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JOHN HENRY NASH LIBRARY
<8> SAN FRANCISCO
PRESENTED TO THE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
ROBERT GORDON SPRQUL, PRESIDENT.
BY"
MR.ANDMRS.MILTON S. RAY-
CECILY, VIRGINIA ANDROSALYN RAY
RAY OIL BURNEROOMPANY
Splendid
"HYDRIOTAPHIA"
LOVERS of the rare quality of the work of Sir
Thomas Browne are under the greatest obliga-
tion to Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., for the
splendid edition of " Hydriotaphia or Urne-
Buriall ' ' which they have issued. This essay is
one of Browne's most characteristic and delight-
ful ones. One need only remark that it contains
such passages as those beginning "The iniquity
of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy ;" "What
song the Syrens sang or what name Achilles as-
sumed when he hid himself among women;"
and " Man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes. ' '
The new edition is a small quarto of sixty pages,
on unbleached, handmade paper, with reference
notes in the broad margins, as in the original edi-
tion which, in many respects, this one resem-
bles. The title-page has a border engraved on
wood by M. Lament Brown, and the binding is
sumptuous crimson leather stamped in gold. The
edition consists of 385 numbered copies.
" TIMES," N.Y.
January 25, 1908.
RIVERSIDE PRESS EDITION. No. 42
Price, $7.50 net; postpaid
Published by HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & Co.
4 Park St. ,
Boston
85 Fifth Ave.,
New York
OR
A Dtfcourfe of the Sejiulchrall Urnes
lately found in Norfolk
By SIR THOMAS BROWNE, D. of Phyfick
CAMBRIDGE
THE RIVERSIDE PRESS EDITION
Urne-Buriall
SIR THOMAS BROWNE'S Hydriotaphia, or Urne-
Buriall, is now offered to lovers of choice books in a
'Riverside ^Press Edition of especial appropriateness
and beauty.
Though perhaps less well known than his ^eligio (^fedici,
Browne's Urne-Buriall has long been regarded by the best
critics as his finest and most individual work and the one
most sure to hold its place among the enduring masterpieces
of classic English prose. "That wonderful book," Walter
Pater called it; and it drew from Charles Lamb this charac-
teristic appreciation :
"I wonder and admire his entireness in every subject jhat
is before him. He follows it, he never wanders from it, and
he has no occasion to wander; for whatever happens to be
the subject, he metamorphoses all nature into it. In the
treatise on some urns dug up in Norfolk, how earthy, how
redolent of graves and sepulchres is every line ! You have
now dark mould, now a thigh-bone, now a skull, then a bit
of mouldered coffin, a fragment of an old tombstone with
moss in its 'Hie Jacet, 5 a ghost, or a winding-sheet, or the
echo of a funeral psalm wafted on a November wind ; and
the gayest thing you shall meet with shall be a silver nail
or a gilt < Anno Domini/ from a perished coffin-top."
Urne-Buriall 3
The text of the rare first edition will be reproduced with
a few deviations in the direction of a uniformity of spelling
and punctuation, thus correcting a number of errors which
have crept into later issues.
The format has been subtly contrived to suggest at once
the look of its XVIIth Century original and something of
the peculiar flavor of its contents. In size the volume is a
small quarto of about sixty pages, set in Brimmer type with
reference notes in the margins, as in the original edition. It
is printed on unbleached, hand-made paper with the usual
care given to the press- work of the Riverside Press Editions.
The title is within a border engraved on wood by M. La-
mont Brown, after a beautiful and interesting old English
design. It is emblematic of the subject and contains the
Author's arms.
In binding a departure has been made from the Publish-
ers' custom of issuing these books in unpretentious covers.
In this instance an attractive crimson leather has been se-
lected to carry a reproduction of a beautiful and elaborate
English binding of the early XlXth Century, appropriate
in its details to the contents of the volume. Stamped in gold
on both covers, the effect is remarkably rich and pleasing.
The edition consists of three hundred and eighty-five
numbered copies, of which three hundred and fifty are
offered for sale, the price being $7.50 net a copy ; prepaid.
A sample page of the text is shown herewith.
HOUGHTON, MlFFLIN AND COMPANY.
85 Fifth Avenue, New York.
H- "I
r.3
*/ the Psalme of
Moses.
\Accor ding to the
ancient Arithmetick
of the hand wherein
the little finger of
the right hand
contracted, signified
an hundred.
Pierus in
Hieroglyph.
J One night as long as
three.
uzzling ques-
tions of Tiberius unto
Grammarians Marcel.
Donatus in Suet.
||KXvra Wvta
Hydriotaphia
composition ; we live with death, and die not in a moment.
How many pulses made up the life of <>JMethuselah, were
work for (^Archimedes : Common Counters sum up the life
his name.* Our dayes become considerable like
o
petty sums by minute accumulations ; where numerous frac-
tions make up but small round numbers ; and our dayes of
a span long make not one little finger.-f
If the nearnesse of our last necessity, brought a nearer
conformity unto ,it, there were a happinesse in hoary hairs,
and no calamity in half senses. But the long habit of living
indisposeth us for dying, when Avarice makes us the sport
of death, when 'David grew politickly cruel, and Solomon
could hardly be said to be the wisest of men. But many are
too early old, and before the date of age. Adversity stretch-
eth our dayes, misery makes ^Alcmena's nights, J and time
hath no wings unto it. But the most tedious being is that
which can unwish it self, content to be nothing, or never
to have been, which was beyond the mal-content of Job,
who cursed not the day of his life, but his nativity, content
to have so far been, as to have a title to future being,
although he had lived here but in an hidden state of life,
and as it were an abortion.
What Song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles as-
sumed when he hid himself among women, though puzzling
questions, are not beyond all conjecture. What time the
persons of these Ossuaries entered the famous Nations of
the dead, 1 1 and slept with Princes and Counsellors, might
admit a wide solution. But who were the proprietaries of
HYDRIOTAPHIA
OR
URNE-BURIALL
HYDRIOTAPHIA
Burtall
mrne
cour
Sepulchrall Urnes
lately found
Norfolk
THOMAS BROWNE
yf Thyjick
NOTE /
This edition of the Hydriotaphia repro-
duces the text ofthejirst edition printed in
1658. Several errors which have crept into
later issues have thus been rectified. The
archaic spelling ofthejirst edition has been
retained savejbr a Jew deviations toward
uniformity. The erratic punctuation of
the original issue has been slightly modi-
Jied, though due regard has been paid to
Browne 9 s peculiar use of the semicolon.
TO MY
Worthy and Honoured Friend
THOMAS LE
of CROSTWICK, Esquire
WHEN the Funeral pyre was out, and the last
valediction over, men took a lasting adieu of their
interred Friends, little expecting the curiosity of
future ages should comment upon their ashes, and having no
old experience of the duration of their Reliques, held no opinion
of such after-considerations.
But who knows the fate of his bones, or how often he is to
be buried? who hath the Oracle of his ashes, or whether they
are to be scattered? The Reliques of many lie like the mines of
Pompey's,* in all parts of the earth ; and when they arrive at *Pompeiosjuvenes
, , i i r i Asia, atque Europa,
your hands, these may seem to have wandered jarre, who in a sedipsum terra tezit
direct^- and Meridian Travell, have but few miles of known
Earth between your selfe and the Pole. ^Little directly, but
That the bones of Theseus should be seen again J in Athens, Sea *"**" ho ""
J t JT and Greenland.
was not beyond conjecture, and hopeful expectation ; but that
.. \BroughtbackbyCi-
these should anse so opportunely to serve your self, was an hit mon ^ p/ ufarc h.
of fate and honour beyond prediction.
We cannot but wish these Urnes might have the effect of
Vlll
Dedication
*The great Ur ties in
the Hippodrome at
Rome conceived to re-
sound the voices of peo-
ple at their shows.
j- Worthily possessed by
that true Gentleman
Sir Horatio Townshend
my honoured Friend.
\Abiit adplures.
Which makes the
war Id so many years old.
theatrical vessels, and great Hippodrome Urnes * in Rome ;
to resound the acclamations and honour due unto you. But
these are sad and sepulchral Pitchers, which have no joyful
voices ; silently expressing old mortality, the ruines of forgotten
times, and can only speak with life, how long in this corrupti-
ble frame, some parts may be uncorrupted ; yet able to out-last
bones long unborn, and noblest pyle^ among us.
We present not these as any strange sight or spectacle un-
known to your eyes, who have beheld the best of Urnes, and
noblest variety of Ashes ; who are your self no slender master
of Antiquities, and can daily command the view of so many
Imperial faces ; which raiseth your thoughts unto old things,
and consideration of times before you, when even living men
were Antiquities ; when the living might exceed the dead, and
to depart this world, could not be properly said to go unto the
greater number.^ And so run up your thoughts upon the ancient
of dayes, the Antiquaries truest object, unto whom the eldest
parcels are young, and earth it self an Infant ; and without
^Egyptian account makes but small noise in thousands.
We were hinted by the occasion, not catched the opportunity
to write of old things, or intrude upon the Antiquary. We are
coldly drawn unto discourses of Antiquities, who have scarce
time before us to comprehend new things, or make out learned
Novelties. But seeing they arose as they lay, almost in silence
among us, at least in short account suddenly passed over, we
were very unwilling they should die again, and be buried twice
among us.
Beside, to preserve the living, and make the dead to live, to
Dedication
IX
keep men out of their Urnes, and discourse of humane fragments
in them, is not impertinent unto our profession ; whose study is
life and death, who daily behold examples of mortality, and
of all men least need artificial mementos, or coffins by our bed
side, to minde us of our graves.
'Tis time to observe Occurrences, and let nothing remark-
able escape us ; The Supinity of elder dayes hath left so much
in silence, or time hath so martyred the Records, that the most
industrious * heads dojinde no easie work to erect a new Bri-
tannia.
'Tis opportune to look back upon old times, and contemplate
our Fore-fathers. Great examples grow thin, and to be fetched
from the passed world. Simplicity flies away, and iniquity
comes at long strides upon us. We have enough to do to make
up our selves from present and passed times, and the whole stage
of things scarce serveth for our instruction. A compleat peece
of vertue must be made up from the Centos of all ages, as all
the beauties of Greece could make but one handsome Venus.
When the hones of King Arthur were digged up,*\ the old
Race might think they beheld therein some Originals of them-
selves ; unto these of our Urnes none here can pretend relation,
and can only behold the Reliques of those persons, who in their
life giving the Laws unto their predecessors, after long obscur-
ity, now lye at their mercies. But remembering the early civil-
ity they brought upon these Countreys, and forgetting long
passed mischiefs, we mercifully preserve their bones, and pisse
not upon their ashes.
In the offer of these Antiquities we drive not at ancient
*WhereinM. Dugdale
hath excellently well en-
deavoured, and worthy
to be countenanced by
ingenious and noble per-
sons.
\In the time of Henry
the second. Camden.
Dedication
Families, so long out-lasted by them ; We are farre from erect-
ing y our worth upon the pillars of your Fore-fathers, whose
merits you illustrate. We honour your old Virtues, conformable
unto times before you, which are the Noblest Armoury. And
having long experience of your friendly conversation, void of
empty Formality, full of freedome, constant and Generous Hon-
*Adamas de rupe ve- esty, I look upon you as a Gemme of the Old Rock,* and must
teriprastantissimu*. p ro j esse my se lf even to Ume and Ashes,
Tour ever faithful Friend,
and Servant,
THOMAS BROWNE.
NORWICH, May 1.
