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His secretary [A.DRIFT] is buried near him.
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Arthur Neuendorffer
Jan 20, 2020, 12:08:06 PM1/20/20
to
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https://tinyurl.com/rumaxot
The 45º line from the Westminster *Altar* through Chaucer through Shakespeare passed through the tomb of Scriblerus Club [Swift, Pope, etc.] member John Gay [1685-1732]. Gay's poem _The Shepherd's Week_ involved the exploits of various yokels with names such as Bumkinet and Boobyclod. Gay's Poet's Corner marble monument consists of a high relief Rysbrack portrait of Gay on a roundel against a pyramid with masks, a trumpet & pan-pipes. Just below Gay's portrait bust is an inscription composed by the poet himself:
Life is a [JEST]; and all things show it,
I thought so once; but now I know it.
https://tinyurl.com/r2re8t3
so reminiscent of the [IE/ST] of the
Stratford *PIG STY*: {SVS} [ST/IE]
-----------------------------------------------------
http://library.thinkquest.org/5175/images/grave1.jpg
...............................................
. GOOD FREND FOR [IE]{SVS}' SAKE FORBEARE,
___ TO DIGG THE DV[ST] ENCLOASED HEARE:
. BLESTE BE Ye MAN Yt SPA[RE]S THES STONES,
_ AND CVRST BE HE Yt MO[VE]S MY BONES.
...............................................
On the 14th anniversary of Anne Hathaway's death [Aug. 6, 1637].
Ben Jonson was BURIED UPRIGHT leaning against the WALL
. of his Westminster Abbey crypt as requested:
.
. ' [TWO FEET BY TWO FEET]
. *WILL* do for all I WANT '. - Ben Jonson
----------------------------------------------
. Romans Chapter 10, Verse 6
.............................................
1395 Wyclif: Who schal *STIE* in to heuene?
. that is to seie, to lede doun Crist;
---------------------------------------------
"With bolder wing shall dare aloft to STY,
To the last praises of this Faery Queene." --Spenser.
-------------------------------------------------
https://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/gay.htm
<<John Gay died of an intestinal disorder on the 4th December 1732 in the house of his patrons the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry. He was only 46 years old. Arbuthnot remarked that Gay's funeral was: 'as splendid as if he had been a peer of the realm'.
Gay, a very well liked man, had a passion for good company, good food and blue ribbons. (Both Pope and Swift teased him about the latter.)
Pope wrote an epitaph for Gay's monument which contained the following lines: ' Of manner gentle, of affections mild; In wit, a man; simplicity a child: With native humour tempering virtuous rage, Formed to delight at once and lash the age:'
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Michael_Rysbrack
Bust_of_Inigo_Jones_by_John_Michael_Rysbrack,_1725
https://tinyurl.com/u43t3ub
<<Johannes Michel Rysbrack, original name Jan Michiel Rijsbrack (24 June 1694 – 8 January 1770), was an 18th-century Flemish sculptor, who spent most of his career in England. (His birth-year is sometimes (wrongly) given as 1693 or 1684.)
Rysbrack was born on 24 June 1694 in Antwerp, the son of the landscape painter Pieter Rijsbraeck. His older brother Pieter Andreas Rijsbrack was a landscape and still life painter; and a younger brother Gerard Rijsbrack was a still life and sports painter. He studied drawings by Italian masters, before settling in London in 1720.
In London, Rysbrack quickly established himself as the leading sculptor, a position he was to retain until the mid-1740s, remaining one of the top three sculptors in Britain until shortly before his death. He executed busts and funerary monuments of many of the most prominent men of his day, including the monument to Isaac Newton in Westminster Abbey, a statue of Marlborough, and busts of Walpole, Bolingbroke, and Pope. Dr Cox Macro commissioned him to make a bust of Flemish painter Peter Tillemans on his death in 1734.
In 1733 he carved a magnificent marble portrait bust of George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney (1666–1737) in the guise of a Roman centurion. Orkney was a distinguished general serving under the Duke of Marlborough. Orkney had taken the surrender of the French at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704, and he took part in numerous subsequent battles during the War of the Spanish Succession. One of Rysbrack's greatest works, the bust of Lord Orkney is on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Its special character owes something to a bond between the sculptor and Lord Orkney, one that had its origins nearly 30 years earlier and was no doubt enhanced in their conversation when Lord Orkney sat to the sculptor for the modelling of the bust.
In St Michael and All Angels Church, Badminton, there is another splendid monument by Rysbrack, signed and dated 1754. The 2nd and the 3rd Duke of Beaufort are depicted in Roman costume, one standing, the other seated on the sarcophagus and holding a medallion. Decorative, asymmetrical drapery hangs down over the sarcophagus. Rysbrack also cast the bronze equestrian statue of William III in Queen Square, Bristol in 1733, and a later monument to Edward Colston in All Saints, Bristol.
