‘Qualis vita finis ita’ is a reference to the poem titled as such by John Webster (1578-1632). Webster was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, which are often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. He was a contemporary of William Shakespeare.

The poem reads as follows:

Here-under lyes the wonder of her kinde, The Quintessence of Nature and of Grace, Wit, Beauty, Bounty, and (in Nobles race The rarest lewell) a right humble minde;

Here lyes her body, but her soule refin’d Aboue th’impyreall, hath imperial place, In blisse so boundlesse, as no words embrace, Nor Art can feigne, nor mortall heart can find.

Her fame remaines a Monument of honor, Built by her vertue gilt with purest gold, With Lilly-flowres and Roses strewed upon her,

Her Epitaph Urania thus enrold:

Mild child, chaste mayden, and religious wife:

The Euen crownes the day, loane Essex death her life