URNE-BURIALL
Urne-Buriall
CHAPTER I
IN the deep discovery of the Subterranean world, a shal-
low part would satisfie some enquirers, who, if two or
three yards were open about the surface, would not
care to wrack the bowels of Totosi,* and regions towards *The rich mountain of
the Centre. Nature hath furnished one part of the Earth, Peru '
and man another. The treasures of time lie high, in Urnes,
Coynes, and Monuments, scarce below the roots of some
vegetables. Time hath endlesse rarities, and showes of all
varieties ; which reveals old things in heaven, makes new
discoveries in earth, and even earth it self a discovery. That
great antiquity (^America lay buried for a thousand years ;
and a large part of the earth is still in the Urne unto us.
Though if osfdam were made out of an extract of the
earth, all parts might challenge a restitution, yet few have
returned their bones far lower than they might receive
them, not affecting the graves of Giants under hilly and
heavy coverings, but content with lesse then their own
depth, have wished their bones might lie soft, and the earth
be light upon them. Even such as hope to rise again, would
Hydriotajihia
not be content with central interment, or so desperately to
place their reliques as to lie beyond discovery, and in no
way to be seen again ; which happy contrivance hath made
communication with our fore-fathers, and left unto our view
some parts, which they never beheld themselves.
Though earth hath engrossed the name yet water hath
proved the smartest grave; which in fourty dayes swal-
lowed almost mankinde, and the living creation ; fishes not
wholly escaping, except the salt Ocean were handsomely
contempered by a mixture of the fresh Element.
Many have taken voluminous pains to determine the
state of the soul upon disunion ; but men have been most
phantastical in the singular contrivances of their corporal
dissolution: whilest the soberest Nations have rested in
two wayes, of simple inhumation and burning.
That carnal interment or burying was of the elder date,
the old examples o^^Alraham and the Patriarches are suf-
ficient to illustrate, and were without competition, if it could
be made out, that ^Adam was buried near to 'Damascus, or
Mount Calvary, according to some Tradition, God himself
that buried but one, was pleased to make choice of this way,
collectible from Scripture-expression, and the hot contest
between Satan and the Arch- Angel, about discovering the
body of <*j7l4oses. But the practice of burning was also of great
Antiquity, and of no slender extent. For (not to derive the
fame from Hercules} noble descriptions there are hereof in
the Qredan Funeral of Homer, in the formal Obsequies of
'Patroclus, and <Achilles ; and somewhat elder in the Theban
Urne-Buriall
war, and solemn combustion of (J/Weneceus, and
morus, contemporary unto Jair the Eighth Judge of Israel.
Confirmable also among the Trojans, from the Funeral Pyre
of Hector, burnt before the gates of Troy* and the burning
of Tenthesilea the ^Amazonian Queen, and long continu-
ance of that practice in the inward Countries ofo^fsia; while
as low as the Reign of Julian, we finde that the King ofChio-
nia~\- burnt the body of his Son, and interred the ashes in a
silver Urne.
The same practice extended also far West, J and besides
Herulians, 0-etes, and Thracians, was in use with most of the
Celta, Sarmatians, Qermans, 0-auls, 'Danes, Swedes, 'Norwe-
gians ; not to omit some use thereof among Carthaginians
and (Americans : of greater antiquity among the Romanes
then most opinion, or Tliny seems to allow. For (beside the
old Table Laws of burning or burying within the City, of
making the Funeral fire with plained wood, or quenching
the fire with wine) (^Manlius the Consul burnt the body of
his son ; f ]^uma by special clause of his will, was not burnt
but buried ; And < T$emus was solemnly buried, according to
the description of Ovid.\\
Cornelius Sylla was not the first whose body was burned
in <r Rome, but of the Cornelian Family, which being indiffer-
ently, not frequently used before, from that time spread
and became the prevalent practice. Not totally pursued in
the highest run of Cremation ; For when even crows were
funerally burnt, Toppaa the wife of ^l^ero found a peculiar
grave interment. Now as all customs were founded upon
*4>. Calaber, lib. I .
\Ammianus Marcel-
linus, Gumbrates King
of Chionia a Countrey
near Persia.
Arnold. Montan. not-
in C<es. Commentar.
L. L. Gyraldus. Kirk-
mannus.
12 Tabul.part. I, de
jure sacro. Hominem
mortuum in urbe ne
sepelito, neve urito, torn.
2, Rogumasciane
polito. to. 4. Item
Vigeneri Annotat. in
Livium, & Alex, cum
Tiraquello. Roscinus
cum Dempstero.
1 1 Ultima prolato subdita
Jlamma rogo. De Fast,
lib. 4 cum Car. Neapol.
Anaptyxi.
Hydriotaphia
some bottom of Reason, so there wanted not grounds for
this, according to several apprehensions of the most rational
dissolution. Some being of the opinion of Tholes, that water
was the original of all things, thought it most equal to sub-
mit unto the principle of putrefaction, and conclude in a
moist relentment. Others conceived it most natural to end
in fire, as due unto the master principle in the composition,
according to the doctrine of Heraclitus. And therefore
heaped up large piles, more actively to waft them toward
that Element, whereby they also declined a visible degen-
eration into worms, and left a lasting parcel of their compo-
sition.
Some apprehended a purifying virtue in fire, refining the
grosser commixture, and firing out the Ethereal particles so
deeply immersed in it. And such as by tradition or rational
conjecture held any hint of the final pyre of all things ; or
that this Element at last must be too hard for all the rest ;
might conceive most naturally of the fiery dissolution.
Others pretending no natural grounds, politickly declined
the malice of enemies upon their buried bodies. Which con-
sideration led Sylla unto this practice; who having thus
served the body of<*JMarius, could not but fear a retaliation
upon his own ; entertained after in the Civil wars, and re-
vengeful contentions of ^ome.
But as many Nations embraced, and many left it indiffer-
ent, so others too much affected, or strictly declined this
practice. The Indian Brachmans seemed too great friends
unto fire, who burnt themselves alive, and thought it the
Urne-Buriall
noblest way to end their dayes in fire ; according to the ex-
pression of the Indian, burning himself at (Athens* in his
last words upon the pyre unto the amazed spectators, Thus
I make myself immortal.
But the Chaldeans, the great Idolaters of fire, abhorred
the burning of their carcasses, as a pollution of that Deity.
The ^Persian <tylagi declined it upon the like scruple, and
being only solicitous about their bones, exposed their flesh
to the prey of Birds and Dogs. And the Tersees now in
India, which expose their bodies unto Vultures, and endure
not so much as feretra or Biers of Wood, the proper Fuell
of fire, are led on with such niceties. But whether the ancient
Cj-ermans who buried their dead, held any such fear to
pollute their Deity of Herthus, or the earth, we have no
Authentick conjecture.
The ^Egyptians were afraid of fire, not as a Deity, but a
devouring Element, mercilesly consuming their bodies, and
leaving too little of them ; and therefore by precious Em-
balments, depositure in dry earths, or handsome inclosure
in glasses, contrived the notablest wayes of integral con-
servation. And from such ^Egyptian scruples imbibed by
^Pythagoras, it may be conjectured that e ]^uma and the Py-
thagorical Sect first waved the fiery solution.
The Scythians who swore by winde and sword, that is,
by life and death, were so far from burning their bodies,
that they declined all interment, and made their graves in
the air. And the Ichthyophagi or fish-eating Nations about
JEgypt, affected the Sea for their grave : thereby declining
*And therefore the
Inscription of his Tomb
was made accordingly.
Nif. Damas.
Hydriotaphia
* Which Magiui reads
\Diodorus Sifu/us.
^Ramusius in Navigat
Cyprian.
visible corruption, and restoring the debt of their bodies.
Whereas the old Heroes in Homer dreaded nothing more
than water or drowning ; probably upon the old opinion of
the fiery substance of the soul, onely extinguishable by that
Element ; and therefore the Poet emphatically implieth the
total destruction in this kinde of death, which happened to
d/4jax O ileus.*
The old Balearians-\ had a peculiar mode, for they used
great Urnes and much wood, but no fire in their burials ;
while they bruised the flesh and bones of the dead, crowded
them into Urnes, and laid heaps of wood upon them. And
the Chinese"^ without cremation or urnal interment of their
bodies, make use of trees and much burning, while they
plant a Pine-tree by their grave, and burn great numbers of
printed draughts of slaves and horses over it, civilly content
with their companies in effigie, which barbarous Nations
exact unto reality.
Christians abhorred this way of obsequies, and though
they stick not to give their bodies to be burnt in their lives,
detested that mode after death ; affecting rather a depositure
than absumption, and properly submitting unto the sentence
of God, to return not unto ashes but unto dust again, con-
formable unto the practice of the Patriarches, the interment
of our Saviour, of Teter, Taut, and the ancient Martyrs. And
so far at last declining promiscuous interment with Pagans,
that some have suffered Ecclesiastical censures, for making
is the Bishop, no scruple thereof.
The d^!4usselman believers will never admit this fiery re-
Urne-Buriall
solution. For they hold a present trial from their black and
white Angels in the grave ; which they must have made so
hollow, that they may rise upon their knees.
The Jewish Nation, though they entertained the old
way of inhumation, yet sometimes admitted this practice.
For the men of Jabesh burnt the body of Saul. And by no
prohibited practice to avoid contagion or pollution, in the
time of pestilence, burnt the bodies of their friends.* And
when they burnt not their dead bodies, yet sometimes used
great burnings near and about them, deducible from the
expressions concerning Jehoram, Sedechias, and the sump-
tuous pyre of ^/tsa: and were so little averse from Pagan
burning,-f that the Jews lamenting the death of C<zsar their
friend, and revenger on Tompey, frequented the place where
his body was burnt for many nights together. And as they
raised noble Monuments and Mausolaeums for their own
Nation, J so they were not scrupulous in erecting some for
others, according to the practice of 'Daniel, who left that
lasting sepulchral pyle in Echbatana, for the ^ledian and
Persian Kings.
But even in times of subjection and hottest use, they con-
formed not unto the f %omane practice of burning ; whereby
the prophecy was secured concerning the body of Christ,
that it should not see corruption, or a bone shall not be
broken ; which we believe was also providentially prevented,
from the Soldiers spear and nailes that past by the little
bones both in his hands and feet : Not of ordinary contriv-
ance, that it should not corrupt on the crosse, according to
*Amos VI i o.
f Sue ton. in vita Jul.
C<es.
\As that magnificent
sepulchral Monument
erected by Simon. Mace.
/. 13.
Koracr/cevacr/Aa Sau-
whereof a Jewish
Priest had always the
custody unto Josephus
his dayes. Jos. Antiq.
Lib. IO.
8 Hydriot aphid
the Law of ^Romane Crucifixion, or an hair of his head per-
ish, though observable in Jewish customes, to cut the haires
of Malefactors.
Nor in their long co-habitation with the ^Egyptians, crept
into a custome of their exact embalming, wherein deeply
slashing the muscles, and taking out the braines and entrails,
they had broken the subject of so entire a Resurrection, nor
fully answered the types of Enoch, Elijah, or Jonah, which
yet to prevent or restore, was of equal facility unto that ris-
ing power, able to break the fasciations and bands of death,
to get clear out of the Cere-cloth, and a hundred pounds of
ointment, and out of the Sepulchre before the stone was
rolled from it.
But though they embraced not this practice of burn-
ing, yet entertained they many ceremonies agreeable unto
(j-reek and < ~Romane obsequies. And he that observeth their
Funeral Feasts, their lamentations at the grave, their musick
and weeping mourners ; how they closed the eyes of their
friends, how they washed, anointed, and kissed the dead ;
may easily conclude these were not mere Pagan-Civilities.
But whether that mournful burthen, and treble calling out
after Absalom, had any reference to the last conclamation,
and triple valediction, used by other nations, we hold but a
wavering conjecture.
Civilians make sepulture but of the Law of nations, others
do naturally found it and discover it also in animals. They
that are so thick skinned as still to credit the story of the
'Phoenix, may say something for animal burning. More se-
Urne-Buriall
rious conjectures finde some examples of sepulture in Ele-
phants, Cranes, the Sepulchral Cells of Pismires and practice
of Bees ; which civil society carrieth out their dead, and hath
exequies, if not interments.
