108
Tales.
"I need not presently be gone,
"Because the doctors have not done.
"A rofy vicar and a quack
"Repuls'd me in my last attack:
"But all in vain; for mine he is; 135
"A fig for both the faculties."
The dame produc'd a single hair,
But whence it came I cannot swear;
Yet this I will affirm is true,
It curl'd like any bottle screw. 140
"Sir Nic," quoth she, "you know us all;
"We ladies are fantastical:
"You see this hair"—" Yes, Madam"—"Pray,
"In presence of my husband stay
"And make it straight, or else you grant 145
"Our solemn league and covenant
"Is void in law."—"It is, I own it;"
And so he sets to work upon it.
He tries, not dreaming of a cheat,
If wetting would not do the feat; 150
And 't was, in truth, a proper notion;
But still it kept th' elastic motion.
Well! more ways may be found than one
To kill a witch that will not drown.
"If I," quoth he, "conceive its nature, 155
"This hair has flourish'd nigh the water.
"'Tis crisp'd with cold perhaps, and then
"The fire will make it straight again."
"Because the doctors have not done.
"A rofy vicar and a quack
"Repuls'd me in my last attack:
"But all in vain; for mine he is; 135
"A fig for both the faculties."
The dame produc'd a single hair,
But whence it came I cannot swear;
Yet this I will affirm is true,
It curl'd like any bottle screw. 140
"Sir Nic," quoth she, "you know us all;
"We ladies are fantastical:
"You see this hair"—" Yes, Madam"—"Pray,
"In presence of my husband stay
"And make it straight, or else you grant 145
"Our solemn league and covenant
"Is void in law."—"It is, I own it;"
And so he sets to work upon it.
He tries, not dreaming of a cheat,
If wetting would not do the feat; 150
And 't was, in truth, a proper notion;
But still it kept th' elastic motion.
Well! more ways may be found than one
To kill a witch that will not drown.
"If I," quoth he, "conceive its nature, 155
"This hair has flourish'd nigh the water.
"'Tis crisp'd with cold perhaps, and then
"The fire will make it straight again."
