Everything else is either already past or uncertain. The time any person lives is short. The place where he lives is just a tiny corner of the earth. Even the greatest fame someone can have after death is small. And that fame, whatever it is, gets passed down by foolish mortals who will soon die themselves. Even while they live, they don't know what they really are. They certainly can't know someone who died long ago.
Whatsoever is besides either is already past, or uncertain. The time therefore that any man doth live, is but a little, and the place where he liveth, is but a very little corner of the earth, and the greatest fame that can remain of a man after his death, even that is but little, and that too, such as it is whilst it is, is by the succession of silly mortal men preserved, who likewise shall shortly die, and even whiles they live know not what in very deed they themselves are: and much less can know one, who long before is dead and gone.