E Semper Stel me
Tristo e Discontèto.
Wilim Tyrrel 1541[1]"
No account of William Tyrrell can be found. The above melancholy inscription seems to imply that the person who made it had been condemned, and was impatient for the day of his execution.
It is one of those genuine effusions of anguish which may be stiled, in the pathetic language of the Book of Psalms,
"The sorrowful sighing of the prisoner."
The allusion to astrology marks very strongly the superstition of the age.
"William Rame 22, die Aprilis Ano 1559.
Better it is to be in the howse of mornyng then in the houze of banketing.
The harte of the wyse is in the mornyng howze. It is better to have some chastening then to have over moche liberte.
There is a tyme for all things, a tyme to be borne and a tyme to dye, and the daye of deathe is better than the daye of birthe.
There is an ende of all things, ande the ende of a thinge is beter then the begenyng.
Be wyse and pacyente in troble, for wysedome defendith us as well as monie.
Use weil the tyme of prosperite, and remember the tyme of mysfortune"
- ↑ The following translation of this inscription was given by a learned member of this society.
"Since fortune hath chosen that my hope
Should go to the wind to complain: I wish
The time were destroyed: my planet being ever
Sorrowful and discontented.