Rysbrack died in Vere Street, Westminster, in 1770.>>
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https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/edmund-spenser
<<On the south wall of Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey is a marble memorial to Edmund Spenser, poet and author of The Faerie Queene. Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset (to whose mother Spenser had dedicated a work) put up the memorial in 1620 but this fell into decay and was replaced by the present exact copy in 1778. The poet William *MASON*, whose memorial is nearby, raised the subscription for it. The epitaph reads:
HEARE LYES (EXPECTING THE SECOND COMMINGE OF OUR SAVIOVR CHRIST JESUS) THE BODY OF EDMOND SPENCER THE PRINCE OF POETS IN HIS TYME WHOSE DIVINE SPIRRIT NEEDS NOE OTHIR WITNESSE THEN THE WORKS WHICH HE LEFT BEHINDE HIM. HE WAS BORNE IN LONDON IN THE YEARE 1553 AND DIED IN THE YEARE 1598. Restored by private subscription 1778.
William Camden, in his 1600 guide to the Abbey records the following epitaph:
Here close to Chaucer lies Spenser; neares{T} to him in genius, so nearest to him in burial. Here ne{A}r Chaucer, O poet Spenser, you will join a poet, even c{L}oser to him in your verse than in your tomb. While yo{U} were living, English Poesy lived & clapped her hand{S}; now at the point of death, you dying, she fears to die.
...................................................................
. <= 42 =>
.
. HereclosetoChaucerliesSpenserneares {T} tohimi
. ngeniussonearesttohiminburialHerene {A} rChauc
. erOpoetSpenseryouwilljoinapoetevenc {L} oserto
. himinyourversethaninyourtombWhileyo {U} wereli
. vingEnglishPoesylivedclappedherhand {S} nowatt
. hepointofdeathyoudyingshefearstodie
.
{TALUS} 42
...................................................................
Nothing is known of Edmund’s family except that his mother’s name was Elizabeth. He attended Cambridge University and on 27th October 1579 married Maccabaeus Childe at St Margaret’s Westminster. They had two children, Sylvanus (d.1638) and Katherine. His second wife was Elizabeth Boyle and they had a son named Peregrine. For a short time Spenser was private secretary to Lord Grey, lord deputy of Ireland, and continued to live in Ireland for much of his life until rebels burnt down his house in 1598. He died on 13th January 1599, probably in King Street, near the Abbey (the date of death on his memorial is given in Old Style dating). He was buried near Geoffrey Chaucer’s grave in the south transept on 16th January, at the expense of the Earl of Essex. Many of his contemporaries attended the funeral, possibly including Shakespeare and, according to historian William Camden, they all threw elegies into the grave. In 1938 a search was instituted to try to find Spenser’s exact burial site and see if this story was true but nothing was found that could be positively identified as Edmund’s grave.
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https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/matthew-prior#i13407
<<On the wall behind Shakespeare's memorial in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey is a large marble monument to poet and diplomat Matthew Prior which was in place by 1726. He was buried at the foot of the grave of Edmund Spenser but the actual grave is not marked. The memorial was designed by James Gibbs and executed by J.M. Rysbrack and incorporates a bust by Antoine Coysevox.
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. <= 17 =>
.
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. f o o t o f t h e g [R] a v e o f E
. d m u n d S p e n s [E] r b u t t h
. e a c t u a l g r a [V] e i s n o t
. m a r k e d.T h e m [E] m o r i a l
. w a s d e s i g n [E D] b y J a m e
. s G i b b s a n d e x e c u t e d
. b y J.M.R y s b r a c k
[E/DEVERE] -17
.......................................
The bust had been presented to Prior in his lifetime by the King of France. On the base at the ends of the sarcophagus are life size figures of Poetry and History. The Latin inscription was written by Robert Freind, as Prior had requested, and can be translated:
Matthew Prior Esq. A fever, gradually creeping up on him, as he meditated upon the history of his times, broke together the thread of his life and of his labours on Sept.18th A.D.1721 in the 57th year of his age.
Here lies buried Matthew Prior Esq. a great man, who, under our most gracious Majesties King William and Queen Mary acted as Secretary to the Embassy at The Hague in 1690, and then as Secretary to the parties who in 1697 concluded the Peace of Ryswick, then in the following years to the French Legation, and also in that same year 1697 in Ireland. He was also Commissioner at the trade congress of 1700 and the taxation congress of 1711. Lastly, he was despatched by Queen Anne of blessed memory to Louis XIV of France in 1711 as Legate and Plenipotentiary in the peace negotiations, (peace being now well established and likely to endure, according to the hopes of all good men and true).
But all these titles with which he was adorned were as nothing to the praise accorded him for his philanthropy, intellect and learning. The kindly Muses smiled on him at birth, this royal school embellished him in boyhood, in youth St John's College, Cambridge, provided the most excellent education; and finally in manhood, he was matured and perfected by the society of the leading men of his time.
By circumstance of birth and upbringing, therefore, he could never be torn away from the company of poets, but was frequently used to season the burden of civil affairs with pleasanter literary studies, and as he essayed all manner of poetic works with great felicity, so did this admirable craftsman have no peer in the art of elegant and witty belles-lettres. These amusements of a noble mind, which cost him no toil, were readily perused by his circle of friends. In their company, and full of pleasantries and humour, he would discourse in jests appropriately, diversely and eloquently, upon whatever circumstance might have arisen, but to no far-fetched or forced effect; every word seemd to flow naturally and luxuriantly as though from a perennial spring. He leaves his acquaintance, therefore, uncertain as to whether he were more elegant as a writer of poetry, or more delightful as a companion in conversation.
