THE Good Wife: OR, A rare one amongst Women.  
Whereto is annexed an Exquisite Discourse of EPITAPHS: Including the choicest thereof, Ancient or modern.  uxor bona chara supellex. 
MVSOPHILVS.  
AT LONDON Printed for RICHARD REDMER, and are to be sold at his shop at the West end of St Pauls Church. 1618.   

¶ The distinct Sections in this book contained.  

1 The good Wife.  
2 observations vpon Epitaphs.  
3 Epitaphs.  
4 The Prodigals glass.  
5. The Mourners mean.    

To the Reader.  
understand( Gentle Reader) that this Treatise was long since intended for the press, but vpon the publishing of that judicious and sententious Poem writ by the worthy deceased knight Sir Thomas Ouerberie nearly concurring with this in Title, though in matter and manner different: It was thought meet to be restrained till better opportunity( which is now afforded) might give it liberty to be revived. receive it then as it was first intended, and so may the Authors labour to thee directed, be by thy prayers mutually requited.   

The Argument.  

In pursuit of Loues inquest,  
Heauy-eyde Musophilus,  
restless takes himself to rest,  
And desplaies his fortunes thus.  
in his sleep( deaths shade) appears  
Age, the honour of mans life,  
Old in houres as well as yeares,  
Who instructs him in a Wife,  
And in brief assays to show,  
Who is good, who is not so.   

Next his choice, he shows his son,  
( Lest he should his choice neglect)  
What by him ought to be done  
To his Wife in each respect,  
Who though shee should ever fear  
To give cause of just offence,  
Yet he ought not domineer  
'Cause he has pre-eminence;  
For that conquest's worthy no man,  
Where they triumph o'er a woman.   

Age retires, yet in retire,  
Wakes close-eyde Musophilus,  
Where he sees whom his desire  
Bids him wooe and wooing choose:  
wooed and won, he doth invite  
Such as aim at virtuous ends,  
To be present at the Rite  
Of two selfe-vnited friends.  
Who if they will, come they may,  
If they will not, they may stay.    


A good Wife, Or A rare one amongst Women.  

down by a vale a pleasant shade there was,  
By which a silent silver streamling past,  
Where I retired and sate me on the grass,  
whilst my dejected eye with sleep locked fast,  
Presented thousand objects where I was;  
'Mongst which a graver Module then the rest  
appeared to me, and made it thus expressed.   

A grave old man of reverend aspect,  
Whose yeeres imported something that was good,  
In sable habit, showing his neglect  
" Of earthly Fortunes, as an object stood,  
To caution me( me thought) of that respect  
Which I should haue, and ever ought to haue  
Of my times Mansion, Frailty, and my grave.   

A Sithe, an hourglass and a waterpot,  
A fatal Deaths-head, Shrowding-sheete and bear,  
An urn of mouldered ashes, which were got  
From some dark charnel house as 't did appear,  
Where on was writ, This is our frailties lot,  
This's all we shall possess of all our store,  
This beggars haue, and Princes haue no more.   

These were the reliks which this old man brought  
Which oft he moved and brandished over me,  
And still by tears he seemed as if he sought  
To caution me of my mortality,  
But alas his tears still drowned his speech me thought,  
Till he at last by force did silence break,  
And to me sleeping thus began to speak:   

Good rest my son, yet( son) retire from rest,  
And hear thy Father, pray thee then awake,  
For though I me deade, yet is my love expressed  
even in my death; then for thy Fathers sake,  
Lay up these last instructions in thy breast,  
Which with observance if thou keep, they may  
cheer thee both here, and in the latter day.   

Thou knowest my son, though thou wert last in birth,  
Thou wert not least in my affection too,  
witness my care of thee, while I on earth,  
Soiorned there in that same vale of woe;  
Yea, I may say, even in my comforts dearth,  
When grieves and sorrows did environ me,  
Which frustrate hopes supplied their hope in thee.   

Nor could I think so many a widdows prayer,  
orphans well wishes, and the poore-mans vow,  
Would turn my fruit of hope into despair,  
Since vows, prayers, wishes, did distinctly show  
Their love to me for my devoutest care,  
Which from my heart I ever aimed at,  
To right their wrongs, and settle their estate.   

O let my hopes then now in my decease,  
confirm my Blessing which I gave to thee;  
So shall thy soul enjoy that sovereign peace  
Which was prepared before all eternity,  
For such as made a prosperous increase  
In every virtuous action, which Ile show  
Succinctly to thee in a word or two.   

First then my son, because I find thee here  
In th'Ile Foolonia, where so many come,  
Whose names& Natures with the Ile cohere,  
I must by way advertise thee of some  
Who( in disguise) not as themselves appear  
Earths politicians, who'l not stand to stain  
Their souls pure lustre for a little gain.   

These can dispense with faith,& will profess  
What they least think: to guild their guile they'l swear:  
Yet be their oaths shrowdes to licentiousness,  
( Which though they seem a faire pretence to bear,)  
Take but their vizard off, they're nothing less,  
Then what they did protest: Beware of them,  
For these be dangerous Hollow hearted men.   

Yet these be fools, though they be politic,  
In that they aim more at a private good,  
A sensual pleasure, honour, or such like,  
Then at that supreme end, which understood,  
Would their conceits to admiration strike;  
For weak's their iudgement, and ele●tion rash,  
That poise souls treasure less thē worlds trash.   

Next unto these, be such as do aspire  
above their pitch, and with ambitious wings  
So are far above their sphere: these do desire  
Nought more then to be popular, which brings  
A timeless merited end, for they conspire  
Their own subversion: for few ever haue  
Ambition sene graye-headed to her grave.   

These reach at sceptres but do oft-times fall  
Below their Center, and though they do make  
Their own opinions Axioms, and will call  
Nought good, but what themselves do undertake  
Yet by a publiqe verdict, when they shall  
convicted bee, then they'll confess& say,  
Non( though more seemin-gwise,) more fools thē they.   

Next these be Prodigals, who spend their time  
Like Circes chanted guests: these are but men  
Onely in form, for th' part which is divine,  
Remaines obscure and darker shines in them  
Then a small star clothed in a cloud doth shine.  
These men we well may formal shadows call,  
For save mere shadows, these are nought at all.   

Aleynous mates, such as were born to bee  
But not to live, pageants that go and move,  
And wear good cloath's, yet view thē inwardly,  
They are but Trunks at best, or Apes, that love  
Or make a show of love, whose ends we see,  
When they haue run on shelf their whole estate  
Their brothel greeting's changed into a grace.   

And are not these vain fools, that make a loss  
Of credit, body, state, to yield delight  
For one poor moment? o when they shall toss  
Those leave of their account where appetite  
Made them insensate and that weeping cross,  
Which their profuser follies brought them to,  
They'll style themselves then fools in folio.   

Next be these stains of honour, which defile  
Those Temples which ought to be dedicate  
To an Ethereall power: These though they'ue style  
Of women are nought less, for why they hate  
What best beseems that sex:& hence this Ile  
derives her Name( and aptly doth it take,)  
When th'stronger sex is ruled by the weak.   

These are those lures of death which draw men on  
unto perdition; These are they that show  
Like Flowers in May, but they are withered soon  
( even with one breath, for painting( if you blow)  
Makes the Complexion to be quiter undone:  
unhappy she that when she sees one breath  
dissolves her varnish, will not think on death.   

Of these my son no more will I relate  
Then what I haue: now mean I to descend  
To teach thee something for thy own estate  
And how thou mayst be to thyself a friend  
With a good Conscience, which to violate  
Were worst of evils: and to form thy life  
Better, I'll tell thee how to choose a wife.   

choose thou thy wife ( my son) nor faire nor foul,  
Nor gay nor sluttish; silent, yet knows when  
And where it's fit to speak, one whose chased soul  
shows modesty in blushes, and will len  
No ear to light affections, but can cool  
heat of desire( for such desires may bee  
In purest love) by her enjoying thee.   

choose a fixed eye, for wandring looks display  
A wavering disposition; let her cheek  
Be without art: choose me a bashful nay  
Before a quick assent; for such as seek  
Husbands, for fear they should too long time stay,  
Resemble those who know their ware is worst,  
And therefore mean to sell't to whom comes first.   

choose one that's so discreet knows when to spare,  
When to express herself in bounty, so  
As neither niggard-nature may haue share  
In her, nor lauishnes, when shees'd bestow  
What Reputation claims, which special care  
Imports a sovereign compliment or end  
To such, know when& where to spare or spend.   

choose thee no gather( for a wife should bee  
In this respect( I'm sure) like to a snail,)  
Who( hous-wifelike) still in her house we see;  
For if her care or providence do fail,  
Her howse-affaires will go disorderly,  
And hardly can that Wife endure to stay  
In her own house, whose mind's another way.   

choose thee no liquorish Gossip, whose delight  
Is how to please her taste, for seldom can  
One that's exposed to her appetite  
conform her to the state of any man,  
Which to an honest mind would be a spite,  
That when thou wish's thy wife a competent  
Fitting her rank, she will not be content.   

choose thee no coy precisian, she is too smooth  
To prove sincere, in simpringst looks we find  
Oft most deceit, for these( as th'water doth  
seem calmest where thei're deepest) let thy mind  
Be so prepared, as thou wilt ever loathe  
Such formalists, She-doctors, who haue sought  
To teach far more then ever they were taught.   

choose thee no wanton that will prostitute  
Her soul for sensual pleasure, there attends  
Nought vpon such, but blasting of repute,  
Horrid diseases, miserable ends,  
With which their vicious lives do ever suit,  
And worst of worsts, that issue which is got  
Of Such, may seem thine own, but it is not.   

choose thee no Wife that is selfe-singular  
She'll be her own instructresse, and in that  
Shee( through presumption) will be bold to err,  
Hating reproof, which will orethrow thy state,  
Beware ( my son) thou shalt be tide to her,  
Which servitude( though it be too to common)  
Disualues man that's subject to a woman.   

choose one for virtue( though a Portion's good)  
Yet deare's the Portion if thy wife be ill:  
rank not in marriage with too high a blood  
Lest with her birth she chance to twitt thee still,  
equality hath ever firmest stood,  
Where if descent of different order be  
It's seldom sene that th'parties do agree.   

choose one that's wise, yet to herself not so,  
loving to all, familiar to few  
Inwardly faire, though mean in outward show,  
Seldom conversing in a public view;  
Nor young nor old, but has of yeares enough  
To know what housewife means,& such an one  
As may supply thy place when th'art from home.   

choose one that like a bosom-friend can keep  
Th'imparting of a secret, yet before  
Thou dost commit to her matters more deep  
And consequent, thy iudgement should explore  
And sound her disposition, so may'st reap  
What thou expectst: for if thou find a power  
Apt to conceal, make her thy counsellor.   

choose one whose Spirit's ready to receive  
Impression of remorse for others grieves,  
For such, best tempered natures ever haue  
( And kind is she that others woes relieues)  
Let her be open-hand'd to such as crave  
If they be needy, for thou never heard  
alms( in charity) lose her reward.   

choose one whose Education is more good  
Then curious, whose life more approved  
Then noted, choose one whose parental blood  
Makes claim to virtue and is more beloved  
For her more choicer parts, then to be wo'ed  
To an vnchaster motion, being inclined  
To prise her bodies beauty by her mind.   

choose one whose knowing Parents can augment  
Their daughters portion by a firm aduise,  
One who will measure her's by thy content,  
Whose spotless thoughts be written in her eyes,  
Whose breast is thine closed in one Continent,  
Who know's yet seems as if she did not know,  
Inwardly good without an outward show.   

choose one who can play Mother, ere she haue  
The name of Mother, one that hates nought more  
Then not to learn, one that imprints her grave  
Still in her memory, adds to thy store  
With an advised providence, nor doth crave  
More of internal knowledge then to try  
herself on earth, and study how to die.   

choose one who makes it greatest of her fear  
T'incurre suspicion, that esteems her name  
Before a world of Treasure, that can bear  
Affliction with indifference, and thinks shane  
A Matrons comeliest habit, one that's dear  
In her Creators sight, and fears to do  
Ought that thyself will not assent unto.   

choose one who doth desire to make each day  
Her lifes Ephemeris, summing in th' evening tide  
With what respect she past her hours away;  
choose one that doates not on the name of Bride  
With a new fangle itching, but will stay  
To reason what it means, and is afraid  
( In modest shane) to loose the style of Maid.   

choose one who's qualifide better in mind  
Then body: yet if she affect the strain  
Of harmless chamber-musique, let her find  
Thy mind in consort with her,( for though vain)  
Yet 'tis an easy vanity, and unkind  
Mightst thou be deemed to bar her that delight,  
Which may be shown even in an Angels sight.   

choose one whose countenance promiseth respect  
unto her honour: one that spends the morn  
In praying, not in painting, whose neglect  
Is in out-landish fashions, and doth scorn  
To fancy that which lightness doth affect:  
One whose lives pattern rests as vncontrold,  
And makes her Youth by imitation old.   

choose one whose house hath no affinity  
With folly, lust, ambition, self-conceit,  
profaneness, discord, prodigality,  
schism, Superstition, violence, deceit,  
Op●ression, s●rfets, damned usury,  
For where these reign ( my Son) we seldom see  
Descent of state unto the third degree.   

choose one whom thou canst love, not for constraint  
Of fortune or of friends, for what are these  
That thou by them shouldst measure thy content?  
No, No, in marriage thou thyself must please,  
Or every day will be an argument  
Of thy succeeding sorrow, then be wise,  
carve for thyself, yet hear thy friends aduise.   

choose one whose free election can admit  
None save thyself that she can dearly love,  
Yet so discreet as she can silence it  
Till th'time her Parents shall her choice approve,  
( For that implies her modesty and wit)  
Where rash assents whens'euer they do come,  
Are ever seen to bring Repentance home.   

choose one whose Conscience and religion meet  
In one set concord with thee, for it's this  
That cements minds together, and makes sweet  
Th' vnseasonedst passions, giuing way to bliss  
And future glory, where the peaceful seat  
Of two distinct mindes now reduced to one,  
shows equal temper both in mirth and mone.   

choose amongst these thou canst not choose amiss,  
For here's a full variety of such  
Will fit thy mind as thou thyself wouldst wish,  
Yet ( son) attempt not with vnhalowed touch  
To taint their honour with a wanton kiss,  
For that is but inducement unto sin,  
Sith Kisses be the keieslet Treason in.   

Therefore choose one, and that but only one,  
One that may make two Bodies one-vnite,  
One that is essence-lesse if left alone  
Without her second; One whose sole delight  
Is vanished when her second soul is gone:  
One that renews her comfort in her make,  
And joys in her affliction for his sake.   

Yet know ( my son) when thou this wife dost choose,  
And( after suit) art master of thy choice,  
It's fit thou should this lovely mirror use  
With that respect as she may hence rejoice  
To haue a mate so rightly generouse.  
As with a Wiues-choise therefore I begun,  
I'll show what by a Husband should be don.   

He may command, yet should not tyramnize,  
show himself head, yet not to make his wife  
His foot, esteem her as his only prise,  
( All other Blanks) hate all intestine strife  
( save strife in love,) he should not exercise  
The patience of his wife, for one may wrong  
Silence too much, and force her haue a tongue.   

He may express his love with modesty,  
Yet never coll and kiss in open place,  
For I should deem such love hypocrisy  
Or some such thing, if I were in her case;  
And better is love shown in priuacie  
Then before the eyes of men, for they will skan  
fondness or indiscretion in the man.   

He may be free in love, for shee's his own,  
Yet such a love as is exempt from stain  
Of an insatiate lust: he should not frown  
T'express his awe too much, his best of gain  
Should be to make her virtues riper grown;  
He should dispense with lighter faults, not vex  
himself for trifles, shee's the weaker sex:   

He may restrain her, but t'is not so good,  
Restraint gives women greater appetite;  
He may do much, but who would wrong his blood,  
His flesh, himself? he may kerb her delight,  
But who knows not when women's most with stood  
Their will's most forward& their wits most near thē,  
And will be frolic though their husbands hear thē?   

He may haue care, but carking it is worse,  
He may be getting, yet he should not scrape;  
He should not slave himself unto his purse,  
But freely use it for his credit sake:  
He should not wean his wife from ought by force,  
But by persuasion: for deprau'd's her will,  
That's only forced by violence from ill.   

