IDENTILIN$$  F15600G|FunEl|1669(CtY,KyU,L,TxLT)|sigs.P5-P6v,pp.217-20/P:MEL/(TxAM)/1-18-07
156.00G.HE   %1A Funeral Elegy%2. [P5]
156.00G.001  'T%+Is loss to trust a Tomb with such a guest,
156.00G.002  Or to confine her in a marble chest,
156.00G.003  Alas, what's Marble, Jeat, or Porphyrie,
156.00G.004  Pris'd with the Chrysolite of either eye,
156.00G.005  Or with those Pearls, and Rubies, which she was?
156.00G.006  Joyn the two Indies in one Tomb, 'tis glass;
156.00G.007  And so is all to her materials,
156.00G.008  Though every inch were ten Escurials;
156.00G.009  Yet she's demolish'd: can we keep her then
156.00G.010  In works of hands, or of the wits of men?
156.00G.011  Can these memorials, rags of paper, give
156.00G.012  Life to that name, by which name they must live?
156.00G.013  Sickly, alas, short#liv'd, Abortive be
156.00G.014  Those carcass verses, whose soul is not she;
156.00G.015  And can she, who no longer would be she,
156.00G.016  (Being such a Tabernacle) stoop to be
156.00G.017  In paper wrapt; or when she would not lie
156.00G.018  In such an house, dwell in an Elegy?
156.00G.019  But 'tis no matter; we may well allow
156.00G.020  Verse to live so long as the world will now,
156.00G.021  For her death wounded it.  The world contains
156.00G.022  Princes for arms, and Counsellors for braines,
156.00G.023  Lawyers for tongues, Divines for hearts, and more,
156.00G.024  The rich for stomacks, and for backs the poor; [CW:The]
156.00G.025  The officers for hands, Merchants for feet, [P5v]
156.00G.026  By which, remote and distant Countrys meet:
156.00G.027  But those fine spirits, which do tune, and set
156.00G.028  This Organ, are those peeces, which beget
156.00G.029  Wonder and love; and these were shee; and she
156.00G.030  Being spent, the world must needs decrepit be;
156.00G.031  For since death will proceed to triumph still,
156.00G.032  He can find nothing after her, to kill,
156.00G.033  Except the world it self, so great was she.
156.00G.034  Thus brave and confident may Nature be,
156.00G.035  Death cannot give her such another blow,
156.00G.036  Because she cannot such another show.
156.00G.037  But must we say she's dead; may't not be said
156.00G.038  That as a sundred clock is peecemeal laid,
156.00G.039  Not to be lost, but by the Makers hand
156.00G.040  Repolish'd, without errour then to stand;
156.00G.041  Or, as the Affrique Niger stream enwombs
156.00G.042  It self into the earth, and after comes
156.00G.043  (Having first made a Natural bridge, to pass
156.00G.044  For many leagues) far greater than it was,
156.00G.045  May't not be said, that her grave shall restore
156.00G.046  Her, greater, purer, firmer than before?
156.00G.047  Heaven may say this, and joy in't but can we
156.00G.048  Who live, and lack her here, this vantage see?
156.00G.049  What is't to us, alas, if there have been
156.00G.050  An angel made a Throne, or Cherubin?
156.00G.051  We lose by't: and as aged men are glad
156.00G.052  Being tastless grown, to joy in joyes they had,
156.00G.053  So now the sick-starv'd world must feed upon
156.00G.054  This joy, that we had her, who now is gon.
156.00G.055  Rejoyce then Nature, and this world, that you,
156.00G.056  Fearing the last fires hastning to subdue
156.00G.057  Your force and vigor, ere it were near gon,
156.00G.058  Wisely bestow'd and laid it all on one; [CW:One][miscatch]
156.00G.059  One, whose clear body was so pure and thin, [P6]
156.00G.060  Because it need disguise no thought within,
156.00G.061  'Twas but a through light scarf her mind t'#enroul;
156.00G.062  Or exhalation breath'd out from her Soul.
156.00G.063  One, whom all men, who durst no more, admir'd:
156.00G.064  And whom, who ere had worth enough, desir'd;
156.00G.065  As when a Temple's built, Saints emulate
156.00G.066  To which of them it shall be consecrate.
156.00G.067  But, as when heaven looks on us with new eyes,
156.00G.068  Those new stars every Artist exercise,
156.00G.069  What place they should assign to them they doubt,
156.00G.070  Argue, and agree not, till those stars go out:
156.00G.071  So the world studied whose this peece should be,
156.00G.072  Till she can be no bodies else, nor she:
156.00G.073  But like a lamp of Balsamum, desir'd
156.00G.074  Rather t'adorn, than last, she soon expir'd,
156.00G.075  Cloath'd in her virgin white integrity,
156.00G.076  For marriage, though it doth not stain, doth die.
156.00G.077  To scape the infirmities which wait upon
156.00G.078  Woman, she went away before sh'#was one;
156.00G.079  And the worlds busie noyse to overcome,
156.00G.080  Took so much death as serv'd for %1Opium;%2
156.00G.081  For though she could not, nor could chuse to die,
156.00G.082  Sh'ath yeelded to too long an extasie:
156.00G.083  He which not knowing her sad History,
156.00G.084  Should come to read the book of destiny,
156.00G.085  How fair, and chast, humble and high sh'ad been,
156.00G.086  Much promis'd, much perform'd, at not fifteen,
156.00G.087  And measuring future things, by things before,
156.00G.088  Should turn the leaf to read, and read no more,
156.00G.089  Would think that either destiny mistook,
156.00G.090  Or that some leaves were torn out of the book,
156.00G.091  But 'tis not so; Fate did but usher her
156.00G.092  To years of reasons use, and then infer [CW:Her]
156.00G.093  Her destiny to her self, which liberty [P6v]
156.00G.094  She took, but for thus much, thus much to die,
156.00G.095  Her modesty not suffering her to be
156.00G.096  Fellow-Commissioner with Destiny,
156.00G.097  She did no more but die; if after her
156.00G.098  Any shall live, which dare true good prefer;
156.00G.099  Every such person is her delegate,
156.00G.100  T'accomplish that which should have been her Fate.
156.00G.101  They shall make up that Book, and shall have thanks
156.00G.102  Of Fate, and her, for filling up their blanks.
156.00G.103  For future vertuous deeds are Legacies,
156.00G.104  Which from the gift of her example rise;
156.00G.105  And 'tis in heav'n part of spiritual mirth,
156.00G.106  To see how well the good play her, on earth. [CW:O#F]
156.00G.SS   om
156.00G.0$$