University of Virginia Library


29

In Uetustillam Epig. 93.

Thou Uetustill hast liv'd three hundred years,
Hast but four teeth in all, and but three hairs,
A grashoper's thin waist, an emet's thigh,
A brow more wrinkled then old wives gowns bee,
Dugs like the webs of spiders, and if Nile
Should with thy chops compare her Crocodile,
His jawes would seem but streight: the frogs that bee
Bred at Ravenna croke better then thee,
The Adrian gnats sing sweeter, birds of night
Blinded in morning beames equall thy sight,
Thou smellst all hee-goat, hast a rump as fine
As the extream end, of a lean duck's chine:
The bony tout out-vyes th'old Cinnick quite,
When she the bath-man with extinguish'd light
Admits among the bustuary sluts,
When August brings a winter to thy guts,
Nor yet can thaw thee with a pestilence,
After two hundred deaths, darest thou commence
Bride still? and seek a husband in thy dust
To raise an itch? what though he harrow must
A stone? who'le call thee wife, or ought that's so?
Whom thy last mate, call'd grandam long ago:
And if thou askst thy carkase scratchd to bee,
Lame Coricles shall make thy bed for thee;

30

He that alone becomes thy bridal cheare,
The burner of dead bodies best can beare
A taper at thy nuptials, torches can
Best enter at the Salli-port of man.