CHAPTER II
I
Solemnities, Ceremonies, Rites of their crema-
tion or interment, so solemnly delivered by Au-
thours, we shall not disparage our Reader to
repeat. Only the last and lasting part of their Urnes, col-
lected bones and Ashes, we cannot wholly omit, or decline
that Subject, which occasion lately presented, in some dis-
covered among us.
In a Field of old Walsingham, not many months past,
were digged up between forty and fifty Urnes, deposited in
a dry and sandy soile, not a yard deep, not far from one
another : not all strictly of one figure, but most answering
these described ; some containing two pounds of bones, dis-
tinguishable in skulls, ribs, jawes, thigh-bones, and teeth,
with fresh impressions of their combustion. Besides the ex-
traneous substances, like pieces of small boxes, or combs
handsomely wrought, handles of small brasse instruments,
brazen nippers, and in one some kind of Opale.*
Near the same plot of ground, for about six yards com-
passe were digged up coals and incinerated substances,
*/ one sent me by my
worthy friend Dr.
Thomas Whitherley
of Walsingham.
10
Hydriotafihia
which begat conjecture that this was the Ustrina or place
of burning their bodies, or some sacrificing place unto the
Manes, which was properly below the surface of the
ground, as the Arae and Altars unto the gods and Heroes
above it.
That these were the Urnes of Romanes from the com-
mon custome and place where they were found, is no ob-
scure conjecture, not far from a 'Jtynane Garrison, and but
five mile from Brancaster, set down by ancient Record
under the name of Brannodunum. And where the adjoyning
Town, containing seven Parishes, in no very different sound,
but Saxon termination, still retaines the Name of Burnham,
which being an early station, it is not improbable the neigh-
bour parts were filled with habitations, either of Romanes
themselves, or Brittains Romanised, which observed the
^Komane customes.
Nor is it improbable that the Romanes early possessed
this Country ; for though we meet not with such strict par-
ticulars of these parts, before the new Institution of Con-
stantine, and military charge of the Count of the Saxon
shore, and that about the Saxon Invasions, the 'Dalmatian
Horsemen were in the Garrison of Branchaster, yet in the
time of Claudius, Vespasian, and Severus, we finde no lesse
then three Legions dispersed through the Province of Brit-
tain. And as high as the Reign of Claudius a great over-
throw was given unto the Iceni, by the f ^omane Lieutenant
Ostorius. Not long after the Country was so molested, that
in hope of a better state Trasutagus bequeathed his King-
Urne-Buriall
11
dom unto ^(ero and his Daughters ; and Boadicea his Queen
fought the last decisive Battle with Taulinus. After which
time and Conquest of<i/fgfieola the Lieutenant of Vespasian,
probable it is they wholly possessed this Countrey, ordering
it into Garrisons or Habitations, best suitable with their se-
curities. And so some f %omane habitations not improbable in
these parts, as high as the time of Vespasian, where the
Saxons after seated, in whose thin-filFd Mappes we yet
finde the Name of Walsingham. Now if the Iceni were but
Q-ammadims, d/fnconians, or men that lived in an Angle
wedge or Elbow of Brittain, according to the Original Ety-
mologic, this countrey will challenge the Emphatical appel-
lation, as most properly making the Elbow or Iken of
Icenia.
That Brittain was notably populous is undeniable, from
that expression of Casar.* That the Romanes themselves
were early in no small numbers, Seventy Thousand with
their associates slain by Boadicea, affords a sure account.
And though many ^omane habitations are now known, yet
some by old works, Rampiers, Coynes, and Urnes do testifie
their possessions. Some Urnes have been found at Castor,
some also about South-creeke and not many years past, no
lesse then ten in a field at Buxtone,-^- not nere any recorded
Garrison. Nor is it strange to finde c l(omane Coynes of Cop-
per and Silver among us ; of Vespasian, Trajan, ^Adrian,
Commodus, (^Antoninus, Severus, &c. But the greater num-
ber of ^Dioclesian, Constantine, Constans, Valens, with many
of Victorinus ^Posthumius, Tetricus, and the thirty Tyrants
\Hominum infnita
multitude est, creberri-
maque ; (edifida fere
Gallicis consimilia.
Cas.de Bella Gal. 7.5.
\In the ground of my
worthy Friend Rob.
Jegon Esq. wherein
some things contained
were preserved by the
most worthy Sir Wil-
liam Paston St.
Hydriotaphia
*From Castor to Thet-
ford the Romans ac-
counted thirty two miles,
and from thence ob-
served not our common
road to London, but
passed by Combretonium
ad Ansam, Canonium,
Ceesaromagus, &c. by
Bretenham,Coggeshall,
Chelmesford, Burnt-
wood, &c.
fMost at Castor by Tar-
mouth, found in a place
called East-bloudyburgh
Furlong, belonging to
Mr. Thomas Wood, a
person of civility, indus-
try and knowledge in this
way, who hath made ob-
servation of remarkable
things about him, and
from whom we have
received divers Silver
and Copper Coynes.
"^Belonging to that No-
ble Gentleman, and true
example of worth Sir
Ralph Hare Baronet,
my honoured Friend.
A piece of Maud the
Empresse said to be
found in Buckenham
Castle with this in-
scription, Elle n' a elle.
\\At Thorpe.
^Br amp ton Abbas
Journallensis.
in the Reigne of (jallienus ; and some as high as </[drianus
have been found about Thetford, or Sitomagus, mentioned in
the itinerary of ^/fntoninus, as the way from Venta or Cas-
tor unto London* But the most frequent discovery is made
at the two Castors by f l^orwich and Tarmouth^ at Burgh-
castle and Brancaster.%
Besides, the f ]^orman > Saxon and 'Danish pieces of Cuth-
red, Canutus, William, <*J7l4atilda 9 and others, some Brittish
Coynes of gold have been dispersedly found ; and no small
number of silver pieces neer|| f ^orwich with a rude head
upon the obverse, and an ill-formed horse on the reverse,
with inscriptions Ic. <Duro T. whether implying Iceni, 'Duro-
riges, Tascia, or Trinobantes, we leave to higher conjecture.
Vulgar Chronology will have e ]^orwich Castle as old as Julius
Casar; but his distance from these parts, and its Cj-othick
form of structure, abridgeth such Antiquity. The Brittish
Coynes afford conjecture of early habitation in these parts,
though the city of ^Norwich arose from the ruines of Venta,
and though perhaps not without some habitation before, was
enlarged, builded, and nominated by the Saxons. In what
bulk or populosity it stood in the old East-angle Monarchy,
tradition and history are silent. Considerable it was in the
'Danish Eruptions, when Sueno burnt Thetford and f l{or-
wich,^ and Ulfketel the Governour thereof was able to
make some resistance, and after endeavoured to burn the
'Danish Navy.
How the Romanes left so many Coynes in countries of
their Conquests, seemes of hard resolution, except we con-
Urne-Buriall 13
sider how they buried them under ground, when upon bar-
barous invasions they were fain to desert their habitations
in most part of their Empire, and the strictnesse of their
laws forbidding to transfer them to any other uses ; wherein
the Spartans* were singular, who to make their copper */>/*/. in V j ta
money uselesse, contempered it with vinegar. That the Brit-
tains left any, some wonder; since their money was iron,
and iron rings before Casar; and those of after-stamp by
permission, and but small in bulk and bignesse ; that so few
of the Saxons remain, because overcome by succeeding
Conquerors upon the place, their coynes by degrees passed
into other stamps, and the marks of after ages.
Than the time of these Urnes deposited, or precise An-
tiquity of these Reliques, nothing of more uncertainty. For
since the Lieutenant of Claudius seems to have made the first
progresse into these parts, since Boadicea was overthrown
by the forces of f l{ero, and dAgricola put a full end to these
Conquests, it is not probable the Countrey was fully gar-
risoned or planted before; and therefore however these
Urnes might be of later date, not likely of higher Anti-
quity.
And the succeeding Emperours desisted not from their
Conquests in these and other parts ; as testified by history
and medal inscription yet extant. The Province of Brittain
in so divided a distance from Rome, beholding the faces of
many imperial persons, and in large account no fewer then
Casar, Claudius, Britannicus, Vespasian, Titus,
Severus, Commodus, Cjeta, and Caracalla.
14
Hydriotafihia
A great obscurity herein, because no medal or Emper-
our's coyne enclosed, which might denote the dates of their
interments ; observable in many Urnes, and found in those
*Stowis Survey ofLon. of Spittle Fields by London,* which contained the coynes of
Claudius, Vespasian, Commodus, ^Antoninus, attended with
Lacrymatories, Lamps, Bottles of Liquor, and other appurt-
enances of affectionate superstition, which in these rural in-
terments were wanting.
Some uncertainty there is from the period or term of
burning, or the cessation of that practice. (JMacrobius af-
firmeth it was disused in his dayes. But most agree, though
without authentick record, that it ceased with the ^/fntonini.
Most safely to be understood after the Reigne of those Em-
perours, which assumed the name ofoSfntoninus, extending
untoHeliogabalus. Not strictly after <*J7l4arcus; for about fifty
years later we finde the magnificent burning and consecra-
tion of Severus ; and if we so fix this period or cessation,
these Urnes will challenge above thirteen hundred years.
But whether this practice was onely then left by Emper-
ours and great persons, or generally about ^orne y and not
in other Provinces, we hold no authentick account. For after
Tertullian, in the dayes of <*Jttinudus it was obviously ob-
jected upon Christians, that they condemned the practice of
burning.-f And we find a passage in Sidonius^ which assert-
eth that practice in France unto a lower account. And per-
haps not fully disused till Christianity fully established, which
gave the final extinction to these Sepulchral Bonefires.
Whether they were the bones of men or women or child-
\Execrantur rogos, et
damnant ignium sepul-
turam. Min. in Oct.
"[Sidon. Apollinaris.
Urne-Buriall
ren, no authentick decision from ancient custome in distinct
places of burial. Although not improbably conjectured, that
the double Sepulture or burying place of (^Abraham, had
in it such intention. But from exility of bones, thinness of
skulls, smallness of teeth, ribbes, and thigh-bones, not im-
probable that many thereof were persons of minor age, or
women. Confirmable also from things contained in them :
in most were found substances resembling Combes, Plates
like Boxes, fastened with Iron pins, and handsomely over-
wrought like the necks or Bridges of Musical Instruments,
long brass plates overwrought like the handles of neat im-
plements, brazen nippers to pull away hair, and in one a
kinde of Opale yet maintaining a blewish colour.
Now that they accustomed to burn or bury with them,
things wherein they excelled, delighted, or which were dear
unto them, either as farewells unto all pleasure, or vain ap-
prehension that they might use them in the other world, is
testified by all Antiquity. Observable from the Gemme or
Beril Ring upon the finger of Cynthia, the Mistress of *Pro-
pertius, when after her Funeral Pyre her Ghost appeared
unto him. And notably illustrated from the Contents of that
T^omane Urne preserved by Cardinal Farnese,* wherein be-
sides great number of Gemmes with heads of Gods and
Goddesses, were found an Ape of Agath, a Grashopper,
an Elephant of Ambre, a Crystal Ball, three glasses, two
Spoons, and six Nuts of Crystal. And beyond the content
of Urnes, in the Monument of Childrick the first/f and
fourth King from Tharamond, casually discovered three
*Vigeneri Annot. in 4.
Liv.
f Chifflet in Anast,
Childer.
