University of Virginia Library

Epig. 40. On the Death of the truely learned and exquisitely Vertuous I. D. Esquire.

VVhen Fates impartial hand shall summon me,
It will increase my Joy to visite thee,
Yet we must sympathize, and on thy Herse
Powre out a Sable teare to write a Verse:
With your swart weeds my Azure lines agree,
“A mourners beauty is deformity.
Blame not the Three for this sad Fate, they do
Consume themselves in teares, as well as you,
'Twas not their will so faire a flower should stay
So short a time, and fade so soone away,
They had resolv'd upon this common Stage,
He should have acted out old Nestors Age,

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While they their over-busied hands conjoyne
With curious Art, to draw the fatall twine
To a full length, they forc'd the same so small,
That (unawares) alack) it brake withall:
And all but right, should they do heaven wrong
To keep his precious Soule on Earth so long
That long'd to part, should they his Joyes repreive
And kill him thus, by keeping him alive;
Heaven then took pitty, and could not dispence
With this their kindnesse, therefore Rap't him hence.
 

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