Widows which honor for your husbands have,1
Virtuous in life, and faithful to their graves,2
Set altars on this hearse for memory,
And let her fame live here eternally.
Here celebrate her name, come, and do3 bring 5
Your offerings, and all her praises sing.4
For she was one whom Nature strove to make
A pattern fit, ensample from to take.5
- Widows which honor for your husbands have,] Widow, which honour to her Husband gave! 1653
Whitaker argues that this poem “celebrate[s] Margaret’s mother as a ‘pattern’ of virtuous widowhood”; see Mad Madge, 145–46. - Virtuous in life, and faithful to their graves,] By vertuous life, and faithful to her Grave, 1653; Virtuous in Life, and Faithfull to their Grave, 1664; Vertuous in Life, and Faithful to their Grave; 1668
- come, and do] and 1653
- all her praises sing.] aloud her Praises sing; 1664; aloud her Praises sing: 1668
- ensample from to take. ] Ensamples out to take. 1653