A FVNERALL Elegye Jn memory of the late Vertuous Maister William Peter of Whipton neere Excester By W.S. Imprinted at London by G. Eld. 1612. TO MAISTER Iohn Peter of Boohaye in Deuon Esq THe loue I bore to your brother and will doe to his memory hath crau'd from me this last duty of a friend I am heerein but a second to the priuiledge of Truth who can warrant more in his behalfe then I vndertooke to deliuer Exercise in this kind I will little affect and am lesse adicted to but there must be miracle in that labour which to witnesse my remembrance to this departed Gentleman I would not willingly vndergoe yet what-soeuer is heere done is done to him and to him onely For whom and whose sake I will not forget to remember any friendly respects to you or to any of those that haue lou'd him for himselfe and himselfe for his deserts W.S. A Funerall Elegie SInce Time and his predestinated end Abridg'd the circuit of his hope-full dayes Whiles both his Youth and Vertue did intend The good indeuor's of deseruing praise What memorable monument can last Whereon to build his neuer blemisht name But his owne worth wherein his life was grac't Sith as it euer hee maintain'd the same Obliuion in the darkest day to come When sinne shall tread on merit in the dust Cannot rase out the lamentable tombe Of his Short-liu'd desert's but still they must Euen in the hearts and memories of men Claime fit Respect that they in euery lim Remembring what he was with comfort then May patterne out One truly good by him For hee was truly good if honest care Of harmlesse conuersation may commend A life free from such staines as follyes are Ill recompenced onely in his end Nor can the toung of him who lou'd him least If there can bee minority of loue To one superlatiue aboue the rest Of many men in steddy faith reproue His constant temper in the equall weight Of thankfulnesse and kindnesse Truth doth leaue Sufficient proofe he was in euery right As kinde to giue as thankfull to receaue The curious eye of a quick brain'd suruey Could scantly find a mote amidst the fun Of his too-shortned dayes or make a prey Of any faulty error he had done Not that he was aboue the spleenfull sence And spight of mallice but for that he had Warrant enough in his owne innocence Against the sting of some in nature bad Yet who is hee so absolutely blest That liues incompast in a mortall frame Some-time in reputation not opprest By some in nothing famous but defame Such in the by-By-path and the Ridg-way lurke That leades to ruine in a smooth pretence Of what they doe to be a speciall worke Of singlenesse not tending to offence Whose very vertues are not to detract Whiles hope remaines of gaine base fee of slaues Despising chiefly men in fortunes wrackt But death to such giues vnremembred graues Now therein liu'd he happy if to bee Free from detraction happinesse it bee His yonger yeares gaue comfortable hope To hope for comfort in his riper youth Which haruest-like did yeeld againe the crop Of Education betterd in his truth Those noble twins of heauen infused races Learning and Wit refined in their kind Did ioyntly both in their peculiar graces Enrich the curious temple of his mind Indeed a temple in whose precious white Sot Reason by Religion ouer swayd Teaching his other senses with delight How Piety and Zeale should bee obey'd Not fruitlesly in prodigall expence Wasting his best of time but so content With Reasons golden Meane to make defence Against the assault of youth's incouragement As not the tide of this surrounding age When now his Fathers death had freed his will Could make him subiect to the drunken rage Of such whose onely glory is their ill Hee from the happy knowledge of the wise Drawes vertue to reprooue secured fooles And shuns the glad sleights of insnaring vice To spend his spring of dayes in sacred schooles Heere gaue hee dyet to the sick desires That day by day assault the weaker man And with fit moderation still retires From what doth batter Vertue now and than But that I not intend in full discourse To progresse out his life I could display A Good man in each part exact and force The common voyce to warrant what I say For it his fate and heauen had decreed That full of dayes hee might haue liu'd to see The graue in peace the times that should succeed Had been best-speaking witnesses with mee Whose conuersation so vntoucht did moue Respect most in it selfe as who would scan His Honesty and Worth by them might prooue Hee was a kind true perfect gentleman Not in the out-side of disgracefull folly Courting Opinion with vnfit disguise Affecting fashions nor addicted wholy To vnbeseeming blushlesse vanities But suting so his habit and desire As that his Vertue was his best Attire Not in the wast of many idle words Car'd hee to be heard talke nor in the flote Of fond conceit such as this age affordes By vaine discourse vpon himselfe to dote For his becomming silence gaue such grace To his iudicious parts as what hee spake Seem'd rather answers which the wise imbrace Then busie questions such as talkers make And though his qualities might well deserue Iust commendation yet his furnisht mind Such harmony of goodnesse did preserue As Nature neuer built in better kind Knowing the best and therefore not presuming In knowing but for that it was the best Euer within himselfe free choyce resuming Of true perfection in a perfect brest So that his Minde and Body made an In The one to lodge the other both like fram'd For faire conditions guests that soonest win Applause in generality well-fam'd If trim behauiour gestures mild discreet Endeuors modest speech beseeming mirth True friendship actiue grace perswasion sweete Delightfull loue innated from his birth Acquaintance vnfamiliar carriage iust Offencelesse resolution wisht sobriety Cleane-temper'd Moderation steddy Trust Vnburthen'd conscience vnfain'd Piety If these or all of these knit fast in one Can merit praise then iustly may wee say Not any from this frailer stage is gon Whose name is like to liue a longer day Though not in eminent courts or places great For popular concourse yet in that soile Where hee inioy'd his birth life death and seat Which now sits mourning his vntimely spoile And as much glory is it to be good For priuate persons in their priuate home As those descended from illustrious bloud In publick view of greatnesse whence they come Though I rewarded with some sadder taste Of knowing shame by feeling it haue prou'd My countries thanklessse misconstruction cast Vpon my name and credit both vnlou'd By some whose fortunes sunck into the wane Of Plenty and Desert haue stroue to win Iustice by wrong and sifted to imbane My reputation with a witlesse sinne Yet Time the Father of vnblushing Truth May one day lay ope malice which hath crost it
