Funeral reading
The Body of B. Franklin, Printer — his own mock epitaph
Benjamin Franklin
“The Body of B. Franklin, Printer — his own mock epitaph” by Benjamin Franklin is a prose reading read at a funeral or memorial service. It takes about 25 seconds read aloud, usually by the officiant. It is in the public domain, so the full text is printed on this page and goes straight into a ceremony script.
The full text
The Body of B. Franklin, Printer; like the Cover of an old Book, Its Contents torn out, And stripped of its Lettering and Gilding, Lies here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be wholly lost; For it will, as he believed, appear once more, In a new & more perfect Edition, Corrected and amended By the Author.
Public domain, so these words can be printed in a ceremony script or an order of service.
What it is about
A mock epitaph he wrote for himself as a young man — it is not on his actual gravestone, and say so if you use it. Twenty-five seconds.
Read at a funeral or memorial service. Themes: the body of B. Franklin, printer · like the cover of an old book · a new and more perfect edition · a mock epitaph · a printer, a bookbinder, a writer · wry about death · very short · a closing line.
Questions about reading it aloud
How long does “The Body of B. Franklin, Printer — his own mock epitaph” take to read aloud?
“The Body of B. Franklin, Printer — his own mock epitaph” takes about 25 seconds read aloud at a ceremony pace, which is slower than conversation — roughly 130 words a minute. That is the figure the run-sheet uses when it works out the timing for the whole service.
Who usually reads “The Body of B. Franklin, Printer — his own mock epitaph”?
Usually the officiant rather than a guest reader. “The Body of B. Franklin, Printer — his own mock epitaph” runs about 25 seconds, which sits inside the part of the service the officiant is already leading, and keeping it there means it is carried by the person who has rehearsed it.
Can “The Body of B. Franklin, Printer — his own mock epitaph” be printed in a ceremony script?
Yes. It is in the public domain, so the full text is on this page and can be printed in a script or an order of service.
Where this text was checked
Checked word for word against a full-text edition that is itself the authority — a Project Gutenberg or Wikisource transcription, a publisher’s own edition, or the issuing body’s page.
Checked
A reading is two minutes of the hour.
The rest is the welcome, the life, the remembrances, the committal — and knowing what comes next. Answer some questions about them and get the whole service, written out, with this reading in its place.
Other readings that suit the same service
- Death Is Nothing At Alla minute and a halfHenry Scott Holland
- Gone From My Sight — the shipa minute and a halfAttributed to Luther F. Beecher; widely printed as Henry Van Dyke
- No Man Is an Island (Meditation XVII)35 secondsJohn Donne
- On Death, from The Prophet50 secondsKahlil Gibran
- Matthew 11:28–3020 secondsKing James Bible
- 2 Timothy 4:6–825 secondsKing James Bible