Both Uses of
epitaph
in
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
- Let them be well used; for they are the abstracts and brief
chronicles of the time; after your death you were better have a
bad epitaph than their ill report while you live.†Scene 2.2 *epitaph = a short text in memory of a dead person
- Then there's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life
half a year: but, by'r lady, he must build churches then; or else
shall he suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse, whose
epitaph is 'For, O, for, O, the hobby-horse is forgot!'†Scene 3.2
Definition:
a short text in memory of a dead person -- especially text written on a tombstone