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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  193. On Salathiel Pavy A child of Queen Elizabeth’s Chapel Epitaphs: ii

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Ben Jonson. 1573–1637

193. On Salathiel Pavy A child of Queen Elizabeth’s Chapel Epitaphs: ii

WEEP with me, all you that read 
    This little story; 
And know, for whom a tear you shed 
    Death’s self is sorry. 
‘Twas a child that so did thrive         5
    In grace and feature, 
As Heaven and Nature seem’d to strive 
    Which own’d the creature. 
Years he number’d scarce thirteen 
    When Fates turn’d cruel,  10
Yet three fill’d zodiacs had he been 
    The stage’s jewel; 
And did act (what now we moan) 
    Old men so duly, 
As sooth the Parcae thought him one,  15
    He play’d so truly. 
So, by error, to his fate 
    They all consented; 
But, viewing him since, alas, too late! 
    They have repented;  20
And have sought, to give new birth, 
    In baths to steep him; 
But, being so much too good for earth, 
    Heaven vows to keep him.