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Poetry Showcase [Historical] Moderators for this section: Weaver, ochsterboxter, CadenzRime, Lingua Pura, ososment, carolynrn, Inker

Old Scarlett's Poem

Outline: Chiselled in stone
Chiselled in the stone of Peterborough Cathedral is the following poem, dedicated to the gravedigger, Robert Scarlett, who buried in the grounds of the Cathedral – amongst many others – Katherine of Aragon and Mary Queen of Scots. He was still digging graves at the age of 94 and inspired Shakespeare to write the lines:

“Alas, poor Yorick…”

YOV SEE OLD SCARLETTS PICTURE
STAND ON HIE
BUT AT YOUR FEETE THERE DOTH
HIS BODY LYE
HIS GRAVESTONE DOTH HIS AGE
AND DEATH TIME SHOW
HIS OFFICE BY THESE TOKENS
YOU MAY KNOW
SECOND TO NONE FOR STENGTH
AND STVRDYE LIMM
A SCAREBABE MIGHTY VOICE
WITH VISAGE GRIM
HE HAD INTERD TWO QUEENS
WITHIN THIS PLACE
AND THIS TOWNES HOVSE HOLDERS
IN HIS LIVES SPACE
TWICE OVER BVT AT LENGTH HIS
OWN TVRN CAME
WHAT HE FOR OTHERS DID FOR
HIM THE SAME
WAS DONE: NO DOVBT. HIS SOVLE
DOTH LIVE FOR AYE
IN HEAVEN: THO HERE HIS BODY
CLAD IN CLAY
strayshift
[Tue Jun 21, 2005 10:00 pm]
Thanks for that Ron - Nice history lesson if all of it is true.
Gordon
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Ron
[Wed Jun 22, 2005 11:38 am]
Shocked Shocked Shocked Blimey, Gordon, stones don't lie... do they...? Confused Laughing Laughing Laughing

Cheers
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strayshift
[Wed Jun 22, 2005 12:23 pm]
Lol I was thinking about the Shakespeare bit - you know local legends and stuff lol sry
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Ron
[Wed Jun 22, 2005 1:07 pm]
Laughing Laughing Laughing

OK, Gordon, this information thanks to Alan Cleaver, Reporter for the Peterborough Evening Telegraph and published in his artical on Saturday June 18 '05.

"Old Scarlett was a gravedigger extraordinaire, for he burried the townsfolk on the north side of the Cathedral twice over in his lifetime. But it was a necessary, if unpleasant, job for he was forever digging up old bones to make way for new graves.

"This activity had not gone unnoticed by John Fletcher, son of Dean Fletcher. John was born in 1576 and most likely talked with Old Scarlett in his early years with the fascination that most boys have for graveyards and ghosts.

"John eventually went to Cambridge, and later to London and became a dramatist associated with Francis Beaumont, Ben Johnson and William Shakespeare.

"It was well known at the time that a Crowland lad was recommended as Court Jester in 1536 by Thomas Bedyll. It is said that John Fletcher related the story of Old Scarlett to Shakespeare, inspiring the immortal words in the graveyard scene, where Hamlet picks up the skull saying, 'Alas, poor Yorick..."

by Alan Cleaver

Wink

Very Happy
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BrianRobertNeal
[Sun Jun 03, 2007 4:08 pm] Watto Ron
A work truly suited to one going digging,

94 was incredible for his and our period.

Brian

The reviewer would appreciate your comments on: Nice One Satan
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Ron
[Sun Jun 03, 2007 4:23 pm]
I knew a guy who climbed Everest without oxygen and skydived off Angel Falls and onto the North Pole - he'd never done either of those activities in his life before he hit his mid-50s. I know a woman who walked from Cape Horn to Machu Picchu - she'd never done any 'serious' walking until she did that when she was sixty.

And I've been in freefall at the same time as an eighty-four year old lady on her birthday who'd never even flown before, never mind jump.

Work hard live long. Wink

Cheers
_________________
". . . and in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make." - The Beatles
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