[The Works of Charles Lamb in Four Volumes, Volume 4 by Charles Lamb]@TWC D-Link book
The Works of Charles Lamb in Four Volumes, Volume 4

CHAPTER XIII
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The deceased to be furnished as follows:--A strong elm coffin, covered with superfine black, and furnished with two rows, all round, close drove, best japanned nails, and adorned with ornamental drops, a handsome plate of inscription, Angel above, and Flower beneath, and four pair of handsome handles, with wrought gripes; the coffin to be well pitched, lined, and ruffled with fine crape; a handsome crape shroud, cap, and pillow.

For use, a handsome velvet pall, three gentlemen's cloaks, three crape hat-bands, three hoods and scarfs, and six pair of gloves; two porters equipped to attend the funeral, a man to attend the same with band and gloves; also, the burial-fees paid, if not exceeding one guinea." "Man," says Sir Thomas Browne, "is a noble animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave." Whoever drew up this little advertisement certainly understood this appetite in the species, and has made abundant provision for it.

It really almost induces a _taedium vitae_ upon one to read it.

Methinks I could be willing to die, in death to be so attended.

The two rows all round close-drove best black japanned nails,--how feelingly do they invite, and almost irresistibly persuade us to come and be fastened down! what aching head can resist the temptation to repose, which the crape shroud, the cap, and the pillow present; what sting is there in death, which the handles with wrought gripes are not calculated to pluck away?
what victory in the grave which the drops and the velvet pall do not render at least extremely disputable?
but, above all, the pretty emblematic plate, with the Angel above and the Flower beneath, takes me mightily.
The notice goes on to inform us, that though the society has been established but a very few years, upwards of eleven hundred persons have put down their names.


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