All the workes of Iohn Taylor the Water-Poet Being Sixty and three in Number. Collected into one Volume by the Author [i.e. John Taylor]: With sundry new Additions, corrected, reuised, and newly Imprinted |
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 | All the workes of Iohn Taylor the Water-Poet |  |
I am
arraign'd at the blacke dreadfull Barre,
Where Sinnes (sored as Scarlet) Iudges are;
All my Inditements are my horrid Crimes,
Whose Story will affright succeeding Times,
As (now) they driue the present into wonder,
Making Men trēble, as trees strucke with Thunder.
Where Sinnes (sored as Scarlet) Iudges are;
All my Inditements are my horrid Crimes,
Whose Story will affright succeeding Times,
As (now) they driue the present into wonder,
Making Men trēble, as trees strucke with Thunder.
If any askes what euidence comes in?
O 'Tis my Conscience, which hath euer bin
A thousand witnesses: and now it tels
A Tale, to cast me to ten thousand Hels.
O 'Tis my Conscience, which hath euer bin
A thousand witnesses: and now it tels
A Tale, to cast me to ten thousand Hels.
The Iury are my Thoughts (vpright in this,)
They sentence me to death for doing amisse:
Examinations more there need not then,
Than what's confest here both to God and Men.
They sentence me to death for doing amisse:
Examinations more there need not then,
Than what's confest here both to God and Men.
The Cryer of the Court is my blacke Shame,
Which when it calls my Iury, doth proclaime,
Vnlesse (as they are summon'd) they appeare,
To giue true Verdict of the Prisoner,
They shall haue heauy Fines vpon them set,
Such, as may make them dye deepe in Heauens debt:
About me round sit Innocence and Truth,
As Clerkes to this high Court; and little Ruth
From Peoples eyes is cast vpon my face:
Because my facts are barbarous, damn'd, and base.
Which when it calls my Iury, doth proclaime,
Vnlesse (as they are summon'd) they appeare,
To giue true Verdict of the Prisoner,
142
Such, as may make them dye deepe in Heauens debt:
About me round sit Innocence and Truth,
As Clerkes to this high Court; and little Ruth
From Peoples eyes is cast vpon my face:
Because my facts are barbarous, damn'd, and base.
The Officers that 'bout me (thicke) are plac'd,
To guard me to my death, (when I am cast)
Are the blacke stings my speckled soule now feeles,
Which like to Furies dogge me, close at heeles.
The Hangman that attends me, is Despaire,
And gnawing wormes my fellow-Prisoners are.
To guard me to my death, (when I am cast)
Are the blacke stings my speckled soule now feeles,
Which like to Furies dogge me, close at heeles.
The Hangman that attends me, is Despaire,
And gnawing wormes my fellow-Prisoners are.
| All the workes of Iohn Taylor the Water-Poet | |