Epitaph On The Lady Whitmore

by John Dryden — a poem card from Justes Mots

Dryden's epitaph for Lady Whitmore celebrates a woman of rare virtue—fair, kind, true, and embodying wife, mistress, and friend in one—whose tomb was built at her grieving husband's expense. The poem invites young women to learn from her example, suggesting that half her virtues and a longer life would be an acceptable compromise. It balances celebration of her worth with acknowledgment of irreplaceable loss.

Fair, kind, and true, a treasure each alone,
A wife, a mistress, and a friend in one,
Rest in this tomb, raised at thy husband's cost,
Here sadly summing what he had, and lost.
Come, virgins, ere in equal bands ye join,
Come first, and offer at her sacred shrine;
Pray but for half the virtues of this wife,
Compound for all the rest, with longer life;…

Themes: sympathy · grief · love · reflection