A warning to us all

Seen in a country churchyard recently - the memorial to the unfortunate William Beames, aged 22.

 

                                   ' A warning peice to all young men
                                    Who in their blooming age
                                    Mispend their time and know not when
                                    They must go off the stage.'
I wonder what he could possibly have got up to in rural Gloucestershire in the late eighteenth century. I'm interested in the 'ei' spelling in 'peice' - it seems to have been quite common at the time.