Chelsea.
"_Quod fuit esse_" (Vol. vii., p. 235.).--Allow me to suggest the
following meaning of the epitaph in Lavenham churchyard, which is the
subject of A. B. R.'s Query. The word _est_ has evidently been omitted
in the third line: with this restored, the lines will read as a couple
of hexameters:
"Quod fuit esse, quod est; quod non fuit esse, quod esse;
Esse quod (est), non esse; quod est, non est, erit, esse."
And the literal meaning, will be: "What was existence, is that which
lies here; that which was not existence, is that which is existence; to
be what is now, is not to be; that which is now, is not existence, but
will be hereafter."
This, perhaps, is as enigmatical as the original: but the following
lines will render the meaning plainer, though it is difficult to
preserve the brevity of the Latin in an English version:
All that I really was lies here in dust;
That which was death before is life, I trust.
To be what _is_, is not, I ween, to _be_;
_Is_ not, but _will be_ in eternity.