Ancient funerall monuments within the vnited monarchie of Great Britaine, Ireland, and the islands adiacent with the dissolued monasteries therein contained: their founders, and what eminent persons haue beene in the same interred. As also the death and buriall of certaine of the bloud royall; the nobilitie and gentrie of these kingdomes entombed in forraine nations. A worke reuiuing the dead memory of the royall progenie, the nobilitie, gentrie, and communaltie, of these his Maiesties dominions. Intermixed and illustrated with variety of historicall obseruations, annotations, and briefe notes, extracted out of approued authors ... Whereunto is prefixed a discourse of funerall monuments ... Composed by the studie and trauels of Iohn Weeuer.

CHAP. I. Of Monuments in generall.

A Monument is a thing erected, made, or written, for a memoriall of some remarkable action, fit to bee trans∣ferred to future posterities And thus generally taken, all religious Foundations, all sumptuous and magnifi∣cent Structures, Cities, Townes, Towers, Castles, Pil∣lars, Pyramides, Crosses, Obeliskes, Amphitheaters, Statues, and the like, as well as Tombes and Sepul∣chres, are called Monuments. Now aboue all remembrances (by which men haue endeuoured, euen in despight of death to giue vnto their Fames eternitie) for worthinesse and continuance, bookes, or writings, haue euer had the preheminence.

Marmora Maeonij vincunt monimenta libelli; Viuitur ingenio, caetera mortis erunt.

The Muses workes stone-monuments out last; 'Tis wit keepes life, all else death will downe cast.

Horace thus concludes the third booke of his lyrick poesie.

Exegi monimentum are perennius, Regalique situ, &c.

A monument then brasse more lasting, I, Then Princely Pyramids in site more high Haue finished, which neither fretting showers, Nor blustering windes, nor flight of yeares, and houres, Though numberlesse, can raze. I shall not die Wholly; nor shall my best part buried lie Within my Graue.

And Martial lib. 10. Ep. 2. thus speakes of bookes and writings.

Reader my wealth, whom when to me Rome gaue; Nought greater to bestow (quoth she) I haue. By him ingratefull Lethe thou shalt flie, And in thy better part shalt neuer die. Wilde fig-trees rend Messalla's marbles off; Chrispus halfe horses the bold Carters scoffe; Writings, no age can wrong, nor theeuing hand, Deathlesse alone those monuments will stand. —My books are read in euery place.

* 1.1And when Licinius, and Messalla's high Rich marble Towers in ruin'd dust shall lie, I shall be read, and strangers, euerie where, Shall to their farthest homes my verses beare.

* 1.2And in another Ep. thus much of his bookes.

'Tis not the Citie onely doth approue My muse, or idle eares my verses loue; The rough Centurion, where cold frosts orespread The Scythian fields, in warre my books are read. My lines are sung in Britaine farre remote; And yet my emptie purse perceiues it not. What deathlesse numbers from my penne would flow? What warres would my Pierian Trumpet blow? If, as Augustus now againe doth liue, So Rome to me would a Mecaenas giue.

In like manner Ouid giues an endlesse date to himselfe, and to his Meta∣morphosis in these words.* 1.3

Iamque opus exegi, &c.

And now the worke is ended, which, Ioues rage, Nor Fire, nor Sword, shall raze, nor eating Age; Come, when it will, my Deaths vncertaine houre, Which onely of my bodie hath a power: Yet shall my better part transcend the skie; And my immortall name shall neuer die: For where-soere the Romane Eagles spread Their conquering wings, I shall of all be read. And if wee Prophets truly can diuine, I in my liuing Fame shall euer shine.

S. Ierom in like manner, in one of his Epistles, writeth of the perpetuity of a funerall Elegie, which he made himselfe to the deare memorie of his be∣loued Fabiola, who was buried in the citie of Bethlem; not because the said Elegie was cut or engrauen upon her Sepulchre, but for that he had written it down in one of his volumes, according to these his own words following.

Exegi monimentum tuum aere perennius, quod nulla destruere possit vetu∣stas; incîdi Eulogium Sepulchro tuo, quod huic volumini subdidi, vt quocun{que} noster Sermo peruenerit, te laudatam; te in Bethlem conditā Lector agnoscat.

Varus Tribune of Rome, hath beene and will be longer remembred by Martials Epigram, lib. 10. ep. 26. then euer hee could haue beene by any funerall monument, which is lately made thus to speake English.

Varus, which as Romes Tribune didst command An hundred men, renown'd in Aegypt land: Now as a stranger Ghost thou dost remaine On Nilus shore, promisd to Rome in vaine. We could not dew with teares thy dying face, Nor thy said funerall flames with odours grace; Yet in my verse eterniz'd shalt thou bee, Of that false Egypt cannot cousen thee.

Thus Lucan lib. 9. of his owne verse and Caesars victorie at Pharsalia.

O great and sacred worke of poesy, Thou freest from fate, and giu'st eternity To mortall wights; but, Caesar enuy not Their liuing names; if Romane Muses ought, May promise thee, whilest Homer's honoured, By future times shalt thou, and I, bee read; No age shall vs with darke oblivion staine, But our Pharsalia euer shall remaine.

Bookes then and the Muses workes are of all monuments the most perma∣nent; for of all things else there is a vicissitude, a change both of cities and nations: as we may thus reade in Ouids Metamorphosis, lib. 15.

