Who was the writer of the oft-quoted lines,
"Underneath this marble (sable) hearse," &c.
intended, as all know, for an epitaph on Mary Sidney, afterwards Countess
of Pembroke, but not inscribed upon any monumental stone? They are almost
universally attributed to Ben Jonson, and are included amongst his poems.
But this is not conclusive evidence, as we also there find the epitaph on
Drayton, which was written by Quarles. In Aubrey's MS. _Memoires of
Naturall Remarques in Wilts_, these verses are said to have been "made by
Mr. Willi[=a]. Browne, who wrote the Pastoralls, and they are inserted
there." Mr. Britton, in his _Life of Aubrey_ (p. 96.), adds:
"It is essential to observe, that Aubrey is not alone in stating them
to be by Browne; for, in his note upon the subject, he left a blank for
the latter's Christian name, 'William,' which was filled up by Evelyn
when he perused the manuscript. Indeed, Evelyn added as a further note,
'_William_, Governor to the now Earl of Oxford.'"
But these lines are not to be found in Browne's _Pastorals_. In book ii.,
song 4., there is an epitaph, but which bears little resemblance to the one
in question. It concludes with the following conceit:
"If to the grave there ever was assign'd
One like this nymph in body and in minde,
We wish here in balme, not vainely spent,
To fit this maiden with a monument,
For brass, and marble, were they seated here,
Would fret, or melt in tears, to lye so near."
Addison, in _The Spectator_, No. 323., speaks of this epitaph as "written
by an uncertain author." This was not more than seventy-five or eighty
years after Jonson's death. In the lives of the Sidneys, and in Ballard's
_Memoirs of Celebrated Ladies_ (1752), no author is mentioned; but the
latter speaks of the epitaph as likely to be more lasting than marble or
brass. To the six lines which generally stand alone, the following are
added in the two last-mentioned works:
"Marble pyles let no man raise,
To her name, for after daies,
Some kind woman, born as she,
Reading this like Niobe,
Shall turn marble, and become,
Both her mourner and her tomb."
These are also given by Brydges in his _Peers Of James II._, but they are
not in Jonson's works. Did they originally form part of the epitaph, or are
they the production of another and later author?
That this epitaph should be attributed to Jonson, may possibly have arisen
from the following lines being confounded with it. Jacob, in his _English
Poets_, says--
"To show that Ben was famous at _epigram_, I need only transcribe the
epitaph he wrote on the Lady Elizabeth L. H.:
"Underneath this stone doth lie
As much virtue as could die,
Which when alive did harbour give
To as much beauty as could live.