This page has been validated.
39
To the Lady Bridget Kingsmill;
sent with Mellons after a report
of my Death.
Madam, that Ghosts have walk'd; and kindly did
Convey Men heretofore to mony hid;
That they weare Chaines, which rattle 'till they make
More noise, than injur'd Ale-wives at a Wake;
All this is free to faith; but Sozomine,
Nor th' Abbot Tretenheim, nor Rhodigine,
Nor the Jew Tripho, though they all defend
Such dreames, can urge one Ghost that Verses pend:
Therefore, be pleas'd to thinke, when these are read;
I am no Ghost, nor have beene three weekes dead.
Yet Poets that so nobly vaine have beene,
To want so carelesly, till want prove sinne;
Through avarice of late, toth' Arches sent,
To know the chiefe within my Testament:
Convey Men heretofore to mony hid;
That they weare Chaines, which rattle 'till they make
More noise, than injur'd Ale-wives at a Wake;
All this is free to faith; but Sozomine,
Nor th' Abbot Tretenheim, nor Rhodigine,
Nor the Jew Tripho, though they all defend
Such dreames, can urge one Ghost that Verses pend:
Therefore, be pleas'd to thinke, when these are read;
I am no Ghost, nor have beene three weekes dead.
Yet Poets that so nobly vaine have beene,
To want so carelesly, till want prove sinne;
Through avarice of late, toth' Arches sent,
To know the chiefe within my Testament:
And
