Who doth for ever to his thoughts bequeath
60The legacy of your lamented death.
An Elegy upon my best friend.] King's 'best friend' (or, as a MS. gives it, 'worthiest') was Katharine Stanhope, daughter of John Lord Stanhope of Harrington. Her husband, Robert Cholmondeley, successively created an Irish Viscount, an English Baron (his surname serving as title in each case), and Earl of Leinster, died very shortly after her and before the Restoration. There is a MS. sermon on her death attributed to King, but doubted by Hannah. The poem itself, unlike the next but like the three which follow that, appears printed in the 1664 issue. And it is, on the principles of this collection, not unimportant to notice that in these later printed pieces the irrational prodigality of capitals which, as has been noted, is absent from 1657, reappears. There could be no stronger evidence that these things have nothing to do with the author, and are not worth reproducing.
12 The original bestows a capital even upon 'Alive'—a thing capital in another way as illustrating the utter unreason of the practice.
15-18 Absent in MS.
36 Orig. 'nev'r'—a form unpronounceable but not uninteresting.
40 your] MS. 'the'.
43 crosses] MS. 'sorrows'.