{{blockquote|<poem>A miser rots beneath this mould'ring stone,
Who starv'd himself through spleen to skin and bone,
Lest worms might riot on his flesh at last
And boast, what he ne'er could, a full repast.<ref>''Original Poems on Several Subjects'' Volume 2, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ollHAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA277 p.280]</ref></poem>}}

Poetic titles from the 19th century include the Irish Arthur Geoghegan's ''The Old Miser and Mammon: an Incident Poem'' (Newry 1818) and Frederick Featherstone's ''New Christmas Poem entitled The Miser's Christmas Eve'' (1893). There was also an anonymous didactic poem titled ''The Miser'' (London 1831). Although miserly behaviour is referenced during the course of its 78 pages, the real focus there is the attraction of money in all its manifestations.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/miserapoem00misegoog#page/n4/mode/2up|title=The miser: a poem|work=archive.org|year=1831}}</ref>