On earth the first, in heaven the second maid.
The great Tudor queen, who was not deficient in taste, would assuredly have been displeased with such “fustian stuff” as this. What she really wanted may be gathered from Bacon’s “Character of Queen Elizabeth,” where he says:
“She would often discourse about the inscription she had a mind should be on her tomb. She gave out that she was no lover of glory and pompous titles, but only desired her memory might be recorded in a line or two which should very briefly express her name, her virginity, the time of her reign, the reformation of religion, and her preservation of the peace.”
Samuel Johnson
The Royal Commission on MSS. unearthed at Spencer House, St. James’s, London, the following epitaph by Soame Jenyns on Dr. Johnson:
Here lies poor Johnson; reader have a care;
Tread lightly, lest you rouse a sleeping bear.
Religious, moral, generous, and humane
He was; but self-sufficient, rude, and vain;
Ill-bred, and overbearing in dispute,