He may part stakes, or all, but it were better  
To join in purse as they do join in care,  
Where each to other may remain a debtor,  
For where the man doth limit th'Wife a share,  
Oft turns the Wife to be her husbands cheater,  
Which to prevent( if he'll be sure of her)  
In stake, state, store, make her his Treasurer.   

He may be jealous; but't implies suspect  
That he misdoubts what he himself hath been,  
Or that he's troubled with some weak defect  
His Wife perceaues, though to the world unseen  
And that from hence proceedeth her neglect  
Of honour to his Bed: which( sure) would show  
baseness in him, and force her to do so.   

He may pick cause and matter of offence  
( But that would much degenerate from man)  
He may hear such, as would sow difference  
Twixt their united loues; but if he scan  
And rightly weigh mans native excellence,  
He will conclude with this, that there is no man  
So base, to urge offence against a woman.   

He may be busy where h'as nought to do,  
And intermeddle in his wives affairs,  
But fit it is not that he should do so  
For in employments each haue distinct shares,  
Nor she to his, nor he to hers should go:  
For so the Breeches she might seem to wear,  
And he a Coate-queanes name as rightly bear.   

He may think well on's wife, yet not commend  
( For he doth praise himself, doth praise his wife):  
He should in life prepare him for his end  
And mould his end by forming of his life:  
He should repose no trust in any friend  
In or without him, save in the firm defence  
Of a resolved and spotless Conscience.   

Lastly he may( for it is in his power)  
Now in his Exit, when he turns to earth  
To make his wife his sole executor  
And by that means to beggar all his birth,  
But I should rather limit her a dower  
Which might her rank and order well befit,  
For then so soon she will not him forget.   

These are the Cautions ( son) I'd haue thee keep,  
Which well observed will crown thy happy state,  
Folding thy dull eyes in a cheerful sleep,  
Blessing thy fortune with a virtuous Mate;  
Storing thy states content with such a heap  
Of peaceful Treasure, as thou there shalt find  
Enough of wealth in thy contented mind.   

Awake thee then, dull sleep prevents thy Choice,  
Here comes she whom thy fancy may approve,  
Awake I say, and in thy Fate rejoice  
That thou hast met with such a modest love:  
Come come, if thou in Reasons Scale wilt poise  
thyself with her, thou wilt not curious be  
But take good Fortune while it's offered thee   

Awake, I vade: I waked, he vanished,  
Where casting my amazed eyes aside  
Sent from the Recluse of a troubled head,  
A modest bashful virgin me espied,  
Whom I approachd, being emboldened  
By th'Apparition which assured no less  
unto my hopes then honour and success.   

This Virgins name Simpliciana hight,  
Daughter unto Zelocto the precise,  
Who had me once before discarded quiter,  
Because my weaker fortunes did not rise  
To the hight of her expectance, yet that night  
( So fervent is affection) did that maid  
Trace me along to make her love displaide.   

shane curbed her tongue, yet fancy bad her speak,  
While I supplied her silence with my speech,  
And thus her passion for herself did break,  
Whilst shee stood by and seconded the breach  
With a teare-trickling eye and blushing cheek,  
Where thus I wooed myself, yet in her name,  
showing her love, yet shadowing her shane.   

Sir I do love you( thus I did begin)  
I pray you make yourself your Orator,  
And so I did, yet tax me not of sin  
Or lightness, vnfain'd love omits no hour  
Though't be distempered, but will let him in  
Whom shee affecteth, for when all's' asleep,  
Loues eyes are said continual watch to keep.   

I haue a Mother Sir( and then she smiled)  
For well shee knew what I intend'd to speak,  
Whom to obey i'm bound because her child,  
Yet Reason tells me when we husbands seek,  
The style of Parents is in part exiled,  
For we( by virgine-losse) lose our first name,  
And as our husband's styled, wee're styled the same.   

What then though Riches please anothers eye,  
My reason tells me there is something more  
To consummate true ioy, then can rely  
On outward fortunes, therefore once I swore,  
And I will keep my vow religiously,  
If e're I wed( as half resolved I am)  
It shall not be the substance but the Man.   

Yea, though I were opposed on either side,  
( My Father here, my chiding Mother there)  
Yet neither of their humors should divide  
My dearest soul from her orbiculer,  
For I do know, though that my Mother chide,  
My Father fret, and both stand chasing o'er me,  
I did but that themselves haue done before me.   

With that she broken her speech, with, Sr. quoth she  
You wooe well for yourself, but I approve  
What you haue spoken shall be confirmed by me,  
Nor shall my silent passion shrowd my love,  
For as thy shadow I will follow thee;  
Where I assenting to what both had said,  
Kist and clapped hands,& so the match was made.   

Now if you like our Match, give us our due  
And bid yourselves unto our nuptial day,  
Our best of welcome shall attend on you,  
Yea, th' Bride herself( all niceness laid away)  
Will meet you with a frollique game-some crew,  
Where to your choice contents,& Loues among,  
Wee'll be as merry as the day is long.   

But if( through some dogged humour) you'll not come,  
The bridegroom says, A Gods-name stay at home.    

The Authors choice.  

FAire may shee be, but not opinion'd so,  
For that opinion ever lackeys pride;  
loving to all, yet so as Man may know  
She can reserve the proper name of Bride,  
For weak is that Fort and easy is't to win  
That makes a Breach for all to enter in.   

I'd haue her face and blushy to be her own,  
For th' blushy which Art makes is adulterate,  
spleen may she haue, yet wise to keep it down,  
Passion, yet Reason too to moderate:  
Comely not gaudy: she& none but shee  
Wears the best clothes that wears to her degree.    

To his 5 equally-affectionate Sisters all virtuous content.  
TO you that are the chiefest of my care,  
ties of my love and figures of my life,  
sand I this Character, where each may share  
Her equal portion in my rare-good Wife,  
And be the Same, which I'm resolved you are:  
So shall your Husbands say( I doubt it not.)  
The Sisters lives proved what their Brother wrote.  
Yours jointly as his own, MVSOPHILVS   

Upon the Married Life.  

HAppy state, yet'las how few  
think them happy in their choice,  
When they shun whom they did sue,  
And in loathed delights rejoice;  
loathed though loved, since they are grown  
To love others, loathe their own?   

But who marries to impart  
self and substance to his wife,  
joining with his hand his hart,  
Onely gains this bliss of life,  
Yea to him is solely given  
To think Earth a kind of heaven.   

Happy then or hapless most,  
For of all, this hath no mean,  
Losing least or ever lost,  
Being still in her extreme;  
Good if used; abused, ill,  
Onely well where there's one will.    

Vpon the single Life.  

THis by times-distempers fed,  
feels vertigo in his head,  
ever wooing, never sped;  
loved he lives, if loathed, dead,  
So as nought but doubts and fears,  
buzz like hornets in his ears.   

Care he needs not, yet's his care  
More in that he needeth less,  
aiming to haue one may share  
With him in his bale and bless;  
Gad he would yet knows not where,  
Wandring Starre-like here and there.   

Care who loues then, let him live  
Single; whereas such need less,  
As themselves to marriage give,  
For these want what they possess:  
Care whereof breeds now and then  
Broken sleeps in many men.   

Thus choice breeds care, He only may rejoice,  
Who has shaked hands with care and ta'en his choice.     

REMAINS after Death:  
Including by way of introduction diuers memorable observances occasioned vpon discourse of EPITAPHS and Epycedes; their distinction and definition seconded by approved Authors.  
ANNEXED THERE BE diuers select Epitaphs and Hearce-attending Epods worthy our observation: The one describing what they were which now are not: The other comparing such as now are with those that were.  Dignum laud virum musa vetat mori. 
MVSOPHILVS.  
Imprinted at London by John BEALE 1618.   

TO THE READER.  
IT may be objected( Reader) that small is the concurrence, less the coherence in the titles of these two Subiects, pleasantly concluding that it were pity; Death should so soon seize on a good-wife by the course of nature, as shee is had here in pursuit by Deaths remainder. But this objection may be answered by a twofold solution: First, the Printers importunacie, whose desire was in regard of the brevity of the former part, to haue it by the annexion of some other proper subject enlarged; to whose reasonable demand I equally condescended. Secondly, the Subiects propriety, which, howsoever by the iudgement of the Critik censurer traduced( the pitch of whose knowledge aims rather at taxing then teaching) concurs as well with the precedent Title, as Man with mortality, Time with mutability, Life with death. And as the more virtuous the nearer oft-times their dissolution, which no doubt proceeds from Gods mercy that they might haue of him a fuller contemplation; so we commonly see the best wives limited to the shortest times, approved by that maxim: 
For this each daies experience seems to show  
Ill wives live longer far then good ones do.   
Let this suffice: if not, let the subject itself slight his censure, whose singularity makes of each thing an error.  
MVSOPHILVS.   

