MEMENTO MORI   depictions of skeleton, hourglass, and other emblems of Death  
AN ELEGY ON That Great Example of Heroic Valour The Right Honourable, Edward Earl of Sandwich.  

SHall Mercenary Pens Prostitute Verse,  
To Gild with Flatteries each Trivial Hearse?  
And strive in vain t' Imbalme some Silken Sot,  
Whose Name deserves, soon as his Corpse to Rot:  
Shall useless men, whom Age, or Surfeits Slay,  
Or just deserved Diseases sweep away,  
Have Gaudy Tombs, and Epitaphs, that rise  
In strange Impert'nent Plaudit's to the skies,  
And Noble SANDWICH thus submit to Fate  
Without a Muse, his FAME to Celebrate;  
Condoling in such Passionate Strains, till we  
In our own Tears, be drowned as well as HERALD  
He that in Honour's Field, his Country's Cause  
Did more, than Fancy can reach when it draws  
The Acts of Hero's, and will henceforth shame  
The brightest Glories of the Roman Name:  
Who stood the Shock of all the Mogan Fleet,  
And almost Single durst their numbers meet:  
'Gainst whom he long maintained a doubtful fight,  
Dispatching Hundreds to Eternal Night;  
(Whose base Lives yet no Recompense afford,  
Their blood's so thick it Blots a Noble Sword;)  
Some Sunk to Rights, not able to abide  
The fierce salutes He gave them each Broadside:  
Others stood off, their Hulks and Tackle tore,  
And Decks o'erflowed with Brandy & with Gore.  
But Fate, that sometimes makes Virtue its slave,  
And takes delight for to oppress the Brave,  
Seeming at length with the Foe to Conspire,  
Spite of Resistance, set his Ship on Fire:  
Though he with Noble Resolution chose  
Either to bring her Off, or his Life lose:  
When thick as Atoms Cannon Bullets flew  
And all his men were killed, or else withdrew:  
When stoutest rocks, that Tempests did outbrave  
Trembled for fear, and ducked under a Wave:  
When certain ruin on all sides drew near,  
And Death in several Vizards did appear;  
The cruel Elements seeming at strife,  
Which of them first should rob him of his Life:  
Had you but seen how Vnconcerned he stood,  
Flames over's Head, his Feet dabbling in Blood;  
In what a fearless and composed Estate  
He braved the approach of the severest Fate;  
And did at last from Death to Death Retire  
Courting the Water, to avoid the Fire;  
You would confess, such Courage ne'er can be  
Enough bewailed in griefs Hydrography.  
And would you, Cruel Seas! destroy Him there  
Whom raging Fire, & Canonshot did spare?  
By this Black deed henceforward you'll become  
More odious for, than Mare Mortuum.  
Kind Dolphines' should methinks in Shoals appea●  
And on their Backs him above Water bear;  
Or some new Island in his Rescue peep,  
Rather than he should Perish in the Deep:  
Could not the Winds to Countermand his death  
with their whole Card of lungs, redeem his breath  
No! 'tis decreed, his Soul must leave her Clay,  
And took at parting a contrary way  
I'th' Flames, Elias-like, that up ascends,  
And to it every blessed Centre tends:  
Whilst Sea-nymphs ne'er Enamoured so before  
Dote on the Corpse, and waste it to the Shore:  
Knowing it ought, a Nobler Tomb to have,  
Than the Imposthumed Bubble of a Wave.   
FINIS.  

MEMENTO MORI   depictions of skeleton, hourglass, and other emblems of Death   

London, Printed for Philip Brooksby.