On Margaret Ratcliffe
XL.
? ON MARGARET RATCLIFFE.
M arble, weep, for thou dost cover
A dead beauty underneath thee,
R ich as nature could bequeath thee :
G rant then, no rude hand remove her.
A ll the gazers on the skies
R ead not in fair heaven's story,
E xpresser truth, or truer glory,
T han they might in her bright eyes.
R are as wonder was her wit ;
A nd, like nectar, ever flowing :
T ill time, strong by her bestowing,
C onquer'd hath both life and it ;
L ife, whose grief was out of fashion
I n these times.
Few so have rued
F ate in a brother.
To conclude,
F or wit, feature, and true passion,
E arth, thou hast not such another.
[ AJ Note:
Margaret Ratcliffe was one of Queen Elizabeth's
ladies-in-waiting.
She wasted away from grief in
November 1599, after long mourning the deaths
of four of her brothers.
]
Poem by
Ben Jonson
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