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Poetry · Poem

On Elizabeth L. H.

Ben JonsonEnglish RenaissancePoem
SOURCE TEXT · English original
WOULDST thou hear what Man can say
In a little? Reader, stay.
Underneath this stone doth lie
As much Beauty as could die:
Which in life did harbour give
To more Virtue than doth live.
If at all she had a fault,
Leave it buried in this vault.
One name was Elizabeth,
The other, let it sleep with death:
Fitter, where it died, to tell
Than that it lived at all. Farewell.
Cultural reading

Reading the poem

An epitaph stops the passing reader, states that the stone covers as much beauty and virtue as could die, asks that any fault stay buried, and withholds the second name so that only "Elizabeth" is spoken.

Language notes

Text and edition

The English text follows the fixed historical witness in The Oxford Book of English Verse; no modern third-party translation is included.