16
Hydriotafihia
years past at Tournay, restoring unto the world much gold
richly adorning his Sword, two hundred Rubies, many hun-
dred Imperial Coynes, three hundred Golden Bees, the
bones and horseshoe of his horse interred with him ac-
cording to the barbarous magnificence of those dayes in
their sepulchral Obsequies. Although if we steer by the
conjecture of many and Septuagint expression, some trace
thereof may be found even with the ancient Hebrews, not
onely from the Sepulcral treasure of 'David, but the circum-
cision knives which Joshua also buried.
Some men considering the contents of these Urnes, last-
ing pieces and toyes included in them, and the custome of
burning with many other Nations, might somewhat doubt
whether all Urnes found among us were properly T^omane
Reliques, or some not belonging unto our Brinish, Saxon ,
or Ttanish Forefathers.
In the form of Burial among the ancient Brittains, the
large Discourses of Casar, Tacitus, and Strabo are silent :
for the discovery whereof, with other particulars, we much
deplore the loss of that Letter which Cicero expected or re-
ceived from his Brother Quintus, as a resolution of Brittish
customes ; or the account which might have been made by
Scribonius Largus the Physician, accompanying the Em-
perour Claudius, who might have also discovered that frugal
*Dioms excerpta per Bit* of the old Brittains, which in the bigness of a Bean
ilin, in Severe. CQU ^ sat i s fi e t h e ir thirst and hunger.
But that the Druids and ruling Priests used to burn and
bury, is expressed by ^Pomponius ; that Bellinus the Brother
Urne-Buriall 17
of Brennus,and King ofBrittains was burnt, is acknowledged
by Tolydorus, as also by ^/fmandus Zierexensis in Historia,
and Tineda in his Universa Historia (Spanish). That they
held that practice in (pallia, Ccesar expressly delivereth.
Whether the Brittains (probably descended from them, of
like Religion, Language and Manners) did not sometimes
make use of burning ; or whether at least such as were after
civilized unto the < T$omane life and manners conformed not
unto this practice, we have no historical assertion or denial.
But since from the account of Tacitus the Ttomanes early
wrought so much civility upon the Brittish stock, that they
brought them to build Temples, to wear the Gown, and
study the <r ^omane Laws and Language, that they conformed
also unto their Religious rites and customes in burials, seems
no improbable conjecture.
That burning the dead was used in Sarmatia, is affirmed
by (jaguinus, that the Sueons and Qoihlanders used to burn
their Princes and great persons, is delivered by Saxo and
Olaus; that this was the old germane practice, is also as-
serted by Tacitus. And though we are bare in historical par-
ticulars of such obsequies in this Island, or that the Saxons,
Jutes, and ^/Ingles burnt their dead, yet came they from
parts where 'twas of ancient practice; the Qermanes using
it, from whom they were descended. And even in Jutland
and Sleswick in ^Inglia Cymbrica, Urnes with bodies were
found not many years before us.
But the 'Danish and Northern Nations have raised an Aera
or point of compute from their Custome of burning their
18
Hydriotaphia
*Roisold, Brendetyde.
Ildtyde.
f Olai Wormii Monu-
menta et Antiquitat.
Dan.
dead:* Some deriving it from Unguinus, some from Frotho
the great ; who ordained by Law, that Princes and Chief
Commanders should be committed unto the fire, though the
common sort had the common grave interment. So Stark-
atterus that old Heroe was burnt, and l^ingo royally burnt
the body of Harold the King slain by him.
What time this custome generally expired in that Nation,
we discern no assured period ; whether it ceased before
Christianity, or upon their Conversion, by o^fusgurius the
Qaul in the time of Ludovicus Tius the Son of Charles the
Great, according to good computes ; or whether it might
not be used by some persons, while for a hundred and eighty
years Paganisme and Christianity were promiscuously
embraced among them, there is no assured conclusion.
About which times the 'Danes were busie in England, and
particularly infested this Countrey : where many Castles
and strong holds were built by them, or against them, and
a great number of names and Families still derived from
them. But since this custome was probably disused before
their Invasion or Conquest, and the Romanes confessedly
practiced the same, since their possession of this Island, the
most assured account will fall upon the Romanes, or Brit-
tains Romanized.
However, certain it is that Urnes conceived of no f %pj
mane Original, are often digged up both in IJorway and
'Denmark, handsomely described, and graphically repre-
sented by the Learned Physician Wormius;-\ and in some
parts of 'Denmark in no ordinary number, as stands deliv-
Urne-Buriall
ered by Authors exactly describing those Countreys. And*
they contained not onely bones, but many other substances
in them, as Knives, pieces of Iron, Brass and Wood, and one
of ^(orway a brass guilded Jewes harp.
Nor were they confused or careless in disposing the no-
blest sort, while they placed large stones in circle about the
Urnes, or bodies which they interred ; somewhat answer-
able unto the Monument ofl^ollrich stones in England,-^ or
sepulcral Monument probably erected by T^dlo, who after
conquered ^ormandy ; where 't is not improbable some-
what might be discovered. Mean while to what Nation or
person belonged that large Urne found at ^Ashbury^ con-
taining mighty bones, and a Buckler; what those large
Urnes found at little <*Jl4assingham, or why the d/fnglesea
Urnes are placed with their mouths downward, remains yet
undiscovered.
\Adolphus Cyprius in
Annal. Sleswic. urnis
adeo abundabat collis,
f In Oxfordshire,
Cambden.
\In Cheshire, Twinus
de rebus Albionicis.
/ Norfolk, Hollings-
head.
CHAPTER III
PLAYSTERED and whited Sepulchres were an-
ciently affected in cadaverous and corruptive Burials;
and the rigid Jews were wont to garnish the Sepul-
chres of the righteous. 1 1 Ulysses in Hecuba^ cared not how
meanly he lived, so he might finde a nobleTomb after death.
Great Princes affected great Monuments, and the fair and
larger Urnes contained no vulgar ashes, which makes that
xxii.
^Euripides.
20
Hydriota/ihia
disparity in those which time discovereth among us. The
present Urnes were not of one capacity, the largest con-
taining above a gallon, some not much above half that
measure ; nor all of one figure, wherein there is no strict
conformity, in the same or different Countreys; observ-
able from those represented by Casalius, Bosio, and others,
though all found in Italy ; while many have handles, ears,
and long necks, but most imitate a circular figure, in a
spherical and round composure ; whether from any mys-
tery, best duration or capacity, were but a conjecture. But
the common form with necks was a proper figure, making
our last bed like our first; nor much unlike the Urnes of our
*psa. ixiii. Nativity, while we lay in the nether part of the earth,* and
inward vault of our Microcosme. Many Urnes are red,
these but of a black colour, somewhat smooth, and dully
sounding, which begat some doubt, whether they were
burnt, or onely baked in Oven or Sun, according to the an-
cient way, in many Bricks, Tiles, Pots, and testaceous works;
and as the word testa is properly to be taken, when occur-
ring without addition, and chiefly intended by TUny, when
he commendeth Bricks and Tiles of two years old, and to
make them in the spring. Nor onely these concealed pieces,
but the open magnificence of Antiquity, ran much in the
Artifice of Clay. Hereof the house of ^JMausolus was built,
thus old Jupiter stood in the Capitol, and the Statua of Her-
cules made in the Reign of Tarquinius 'Priscus, was extant
in Tliny's dayes. And such as declined burning or Funeral
Urnes, affected Coffins of Clay, according to the mode of
Urne-Buriall
21
irov, ov rj oiKOu/uen/ OVK
Dion.
Pythagoras, a way preferred by Varro. But the spirit of
great ones was above these circumscriptions, affecting Cop-
per, Silver, Gold, and Porphyrie Urnes, wherein Severus
lay, after a serious view and sentence on that which should
contain him.* Some of these Urnes were thought to have *x<wrs rw <Sv0po>-
been silvered over, from sparklings in several pots, with
small Tinsel parcels ; uncertain whether from the earth, or
the first mixture in them.
Among these Urnes we could obtain no good account of
their coverings ; onely one seemed arched over with some
kinde of brickwork. Of those found at Buxton some were
covered with flints, some in other parts with Tiles, those
at Yarmouth Caster were closed with Ttynane bricks. And
some have proper earthen covers adapted and fitted to them.
But in the Homerical Urne of Tatroclus, whatever was the
solid Tegument, we finde the immediate covering to be a
purple piece of silk : and such as had no covers might have
the earth closely pressed into them, after which disposure
were probably some of these, wherein we found the bones
and ashes half mortered unto the sand and sides of the Urne;
and some long roots of Quich, or Dogs-grass wreathed about
the bones.
No Lamps, included Liquors, Lachrymatories, or Tear-
Bottles attended these rural Urnes, either as sacred unto the
Manes, or passionate expressions of their surviving friends.
While with rich flames and hired tears they solemnized their
Obsequies, and in the most lamented Monuments made one , ,
\Curn lacrymis posu-
part of their Inscriptions. -f Some finde sepulchral Vessels ere.
22
Hydriotaphia
*Lazius.
\Aboutfive hundred
years. Plato.
\Vinum Opiminianum
annorum centum.
Petron.
1 2 Tabul. i . xi. de
Jure sacra. Neve au-
rum adito, ast quoiauro
denies vincti erunt, im
cum illo sepelire urere,
sefraude esto.
\\Plin. i. xvi. Inter
uAa atraTn) numeral
Theophrastus.
containing liquors, which time hath incrassated into gellies.
For beside these Lachrymatories, notable Lamps, with Ves-
sels of Oyles and Aromatical Liquors attended noble Ossua-
ries. And some yet retaining a Vinosity * and spirit in them,
which if any have tasted they have far exceeded the Palats
of Antiquity. Liquors not to be computed by years of an-
nual Magistrates, but by great conjunctions and the fatal
periods of Kingdoms. -f The draughts of Consulary date,
were but crude unto these, and Opimian wine J but in the
must unto them.
In sundry graves and Sepulchres, we meet with Rings,
Coynes, and Chalices ; ancient frugality was so severe, that
they allowed no gold to attend the Corps, but onely that
which served to fasten their teeth. Whether the Opaline
stone in this Urne were burnt upon the finger of the dead,
or cast into the fire by some affectionate friend, it will con-
sist with either custome. But other incinerable substances
were found so fresh, that they could feel no singe from fire.
These upon view were judged to be wood, but sinking in
water and tried by the fire, we found them to be bone or
Ivory. In their hardnesse and yellow colour they most re-
sembled Box, which in old expressions found the Epithete ||
of Eternal, and perhaps in such conservatories might have
passed uncorrupted.
That Bay-leaves were found green in the Tomb of S.
Humbert^ after an hundred and fifty years, was looked
upon as miraculous. Remarkable it was unto old Spectators,
that the Cypresse of the Temple of 'Diana, lasted so many
Urne-Buriall
hundred years : the wood of the Ark and Olive Rod of
<Aaron were older at the Captivity. But the Cypresse of
the Ark of f Hoah, was the greatest vegetable Antiquity, if
Josephus were not deceived, by some fragments of it in his
dayes. To omit the Moore-logs, and Firre-trees found un-
derground in many parts of England ; the undated ruines
of winds, floods or earthquakes ; and which in Flanders still
shew from what quarter they fell, as generally lying in the
North-East position.*
But though we found not these pieces to be wood, accord-
ing to first apprehension, yet we missed not altogether of
some woody substance ; for the bones were not so clearly
picked, but some coals were found amongst them ; a way to
make wood perpetual, and a fit associate for metal, whereon
was laid the foundation of the great Ephesian Temple, and
which were made the lasting tests of old boundaries, and
landmarks; whilest we look on these we admire not observ-
ations of Coals found fresh, after four hundred years.-f In
a long deserted habitation,]] even Egge-shells have been
found fresh, not tending to corruption.
