First Line	Thou who dost all my worldly Thoughts employ
Author	Elizabeth Welwood Molesworth
Date	1725
Description	Epistle [Death, afterlife; Marriage, Courtship; Love]. Transcribed from "The Images of True Conjugal Piety, of the Contempt of this World, and of the Expectation of a better, are so pathetically touch'd in the following Epistle from a Lady (who some Time ago dyed at the Bath) ..." Poems on several occasions, 1727, pp. 2–3. Eighteenth Century Collections Online, GALE\|CW0110973012.
Links	ESTC

Transcription

Thou who dost all my worldly Thoughts employ;

Thou pleasing Source of all my earthly Joy:

Thou tend'rest Husband, and thou best of Friends,

To thee this fond, this last Adieu, I send.

At length the Conq'ruor[sic] Death asserts his Right,

And will for ever veil me from thy Sight.

He wooes me to him with a chearful Grace,

And not one Terror clouds his meager Face.

He promises a lasting Rest from Pain,

And shews that all Life's fleeting Joys are vain;

Th'eternal Scenes of Heav'n he sets in view,

And tells me that no other Joys are true.

But Love, fond Love! wou'd yet resist his Pow'r,

Wou'd fain a while defer the parting Hour.

He brings thy Mourning Image to my Eyes,

And would obstruct my Journey to the Skies.

But say, thou dearest, thou unweary'd Friend,

Say, should'st thou grieve to see my Sorrows end?

Thou know'st the painful Pilgrimage I've past,

And would'st thou mourn that Rest is come at last?

Rather rejoice to see me shake off Life,

And die, as I have liv'd, thy faithful Wife.

Beinecke Osborn c481

Title	Select and Miscellaneous Poems, Scraps, Mottos &c.
Period	1761-1790
Archive	Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

p. 271

Local title: Letter from a lady at Bath.

Attributed author: n/a

Adaptation: n/a

Other variants: First line: "Thou who dost all my Earthly thoughts Employ..."

Other: Incomplete.

Beinecke Osborn fc132

Title	Poems on Several Occasions; Collected from D [...]
Period	1761-1790 , 1791-1820
Archive	Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

p. 165.

Local title: Verses, written by a lady at Bath; and sent to her husband a few days before she died.

Attributed author: a lady.

Adaptation: n/a

Other variants: n/a

Other: n/a

Beinecke Osborn fc51

Title	The Parson's Barn A Collection of Poems of v [...]
Period	1731-1760
Archive	Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

pp. 22–23

Local title: Epistle wrote when dying, from Mrs Molesworth to her husband.

Attributed author: Mrs Molesworth.

Adaptation: n/a

Other variants: n/a

Other: n/a

Bodleian MS Eng. poet. e. 39

Title	Untitled
Period	1761-1790
Archive	Bodleian Library

p. 71.

Local title: A Letter from a Lady to her Husband when given over by her Physicians. – Collect. Poems.

Attributed author: A Lady.

Adaptation: n/a

Other variants: First line: "Oh You, who all my worldly Thoughts employ..."

Other: Attributed source: Collect. Poems.

Bodleian MS Eng. poet. e. 40

Title	Untitled
Period	1731-1760 , 1761-1790
Archive	Bodleian Library

f. 18.

Local title: A Lady being at Bath for her health, but not likely to Recover, sent her Husband an account thereof under which She wrote the following lines—

Attributed author: A Lady.

Adaptation: n/a

Other variants: n/a

Other: Annotated "This Copy of Verses was gave me by Mrs Carbonnel 1747."

Clark MS 1993.001

Title	Untitled
Period	1701-1730 , 1731-1760
Archive	Clark Library

pp. 205–206.

Local title: The Images of true Conjugall Piety of the Contempt of this World & of the Expectation of a better in an Epistle from a Lady at the bath anno: 1725.

Attributed author: a Lady.

Adaptation: n/a

Other variants: n/a

Other: n/a

Folger MS M.a.174

Title	Untitled
Period	1701-1730
Archive	Folger Shakespeare Library

ff. 88–89.

Local title: From a Lady at the Bath to her Spouse in London.

Attributed author: a Lady.

Adaptation: n/a

Other variants: Some minor differences in punctuation, capitalization and diction to the copy on f. 146.

Other: n/a

Folger MS M.a.174

Title	Untitled
Period	1701-1730
Archive	Folger Shakespeare Library

f. 146.

Local title: To the Lord M— by his Lady in her Sickness.

Attributed author: his Lady.

Adaptation: n/a

Other variants: Some minor differences in punctuation, capitalization and diction to the copy on ff. 88–89.

Other: n/a

Folger MS M.a.179

Title	Untitled
Period	1791-1820
Archive	Folger Shakespeare Library

p. 64.

Local title: A Letter from a Lady to her Husband in her last illness.

Attributed author: n/a

Adaptation: n/a

Other variants: n/a

Other: n/a

Folger MS M.a.185

Title	Miscellanies in Prose and Verse Vol: 1
Period	1731-1760
Archive	Folger Shakespeare Library

p. 85.

Local title: Mrs Molesworth to her Husband, when on her Deathbed.

Attributed author: Mrs Molesworth.

Adaptation: n/a

Other variants: n/a

Other: n/a

Folger MS W.a.271

Title	Poetry
Period	1761-1790
Archive	Folger Shakespeare Library

pp. 21–22.

Local title: Written by Mrs Molesworth at Bath to her Husband who was Absent, when she was given over by her Physicians.

Attributed author: Mrs Molesworth.

Adaptation: n/a

Other variants: n/a

Other: n/a

Princeton Taylor no. 87

Title	Poems and Songs upon Several Occasions.
Period	1701-1730
Archive	Princeton University Library Special Collections

pp. 19v–20r

Local title: Doctor Welwood's Daughter's verses to her Husband Captain Molesworth.

Attributed author: Doctor Welwood's Daughter ... [wife of] Captain Molesworth.

Adaptation: n/a

Other variants: First line: Thou, who does all my worldly thoughts employ...

Other: n/a

UChicago Library Codex Ms. 757

Title	Untitled
Period	1761-1790 , 1791-1820
Archive	University of Chicago Special Collections and Research Center

pp. 15–16

Local title: From Mrs H[sic] at Bath to her Husband in London.

Attributed author: Mrs H.

Adaptation: n/a

Other variants: n/a

Other: n/a