Hold Mathew Prior, by your leave,
Your epitaph is very odd:
Bourbon and you are sons of Eve,
Nassau the offspring of a God.
Which being shewn to Swift he wrote the following:—
Hold, Mathew Prior, by your leave,
Your epitaph is barely civil;
Bourbon and you are sons of Eve,
Nassau the offspring of the devil.
In the "Spectator," is part of an epitaph by Ben Jonson, on Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, and sister of Sir Philip Sidney. The following is the whole, taken from the first edition of Jonson's works, collected as they were published:—