AN EPITAPH VPON A YOVNG MARRIED COVPLE
DEAD AND BVRYED TOGETHER.[73]
To these, whom Death again did wed,1
This grave's their second marriage-bed;
For though the hand of Fate could force
'Twixt sovl and body, a diuorce,
It could not sunder man and wife,5
'Cause they both liuèd but one life.
Peace, good Reader, Doe not weep.
Peace, the louers are asleep.
They, sweet turtles, folded ly
In the last knott that Loue could ty.10
And though they ly as they were dead,
Their pillow stone, their sheetes of lead;
(Pillow hard, and sheetes not warm)
Loue made the bed; they'l take no harm;
Let them sleep: let them sleep on,15
Till this stormy night be gone,
And the æternall morrow dawn;
Then the curtaines will be drawn
And they wake into a light,
Whose Day shall neuer sleepe in Night.20
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
In the Sancroft ms. the heading is 'Epitaphium Conjugum vnà mortuor. et sepultor. R. Cr.' It was reprinted in 1648 'Delights' (p. 26), where it is entitled as supra, and 1670 (p. 95). Our text is that of 1648, which yields the five lines (11-14), and which Ellis in his 'Specimens' (iii. 208, 1845) introduced from a ms. copy, but as doubtful from not having appeared in any of the editions; a mistake on his part, as the lines appear in 1648 and 1652. His note is, nevertheless, 'The lines included in brackets are in no printed edition: they were found in a ms. copy, and are perhaps not Crashaw's.' As usual, Turnbull overlooked them. I add a few slight various readings from 1646.
Line 2, 'the.'
" 5, 'sever.'
" 6, 'Because they both liv'd but one life.'
" 10, I accept 'that' in 1646 and Sancroft ms. as it is confirmed by Harleian ms. 6917-18, as before.
Line 17, I adopt 'And' for 'Till' from 1648.
" 19, 'waken with that Light,' and so Sancroft ms.: 1648 reads 'And they wake into that Light:' Harleian ms. as before, 'And they waken with.'
Line 20, 'sleep' for 'dy,' which I adopt as agreeing with the 'wake,' and as being confirmed by Harleian ms. as before. G.
DEATH'S LECTVRE AND THE FVNERAL OF A YOVNG GENTLEMAN.[74]
Dear reliques of a dislodg'd sovl, whose lack1
Makes many a mourning paper put on black!
O stay a while, ere thou draw in thy head
And wind thy self vp close in thy cold bed.
Stay but a little while, vntill I call5
A summon's worthy of thy funerall.
Come then, Youth, Beavty, Blood! all ye soft powres,
Whose sylken flatteryes swell a few fond howres
Into a false æternity. Come man;
Hyperbolizèd nothing! know thy span;10
Take thine own measure here, down, down, and bow
Before thy self in thine idæa; thou
Huge emptynes! contract thy bulke; and shrinke
All thy wild circle to a point. O sink
Lower and lower yet; till thy leane size15
Call Heaun to look on thee with narrow eyes.
Lesser and lesser yet; till thou begin
To show a face, fitt to confesse thy kin,
Thy neighbourhood to Nothing!
Proud lookes, and lofty eyliddes, here putt on20
Your selues in your vnfaign'd reflexion;
Here, gallant ladyes! this vnpartiall glasse
(Through all your painting) showes you your true face.
These death-seal'd lippes are they dare giue the ly
To the lowd boasts of poor Mortality;25
These curtain'd windows, this retirèd eye
Outstares the liddes of larg-look't Tyranny.
This posture is the braue one, this that lyes
Thus low, stands vp (me thinkes) thus and defies
The World. All-daring dust and ashes! only you30
Of all interpreters read Nature true.
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.