Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/508

334 would have died as useless and as burdensome to society as the son of the senator Eufemian.

"What I expended, I have; what I gave away, I have."

From hence, in all probability, Robert Byrkes derived the quaint epitaph, which is to be found, according to Gough, in Doncaster church, "new cut" upon his tomb in Roman capitals.

"Howe: Howe: who is heare:

I, Robin of Doncaster, and Margeret my feare

That I spent, that I had:

That I gave, that I have:

That I left, that I lost.

A.D. 1579.

Quod Robertus Byrkes,

who in this worlde

did reygne thre

score yeares and seaven,

and yet lived not one."

The story seems here to be defective; "what I expended, I have: what I gave away, I have,"