Pausanias—not so nam’d without a cause,
As one who oft has giv’n to pain a pause,
Blest son of Æsculapius, good and wise,
Here, in his native Gela, buried lies;
Who many a wretch once rescu’d by his charms
From dark Persephone’s constraining arms.
In Holy Trinity Church, Hull, is an example of a punning epitaph. It is on a slab in the floor of the north aisle of the nave, to the memory of “The Worshipful Joseph Field, twice Mayor of this town, and Merchant Adventurer.” He died in 1627, aged 63 years:—
Here is a Field sown, that at length must sprout,
And ’gainst the ripening harvest’s time break out,
When to that Husband it a crop shall yield
Who first did dress and till this new-sown Field;
Yet ere this Field you see this crop can give,
The seed first dies, that it again may live.
Sit Deus amicus,
Sanctis, vel in Sepulchris spes est.
On Bishop Theophilus Field, in Hereford Cathedral, ob. 1636, is another specimen:—
The Sun that light unto three churches gave
Is set; this Field is buried in a grave.
This Sun shall rise, this Field renew his flowers,
This sweetness breathe for ages, not for hours.
He was successively Bishop of Llandaff, St. David’s, and Hereford.
The following rather singular epitaph, with a play upon the name, occurs in the chancel of Checkley Church, Staffordshire:—
To the Memory of the Reverend James Whitehall, Rector of this place twenty and five years, who departed this life the second daie of March, 1644.
White was his name, and whiter than this stone.
In hope of joyfole resurrection
Here lies that orthodox, that grave divine,
In wisdom trve, vertve did soe clearly shine;
One that could live and die as he hath done
Suffer’d not death but a translation.
Bvt ovt of charitie I’ll speake no more,
Lest his friends pine with sighs, with teares the poor.
From Hornsea Church we have the epitaph of Will Day, gentleman; he lived 34 years, died May 22nd, 1616:—