A copper-plate beyond a sheet of lead.
So long as brass, so long as books endure,
So long as neat-wrought pieces, thou'rt secure.
A [Faithorne sculpsit] is a charm can save
20From dull oblivion, and a gaping grave.
To my Ingenious Friend Mr. William Faithorne.] The elder Faithorne (v. sup., [p. 278]). The younger, his son and namesake, was but eighteen when Flatman first published. The lines first appeared in The Art of Graveing and Etching ... Published by Willm Faithorne. And Sold at his Shop next to ye Signe of ye Drake without Temple Barre, 1662.
1 'elogy' is no doubt here merely an equivalent for 'eulogy', and rather from éloge than elogium. But it is a pity that it has not been kept in English as an equivalent for the Latin.
5 that fruitless] my slender 1662. Other important variants are:— Lines 9, 10 read:—
Thine ingenuity reveals, and so
By making plain, thou dost illustrious grow.