He was born in Westminster in July 1664, the
son of George Prior and his wife Elizabeth. He had to leave
Westminst[E]r School when his father died and work in his
uncle's ta[V]ern. The Earl of Dorset was a regular there
and was impr[E]ssed by Matthew and paid to send him back to
school whe[R]e he became a King's Scholar. After university
he was a t[U]tor and wrote poetry while on his diplomatic
posting[S] and stayed with Louis XIV.
.........................................................
. <= 42 =>
.
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. orandhiswifeElizabethHehadtoleaveWestminst [E] rS
. choolwhenhisfatherdiedandworkinhisunclesta [V] er
. nTheEarlofDorsetwasaregularthereandwasimpr [E] ss
. edbyMatthewandpaidtosendhimbacktoschoolwhe [R] eh
. ebecameaKingsScholarAfteruniversityhewasat [U] to
. randwrotepoetrywhileonhisdiplomaticposting [S] an
. dstayedwithLouisXIV
.
[E.VERUS] 42
..................................................
He published Poems on Several Occasions. In 1715 he was arrested on a charge of treason relating to the treaty of Utrecht but was released the following year. He had several mistresses but never married. His coffin lay overnight in Jerusalem Chamber before his funeral.
His secretary [A.DRIFT] is buried near him.
..................................................
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=adrift
<<[ADRIFT] (adv.) "floating at random, at the mercy of currents," 1620s, from a- (1) "on" + drift (n.). Figurative use by 1680s. [DRIFT] (n.) early 14c., literally "a being driven" (at first of snow, rain, etc.); not recorded in Old English, it is either a suffixed form of drive (v.) or borrowed from Old Norse drift "snow drift," or Middle Dutch drift "pasturage, drove, flock," both from Proto-Germanic *driftiz (source also of Danish and Swedish drift, German Trift. "A being driven," hence "anything driven," especially a number of things or a heap of matter driven or moving together (mid-15c.). Figurative sense of "aim, intention, what one is getting at" (on the notion of "course, tendency") is from 1520s. Nautical sense of "deviation of a ship from its course in consequence of currents" is from 1670s.>>
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https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/nicholas-rowe
<<Nicholas Rowe, Poet Laureate and dramatist, was buried in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, to the right of the stone to Thomas Parr. His gravestone had no inscription.
He was the only son of John Rowe of Lamerton in Devon and Elizabeth, daughter of Jasper Edwards. He was born at Little Barford in Bedfordshire on 30th June 1674 and received part of his education at Westminster School. Dr Samuel Johnson called Rowe's translation of Lucan "one of the greatest productions of English poetry". He edited many of Shakespeare's plays and in 1714 was appointed Poet Laureate. Rowe married first a daughter of a Mr Parsons and left a son John. By his second wife, Anne Devenish, he had a daughter Charlotte. His burial took place on 19th December 1718 and Anne and Charlotte were later buried with him.
Charlotte was baptised at St Paul's church, Covent Garden on 1st June 1718 and married Henry Fane, a younger brother of the Earl of Westmoreland, in 1735. She was buried on 7th October 1739. Their daughter Charlotte married Sir William St Quintin. Nicholas' widow Anne married Colonel Alexander Deanes in St Margaret's Westminster on 31st January 1724 and she was buried on 12th December 1747.
Monument
A marble monument, by the sculptor John Michael Rysbrack, was erected by his widow near the grave in 1742, a few feet from Shakespeare's memorial. It shows a bust of the poet with a seated mourning woman holding an open book and on the pyramid behind is a relief head of Charlotte. The inscription reads:
To the Memory of NICHOLAS ROWE Esq: who died in 1718 Aged 45, And of Charlotte his only daughter the wife of Henry Fane Esq; who, inheriting her Father's Spirit, and Amiable in her own Innocence & Beauty, died in the 22nd year of her age 1739.
Thy Reliques, Rowe, to this sad Shrine we trust, and near thy Shakespear place thy honour'd Bust, Oh next him skill'd to draw the tender Tear, For never Heart felt Passion more sincere: To nobler sentiment to fire the Brave. For never Briton more disdain'd a Slave: Peace to the gentle Shade, and endless Rest, Blest in thy Genius, in thy love too blest; And blest, that timely from Our Scene remov'd Thy Soul enjoys that Liberty it lov'd.
To these, so mourn'd in Death, so lov'd in Life! The childless Parent & the widow'd wife With tears inscribes this monument Stone, That holds their Ashes & expects her own.
The Rowe coat of arms, a red shield with three holy lambs holding banners, also appears on the monument.
