The Complete Poems of Richard Barnfield/The Isham MS./Epitaphium

by Ben Jonson

For other versions of this work, see On Salathiel Pavy.

EPITAPHIUM.

Weepe with mee all yee that reade,
this little storie,
And knowe for whome these teares you shedd
deaths selfe is sorrie,
It was a childe that so did thriue,
in grace and feature,
That heauen and nature seemde to striue,
whoe owede the creature,
Yeeres he numbred scarce thirteene
when the destenies tumd cruell
Yet three paste zodiacks he had bine
our stages Juell

And what wee nowe doe mone
he plaide olde men soe duelie,
The destinies thought him to be one,
he faind soe truelie,
And in that error they consented,
to his death,
But vewinge him since they haue repented
and haue sought to giue newe birth
in charmes to steepe him:
But beinge soe much to good for earth,
heauen vowes to keepe him.

FINIS.