Text 11

QUID:

When Old Corruption first begun,

Adorn'd in yellow vest,

He committed on Flesh a whoredom--

O, what a wicked beast!

From them a callow babe did spring,

And Old Corruption smil'd

To think his race should never end,

For now he had a child.

He call'd him Surgery, & fed

The babe with his own milk,

For Flesh & he could ne'er agree,

She would not let him suck.

And this he always kept in mind,

And formed a crooked knife,

And ran about with bloody hands

To seek his mother's life.

And as he ran to seek his mother

He met with a dead woman,

He fell in love & married her,

A deed which is not common.

She soon grew pregnant & brought forth

Scurvy & Spott'd Fever.

The father grinn'd & skipt about,

And said, "I'm made for ever!"

"For now I have procur'd these imps

I'll try experiments."

With that he tied poor Scurvy down

& stopt up all its vents.

Romantic Circles