“An Epitaph upon Husband and Wife”

About the Author:

Richard Crashaw, born in London around 1612 and was the son of the rabidly anti-Catholic Puritan polemicist, William Crashaw. Drawn to the beauty of Catholic doctrine and practice, Richard became a High Church Anglican priest, known for his devotion to Mary and penchant for Catholic vestments. When Oliver Cromwell seized power in 1643, Richard went into exile, first in France, then in the Papal States where he was employed as an attendant for Cardinal Pallotta at which point he embraced the Catholic faith. In 1649, Cardinal Pallotta made Richard a canon of the Shrine of the Holy House in Loreto, and he died a few months later. Richard Crashaw is known as one of the “metaphysical poets,” and his poetry draws heavily from the works of the Spanish mystics. His “Epitaph upon Husband and Wife” may very well have been the fruit of a reflection on Song of Songs 8:6, “love is strong as death.”

To these whom death again did wed

This grave’s the second marriage-bed.

For though the hand of Fate could force

‘Twixt soul and body a divorce,

It could not sever man and wife,

Because they both lived but one life.

Peace, good reader, do not weep;

Peace, the lovers are asleep.

They, sweet turtles, folded lie

In the last knot that love could tie.

Let them sleep, let them sleep on,

Till the stormy night be gone,

And the eternal morrow dawn;

Then the curtains will be drawn,

And they wake into a light

Whose day shall never die in night.