Epigrams: An Epitaph on S.P.
Epigrams: An Epitaph on S.P.
A Child of Queen Elizabeth's Chapel
Original Text
Ben Jonson, The workes of Benjamin Jonson (London: Will Stansby, 1616). STC 14751.
2 This little story:
3And know, for whom a tear you shed
4 Death's self is sorry.
5'Twas a child, that so did thrive
6 In grace and feature,
7As heaven and nature seem'd to strive
8 Which own'd the creature.
9Years he number'd scarce thirteen
10 When fates turn'd cruel,
11Yet three fill'd zodiacs had he been
12 The stage's jewel;
13And did act (what now we moan)
14 Old men so duly,
16 He play'd so truly.
17So, by error, to his fate
18 They all consented;
19But viewing him since (alas, too late)
20 They have repented;
21And have sought (to give new birth)
22 In baths to steep him;
23But being so much too good for earth,
24 Heaven vows to keep him.
Notes
1] Works 1616. S.P. was Salomon Pavy, a boy-actor in the children's company of the Queen's Revels, who played Anaides in Jonson's Cynthia's Revels. He died in 1602. Back to Line
15] Here Jonson retouches a fancy of Martial, Epig. X, 53, on Scorpus, a chariot-driver in the Circus Maximus, who in a short career won many victories (Pavy was an actor for only three years). Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1616
RPO poem Editors
F. D. Hoeniger
RPO Edition
3RP 1.155.
Rhyme