| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | The Shrouding of the Duchess of Malfi | | By John Webster (c. 1580–1634) |
| | | HARK! 1 Now everything is still, | |
| The screech-owl and the whistler shrill, | |
| Call upon our dame aloud, | |
| And bid her quickly don her shroud! | |
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| Much you had of land and rent; | 5 |
| Your length in clay’s now competent: | |
| A long war disturb’d your mind; | |
| Here your perfect peace is sign’d. | |
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| Of what is’t fools make such vain keeping? | |
| Sin their conception, their birth weeping, | 10 |
| Their life a general mist of error, | |
| Their death a hideous storm of terror. | |
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| Strew your hair with powders sweet, | |
| Don clean linen, bathe your feet, | |
| And—the foul fiend more to check— | 15 |
| A crucifix let bless your neck: | |
| ’Tis now full tide ’tween night and day; | |
| End your groan and come away. | |
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