In the 1930s a 13th century painting was discovered on the wall behind Rowe's monument, and another behind the adjoining memorial to John Gay, and both memorials were removed to the south triforium of the Abbey. A modern inscription on the bench below the paintings records the position of the monuments in the south transept. These two monuments can now be viewed in the new Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries.>>
-------------------------------------------------------------
https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/john-gay
<<John Gay, the celebrated poet and dramatist, was buried in the south transept of Westminster Abbey on 23rd December 1732, in the central part of the area near Thomas Parr's grave. The funeral was a lavish affair and Alexander Pope was one of the pall bearers.
A monument was erected for him against the south wall and the monument to Samuel Butler was moved to accommodate it. But in the 1930s this, and the adjoining monument to Nicholas Rowe, was moved to the Abbey's triforium as two important wall paintings were discovered behind them during cleaning. The monuments can be viewed in the new Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries in the triforium.
The marble monument consists of a high relief portrait of the poet on a roundel against a pyramid with masks, a trumpet and pan-pipes above. At the top is a cartouche showing his coat of arms: "or, on a fess sable between three escallops azure, five lozenges argent". The sculptor was John Michael Rysbrack. Just below the portrait bust is an inscription composed by the poet himself:
Life is a jest; and all things show it,
I thought so once; but now I know it.
Below is an inscription written by Alexander Pope:
Of manners gentle, of affections mild; in wit a man; simplicity, a child; with native humour temp'ring virtuous rage, form'd to delight at once and lash the Age: above temptation, in a low estate, and uncorrupted, e'en among the Great; a safe companion, and an easy friend, unblam'd thro' life, lamented in thy end. These are thy honours! not that here thy bust is mix'd with heroes, or with kings thy dust; but that the worthy and the good shall say, striking their pensive bosoms – Here lies GAY. A:Pope.
In two columns below:
Here lye the ashes of Mr JOHN GAY, the warmest friend, the gentlest companion, the most benevolent man; who maintained independency in low circumstances of fortune; integrity, in the midst of a corrupt Age; and that equal serenity of mind, which conscious goodness alone can give, thro' the whole course of his life. Favourite of the Muses, he was led by them to every elegant art, refined in taste, and fraught with graces all his own. In various kinds of poetry, superior to many, inferior to none, his works continue to inspire, what his example taught, contempt of folly, however adorned; detestation of vice, however dignified; reverence for virtue, however disgraced
And on the base:
CHARLES and CATHERINE, Duke and Dutchess of Queensberry, who loved this excellent person living, and regret him dead, have caused this monument to be erected to his memory.
John was born in Barnstaple in Devon on 30th June 1685, one of five children of William and Katherine (Hanmer). He did not attend university but started his career as a silk mercer in London. He had already published several works when he became secretary to the Duchess of Monmouth and he went on to be secretary to the Earl of Clarendon in Hanover. His most famous work, The Beggar's Opera, opened in London in 1728 to great success, and is still performed to this day. During his last illness he was resident at the Duke of Queensberry's house and died unmarried on 4th December 1732. His sisters Catherine (Baller) and Joan (Fortescue) administered to his estate.>>
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https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/thomas-parr
Thomas Parr lived for 152 years and 9 months through the reigns of ten monarchs and was buried in Westminster Abbey by order of King Charles I. The inscription on his small white marble gravestone in the centre of the south transept reads:
THO: PARR OF YE COUNTY OF SALLOP. BORNE
IN AD: 1483. HE LIVED IN YE REIGNES OF TEN
PRINCES VIZ: K.EDW.4. K.ED.5. K.RICH.3.
K.HEN.7. K.HEN.8. K.EDW.6. Q.MA. Q.ELIZ.
K.JA. & K.CHARLES. AGED 152 YEARES.
& WAS BURYED HERE NOVEMB. 15. 1635.
Most of the information about the life of this agricultural labourer who found fame because of his longevity is recorded in John Taylor's pamphlet printed in 1635 entitled The Old, Old, Very Old Man or the Age and Long Life of Thomas Parr. He was the son of John Parr of Winnington near Shrewsbury in the county of Shropshire. Thomas married his first wife Jane Taylor when he was about 80 years old and they had a son and daughter, both of whom died in infancy. At the age of 100 he did penance by standing draped in a white sheet in the parish church for being unfaithful to his wife and having an illegitimate child by Katherine Milton. Ten years after Jane's death he married Jane Lloyd but they had no children.
A diet of green cheese, onions, coarse bread, buttermilk or mild ale (cider on special occasions) and no smoking kept Thomas healthy. His recipe for long life was reputed to be:
Keep your head cool by temperance and your feet warm by exercise. Rise early, go soon to bed, and if you want to grow fat [prosperous] keep your eyes open and your mouth shut.
In 1635 Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, was visiting one of his Shropshire estates and he heard all about the incredible man known as "Old Parr", then said to be 152 years old. The Earl decided to take him to London to see King Charles I, and Thomas left Shropshire never to return. The journey was made in easy stages, as Thomas had been blind for twenty years, and the Earl provided a jester for his entertainment. He was presented at Court and on seeing the old man Charles I asked him "You have lived longer than other men. What have you done more than other men?". Parr replied "Sire, I did penance when I was a hundred years old".
