Final Years
His last years were, however, saddened not merely by the death of many of his most intimate friends, but by constant and increasing ill-health. This did not interfere with the quality of his literary work; he was rarely idle and some of his latest work is among his best. But he indulged (what few poets have wisely indulged) the temptation to constantly alter his work, and many of his later alterations are by no means for the better. Towards the end of 1585 his condition of health grew worse and worse, and he seems to have moved restlessly from one of his houses to another for some months. When the end came, which, though in great pain, he met in a resolute and religious manner, he was at his priory of Saint-Cosme at Touraine, and he was buried in the church of that name on Friday, 27 December.
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