Who while he lived was a slow thing And now being dead is nothing. Another version is: Here lies Jonson, Who was one's son He had a little hair on his chin, His name was Benjamin! an amusing allusion to his personal appearance, as any one may see who will turn to Ben's portrait. _Jonson._ If but stage actors all the world displays Where shall we find spectators of their plays? _Shakespeare._ Little or much of what we see we do; We are all both actors and spectators too. Ten in the hundred lies here ingrav'd; 'Tis a hundred to ten his soul is not saved; If any man ask, Who lies in this tomb? Oh! oh! quoth the devil, 'tis my John-a-Combe. Who lies in this tomb? Hough, quoth the devil, 'tis my son, John-Combe. The tradition is that the subject of the last six lines having died, Shakespeare then composed an epitaph as follows: Howe'er he lived, judge not, John Combe shall never be forgot, While poor hath memory, for he did gather To make the poor his issue; he their father, As record of his tilth and seed, Did crown him, in his latter need. This is said to have been composed of a brother of John-a-Combe: Thin in beard, and thick in purse, Never man beloved worse, He went to the grave with many a curse, The devil and he had both one nurse. A blacksmith is said to have accosted Shakespeare with,-- Now, Mr. Shakespeare, tell me, if you can, The difference between a youth and a young man? To which the poet immediately replied,-- Thou son of fire, with thy face like a maple, The same difference as between a scalded and a coddled apple. An old tradition reports that being awakened after a prolonged carouse, and asked to renew the contest, he refused, saying, I have drunk with Piping Pebworth, Dancing Marston, Haunted Hillborough, and Hungry Grafton With Dadging Exhall, Papist Wixford Beggarly Broom, and Drunken Bidford. The lines inscribed on the slab above his grave, preventing the removal of his bones, according to the custom of that time, to the adjacent charnel-house, are as follows: Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare To dig the dust enclosed heare; Bleste be the man that spare these stones, And curst be he that moves my bones.[28] Mr. Lee gives a statement as to Shakespeare's propensity to litigation as follows[29]: