The point of this epigram is apparent in the context of DGR's letter to William Bell Scott, whom DGR nicknamed “Scotus” (after the thireteenth-century philosopher and theologian): “By the bye do you mean after all to settle in London again, or to go out at some distant period in Newcastle and have written over you ‘Here lies Dunscotus/ Who died of lotus?’” (see DGR's letter of 19 December 1853, Correspondence
DGR seems to have found Scott an especially choice object for epigrammatic wit. Among his many limericks are three different ones he wrote for Scott (see the texts printed in
First printed in William Bell Scott's Autobiographical Notes