A #ShaxEpitaphs mystery.... Here I can just about make out 'not strain|d. It droppeth as the gentle rain | from Heaven.' But the first four(?) words look like something other than 'The quality of mercy'. Can anyone decipher this??

It's the memorial of Samuel Ball Green of Missouri (d. 1858).

But a revelation to find how beautifully 'flights of angels sing thee to thy rest' translates in Afrikaans:
'Mag engelkore u na die rusplek sing.'

This one is on too many gravestones to count -- including the director of Night of the Living Dead.

So many actors who played the role (and some who didn't) have a quote from the last scene of Hamlet on their graves. That includes Walker White, who had a long run on Broadway in the early 1900s -- but why this line? I feel like it raises more questions than it answers? #ShaxEpitaphs

Ah, it's Shakespeare's own infamous epitaph, 'Curst be he that moves my bones!'
But no, this is Mary Caldwell (d. 1873), buried in Ipswich Massachusetts.
The curse is surprisingly popular. And adding 'Shakespeare' at the bottom helps prove you're a literature lover, not some freak. #ShaxEpitaphs

Alec Guinness too!

images.findagrave.com/photos/2023/...

No surprise that this is one of the top #ShaxEpitaphs. Here’s Tyrone Power’s grave in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Exeter folk will be familiar with the equestrian statue of Sir Redvers Buller. There's no Shakespearean epitaph on the monument, but at its unveiling in 1905, a celebratory bamboo arch bore the inscription: "A soldier firm and sound of heart and
of buxom valor" (Henry V, 3.6.25).
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Shakespearean epitaphs don't always reek of Bardolatry. 'Friendly Ben' Dekle was ready to start (or continue) an argument with Shakespeare from beyond the grave.
'LIFE IS NOT A "TALE TOLD BY AN IDIOT," BUT RATHER AN ADVENTURE WRITTEN BY THE FINGERS OF GOD.'
#ShaxEpitaphs

I see what you did there, Wichita Searchlight for January 13, 1906.
#ShaxEpitaphs

The West Indian boxer Peter Jackson (d. 1901), who toured the USA in productions of Uncle Tom's Cabin, is buried in Toowong Cemetery, Australia. His tomb is inscribed 'This was a man.'

The ashes of astrogeologist Eugene Merle Shoemaker (d. 1997) lie on the moon, with this inscription:
‘And, when he shall die/ Take him and cut him out in little stars/ And he will make the face of heaven so fine/ That all the world will be in love with night/ And pay no worship to the garish sun.’

The actress Anne Hallam (d. 1740) was celebrated for her role as Lady Macbeth. Her tomb in Mitcham churchyard bears the inscription:

Life's but a Walking Shadow
a meer PLAYER
That struts [and fre]ts a while
upon the Stage
And then is heard no more.
Shakespeare

Read this as 'futile endeavours'

They say Trump knows nothing about economics, but isn't his tariff policy straight out of Thomas Smith's Discourse of the Commonweal?

Here's Smith agonising about the treasure pouring out of the realm in exchange for "trifles" such as "puppets."

"They don't need 30 dolls — they can have 2!”

Look who came through the door this morning. It’s good to see you, Humphrey!