Note 554 — CANTO THE TENTH.
Reading edition
{422}[The French Inscription (see Memorial Inscriptions, etc., by Joseph Meadows Cowper, 1897, p. 134) on the Black Prince's monument is thus translated in the History of Kent (John Weevers' Funerall Monuments, 1636, pp. 205, 206)—
"Who so thou be that passeth by Where this corps entombed lie, Understand what I shall say, As at this time, speake I may. Such as thou art, sometime was I. Such as I am, shalt thou be. I little thought on th' oure of death, So long as I enjoyéd breath. Great riches here did I possess, Whereof I made great nobleness; I had gold, silver, wardrobes, and Great treasure, horses, houses, land. But now a caitife poore am I, Deepe in the ground, lo! here I lie; My beautie great is all quite gone, My flesh is wasted to the bone. My house is narrow now and throng, Nothing but Truth comes from my tongue. And if ye should see me this day, I do not think but ye would say, That I had never beene a man, So much altered now I am."]