The serpent's head; gets above death and sin, While my poor muse contents itself, that she Poems, p. 39. It is very probable that the beautiful Epitaph on the countess of Pembroke, was attached, with many others, to her herse. We know that she had no monument; and the verses seem to intimate that they were so applied: "Underneath this sable herse Lies the subject of all verse, To this practice Shakspeare alludes. He had, at first, written paper epitaph, which he judiciously changed to waxen, as less ambiguous, and altogether as familiar to his audience. Henry's meaning therefore is; "I will either have my full history recorded with glory, or lie in an undistinguished grave:-not merely without an inscription sculptured in stone, but unworshipped, (unhonoured,) even by a waxen epitaph, i. e. by the short-lived compliment of a paper fastened on it." EUPHEM E. OR THE FAIR FAME LEFT TO POSTERITY OF THAT TRULY NOBLE LADY, THE LADY VENETIA DIGBY, LATE WIFE OF SIR KENELME DIGBY, Knt., A GENTLEMAN ABSOLUTE IN CI. EUPHEME: OR THE FAIR FAME LEFT TO POSTERITY OF THAT TRULY NOBLE LADY, THE LADY VENETIA DIGBY, ETC.1 I. THE DEDICATION OF HER CRADLE. AIR Fame, who art ordain'd to crown. Of death and darkness; and deprive Their names of being kept alive, By Thee and Conscience, both who thrive By the just trade 1 The lady Venetia Digby, &c.] This celebrated lady, Venetia Anastatia Stanley, was the daughter of sir Edward Stanley of Tongue Castle, Shropshire. Her story, which is somewhat remarkable, is given at length by Aubrey and Antony Wood, from whom I have taken what follows. "She was a most beautiful creature ; and being matura viro, was placed by her father at Enston-abbey; (a seat of her grandfather's ;) but as private as that place was, it seems her beauty could not lie hid: the young eagles had spied her, and she was sanguine and tractable, and of much suavity, which to abuse was great pity." "In those days, Richard earl of Dorset lived in the greatest |