Page:Pleasant Memories.pdf/346
ing the poet one day upon the Thames, called him into the royal barge, and commanded him to "booke some new thing." His circumstances were affluent, and his Will, which is preserved among the records of the church where he was buried, and to which he had been a benefactor, contains several charitable and pious bequests. He attained a great age, being born in the time of Edward the Second, and living through the reigns of Edward the Third, Richard the Second, until after the accession of Henry the Fourth. In the first year of the last named monarch, he shared the misfortune of Homer and of Milton, and became blind. A few mournful lines of his, fix the date of this affliction.
"Henry the Fourth's first year, I lost my sight,
Condemned to suffer life, devoid of light.
All things to time must yield, and nature draws
What force attempts in vain beneath her laws.
What can I more? For though my will supplies,
My ebbing strength the needful power denies.
While that remained, I wrote; now, old and weak,
What wisdom dictates let young scholars speak.
May those who follow be sublimer still,
My toils are finished, here I drop my quill."
The tomb of Gower is surmounted by a canopy, embellished with corbels of angels' heads, and other devices, resting on three gothic arches, which are enriched with cinquefoil tracery and carved foliage,