Notes. This poem is transcribed in a manuscript collection devoted to Ralegh’s life and death, where it is attributed to “Sir A[rthur] Thr[ockmorton]”, Ralegh’s brother-in-law. In another source, the scribe combines this poem with the ambivalent couplet “Of Raleighes life and death the sum of all to tell” (BL MS Cotton Titus c.7).

“An Epitaphe by Sir A. Thr:”

Beholde Brave Raleigh here interr’d

Whose Virtue, Vallor, Learning, Witt

Our greate rare Queene1 raysde and preservde

All buryed in a place unfitt2

which earth nor envie can make die

but live with all eternity

take this remembrance from thy Brother3

Sith he may give thee now no other.

Source. Folger MS V.a.418, fol. 5r

Other known sources. Ralegh, Poems 191; BL MS Cotton Titus c.7, fol. 93r

I13

¹   Queene: Elizabeth I. <back>

²   buryed in a place unfitt: Ralegh was bured in St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster, close to the site of his execution. <back>

³   Brother: i.e. brother-in-law. <back>