An Honovrable President For Great Men By An Elegiecall Monvment to the Memory of that worthy Gentleman Mr. Iohn Bancks, Citizen and Mercer of London, aged about 60. yeares, and Dyed the 9.th day of September. Anno. Dom. 1630 [by Henry Petowe] |
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 | An Honovrable President For Great Men |  |
An Honovrable President For Great Men.
Fame come and wayte vpon the Funerall HerseOf Noble worth; and let this weeping Verse
Charme all those Eyes which spent a brinie Teare:
Let none weepe more; but read what's written here.
Fame dry their Eyes, and bid them all reioyce
For Rich and Poore all with a generall voyce
Spend their best breath, to tell the World that hee
(Whose death deserues this sad solemnity)
Was One, a Tunne of Dyamonds could not buy
The Iewels which he wore: Humility,
Religion, Iudgement, Wisedome; Poore Mens Prayers
Which halfe the way to Heauen, made him Stayres
Should any weepe for such a man that's dead?
Inter'd with Fame, his Soule to Heauen fled?
Not a Teare more: But bid the great Ones learne
To doe like good, that they in Bancks discerne
Bid them peruse the Index of his deeds,
And euery one discreetly as he reeds
Obserue and quote i'th Margent of his hart
The best of them; that when their soules must part
From their dead bodies; They may so worke in them
The World may say; they liu'd and dy'd good Men
But aboue all his Merit, My Pen is bound
To laud his worth (whom Fame hath so renown'd)
Much more then any: For the Legacies
Bequeath'd to Rich and Poore at Obsequies
Of dead Testators, are but customary
But the bequest I treat, is full of glory.
As long as Time hath being shall not dye
This first borne famous Guift and Legacy.
Let the World know, he hath remenbred those
The greate Ones doe forget; and to disclose
His Goodnesse in it, Censure You that read
This Eligie; Although Iohn Banckes be dead
He shall for euer liue. Th' Artillerie
Shall fame his Guift to all Posteritie.
Nine times Ten Pounds this Gentleman did giue
Londons Arttillerie, that such may liue
And florish in that noble Schole of Armes
(Where's taught the Gaurd of Princes frō all harmes)
Twenty Pounds to Feast, and other Twenty more
To purchase Armes; and Fifty to the Store,
The Stock, the Treasury, or to the Banck
Banck fits it well; if there were more to ranck.
Hee was a Souldier, though that honored age
Deny'd him with his Iuniors equipage;
Therefore his loue we honor: Behold and see
The Glory of this sad Solemnitie.
The Warlike Musick, Drum and Fife are clad
In blacke, there beating Dub a Dub all sad:
Muskets (Retrorsum) and their rests doe weepe,
The heads of Pikes doe the like Clangor keepe
Captaine, Leiftenant, Ensigne, and the rest
All with deiected Countenances prest
To direfull Mourning: Thus are Souldiers friends
Like royall Princes brought vnto their Ends.
FINIS
Mariscallus
Petovvb
composuit.
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