ABSTRACT
Date and publication. The poem was first inscribed, anonymously and without title, on the floor of the chancel in the Church of St Andrew and St Peter, Blofield, Norfolk, where it forms part of a monument to Margaret Paston. The poem is preceded by a coat of arms, and by the following inscription: ‘Here lyeth ye Body of MARGARET PASTON / wife to EDWARD PASTON of town / Barneingham in the County of Norff ’. Esq. / daughter to THOMAS EYRE of Hassopp / in Derbyshire Esq, by a third daughter of / Sr HENRY BEDINGFEILD of Beck Hall / in ye County of Norff ’. Barr t. she departed / this life the XXXth of August Anno Domini / MDCLXXXIX in the XXIIIth year of her Age’. A monument to Margaret Paston’s husband Edward adjoins her own. The Pastons were lords of the manor of Blofield and patrons of the living. The poem was first printed in Miscellaneous Poems and Translations. By Several Hands (1712), and this text has formed the basis of all subsequent printed versions. Works was the first edition to record the existence of the inscribed version, which at the time was partly obscured by choir stalls (subsequently removed). There are a number of differences between the inscribed and printed versions. In accordance with the policy of this edition, the text below is based on that of the inscription (1689) with variants from the printed version (1712), which may or may not be authorially derived, recorded in the footnotes. Our unawareness of the existence of the inscribed version was the reason for the poem being omitted from its proper place in this edition, between items 120 and 121 in Volume 3.
