University of Virginia Library

Upon one (Twine) Drawn, hang'd and quarter'd for Printing Treason.

Twine? 'tis a fatal Name, do what you can?
No more, but, Twine's enough to hang a Man.
So sad a name, that soon the Omen in't,
Was a legible about his Neck in Print.
And thank his Treacherous memory that he came
To't; surely he'd forgotten his own name:
It else had scar'd him from his black design,
He'd ne're been Traytor, had he thought of Twine.
So Men that rashly run on Rocks, and Shelves
Of Treason, truly they forget themselves.
Thy Treason (Twine) had Twine been in thy mind,
Had never thus thy Thread of Life untwin'd.
But Treason's sad effects thou heldst a loof,
Fond Printer till thou mad'st thy self a proof:
Truth's safe, what ever Printer does affect her,
Shall never have the Hangman his Corrector.
To put him out in Quarto; nor yet bring
His Bones a Dedication to his King.
Nor have his Head pearcht over Ludgate thus,
As Frontis-piece to his De Tristibus.
Nor can I think upon't without regret,
A Printers Corps should not have one wast sheet.
But buried be i'th air 'thout any Pall,
Save what he came into the World withall.
Had I been he? thus much I must confess,
I would have dy'd by what I liv'd, the Press,
Which could not but have carry'd favour in't.
For dying so, he had come out in Print.
Yet much at one; what had he been the better,
He had been Printed, but, in a dead letter.
(Printer) where e're thou art? the caution thine is:
Twine Printed Treason, and the Hangman Finis.