My Fortune and my choice this custome break,
When we are speechlesse grown, to make stones speak,
Though no stone tell thee what I was, yet thou
In my graves inside seest what thou art now:
Yet thou'art not yet so good, till death us lay
To ripe and mellow here, we are stubborne Clay.
Parents make us earth, and soules dignifie
Vs to be glasse; here to grow gold we lie.
Whilst in our soules sinne bred and pamper'd is,
Our soules become wormeaten carkases;
So we our selves miraculously destroy.
Here bodies with lesse miracle enjoy
Such priviledges, enabled here to scale
Heaven, when the Trumpets ayre shall them exhale.
Heare this, and mend thy selfe, and thou mendst me,
By making me being dead, doe good to thee,
And thinke me well compos'd, that I could now
A last-sicke houre to syllables allow.
[Omnibus. D, H49: To all. H40, RP31: Another on the
same. (i.e. M^{rs} Boulstred) P: On himselfe. 1635-69:
no title, B, S96: in MSS. this complete epitaph follows
the epistle (p. 291); but in B they are separated by
various poems and in P the epistle is not given]
[3 tell] tel 1635]
[4 seest] see D, H49: compare incomplete version.]
[5 Yet 1635-69: Nay S96
thou'art Ed: thou art 1635-69]
[8 lie. Ed: lie; 1635-69]
[14 them] then 1669]
[16 to thee, B, D, H40, H49, O'F, S96: for thee,
1635-69]