OBSERVATIONS VPON Epitaphs: their antiquity and use; with authority from approved Authors of their deriuations; with diuers other memorable occurrences.  
AS the memory of the dead consists vpon the life of the living: so their virtues or vices give testimony of the dead, whether worthy the memory of the living, or to be butted in eternal oblivion? For this cause are Epitaphs( and ever haue been) engraven vpon the Monuments, tombs and sepulchres of the dead, either to express their famed, or by modest silencing what they were, to intimate how their actions living, deserved no great memory dying. Some I distinguish( Epitaphs I mean) of this nature, in to moral, others into divine, and other is profane. moral( to give instances in each ki●… be such as include a moral or excellent use Man made by the living of the Actions of the dead, by recourse had to their Monuments, where mortality is not onely lively expressed, but their conditions fully and amply charactered. Such were the Epitaphs of Cyrus, Semiramis, Laomedon.  
It is recorded 
Vide Quintum Curtium in Sup.& vit. Cyr.  when Alexander that great Monarch of the World came into Persia, and there chanced to see the famous tomb of Cyrus whereon was engraven this Epitaph or inscription: whosoever thou be, or whencesoeuer thou shalt come and beholdest this tomb, know that I am Cyrus, who translated the Empire from the Medes to the Persians: pray thee do not envy me, for this little clod of earth that doth cover me. Alexander( I say) seeing this inscription, could not contain himself from tears: making( without all question) this moral use of it: That Princes( though never so potent or eminent, so victorious or puissant) but becomes subject to the common doom and censure of Fate, and must of necessity leave all their conquests and victories( by a forced surrender) to the inevitable command of death. So as Alexander when he beholded the tomb of Achilles, cried out, Felix es, qui talem laudum tuarum praeconem ●abuisti( nempe Homerum:) so here he wept bit●erly, saying, Infelix es cry qui tantis victorijs ●… clytus extitisti, tamen à morte te vinci patieris. 〈…〉 read( that I may go forward in prosecution instances of this nature:) That Cyrus( also) when he beholded the tomb of that memorable queen Semyramis, and saw this to be writ vpon it: whosoever shall dig up this ston which now doth cover me, shall find an infinite mass of treasure under it, commanded the same to be taken up; which being done( in stead of Treasure) he found this moral under it; None but misers( or godless persons) would dig up the Graues of the dead. An excellent caution for the covetous wretch, who is ever catching by hook or crooke, Quo jure, quaque iniuria, per fas nefasve; not regarding the means, so he may attain the end; nor respecting piety nor common humanity, public causes or Countries benefit, so he may please his unsatisfied desires. But this violation of the dead, this injury done against those who sleep in peace, hath been even by the Pagans themselves esteemed execrable: so as the 
In the discourse of Asia and Affr. vid. Egypt Solem. Funer.  egyptians are interred with their best gems, ornaments, and jewels: which( so strict be their laws in that respect) are never embezeled, but remain with them; hoping( saith the Historian) that their substance will deliver them, if any punishment or unworthy censure should be inflicted on them. The tomb and monument of that perfidious Prince( 
Vide Homer. eleg. sanè. Graecorum: Odyssea errorum, Ilias Malorum, &c.  Laomedon) had this Epitaph: 
Qui cum host fidem fefellit  
Cum morte fidem seruavit.  The moral thus expressed: When Hercules( in the delivery of Troy from that devouring monster, a Whale; and in the rescuing of Laomedons faire daughter Hesyone, should by covenant haue received two milk-white steeds: the king retiring to his( miserable Troy) commanded the gates of the city to be shut against him; infringing his faith and promise; which so incensed the ire and indignation of Hercules against him, as within few yeares his city was sacked and demolished, his Subiects captived, his daughter to Telamon espoused; and himself( to extinguish the remainder of ingratitude, fully to appeal the enraged fury of Hercules, was slaughtered. Whose monument was reserved( as a perpetual remembrance of perfidious dealing to his posterity, with the inscription above mentioned.  
tombs 
The entiquitie of tombs.  haue been anciently used; as wee may read in sacred writ: where one sepulchre was kept solemnly for a whole family, every one returning in Sepulchra maiorum: but never so sumptuous before the erection of that memorable tomb( or Shrine rather) of Prince Mausolus king of Caria: whose queen Artemisia erected such a gorgeous tomb in his memory, as all sepulchres since( especially of roman Emperours and Carian Princes) are called to this day Mausolea: the inscription this, 
Si te non teneat, tumulum struet ossa tenere,  
Quem tibi defuncto coniugis optat amor.   
Two monuments we read of to be famous, in that their erection was the foundation of many potent and puissant people: some also were taken for preservers of that Region wherein they were planted and seated: as the 
Two ancient Monuments which were called Asyla patriae &c.  tomb or sepulchre of ajax in the Retian shore: and the tomb of Achilles in Sygaeum: Which two, even to this day continue memorable: so as in the greatest depopulations and sackings of Cities, the ruinating of their Forts and Castles of defence, they were ever kept untouched( as shrines and monuments inviolate, obelisks consecrate, or statues deified: supposing( in their own blindness deceived) that their preservation was derived from them.  
But to proceed in Epitaphs( on which our discourse doth principally consist:) they are derived from the greek 
{αβγδ} & signify as much as an inscription, or any thing which is placed or fixed vpon the tomb( Quae in scitis& scutis quorundam Regum vidimus saith Lipsius:) as Epycedion( derived from {αβγδ} or lugubria canere) are writ before or after the corps interred, but not vpon the tomb: being more dilated measures, either expressing the memorable actions of his life( or if nothing worthy in his life) at least modestly to shut up his desertless life, with a commemoration of human frailty: silencing the person, lest his description should minister either matter of offence or assentation: of offence, if truly expressed; of assentation, if above merit praised. he that neither benefited himself nor his country;( but, vt Canis in presepi) was rightly demonstrated with this Impressa, Hic Vir diu fuit: This man was long, but lived not long: for life and being haue an essential difference. We are said to live when we express our life by external effects, knowing for what wee were ordained; for what born; not to retire ourselves from public affairs, for private ease: but to further our country, and propagate her glory by serious and vigilant managements, both at home and abroad. This man is said to live, that hath left some monument or testimony behind him that he lived.  
We are only said to be, when we only breath, respectles of either public or private: imitating those Flies Ephemerae, which flicker a little with their wings( limiting their life within one day)& presently die. These as the Philosopher saith, spirant tantùm non viuunt. But too much of them, both die: Yet this is the difference: the one dying, leaveth a testimony behind him that he once lived; The other being dead, hath no hope that his memory shall ever bee revived.  
Many pretty Epitaphs the romans used; brief, yet ample enough to describe the nature of the person whom they would haue memorized.  
Virgil writing on one Balista 
in vit. Nar.& frag. ( a great sword and buckler-man) as I may term him, frequenting places of advantage, to rob, and surprise passengers unawares, cheers the poor way-faring-man with this comfortable inscription on Balistas grave: 
Who ere he be that passeth by this way, 
Monte sub hoc laepidum teg. &c.   
May safely travell both by night and day,  
And that he may confirm it with his eyes,  
under this heap of stones Balista lies,   
Or thus, 
Since the time Balista here interred was,  
Or day or night the traveler may pass.   
And that vpon his fly or Gnat: 
here I express what thou once did to me,  
Solemnizing thy death to honour thee.   
And that of Sylenus the drunken swain: 
under this tuft of wood lies there a swain,  
Came drunk to Earth, went drunk to Earth again:   
And that of Minos king of Crete 
here Minos lies who played the judge so well  
On Earth, that now he's made a judge in Hell.   
This Minos for his excellent iudgement and iustice in Crete, being severe, and therefore his attribute was rightly given him: he was said to be {αβγδ}, ●ough and severe, exact and austere in all his censures: for which cause he was translated from the principality of Crete, to the tribunal of Hell:( as Poets fain.)  
In the discourse of arguments of this nature: as we haue many writ Epitaphs( some panegyric) in way of commendation and praise: others invective to express the merit or defect of any person: we should be wary herein, lest either by vain 
Sicut lingua loquentis proficit in aur● audientis, ita calamus scribentis in oculo le gentis,& ad interiora cordis pervenit sensus dirigentis, sicut verba instruentis: Albin. in praefatio: comment in johan. & adulatorie praise, we give error a warrant, or by too detractiue inuection, wee seem( gravius in sepulchra mortuorum calcare, that I may use the Philosophers saying. But to omit the use of Epitaphs, which of themselves haue ever ministered occasion of imitation or detestation: I will proceed to the antiquity of Epitaphs, and afterward descend to the several branches which I haue before in my method to myself propounded.  
Epitaphs haue been ever used vpon the tombs of the deceased, to express their virtues or vices. Of all the seven 
Vide Laert. de vit. philoso.  Sages of Greece, not one there is, but charactered to the full by their especial appropriates: and though diuers( in contempt of vain glory or ostentation) haue precisely commanded vpon their death-beds, that no statue, shrine, nor inscription should be erected or engraven in their memories: yet so grateful was posterity to so noble predecessors, as they would in no wise suffer so Valiant exploits either public or private, to bee butted in silence and oblivion. Yea ever in those times, where fines imperij tueri magis, quàm proffer, mos erat: as in those Golden times, and empires of Vexores King of egypt, and Tanais King of Scythia which Historians take to be the first Monarchs and sole Gouernours in the world; even thē( I say) were Epitaphs of this nature very frequent, and common: and in Ninus time, who succeeded, or rather dissolved their government, we read Epitaphs even written vpon his tomb; describing his nature and disposition at large, the manner of his discipline in war, the continuance of his Empire or government, and the occasion of his death.  
To speak of the effeminate government and principality of the Amazons( women of incomparable and incredible fortune, valour and resolution) wee haue yet those tombs and sepulchres of the 
Tumuli Amazonum.  Amazons celebrated to this day amongst those Pagans, for the infinite numbers slain by Hercules, in his invasion of Amazon: where the worthy exploits of those( more then women) for their discipline and experience in warres, are in golden Characters registered and recorded.  
We read even in those( who for their magnanimity and resolution) were termed {αβγδ} or Heroes, men of heroic disposition, to haue had in former times inscriptions vpon their Graues and Monuments, to express what they were living, that deserved so exceeding commendation dying. Such were Alcides, Theseus, Hector, pirithous, and the renown of Greece( the ancient Patroclus,) vpon whose grave whilst Achilles learned, he imagined true valour to be charactered on his grave, and a sufficient occasion of exciting and instigating the unworthiest and vnresoluedst spirits to take in hand managements of greatest difficulty.  
We read of Tarina queen of Saca, that she was no less memorable for her sepulchre,( surpassing both in bounty& specious edisice, then the pyramids of egypt; Labyrinth in Crete, contrived and invented by Dedalus, or that sumptuous Monument erected by Artemisia in honour of her husband Mansolus.  
If we should descend to the Persian Princes elected after the( premature death of 
Gladio sua sponte euaginato graviter vulneratus occubuit just 1. lib:  Cambyses) wee shall there more eminently survey the process of their government, and their ends( some with glory and renown) others with no less infamy and reproach attained.  
Yet to use decency in the celebration of funeral rites and solemnities: for I know( that I may use the morallists opinion) there is a vainglory even in death; and as the pomp of death doth more terrify then death itself, so doth the pomp of death more excite men to die willingly then their expectance after death. For this all the roman Emperours would haue their tombs erected in their life time, with all external ostentation, and popularity: to intimate a kind of Empire even in death: which may appear by that( which Suetonius speaks in the life of Augustus) that before his death, the statue which was erected and set up in his memory being strucken with Thunder, lost the first letter of his Name( to wit C.) which signified as the Augurs divined, that within a hundred daies immediately following, he should depart the world.  
Cato in dede( who took it nobile lethum to die for his country and the preservation of her liberty) would haue no shrine, statue, nor inscription set up in his memory; supposing his virtues to be sufficient annals and records to eternise his name.  
Of this mind was photion the Athenian( both stoics for their discipline) seeming unwilling to imitate the popular in exterior rites: being( as they deemed) able to express their own lives by their deaths, their deaths by their lives. Which may be the cause which moved Flaccus to contemn all monuments, with this resolved security: Vnde mihi lapidem &c. What avails it to haue Monuments, Stones, Shrines or Statues to memorise us? what skills it to haue labelns hung vpon our sepulchres( as those silver swords of Greece over the sepulchre of Philip; those golden Archers of Persia over the memorable tomb of Artaxerxes? as the same Poet saith,— Non datur emisso reditus tibi— It is true: yet so respective should man be of the demerited& praise-worthy acts of his Ancestors( so superstitiously careful that their monuments be not in oblivion smothered) as no time should be omitted( wherein we may as the Orator saith, defunctorum memoriae servire) but with all instance to perfect& accomplish the same.  
We 
Vid. descr. Affric. Qui sepulcra maiorum vt propria domicilia laresque existimarunt.  read that the Pagans haue been so respective hereof, that the monuments of their parents& kinsfolks haue been no less dear to them, then their own houses, their own habitations and dwellings: Esteeming their reputation( to be purchased) by the purchase of their ancestors glory, and augmented by the preservation of their memory.  
Agathocles Prince of Syracuse( willing to erect a Monument or Statue in his own memory, to express human frailty) commanded that the head and vpper parts should be made of solid gold, but the feet of earth; with this impress: Sic omnia firma. An excellent observation and caution to put Man in mind of his substance and subsistence, constitution and dissolution: that standing on no firmer feet then earth, no stronger arches( then stays of mortality) he should ever fear lest so proud a building should fall, being supported by so unstable and unable props.  
But for antiquity( as shee is said to be the warrant of things done, the confirmer of things present, and president of things to come; so oft-times vices haue been bolstered by her, impieties authorised by her, and a direction to greater laid open by her. I will descend therefore briefly to particularise such Epitaphs( used by the Ancients) which remained for caveats or observations in succeeding times. As others( likewise) that moved and excited men to undertake valiant and courageous exploits in hand.  
We read that Augustus( when he died at Nola, being a town seated in the middle part of Campania) his souldiers to express and manifest their love to him dying, as they had done their allegiance to him living, burst out in several passions of sorrow, grief, and pensive distractions, with these speeches: O God, that he had either never been born, or that he had never died: For the one 
Alterum enim pessimi incepti, exitus praeclari alterum &c.  is an occasion of our misery, the other a president of his glory. For so great was his love towards the Citizens, that by his own care and diligence, he commanded great abundance of grain to be brought out of egypt to sustain his people welnie consumed with famine.  
Few of the twelve roman Emperors read we so excellent and exquisite commendations of: save Titus, who received this impress even vpon his hearse, to be Amor& deliciae generis humani: Mans darling, the Worlds mirror, and the flower of all roman Emperors either before or since; being directed and enlightened no further then with the beameling of nature. For to recapitulate the natures of all those Princes, twixt Augustus the first of the twelve( save one) to Titus, the last of the twelve, save one, we shall see their dispositions variable, inconstant, dissolute, and generally vicious.  
Tiberius taxed for his subtlety, Caligula for his insolency, Claudus for his effeminacie, Nero for his cruelty, Galba for his intemperancy, Oth● 
Vita omnis turpis, maxim adolescentia &c. vid. sixth. Aurel. de Oth.  for his inhumanity, Vitellius for his prodigality, Vespasian for his misery: These haue wee charactered( which the roman Annals haue expressed to life) such as either merited eternal infamy by their vicious government, or due commendation for their many moral virtues wherewith they were endowed and invested. Vita mortuorum est in memoria viventium( saith one very well:) for it renews and revives the memory of the dead, and makes him live in name, honour and reputation, when the sithe of Fate hath pruned him.  
For this all the roman Emperors haue laboured, desiring to become memorable after death: Curtius throwing himself into the lake; Vtican purchasing his liberty by voluntary death; Horatius Cocles throwing himself violently into tiber to preserve his Countries liberty; 
In capite eius quoddle cornua emerse runt &c. Valer. Max. lib.  Genitius Cippus subjecting himself to death to propagate his Countries glory; P. Decius who rushed into the fore-front of the enemies( encountering a whole army) to make his own memory more famous and illustrious: The like of Scipio african, who to extinguish that menacing fire of Hannibal, devoted himself to death for the safeguard of his Country. These and many more, who illustrated their Names by atchieuements done living, expected( without question) no little celebration of their name and memory dying: and though their opinion reached not to the souls immortality; yet they could extend their imaginations thus far, as a famous and memorable death surpassed an infamous and ignominious life: wishing rather to die in famed, then live in eternal obscurity. Which caused some( of disposition unequal to the former) to perpetrate some heinous and enormous crime, whereby they might purchase famed even by infamy: Such was Herostratus who burned the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, to purchase himself a name. Such was Turulius who hewed down the grave that was consecrate to the Temple of Aesculapius, to erect him a ship, that once Religion( as he himself avowed) might ride on the water: And such was Q. Fuluius who to enrich himself( by sinister means) took from the Temple dedicated to juno Lucinia, tegulas quasdam marmoreas, for which he sustained condign punishment; amongst which we may insert that sacrilegious Prince or Tyrant rather( for his Empire of Syracuse as it came unto him by an usurped succession, so it was governed by as cruel and tyrannicall a disposition) bearding the Gods, and afterwards robbing the Altars and Temples( of their sacred ornaments.) For coming one day to the Temple of jupiter Olympius, and seeing his Image gloriously beautified with a 
Quo eum Tyrannus Hiero &c. manubijs Carthaginiens. ornauerat &c.  vestment of gold( of an exceeding weight and inestimable price) commanded it to be taken from him, and a woollen garment to be given him in the stead of it: saying, A coat of gold was too heavy for him in Summer, too could in Winter; but a woollen garment was fitter for both seasons. Many of these haue we recorded by Historians, whose lives were no less profane, then their ends miserable.  
Vpon all which( if we might insist vpon this argument) Epitaphs very answerable to their infamous and despicable lives might be produced. But we must proceed, because this summary discourse,( which I haue here placed and prefixed( as a preamble or fore-runner) to our Epitaphs following) is but intended onely to demonstrate the use and effect of Epitaphs, with their first institution,& their distinct kinds arising from their primary uses.  
It is true that there is no necessity in sepulchres, or specious monuments; for coelo tegitur, qui non habet vrnam: which moved Diogenes the cynic to bid his friends cast his body unto the dogges when he was dead: and being answered by them, that the dogges would tear and rent it: Set a staff by and( quoth he) and I will beate them from it. Yet in this seeming contempt of burial, we shall read in most of the lives of the Pagans, that they were respective where they should be interred, erecting( as in part hath been mentioned) very goodly and glorious sepulchres in their life-times to eternise their memory after death: with whom( it fared many times) as it fared once with 
Shebna sibi tumula conduit, quem fata negarunt.  Shebna, who made himself a sepulchre in one country, but was butted in another.  

