Monday, January 28, 2013

"Memento Mori Remember to Die," 1640, Woodcut, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC

"Memento Mori Remember to Die," 1640, woodcut, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC.

Text reads:
It is appointed for all men once to dye,
therefore think upon eternity.
And as I am so must you be,
therefore prepare to follow me.
 Line of verse added:
Man goeth to his long home, and ye manners go about the streets [?]
Full citation and ability to greatly enlarge image here.

Found here.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

On looking at the enlarged version of the Folger Memento Mori I would suggest that the word transcribed as "manners" is. in fact, "mourners." The line then makes sense.

Unknown said...

Looking at the enlarged version of the Folger Memento Mori, the word in the added line which is transcribed as "manners" reads much better as "mourners." The line then makes sense.

Michelle said...

This inscription is on many British gravestones including on a very old gravestone in a church in the town where I used to live in northern England.

The common 'addition' scratched onto gravestones all over the UK that have this verse is the inscription:

“To follow you I’m not content
Until I know which way you went!”

:)