Newes from the Dead/For certaine, she was dead!

3058352Newes from the Dead — For certaine, she was dead!1651John Dwight


FOr certaine, she was dead! yet then
The reason how she lives agen,
Is that which so much puzles men.

Sure when her soule this clay forsook,
To'wards Pluto's court her way she took,
And came unto th'infernall brook.

It dranke so deep of Lethe there,
She had forgotten whatsoere
Sh'had suffer'd in her life time here:

Arraign'd by Minos, straight denie'd
That she before a Judge was trie'd,
Or sentenc'd on the Gallowes died.

No other way was left to win
Her to confesse her shame and sin
But send her back to learn't agen.

Entring her body straight, 'twas growne
So rack't and torne, that 'twas not known,
Nor yet beleev'd to be her own.

This neck was Halter-gall'd, nay more,
These sides and brest with strokes were sore,
And Hers were nothing soe before.

Her leggs (shee's sure) had shackles on,
And wonder's finding These have none;
Her selfe and they were lost and gone.

Thus what she suffer'd last,was now
The lesson she first learn'd to know,
Else no account can passe below.

If she learn't well, and not constraine
Her selfe to act it o're againe,
She may passe safe through Pluto's reigne.

John Dwight, Ch. Ch.