The first that butted such as fell in war.  Hercules( we read) to be the first that ever butted such as fell in war. Many ancient Epitaphs we haue by transcription, engraven vpon the monuments of the deceased: as in the northern parts especially, where in the very ruins of time, we may see some monumentall inscription inserted, to revive the memory of the dead. As in the warres of the Saxons, Picts, and Danes: no cost being more frequent then the North, to express the memorable acts done in former time, as also to set out the very places and circumstances of things achieved, with the manuscripts traduced from former occurrents even to these present times: many curious and serious Antiquaries having viewed and particularly set down the especiallest records hereof with diuers memorable inscriptions happily occurring to their survey, I will overpass the same, lest I should seem to trifle out my time with an impertinent discourse.  
It is true that a Souldiers resolution ever fixed on brave attempts, and the enlarging of his Countries glory, should rather aim at famed after death, then to erect for himself a curious monument in his death: which moved Caesar in the plain of Pharsalie to s●y, 
— 
Sep. li. Lucan.  Capit omnia tellus  
Quae genuit: coelo tegitur, qui non habet vrnam.   
And again that martiall strain of valour: 
nile agis hac ira, tabesne cadauera soluat,  
An rogus, hand spectat: placido natura receptat cuncta sinu.  And so concludes the Declamour in Seneca: Nature gives every man a grave: seconded by old Anchises resolution: Nec tumulum curo, sepelit natura relictos.  
Yet humanity requires these final obsequies, not onely in remembrance of our dead friends, but even to manifest the sincerity of our loues, in erecting monuments over them dead, which might preserve their memory, and confirm our affections in their deaths.  
The friends of Cleombrotus( surnamed Ambrociat) seeing his much lamented end, desired much to express their love unto their dead friend; yet withall to conceal the infamy and reproach of his death: yet Callimachus played the Epigrammatist vpon his grave, whilst his dear friends deplored his untimely end. The Epigram( inscribed after the form of an Epitaph) being fixed on his tomb, whence all Epitaphs haue their denomination, was this, 
- Vita vale, muro praeceps delapsus ab alto  
Dixisti moriens, Ambrociata puer,  
- Nullum in morte malum credens. said scripta Platonis  
Non ita erant animo percitienda tuo.   
In English thus, 
The young Ambrociat, whilst himself he threw  
From off the wall, bad to his life adieu,  
Deeming( as Plato wrote) in death's no woe,  
But he mistook it: Plato meant not so.   
This book which moved Ambrociat to this precipitate attempt, is imagined to be Platoes Phaedo of the immortality of the soul: which also( by a misconstruction) Cato Vtican apprehending, laid violent hand vpon himself, to free himself from the tyra●nie and illimited sovereignty of the usurping Caesar. But to our argument propounded.  
We haue shadowed briefly the first branch( or kind which we proposed in the beginning) to wit, moral Epitaphs, being such as conduce to instruction either public or private, wherein( by the very inscriptions or titles engraven vpon the tombs of the deceased) some haue been moved to imitate their memorable lives in actions and attempts of like nature; as Caesar in the survey of Mithridates, Augustus in the survey of Caesar, Alexander by the monument of Achilles, Achilles by the fame-engrauen monument of Patroclus, Aenaeas by the renowned tomb of the matchless 
Andromach in Hom. called Hector Troiae {αβγδ}.  Hector, and Hector by the eternised memory of Antenor: These were moral, inducing or exciting Impresses, drawing the mindes of the beholders to the management of the like approved and redoubted acts.  
We will now proceed to Epitaphs( coming nearer a divine composition) excellent for their grave and divinely moving sentences; pithy for their effect, and profitable for their use.  
That is an excellent one of Scaligers: Scaligeri quod reliquum est: and that no less divine of Caius: Fui Caius.  
Epitaphs of this kind seem little affectiue, yet include so exquisite a strain, as they may rightly be termed divine: surpassing mortality in description of our mortality; they delineate the state of man, extenuate his pomp, and show to what end man was created, not to be onely, but to live: there being an essential difference( twixt being and living) as I haue before specified. We haue some of these which set out vanity in her natural colours: and imply divinely, what they propound morally.  
Diuers we read of, that fearful( it seems) to commend the writing of their Epitaphs to posterity, would ever be provided of one in their own time: which( to express their worth better) did not show or character their worth, but in a modest silence describe their own frailty, shutting up their famed and memory, with a farewell to Earth and vanity. These be sovereign cordials to cheer the drooping and dejected spirit: such as live injuried by time, oppressed by greatness of enmity, and slaued to penury: Such I say, as live obscurely in the eye of the World, neither noted nor reputed.  
When the rich-man seeth nothing vpon Croesus grave, but a Fui Croesus: nor the poore-man vpon Irus then, Fui Irus: what difference at their dissolution? though in the eye of vain and popular accounts, there be a main difference.  
These divine Epitaphs move the intellectual part to an apprehension of human condition; to consider that we are al made ex 
Homo ex humo. Terra à terendo. cadaver à cadendo. Vèrmis quia inermis.  eadem argilla:& as no difference in frame& module, so no difference in the end and period; only that which was writ vpon the bavarians grave shal either confirm our hopes, or make us eternally miserable:— Sit comes intemerata fides: or that which was engraven on the tomb of a Venetian Lord: Qui 
Quod Seneca in Vatiae tumulum scripsit. Hic situs est Vatia: dormire enim magis quam vivere videbatur.  vixit, vivet, qui fuit, ille perit.  
One no less divine then the other, distinguishing betwixt being and living: where our actions must be poised, our intentions discussed, and the universality of nature discovered We are drawn by these Epitaphs to disualue the pomp and port of this World; less to pamper the inordinate and distempered affections of the Flesh: holding as the Platonists held, onely the soul to be Man, and the body to be a case or cover to put it in: And as Seneca terms it, a rind or bark: so to fix onely the light and splendour of the internal part vpon that sovereign end, by which we may end in glory, as we were born in misery.  
And miserable did the Philosopher account that man, whose best of memories consisted in faire& eminent obsequies; virtue being the best shrine, the exquisitest monument which can be erected to honour man. How should we best describe ourselves, and the excellency of our own natures, but by the contempt of death, express our own affections even vpon our graues, showing ourselves to be Christians?  
The memorable inscriptions of the ancient Princes( who died in their Countries right) may excite us to managements of no less consequence. The Inscription vpon 
Qui pannosus sarmenta collo gerens, castra hostium ingreditur. just. secundo lib.  Codrus tomb, who was Prince of Athens, was— Haec mors mihi nomen ademit.  
The like we read of Attilius Regulus, who rather then he would infringe his faith, willingly returned unto his enemies the Carthaginians: where, after he had endured intolerable torments, and unworthy of so great and equally disposed mind, he commanded this Epitaph to be engraven vpon his obscure tomb, Nec sine spe perij. Many such may we read in the memorable Annals of the romans, specially in the war betwixt Carthage and Rome: in which warres, no man of esteem or ennobled rank died, that was not graced with some inscription vpon his monument.  
Yet Pompey the Great, whose prudence in governing, sincerity in disposing, promptness in attempting, and firm resolution in seconding, got him an eternal famed, both at home& abroad: abroad in following Scylla at home in bearing up the main building of the State with his grave and discreet supportance: even this Pompey had but a short Epitaph writ vpon him, Hîc situs est magnus. here lies the pomp of a puissant and potent Pompey: here lies Romes Atlas, the eastern terror, and his friends advancer: one whom neither imminence of peril, nor mutation of state, nor occurrence in fate could alter or dismay: even that powerful column is now ruined, his glory dazzled, and the mansion which was made glorious by him in Rome, becomes reduced to a poor and homely sepulchre in egypt.  
One chancing to come where king Dennis was butted: being deprived of crown and dignity by reason of his tyrannicke government, and before his death had retired himself to a simplo school, where he taught scholars; saying, Et regam invitis fatis: understanding the course and process of his government, writ this short Epitaph vpon his tomb: 
Dennis eras,& Dennis eris, nec rege minorem  
Te tua fata vocant: Rexque Magister eris:  
Rex populi crudelis eras, puerisque Magister  
Saeuior, his celerem fata dedere finem.  
Nec regis invitis fatis, è culmine regni,  
Vt cadis, admissum est deseruisse scholam.   
In English thus, 
Dennis thou was, and Dennis thou shalt be,  
For thy own Fates bestow this style on thee,  
King both to men and children, yet in them  
Thou was more fierce to children then to men:  
Which when the fates perceiu'd, they thought t'extend  
Thy course continued il with swifter end.  
Spurne not against the fates, imperious fool,  
For as thou lost thy crown, thouse leave thy school   
In Epitaphs of this nature, a more then moral instruction or institution is to be required: expressing onely the intellectual part without any profane or heathenish invention, being transcendent to the vulgar reach or apprehension of human understanding: many divine and holy escripts of the ancient Fathers may be comprehended herein: being such as treated as well of the life and discipline of the dead, as especial motives of imitation; or cautions of detestation to the living. Here Ambition portrayed in her colours, occasions her own end by her own unbounded desires. There covetousness( with the misers Motto) is exemplified, and how many evils are continually attending her, according to the definitive censure of Flaccus, Semper a●arus eget. here sacrilege instanced in our ancient alban Brennus; on whom we read, that after his many conquests and victorious attempts in Gaule, and the sacking of Rome, with many rich booties and spoils obtained in those warres; at last attempted the beautiful and rich Temple of Delphos consecrate to Apollo, being excited and instigated by Euridanus and Thessalonus to adventure so difficult a province, onely in hope of obtaining inestimable treasures, reserved( say they) for such as would boldly attempt, and without fear of the gods, or profanation of Religion, durst attempt the ransacking and rifling of such sacred treasures. But behold, the purposes of the wicked were confounded( and ever may sacrilege haue the like success) for suddenly Brennus with all his populous army, were discomfited, their execrable devices frustrated, and themselves( all or most) subjecteth to miserable ends: the particulars whereof are more fully and amply dilated on by the roman Historian Trog. Pompeius. Their Epitaph we find thus,( being extracted out of ancient Annals) concording well with the nature of their crime, and misery of their end: 
Haec via Sacrilegis, haec regia porta sepultis,  
A Delphi laribus limen adire Ditis.   
In English thus, 
This way Church-robbers go, who seek to fall  
From great Apolloes shrine to Plutoes Hall.   
These kind of Epitaphs may include or comprehend all such, as for any excellent part or management domestike or public, haue been accounted worthy memory: or such, as for eminence of place haue been no less markeable, then singular in discharge of their authority: for acts of pvissance& renown that Epitaph engraven on the tomb of Willinam Marshall earl of Pembroke, in the time of Henry the third: 
Sum quem Saturnum sibi sensit Hybernia; Solem  
Anglia, Mercurum Normannia, Gallia Martem.  And that Epitaph writ vpon Theobald Blois earl of champain( too divine for any mortal creature: Non hominem possum, non andeo dicere numen. And that of one Glare expressing( in one man) an Epitome of all virtues: 
Hic pudor Hippoliti, Paridis gena, sensus Vlyssis,  
Aeneae pietas, Hectoris ira jacet.   
That memorable one also vpon the sepulchre of Maud mother to henry the second: describing the excellency of her descent by her Father, the greatness of herself by her match, and her renowned issue which( of all other) made her most admired, and after death the especiallest motive of her eternal memory.  
Ortu magna, Viro maior, said maxima partu,  
Hîc jacet Henrici filia, sponsa, parens.  
Ancient times haue esteemed these Epitaphs sufficient in themselves to perpetuate their names, being records ever true: for as the Orator saith, Quis tam infaelici genio, leuique ingenio qui mortuis assentari cupit? and as the Poet saith, 
Lucan.  Quis Busta timebit? Herostratus was charactered as well for his infamy, as Themistocles for his renown and chivalry. even Metellus modesty, Lentulus levity, Publicolas piety, Cethegus cruelty, Appius affability, and Ciceroes constancy had their true lineatures: every one mouldned and moulded after their deserts: for these, as examples, be of more power and efficacy to the practise and prosecution of virtue, then any instruction or document whatsoever; draw men more attentively to their imitation, whose virtues they see merit admiration, as I haue in part before touched. It is the Historians observation, that such as had worthy and virtuous Parents, were wont to repair unto their Tombs ( Quasi ad propria vitae documenta) and by their memory to be excited to the like means of achieving glory and renown, that their ends might answer such exemplary parents. Though it was Lycas conclusion in the tragedy, to attribute all merit to ones proper action, and not to the honour of their ancestor. True it is indeed, that our predecessors glory cannot properly be entitled ours, their actions being onely as monuments of their famed, presidents for us to follow, and indeed proclaimers of our bastardy, if we chance to degenerate from such rare and exquisite mirrors. Yet was Sextus Pompeius honoured for his Fathers worth: and such as descended from virtuous parents, were onely thought fit to match with Patricians. Those four 
Aureliae, Mutiae, Laeliae, Corneliae.  ancient families in Rome, whose virtuous and modest demeanures got them the name of chast matrons, were well portraied by proper Epitaphs, and in their memory were these sentences engraven: here Romes honour lies butted: here lies the foundation of ancient families: 
here modest Laelius from his Laelia,  
Pompey the younger from Cornelia,  
From Mutia, came a Mutius Sceuola,  
And good Aurelius from Aurelia.   
By these memorable Impresses, were their successors ennobled, and to their imitation more ardently excited then by any precept or instruction whatsoever: the cause may be drawn from that affectation of honour naturally engraffed in us from our birth, whereby we use to be spurred and instigated to the imitating of such as by any proper demerit either inherent in themselves, or traduced from others to themselves, haue purchased renown: whence it is, that the Poet saith: Immensum calcar gloria habet: neither hath it been accounted a little glory, or slender honour for the successors of so noble and famous ancestors: whose monuments were as Annals of their worth and proclaimers of their glory; which that they might preserve the better, they used to solemnize their Funerals with exceeding honours, and to erect their sepulchres with all state and magnifificence, deputing Surueiours( which should look to the erection and preservation thereof:) calling ever their graues Accommodatissima vitae specimina, Without which the memory of their virtues might seem obscured, their glory darkened, and a great many of those excellent parts wherewith they were endowed, butted in silence and oblivion. True it is, that gorgeous sepulchres little avail the dead: which moved the Philosopher to say, that they were not so much made for the dead, as for the living. The Orator termed them mirrors of human frailty, characters of our glory, and undoubted Arguments of our mortality. Another examplifying this more fully saith, They are Glasses wherein we may contemplate ourselves and others, motives of imitation wherein we may follow others, and images of affinity being of the like nature and substance with others. No better or more perfect Resemblance can be made twixt man and his creation, the image of his life, and necessity of his dissolution; the state of his birth, and occasion of his death; the form of his beginning, and fashion of his end, then twixt a dead-mans sepulchre, and the Worlds Theatre. here many Actors( some whereof like your Pantomimes in Rome, are generally approved in all parts) play on this terrestrial stage of human frailty. Some absolute Machiauels( irreligious politicians) shrouding vicious purposes under virtuous pretences: other simple-honest souls, who( like your obscure Actor) stands either not at all observed, or else so generally derided, as he wisheth rather to be a doorkeeper in the mansions of heaven, then a disgraced Actor on this stage of Earth. There your light courtesan( who like another 
sallust.  Semphronia, tanta est libidine accensa vt viros saepius petet, quâm petetur, prostitutes her body to ruinated her soul, exposing herself to all, that she might become hateful to all: to be brief, in the survey of all states and conditions( for every particular 'vice incurs a peculiar shane) we may bring the Miser to his grave, who while he lived, was subject to his 'vice: The courtesan from her brothel of vanity, to her fellow-pupils hearse, there to contemplate her own frailty. The Ambitious skie-soaring thoughts, to Ambicions fall, reducing his aspiring spirit, to a more retired centure, the period of a great mans hopes; which moved Praxatiles 
Sceptrum petit, in centrum vergit.  to limne an ambitious man reaching at a sceptre, and rolling below his Centre. Not a 'vice either occurrent to state public or private, obnoxious to themselves or others, but was expressed in that flourishing time, when Rome laboured of her own greatness; so as Catilines tomb became a caution for aspirers; sejanus a president for Flatterers; Vitellius an example for Rioters; julian for apostates and prophaners; mark antony for adulterate meetings; Caligula for tyrannike designments. Quod meruere tenant post funera: their lives being set out in lively colours, either in expression of their worth, or the description of their illimited government. Many we read( and those worthy memory) who through want of these inscriptions had their living names shut up in eternal silence, as the 
Plutarch. in vit.  mothers of Demosthenes, of Nicias, of Lamachus, of Phormion, of Thrasibulus, and of Theramenes which excelled in modesty, and well deserved to be mothers of such rare Captaines, eloquent Orators, and discreet States-men as they were. We read in Plutarch, how Alcibiades assisted by Nicias, was to take his expedition into sicily, the very same day of the celebration of the feast Adonia, on which the custom was, that women should set up in diuers parts of the city, in the midst of the streets, Images like to dead coarses, which they carried to burial in remembrance of the lamentations and disconsolate passions which Venus expressed for the death of her Adonis: where in this solemnity, their imaginary hearses were set full of Impresses, that their funeral might be with more state and magnificence celebrated. But having discoursed before of the antiquity of Epitaphs, with their especial uses appropriate, as well to ancient as following times, I will descend to the third 
Definition of the third Branch.  branch, which in my first division I propounded myself; to wit, Epitaphs profane, being such as haue been used to anatomise 'vice satirically,( with an Inuection against the manners of the dead: which seems different to the Philosophers instruction, advising us rather to tread lightly on the graues of the dead, and to pass over their obliquities with a modest place, a conniuing eye, and a charitable iudgement; that our place might not press them, our eye pierce them, nor our iudgement poyze them, but in the scale of amity, with the eye of pity, and the feet of lenity. But now to our discourse, and that briefly, whereby the shortness of our Volume may concord with our intention.  
Epitaphs of this sort we haue too frequent, being forged out of the brain of unseasoned satirists, that without distinction bend their wits to aspers● imputation vpon the deserved memory of the dead: men of basest nature, defaming such whose silence gives them freer scope and privilege of detraction: impious violaters of burials, commentors of imaginary vices, wrongers of the dead, envious libelers, who writ either incensed through spleen, or hired for price: drawn on by others, or voluntarily moved by their own depraved and distempered inclinations; of which kind we may read every Nation( even in their flourishingst and successiuest times) to haue had their part: Athens her Eupolis, Sparta her Alcaeus, 
In Cyrus time.  Persia her Aristeas, Rome her Cherilus. These trode not with easy place on the graues of the dead, but mixing their ink with more gull then discretion, instigated more by spleen then charitable affection, ransacked the sepulchres of their dead enemies, deblazoned their vices dying, which( through a slavish pusillanimity, they durst not vnrip nor discover living; these remorseless censurers of Vices, these corrupters and stamers of well merited lives, these foes to virtue, and foments of 'vice, were well set out by the tragic Poet: who brought in the Ghost of the wronged person, pursuing the detractor and menacing him with eternal reproach for his labour. Yet this digression may seem not so much impertinent as directly repugnant to my first definition of Epitaphs and Epicedes, the natures of both which I haue in part described: where I defined Epitaphs to be nothing else then Testimonials of the virtues or Vices of the dead: how they were affencted, or what especial occurrents happened them in their life; it is true, but these Descriptions are to bee shadowed and suited with modest allusions, equally disposed Allegories as their vices, though in part discovered, yet that discovery so entangled as may minister matter of observation to the judicious, and leave the ignorant in a continual suspense. And because we produced no authority before( touching the difference twixt an Epitaph and Epicede) wee will use Seruius opinion herein: the difference is between an Epicede and Epitaph, as Seruius teacheth, that the Epicede is before the corps be interred, an Epitaph or inscription vpon the tomb: the etymology of the word, {αβγδ}— curare inferias, or funeris officia peragere. Scaliger in his authority of Poets, confirms the derivation as proper and genuine to the nature of funeral celebrities. This distinction may( serve as a thread to guide the illiterate Poetaster( who perhaps otherwise would confounded these two words) out of the labyrinth of error, in which more writers now adays wander, then ever in any time before. So that it may seem the paradox of Erasmus in the praise of folly, and that book which Agrippa writ De vanitate scientiarum, are subiects onely in request; where every Mauius will writ( and oft-times be approved) as well as Maro. ajax in Euripides said: {αβγδ}, To know nothing is the sweetest life Which sweetness this age hath attained, where it may be truly averred, that never Age had more writers, and fewer Authors: those onely being admitted of as 
Doctorum dicta indoctos doctiores reddunt.  Authors, whose works merit approbation and authority in themselves: experience being reduced to ignorance, and a desire of knowledge to a fruitless desire of writing: Littora bobus arant,& arena semina mandant. But I omit them: these profane Epitaphs sinisterly aiming at the detraction of such who rest in peace, as they are utterly to be condemned, so their Authors as presidents of such obliquities should be severely censured, whereby an example of punishment in one might minister cause of reformation in all: yet because sin should in some sort be unmasked, lest 'vice sue out a privilege, and purchase herself a monopoly amongst our world-statists( whose best of traffic is to be the divels factors, whose eminentst degree is to be Hels purveyors, and whose onely office in request is to be Mammons collectors) I haue instanced diuers Epitaphs, some invented, others translated& traduced from others, which with a tolerable sharpness, and a well tempered bitterness alluding to the persons on whose tombs they were engraven, modestly discover 'vice in her natiuest colours. As, first in description of avarice, a 'vice most incident to Age, and therefore most inherent to man. Hermon dreaming he had disbursed money, died for woe, on which dreaming Miser we read this written: 
under here old Hermon lies,  
Who sleeping lived, and dreaming dies.   
And that of Phedon who wept not for that he should die, but that the charge of his burial should come to four shillings.  
here Phedon lies, who weeps and cries,  
not that his life he lost,  
But that the charge of his burial  
should full four shillings cost.  
And that of Hermocrates, who would not be at charge for a purgation: and dying made himself sole executor: 
Hermocrates that catiffe wretch,  
who living had no power  
To use his own, did make himself  
his sole executor.   
And that of None, whose Name and nature had relation one to another, being only to himself without respect of public good, or compassion to others want: 
here lieth 

Hic situs est Nullus, quia Nullo Nullior esto,  
Et quia Nullus erat, de Nullo nile tibi christ.   None by name, by nature one,  
Yet was he one by Name, by nature None.  
Something of Nothing oft the poor did crave,  
Yet could the poor of Nothing, nothing haue.   
And that of one 
Hic situs est sitiens atque Ebrius Eldertonus; quid dico hic situs est, hic potius sitis est?  Elderton,( an inscription too bitter) yet to disauthorize that sin,( which like that powerful ointment whereof Apuleius relates, amongst the Thessalonians, transforming and metamorphosing men into bruit beasts) to wit drunkenness, whereof he was taxed, nothing can be too vehement or violent: 

Camban roman.  here drunken Elderton in earth lies thrust,  
Lies thrust( say I) or rather here lies thirst.   
I will end this last part of my division( fearing much I haue insisted too long vpon the preamble, and incurring the Mindian censure of making my gate so spacious, and the main building so contracted:) I will end( I say) with that universal doom and home( with which mortality must of necessity end) to wit, Dust: of which name we read one to haue been, and ceasing to be, had this inscription: 
here Dust lies dead, who that he might be just  
In Name and Nature, while he lived loved dust,  
And being dust by Nature and by Name,  
Thought to return to dust from whence he came.   
FINIS.   