And right the hopes of my indangered youth Purchasing credit in the place I lost it Euen in which place the subject of the verse Vnhappy matter of a mourning stile Which now that subjects merits doth rehearse Had education and new beeing while By faire demeanor he had wonne repute Amongst the All of all that liued there For that his actions did so wholy sute With worthynesse still memorable here The many houres till the day of doome Will not consume his life and haplesse end For should he lye obscur'd without a toombe Time would to time his honesty commend Whiles Parents to their children will make known And they to their posterity impart How such a man was sadly ouerthrowne By a hand guided by a cruell heart Whereof as many as shall heare that sadnesse Wil blame the or es hard fate the others madnesse Whiles such as doe recount that tale of woe Told by remembrance of the wisest heades Will in the end conclude the matter so As they will all goe weeping to their bedds For when the world lies winterd in the stormes Of fearefull consummation and layes downe Th' vnsteddie change of his fantastick formes Expecting euer to be ouer-throwne When the proud height of much affected sinne Shall ripen to a head and in that pride End in the miseries it did begin And fall amidst the glory of his tide Then in a booke where euery worke is writ Shall this man's actions bee reueal'd to shew The gainfull fruit of well-imployed wit Which payed to heauen the debt that it did owe Heere shall be reckoned vp the constant faith Neuer vntrue where once he loue profest Which is a miracle in men one faith Long sought though rarely found and he is best who cā mak freindship in those times of change Admired more for being firme then strange When those weake houses of our brittle flesh Shall ruin'd bee by death our grace and strength Youth memory and shape that made vs fresh Cast downe and vtterly decay'd at length Whē all shall turne to dust from whence we came And we low leueld in a narrow graue What can we leaue behind vs but a name Which by a life well led may honour haue Such honor ô thou youth vntimely lost Thou didst deserue and hast for though thy soule Hath tooke her flight to a diuiner coast Yet here on earth thy fame liues euer whole In euery heart seald vp in euery toung Fit matter to discourse no day preuented That pitties not thy sad and suddaine wrong Of all alike beloued and lamented And I here to thy memorable worth In this last act of friendship sacrifice My loue to Thee which I could not set forth In any other habit of disguise Although I could not learne whiles yet thou wert To speake the language of a seruile breath My truth stole from my toung into my hart Which shall not thence be sundred but in death And I confesse my loue was too remisle That had not made thee know how much I pris'd thee But that mine error was as yet it is To thinke loue best in silence for I siz'd thee By what I would haue been not onely ready In telling I was thine but beeing so By some effect to shew it Hee is steddy Who seems lesse then hee is in open shew Since then I stil reseru'd to trye the worst Which hardest sate and time thus can lay on mee Tinlarge my thoughts was hindered at first While thou hadst life I tooke this taske vpon me To register with mine vnhappy Pen Such duties as it owes to thy desert And set thee as a President to Men And Limne thee to the world but as thou wert Not hir'd as heauen can witnesse in my soule By vaine conceit to please such ones as know it Nor seruile to be lik't free from controule Which paine to many men I doe not owe it But here I trust I haue discharged now Faire louely branch too soone cut off to Thee My constant and irrefragable vow As had it chanc't thou might'st haue done to mee But that no merit strong enough of mine Had yeelded store to thy well-abled quill Whereby t'enrole my name as this of thine How s'ere inritched by thy plenteous skil Heere then I offer vp to Memory The value of my tallent precious man Whereby if thou liue to Posterity Though 't be not as I would t is as I can In minds from whence endeauor doth proceed A ready will is taken for the deed Yet ere I take my longest last farewell From thee faire marke of sorrow let me frame Some ampler work of thanke wherein to tel What more thou didst deserue then in thy name And free thee from the scandall of such senses As in the rancour of vnhappy spleene Measure thy course of life with false pretences Comparing by thy death what thou hast beene So in his mischiefes is the world accurst It picks out matter to informe the worst The wilfull blindnesse that hood-winkes the eyes Of men in-wrapped in an earthy vayle Makes them most ignorantly exercise And yeeld to humor when it doth assaile Whereby the candle and the bodies light Darken's the inward eye-sight of the mind Presuming still it sees euen in the night Of that same ignorance which makes them blind Hence conster they with corrupt Commentaries Proceeding from a nature as corrupt The text of malice which so often varies As 't is by seeming reason vnder-propt O! whether tends the lamentable spight Of this worlds teen-full apprehension