Death was afraid to meet him in the field;
But when his weapons he had laid aside,
Death, like a coward, struck him, and he died.
BEN JONSON’S EPITAPH ON MICHAEL DRAYTON.
(One of the Elizabethan Poets, ob. 1631.)
Do, pious Marble, let thy readers know
What they and what their children owe
To Drayton’s name, whose sacred dust
We recommend unto thy TRUST:
Protect his memory and preserve his story,