¶ A Description of Death.  

DEath is a raw bon'd shrimp, nor low nor high,  
Yet haz he power to make the highest low,  
The Summon-maister of mortality,  
The poor mans wished friend, the Rich-mans foe,  
The last Remaines of Times anatomy,  
A thief in place, in place more sure then slow;  
A sleep, a dream, whence we are said to haue  
In sleep a Death, and in our Bed a grave.   

One who, how ere we seem to haue the power  
To leave our states, wherein we oft-times err,  
To such an one as sole executor;  
Spite of our nose plays Executioner;  
And as the lean Kine did the Fat devour,  
So does this meager slave the mightier,  
Nor can we if we should be choked for't,  
remove Deaths Action to another Court.   

Arts though He know, yet he professeth none,  
For little haz He, and as little needs,  
Yet haz he tricks to catch the oldest one,  
That on this earthy Globe or centre treads,  
Nor will He leave him till his Breath be gone,  
Cheering the worms that on his Body feeds:  
Thus fearless He, as he haz ever been,  
Makes his stroke to be felt, not to be seen.   

His Signe's in Sagittary, and the But  
He shoots at is mans heart, He ever fits  
The shafts he shoots to th'Quiuer they are put;  
Won is He not to be by threats, entreats,  
Price, power or prayer: at whats'ere He shoot  
Or aims to hit, He never failes but hits;  
Darted, He runs as swift as ever ran,  
Shot-herring made, just like an Irish-man.   

Nor differ they in habit; though He wears  
No Mantle, flanning trowses, being known  
By his moth-eaten raiment, He appears  
Right Irish, Doublet, Breeches, hose of one;  
He haz no shift, yet He no vermin fears,  
( For vermin, Death, nor th' Irish harbour none)  
Yea in their kind of fight compared They are,  
For They invade us both at vnaware.   

Death is wormes-Caterer, who when He comes  
Will haue provision though the Market starve,  
He will be served before the mighty ones,  
And knows before where He intends to carve;  
Its He awakes the Sin-belulled Drones,  
And cuts Them short as rightly They deserve,  
Its He that all things to subiection brings,  
And plays at foot-ball with the crowns of kings.   

Two empty Lodges haz He in his head,  
Which had two Lights, but now his eyes be gone,  
cheeks had He once, but they be hollowed;  
Beauty He had, but now appears there none:  
For all those moving parts be vanished,  
Presenting horror if but looked vpon;  
His colour sable, and his visage grim,  
With ghastly looks that still attend on Him.   

fleshy He was, but it is picked away,  
Belike, for that He haz so much to do,  
If clothed with Flesh, he should be forced to stay,  
And show( perchance) too much of mercy to  
To some young wench, who on the holiday  
Might force Him love, if she could tell him how;  
Which to prevent, and better to restrain him,  
He goes so ugly none should entertain him.   

Yet entertained He will; for though He be  
contemned by th' perfumed courtesan, whose form  
seems coy to give Him hospitality;  
Yet when He comes he'l not one hour adjourn,  
To give her Summons of mortality;  
converting that same beauty, did adorn  
Her Composition to corrupted earth,  
Whence she derived both Period and Birth.   

Snaile-like He comes on us with creeping place,  
And takes us napping when we least think on him,  
In's hand an hourglass, which infers our race  
Is near an end; and though we strive to shun him,  
He moves when we move; and that very place  
Whereto we fly, and think we haue out-run him,  
There he appears, and tells us it's not good  
To strive 'gainst that which cannot be withstood.   

If we  shed tears, they're bootless, for his eyes  
In stead of sight are moulded up with day,  
If we assay to pierce his ears with cries,  
vain is our Labour, fruitless our assay;  
For his Remorcelesse ears all motions flies,  
Nor will He give the Prince a longer day:  
His payment must be present, and his doom,  
" return to earth thy Cradle and thy tomb.   

Nor is his Summons onely when we're old,  
For Age and Youth He equally attends,  
Nor can we say that we haue firmer hold  
In Youth then Age or further from our ends,  
save that we are by Natures verdict  told,  
With length of yeares our hope of life extends:  
Thus young or old, if Death approach and say,  
Earth unto Earth, He must perforce obey.   

A Breath-bereauing Breath, a vading shade,  
ever in motion, so as it appears  
He comes to tell us whereto we were made,  
And like a friend to rid us of our fears,  
So as if his approach were rightly weighed,  
He should be welcomed more with joys thē tears,  
Ioy to dissolve to earth from whence we came,  
That after Death, Ioy might receive the same.   

Naked his scalp, thrill-open is his Nose,  
His Mouth from ear to ear, his earthy Breath  
Corrupt and noisome. Which makes me suppose  
Some mouldy cell's the manor-house of Death:  
His shapeless legs bend backward when he goes,  
His rake-leane body shrinking underneath,  
Feeble he seems, rest both of heart and power,  
Yet dare he beard the mightiest Emperour.   

None He consorts with save worms and men  
prepared for worms-meat, though he make resort  
To Country, City, Village now and then,  
Yea where he's seldom welcome, to the Court,  
There will He enter, and will summon them;  
And go they must, though they be sorry for't:  
Thus, Country, city, Village, Court and all,  
Must their appearance make when Death doth call.   

Chop-falne, Crest-sunke, drie-bon'd anatomy,  
Earth-turn'd, mole-ei'd, flesh-hook that pulls us hence  
Night-crow, Fates-doome, that tells us we must die,  
Pilgrim-remouer that deprives us sense;  
Lifes-date, Soules-gate that leads from misery,  
Mans sharp'st assault admitting no defence,  
Times Exit, or our Intrat to that climb,  
Where there's no Time, nor Period of Time.   

Nor stands he much vpon our dangerous year,  
All are alike to Him, yea oft we see,  
When we are most secure, then he's most near,  
Where th' year clymactericke is his jubilee:  
For as He can transpose Him every where,  
East, West, North, South, with all facility,  
So can He come, so cunning is his stealth,  
And take us hence when we are best in health.   

Since Death is thus described,( for this he is,)  
Be still prepared, lest vnprepar'd He come,  
And hale you hence, for spending Time amiss  
( For Death is Sins Reward, Transgressions doom)  
So when thou dies thou shalt be sure of this,  
To haue access unto the Marriage room,  
And for thy tomb, in stead of ivory,  
Marble, or brass, shall Vertue cover thee.    

Epitaphs vpon sudden and premature deaths: occasioned vpon some occurrents lately and unhappily arising.  
WHo walks this way? what charity, ist thou?  
I need not fear thy doom: for thou'lt allow  
This axiom for undoubted: Once we must  
return unto our mother earth: and dust  
Our first creation, challengeth the same:  
" Being the Mould from whence our bodies came.  
If envy pass this way and judge amiss,  
" I rest secure what ere her censure is.  
Faith is my Anchor, Comfort is my Shield,  
" How should I doubt then but to win the field!  
For this is true( as I haue oft times heard)  
No death is sudden to a mind prepared.  
My Hope being thus erected; envy, cease  
" To wrong his soul that haz assured peace.   

Another Epitaph vpon the same subject.  
Thou look'st vpon my tomb, and wagg'st thy head,  
And with remorcefull tears weep'st ore me dead,  
As if past hope: thou seek'st to be my friend,  
In that thou grieu'st at my untimely end:  
untimely dost thou call it? True: report  
Brutes my Repentance was but very short,  
Because cut off: I grant it: for the space  
It was but short, yet was the course of grace  
Abundant, which confirms my Pilgrims wish,  
" Where man's prepared, there no death sudden is.   

An Epitaph of the same.  
hopeless thou weep'st, and comest unto my tomb,  
Descanting on my death, with, oh too soon  
Dide this poor wretch: I pray thee cease to weep,  
" I am not dead, but onely fallen asleep:  
A blessed sleep, secure from envies sting,  
" Flying from earth to heaven with airy wing:  
shouldst thou then doubt my end? O do not doubt,  
" My virgin-lampe is in, 't shall nere go out.  
Thou saist I dide too soon: thou saist amiss,  
" Can any die too soon to live in bliss?  
Wipe then thy tears, I know thou wish me well,  
heaven is my mansion, Earth I took for hell:  
And that was cause I went so soon from thence,  
To plant in heaven my eternal residence:  
For men( how short their end) are never tried,  
" But how they learned to die before they dide.   

¶ Vpon a virtuous young Lady dying in child-birth.  
born at the first to bring another forth,  
" She leaves the world, to leave the world her birth:  
Thus Phoenix-like as she was born to breed,  
" Dying herself renews it in her seed.   

¶ Vpon a soldier, for resolution worthily affencted and advanced by his Country, yet interred and by( unworthy Fate) obscurely.  
Dead? Yes: Alas, is this the Souldiers tomb,  
A silly monument to them shall come  
To see it. True; what tho the body lye  
Interred low in her obscurity?  
Thy virtue( honoured soldier) shall remain  
above the Boundiers of triumphing spain,  
France, or the Belgicke rampires: what Death may  
Sh' haz done already, turned thy corpse to day:  
But death( of Fames possession) may despair,  
For she erects her tomb within the air,  
That whosoever this way chance to move,  
" Shall see his corpse here, but his famed above.  
Triumphant Souldiers, glorious by thy birth,  
Reign'st now in heaven, because thou wer'st in earth:  
Then such Professants ever blessed are,  
That raise their Peace by managements of war.   

Vpon a Drunkard butted in a ruinous fort in dunkirk, was this Inscription engraven, which by the ancientnesse of Time was well near defaced.  
In dunkirk here a Drunkard lies with mickle care ysought,  
" drink was the boon the lorden craved for rest he cared nought.  
Long may he wun in this large tomb, and never henceforth sink  
" To earth again: that while he lived caimd earth for want of drink:  
heaven rest his soul, and others all, whosere the Lord will save,  
" And grant dunkirk( if't be thy will) may nere such drunkards haue.   

¶ An Epigram vpon Alphonso Prince of Naples, and vpon his Crest, whereon was engraven a pelican with this Impressa; Alios seruams meipsum perdo.  
The Crest I wear expresseth what I am,  
" A soft and tender-hearted pelican,  
Who to recall life to her dying brood,  
sucks from her own heart life-renewing blood:  
Being the same, if I appeal to time,  
" Shee's not more dear to hers, then I to mine.   

¶ An Epitaph vpon one who died confined.  
Report tells me that thou didst die confined;  
confined! its true: in body, not in mind.  
confined the body was, where it had birth,  
But mind without confinement leaveth earth,  
To dwell in those refined groves above,  
A grove refined which yields eternal love  
To the possessor; let thy mind appear  
Free, though thy body was confined here.  
This shall remain engraven vpon thy tomb,  
To memorise thy famed in time to come.   

¶ Vpon a Iustice worthily deserving of his country.  
The miss of thee, since thy decease, is known,  
" For whoso comes to Iustice, or her throne,  
Shall see her silent( and as one thats domb:)  
" Good reason why, with thee she lost her tongue.   

¶ Vpon a Iustice of less demerit.  
Who comes this way? Let him look down and read,  
" Here lies one, spake less living, then being dead:  
For here in rhyme famed speaks of him in time,  
" Who whilst he lived spake Reason nor good rhyme,  
This yet his comfort is, when time is spent,  
God will haue mercy on the innocent.   

¶ Vpon a bragging soldier.  
here lies a bragging soldier that could lye  
With pomp and state, in face of majesty;  
Yet he that lied' 'gainst heaven, in earth now lies,  
An open mirror to all mortal eyes:  
" For though he lied, yet could he not deny  
With all his lies, but man is prest to die.   

Vpon Peter see me  
Peter see me, thou canst not, for thy eyes  
" lye there interred, where thy body lies:  
How canst thou see me then? as Peters do;  
" Not by my worth, but by my outward shew●  
For Gallant-like by perfumes I transpose  
My knowledge from thy eyes unto thy nose.  
That though th'art dead, yet thou may well perce●●e,  
" A perfumed gallant walk's vpon thy grave.   

¶ Vpon a captain which in the Low Countries was hanged, and afterwards taken up again.  
A captain hanged, and taken from his grave,  
For what? a pardon came, and did him save.  
save. what did it save? his body: Yes.  
" From putrefaction? no, but from that peace  
All butted corps enjoy: It was not done  
" With Iustice: Yes, she is a Saint divine,  
And raised him up, because dead'fore his time.   

¶ Vpon a Turner or Thrower that died in his throwing.  
poor Thrower, art thou dead? Now do I feel  
" even by thy End, that Fortune haz a wheel,  
That spins and weaves, turns and returns again;  
And in mens death esteems the chiefest gain:  
For this by thee may very well be known,  
That made their own wheel ruinated thy own.  
Thou wast a Thrower, Fate a Thrower too;  
After this cast thou'lt near make such a throw:  
Rest then in peace, it's Fate tripped up thy heel,  
And bids thee yield unto her Turning wheel.   

¶ Vpon one Span.  
Rightly compared is the life of man,  
" For shortness of continuance, to a span,  
It is mans met-wand; every one must haue  
" This span to end his life, and meet his grave.  
Then who dare say that he does live secure,  
" Possessing that which cannot long endure.  
This is expressed by this man lies here,  
" Whose name and nature in one span appear.  
So lest the name should do the nature wrong,  
" Being short by nature, name would not be long.   

¶ Vpon one Flower a hopeful young Student.  
Mans life's a flower: how should it then but fade,  
" Since at the first for dying it was made?  
Yet if this Flower had been exempted, then  
We might haue thought this Flower not for men  
To crop: no more it was: and therefore given  
" As one above desert of earth to heaven.  
Once thou was planted in the Cambrian grove,  
Where thou was watered with the Students love.  
But now from thence I see thy glory rise,  
" From Cambrian Brakes, to brooks in paradise.   

¶ Vpon a reverend and honourable judge of this land, was this Epitaph inscribed.  

