Gleanings in Graveyards: A Collection of Curious EpitaphsNorfolk, Horatio Edward
General
Gleanings in Graveyards: A Collection of Curious Epitaphs
Norfolk, Horatio Edward
Epitaphs; Epitaphs -- Great Britain
The late Rev. John Sampson, of Kendal.
Sacrum
In memoriam viri doctissimi et clerici, Joannis Sampson,
olim hujusce sacelli ministri, itemque ludi literarii apud
Congalum triginta septem ferè annos magistri seduli;
hoc marmor ponendum quidam discipulus præceptorem
merens curavit.
Ob: An: ætatis suæ LXXVII; A.D. MDCCCXLIII.
Foris juxta januam e dextrâ introeunti sepultum est
corpus.
Problemata plurima geometrica proposuit ac solvit; ad
hæc accedunt versus haud pauci, latinè et manu suâ
scripti; quorum exemplum infrà insculptum est; adeo
ut Christiano tum mentem, tum viri fidem cognoscere
liceat.
“αὐτòς ἔφη.”
“Quandocunque sophos clarus sua dogmata profert,
“Nil valet αὐτòς ἔφη, ni documenta daret;”
“At mihi cùm Christus loquitur, verum, via, vita,
“Tum vero fateor sufficit αὐτòς ἔφη.”
* * * * *
Epitaph on the Mareschal Comte de Ranzan, a Swede, who accompanied
Oxenstiern to Paris, and was taken into the French service by Louis XIII.
He died of hydrophobia in 1650. He had been in innumerable battles, had
lost an eye and two limbs, and his body was found to be entirely covered
with scars.
Stop, passenger! this stone below
Lies half the body of Ranzan:
The other moiety’s scattered far
And wide o’er many a field of war;
For to no land the hero came,
On which he shed not blood and fame.
Mangled or maim’d each meaner part,
One thing remain’d entire—his heart.
* * * * *
At Arlington, near Paris.
Here lie
Two grandmothers, with their two granddaughters
Two husbands with their two wives,
Two fathers with their two daughters,
Two mothers with their two sons,
Two maidens with their two mothers,
Two sisters with their two brothers.
Yet but six corps in all lie buried here,
All born legitimate, & from incest clear.
The above may be thus explained:—
Two widows, that were sisters-in-law, had each a son, who married each
other’s mother, and by them had each a daughter. Suppose one widow’s
name Mary, and her son’s name John, and the other widow’s name Sarah, and
her son’s James; this answers the fourth line. Then suppose John married
Sarah, and had a daughter by her, and James married Mary, and had a
daughter also, these marriages answer the first, second, third, fifth,
and sixth lines of the epitaph.
* * * * *
Sudden and unexpected was the end
Of our esteemed and beloved friend.
He gave to all his friends a sudden shock
By one day falling into Sunderland Dock.
* * * * *
At Sakiwedel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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