In the Monument of King Childerick, the iron Reliques
were found all rusty and crumbling into pieces. But our
little iron pins which fastened the ivory works, held well to-
gether, and lost not their Magnetical quality, though want-
ing a tenacious moisture for the firmer union of parts, al-
though it be hardly drawn into fusion, yet that metal soon
submitteth unto rust and dissolution. In the brazen pieces
we admired not the duration but the freedom from rust, and
*Gorop. Becanus in
Niloscopio.
\OfBeringuccio nella
pyrotechnia.
\At Elmham.
Hydriotafthia
* Sue ton. in vita Tib.
Et in Amphitheatre
semiustulandum, not.
Casaub.
ill favour ; upon the hardest attrition, but now exposed unto
the piercing Atomes of aire, in the space of a few moneths,
they begin to spot and betray their green entrals. We con-
ceive not these Urnes to have descended thus naked as they
appear, or to have entred their graves without the old habit
of flowers. The Urne of f Philoparmon was so laden with
flowers and ribbons, that it afforded no sight of itself. The
rigid Lycurgus allowed Olive and Myrtle. The ^Athenians
might fairely except against the practice of <r Democritus to
be buried up in honey, as fearing to embezzle a great com-
modity of their Country, and the best of that kinde in Europe.
ButTfo/0 seemed too frugally politick, who allowed no larger
monument then would contain four heroick verses, and de-
signed the most barren ground for sepulture ; though we
cannot commend the goodnesse of that sepulchral ground,
which was set at no higher rate than the mean salary of
Judas. Though the earth had confounded the ashes of these
Ossuaries, yet the bones were so smartly burnt, that some
thin plates of brasse were found half melted among them :
whereby we apprehended they were not of the meanest car-
casses, perfunctorily fired as sometimes in military, and com-
monly in pestilence, burnings ; or after the manner of abject
corps, hudled forth and carelesly burnt, without the Esqui-
line Port at c Rome ; which was an affront continued upon
Tiberius, while they but half burnt his body,* and in the Am-
phitheater, according to the custome in notable Malefactors;
whereas f l{ero seemed not so much to fear his death, as that
his head should be cut off and his body not burnt entire.
Urne-Buriall
Some finding many fragments of skulls in these Urnes,
suspected a mixture of bones ; in none we searched was there
cause of such conjecture, though sometimes they declined
not that practice; the ashes of 'Domitian* were mingled
with those of Julia, of (^Achilles with those of Tatroclus; all
Urnes contained not single ashes ; without confused burn-
ings they affectionately compounded their bones ; passion-
ately endeavouring to continue their living Unions. And
when distance of death denied such conjunctions, unsatisfied
affections conceived some satisfaction to be neighbours in the
grave, to lye Urne by Urne, and touch but in their names.
And many were so curious to continue their living relations,
that they contrived large, and family Urnes, wherein the
Ashes of their nearest friends and kindred might succes-
sively be received,-f at least some parcels thereof, while their
collateral memorials lay in minor vessels about them.
Antiquity held too light thoughts from Objects of mor-
tality, while some drew provocatives of mirth from Anato-
mies, J and Jugglers shewed tricks with Skeletons ; when
Fiddlers made not so pleasant mirth as Fencers, and men
could sit with quiet stomacks while hanging was played be-
fore them. Old considerations made few mementos by
skulls and bones upon their monuments. In the Mgyptian
Obelisks and Hieroglyphical figures, it is not easie to meet
with bones. The sepulchral Lamps speak nothing lesse than
sepulture ; and in their literal draughts prove often obscene
and antick pieces : where we finde D. M.|| it is obvious to
meet with sacrificing pateras, and vessels of libation, upon
*Sueton. in vita Domi-
tian.
^See the most learned
and worthy Mr. M.
Casaubon upon Anto-
ninus.
| Sic erimus cuncti, &c.
Ergo dum vivimus
vivamus.
barbarous pastime at
Feasts, when men stood
upon a rolling Globe,
with their necks in a
Rope, and a knife in
their hands, ready to
cut it when the stone
was rolled aw ay, where-
in if they failed, they
lost their lives to the
laughter of their spec-
tators. Athenaus.
|| Diis manibus.
Hydriotaphia
old sepulchral monuments. In the Jewish Hypogaeum* and
subterranean Cell at ^Rorne, was little observable beside
the variety of Lamps, and frequent draughts of the holy
Candlestick. In authentick draughts of(^/fnthony and Jerome,
we meet with thigh-bones and death's heads ; but the cemi-
teriall Cells of ancient Christians and Martyrs were filled
with draughts of Scripture Stories ; not declining the flour-
ishes of Cypresse, Palms, and Olive ; and the mystical Fig-
ures of Peacocks, Doves and Cocks ; but iterately affecting
the portraits of Enoch, Lazarus, Jonas, and the vision of
Ezechiel, as hopeful draughts, and hinting imagery of the
Resurrection ; which is the life of the grave, and sweetens
our habitations in the Land of Moles and Pismires.
Gentile inscriptions precisely delivered the extent of
men's lives, seldome the manner of their deaths, which his-
tory itself so often leaves obscure in the records of mem-
orable persons. There is scarce any Philosopher but dies
twice or thrice in Laertius ; nor almost any life without two
or three deaths in Tlutarch ; which makes the tragical ends
of noble persons more favourably resented by compassion-
ate Readers, who finde some relief in the Election of such
differences.
The certainty of death is attended with uncertainties, in
time, manner, places. The variety of Monuments hath often
obscured true graves: and Caenotaphs confounded Sepul-
chres. For beside their real Tombs, many have found hon-
orary and empty sepulchres, The variety of Homer's Mon-
\Fausan. in Attids. uments made him of various Countreys. Euripides*^ had his
Urne-Buriall
Tomb in zSffrica, but his sepulture in <*JI4acedonia. And
Severus* found his real Sepulchre in f %ome, but his empty
grave in (pallia.
He that lay in a golden Urne-f eminently above the earth,
was not like to finde the quiet of these bones. Many of these
Urnes were broke by a vulgar discoverer in hope of en-
closed treasure. The ashes of^JMarcellus^ were lost above
ground, upon the like account. Where profit hath prompted,
no age hath wanted such miners. For which the most bar-
barous Expilators found the most civil Rhetorick. Gold
once out of the earth is no more due unto it ; what was un-
reasonably committed to the ground is reasonably resumed
from it; let Monuments and rich Fabricks, not Riches adorn
men's ashes ; the commerce of the living is not to be trans-
ferred unto the dead: it is not injustice to take that which
none complains to lose, and no man is wronged where no
man is possessor.
What virtue yet sleeps in this terra damnata and aged
cinders, were petty magick to experiment ; these crumb-
ling Reliques and long-fired particles superannuate such
expectations: bones, hairs, nails, and teeth of the dead, were
the treasures of old Sorcerers. In vain we revive such prac-
tices ; present superstition too visibly perpetuates the folly of
our fore-fathers, wherein unto old Observation this Island
was so compleat, that it might have instructed Tersia.
^Plato's historian of the other world, lies twelve dayes
incorrupted, while his soul was viewing the large sections
of the dead. How to keep the corps seven dayes from cor-
*Lamprid. invit. Akx-
and. Severi.
\Trajanus. Dion.
\Plut. in vit. Marcelli.
The Commission of the
Gothish King Theodoric
for finding out sepul-
chral treasure. Cassio-
dor. Var. 1.4.
Britannia hodie earn
attonite celebrat tantis
ceremoniis, ut dedisse
Persis videri possit.
Plin. i. 29.
28
Hydriotaphia
*To be seen in Licet, de
reconditis veterum lu-
cernis.
\Topographia Roma ex
Martiano. Erat et vas
ustrinum appellatum
quod in eo cadaver a
comburerentur. Cap.
de Campo Esquilino.
ruption by anointing and washing, without exenteration,
were an hazardable piece of art, in our choisest practice.
How they made distinct separation of bones and ashes from
fiery admixture, hath found no historical solution. Though
they seemed to make a distinct collection, and overlooked
not Tyrrhus hisi toe. Some provision they might make by
fictile Vessels, Coverings, Tiles, or flat stones, upon and
about the body. And in the same Field, not far from these
Urnes, many stones were found under ground, as also by
careful separation of extraneous matter, composing and
raking up the burnt bones with forks, observable in that
notable lump of Cj-aluanus <*JVLartianus* who had the sight
of the Vas Ustrinum, -f or vessel wherein they burnt the
dead, found in the Esquiline Field at Ityne, might have
afforded clearer solution. But their insatisfaction herein be-
gat that remarkable invention in the Funeral Pyres of some
Princes, by incombustible sheets made with a texture of As-
bestos, incremable flax, or Salamanders' wool, which pre-
served their bones and ashes incommixed.
How the bulk of a man should sink into so few pounds
of bones and ashes, may seem strange unto any who con-
siders not its constitution, and how slender a mass will re-
main upon an open and urging fire of the carnal composition.
Even bones themselves reduced into ashes, do abate a nota-
ble proportion. And consisting much of a volatile salt, when
that is fired out, make a light kind of cinders. Although
their bulk be disproportionable to their weight, when the
heavy principle of Salt is fired out, and the Earth almost
Urne-Buriall
onely remaineth ; observable in sallow, which makes more
Ashes than Oake ; and discovers the common fraud of sell-
ing Ashes by measure, and not by ponderation.
Some bones make best Skeletons,* some bodies quick and
speediest ashes : who would expect a quick flame from Hy-
dropical Heraclitus ? The poisoned Soldier when his Belly
brake, put out two pyres in 'Plutarch.^ But in the plague of
oSfthens^ one private pyre served two or three Intruders ;
and the Saracens burnt in large heaps, by the King of Cas-
tile, shewed how little Fuel sufficeth. Though the Funeral
pyre of Tatroclus took up an hundred foot,|| a piece of an
old boat burnt 'Pompey ; And if the burthen of Isaac were
sufficient for an holocaust, a man may carry his own pyre.
From animals are drawn good burning lights, and good
medicines f against burning; though the seminal humor
seems of a contrary nature to fire, yet the body compleated
proves a combustible lump, wherein fire findes flame even
from bones, and some fuel almost from all parts. Though
the Metropolis of humidity** seems least disposed unto it,
which might render the skulls of these Urnes less burned
then other bones. But all flies or sinks before fire almost in
all bodies : when the common ligament is dissolved, the
attenuable parts ascend, the rest subside in coal, calx or
ashes.
To burn the bones of the King of Edom^\- for Lyme,
seems no irrational ferity; but to drink of the ashes of dead
relations,];]; a passionate prodigality. He that hath the ashes
of his friend, hath an everlasting treasure : where fire taketh
* Old bones according to
Lyserus. Those of young
persons not tall nor fat
according to Columbus.
fin vita. Grace.
IThucydides.
Laurent. Valla.
rj tvQa.
^[Speran. Alb. Ovor.
**The brain. Hippo-
crates.
II. I .
J \As Artemisia of her
Husband Mausolus.
Hydriotaphia
leave, corruption slowly enters ; in bones well burnt, fire
makes a wall against it self, experimented in copels, and
tests of metals, which consist of such ingredients. What the
Sun compoundeth, fire analyseth, not transmuteth. That
devouring agent leaves almost alwayes a morsel for the
Earth, whereof all things are but a colony; and which, if
time permits, the mother Element will have in their primi-
tive mass again.
He that looks for Urnes and old sepulchral Reliques, must
not seek them in the ruines of Temples, where no Religion
anciently placed them. These were found in a Field, accord-
ing to ancient custome, in noble or private burial ; the old
practice of the Canaanites, the Family of <A braham, and the
burying place of Joshua, in the borders of his possessions;
and also agreeable unto c ]$omane practice to bury by high-
wayes, whereby their Monuments were under eye: memo-
rials of themselves, and mementos of mortality unto living
passengers ; whom the Epitaphs of great ones were fain to
beg to stay and look upon them. A language though some-
*Siste viator. times used, not so proper in Church-Inscriptions.* The sen-
sible Rhetorick of the dead, to exemplarity of good life, first
admitted the bones of pious men and Martyrs within Church-
walls ; which in succeeding ages crept into promiscuous
practice. While Constantine was peculiarly favoured to be
admitted unto the Church Porch ; and the first thus buried
in England was in the dayes of Cuthred.
