Queen Elizabeth
Among the complimentary epitaphs which were composed for Queen Elizabeth was the following, as quoted in Camden’s Remaines:
Weep, greatest Isle, and for thy mistress’ death,
Swim in a double sea of brackish water:
Weep, little world, for great Elizabeth;
Daughter of war, for Mars himself begat her;
Mother of peace, for she brought forth the latter.
She was and is, what can there more be said?
On earth the first, in heaven the second maid.
The great Tudor queen, who was not deficient in taste, would assuredly have been displeased with such “fustian stuff” as this. What she really wanted may be gathered from Bacon’s “Character of Queen Elizabeth,” where he says:
“She would often discourse about the inscription she had a mind should be on her tomb. She gave out that she was no lover of glory and pompous titles, but only desired her memory might be recorded in a line or two which should very briefly express her name, her virginity, the time of her reign, the reformation of religion, and her preservation of the peace.”