On My First Daughter
Here
lies,
to
each
her
parents'
ruth,
Mary,
the
daughter
of
their
youth;
Yet
all
heaven's
gifts
being
heaven's
due,
It
makes
the
father
less
to
rue.
At
six
months'
end
she
parted
hence
With
safety
of
her
innocence;
Whose
soul
heaven's
queen,
whose
name
she
bears,
In
comfort
of
her
mother's
tears,
Hath
placed
amongst
her
virgin-train:
Where,
while
that
severed
doth
remain,
This
grave
partakes
the
fleshly
birth;
Which
cover
lightly,
gentle
earth!
Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson (born June 11?, 1572, London, England—died August 6, 1637, London) English Stuart dramatist, lyric poet, and literary critic. He is generally regarded as the second most important English dramatist, after William Shakespeare, during the reign of James I. Among his major plays are the comedies Every Man in His Humour (1598), Volpone (1605), Epicoene; or, The Silent Woman (1609), The Alchemist (1610), and Bartholomew Fair (1614). Ben Jonson died in Westminster on August 8, 1637. A tremendous crowd of mourners attended his burial at Westminster Abbey. He is regarded as one of the major dramatists and poets of the seventeenth century.