Thomas was treated with kindness and crowds came to see him. His portrait was painted and there is a copy in the National Portrait Gallery in London showing him with dark brown eyes, and white shaggy eyebrows, moustache and whiskers. But, as shown by the post mortem carried out by the eminent physician Dr William Harvey, the change in diet, with rich wines, and the pollution of the City were too much for Old Parr and he died within a few weeks of arriving in London. The King ordered his burial in the Abbey and his grave has been pointed out to visitors ever since.>>
-------------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer
https://tinyurl.com/rumaxot
The 45º line from the Westminster *Altar* through Chaucer through Shakespeare passed through the tomb of Scriblerus Club [Swift, Pope, etc.] member John Gay [1685-1732]. Gay's poem _The Shepherd's Week_ involved the exploits of various yokels with names such as Bumkinet and Boobyclod. Gay's Poet's Corner marble monument consists of a high relief Rysbrack portrait of Gay on a roundel against a pyramid with masks, a trumpet & pan-pipes. Just below Gay's portrait bust is an inscription composed by the poet himself:
Life is a [JEST]; and all things show it,
I thought so once; but now I know it.
https://tinyurl.com/r2re8t3
so reminiscent of the [IE/ST] of the
Stratford *PIG STY*: {SVS} [ST/IE]
-----------------------------------------------------
http://library.thinkquest.org/5175/images/grave1.jpg
...............................................
. GOOD FREND FOR [IE]{SVS}' SAKE FORBEARE,
___ TO DIGG THE DV[ST] ENCLOASED HEARE:
. BLESTE BE Ye MAN Yt SPA[RE]S THES STONES,
_ AND CVRST BE HE Yt MO[VE]S MY BONES.
...............................................
On the 14th anniversary of Anne Hathaway's death [Aug. 6, 1637].
Ben Jonson was BURIED UPRIGHT leaning against the WALL
. of his Westminster Abbey crypt as requested:
.
. ' [TWO FEET BY TWO FEET]
. *WILL* do for all I WANT '. - Ben Jonson
----------------------------------------------
. Romans Chapter 10, Verse 6
.............................................
1395 Wyclif: Who schal *STIE* in to heuene?
. that is to seie, to lede doun Crist;
---------------------------------------------
"With bolder wing shall dare aloft to STY,
To the last praises of this Faery Queene." --Spenser.
-------------------------------------------------
https://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/gay.htm
<<John Gay died of an intestinal disorder on the 4th December 1732 in the house of his patrons the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry. He was only 46 years old. Arbuthnot remarked that Gay's funeral was: 'as splendid as if he had been a peer of the realm'.
Gay, a very well liked man, had a passion for good company, good food and blue ribbons. (Both Pope and Swift teased him about the latter.)
Pope wrote an epitaph for Gay's monument which contained the following lines: ' Of manner gentle, of affections mild; In wit, a man; simplicity a child: With native humour tempering virtuous rage, Formed to delight at once and lash the age:'
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Michael_Rysbrack
Bust_of_Inigo_Jones_by_John_Michael_Rysbrack,_1725
https://tinyurl.com/u43t3ub
<<Johannes Michel Rysbrack, original name Jan Michiel Rijsbrack (24 June 1694 – 8 January 1770), was an 18th-century Flemish sculptor, who spent most of his career in England. (His birth-year is sometimes (wrongly) given as 1693 or 1684.)
Rysbrack was born on 24 June 1694 in Antwerp, the son of the landscape painter Pieter Rijsbraeck. His older brother Pieter Andreas Rijsbrack was a landscape and still life painter; and a younger brother Gerard Rijsbrack was a still life and sports painter. He studied drawings by Italian masters, before settling in London in 1720.
In London, Rysbrack quickly established himself as the leading sculptor, a position he was to retain until the mid-1740s, remaining one of the top three sculptors in Britain until shortly before his death. He executed busts and funerary monuments of many of the most prominent men of his day, including the monument to Isaac Newton in Westminster Abbey, a statue of Marlborough, and busts of Walpole, Bolingbroke, and Pope. Dr Cox Macro commissioned him to make a bust of Flemish painter Peter Tillemans on his death in 1734.
In 1733 he carved a magnificent marble portrait bust of George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney (1666–1737) in the guise of a Roman centurion. Orkney was a distinguished general serving under the Duke of Marlborough. Orkney had taken the surrender of the French at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704, and he took part in numerous subsequent battles during the War of the Spanish Succession. One of Rysbrack's greatest works, the bust of Lord Orkney is on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Its special character owes something to a bond between the sculptor and Lord Orkney, one that had its origins nearly 30 years earlier and was no doubt enhanced in their conversation when Lord Orkney sat to the sculptor for the modelling of the bust.
In St Michael and All Angels Church, Badminton, there is another splendid monument by Rysbrack, signed and dated 1754. The 2nd and the 3rd Duke of Beaufort are depicted in Roman costume, one standing, the other seated on the sarcophagus and holding a medallion. Decorative, asymmetrical drapery hangs down over the sarcophagus. Rysbrack also cast the bronze equestrian statue of William III in Queen Square, Bristol in 1733, and a later monument to Edward Colston in All Saints, Bristol.
