AN HONOURABLE PRECEDENT FOR GREAT MEN.  
BY AN ELEGIECALL MONUMENT to the Memory of that worthy Gentleman Mr. JOHN BANKS, Citizen and Mercer of LONDON, aged about 60. years, and Died the 9th day of September. ANNO. DOM. 1630.  
FAME come and wait upon the Funeral Hearse  
Of Noble worth; and let this weeping Verse  
Charm all those Eyes which spent a briny Tear:  
Let none weep more; but read what's written here.  
Fame dry their Eyes, and bid them all rejoice  
For Rich and Poor all with a general voice  
Spend their best breath, to tell the World that he  
(Whose death deserves this sad solemnity)  
Was One, a Tun of Diamonds could not buy  
The jewels which he wore: Humility,  
Religion, judgement, Wisdom; Poor men's Prayers  
Which half the way to Heaven, made him Stairs  
Should any weep for such a man that's dead?  
Interred with Fame, his Soul to Heaven fled?  
Not a Tear more: But bid the great Ones learn  
To do like good, that they in BANKS discern  
Bid them peruse the Index of his deeds,  
And every one discreetly as he reeds  
Observe and quote i'th' Margin of his hart  
The best of them; that when their souls must part  
From their dead bodies; They may so work in them  
The World may say; they lived and died good Men  
But above all his Merit, My Pen is bound  
To laud his worth (whom Fame hath so renowued)  
Much more than any: For the Legacies  
Bequeathed to Rich and Poor at Obsequies  
Of dead Testators, are but customary  
But the bequest I treat, is full of glory.  
As long as Time hath being shall not dye  
This first borne famous Gift and Legacy.  
Let the World know, he hath remembered those  
The great Ones do forget; and to disclose  
His Goodness in it, Censure You that read  
This Elegy; Although JOHN BANKS be dead  
He shall for ever live. Th' Artillery  
Shall fame his Gift to all Posterity.  
Nine times Ten Pounds this Gentleman did give  
LONDON'S Arttillerie, that such may live  
And flourish in that noble School of Arms  
(Where's taught the Guard of Princes from all harms)  
Twenty Pounds to Feast, and other Twenty more  
To purchase Arms; and Fifty to the Store,  
The Stock, the Treasury, or to the Bank  
BANK fits it well; if there were more to rank.  
He was a Soldier, though that honoured age  
Denied him with his juniors' equipage;  
Therefore his love we honour: Behold and see  
The Glory of this sad Solemnity.  
The Warlike Music, Drum and Fife are clad  
In black, there beating Dub a Dub all sad:  
Muskets (Retrorsum) and their rests do weep,  
The heads of Pikes do the like Clangor keep  
Captain, Lieutenant, Ensign, and the rest  
All with dejected Countenances pressed  
To direful Mourning: Thus are Soldiers friends  
Like royal Princes brought unto their Ends.  
FINIS  Mariscallus PETOWB composuit.