Edmund Spenser could be a stranger here. [See, in a
subsequent page, Chap. VIII. "The Downes". - J. B.]
Her Honour's genius lay as much towards chymistrie as poetrie. The
learned Dr. Mouffet, that wrote of Insects and of Meates, had a
pension hence. In a catalogue of English playes set forth by Gerard
Langbain, is thus, viz.: "Lady Pembrock, Antonius, 4to." [This was an
English translation of "The Tragedie of Antonie. Doone into
English by the Countesse of Pembroke. Imprinted at London, for William
Ponsonby, 1595." 12mo. The Countess of Pembroke also translated "A
Discourse of Life and Death, written in French, by Phil. Mornay",
1600, 12mo.- J. B.]
"Underneath this sable herse
Lies the subject of all verse,
Sydney's sister, Pembroke's mother,
Death! ere thou kill'st such another,
Fair, and wise, and learned as SHE,
Time will throw a dart at thee."
These verses were made by Mr. (William*) Browne, who wrote the
"Pastoralls", and they are inserted there.
*(William, Governor afterwards to ye now E. of Oxford. - J. EVELYN.)
[In the Memoir of Aubrey, published by the Wiltshire Topographical
Society in 1845, I drew attention to this passage, which shews that
although the above famous epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke is
almost always attributed to Ben Jonson, it was, in fact, written by
William Browne. That such is really the case does not rest only on the
authority of Aubrey and Evelyn; for we find this very epitaph in a
volume of Poems written by Browne, and preserved amongst the Lansdowne
MSS in the British Museum (No.
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