Rysbrack died in Vere Street, Westminster, in 1770.>>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/edmund-spenser
<<On the south wall of Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey is a marble memorial to Edmund Spenser, poet and author of The Faerie Queene. Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset (to whose mother Spenser had dedicated a work) put up the memorial in 1620 but this fell into decay and was replaced by the present exact copy in 1778. The poet William *MASON*, whose memorial is nearby, raised the subscription for it. The epitaph reads:
HEARE LYES (EXPECTING THE SECOND COMMINGE OF OUR SAVIOVR CHRIST JESUS) THE BODY OF EDMOND SPENCER THE PRINCE OF POETS IN HIS TYME WHOSE DIVINE SPIRRIT NEEDS NOE OTHIR WITNESSE THEN THE WORKS WHICH HE LEFT BEHINDE HIM. HE WAS BORNE IN LONDON IN THE YEARE 1553 AND DIED IN THE YEARE 1598. Restored by private subscription 1778.
William Camden, in his 1600 guide to the Abbey records the following epitaph:
Here close to Chaucer lies Spenser; neares{T} to him in genius, so nearest to him in burial. Here ne{A}r Chaucer, O poet Spenser, you will join a poet, even c{L}oser to him in your verse than in your tomb. While yo{U} were living, English Poesy lived & clapped her hand{S}; now at the point of death, you dying, she fears to die.
...................................................................
. <= 42 =>
.
. HereclosetoChaucerliesSpenserneares {T} tohimi
. ngeniussonearesttohiminburialHerene {A} rChauc
. erOpoetSpenseryouwilljoinapoetevenc {L} oserto
. himinyourversethaninyourtombWhileyo {U} wereli
. vingEnglishPoesylivedclappedherhand {S} nowatt
. hepointofdeathyoudyingshefearstodie
.
{TALUS} 42
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Nothing is known of Edmund’s family except that his mother’s name was Elizabeth. He attended Cambridge University and on 27th October 1579 married Maccabaeus Childe at St Margaret’s Westminster. They had two children, Sylvanus (d.1638) and Katherine. His second wife was Elizabeth Boyle and they had a son named Peregrine. For a short time Spenser was private secretary to Lord Grey, lord deputy of Ireland, and continued to live in Ireland for much of his life until rebels burnt down his house in 1598. He died on 13th January 1599, probably in King Street, near the Abbey (the date of death on his memorial is given in Old Style dating). He was buried near Geoffrey Chaucer’s grave in the south transept on 16th January, at the expense of the Earl of Essex. Many of his contemporaries attended the funeral, possibly including Shakespeare and, according to historian William Camden, they all threw elegies into the grave. In 1938 a search was instituted to try to find Spenser’s exact burial site and see if this story was true but nothing was found that could be positively identified as Edmund’s grave.
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https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/matthew-prior#i13407
<<On the wall behind Shakespeare's memorial in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey is a large marble monument to poet and diplomat Matthew Prior which was in place by 1726. He was buried at the foot of the grave of Edmund Spenser but the actual grave is not marked. The memorial was designed by James Gibbs and executed by J.M. Rysbrack and incorporates a bust by Antoine Coysevox.
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. e a c t u a l g r a [V] e i s n o t
. m a r k e d.T h e m [E] m o r i a l
. w a s d e s i g n [E D] b y J a m e
. s G i b b s a n d e x e c u t e d
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The bust had been presented to Prior in his lifetime by the King of France. On the base at the ends of the sarcophagus are life size figures of Poetry and History. The Latin inscription was written by Robert Freind, as Prior had requested, and can be translated:
Matthew Prior Esq. A fever, gradually creeping up on him, as he meditated upon the history of his times, broke together the thread of his life and of his labours on Sept.18th A.D.1721 in the 57th year of his age.
Here lies buried Matthew Prior Esq. a great man, who, under our most gracious Majesties King William and Queen Mary acted as Secretary to the Embassy at The Hague in 1690, and then as Secretary to the parties who in 1697 concluded the Peace of Ryswick, then in the following years to the French Legation, and also in that same year 1697 in Ireland. He was also Commissioner at the trade congress of 1700 and the taxation congress of 1711. Lastly, he was despatched by Queen Anne of blessed memory to Louis XIV of France in 1711 as Legate and Plenipotentiary in the peace negotiations, (peace being now well established and likely to endure, according to the hopes of all good men and true).
But all these titles with which he was adorned were as nothing to the praise accorded him for his philanthropy, intellect and learning. The kindly Muses smiled on him at birth, this royal school embellished him in boyhood, in youth St John's College, Cambridge, provided the most excellent education; and finally in manhood, he was matured and perfected by the society of the leading men of his time.
