Elegies offer'd up to the memory of William Glover Esquire, late of Shalston, in Bukinghamshire. By Thomas Philipot |
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An Advertisement to the Reader.
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 | Elegies |  |
An Advertisement to the Reader.
Reader thou needst exhaust no Time to lookeWithin the Pages of the Heralds Booke,
And sift that Index to Times past, to see
Whence Glover did deduce his Pedigree
Or search t'instruct thy selfe to what extent
His noble and Illustrious Descent
Spins out it selfe, since thou mayst finde him here
Decipher'd in a fairer Character
Then any there, and his Descent made good,
By being deriv'd from vertue not from blood.
Thy eye needs not take notice of his Crest,
Nor scan those Metals that his Armes invest;
Nor see if cloth'd in purple they appeare,
Or the pale furre of speckled Ermins weare,
Since these sad lines that onely can display
Their Heraldry in Sables, will array
His name with as much eminence and note,
As those rich colours that improve his Coate:
Nor care to be inform'd what Issue He
Left to convey and waft his Memory
To after Times, and make himselfe survive
His Ruine; and be still preservd alive
In them, since thou mayst be advertisd, he
Lives in no Issue but in Elegie,
The Off-spring of my Braine; Where thou mayst view
His face appeare more genuine and more true
By Nature in a living Counterfeit.
And if thou passest by where Glovers Dust
Lyes in the Casquet of his grave in trust,
And seest no Pile or Monument adorne
The bleack and naked surface of his Urne,
Argue not any guilty of neglect
To his Remaines, nor Art of a Defect
'Cause she forgot her Trophies to impart,
He needs no Tombe that has one in my Heart.
| Elegies | |