Such life, such death; then, the known truth to tell,
He lived a godly lyfe, and dyde as well.
EPITAPH ON SIR THOMAS STANLEY. **
Ask who lyes here, but do not weepe:
He is not dead, he doth but sleepe;
This stony register is for his bones,
His fame is more perpetual than these stones,
And his own goodness, with himself being gone,
Shall live when earthly monument is none.
* On the authority of "a MS. volume of poems by Herrick and
others, said to be in the handwriting of Charles I., in the
Bodleian Library.
** On the authority of Sir William Dugdale ("Visitation
Book"), who says, "The following verses were made by William
Shakespeare, the late famous tragedian." This appears to be
our author's longest and most ambitious work.