For this wee see in all is generall, Some nations gather strength, and others fall. Troy rich and powerfull, which so proudly stood, That could for ten yeares spend such streames of bloud; For buildings onely her old ruines showes, For riches, Tombes, which slaughtered fires inclose, Sparta, Mycenae, were of Greece the flowers; So Cecrops citie, and Amphions Towres: Now glorious Sparta lies vpon the ground; Lofty Mycenae hardly to be found. Of Oedipus his Thebes what now remaines; Or of Pandions Athens, but their names? Thebes,* 1.4 Babell, Rome, these proud heauen daring wonders, Loe vnder ground in dust and ashes lie, For earthly kingdomes, euen as men doe die.

Bellay in his ruines of Rome, translated by Spenser, makes this demon∣stration or shew of that citie, to the strange countrey man or traueller:

Thou stranger, which for Rome in Rome here seekest; And nought of Rome in Rome perceiu'st at all, These same old walls, old arches, which thou seest, Old palaces, is that which Rome men call. Behold what wreake, what ruine, and what wast, And how that she, which with her mighty power Tam'd all the world, hath tam'd her selfe at last: The prey of Time, which all things doth deuoure. Rome now of Rome, is the onely funerall, And onely Rome, of Rome hath victorie. Ne ought saue Tyber hastning to his fall Remaines of all: O worlds inconstancie. That which is firme, doth flit and fall away, And that is flitting, doth abide and stay.

It is a vanitie for a man to thinke to perpetuate his name and memory by strange and costly great Edifices, for

Not sumptuous Pyramids to skies vpreard; Nor Elean Ioues proud Fane,* 1.5 which heauen compeerd, Nor the rich fortune of Mausoleus Tombe, Are priuiledg'd from deaths extreamest doome:

Or fire, or stormes, their glories do abate, Or by age shaken, fall with their owne waight.

We haue many examples here in England of the small continuance (as I may so call it) of magnificent strong buildings, by the sudden fall of our re∣ligious houses, of which a late namelesse versifier hath thus written:

What sacred structures did our Elders build, Wherein Religion gorgeously sat deckt? Now all throwne downe, Religion exild, Made Brothell-houses, had in base respect, Or ruind so that to the viewers eye, In their owne ruines they intombed lie: The marble vrnes of their so zealous Founders Are digged up, and turn'd to sordid vses; Their bodies are quite cast out of their bounders Lie vn••interr'd. O greater what abuse is? Yet in this later age we now liue in, This barbarous act is neither shame nor sinne.

Of walls, towres, castles, crosses, forts, rampiers, townes, cities, and such like monuments, here in great Britaine, which by age, warres, or the malig∣nitie of the times, are defaced, ruined, or utterly subuerted, you may reade in learned Camden: onely thus much out of famous Spenser, personating the Genius of Verlame, or Verulam, sometimes a citie neare to S. Albons.

* 1.6I was that Citie which the garland wore Of Britaines pride, deliuered vnto me, By Romane victors, which it wonne of yore; Though nought at all but ruines now I bee. And lie in mine owne ashes as ye see. Verlame I was, what bootes it that I was, Sith now I am but weeds and wastfull grasse?

Another English muse (now liuing) vnder the name of Watling,* 1.7 one of the foure imperiall high wayes sings thus of the ruines of this citie.

Thou saw'st when Verlam once her head aloft did reare, Which in her cinders now lies sadly buried here: With Alabaster, Tuch, and Porphery adornd, When (welneare) in her pride great Troinouant she scornd.

Likewise vpon this forgotten Citie a namelesse late writer hath made this Epitaph.

Stay thy foot that passest by, Here is wonder to descry, Churches that interr'd the dead, Here themselues are sepulchred; Houses, where men slept and wak't, Here in ashes vnder-rak't. In a word to allude; Here is corne where once Troy stood; Or more fully home to haue, Here's a Citie in a graue. Reader wonder thinke it then,

Cities thus would die like men: And yet wonder thinke it none, Many Cities thus are gone.

But I will conclude this Chapter with these two stanzaes following, ta∣ken out of Spensers poeme aforesaid, speaking of the vanity of such Prin∣ces who (Absolon like) thinke to gaine a perpetuitie after death, by erecting of pillars, and such like monuments, to keepe their names in remembrance▪ when as it is onely the Muses works which giue unto man immortality.

In vaine do earthly Princes then, in vaine, Seeke with Pyramides, to heauen aspired; Or huge Colosses, built with costly paine; Or brasen pillars, neuer to bee fired; Or Shrines, made of the metall most desired, To make their memories for euer liue: For how can mortall immortalitie giue. For deeds doe die, how euer nobly done, And thoughts of men doe in themselues decay, But wise words taught in numbers for to runne, Recorded by the Muses, liue for aye; Ne may with storming showres be washt away, Ne bitter breathing windes with harmfull blast, Nor age, nor enuie, shall them euer wast.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Lib. 8. ep. 3.
• * 1.2

  Lib. 10. Epig. 11.
• * 1.3

  In conclu. li. vlt.
• * 1.4

  1. Siluester, Transl.
• * 1.5

  Proper•• lib. 3. El. 2.
• * 1.6

  Ruines of Time.
• * 1.7

  M. ••rayton, P••l. Song. xvi.