Who so would Honours frailty pictured haue,  
Let him behold that picture in this grave:  
Where frailty ne're was with more honours clad,  
Nor more deserved those honours which he had:  
Had? lasse that we should say, wee had thee; haue  
Would be a tense, the state would rather crave.  
Small difference twixt the accents, Haue and Had,  
Yet th' one did cheer us, th' other makes us sad.  
But whence these tears? whence be they? to express  
His worth, our want, his peace, our selfishness:  
For to describe him in each lineament,  
He gave his tongue unto the parliament:  
His hands to sacred writ, his ear to hear  
Iudgement pronounced, his eye to see more clear  
In the survey of Iustice, and his feet  
To walk in paths, for Christian souls most meet.  
Thus his impartial tongue, hand, ear, foot, eye,  
showed him a mirror in mortality.  
Yet in his age a reverence appears,  
Many are young in houres, are old in yeares;  
But he was old in both; full seuentie six,  
Surpassing Dauids first arithmetic:  
Fift● one yeares he with his Lady lived,  
That in himself his race, might be reviv'd:  
For what was by the virtuous Father done,  
seems( by resemblance) shadowed in the son.  
Sergeant unto the queen, judge o'th kings Bench  
For twelve yeares space, wherein his eminence  
Did not transport his passions: For his thought  
fixed on his end, esteemed all honour nought.  
Thus lived he, thus he di'de; lived long, di'de well,  
here judge on Earth, now judge in Israel.   

Terras Astraea reliquit.    

¶ Distiction funebre in obit: princip. ob eximiam& corporis& mentis temperiem: qua licet, nos reliquit, altiora petit.  
Qui formam mirantur, ament Vestigia mentis,  
Illi forma perit, nescit at illa mori.   

¶ An Epitaph vpon the son butted in his Fathers grave.  
Stand, go no further: look but down and read,  
Youth fed that body, on which worms do feed.  
look lower down, and thou portrai'd shalt haue  
Father and son, both butted in one grave.  
And what does cover them? poor mother Earth,  
Which gave to son and Father both their birth:  
Thus one to three reduced, and three to one,  
son, Mother, Father; Father, Mother, son.  
Make then this use on't whatsoe'er thou come.  
Earth was thy cradle, Earth must be thy tomb.   

¶ Vpon 
in hunc ferme modum proponitur à Mart. Epigramma.  one who loving honour, died ere he possessed it.  
Thus fadeth honour and returns to nought,  
Which is not got by merit, but is bought:  
For it affords th' aspiring mind small good,  
When wreaths of honour are not drawn from blood,  
Nor from desert: for honour cannot bide,  
" Being supported by the stays of pride.   

¶ Vpon Master Laurence Death, an Epicede accommodate to his Name.  
Why should one fear to grapple with his Name,  
" Death thou wast living, and art now the same;  
No, I may say far more: renewing breath  
" tells me th' art living; for thou hast killed Death.  
live then victorious Saint: still may thou be  
Though dead by Name, yet fresh in memory.  
That who so passeth, or shall chance to come  
This way, may say: Here lies Deaths living Tomb.   

¶ Vpon one merry.  
merry why liest thou like Heraclitus,  
That used to laugh like blithe Democritus?  
Thou seems in discontent: pray thee tell why  
" Thou liest so sad? Thou art learning how to die.  
Learning to die? why th'art already dead:  
Ist possible that Peter Meries head  
That was so full of wit, so stuffed with sage,  
" As he appeared the mirror of this age?  
Peter that knew much, and could speak much more  
Then ere he knew, should now fall to deaths store.  
Alas poor merry, worms begin to feast,  
Upon that sconce, fed Gallants with fresh ieasts,  
Those saucer eyes placed in that witty sconce,  
Which used to look some twenty ways at once,  
For if they had matches been, some might inquire,  
Whether they set thy sparkeling-nose a fire:  
Those hollow eyes( I say) or lamps of thine,  
" Are now like Hogs-heads emptied of their wine:  
For hollow Hogs-heads give an empty sound,  
" And so does merry being laid in ground.   

¶ Vpon one hog.  
Hog by name and by condition,  
" here lies Hog that blunt physician:  
Christian nor good moralist,  
But lived and dide an Atheist.  
Yet( after death) give Hog his due,  
He was a foe unto the jew.  
And that he might express the same▪  
" He gloried ever in his name.  
He bad me writ vpon him dead,  
" here lies John Hog, or John Hogs-head.   

¶ Vpon a vainglorious Student that would needs be called Aristarchus.  
Fate last night hath been i'th work house  
Of our renowned Aristarchus:  
Where fate no sooner entred in  
Then shee a starke-Asse made of him.  
For Aristarchus( Authors say)  
invited death, from day to day;  
But our last Aristarchus prayed,  
( Seeing Death come) as one dismayed,  
That he his summons would delay,  
And come for him another day.   

Vpon two Twins that died together  
here lye two faithful Brothers in one tomb,  
As they did lye together in one womb;  
here they came hand in hand, and they do crave,  
That hand in hand they may go to their grave.   


In Monasterio septentrion: come pertum erat. ¶ Vpon an ancient tomb was this inscription found.  
Church-men that should be best of al, are( pardie) grown the worst,  
The Fox I ken( the proverb says) fares best when he is cursed:  
This Abbot here that lies in ground proves this to be too true,  
Due would he give to Priest nor clerk, yet would he haue his due;  
But mark his end( who ere thou be) for 'twas a fearful end,  
No friend he had( as he did think) to whom he might commend  
His Gold: therefore one day he went to find out some dark cave,  
Where be might hoard his treasure up where he this voice received:  
The iudgement churlish Nabal had, fall presently on thee,  
Which voice being past, the Abbot droupt and died presently.   

¶ Vpon my Lady Woodbee.  
What would my Lady be? lasse shee has sought  
To rise to something, and shee's fallen to nought.  
poor Lady, that so faire and sweet a face  
Should haue no other home or dwelling place,  
Then a poor sepulchre; lasse its not meet  
So faire a Lady should shrowded in one sheet:  
Who whilst shee lived, which was but very now,  
Did use to lye perfumed and chafed in two.   

¶ Vpon the same subject extracted.  
look through& through, see Ladies with false forms,  
You deceive men, but cannot deceive worms.   

¶ Vpon an Adulterer extracted.  
Nay heaven is just, scorns are the hire of scorns,  
I nere knew yet Adulterer without horns.   

¶ Vpon a Sexton an Epitaph.  
Rest thee well Sexton, since thou lost thy breath,  
I see no Man can be exempt from death:  
For what will Death do to the simplo slave,  
That durst assault him made for Death a grave?  
In peace sleep on: of thee we haue no need,  
For we haue chosen a Sexton in thy steede:  
Thy sacring Bell has tinckled all it can,  
And now the Sexton shows he was a man.   

¶ Vpon Kempe and his morris, with his Epitaph.  
Welcome from Norwich Kempe: all ioy to see  
Thy safe return morisceed lustily.  
But out alas how soone's thy morris done,  
When Pipe and Taber all thy friends be gone?  
And leave thee now to dance the second part  
With feeble nature, not with nimble Art:  
Then all thy triumphs fraught with strains of mirth,  
" Shall be caged up within a chest of earth:  
" Shall be? they are, th'ast danced thee out of breath,  
" And now must make thy parting dance with death.   

¶ Vpon one Skelton.  
Here lies one Skelton, whom death seizing on,  
" Changeth this Skelton unto 
skeleton, or an Ana●omy  skeleton  
though little changed in name, in substance more,  
" For now he's rich that was but poor before.   

¶ Vpon one Babylon.  
Of all the stones that reared up Babylon,  
" There now remaines( of all that pile) but one,  
Which serves to cover both the corps and famed,  
Which he had purchased onely by his Name.   

¶ Vpon a spare Patron. 
In patron●● egentem.   
This Man lies here, to say what name he had,  
Or to expresse't would make a Poet mad:  
For once a Poet offered him a labour,  
Which he would hardly read, or vouchsafe favour,  
To give the Author one bare smile, or soothe  
The Poets good meaning: to be brief, his tooth  
Was poisoned: for th' occasion of his death,  
It first proceeded from his stinking breath;  
Which did corrupt his lungs: this has been tried  
To be the cause whereof this Patron dide.  
May he rest yet in peace the Poet prays,  
Who though contemned, yet crownes his tomb with bays.   

¶ Vpon a cashered soldier. 
In Netherland.   
A soldier not for his desert  
Cashered was of late,  
But for the captain by his pay,  
Ment to increase his state;  
For which( in want the soldier begged)  
But could not be relieu'd:  
As Charity( God knows) is could,  
Whereat the soldier grieved;  
And swore since war would do no good,  
He now would change his sang,  
Either to raise his means( by stands)  
Or baulk to hang.  
Fate seldom favours war like men,  
The case so altered was,  
As being tane for bidding stand  
To one that chanced to pass,  
The poor renown this soldier got,  
down to oblivion fell;  
And he for gauntlet( wrapped with gives)  
Was brought to second Hell  
captivity: what should he do? appeal  
from Iustice Throne,  
That bootless were, for now his hopes  
Are fully razed down.  
The time approached( sad time God wot)  
When brought unto the bar  
He gave the judge blunt eloquence,  
Like to a Man of war:  
But to be short accused he is,  
What he cannot deny,  
And therefore by a public doom  
He censured was to die.  
But if the judge had rightly done,  
The captain( by the way)  
As he had tane his standing-wage,  
Should reap his hanging-pay.   

¶ Vpon the death of one 
Vid. marshal: in nom. Thet.& Nympham,& pastorem hoc nomine inducit in Elegijs& Epigrammat.  Thete who died, and was cast in a great tempest vpon the Sea, into a straite of that part of the Sea which divides M●sia from Hellespont.  
Here lies Thete pale and wan,  
butted in the Ocean.  
More it seems to augment her famed,  
Since from Sea shee took her Name.  
Thetis was Achilles mother,  
Yet of that name there's another  
To this day record'd by time,  
That she was a Saint divine.  
Here her Image sleeps in peace,  
Promising this Ile increase  
Nere this Fount  
Of Hellespont.  
Where Hero and Leander amorous souls,  
In midst of her green bosom daily rolls;  
Which to abydoes( ancient town)  
And to Cestos brought renown,  
And that shrine  
So divine.  
Where Paphos was erected to express,  
There Hero was to Venus Votaresse:  
Rest in honor, Thete rest  
By the Sea-Nymphs ever blessed,  
for they love  
to approve  
The rare condition of that divine Creature,  
Where Art is far surpassed by spotless Nature.   

¶ Vpon sinon that villain which sacked Troy.  
Ist possible that worms dare once conspire  
" To touch his shroud that sacked all Troy with fire?  
O says poor Hecuba, that thou hadst dide  
Before shee had such fatal objects spied  
Of her dislaughter'd sons, weeping to see  
Mother and issue slau'd to misery.  
O says( old Priam) and he tears his hair,  
Wishing thy tomb had razed his despair,  
When in the ruins of defaced Troy,  
And in the Gore of his beloved Boy  
His yongling troilus, he washed his head  
In an eternal concave butted.  
Thus does Troy curse, yet may thou defend  
Thy projects, and the cause of trojans end  
Proceeding from themselves, thou for the sake  
Of thy dear Country, and faire Hellens rape,  
Became a villain, and to keep thy Name,  
Thou lived a villain, and thou died the same.  
Then villainy is dead! in sinon true,  
But he haz left his trade unto the jew  
And English cormorant, who in one hour  
Desire both Name and Substance to devour,  
Then there's no difference: both bring like annoy,  
save th' one for England is, th' other for Troy.  
sleep then in silent slumber, for thy Race,  
In right of their succession take thy place.   

¶ Vpon Argus.  
Argus with his hundred eyes,  
Eie-lesse in this Coffin lies;  
While worms keep their Sessions there,  
Where once Lamps of eye-sight were.   

Another.  
Earth feeds on me, that once fed me,  
Court begot me, Country bread me;  
Thus my death prevents my youth,  
Bastard slips haue slowest growth.   

¶ Vpon Gold a dissolute Hackster.  
Gold, th'art a knave; and drainst thy golden shower,  
Not from the lap of Danaë, but thy whore;  
leave thy base Panders trade, make speed, revolt  
From so deformed a standard; who would be bolt  
To his wifes lewdness, or express his shane,  
By vshering the ruin of his name  
For money? cease, cease to be impudent,  
Transplant thyself to some pure element  
More wholesome and less shameful; live enrold,  
And haue thy Name in characters of Gold,  
That whoso passeth may this impress read:  
Thy age did end in Gold, begun in led.   

¶ Vpon a Quackesaluer Doctors grave in Venice, by Transcription we read this Inscription as followeth.  
here lies a pound of Rheu-barbe( as't doth seem)  
To purge the worms of Choler, rheum and Fleame:  
A Dapper Doctor( ill may Fate befall)  
To take from us Sir jerome urinal;  
Yet this our comfort is; though he be dead,  
Haz left another sauce-fleam'd knave in's stead.  
" That can call back from death a breathless corpse,  
" And cure his grief as he doth cure a horse  
Farewell Sir jerome, thou with horse began,  
And Don begins with Horse, and ends with Man.   

¶ Vpon Croesus and Ir●s.  
Twixt Croesus and Irus difference I know none,  
save Irus haz no tomb, Croesus haz one.  
Nor skills is much what shrouding sheet they wore,  
" For I nere heardth as worm● the shrowd forbore:  
Because the pomp or state wherein they laid,  
Might by their terror make poor worms afraid.  
But as on earth great ones did feed on small,  
" So worms do feed on great ones most of all.  
Do well then while we live; for being dead,  
" Or famed or shane our Actions merit mead.   

¶ Vpon Delia.  
Thou Delos-sacred-chaste inhabitant,  
For of thy followers Albion haz but scant;  
Plant( pray thee here) some house religiously,  
Where we may reverence spotless chastity:  
For since thy ship did from this island lance,  
" Best gifts we had were fire 
In adagium habentur pyrobalae Galliae.  balls sent from France.  
cool us this Climate that seems to aspire,  
Not by her own, but by a foreign fire,  
That now at last the Albionact may know,  
Th' Delian our friend, though th' Frenchmen be our foe:   

In Mydam.  
Miser nemini est bonus, sibi pessimus.  
midas would feed on gold( unhappy wretch)  
That starves himself, to make himself more rich,  
'tis like a painted cover that conueies  
Each sparkeling object to our piersing eyes,  
Which while the eyes delight in, they grow dim,  
even so it fares( poor miser) still with him.  
" He feeds on gold, for there's his hearts delight:  
But that same object takes away his sight,  
And makes him dusky eide, clouded and blind,  
Though not in body, yet in th' eyes of mind:  
Then this shall stand fixed on the misers bower, 
His Epitaph.   
" He lived rich( to th' eye) but truly poor.  
Nec copia nec inopia minuitur. sallust.   

In Veprem Iuridicum.  
here lies Brier a Lawyer true,  
Yet no true Lawyer, give him's due:  
His cause of sickness( as I hear)  
Was: There's but four Terms in the year.  
But others think( and so they may)  
Because he could not long delay  
His Clients suite, young Had-lands cause,  
Which having got into his claws,  
He by renewing of their strife,  
Thought to keep't for term of life.  
But AEacus that god of war,  
pitched me this Lawyer ouer-barre.  
So in despair( unhappy elf)  
The Lawyer went and hanged himself.   

¶ Vpon a broker.  
here lies a broker of Long-lane,  
Who by Pick-hatch& Hounsditch got infinite gain:  
The pirates of Wapping were likewise his friends,  
Requeathing to him their clothes at their ends.  
" O hard-hearted death, more cruel then any,  
That would not be moved at the suits of so many!   

¶ Vpon Tacitus.  
here lies an old Concealer underneath,  
Who hardly could conceal himself from death.  
" Thus though man be disguised in varied forms,  
concealed on earth, yet not concealed from worms,  
Thou then that passest by this silly wretch,  
" This moral may experience thee teach;  
There's nought so hide, which in Earths bosom lies,  
" Put fate( with pierciue eyes) looks through& spies.   

¶ Vpon one Holofornus an unconscionable usurer.  
Within this grace lies one Holofernus,  
His body's in earth: but his soul in Auernus,  
" under his head lies a bag of read gold,  
Which both heart and conscience together enfold.  
See worm-holes are sprouting, which seems to express,  
They loathe to feed on an Usurers flesh.   

