“Who knows the fate of his bones, or how often he is to be buried? Who hath the oracle of his ashes, or whither they are to be scattered?” Thomas Browne's Urne-Buriall (1658), a brief essay on the subject of fragmentation, dissolution, loss, and the failure of record, approaches its themes from the point of view of the practising naturalist, antiquarian, and moralist. Its evidence is marshalled from such diverse fields as ancient history, folklore, anecdote, physic, and theology to produce a resonant and complex meditation on human vanity. For all its recondite and at times eccentric learning, it is one of the most extraordinary prose works in the English language, a work whose very sound still rings clearly and distinctly from

This article in full comprises 1415 words but only the first 150 or so words are available to non-members.

All our articles have been written recently by experts in their field, more than 95% of them university professors. To read about membership, please click here.

Published 25 October 2002

Citation: Preston, Claire. "Hydriotaphia, or Urne-Buriall". The Literary Encyclopedia. 25 October 2002.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4625, accessed 20 November 2009.]