N00316:8
An elegy on the much-to-be-deplored death of that never-to-be-forgotten person, the Reverend Nathanael Collins;…
An elegy on the much-to-be-deplored death of that never-to-be-forgotten person, the Reverend Nathanael Collins; who after he had been many years a faithful pastor to the church at Middletown of Connecticut in New-England, about the forty third year of his age expired; on 28th. 10. month 1684. : [Three lines of quotations in Latin]An elegy on the much-to-be-deplored death of that never-to-be-forgotten person, the Reverend Nathanael Collins; who after he had been many years a faithful pastor to the church at Middletown of Connecticut in New-England, about the forty third year of his age expired; on 28th. 10. moneth 1684. : [Three lines of quotations in Latin]
printed by Richard Pierce for Obadiah Gill, 1685
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Reader;
TO Lament the Dead in Verse, having been even from the Days of David until Now, in some sort almost as Common as Death it self, an Apology for that thing at this time is altogether superstitious: Nor have the Noblest Hands disdained to scan Poetical measures on their Fingers, tho' an Annatus has derided a Twis• for not counting that Exercise beneath him. But there seems more needful an Excuse for the meanness of this Composure, which-is born before its Time from a Brain disused to such Performances; in which I have been so far from the accuracy of Virgil, who having laid out eleven years upon his Aeneids, after all judged them not polished enough to be published, that a few stolen hours were all I had to shape them in, and to which I could never have been drawn, if the Subject of these Rhythms, had like the Gentleman in Thuanus upon his Death-bed, given sufficient caution That his Hearse should not be burdened with bad Funeral verses. For this, my utmost Plea is, That the sense of Duty, awakened by the invitation of others hereunto, has ⟨image ?⟩produced this Rhapsody, for a Censure on which, I appeal from Curiosity to Candour, expecting no Laurel on this occasion but what I merit by my good Affection to the Memory of a True Israelite worthy to be had in Everlasting Remembrance.
TO Lament the Dead in Verse, having been even from the Dayes of David until Now, in some sort almost as Common as Death it self, an Apology for that thing at this time is altogether superstuous: Nor have the Noblest Hands disdained to scan Potetical measures on their Fingers, tho' an Annatus has derided a Twis• for not counting that Exercise beneath him. But there seems more needful an Excuse for the meaness of this Composure, which-is born before its Time from a Brain disus'd to such Performances; in which I have been so farr from the accuracy of Virgil, who having laid out eleven years upon his AEneids, after all judged them not polished enough to be published, that a few stolen hours were all I had to shape them in, and to which I could never have been drawn, if the Subject of these Rhythmes, had like the Gentleman in Thuanus upon his Death-bed, given sufficient caution That his Herse should not be burdened with bad Funeral verses. For this, my utmost Plea is, That the sense of Duty, awakened by the invitation of others hereunto, has