To all the ills thou wert, we canot hope to be;

Oh, pitty us condemned! Oh, cease to wooe,
And softly, softlybreath, least you infect us too.

<81.1> This word is used here merely to denote a GALLANT,
a FELLOW. From being in its primitive sense a most honourable

appellation, it became, during and after the civil war between
Charles and the Parliament, a term of equivocal import.

<81.2> Here equivalent to RANTER, and used for the sake of the
metre.

THE TOAD AND SPYDER.
A DUELL.

Upon a day, when the Dog-star
Unto the world proclaim'd a war,

And poyson bark'd from black throat,
And from his jaws infection shot,

Under a deadly hen-bane shade
With slime infernal mists are made,

Met the two dreaded enemies,
Having their weapons in their eyes.

First from his den rolls forth that load
Of spite and hate, the speckl'd toad,

And from his chaps a foam doth spawn,
Such as the loathed three heads yawn;

Defies his foe with a fell spit,
To wade through death to meet with it;

Then in his self the lymbeck turns,
And his elixir'd poyson urns.

Arachne, once the fear oth' maid<82.1>
Coelestial, thus unto her pray'd:

Heaven's blew-ey'd daughter, thine own mother!
The Python-killing Sun's thy brother.

Oh! thou, from gods that didst descend,
With a poor virgin to contend,

Shall seed of earth and hell ere be
A rival in thy victorie?

Pallas assents: for now long time
And pity had clean rins'd her crime;

When straight she doth with active fire
Her many legged foe inspire.

Have you not seen a charact<82.2> lie
A great cathedral in the sea,

Under whose Babylonian walls
A small thin frigot almshouse stalls?

So in his slime the toad doth float
And th' spyder by, but seems his boat.

And now the naumachie<82.3> begins;
Close to the surface her self spins:

Arachne, when her foe lets flye
A broad-side of his breath too high,

That's over-shot, the wisely-stout,
Advised maid doth tack about;

And now her pitchy barque doth sweat,
Chaf'd in her own black fury wet;

Lasie and cold before, she brings
New fires to her contracted stings,

And with discolour'd spumes doth blast
The herbs that to their center hast.

Now to the neighb'ring henbane top
Arachne hath her self wound up,

And thence, from its dilated leaves,
By her own cordage downwards weaves,

And doth her town of foe attack,<82.4>
And storms the rampiers<82.5> of his back;

Which taken in her colours spread,
March to th' citadel of's head.

Now as in witty torturing Spain,
The brain is vext to vex the brain,

Where hereticks bare heads are arm'd
In a close helm, and in it charm'd

An overgrown and meagre rat,
That peece-meal nibbles himself fat;

So on the toads blew-checquer'd scull
The spider gluttons her self full.

And vomiting her Stygian seeds,
Her poyson on his poyson feeds.

Thus the invenom'd toad, now grown
Big with more poyson than his own,

Doth gather all his pow'rs, and shakes
His stormer in's disgorged lakes;

And wounded now, apace crawls on
To his next plantane surgeon,<82.6>

With whose rich balm no sooner drest,
But purged is his sick swoln breast;

And as a glorious combatant,
That only rests awhile to pant,

Then with repeated strength and scars,
That smarting fire him new to wars,

Deals blows that thick themselves prevent,
As they would gain the time he spent.

So the disdaining angry toad,
That calls but a thin useless load,

His fatal feared self comes back
With unknown venome fill'd to crack.

Th' amased spider, now untwin'd,
Hath crept up, and her self new lin'd

With fresh salt foams and mists, that blast
The ambient air as they past.

And now me thinks a Sphynx's wing
I pluck, and do not write, but sting;

With their black blood my pale inks blent,<82.7>
Gall's but a faint ingredient.

The pol'tick toad doth now withdraw,
Warn'd, higher in CAMPANIA.<82.8>

There wisely doth, intrenched deep,
His body in a body keep,

And leaves a wide and open pass
T' invite the foe up to his jaws,

Which there within a foggy blind
With fourscore fire-arms were lin'd.

The gen'rous active spider doubts
More ambuscadoes than redoubts;

So within shot she doth pickear,<82.9>
Now gall's the flank, and now the rear;

As that<82.10> the toad in's own dispite
Must change the manner of his fight,

Who, like a glorious general,
With one home-charge lets fly at all.

Chaf'd with a fourfold ven'mous foam
Of scorn, revenge, his foes and 's own,

He seats him in his loathed chair,
New-made him by each mornings air,

With glowing eyes he doth survey
Th' undaunted hoast he calls his prey;

Then his dark spume he gred'ly laps,
And shows the foe his grave, his chaps.

Whilst the quick wary Amazon
Of 'vantage takes occasion,

And with her troop of leggs carreers
In a full speed with all her speers.

Down (as some mountain on a mouse)
On her small cot he flings his house;

Without the poyson of the elf,
The toad had like t' have burst himself:

For sage Arachne with good heed
Had stopt herself upon full speed,

And, 's body now disorder'd, on
She falls to execution.

The passive toad now only can
Contemn and suffer. Here began

The wronged maids ingenious rage,
Which his heart venome must asswage.

One eye she hath spet out, strange smother,
When one flame doth put out another,

And one eye wittily spar'd, that he
Might but behold his miserie.

She on each spot a wound doth print,
And each speck hath a sting within't;

Till he but one new blister is,
And swells his own periphrasis.

