Page:Poetical Works of John Oldham.djvu/130

Let him by art and nature fitted be
For any great, and gallant villany,
Practised in every sin, each kind of vice,
Which deepest casuists in their searches miss,
Watchful as jealousy, wary as fear,
Fiercer than lust, and bolder than despair,
But close, as plotting fiends in council are.
To him, in firmest oaths of silence bound,
The worth and merit of the deed propound:
Tell of whole reams of pardon, new come o'er,
Indies of gold, and blessings, endless store,
Choice of preferments, if he overcome;
And if he fail, undoubted martyrdom,
And bills for sums in heaven, to be drawn
On factors there, and at first sight paid down.
With arts and promises like these allure,
And make him to your great design secure.
⁠’And here to know the sundry ways to kill,
Is worth the genius of a Machiavel.
Dull northern brains, in these deep arts unbred,
Know nought but to cut throats, or knock o' th' head;
No sleight of murder of the subtlest shape,
Your busy search and observation 'scape;
Legerdemain of killing, that dives in,
And juggling steals away a life unseen;
How gaudy fate may be in presents sent,
And creep insensibly by touch, or scent;
How ribands, gloves, or saddle-pommel may
An unperceived, but certain death convey,
Above the reach of antidotes, above the power
Of the famed Pontick Mountebank to cure;
Whate'er is known to quaint Italian spite,
In studied poisoning skilled, and exquisite,
Whate'er great Borgia, or his sire could boast,
Which the expense of half the conclave cost.
⁠’Thus may the business be in secret done,
Nor authors, nor the accessories known,
And the slurred guilt with ease on others thrown.