By circumstance of birth and upbringing, therefore, he could never be torn away from the company of poets, but was frequently used to season the burden of civil affairs with pleasanter literary studies, and as he essayed all manner of poetic works with great felicity, so did this admirable craftsman have no peer in the art of elegant and witty belles-lettres. These amusements of a noble mind, which cost him no toil, were readily perused by his circle of friends. In their company, and full of pleasantries and humour, he would discourse in jests appropriately, diversely and eloquently, upon whatever circumstance might have arisen, but to no far-fetched or forced effect; every word seemd to flow naturally and luxuriantly as though from a perennial spring. He leaves his acquaintance, therefore, uncertain as to whether he were more elegant as a writer of poetry, or more delightful as a companion in conversation.
He was born in Westminster in July 1664, the
son of George Prior and his wife Elizabeth. He had to leave
Westminst[E]r School when his father died and work in his
uncle's ta[V]ern. The Earl of Dorset was a regular there
and was impr[E]ssed by Matthew and paid to send him back to
school whe[R]e he became a King's Scholar. After university
he was a t[U]tor and wrote poetry while on his diplomatic
posting[S] and stayed with Louis XIV.
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[E.VERUS] 42
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He published Poems on Several Occasions. In 1715 he was arrested on a charge of treason relating to the treaty of Utrecht but was released the following year. He had several mistresses but never married. His coffin lay overnight in Jerusalem Chamber before his funeral.
His secretary [A.DRIFT] is buried near him.
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https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=adrift
<<[ADRIFT] (adv.) "floating at random, at the mercy of currents," 1620s, from a- (1) "on" + drift (n.). Figurative use by 1680s. [DRIFT] (n.) early 14c., literally "a being driven" (at first of snow, rain, etc.); not recorded in Old English, it is either a suffixed form of drive (v.) or borrowed from Old Norse drift "snow drift," or Middle Dutch drift "pasturage, drove, flock," both from Proto-Germanic *driftiz (source also of Danish and Swedish drift, German Trift. "A being driven," hence "anything driven," especially a number of things or a heap of matter driven or moving together (mid-15c.). Figurative sense of "aim, intention, what one is getting at" (on the notion of "course, tendency") is from 1520s. Nautical sense of "deviation of a ship from its course in consequence of currents" is from 1670s.>>
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https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/nicholas-rowe
<<Nicholas Rowe, Poet Laureate and dramatist, was buried in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, to the right of the stone to Thomas Parr. His gravestone had no inscription.
He was the only son of John Rowe of Lamerton in Devon and Elizabeth, daughter of Jasper Edwards. He was born at Little Barford in Bedfordshire on 30th June 1674 and received part of his education at Westminster School. Dr Samuel Johnson called Rowe's translation of Lucan "one of the greatest productions of English poetry". He edited many of Shakespeare's plays and in 1714 was appointed Poet Laureate. Rowe married first a daughter of a Mr Parsons and left a son John. By his second wife, Anne Devenish, he had a daughter Charlotte. His burial took place on 19th December 1718 and Anne and Charlotte were later buried with him.
Charlotte was baptised at St Paul's church, Covent Garden on 1st June 1718 and married Henry Fane, a younger brother of the Earl of Westmoreland, in 1735. She was buried on 7th October 1739. Their daughter Charlotte married Sir William St Quintin. Nicholas' widow Anne married Colonel Alexander Deanes in St Margaret's Westminster on 31st January 1724 and she was buried on 12th December 1747.
Monument
A marble monument, by the sculptor John Michael Rysbrack, was erected by his widow near the grave in 1742, a few feet from Shakespeare's memorial. It shows a bust of the poet with a seated mourning woman holding an open book and on the pyramid behind is a relief head of Charlotte. The inscription reads:
To the Memory of NICHOLAS ROWE Esq: who died in 1718 Aged 45, And of Charlotte his only daughter the wife of Henry Fane Esq; who, inheriting her Father's Spirit, and Amiable in her own Innocence & Beauty, died in the 22nd year of her age 1739.
Thy Reliques, Rowe, to this sad Shrine we trust, and near thy Shakespear place thy honour'd Bust, Oh next him skill'd to draw the tender Tear, For never Heart felt Passion more sincere: To nobler sentiment to fire the Brave. For never Briton more disdain'd a Slave: Peace to the gentle Shade, and endless Rest, Blest in thy Genius, in thy love too blest; And blest, that timely from Our Scene remov'd Thy Soul enjoys that Liberty it lov'd.
To these, so mourn'd in Death, so lov'd in Life! The childless Parent & the widow'd wife With tears inscribes this monument Stone, That holds their Ashes & expects her own.
The Rowe coat of arms, a red shield with three holy lambs holding banners, also appears on the monument.
In the 1930s a 13th century painting was discovered on the wall behind Rowe's monument, and another behind the adjoining memorial to John Gay, and both memorials were removed to the south triforium of the Abbey. A modern inscription on the bench below the paintings records the position of the monuments in the south transept. These two monuments can now be viewed in the new Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries.>>
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https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/john-gay
<<John Gay, the celebrated poet and dramatist, was buried in the south transept of Westminster Abbey on 23rd December 1732, in the central part of the area near Thomas Parr's grave. The funeral was a lavish affair and Alexander Pope was one of the pall bearers.
