University of Virginia Library

9. AN EPITAPH UPON ABRAM GOODFELLOW, A COMMON ALEHOUSE-HUNTER.

Beware thou look not who hereunder lies,
Unless thou long to weep away thine eyes.
This man, as sorrowful report doth tell us,
Was, when he lived, the prince of all Goodfellows.
That day he died, it cannot be believed
How out of reason all the alewives grieved,

---

183

And what abominable lamentation
They made at Black-boy and at Salutation;
They howl'd and cried, and ever more among
This was the burden of their woeful song:
Well, go thy ways, thy like hath never been,
Nor shall thy match again be ever seen;
For out of doubt now thou art dead and gone,
There's many a tap-house will be quite undone,
And Death by taking thee did them more scathe,
Than yet the alehouse project done them hath.