The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson

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To the Memory of That Most Honoured Lady Jane ... Ogle (1625)

  To the Memory of That Most Honoured Lady Jane, Eldest
Daughter to Cuthbert, Lord Ogle, and Countess of Shrewsbury

I could begin with that  grave form  ‘Here lies’,

And pray thee, reader, bring thy weeping eyes

To see  who ’tis: a noble Countess, great

In blood, in birth,  by match, and by her  seat;

Religious, wise, chaste, loving, gracious, good, 5

And number attributes unto a flood:

But every  table in this church can say

A list of epithets, and praise this way.

No stone in any wall here but can tell

Such things of everybody, and as well. 10

Nay, they will venture one’s descent to hit,

And Christian name too, with a  herald’s wit.

But I would have thee to know something new,

Not usual in a lady, and yet true

(At least so great a lady): she was wife 15

 But of one husband, and since he left life

But Sorrow, she desired no other friend,

And her she made her  inmate, to the end,

To call on Sickness still, to be her guest,

Whom she with Sorrow first did lodge, then feast, 20

Then entertain, and as death’s harbinger;

So wooed at last, that he was won to her

 Importune wish; and by her loved lord’s side

To lay her here, enclosed, his second bride.

Where, spite of death, next life, for her love’s sake, 25

This second marriage, will eternal make.

To the Memory of . . . Lady Jane First printed by Gifford from the Newcastle MS (BL Harley 4955), fol. 54, where it precedes ‘Cavendish inscrip.’ Lady Jane Ogle was the sister of Katherine Ogle, and so was the aunt of Jonson’s patron William Cavendish. She married Edward Talbot, eighth Earl of Shrewsbury (1561–1618) on 15 Dec. 1582. She survived her husband until 7 Jan. 1625, and was buried close to him in St Edmund’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey. These lines may have been used on a funeral placard (on which, see Und. 12 headnote), but do not appear on the monument.[Editor: Colin Burrow]
1 grave form (1) solemn formula; (2) common manner on gravestones.
1 ‘Here lies’] JnB 528 (Here lies)
3 who ’tis] JnB 528 (who’ it is)
4 by match Edward Talbot was the younger brother of Gilbert Talbot, the seventh Earl. He had married Mary Cavendish, the youngest daughter of Bess of Hardwick.
4 seat] JnB 528; state G
7 table memorial tablet.
12 herald’s wit i.e. with the skill of a professional genealogist. Cf. Epigr. 9.4n.
16 But . . . husband This was indeed quite rare in her extended family: Bess of Hardwick married four times.
18 inmate lodger.
23 Importune Importunate (stressed on the second syllable).