Which vnderstands all things amisse whose light Shines not amidst the darke of their dissention True 't is this man whiles yet he was a man Sooth'd not the current of besotted fashion Nor could disgest as some loose Mimicks can An empty sound of ouer-weening passion So much to bee made seruant to the base And sensuall aptnesse of dis-vnion'd vices To purchase commendation by disgrace Whereto the world and heate of sinne intices But in a safer contemplation Secure in what he knew he euer chose The ready way to commendation By shunning all inuitemens strang of those Whose illnesse is the necessary praise Must waite vpon their actions onely rare In beeing rare in shame which striues to raise Their name by dooing what they do not care As if the free commission of their ill Were euen as boundlesse as their prompt desires Only like Lords like subiects to their will Which their fond dotage euer-more admires Hee was not so but in a serious awe Ruling the little ordered common-wealth Of his owne selfe with honour to the law That gaue peace to his bread bread to his health Which euer hee maintaind in sweet content And pleasurable rest wherein he ioyd A Monarchy of comforts gouernment Neuer vntill his last to bee destroyd For in the Vineyard of heauen-fauoured learning Where hee was double honor'd in degree His obseruation and discreet discerning Had taught him in both fortunes to bee free Whence now retir'd home to a home indeed
is noblenesse And such as haue that beauty well deserue Eternall characters that after death Remembrance of their worth we may preserue So that their glory die not with their breath Else what availes it in a goodly strife Vpon this face of earth heere to contend The goood t' exceed the wicked in their life Should both be like obscured in their end Vntill which end there is none rightly can Bee termed happy since the happinesse Depends vpon the goodnesse of the man Which afterwards his praises will expresse Looke hither then you that inioy the youth Of your best dayes and see how vnexpected Death can betray your iollity to ruth When death you thinke is least to be respected The person of this modell here set out Had all that youth happy dayes could giue him Yet could not all encompasse him about Against th' assault of death who to relieue him Strooke home but to the fraile and mortall parts Of his humanity but could not touch His flourishing and faire long-liu'd deserts Aboue fates reach his singlenesse was such So that he dyes but once but doubly liues Once in his proper selfe then in his name Predestinated Time who all depriues Could neuer yet depriue him of the same And had the Genius which attended on him Beene possibilited to keepe him safe Against the rigour that hath ouer-gone him He had beene to the publick vse a staffe Leading by his example in the path Which guides to doing well wherein so few The pronesse of this age to error hath Informed rightly in the courses trew As then the losse of one whose inclination Stroue to win loue in generall is sad So specially his friends in soft compassion Do feele the greatest losse they could haue had Amongst them all she who those nine of yeares Liu'd fellow to his counsailes and his bed Hath the most share in losse for I in hers Feele what distemperature this chance hath bred The chast imbracements of coniugall loue Who in a mutuall harmony consent Are so impatient of a strange remoue As meager Death it selfe seemes to lament And weep vpon those cheeks which nature fram'd To be delightfull orbes in whom the force Of liuely sweetnesse playes so that asham'd Death often pitties his vnkind diuorce Such was the separation here constraind Well-worthy to be termed a rudenesse rather For in his life his loue was so vnfain'd As hee was both an husband and a father The one in firme affection and the other In carefull prouidence which euer stroue With ioynt assistance to grace one another With euery helpfull furtherance of loue But since the summe of all that can be said Can bee but said that Hee was good which wholy Includes all excellence can be displaide In praise of Vertue and reproach of Folly His due deserts this sentence on him giues Hee dy'de in life yet in his death hee liues Now run's the method of this dolefull song In accents breefe to thee O thou deceast To whom those paines do onely all belong As witnesles I did not loue thee least For could my worthlesse braine find out but how To raise thee from the Sepulcher of dust Vndoubtedly thou shouldst haue partage now Of life with mee and heauen bee counted iust If to a supplicating soule it would Giue life a new by giuing life againe Where life is mist whereby discomfort should Right his old griefes and former ioyes retaine Which now with thee are leapt into thy toombe And buried in that hollow vault of woe Expecting yet a more seuerer doome Then times strickt slinty hand will let 'm know And now if I leuel'd mine account And reckon'd vp in a true measured score Those perfect graces which were euer wont To wait on thee aliue I aske no more But shall heereafter in a poore content Immure those imputations I sustaine Learning my dayes of youth so to preuent As not to be cast downe by them againe Only those hopes which fate denies to grant In full possession to a captiue hart Who if it were in plenty still would want Before it may inioy his better part From which detain'd and banisht in th' exile Of dimme misfortune ha's none other prop Whereon to leane and rest it selfe the while But the weake comfort of the haplesse Hope And Hope must in despight of fearfull change Play in the strongest closet of my brest Although perhaps I ignorantly range And court opinion in my deep'st vnrest But whether doth the streame of my mischance Driue me beyond my selfe fast friend soone lost Long may thy worthinesse thy name aduance Amongst the vertuous and deseruing most Who herein hast for euer happy prou'd In life thou liu'dst in death thou dyed'st belou'd FINIS