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The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2)

Note 1 — EPICEDES AND OBSEQVIES Vpon The deaths of sundry Personages.

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IHAVE learn'd by those lawes wherein I am a1 little conversant, that hee which bestowes any cost upon the dead, obliges him which is dead, but not the2 heire; I do not therefore send this paper to your Ladyship, that you should thanke mee for it, or thinke that I thanke you in it; your favours and benefits to mee are so much above my merits, that they are even above my gratitude, if that were to be judged by words which must expresse it: But, Madame, since your noble brothers fortune being yours, the evidences also concerning it are yours,3 so his vertue4 being yours, the evidences concerning it,5 belong also to you, of which by your acceptance this may be one peece, in which quality I humbly present it, and as a testimony how intirely your familie possesseth

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