Behold and see

Posted by ESC March 14, 2003In reply to Epitaph - author unknown posted by Lewis on March 13, 2003

The following was inscribed on a very old stone inside the rear door of St. Mary's Church in Youghal, Ireland. I first became aware of it while growing up in Youghal, but have also heard similar sayings here in the US.

"Remember man as you pass by,
As you are now, so once was I.
As I am now, so you shall be.
Remember man, eternity."

Can anyone help with the origin, age, author of this...?

popular in Ireland - I think 150 years at least - there are memorial sites preserving the inscriptions and it appears quite popular. Author Unknown - from a gravestone.

"Newport, R.I., has this early paraphrase in America of the epitaph of Edward the Black Prince, son of Edward III of England, who died in 1376. (A variation, usually a couplet, was popular in New England and appears as late as 1873.):

Josiah Lyndon
Died Augt 8 1709

Behovld and See
For as I am Soe shalt Thov Bee
Bvt as Thov Art
Soe Once Was I
Bee Svre of This
That Thov Mvst Dye."

From "Over Their Dead Bodies: Yankee Epitaphs & History" by Thomas C. Mann and Janet Greene (The Stephen Greene Press, Brattleboro, Vermont, Pioneer Printing Co. Inc., 1962).