t" (i.
1), the King says:

"Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,
Live register'd upon our brazen tombs."

In "Much Ado About Nothing" (v. 1), Leonato, speaking of his daughter's
death, says:

"Hang her an epitaph upon her tomb,
And sing it to her bones: sing it to-night."

And also in a previous scene (iv. 1) this graceful custom is noticed:

"Maintain a mourning ostentation,
And on your family's old monument
Hang mournful epitaphs."

It was also the custom, in years gone by, on the death of an eminent
person, for his friends to compose short laudatory verses, epitaphs,
etc., and to affix them to the hearse or grave with pins, wax, paste,
etc. Thus, in "Henry V." (i. 2), King Henry declares:

"Either our history shall with full mouth
Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave,
Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth,
Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph,"

meaning, says Gifford, "I will either have my full history recorded with
glory, or lie in an undisturbed grave; not merely without an
inscription sculptured in stone, but unworshipped, unhonoured, even by a
waxen epitaph."[743]

[743] Notes on "Jonson's Works," vol. ix. p. 58.

We may also compare what Lucius says in "Titus Andronicus" (i. 1):

"There lie thy bones, sweet Mutius, with thy friends,
Till we with trophies do adorn thy tomb!"

The custom was still general when Shakespeare lived; many fine and
interesting examples existing in the old Cathedral of St. Paul's, and
other churches of London, down to the time of the great fire, in the
form of pensil-tables of wood and metal, painted or engraved with
poetical memorials, suspended against the columns and walls.

"Feasts of the Dead," which have prevailed in this and other countries
from the earliest times, are, according to some antiquarians, supposed
to have been borrowed from the _caena feralis_ of the Romans--an offering,
consisting of milk, honey, wine, olives, and strewed flowers, to the
ghost of the deceased. In a variety of forms this custom has prevailed
among most nations--the idea being that the spirits of the dead feed on
the viands set before them; hence the rite in question embraced the
notion of a sacrifice. In Christian times, however, these funeral
offerings have passed into commemorative banquets, under which form they
still exist among us. In allusion to these feasts, Hamlet (i. 2),
speaking of his mothe