University of Virginia Library

A direfull Anathema against PEACE-HATERS,

written by Franc. Quarles.

Peace Vipers, Peace, let crying bloud ne'r cease
To haunt your guilty Soules, that love not Peace:
And curst be that Religion, that must buy
A Reformation with Phlebotomie.
Infernall Fire-brands, whom the very Teares
Of groaning England, swallow'd up with Feares,
Cannot allay, nor yet the bleeding Vaines
Of desperate Ireland, which even now remaines
A very Golgotha, cannot asswage;
Whose Babes, the Earnest of another Age,
Taste of your savage Pietie, and lie
The Lambe-like Martyrs of your Crueltie:
Whilest you lye safely embr'd, to encrease
The flames of Christendome, and cry, No Peace.
Let Samsons coupl'd Messengers convay
These Fire-brands hence, and let them make their way
To their owne Houses, there consume, devast,
Burne downe their Houses, lay their Gran'ries wast:
Let all their Sonnes run mad into the Street,
And seeking Refuge there, there let them meet
Th'encountring Sword; and whom that spares to kill,
Let them be Slaves, and labour at the Mill:
Let all their Wives and Daughters beg in vaine,
Let them be ravisht first, and after slaine.
Let all their Kindred wander up and downe
Like Vagabonds, be lasht from Towne to Towne:
Let Basenesse be entayl'd upon their Name
Too firme for all Recoveries; let Shame,
Reproach, and lasting Infamie remaine.
In deeper Characters then that of Raine,
Let Catesby, Piercy, and that bloudie Knot
Be Sainted now, or else at least forgot:
And let these Vipers vindicate their Crimes
In every Almanack for after-Times;
Where, let their basenesse live among the Sinces,
More firm thē reigns of Kings, or births of Princes:
Thus let these Fire-brands thrive, and if this Curse
Succeed not, may it yeeld unto a worse
For them; let them still live, till (He) thinke good
To quench them in their Generations blood:
That all the world may hisse, and heare them crie,
Who lov'd not Peace, in Peace shall never die.