Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Henry Craik, ed. English Prose. 1916.
Vol. I. Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century

Death

Sir Walter Raleigh (1554?–1618)

O ELOQUENT, just, and mighty Death! whom none could advise, thou hast persuaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and despised; thou hast drawn together all the far-stretched greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two narrow words, Hic jacet!

Lastly, whereas this book, by the title it hath, calls itself The First Part of the General History of the World, implying a second and third volume, which I also intended, and have hewn out; besides many other discouragements persuading my silence, it hath pleased God to take that glorious Prince out of the world, to whom they were directed, whose unspeakable and never enough lamented loss hath taught me to say with Job, Versa est in luctum cithara mea, et organum meum in vocem flentium.