Epigrams
(Selection)

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Hero and Leander.

Both robbed of air, we both lie in one ground,
Both whom one fire had burnt, one water drowned.


Pyramus and Thisbe.

Two, by themselves, each other, love and fear
Slain, cruel friends, by parting have joined here.


Niobe.

By children's birth, and death, I am become
So dry, that I am now made mine own tomb.


A Burnt Ship.

Out of a fired ship, which, by no way
But drowning could be rescued from the flame,
Some men leaped forth, and ever as they came
Near the foes' ships, did by their shot decay;

5

So all were lost, which in the ship were found,
   They in the sea being burnt, they in the burnt ship drowned.


A Lame Beggar.

I am unable, yonder beggar cries,
To stand, or move; if he say true, he lies.


Manliness.

Thou call'st me effeminate, for I love women's joys;
I call not thee manly, though thou follow boys.