Christians dispute how their bodies should lye in the
\Kirckmannusdefuner. grave.-f In urnal interment they clearly escaped this Con-
Urne-Buriall 31
troversie ; though we decline the Religious consideration,
yet in cemiterial and narrower burying places, to avoid con-
fusion and cross position, a certain posture were to be ad-
mitted ; which even Pagan civility observed. The Persians
lay North and South, the ^leganans and Phoenicians placed
their heads to the East, theoSTthenians, some think, towards
the West, which Christians still retain. And Eeda will have
it to be the posture of our Saviour. That he was crucified
with his face towards the West, we will not contend with
tradition and probable account; but we applaud not the
hand of the Painter, in exalting his Cross so high above those
on either side; since hereof we finde no authentick account
in history, and even the crosses found by Helena pretend no
such distinction from longitude or dimension.
To be knaved out of our graves, to have our skulls made
drinking-bowls, and our bones turned into Pipes, to delight
and sport our Enemies, are Tragical abominations, escaped
in burning Burials.
Urnal interments, and burnt Reliques lye not in fear of
worms, or to be an heritage for Serpents ; in carnal sepul-
ture, corruptions seem peculiar unto parts, and some speak
of snakes out of the spinal marrow. But while we suppose
common wormes in graves, 't is not easie to finde any there;
few in Church-yards above a foot deep, fewer or none in
Churches, though in fresh decayed bodies. Teeth, bones,
and hair, give the most lasting defiance to corruption. In
an Hydropical body ten years buried in a Church yard, we
met with a fat concretion, where the nitre of the Earth, and
Hydriotaphia
* Of Thomas Marquesse
of Dorset, whose body
being buried 1530 was
1 608, upon the cutting
open of the Cerecloth,
found perfect and no-
thing corrupted, the flesh
not hardened, but in
colour, proportion, and
softnesse like an ordi-
nary corps newly to be
interred. Burton* s de-
script, of Leicestershire.
\In his Map of Russia.
the salt and lixivious liquor of the body, had coagulated
large lumps of fat into the consistence of the hardest Cas-
tile-soap; whereof part remaineth with us. After a battle
with the Tertians, the < T(omane Corps decayed in few dayes,
while the ^Persian bodies remained dry and uncorrupted.
Bodies in the same ground do not uniformly dissolve, nor
bones equally moulder ; whereof in the opprobrious disease
we expect no long duration. The body of the Marquess
of Ttorset seemed sound and handsomely cereclothed, that
after seventy eight years was found uncorrupted.* Common
Tombs preserve not beyond powder : a firmer consistence
and compage of parts might be expected from Arefaction,
deep burial or Charcoal. The greatest Antiquities of mortal
bodies may remain in petrified bones, whereof, though we
take not in the pillar of Lot 's wife, or Metamorphosis of
Ortelius^ some may be older than Pyramids, in the petri-
fied Reliques of the general inundation. When <i/flexander
opened the Tomb of Cyrus, the remaining bones discovered
his proportion, whereof urnal fragments afford but a bad
conjecture, and have this disadvantage of grave interments,
that they leave us ignorant of most personal discoveries.
For since bones afford not only rectitude and stability, but
figure unto the body, it is no impossible Physiognomy to
conjecture at fleshly appendencies, and after what shape
the muscles and carnous parts might hang in their full con-
sistences. A full spread Cariola shows a well-shaped horse
behinde ; handsome formed skulls give some analogy of
flesh resemblance. A critical view of bones makes a good
Urne-Buriall
33
distinction of sexes. Even colour is not beyond conjecture
since it is hard to be deceived in the distinction of Negro(e)'s
skulls. 'Dante's Characters* are to be found in skulls as
well as faces. Hercules is not onely known by his foot. Other
parts make out their comproportions, and inferences upon
whole, or parts. And since the dimensions of the head meas-
ure the whole body, and the figure thereof gives conjecture
of the principal faculties, Physiognomy out-lives our selves,
and ends not in our graves.
Severe contemplators observing these lasting reliques,
may think them good monuments of persons past, little ad-
vantage to future beings ; and considering that power which
subdueth all things unto it self, that can resume the scattered
Atomes,or identifie out of any thing, conceive it superfluous
to expect a resurrection out of Reliques. But the soul sub-
sisting, other matter clothed with due accidents may solve
the individuality : yet the Saints we observe arose from
graves and monuments, about the holy City. Some think
the ancient Patriarchs so earnestly desired to lay their bones
in Canaan, as hoping to make a part of that Resurrection,
and though thirty miles from Mount Calvary, at least to lie
in that Region, which should produce the first-fruits of the
dead. And if according to learned conjecture, the bodies of
men shall rise where their greatest Reliques remain, many
are not like to erre in the Topography of their Resurrection,
though their bones or bodies be after translated by Angels
into the field of Ezechiel's vision, or as some will order it,
into the Valley of Judgement, or Jehosaphat.-\
*The Poet Dante in his
view ofPurgatory,found
gluttons so meagre, and
extenuated, that he con-
ceived them to have been
in the Siege of Jeru-
salem, and that it was
easie to have discovered
Homo or Omo in their
faces : M being made
by the two lines of their
cheeks, arching over the
Eye-brows to the nose,
and their sunk eyes mak-
ing O O which makes
up Omo.
Par en Focchiaje anella
senza gemme :
Chi, nel visa degli uom-
ini legge OMO,
Bene avria quivi cono-
sciutofemme.
\Tirin. in Ezek.
Hydriotajihia
CHAPTER IV
*Rituale Graeum,
opera J. Goar in officio
exequiarum.
\Similis reviviscendi
promissa Democrito
vanitas, qui non revixit
ipse. Quae, malum, sta
dimentia est , iterari
vitam morte. Plin. \ .
T.C. 55.
jKeu Ta^a 8' K you'^s
evwv et deinceps.
Cedit enim retro de
terra quod fuit ante
In Terram, &c. Lu-
cret.
CHRISTIANS have handsomely glossed the de-
formity of death, by careful consideration of the
body, and civil rites which take off brutal termina-
tions. And though they conceived all reparable by a resur-
rection, cast not off all care of interment. And since the
ashes of Sacrifices burnt upon the Altar of God were care-
fully carried out by the Priests, and deposed in a clean field;
since they acknowledged their bodies to be the lodging of
Christ, and temples of the holy Ghost, they devolved not
all upon the sufficiency of soul existence; and therefore with
long services and full solemnities concluded their last Exe-
quies, wherein* to all distinctions the (jreek devotion seems
most pathetically ceremonious.
Christian invention hath chiefly driven at Rites which
speak hopes of another life, and hints of a Resurrection.
And if the ancient (gentiles held not the immortality of
their better part, and some subsistence after death, in sev-
eral rites, customes, actions and expressions, they contra-
dicted their own opinions : wherein 'Democritus went high,
even to the thought of a resurrection,^ as scoffingly re-
corded by 'Tliny. What can be more express than the
expression of Thocy Hides ?% Or who would expect from
Lucretius a sentence of Ecclesiastes? Before 'Plato could
Urne-Buriall 35
speak, the soul had wings in Homer, which fell not, but flew
out of the body unto the mansions of the dead; who also
observed that handsome distinction of Demas and Sema, for
the body conjoyned to the soul and body separated from it.
Lucian spoke much truth in jest, when he said, that part
of Hercules which proceeded from <^/flcmena perished, that
from Jupiter remained immortal. Thus* Socrates was con- *pj ato in
tent that his friends should bury his body, so they would
not think they buried Socrates, and regarding onely his im-
mortal part, was indifferent to be burnt or buried. From
such Considerations 'Diogenes might contemn Sepulture.
And being satisfied that the soul could not perish, grow
careless of corporal interment. The Stoicks who thought
the souls of wise men had their habitation about the Moon,
might make slight account of subterraneous deposition;
whereas the Pythagoreans and transcorporating Philoso-
phers, who were to be often buried, held great care of their
interment. And the Tlatonicks rejected not a due care of the
grave, though they put their ashes to unreasonable expect-
ations, in their tedious term of return and long set revolu-
tion.
Men have lost their reason in nothing so much as their
Religion, wherein stones and clouts make Martyrs; and
since the Religion of one seems madness unto another, to
afford an account or rational of old Rites requires no rigid
Reader; that they kindled the pyre aversely, or turning
their face from it, was an handsome Symbole of unwilling
ministration ; that they washed their bones with wine and
Hydriotaphia
milk, that the mother wrapt them in Linnen, and dryed
them in her bosome, the first fostering part, and place of
their nourishment; that they opened their eyes towards
heaven, before they kindled the fire, as the place of their
hopes or original, were no improper Ceremonies. Their
?, vale, vale, nos last valediction * thrice uttered by the attendants was also
te ordine quo natura verv so lemn and somewhat answered by Christians, who
permit tet sequamur. .. v i -r i i i i i
thought it too little, if they threw not the earth thrice upon
the interred body. That in strewing their Tombs the Tfg-
manes affected the Rose, the (greeks Amaranthus and Myr-
tle ; that the Funeral pyre consisted of sweet fuel, Cypress,
Firre, Larix, Yewe, and Trees perpetually verdant, lay
silent expressions of their surviving hopes : wherein Chris-
tians which deck their Coffins with Bays have found a more
elegant Embleme. For that tree seeming dead, will restore
it self from the root, and its dry and exsuccous leaves re-
sume their verdure again; which if we mistake not, we have
also observed in Furze. Whether the planting of Yewe in
Church-yards, hold not its original from ancient Funeral
Rites, or as an Embleme of Resurrection from its perpetual
verdure, may also admit conjecture.
They made use of Musick to excite or quiet the affec-
tions of their friends, according to different harmonies. But
the secret and symbolical hint was the harmonical nature
of the soul ; which delivered from the body went again to
enjoy the primitive harmony of heaven, from whence it first
descended ; which according to its progresse traced by an-
tiquity, came down by Cancer , and ascended by Capricornus.
Urne-Buriall
37
They burnt not children before their teeth appeared, as
apprehending their bodies too tender a morsel for fire, and
that their gristly bones would scarce leave separable re-
liques after the pyral combustion. That they kindled not fire
in their houses for some dayes after, was a strict memorial
of the late afflicting fire. And mourning without hope, they
had an happy fraud against excessive lamentation, by a
common opinion that deep sorrows disturbed their ghosts.* *Tu manes ne lade
That they buried their dead on their backs, or in a su-
pine position, seems agreeable unto profound sleep, and
common posture of dying ; contrary to the most natural way
of birth ; nor unlike our pendulous posture, in the doubtful
state of the womb. ^Diogenes was singular, who preferred
a prone situation in the grave, and some Christians -f like -^Russians, wv.
neither, who declined the figure of rest, and make choice
of an erect posture.
That they carried them out of the world with their feet
forward, not inconsonant unto reason : as contrary unto the
native posture of man, and his production first into it. And
also agreeable unto their opinions, while they bid adieu
unto the world, not to look again upon it ; whereas (^Ma-
hometans who think to return to a delightful life again, are
carried forth with their heads forward, and looking towards
their houses.
They closed their eyes as parts which first die or first
discover the sad effects of death. But their iterated clama-
tions to excitate their dying or dead friends, or revoke them
unto life again, was a vanity of affection ; as not presum-
Hydriotafihia
ably ignorant of the critical tests of death, by apposition of
feathers, glasses, and reflexion of figures, which dead eyes
represent not, which however not strictly verifiable in fresh
and warm cadavers, could hardly elude the test in corps of
four or five dayes.