A monument was erected for him against the south wall and the monument to Samuel Butler was moved to accommodate it. But in the 1930s this, and the adjoining monument to Nicholas Rowe, was moved to the Abbey's triforium as two important wall paintings were discovered behind them during cleaning. The monuments can be viewed in the new Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries in the triforium.
The marble monument consists of a high relief portrait of the poet on a roundel against a pyramid with masks, a trumpet and pan-pipes above. At the top is a cartouche showing his coat of arms: "or, on a fess sable between three escallops azure, five lozenges argent". The sculptor was John Michael Rysbrack. Just below the portrait bust is an inscription composed by the poet himself:
Life is a jest; and all things show it,
I thought so once; but now I know it.
Below is an inscription written by Alexander Pope:
Of manners gentle, of affections mild; in wit a man; simplicity, a child; with native humour temp'ring virtuous rage, form'd to delight at once and lash the Age: above temptation, in a low estate, and uncorrupted, e'en among the Great; a safe companion, and an easy friend, unblam'd thro' life, lamented in thy end. These are thy honours! not that here thy bust is mix'd with heroes, or with kings thy dust; but that the worthy and the good shall say, striking their pensive bosoms – Here lies GAY. A:Pope.
In two columns below:
Here lye the ashes of Mr JOHN GAY, the warmest friend, the gentlest companion, the most benevolent man; who maintained independency in low circumstances of fortune; integrity, in the midst of a corrupt Age; and that equal serenity of mind, which conscious goodness alone can give, thro' the whole course of his life. Favourite of the Muses, he was led by them to every elegant art, refined in taste, and fraught with graces all his own. In various kinds of poetry, superior to many, inferior to none, his works continue to inspire, what his example taught, contempt of folly, however adorned; detestation of vice, however dignified; reverence for virtue, however disgraced
And on the base:
CHARLES and CATHERINE, Duke and Dutchess of Queensberry, who loved this excellent person living, and regret him dead, have caused this monument to be erected to his memory.
John was born in Barnstaple in Devon on 30th June 1685, one of five children of William and Katherine (Hanmer). He did not attend university but started his career as a silk mercer in London. He had already published several works when he became secretary to the Duchess of Monmouth and he went on to be secretary to the Earl of Clarendon in Hanover. His most famous work, The Beggar's Opera, opened in London in 1728 to great success, and is still performed to this day. During his last illness he was resident at the Duke of Queensberry's house and died unmarried on 4th December 1732. His sisters Catherine (Baller) and Joan (Fortescue) administered to his estate.>>
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https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/thomas-parr
Thomas Parr lived for 152 years and 9 months through the reigns of ten monarchs and was buried in Westminster Abbey by order of King Charles I. The inscription on his small white marble gravestone in the centre of the south transept reads:
THO: PARR OF YE COUNTY OF SALLOP. BORNE
IN AD: 1483. HE LIVED IN YE REIGNES OF TEN
PRINCES VIZ: K.EDW.4. K.ED.5. K.RICH.3.
K.HEN.7. K.HEN.8. K.EDW.6. Q.MA. Q.ELIZ.
K.JA. & K.CHARLES. AGED 152 YEARES.
& WAS BURYED HERE NOVEMB. 15. 1635.
Most of the information about the life of this agricultural labourer who found fame because of his longevity is recorded in John Taylor's pamphlet printed in 1635 entitled The Old, Old, Very Old Man or the Age and Long Life of Thomas Parr. He was the son of John Parr of Winnington near Shrewsbury in the county of Shropshire. Thomas married his first wife Jane Taylor when he was about 80 years old and they had a son and daughter, both of whom died in infancy. At the age of 100 he did penance by standing draped in a white sheet in the parish church for being unfaithful to his wife and having an illegitimate child by Katherine Milton. Ten years after Jane's death he married Jane Lloyd but they had no children.
A diet of green cheese, onions, coarse bread, buttermilk or mild ale (cider on special occasions) and no smoking kept Thomas healthy. His recipe for long life was reputed to be:
Keep your head cool by temperance and your feet warm by exercise. Rise early, go soon to bed, and if you want to grow fat [prosperous] keep your eyes open and your mouth shut.
In 1635 Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, was visiting one of his Shropshire estates and he heard all about the incredible man known as "Old Parr", then said to be 152 years old. The Earl decided to take him to London to see King Charles I, and Thomas left Shropshire never to return. The journey was made in easy stages, as Thomas had been blind for twenty years, and the Earl provided a jester for his entertainment. He was presented at Court and on seeing the old man Charles I asked him "You have lived longer than other men. What have you done more than other men?". Parr replied "Sire, I did penance when I was a hundred years old".
Thomas was treated with kindness and crowds came to see him. His portrait was painted and there is a copy in the National Portrait Gallery in London showing him with dark brown eyes, and white shaggy eyebrows, moustache and whiskers. But, as shown by the post mortem carried out by the eminent physician Dr William Harvey, the change in diet, with rich wines, and the pollution of the City were too much for Old Parr and he died within a few weeks of arriving in London. The King ordered his burial in the Abbey and his grave has been pointed out to visitors ever since.>>
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Art Neuendorffer
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