Tears flow, and cares not where the good man lies.
Till all who know him follow to the skies;
Tears, therefore, fall where these ashes steep;
His wife, friends, parent, children weep,
And justly few will over him transend,
As husband, Parent, Child and Friend.
Variations and History:
This epitaph was used and adapted for tombstone inscriptions in the 1700's and 1800's in both England and the United States. A variation of this epitaph reads:
Tears flow, and cease not, where the good man lies,
Till all who knew him follow to the skies.
Tears, therefore, fall where Chester's ashes sleep;
And justly–few shall ever him transcend
As husband, parent, brother, master, friend.
As recorded by Williams Cowper, Esq., from the gravestone of Mr. Chester of Chichely, in the book The Works of William Cowper: His Life, Letters, and Poems.
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