That they sucked in the last breath of their expiring
friends, was surely a practice of no medical institution, but
a loose opinion that the soul passed out that way, and a
*Francesco Perucd. fondnesse of affection from some * Tythagorical foundation,
Pompefunebri. ^^ ^ ^^ of Qne ^^ passed into another ; which they
wished might be their own.
That they poured oyle upon the pyre, was a tolerable
practice, while the intention rested in facilitating the accen-
sion ; but to place good Omens in the quick and speedy
burning, to sacrifice unto the winds for a dispatch in this
office, was a low form of superstition.
The Archimime or Jester attending the Funeral train,
and imitating the speeches, gesture, and manners of the de-
ceased, was too light for such solemnities, contradicting
their funeral Orations, and doleful rites of the grave.
That they buried a piece of money with them as a Fee of
the Elysian Ferryman, was a practice full of folly. But the
ancient custome of placing coynes in considerable Urnes,
and the present practice of burying medals in the Noble
Foundations of Europe, are laudable wayes of historical dis-
coveries, in actions, persons, Chronologies ; and posterity
will applaud them.
We examine not the old laws of Sepulture, exempting
Urne-Buriall
39
certain persons from burial or burning. But hereby we ap-
prehend that these were not the bones of persons Planet-
struck or burnt with fire from Heaven: no Reliques of
Traitors to their countrey, Self-killers, or Sacrilegious Male-
factors; persons in old apprehension unworthy of the earth;
condemned unto the Tartarus of Hell, and bottomlesse pit
of Tluto, from whence there was no redemption.
Nor were onely many customes questionable in order to
their Obsequies, but also sundry practices, fictions, and
conceptions, discordant or obscure, of their state and future
beings ; whether unto eight or ten bodies of men to adde one
of a woman, as being more inflammable, and unctuously
constituted for the better pyral combustion, were any ra-
tional practice : or whether the complaint of 'Periander's
Wife be tolerable, that wanting her funeral burning she suf-
fered intolerable cold in Hell, according to the constitution
of the infernal house of Tluto, wherein cold makes a great
part of their tortures, it cannot passe without some question.
Why the Female Ghosts appear unto Ulysses, before
the Heroes and masculine spirits ; why the Pysche or soul
of Tiresias is of the masculine gender; * who being blinde * In Homer .
on earth sees more than all the rest in hell; why the Fune- /fcuov Tpe<nao O-K^T-
ral Suppers consisted of Egges, Beans, Smallage, and Let- Tpov 6XWV '
tuce, since the dead are made to eat Asphodels -f about the -j-/ L*CU*.
Elysian meadows ; why, since there is no Sacrifice accept-
able, nor any propitiation for the Covenant of the grave,
men set up the Diety of (J/J4orta, and fruitlessly adored
Divinities without ears, it cannot escape some doubt.
40 Hydriotaphia
The dead seem all alive in the humane Hades of Homer,
yet cannot we speak, prophesie, or know the living, except
they drink blood, wherein is the life of man. And therefore
the soules ofTenelope's Paramours conducted bj(>JMercury
chirped like bats, and those which followed Hercules made
a noise but like a flock of birds.
The departed spirits know things past and to come, yet
are ignorant of things present. Agamemnon foretells what
should happen unto Ulysses, yet ignorantly inquires what is
to become of his own Son. The ghosts are afraid of swords
in Homer, yet SyUlla tells Mneas in Virgil, the thin habit
of spirits was beyond the force of weapons. The spirits put
off their malice with their bodies, and Ctesar and Tompey
accord in Latine Hell, yet ^Ajax in Homer endures not a
conference with Ulysses : and 'Deiphobus appears all man-
gled in Virgil's Ghosts, yet we meet with perfect shadows
among the wounded ghosts of Homer.
Since Charon in Lucian applauds his condition among the
dead, whether it be handsomely said of ^Achilles, that living
contemner of death, that he had rather be a plowman's
servant than Emperour of the dead ? How Hercules his
soul is in hell, and yet in heaven, and Julius his soul in a
Star, yet seen byJEneas in hell? except the Ghosts were
but images and shadows of the soul, received in higher
mansions, according to the ancient division of body, soul,
and image or simulacrum of them both. The particulars of
future beings must needs be dark unto ancient Theories,
which Christian Philosophy yet determines but in a Cloud
Urne-Buriall 41
of Opinions. A Dialogue between two Infants in the womb
concerning the state of this world, might handsomely illus-
trate our ignorance of the next, whereof methinks we yet
discourse in Tlato's den, and are but Embryon Philoso-
phers.
^Pythagoras escapes in the fabulous hell of 'Dante* among *Dei inferno, cant. 4.
that swarm of Philosophers, wherein whilest we meet with
'Plato and Socrates, Cato is to be found in no lower place
than Purgatory. Among all the set, Epicurus is most con-
siderable, whom men make honest without an Elysium,w\\o
contemned life without encouragement of immortality, and
making nothing after death, yet made nothing of the King
of terrours.
Were the happinesse of the next world as closely appre-
hended as the felicities of this, it were a martyrdome to live;
and unto such as consider none hereafter, it must be more
than death to die, which makes us amazed at those audaci-
ties, that durst be nothing, and return into their Chaos
again. Certainly such spirits as could contemn death, when
they expected no better being after, would have scorned to
live had they known any. And therefore we applaud not
the judgement of (^Machiavel, that Christianity makes men
cowards, or that with the confidence of but half dying, the
despised virtues of patience and humility have abased the
spirits of men, which Pagan principles exalted, but rather
regulated the wildnesse of audacities, in the attempts,
grounds, and eternal sequels of death, wherein men of the
boldest spirits are often prodigiously temerarious. Nor can
42 Hydriotafihia
we extenuate the valour of ancient Martyrs, who con-
temned death in the uncomfortable scene of their lives, and
in their decrepit Martyrdomes did probably lose not many
moneths of their dayes, or parted with life when it was
scarce worth the living. For (beside that long time past
holds no consideration unto a slender time to come) they
had no small disadvantage from the constitution of old age,
which naturally makes men fearful ; arid complexionally
superannuated from the bold and courageous thoughts of
youth and fervent years. But the contempt of death from
corporal animosity promoteth not our felicity. They may
sit in the Orchestra, and noblest Seats of Heaven, who have
held up shaking hands in the fire, and humanely contended
for glory.
Mean while Epicurus lies deep in T> ante's hell, wherein
we meet with Tombs enclosing souls which denied their
immortalities. But whether the virtuous heathen, who lived
better than he spake, or erring in the principles of himself,
yet lived above Philosophers of more specious Maximes, lie
so deep as he is placed ; at least so low as not to rise against
Christians, who, believing or knowing that truth, have last-
ingly denied it in their practice and conversation, were a
quasry too sad to insist on.
But all or most apprehensions rested in Opinions of some
future being, which, ignorantly or coldly believed, beget
those perverted Conceptions, Ceremonies, Sayings, which
Christians pity or laugh at. Happy are they, which live not
in that disadvantage of time, when men could say little for
Urne-Buriall 43
futurity, but from reason. Whereby the noblest mindes
fell often upon doubtful deaths, and melancholy Dissolu-
tions ; with these hopes Socrates warmed his doubtful spirits
against that cold potion, and Cato before he durst give the
fatal stroke, spent part of the night in reading the immor-
tality of Tlato, thereby confirming his wavering hand unto
the animosity of that attempt.
It is the heaviest stone that melancholy can throw at a
man, to tell him he is at the end of his nature; or that there
is no further state to come, unto which this seems progres-
sional, and otherwise made in vain; without this accom-
plishment the natural expectation and desire of such a state
were but a fallacy in nature ; unsatisfied Considerators
would quarrel the justice of their constitutions, and rest
content that <^dam had fallen lower, whereby by know-
ing no other Original, and deeper ignorance of themselves,
they might have enjoyed the happinesse of inferiour Creat-
ures who in tranquillity possess their constitutions, as hav-
ing not the apprehension to deplore their own natures; and
being framed below the circumference of these hopes, or
cognition of better being, the wisdom of God hath necessi-
tated their contentment : but the superiour ingredient and
obscured part of our selves, whereunto all present felicities
afford no resting contentment, will be able at last to tell us
we are more than our present selves, and evacuate such
hopes in the fruition of their own accomplishments.
44
Hydriotafihia
CHAPTER V
*Tibullui.
\Oracula Chaldaica
cum scholiis Psetii
et Phethonis.
ffir) Xar6vT<av crw/ia
\f/v)(a.l Ka.6apwrra.rai.
Vi corpus relin-
quentium anim<e
purissimce.
NOW since these dead bones have already out-
lasted the living ones of <*JVLeihuselah t and in a
yard under ground, and thin walls of clay, out
worn all the strong and specious buildings above it, and
quietly rested under the drums and tramplings of three
conquests, what Prince can promise such diuturnity unto
his Reliques, or might not gladly say,
Sic ego componi versus in ossa velim*
Time which antiquates Antiquities, and hath an art to make
dust of all things, hath yet spared these minor monuments.
In vain we hope to be known by open and visible conserva-
tories, when to be unknown was the means of their con-
tinuation and obscurity their protection ; if they dyed by
violent hand, and were thrust into their Urnes, these bones
become considerable, and some old philosophers would
honour them,-f whose souls they conceived most pure, which
were thus snatched from their bodies ; and to retain a
stronger propension unto them : whereas they weariedly
left a languishing corps, and with faint desires of re-union.
If they fell by long and aged decay, yet wrapt up in the
bundle of time, they fell into indistinction, and make but
one blot with infants. If we begin to die when we live, and
long life be but a prolongation of death, our life is a sad
Urne-Buriall
45
composition ; we live with death, and die not in a moment.
How many pulses made up the life of tJWethuselah, were
work for (Archimedes : Common Counters sum up the life
of dJWoses his name.* Our dayes become considerable like
petty sums by minute accumulations ; where numerous frac-
tions make up but small round numbers ; and our dayes of
a span long make not one little finger.'f
If the nearnesse of our last necessity, brought a nearer
conformity unto it, there were a happinesse in hoary hairs,
and no calamity in half senses. But the long habit of living
indisposeth us for dying, when Avarice makes us the sport
of death, when 'David grew politickly cruel, and Solomon
could hardly be said to be the wisest of men. But many are
too early old, and before the date of age. Adversity stretch-
eth our dayes, misery makes </[lcmena's nights,]; and time
hath no wings unto it. But the most tedious being is that
which can unwish it self, content to be nothing, or never
to have been, which was beyond the mal-content of Job,
who cursed not the day of his life, but his nativity, content
to have so far been, as to have a title to future being,
although he had lived here but in an hidden state of life,
and as it were an abortion.
What Song the Syrens sang, or what name ^Achilles as-
sumed when he hid himself among women, though puzzling
questions, are not beyond all conjecture. What time the
persons of these Ossuaries entered the famous Nations of
the dead, 1 1 and slept with Princes and Counsellors, might
admit a wide solution. But who were the proprietaries of
*/ the Psalme of
Moses.
^According to the
ancient Arithmetick
of the hand wherein
the little finger of
the right hand
contracted, signified
an hundred.
Pier us in
Hieroglyph.
\ One night as long as
three.
The puzzling ques-
tions of Tiberius unto
Grammarians Marcel.
Donatus in Suet.
(jKXvra cOvca venpiav.
