[236:A] The following, from Wycombe Church, is an agreeable variation:
"Here lies one, whose rest
Gives me a restless life,
Because I've lost a good
And virtuous wife."
In Milton Abbot Church we find a memorial to one Bartholomew Doidge and Joan, his wife. The wife was buried on the 1st of February 1681, and the husband on the 12th, and the inscription goes on to say:
"She first deceased: he a little tried
To live without her, liked it not, and died."
[237:A] "By thys tale ye may se that the olde prouerbe ys trew that yt is as gret pyte to se a woman wepe as a gose to go barefoote."—"Mery Tayls," c. 1525. Puttenham, in "The Arte of English Poesie," 1589, gives a rather different rendering, a satire on feminine gush and misplaced sympathy, "By the common prouerbe a woman will weepe for pitie to see a gosling goe barefoote."
"The shuddering tenant of the frigid zone,
Boldly proclaims the happiest spot his own,
Extols the treasures of his stormy seas,
And his long night of revelry and ease.
The naked savage, panting at the line,
Boasts of his golden sands, and palmy wine,
Basks in the glare, or stems the tepid wave,
And thanks his gods for all the good they gave.
Nor less the patriot's boast, where'er he roam,
His first, best country, ever is at home."
—Goldsmith, The Traveller.
[241:A] The Book of Proverbs is no less rich in wisdom than the Book of Ecclesiasticus, but the latter being somewhat less familiar to many readers we prefer to draw upon its pages in illustration of our English adages.