Page:Newes from the Dead.djvu/40

 Yet though your skill and pity could dispence,

More daies to her beguiled Innocence:

No Art removes à ruin'd Virgins shame,

Unlesse revived she, be not the same.

Thus 'tis more easy to recall the Dead

Then to restore a once-lost Maidenhead. Kingsmill Lucy Gent. Com. of Ch. Ch.

Hou Pill too strong for fate! in whose defence

Mira'cles stept in to rescue innocence.

Death was thy Ordeall, and Compurgatrix

And Minos did thy Judges doome refix.

Thou didst bring forth in riddles, so surviv'st.

By giving breath thou Kild'st,by dying liv'st.

Thy rude spawns fleeting soule did sure retire

To thee the Damme, as a reserve entire,

Giving thee second life, when thine was done

Thou wert thine owne superfetation.

Strange fruit o'th' cursed and the barren Tree

That madst the Hangman practice Midwifery,

Nature new hatchd thee, as first Men, who tooke

Birth from harsh Entrals of a Vitall Oak,

One of the Daughters of Deucalion

Thou wakest from thy Tomb, as they from stone. Fr. Withins Gen. Com. of. S. Johns.

Lone this subtle Gamestresse on a day

Went to Deaths house at Tick-Tack for to play.

To knowe if he was't home, or gone from thence,

His Porter, th' Hangman held her in Suspence.

At length he met her, plaid, and soone did spy,

The Maid had left a Blot upon a.

Death threw, and thought h'had wone, but she said nay

Doctors like Doublemen stood in the way

After she cast, obtain'd a Double Game,

By putting in t'one Point both death and shame. W. Berkley Com. of Br. Coll.