.
What ere thou art here reader see
In this pale glass what thou shalt be
Despised wormes and putrid slime
Then dust forgot & lost in time
Birth beuty welth may gild thy east
But ye black grave shadowes thy west
Ther earthly glorys shorteliv'd light
Sets in a long & unknown night
Here till the sun of glory rise
My dearest darke and dusty lyes
But clothed with his morning raye
Her polish'd dust shall shine for aye
Reader first pay to this bedewed ston
The tribute of thy tear and then be gon
.
15th century
from a monument in East Bergholt church, Suffolk
nothing else remains - we don't know who wrote it, nor for whom
.