Then fainting, sick, and yellow-pale,
She baths him with her sulph'rous stale;

Thus slacked is her Stygian fire,
And she vouchsafes now to retire.

Anon the toad begins to pant,
Bethinks him of th' almighty plant,

And lest he peece-meal should be sped,
Wisely doth finish himself dead.

Whilst the gay girl, as was her fate,
Doth wanton and luxuriate,

And crowns her conqu'ring head all or
With fatal leaves of hellebore.

Not guessing at the pretious aid
Was lent her by the heavenly maid.

The neer expiring toad now rowls
Himself in lazy bloody scrowls,

To th' sov'raign salve of all his ills,
That only life and health distills.

But loe! a terror above all,
That ever yet did him befall!

Pallas, still mindful of her foe,
(Whilst they did with each fires glow)

Had to the place the spiders lar
Dispath'd before the ev'nings star.

He learned was in Natures laws,
Of all her foliage knew the cause,

And 'mongst the rest in his choice want
Unplanted had this plantane plant.

The all-confounded toad doth see
His life fled with his remedie,

And in a glorious despair
First burst himself, and next the air;

Then with a dismal horred yell
Beats down his loathsomebreath to hell.

But what inestimable bliss
This to the sated virgin is,

Who, as before of her fiend foe,
Now full is of her goddess too!

She from her fertile womb hath spun
Her stateliest pavillion,

Whilst all her silken flags display,
And her triumphant banners play;

Where Pallas she ith' midst doth praise,
And counterfeits her brothers rayes,

Nor will she her dear lar forget,
Victorious by his benefit,

Whose roof inchanted she doth free
From haunting gnat and goblin bee,

Who, trapp'd in her prepared toyle,
To their destruction keep a coyle.

Then she unlocks the toad's dire head,
Within whose cell is treasured

• softly [´sɔftli] ad.软化地；柔和地 (初中英语单词)
• breath [breθ] n.呼吸；气息 (初中英语单词)
• primitive [´primitiv] a.原始的 n.原始人 (初中英语单词)
• parliament [´pɑ:ləmənt] n.议(国)会 (初中英语单词)
• deadly [´dedli] a.致命的 ad.死一般地 (初中英语单词)
• cathedral [kə´θi:drəl] n.大教堂 (初中英语单词)
• thence [ðens] ad.从那里；因此 (初中英语单词)
• spider [´spaidə] n.蜘蛛；三角架 (初中英语单词)
• glorious [´glɔ:riəs] a.光荣的；辉煌的 (初中英语单词)
• awhile [ə´wail] ad.少顷；片刻 (初中英语单词)
• useless [´ju:sləs] a.无用的，无价值的 (初中英语单词)
• revenge [ri´vendʒ] vt.报复 n.报仇；报复 (初中英语单词)
• passive [´pæsiv] a.被动的 n.被动性 (初中英语单词)
• bloody [´blʌdi] a.(流)血的；血腥的 (初中英语单词)
• terror [´terə] n.恐怖；惊骇 (初中英语单词)
• goddess [´gɔdis] n.女神 (初中英语单词)
• destruction [di´strʌkʃən] n.破坏，毁灭 (初中英语单词)
• equivalent [i´kwivələnt] a.相等的 n.同等物 (高中英语单词)
• infection [in´fekʃən] n.感染，影响 (高中英语单词)
• virgin [´və:dʒin] a.处女(般)的 n.处女 (高中英语单词)
• repeated [ri´pi:tid] a.反复的；重复的 (高中英语单词)
• wisely [´waizli] ad.明智地，聪明地 (高中英语单词)
• ingenious [in´dʒi:niəs] a.富于创新的；巧妙的 (高中英语单词)
• heavenly [´hevənli] a.天的，天空的 (高中英语单词)
• learned [´lə:nid] a.有学问的，博学的 (高中英语单词)
• foliage [´fəuli-idʒ] n.叶子，簇叶 (高中英语单词)
• dismal [´dizməl] a.灰暗的；阴郁的 (高中英语单词)
• fertile [´fə:tail] a.肥沃的；有繁殖力的 (高中英语单词)
• silken [´silkən] a.丝制的；柔软光滑的 (高中英语单词)
• goblin [´gɔblin] n.恶鬼，小妖精 (高中英语单词)
• infect [in´fekt] vt.传染；使受影响 (英语四级单词)
• denote [di´nəut] vt.指出；意味着 (英语四级单词)
• downwards [´daunwədz] ad.向下，以下 (英语四级单词)
• blister [´blistə] n.水疱；(玻璃等)气泡 (英语四级单词)
• almighty [ɔ:l´maiti] a.万能的；全能的 (英语四级单词)
• wanton [´wɔntən, ´wɑ:n-] a.顽皮的 n.&vi.荡妇 (英语四级单词)
• triumphant [trai´ʌmfənt] a.胜利的；洋洋得意的 (英语四级单词)
• infernal [in´fə:nəl] a.地狱的，恶魔似的 (英语六级单词)
• contracted [kən´træktid] a.收缩了的；缩略的 (英语六级单词)
• citadel [´sitədl] n.城堡；堡垒；避难所 (英语六级单词)
• fourscore [´fɔ:´skɔ:] n.&a.八十 (英语六级单词)
• wittily [´witili] ad.机智地；幽默地 (英语六级单词)
• loathsome [´ləuðsəm] a.讨厌的，令人作呕的 (英语六级单词)