¶ Vpon one Gnat.  
sleep on poor Gnat, Gnat was thy proper name,  
" And thou as properly expressed the same;  
No difference 'twixt thee butted and before,  
" save that in death thou sleeps, in life didst snore.   

¶ Vpon an Actor now of late deceased: and vpon his Action Tu quoque: and first vpon his travell.  
he whom this mouldered clod of earth doth hid,  
New come from Sea, made but one face and dide.   

Vpon his Creditors.  
His debters now, no fault with him can find,  
Sith he has paid to nature, all's behind.   

unto his fellow Actors.  
What can you crave of your poor fellow more?  
" He does but what Tu quoque did before:  
Then give him dying, Actions second wreathe,  
" That second'd him in Action and in death.   

¶ Vpon Loues champion.  
Once did I live and love, not love, but lust,  
And in loues tournament performed my 

merely resembling that wanton Amorist in Horace,  
Vixi puellis nuper idoneus,  
Et militaui non sine gloria.   just;  
But now return'd I am, whereto all must,  
rendering my life, love, lust and all to dust.   

¶ Amor 
This inscription writ vpon the tomb of a memorable Patrician of Rome, and may be transcribed, unto one of ours no less memorable for eminence of place, and sincerity of government.  vivat& crescat honor, invitis fatis resurgat virtus, augeatur pietas,& foueatur sanctitas: altera harum miserijs subuenimus, altera Reip. saluti prouidemus.  

Corpus vt perijt, crevit virtus.   

virtue that used to sit enthroned in state,  
" In purple clothed, not in purple sin,  
Lies here interred, for shee's enshrined in him,  
Not pruned as vicious men, by common fate,  
For virtue is of higher estimate  
Then to subscribe to times abridged date;  
Nor can the cloud of envy, honour dim,  
For when shee seems to die, shee does begin  
" To raise her glory higher then before,  
immortalised in heaven, for evermore.   

An happy passage, happy pilgrimage,  
" Where our Earths conflict wins eternity,  
Securest harbour of tranquilitie,  
To pass from Earth to heaven, where mutually  
The Saints of God rejoice, free from the rage  
Of sins assaults, or of this fleshly cage,  
Wherein we are enthralled: distressed age  

Nihil turpius est quam grandis natu Senex, qui nullum aliud argumentum, quo se probat diu vixisse, quam aetatem habet. Senec. de Tranq. anim.  That makes us old in nought save misery:  
" But pilgrims, if for Christ perplexed be,  
Shall live with him in ioy perpetually.   

Thrice blessed pilgrim, that hast spent thy daies  
In the promoting of thy Countries weal,  
faithful in all, wherein thou wast to deal,  
Shoaring vpon thy shoulders those decay,  
Which seemed to ruinated the state always;  
These blessed actions do deserved due praise,  
Triumphant patron of the commonweal:  
Who ( though she should) unthankfully conceal  
" Those many virtues which thy mind possessed,  
Thou needs not fear: in heaven they are expressed.   

True Register, where all thy acts remain  
In perfect colours lively shadowed,  
The map of honour, well deciphered,  
Where innocence receives immortal gain  
For her pure life, polluted with no stain  
Of earths allurements: Earth cannot contain  
A virtuous mind, for it will still aspire  
To Syons hill, ascending ever higher,  
Till shee discern the fruits of her pure love,  
By leaving earth to live in Courts above.   

Thou that art here immured with bars of earth,  
" Returning to the place from whence thou came,  
Shall by thy death perpetuate thy Name:  
" Sith foreign Coasts haue much admired the same;  
And though thy foes, yet they extolled thy worth,  
" Being twice noble in thyself, thy birth,  
Which no succeeding times shall ere raze forth.  
" Honour will ever flourish, as it was  
Though not engraven in faire leaves of brass.   

For what is brass, Marble, or ivory?  
What will avail the Monuments of time,  
When those they represent, seem to decline  
In the Worlds eye? in whom our memory  
lives, or lies dead: O then live virtuously,  
That wins a crown here, and eternally.  
Worlds respects a blast, a bud a flower,  
Now sprouting faire,& blasted in an hour;  
But who shall flourish in the Sacred grove,  
" Shall ere stand firm, his Scyons cannot move.   

live in this Hearse: Death to the good's no death,  
" But a transportance from a Sea of woes  
To future joys, from shipwreck to repose:  
For such as these, God for himself doth choose,  
Clipping their Temples with a golden wreathe,  
Infusing in their souls eternal breath:  
Thrice blessed vine that in heau'ns Vineyard grows,  
Whose spreading branches far more beauty shows  

Fulgebunt justi vt stèllae. Quem autem putat in eorum mentibus si tantum in eorum corporibus splendorem illuxisse videris? Vid. August. in Man.  Then Sun or moon, or th' purest Element;  
Or any star within the Firmament.   

Such trees we see bring forth the ripest fruit,  
As planted are vpon the waters side,  
Whose liquid streams their neighbour banks divide:  
even so where Springs of divine grace do glide,  
The seeds of virtue take the deepest roote,  
Where every sprig both bloom and fruit sends out  
A Glorious harvest: which what ere betid,  
Is not by storms dismayed, but fructifide.  
Such goodly trees are plants of Paradise,  
Which bring forth fruit in such varieties.   

And such a three art thou, whose noble stem  
Did nourish Learning,& Mineruas friends:  
Thy flowery blossom in their growth extends,  
And after death some fruitful gleanings sends  
From heaven above to Earths-suruiuing men,  
That seeing them, might seek to follow them;  
But most to such as about the Court attends,  
That virtuous lives may wave their glorious ends.  
" For Vertue was as Ariadnes thread  
" That lead the living, and empales the dead.   

What hissing Serpent with her venomous sting  
Can hurt thy virtues which be registered  
In heaven above? where th'art canonised  
And with the fruits of virtue garnished;  
Shining for ever with the supreme King  
Of glorious Sion: where the Angels sing  
Hymns of delight: whose Quires are polished  
With sapphires, Emeralds: replenished  
With springs still flowing full of sweet delight,   

Not crossed by shadows of a gloom●●●ight.  
" If we be Pilgrims here( as sure we be)  
" Why should we love to live, and live to die?  
" If Earthen Vessels, why should we rely  
" With such assurance on our frailty?  
" Since greatest States do perish soon'st we see,  
" And rich and poor haue one community  
" In th' eyes of Fate: nor could I ere espy  
" In humane state, ought save inconstancy.  
" Times follow Times, motion admits no rest,  
" But in this motion, 
Hei mihi, quod non est Tempus vt ante fuit. &c. ovid. Tempora temporibus succedunt pessima primis.  worst succeed the best.   

If love be said to live, honour increase,  
Or Vertue flourish in despite of Fate,  
I need not fear this noble Heroes state,  
Though much pursued( as't seems) by public hate,  
His Ship is harboured in the Port of peace:  
Where times-succeeding joys shall never cease;  
Great are they sure which none can explicate,  
And great in worth, which none can estimate.  
Thus great on Earth, and great in heaven together,  
Vertue with greatness, makes him heir of either.   

Let this same Epitaph I consecrate  
Unto thy Noble-Hearse, express my love  
And duty both:( for both do me behove;)  
" If of my poor endeavours thou approve.  
These lines be th' obsequies I dedicate,  
Which though they come like seed that's sown too late;  
Yet some in due compassion they may move,  
To plant more cheerful tendrells in thy grove.  
" Honour attend thy presence( famous hearse)  
" Too much obscured by my impolisht verse.    

Epitaph.  
Mortis ubi stimulus? pro me tulit omnia Christus:  
" Consul eram primo tempore, Consul ero.   

¶ A funeral Ode.  
O thou heauen-aspiring Spirit,  
Resting on thy saviours merit!  
live in peace,  
for increase  
blessed this island in thy being:  
Mindes united still agreeing.  
Peace possessed thee,  
Peace hath blessed thee.  
Halcyon dayes be where thou dwellest,  
" As in glory thou excellest.  
Death by dying,  
Life enjoying.  
Richer freight was nere obtained,  
Then thy Pilgrim-steps haue gained.  
Blessed pleasure,  
happy Treasure.  
Thus many distinct joys in one expressed,  
Say to thy soul, Come soul and take thy rest.   

¶ Vpon the death of the virtuously affencted sir Thomas Bointon, a Knight so wel-meriting, as his virtues far above all Titles, enstiled him worthy the love of his country.  
Sad shady 
Meaning a shady tuft of trees adjoining to Hannaby his manor-house.  grove, how faire so ere thou show,  
" Reft art thou of thy Teare-bath'd master now:  
Yet grow thou shalt; and may'st in time to come,  
With thy shed-leaues shadow thy Maisters tomb,  
Which is adorned with this Inscription:  
" weep Marble, weep, for loss of Bointon:  
Yet he's not lost; for as the Scripture saith,  
" That is not lost( for certain) which God hath.  
cease lady then with tears your eyes to dim,  
" He must not come to You, but you to Him.   

¶ Vpon that memorable Act achieved by an ancestor of the Cogniers in the discomfiture of a Winged-worme or Snake, Whose approach was no less obvious then mortally dangerous to the distressed Passenger; His Monument remaineth in the body of the church at 
Antiquae& nobilis familiae de Cogn●ers domicilium. Camd. in Britann.  Sockburn, where he lieth crosse-legged,( which infereth his being before the Conquest) having his falchion by his side, his dog at his feet, Grasping with the Snake, the Snake with the dog: the renowned memory of which Act addeth no less glory to the houses antiquity, then the worthy 
Meaning Sir John Cogniers, now deceased, a Knight no less generous then gracious in the eye of his Prince and country.  Knight who now possesseth it, gaineth harts by his affability.  
Colle sub exigu● iacuit canis, vnde peremit  
Aligerum vermem, quo sibi fama venit.  
Quo sibi Fama venit, veniet, semperque manebit,  
Sidera dum coeli, gramina tellus habent.   

Paraphrastically translated.  
Vpon a hill his Gray-hound lay, till that his master blew  
His writhed horn, at whose approach the winged worm he slay:  
Whence famed gave wings to Cogniers name which ever shal be given  
So long as grass grows on the earth, or stars appear in heaven.   

Vpon his tomb.  
Who slay the worm is now worms meat, yet hope assures me hence,  
Who th'worme ore-threwhe after slay, the worm of Conscience.   

¶ Epitaphs vpon diverse of the Sages of Greece, translated, omitting Thales and Solon, and beginning with the rest, originally traduced from Laertius. Vpon Chylo.  
Thankes to the blushing morn that first begun  
To deck the laureate brow of Chyloes son,  
Which He( old-man) as ouer-ioy'd to see,  
Fell dead through Ioy; I wish like death to me.   

This Inscription also was engraven on his tomb.  
here Chylo lies, in lacedaemon bread,  
Who 'mongst the seven was rightly numbered.   

¶ Vpon Pittucus, whose tomb was erected by the city Lesbos wherein he lived; beautified with this inscription to perpetuate his memory.  
Within this tomb doth Lesbos thee enshrine,  
drenched with their tears and consecrate as thine.   

¶ Vpon Bias whom Priene with all solemnity and magnificence, at their own proper cost interred: Engrauing these verses vpon his tomb, for the continuance of his Name.  
This well-wrought ston doth Bias corps contain,  
Who was an honour to th' jonian:  
Pleading his friends cause( as a faithful friend)  
Pausing to take his breath, He breathed his end.   

¶ Vpon Cleobulus, who was butted in Lyndus, which boundeth on the Sea-cliffe; the situation whereof is shadowed in this inscription vpon his tomb.  
That wise Cleobulus should extinguished be,  
Lyndus laments enuiron'd with the Sea;  
So as two Seas near Lyndus strand arise,  
" A Leuant Sea, a Sea in Lyndus eyes.   

¶ Vpon Periander of Corinth was this Epitaph ensuing found to be engraven, which through the iniu●ie of time, and want of Art in the impressure, was so defaced, as by the testimony of Laertius it could scarce be reduced to sense: yet now according to the original faithfully translated, including a Christian resolution in a Pagans dissolution reposing a more true happiness in his end then in his Birth, his exit or passage, then his intrat to this Theatre or transitory Pilgrimage: making his diem fatalem, his diem natalem, the day of his death the day of his birth; where Man by an imputative goodness, deduced from God not inherent in himself, may in his death be rather said to be translated then departed.  
Corinth both wise and rich in treasures store,  
keeps Perianders body in her shore.   

Continued by Laertius by way of an Epigram,  
grieve not that Thou shouldst not obtain thy wish,  
But ioy in that the Gods haue given thee this,  
For Thou by death hast past those sorrows now,  
Which many one would do, but cannot do.   

¶ Vpon the much lamented death of the truly honourable( eminent pattern of unblemished Iustice) Sir Augustine nichols one of our Iudges of the northern Circuit, who died at kendal the third day of August, Anno 1616.  

Sic Nicholaus obit, potius Nicodemus,& astra  
nunc Astraea petit, quae moriendo tenet.   

nichols is dead, or Nicodemus rather,  
The Widdows cheerer, and the Orphans father;  
Dead! why it cannot be Iustice should die,  
For she has will and power enough to fly  
above the reach of Death. It's true, yet Death  
Hath reft this Iustice-patron of his breath:  
Of Breath? No matter, Breath is but a wind  
That vades, but cannot prejudice the mind  
Where Iustice sits as Regent: wherefore then  
Since Iustice lives, should she be mon'd by men  
As if deceased? Ile tell you, here is one,  
Or was one rather, for he now is gone,  
Who seeing th'end of Iustice-circuit nigh,  
Embracing Death, did in his Circuit die;  
No marvell then if men do Iustice mone,  
When They do find her mansion under ston:  
And hard it is to find Her whom They seek,  
As t' hear the ston that covers her to speak.  
" This then shall be her Dirge, her dying Song,  
" She pleads in heaven, on earth she has lost her tongue.  
Terras Astraea reliquit.    

Another Dialogue-wise: Eubaeus and Tymaeus.  Eubaeus. 
Silence, awake not Iustice.  Tymaeus. 
Who can keep  
the eyes of Iustice closed?  Eubaeus. 
Death and sleep.  Tymaeus. 
Death cannot do it.  Eubaeus. 
Cannot! pray thee see  
What Death hath done then.  Tymaeus. 
" Lasse! how mortally  
lies Iustice wounded?  Eubaeus. 
Wounded! no, shee's dead.  Tymaeus. 
Dead!  Eubaeus. 
Yes; see tongue, pulse, arm, eye, heart, hand, head.  
all motionlesse; come nearer:  Tymaeus. 
I'm too near.  Eubaeus. 
dost weep?  Tymaeus. 
I offer to her Shrine a tear.  Eubaeus. 
Thou art too childish.  Tymaeus. 
No, if I could more,  
I would express it.  Eubaeus. 
Why, didst nere know before  
Iustice lye speechless?  Tymaeus. 
Yes, but nere did know  
despair of her recovery till now.  Eubaeus. 
No, thou hast heard that saying new  
grown common.  Tymaeus. 
What might it be?  Eubae. 
That Iustice's like a Woman;  Tymae. 
In what respect?  Eubae. 
In this it may bef'ed  
When she lies speechless, shee is nearly dead.  Tymae. 
Most true in both  Eubae. 
It is, but do not weep;  
Let's vanish hence,& suffer Iustice sleep.   


Epitaphium in Dialogi foreman compositum. ¶ An Epitaph reduced to the form of a Dialogue; consisting of two Persons and two Parts, representing in the Persons, Affection and Instruction; in the Parts Passion and Consolation: prepared at first for the memory of his neuer-sufficiently remembered Father by the author, emphatically shadowed under the name of Philopater.  The Persons names are Philopater and Philogenes. Philop. 
sleeps my dear Father?  Philoge. 
Yes, my son I sleep:  Philop. 
Why, then I wronged your quiet rest to weep;  
Sith Christians should not any difference make  
Twixt Death and sleep;  Philoge. 
It's true, for both awake,  
Both lye them down, both rise, both bedding haue,  
The living haue their couch, the dead their grave;  
For as our Death by sleep is shadowed,  
So by our Bed our grave is measured.  Philop. 
O pardon then my tears.  Philoge. 
My son I do,  
These tears thou sheds do thy affection show,  
And bear record in heaven;  Philop. 
Where you are blessed:  Philoge. 
indeed I am.  Philop. 
Heauens grant my soul like rest.   

