And now to court preferr'd, high bloods he fires, There blows up pride, vain mirth, and loose desires; And heav'nly fouls (oh griefs!) with hellish flame inspires, XXV.

There oft to rivals lends the gentle dor',

Oft takes (his miflrefs by) the bitter bob ":

There learns her cach day's change of Gules", Verdo, Or3, (His fampler); if fhe pouts, her flave must sob : Her face his sphere, her hair his circling sky;

Her love his heav'n, her fight eternity:

Of her he dreams, with her he lives, for her he'll die.
XXVI.

Upon his arm a tinsel scarf he wore,

Forfooth his madam's favour, spangled fair :
Light as himself, a fan his helmet bore,

With ribbons dress'd, begg'd from his miftrefs' hair:
On's fhield a winged boy all naked shin'd;

His folded eyes, willing and wilful blind :

The word was wrought with gold, Such is a lover's mind. XXVII.

These four, 9 Anagnus and foul Caro's fons,

Who led a diff'rent and disorder'd rout;

Fancy, a lad that all in feathers wons,

And loofe defire, and danger link'd with doubt;
And thousand wanton thoughts ftill budding new:
But lazy ease usher'd the idle crew;

And lame difeafe fhuts up their troops with torments due.

t

XXVIII.

Next band, by Afebie was boldly led,

And his four fons begot in Stygian night:
Firftu Idololatros, whofe monftrous head
Was like an ugly fiend, his flaming fight
Like blazing ftars; the rest all different:
For to his shape some part each creature lent;
But to the great Creator all adversely bent.

XXIX.

Upon his breast a bloody cross he scor'd,

Which oft he worshipp'd; but the Chrift that died
Thereon, he feldom but in paint ador'd;

Yet wood, ftone, bfts, wealth, lufis, fiends, deified;
He makes mere pageants of the faving w rock,
Puppet-like trimming his almighty flock:
Which then, his god, or he, which is the verier block?
XXX.

Of giant fhape, and ftrength thereto agreeing,
Wherewith he once had all the world opprefs'd;
And yet the greater part (his vaffals being)
Slumb'ring in ignorance, fecurely rest:

A golden calf (himself more beaft) he bore,
Which brutes with dancings, gifts, and fongs adore,
Idols are laymen's books, he round had wrote in ore.
XXXI.

Next x Pharmakeus, of ghaftly, wild aspect;

Whom hell with feeming fear, and fiends obey:

Full eas'ly wou'd he know each past effect,

And things to come with double guess forefay,

⚫ Stanza xvi. of this canto.

" Idolatry, either by worshipping the true God by falfe worship; as by images, against the second commandment: or giving away his worship to that which

is not God, against the first.

Pfalm lxii. 7.

* Witchcraft, and magical arts.

By

By flain beasts entrails, and fowls marked flight:
Thereto he tempefts rais'd by many a spright,

And charm'd the fun and moon, and chang'd the day and

By birth and hand, he juggling fortunes tells;

Oft brings from shades his grandfires damned ghoft;

Oft stolen goods reveals by wicked spells:

His frightful fhield with thousand fiends embost,
Which feem'd without a circle's ring to play:
In midst himself dampens the fmiling day,

And prints fad characters, which none may write, or say.
XXXIII,

y

The third Hæreticus, a wrangling carl z,

Who in the way to heav'n wou'd wilful err;
And oft convicted, ftill wou'd fnatch and fnarl:
His Crambe oft repeats;-all tongue, no ear;
Him obftinacy, pride, and fcorn attended:
On's fhield, with truth error disguis'd contended?
His motto this, Rather thus err, than be amended.

XXXIV.

Laft march'd Hypocrify, falfe form of grace,
That vaunts the fhew of all, has truth of none :
A rotten heart he masks with painted face;
Among the beasts, a mule, 'mongst bees, a drone,

'Mongst stars, a meteor:-all the world neglects him; Nor good, nor bad, nor heav'n, nor earth affects him: The earth for glaring forms, for bare forms heav'n rejects him. XXXV.,

His wanton heart he vails with dewy eyes,

So oft the world, and oft himself deceives:

His

tongue his heart, his hands his tongue belies: Shining (as fnails) his path, but flime he leaves:

He Babel's glory is, but Sion's taint;

Religion's blot, but irreligion's paint :

A faint abroad, at home a fiend; and worft, a faint.

XXXVI.

So tallow lights live glitt'ring, ftinking die;

Their gleams aggrate the fight, fteams wound the fmell; So Sodom apples please the ravish'd eye,

But fulphur taste proclaim their root's in hell:
So airy flames to heav'nly feem ally'd,

But when their oil is fpent, they swiftly glide,
And into fulfome mire melt all their gilded pride.
XXXVII.

So rushes green, smooth, full, are spungy light;
So ftones in peaches wear a velvet gown;

So rotten fticks seem stars in cheating night;

So quagmires false, their mire with em'ralds crown:
Such is Hypocrify's deceitful frame;

A flinking light, a fulphur fruit, falfe flame;

Smooth rush, peach ftone, fere wood, falfe mire, a voice, a

name.

XXXVIII.

Such were his arms, falfe gold, true alchymy;

Glitt ring with gloffy ftones, and fine deceit : His fword a flatt'ring fteel, which gull'd the eye, And pierc'd the heart with pride and self-conceit : On's fhield a tomb, where death had drefs'd his bed With curious art, and crown'd his loathfome head, With gold, and gems :-his word, More gorgeous when dead. XXXIX.

Before them went their nurse, bold Ignorance;

A loathfome monfter, light, fight, 'mendment fcorning;
Born deaf and blind, fitter to lead the dance
To fuch a rout; her filver head adorning,

(Her

(Her dotage index) much the bragg'd, yet feign'd: For by falfe tallies many years fhe gain'd. "Wife youth is honour'd age;-Age is with dotage ftain'd,

XL.

Her failing legs with erring footsteps reel'd;

(Lame guide to blifs!) her daughters on each fide
Much pain'd themselves, her ftumbling feet to wield;
Both like their mother, dull, and beetle ey'd:
The first was Error falfe, who multiplies

Her num'rous race in endless progenies:

For but one truth there is, ten thousand thousand lies,
XLI.

Her brood o'erfpread her round with fin and blood,
With envy, malice, mifchiefs infinite;

Whilft fhe to fee herself, amazed flood,

So oft impregnated and big with spite:

Her offspring fly about, and spread their seed; Straight hate, pride, fchifm, wars, feditions breed, Spring up, grow ripe.-How foon profpers the vicious weed.

XLII.

The other owl-ey'd Superftition,

Deform'd, diftorted, blind in midst of light;

Yet ftyles herself holy devotion,

And fo is call'd, and feems in gloomy night:

Fearful as is the hare, or hunted hind;

Her face, and breast, fhe oft with croffes fign'd:
No custom wou'd the break, or change her fettled mind.

XLIII.

If hare, or fnake, fhe meets, herself the croffes,
And stops her mazy fteps; fad fears annoy her
When falling falt points out fome fatal loffes,
Till Bacchus' grapes with holy fprinkle joy her:

A

Her