MS. Rawl. Poet. 160, folio 41 recto
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Document-specific information
Creator: [Shakespeare, William]
Title: An epitaph on Elias James
Date: ca. 1640
Repository: Bodleian Library, Oxford University, Oxford, UK
Call number and opening: MS. Rawl. Poet. 160, fol. 41
Terms of use
The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, has graciously contributed images of materials in its collections to Shakespeare Documented under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. Images used within the scope of these terms should cite the Bodleian Libraries as the source. For any use outside the scope of these terms, visitors should contact Bodleian Libraries Imaging Services at imaging@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.
Document-specific information
Creator: [Shakespeare, William]
Title: An epitaph on Elias James
Date: ca. 1640
Repository: Bodleian Library, Oxford University, Oxford, UK
Call number and opening: MS. Rawl. Poet. 160, fol. 41
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[This transcription is pending final vetting]
[fol. 41r]
Shine o’re thy hearse; ye breath of our Iust praise
Shall to ye firmanent thy virutes raise
Then fixe & kindle them into a star
Whose Influeuce may crown thy glorious war
Hen:King
IN
Obitum filis domini Rich:
Anderson militis:
Faire peice of Angell gold yat wert yet hot
Out of heavens mint & had’st not long since got
Thy Soveraignes Image on thee, & found true
Without allowance for all graines were due
To a young goodnes yat the fate hast found
Of misers gold to be intomb’d in ground
Go dainty wormes meat, if such things as they
Got of their food can breed here, for we may
Think such a flesh Corrupted in ye mold
Without ye ayd of balme & Aloes would
A richer Mummy make then ere was sent
From a time worne Egiptian monument
Go pretty soule new cut in heavens, & set
As a rich diamond in an Ammulet
Which now is broken & ye severed Iem
Shines with the stones in new Hierusalem
And if the soule be made of harmony
As tis defin’d in some philosophy
He shall so sing none shall distinguish him
Suppos’d to be some pretty Cherubin . /
AN
Epitaph
When god was pleasd, ye world vnwilling yet
Elias James to nature payd his debt
And here reposeth: as he liv'd he dyde
The saying in him strongly verefi'de
Such life such death yen ye known truth to tell
he liv'd a godly life and dyde as well /.
Wm Shakespeare
Last updated February 3, 2020
