Classic Poem

" WHO art thou, O Lady, laid under this stone?"
" 'Tis I, Patient Grissel, lie here."
" And lies your lord with you, or lie you alone?"
" My Lord, sir, reposes elsewhere."

" His Lordship, I'm told, was as bad as could be."
" His sins were enormous, in sooth,
But served to elicit a merit in me
Sufficient, thank heaven, for both.

" I viewed them with mild and compassionate eyes,
I lived but to warn and reclaim,
I loved him until his lamented demise,
And wept for him after the same.

" No sympathy sought I, no aid in my woes,
In silence my sorrow was borne,
For I cherished his fame, and I shunned to expose
His faults to the multitude's scorn.

" Earth to earth! dust to dust! Deem ye then I could deign
To cast at his coffin the stone
I had spared while he lived? could I brand and profane
The name I had linked with mine own?

" Was it mine to stand forth and securely affirm
The scandal none lived to deny?
Should I utter my charge in the ear of the Worm,
And challenge the Grave to reply?

" No! ne'er could Griselda her spirit abase
Such deeds to commit or commend.
If such a transaction should haply take place,
Impute it, I beg, to my friend."