Hydriotaphia
*That the world may
last but six thousand
years.
f Hector's fame lasting
above two lives of Me-
thuselah, before that
famous Prince was ex-
tant.
these bones, or what bodies these ashes made up, were a
question above Antiquarism, not to be resolved by man, nor
easily perhaps by spirits, except we consult the Provincial
Guardians, or tutelary observators. Had they made as good
provisions for their names, as they have done for their
Reliques, they had not so grossly erred in the art of per-
petuation. But to subsist in bones, and be but Pyramidally
extant, is a fallacy in duration. Vain ashes, which in the ob-
livion of names, persons, times, and sexes, have found unto
themselves a fruitlesse continuation, and onely arise unto
late posterity, as Emblemes of mortal vanities, antidotes
against pride, vainglory, and madding vices. Pagan vain-
glories, which thought the world might last for ever, had
encouragement for ambition, and finding no o^/ftropos unto
the immortality of their names, were never dampt with the
necessity of oblivion. Even old ambitions had the advantage
of ours, in the attempts of their vainglories, who acting
early, and before the probable Meridian of time, have by
this time found great accomplishment of their designes,
whereby the ancient Heroes have already outlasted their
Monuments and Mechanical preservations. But in this lat-
ter Scene of time we cannot expect such Mummies unto
our memories, when ambition may fear the Prophecy of
Elias* and Charles the first can never hope to live within
two (^Methuselah* s of Hector.-^-
And therefore restlesse inquietude for the diuturnity of
our memories unto present considerations, seemes a vanity
almost out of date, and superannuated piece of folly. We
Urne-Buriall
47
cannot hope to live so long in our names, as some have done
in their persons ; one face of Janus holds no proportion to
the other. 'T is too late to be ambitious. The great muta-
tions of the world are acted, or time may be too short for
our designes. To extend our memories by Monuments,
whose death we dayly pray for, and whose duration we can-
not hope, without injury to our expectations, in the advent
of the last day, were a contradiction to our beliefs. We
whose generations are ordained in this setting part of time,
are providentially taken off from such imaginations. And
being necessitated to eye the remaining particle of futurity,
are naturally constituted unto thoughts of the next world,
and cannot excusably decline the consideration of that dura-
tion, which maketh Pyramids pillars of snow, and all that 's
past a moment.
Circles and right lines limit and close all bodies, and the
mortal right-lined-circle * must conclude and shut up all.
There is no antidote against the Opium of time, which tem-
porally considereth all things ; our fathers finde their graves
in our short memories, and sadly tell how we may be buried
in our Survivors. Grave-stones tell truth scarce fourty
years : -f- Generations passe while some trees stand, and old
Families last not three Oakes. To be read by bare inscrip-
tions like many in Qruter y \ to hope for Eternity by Enig-
matical Epithetes, or first letters of our names, to be studied
by Antiquaries, who we were, and have new Names given
us like many of the Mummies, are cold consolations unto
the Students of perpetuity, even by everlasting Languages.
*The character of
death.
} Old ones being taken
up, and other bodies laid
under them.
J Gr -uteri Inscriptiones
Antique.
Hydriotaphia
*Cuperem notum esse
quod sim, non opto ut
idatur qualis sim.
Card, in vita propria.
To be content that times to come should onely know
there was such a man, not caring whether they knew more
of him, was a frigid ambition in Cardan* disparaging his
horoscopal inclination and judgement of himself, who cares
to subsist like Hippocrates' Patients, or &chUl*S* horses in
Homer, under naked nominations, without deserts and noble
acts, which are the balsame of our memories, the Entelechia
and soul of our subsistencies. To be namelesse in worthy
deeds exceeds an infamous history. The Canaanitish woman
lives more happily without a name, than Herodias with one.
And who had not rather have been the good thief, then
dilate?
But the iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy,
and deals with the memory of men without distinction to
merit of perpetuity. Who can but pity the founder of the
Pyramids ? Herostratus lives that burnt the Temple of T>i-
ana, he is almost lost that built it; time hath spared the
Epitaph of (Adrian's horse, confounded that of himselfe.
In vain we compute our felicities by the advantage of our
good names, since bad have equal durations; and Ther-
sites is like to live as long as Agamemnon. Without the
favour of the everlasting Register, who knows whether
the best of men be known ? or whether there be not more
remarkable persons forgot, then any that stand remembred
in the known account of time? the first man had been as
unknown as the last, and (^Methuselah's long life had been
his only Chronicle.
Oblivion is not to be hired : the greater part must be con-
Urne-Buriall 49
tent to be as though they had not been, to be found in the
register of God, not in the record of man. Twenty seven
names make up the first story, and the recorded names ever
since contain not one living Century. The number of the
dead long exceedeth all that shall live. The night of time
far surpasseth the day, and who knows when was the ^Equi-
nox ? Every houre addes unto that current Arithmetique,
which scarce stands one moment. And since death must be
the Lucina of life, and even Pagans could doubt whether
thus to live were to die; since our longest Sun sets at right
descensions, and makes but winter arches, and therefore it
cannot be long before we lie down in darknesse, and have
our light in ashes ; since the brother of death daily haunts us
with dying mementos, and time that grows old it self, bids
us hope no long duration ; diuturnity is a dream and folly
of expectation.
Darknesse and light divide the course of time, and ob-
livion shares with memory a great part even of our living
being; we slightly remember our felicities, and the smartest
strokes of affliction leave but short smart upon us. Sense
endureth no extremities, and sorrows destroy us or them-
selves. To weep into stones are fables. Afflictions induce
callosities, miseries are slippery, or fall like snow upon us,
which notwithstanding is no stupidity. To be ignorant of
evils to come, and forgetful of evils past, is merciful pro-
vision in nature, whereby we digest the mixture of our few
and evil dayes, and our delivered senses not relapsing into
cutting remembrances, our sorrows are not kept raw by
Hydriotaphia
* Omnia vanttas et
pastio venti, vo/xi)
ave[j.ov K<U )8d<rK?7crts,
ut olim Aquila et Sym-
machus. V. Drus.
Eccles.
the edge of repetitions. A great part of Antiquity contented
their hopes of subsistency with a transmigration of their
souls. A good way to continue their memories, while hav-
ing the advantage of plural successions, they could not but
act something remarkable in such variety of beings, and
enjoying the fame of their passed selves, make accumula-
tion of glory unto their last durations. Others rather than
be lost in the uncomfortable night of nothing, were content
to recede into the common being, and make one particle
of the publick soul of all things, which was no more then
to return into their unknown and divine Original again.
^Egyptian ingenuity was more unsatisfied, contriving their
bodies in sweet consistencies, to attend the return of their
souls. But all was vanity,* feeding the winde, and folly.
The ^Egyptian Mummies, which Cambyses or time hath
spared, avarice now consumeth. Mummie is become Mer-
chandise, (JMizraim cures wounds, and Pharaoh is sold for
balsames.
In vain do individuals hope for immortality, or any patent
from oblivion, in preservations below the moon : men have
been deceived even in their flatteries above the Sun, and
studied conceits to perpetuate their names in heaven. The
various Cosmography of that part hath already varied the
names of contrived constellations ; r ^imrod is lost in Orion,
and Osyris in the Dogge-star. While we look for incorrup-
tion in the heavens, we finde they are but like the Earth,
durable in their main bodies, alterable in their parts ; where-
of beside Comets and new Stars, perspectives begin to tell
Urne-Buriall 51
tales. And the spots that wander about the Sun, with 'Phae-
ton's favour, would make clear conviction.
There is nothing strictly immortal, but immortality;
whatever hath no beginning may be confident of no end.
All others have a dependent being, and within the reach of
destruction, which is the peculiar of that necessary essence
that cannot destroy it self; and the highest strain of omnipo-
tency to be so powerfully constituted, as not to suffer even
from the power of it self. But the sufficiency of Christian
immortality frustrates all earthly glory, and the quality of
either state after death makes a folly of posthumous mem-
ory. God who can onely destroy our souls, and hath assured
our resurrection, either of our bodies or names hath directly
promised no duration. Wherein there is so much of chance
that the boldest expectants have found unhappy frustra-
tion; and to hold long subsistence, seems but a scape in
oblivion. But man is a noble Animal, splendid in ashes, and
pompous in the grave, solemnizing Nativities and Deaths
with equal lustre, nor omitting Ceremonies of bravery, in
the infamy of his nature.
Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible Sun within
us. A small fire sufficeth for life, great flames seemed too
little after death, while men vainly affected precious pyres,
and burn like Sardanapalus, but the wisdom of funeral Laws
found the folly of prodigal blazes, and reduced undoing
fires, unto the rule of sober obsequies, wherein few could be
so mean as not to provide wood, pitch, a mourner, and an
Urne.
52 Hydriotaphia
Five Languages secured not the Epitaph of (jordianus ;
the man of God lives longer without a Tomb then any by
one, invisibly interred by Angels, and adjudged to obscur-
ity, though not without some marks directing humane dis-
covery. Enoch and Elias without either tomb or burial, in
an anomalous state of being, are the great examples of per-
petuity, in their long and living memory; in strict account
being still on this side death, and having a late part yet to
act upon this stay of earth. If in the decretory term of the
world we shall not all die but be changed, according to
received translation, the last day will make but few graves ;
at least quick Resurrections will anticipate lasting Sepult-
ures ; some graves will be opened before they are quite
closed, and Lazarus be no wonder. When many that feared
to die shall groan that they can die but once, the dismal
state is the second and living death, when life puts despair
on the damned, when men shall wish the coverings of
Mountains, not of Monuments, and annihilation shall be
courted.
While some have studied Monuments, others have stu-
diously declined them : and some have been so vainly bois-
terous, that they durst not acknowledge their Graves;
*jornandes de rebus wherein Q^flaricus seems most subtle,* who had a River
Getuls - turned to hide his bones at the bottome. Even Sylla that
thought himself safe in his Urne, could not prevent reveng-
ing tongues, and stones thrown at his Monument. Happy
are they whom privacy makes innocent, who deal so with
Urne-Buriall 53
men in this world, that they are not afraid to meet them in
the next, who, when they die, make no commotion among
the dead, and are not toucht with that poetical taunt of
Isaiah. * *Isa. xiv, 1 6, etc.
Pyramids, Arches, Obelisks, were but the irregularities
of vainglory, and wilde enormities of ancient magnanimity.
But the most magnanimous resolution rests in the Christian
Religion, which trampleth upon pride, and sits on the neck
of ambition, humbly pursuing that infallible perpetuity,
unto which all others must diminish their diameters and be
poorly seen in Angles of contingency. -f- ^Anguiuscontinge
Pious spirits who passe their dayes in raptures of futurity, ' ' least f An & les -
made little more of this world, then the world that was be-
fore it, while they lay obscure in the Chaos of preordination,
and night of their fore-beings. And if any have been so
happy as truely to understand Christian annihilation, extasis,
exolution, liquefaction, transformation, the kisse of the
Spouse, gustation of God, and ingression into the divine
shadow, they have already had an handsome anticipation of
heaven ; the glory of the world is surely over, and the earth
in ashes unto them.
To subsist in lasting Monuments, to live in their pro-
ductions, to exist in their names, and pragdicament of
Chymaeras, was large satisfaction unto old expectations
and made one part of their Elysiums. But all this is nothing
in the Metaphysicks of true belief. To live indeed is to
be again our selves, which being not onely an hope but
54
Hydriotaphia
an evidence in noble believers, 't is all one to lie in St.
* in Pa where bodies Innocents* Church-yard, as in the Sands of Mgypt: ready
to be any thing, in the extasie of being ever, and as content
with six foot as the Moles of os4drianus.~\-
soon consume.
f A stately Mausoleum
or sepulchral pyle built
by Adrianus in Rome,
where now standeth the
Castle of St. Angela.
Tabesne cadavera solvat
n rogus haud refert.
LUCAN
Three hundred and eighty-jive copies printed at the Riverside
Press for Houghton, Mifflin fc? Company, Boston and New York.
R
No. -L 4 7
JOHN HOWELL ||
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