¶ A divine composition, styled The pilgrims Petition.  
keep me( O Lord) o deign my soul to keep,  
Thou art her shepherd, shee the wandring Sheep:  
Thou art the living life, the Labourers way;  
The Pilgrims staff, Faiths Anchor, Iosuahs day:  
Yea, Iosuahs day-star, who( so if thou please)  
Canst make the Sun go back without degrees.   

¶ The Sinners cymbal.  
I cried unto the Lord, he healed me,  
I sick to death, he shew'd me remedy;  
I hunger-staru'd, he gave me Angels food,  
I all a thirst, he quenched it with his blood.   

¶ In obitum 
De Amblesiade.  Thomae Brathwaite optimae spei, indolis generosissimae, vitae probatissimae, fidei integerrimae, omni ex parte parati peritique R. B. Memoriae eius studiosissimus lugubria ista Poemata grati animi pignora diu meditata& iam serò said seriò in publicam lucem prolata( Dialogi more) composuit.  Philaretus and Euthymius. Philaret. 
Quò redis?  Euthym. 
In gremium matris:  Philaret. 
Quos quaeris?  Euthym. 
Amicos.  Philaret. 
His moriendo cares:  Euthym. 
His moriendo fruor.  Philar. 
Tunc tibi mors lucrum:  Euthym. 
Mihi lux, via, vita, leuamen.  Philar. 
Tunc non amissus;  Euthy. 
Missus at ante meos.   

¶ In Anagramma quod sibi ipsi composuit& Annulo inscripsit. 

Brathwaite  
Vita vt herba.    
Vita vt Herba tuum est Anagramma, tuaque sub vrna  
Hoc videam, brevis est vita, said herba levis,  
Annulus hoc tenuit, namque Annulus arctus vt annus,  
Quo( velut afflatu) fata futura refers.   

¶ Vpon the late decease of his much lamented friend and kinsman, Allen Nicholson, a zealous& industrious member both in Church and commonweal.  
Hauxide laments thy Death, Grasmyre not so,  
Wishing Thou hadst been dead ten yeeres ago;  
For then her market had not so been done,  
But had survived thy Age in time to come:  
And well may Hauxide grieve at thy Departure,  
" Since Shee received from thee her ancient charter,  
Which Grasmyre sues( since Thou art turned to grass  
To bring about,& now hath brought to pass.  
Thus much for thee: nor would I haue thee know it,  
For thy pure zeal could nere endure a Poet;  
Yet for the love I bore thee, and that Blood  
Which twixt us both by native course hath flowed:  
" This will I say, and may; for sure I am  
" The North nere bread sincerer Purer man.   

¶ In obitum generosissimi viri L. P. genio quàm ingenio minus faelici, Franciscus Ridgeway eius memoriae studiosissimus hosce threneticos modos composuit.  

Flebo, cur? amisi memorandi pignus amici,  
Falleris, amitti morte petente nequit;  
Praemitti fateor, Quis enim non fata capesset,  
Discimur exemplo, sic oriendo mori.  
At dolet exemplis tua fata venisse sub illis,  
Quëis si tu perias, fama perennis erit.  
Quid dixi an peries? peries sanè corpore, quid si  
Hac species periat, mens speciosa manet?  
Altera pars terram repetat, pars altera coelum,  
Nec mutas mores caela petendo tuos.  
At vale, nam faciem neque● discernere gratam  
Quae mihi semper erit gratia said arcta nimis,  
Arcta nimis said amaena satis, dum sidera vultum  
Splendida praestantem continuere tuum.  
Sic perijt quod terra parit, quod vertice coeli  
Profluit, in coelum tendat& alta petat.   

Aliud,  
Hic situs est Satyrus qui stupra a later potentum  
Impatiens, patience limina mortis adit.   

Englished,  
here lies a satire now reduced to dust,  
Who scourged desertless honour, great mens lust,  
These taxed He roundly, and had vowed to do it  
More boldly yet, if He had lived unto it.    

¶ A funeral poem vpon the death of the hopeful young Gentleman Mast. Will. Horsey, who deceased the 24. of april, Ann. Dom. 1615.  
" Plants that transplanted are, haue seldom growth,  
Yet fares it otherwise with this blessed youth,  
For he transplanted to another Sphere,  
Perfects that tender growth which he had her●,  
Tender indeed; yet methinks there appears  
Age in his houres, though youth was in his yeares,  
For by experience, of this sure I am,  
" never came child more near unto a Man.  
Well may we then excuse his mothers mone,  
To lose her son and that her onely One,  
Whose hope gave life unto her house and her,  
"( If mothers err in this they lightly err)  
For native love must needs enforce a tear  
To see them laid on bear whom they did bear:  
To see their Birth turned Earth, their very womb  
Which brought them forth converted to a tomb;  
Yet this should make his mother change her song,  
To see her hope translat'd 'boue hope so young,  
To see her onely and now happy son,  
To haue his Pilgrime-taske so quickly done;  
But shee has lost him; no, he is not lost,  
" For where He seems to lose He gaineth most:  
And though He haue not Her, He has another,  
" For now the Church triumphant is his Mother  
Feeding his infant-glory with her pap,  
Dandling him sweetly in her heavenly lap,  
For this is confirmed by the sacred word,  
" He cannot die that death in the Lord.  
Cease then thou tender Mother, cease to weep,  
Thy son's not dead, but onely fallen asleep;  
Which sleep dissolved, his corps shall be united  
unto his soul amongst the Saints delighted.  
" Peace happy soul crown thy eternal daies  
" With wreathe of glory to thy Makers praise,  
" That as thou lived a Mirror to thy Age,  
" So thou may shine in Sions heritage.   

His Epitaph.  

Orimur& Morimur.  here interred in this tomb,  
young, yet virtues hopeful bloom,  
Fathers Boy,  
Mothers ioy  
Shrined is; yet from this shrine,  
There's a substance, that's divine,  
Which no grave  
Can receive:  
Making claim to Heauens pure climb.   

¶ The Author vpon his selected and ever to be remembered E. C. Parragon for beauty and virtue: who died the 5. of Decemb. Ann. Dom. 1615.  
Take mother Earth thy virgin-daughter here,  
born on her bear ere shee was born to bear;  
Take her, for of her wonders may be said,  
" here one and twenty lies who di'de a Maid.   

¶ Vpon the much lamented Death of the virtuous virgin A. T. in Scarborough, lately deceased, and of her sorrowful Parents incessantly moned.  
Dead; say no more shee's dead, keep in that word,  
It will go near to drown her teare-swolne ford:  
Why, He must know it; true, yet such as these  
( If grieves) should be imparted by degrees;  
How must they be imparted? By her tomb;  
It cannot speak; Such grieves are seldom dumb.   

Vpon her tomb.  
weep, weep rosemary sprig and show remorse,  
Thou should haue decked her bride 
For near the time appointed for her bridal, was the day of her burial, making way no doubt by her earthly funeral to a heavenly nuptial.  now decks her corpse   

¶ Vpon the tomb of..... lately erected.  
..... Perhaps thou may haue Shebnaes doom,  
To haue thy corps divided from thy tomb,  
And haue name of that crest thou gave thy neighbour  
To close thy corps in Earth, and save this labour.  
How fond then thou, to build so costly Shrine,  
Neither( perchance) for 

This Martiall shadows under the title of Hermus,  
Sic tibi nec tumulum conde nec Herme tuis.   thee nor none of thine?  
Yet if thou want thy tomb, thou shalt not miss  
To haue thy Epitaph, and this it is:  
....... Is Dead: The cause if you would know,  
His winde-pipe burst, and he no more could blow.   

¶ Vpon a late deceased Pinch-gut.  
Macer dide rich they say, but it's not so,  
For he dide poor, and was indebted too:  
How should that be? observe me, and Ile tell ye  
He dide indebted both to back and belly:  
For all he scraped from his attorneys Fees,  
served but to starve his Maw with bread& cheese;  
So as'mongst those we rightly may him call,  
Whose life spent less then did his funeral:  
For all his life, his House scarce eat one Beast,  
Yet Dead, his son makes up the churls Feast.   

¶ This the author wrote vpon an excellent Bowler and his Friend, aptly resembling Mans life to a game at bowls.  
The World is the Alley where we play,  
The bowls we play with, Creatures that we use;  
The Rubs the Passions of our minds, the way  
Needs no Ground-giuer, there's but one to choose  
The way of all Flesh: Seauen's our Game we say,  
( For seven year is liues-lease that limits us)  
The block our end, which when it draweth on,  
We poake our bowls, and so our Game is done.   

¶ Vpon a singular irishmen.  
By him lies here, I find from whence we came,  
Where we must go, how life's an Irish game,  
This day in health and wealth, next poor& sick,  
" For Irish games haue still an Irish trick.   

¶ Vpon the death of one Cookes wife, an Inscription allusiue to her name.  
Death's the cook provideth meate,  
For the crawling worms to eat;  
Why shouldst thou then cook repined  
Death should dress that wife of thine?  
All must die, yea time will be,  
Thou wilt think he pleasur'd thee;  
For no question, being  told,  
She was sapless, toothless, old,  
He thought fit she'sd live no longer,  
That thou might choose out a younger.  
This then on her Age thy youth  
May be writ as grounded truth,  
" here she lies, long may she lye,  
" Ere she dide, was wished to die.  
This the Author presently composed vpon this occasion; being with sundry Gentlemen at Waltham exceeding merrily disposed, one cook a neighbour of the hosts where he lay, came suddenly in, pitteously lamenting the death of his wife, being newly departed: every one laboured to alloy his sorrow; but by how much more instant were their comforts, by so much more violent were his Passions: at last the Author perceiving by his host that he expressed a dissembling sorrow, being impatient of her life, and therefore( by all probability) inwardly content with her death, being an old decrepit woman, and He in the Prime of his age, in stead of all unnecessary comforts, applied this sovereign Discourse as a salve to his grief, without further premeditation.  
— coenae fercula nostrae  
Mallem conuinis, quam placuisse cocis.  
Englished: 
As in my choice of meate so in my book,  
I'd rather please my guests, then please my cook.    

¶ In Actorem Mimicum cvi vix parem cernimus superstitem;  

Quaecunque orta sunt occidunt. sallust.   

Ver vireat quod te peperit( viridissima proles)  
Quaeque tegit cineres, ipsa virescat humus.  
Transis ab exiguis nunquam periture th●atri●  
Vt repetas sacri pulchra Theatra specifics.    

¶ In vultum incredibili lepore respersum.  
O fac●●s mutata nimis; spectacula praebes  
Vermibus, ingenuis saepe probata viris.  
Quo mutata tuae magis est Pr●stantia formae,  
Integra nunc remanet quae peritura fuit.   

Vita vt mimus.  
Exit vt exegit soboles lepidissima partem,  
Pramia fert hominum, said meliora Deûm.   

¶ Vpon a traveler, who taking inn in a village at the sign of the boor was lamentably murdered by his host.  
The brutish-brisled Bore that was my sign,  
Where th'host( Bore-like)  shed this poor blood of mine.   

Ibidem.  
An crudelis Aper magis, an crudeli●r Hosp●s,  
Nescio; saews Aper, saews& Hospes erat.  
At saews magis Hospes erat, nam convenit vrsis  
Inter se sauis, non Hospes ab Hospite tut●s.   

Englished.  
Whether the Bore or host more cruel be,  
cruel the Bore, the host as fierce as He,  
I know not: but the Hoast's the cruelest:  
" bears do agree, while the host betrays his Guest:   

¶ Vpon certain Bones found of late butted in the ground, supposed to be some murder committed by the host, in whose yard these Bones were found; but as yet only suspicion is grounded, no apparancie of Fact discovered.  
Brow'd be thy hands in blood, although Thou be  
Free to the world, thy Conscience is not free;  
For these dry Bones lye mouldered now in Dust,  
Will manifest thy guilt, for God is just.   

Vpon murder.  
Murder may seem to sleep, but cannot sleep,  
For fear and horror do her eie-lids keep.   

Another.  
Murder sometime to slumber will betake her,  
Till fury, wrath, and vengeance do awake her:   

¶ Vpon a Gentlewoman who died in Child-birth.  
One, and my onely one lies butted here,  
Who in the Birth she bore, was born on beer;  
To him asks more, this for excuse appears,  
" Ioy can find words, but words are drowned in tears.   

Vpon an Infant( his fathers first born) was this written:  
By this avouch I may, right sure I am,  
That meager Death's an unjust tithing-man,  
This was my First, not Tenth, and we do say,  
" With Tenth, not First we use our Tithe to pay.   

¶ Vpon one Gray.  
Gray was my name, gray were my hairs of hue,  
And Gray to grave return'd, pays Natures due.   

¶ Vpon one grave.  
grave I was, where now you see,  
grave is all is granted me:  
Yet with me my name I haue,  
Since in grave doth lodge a grave.   

Another.  
Iesu Christ my soul he save,  
Ere my Met-wand touch my grave.   

¶ Vpon one wind towards the North-borders is this written;  
wind I'se can'd an new I find,  
An mans life is but a wind;  
Whilke an I had wind at will,  
I had yet been living still:  
But is, wele, though wind be gave,  
Siker is wind feel I nane.   

¶ Another.  

Hoc Epitaphtum are insculptum vidimus cathedrali templo Eboracensi, pulcherrimo more( in aerea quadam lamina) consitum, said baerbarie temporis magis excusanda, aut ineptia Autoris non satis miranda, parum condite dispositum in Orientali 〈◇〉 prope mediam partem ●rt● erigitur.  Miseremini mei my Friends all,  
For now the World hath informed me to fall;  
I must no longer endure, Pray for my soul,  
For the World is transitory and terrestrial.   

¶ Vpon old Mammon.  
Here lies experienced providence, whose care  
Hath well enriched himself, made others bare;  
And yet when Nature did deny Him breath,  
worms had their legacy by means of Death:  
Pray for his soul, who prayed on many a soul,  
" And howl amain when as the Bell doth toll:  
The reason is, if you do ask me why,  
" Howling should supply mourning when Dogs die.  
ainae meae propitietur Deus.   

¶ On a cobbler at Cambridge.  
marvell not much though death in doubt did stand,  
He found him always on the mending hand;  
Yet by misfortune and by change of weather,  
Death ript his soul quiter from the vpper leather.   

¶ Vpon an Eminent STATESMAN in this Land, absolute for his general survey in all knowledge, his approved iudgement in all Learning.  
read STATESMAN here thy own mortality,  
O meditate of Death before thy death;  
Be not transport'd with Honour: for if we  
Ere can show virtue, it is while we breath,  
Raising our hopes' boue Earths felicity,  
To crown our Temples with Fames glorious wreathe:  
Behold I was, and being was admired,  
Elected STATESMAN, and esteemed fit  
At all assays of STATE, to manage it;  
So all that Frame which was so much desired,  
Ends in this Chest, where STATE retires expired.   

¶ In the memory of that famous professor of physic, Mr Butler, generally renowned for his approved practise.  
Death might dissolve thy form, but not thy famed,  
For shee hath reared on thee such a frame  
As shall preserve thy mem'rie, sure I am,  
So long as Age shall need Physician;  
Cease critic then for to traduce his worth  
Whose oil though it be spent, his Light's not forth.  
" To sundry States our sundry Fates us call,  
Some for the soul, some body few for all:  
Yet we in way of Charity should know  
" He had receipts for soul and body too. 
Sic Aesculapius exit,& vrnam in quam omnes redeunt, repetit Supremam.    

¶ On one More.  
Here lies More, and no more but he,  
More, and no more, how can that be?   

¶ On one prick.  
Cupid and Death they both their arrows nick,  
Cupid shot short, but Death he hit the prick.   

¶ Vpon Sir Ignorance.  
Here lies the body of Sir Ignorance,  
Who lived in a mist, died in a trance;  
And may he so long sleep where he is lain,  
Till he forget to come to us again.   

¶ Vpon gregory Cade.  
Sib my wife did promise me  
Shee would die when I did die,  
But no trust's in Her I see,  
And you see't as well as I:  
For my shroud was scantly rotten,  
Till my Sib had me forgotten.   
FINIS.