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Home  »  Parnassus  »  Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

Ralph Waldo Emerson, comp. (1803–1882). Parnassus: An Anthology of Poetry. 1880.

Epitaph: ‘Underneath this stone doth lye’

Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

UNDERNEATH this stone doth lye

As much beauty as could dye;

Which in life did harbor give

To more virtue than doth live.

If at all she had a fault,

Leave it buried in this vault.

One name was Elizabeth—

The other, let it sleep with death:

Fitter, where it dyed to tell,

Than that it lived at all. Farewell!