University of Virginia Library

A Whore.

That Cradle-Curs'd Impostor, is a Whore;
Which Bad men most desire yet most Abhor:
Priz'd in the heat of bloud, at costly rate;
A Dish they feed on, surfet, and then hate:
Who traffiques for Diseases, spends her Youth,
In luckless Riot, void of Care, and Truth:
That sels her souls Inheritance, to win
An Heritage in death, dear bought with sin:
If she arrive at Age, her best reward,
Is poon, old, scorn'd, and begs without regard:
She's the unhappiest Workman-ship of Nature,
The foulest Fiend, hid in the fairest Creature:
Damnation cut in Chrystal, heaps of Flowers,
Scatter'd upon a Viper, which devours,
The gathering hand; A subtle, shining, White
Path, to the Pallace of Eternal Night:
Stars in deep Waters, which when vain men think
They shall embrace; in the soft Ruine, sink.
A Shrine-like-shewing Sepulcher, which owns
Nought but the primitive dust of putrid bones:
The Devils fair Decoy, the True-love Cheater,
Poyson'd Perfumes, Suckets that rot the Eater;
Shipwracks in calmest weather; Bels that have
But one Tune to the Bride-bed, and the Grave:
They are cold Scythian Winters, that appear,
So full of barrenness, as if the Year,
Had forfeited the Spring, and would degrade,
The World of that, for which it first was made:
Your Stately, Rich, and Lord-beloved Whores,
Are Treasuries which vilde Extortion stores,
And studious Riot empties; for what they,
Purloin from One, some Other makes away.
Philosophers in vain you seek to finde,
Out Local Hel, in the vast Air, the Winde,
Or Centre of the Earth; for (sans dispute)
'Tis in the bosom of a Prostitute:
Like Hell, they act destruction unto Man,
No Nation scapes; the French, the Italian,
The lofty Spaniard, and the lusty Dutch,
From him, whose Age depends upon a Crutch,
To the unbearded Youth, that ne'r put on,
The long-wish'd Jubilee of Twenty one;
Men of all Qualities are thus betraid,
They're worse than Tributes in th'Low-Countries paid:
Exactions upon all sorts of Provision,
Meat, drink, sleep, clothes, nay even on mans perdition,
They do (like Vultures) on Ill-livers gnaw,
And are those brittle Ev'dences of Law;
(Examin'd by some over-curious Pate)
Which forfeit all a wretched Mans estate,
For leaving out one syllable: They be
Worse then dead bodies from the fatall Tree,
Begg'd by Chirurgions, and wrought upon,
To teach a man (by such dissection)
Wherein he is imperfect; She is worse,
Then all Ingredients made into a Curse.
And (though she merit it) there's nothing more
Afflicts her, then the hateful Name of Whore:
Which represents the horrour of her shame,
To profess that, which she's afraid to Name:
The careless Customs of her curs'd offence,
Expel the thought of Prayer, or Penitence:
Her tempting Eys are most unhallowed Lamps,
And, like false Coyn, which, whosoe'r first stamps;
Though the Contriver subtly may leave it,
Shall bring in Question all men that receive it.
Such is a Whore, whom Pride, and Lust deforms,
First rots, then dies a poyson, to the Worms.