VI

Her bones peep'd through a rhinoceros' skin, Like a mummy's through its cerement; But she had a mother's heart, and guess'd What pinch'd her son; whom she thus address'd In terms that bespoke endearment.

VII

"What ails my Nicky, my darling Imp, My Lucifer bright, my Beelze?

My Pig, my Pug-with-a-curly-tail, You are not well. Can a mother fail To see _that_ which all h.e.l.l see?"

VIII

"O Mother dear, I am dying, I fear; Prepare the yew, and the willow, And the cypress black: for I get no ease By day or by night for the cursed fleas, That skip about my pillow."

IX

"Your pillow is clean, and your pillow-beer, For I wash'd 'em in Styx last night, son, And your blankets both, and dried them upon The brimstony banks of Acheron-- It is not the _fleas_ that bite, son."

X

"O I perish of cold these bitter sharp nights, The damp like an ague ferrets; The ice and the frost hath shot into the bone; And I care not greatly to sleep alone O! nights--for the fear of Spirits."

XI

"The weather is warm, my own sweet boy, And the nights are close and stifling; And for fearing of Spirits, you cowardly Elf-- Have you quite forgot you're a Spirit yourself?

Come, come, I see you are trifling.

XII

"I wish my Nicky is not in love"-- "O mother, you have nick't it"-- And he turn'd his head aside with a blush-- Not red hot pokers, or crimson plush, Could half so deep have p.r.i.c.k'd it.

XIII

"These twenty thousand good years or more,"

Quoth he, "on this burning shingle I have led a lonesome Bachelor's life, Nor known the comfort of babe or wife-- 'Tis a long--time to live single."

XIV

Quoth she, "If a wife is all you want, I shall quickly dance at your wedding.

I am dry nurse, you know, to the Female Ghosts "-- And she call'd up her charge, and they came in hosts To do the old Beldam's bidding:

XV

All who in their lives had been servants of sin-- Adulteress, Wench, Virago-- And Murd'resses old that had pointed the knife Against a husband's or father's life, Each one a She Iago.

XVI

First Jezebel came--no need of paint, Or dressing, to make her charming; For the blood of the old prophetical race Had heighten'd the natural flush of her face To a pitch 'bove rouge or carmine.

XVII

Semiramis there low tendered herself, With all Babel for a dowry: With Helen, the flower and the bane of Greece-- And b.l.o.o.d.y Medea next offer'd her fleece, That was of h.e.l.l the Houri.

XVIII

Clytemnestra, with Joan of Naples, put in; Cleopatra, by Anthony quicken'd; Jocasta, that married where she should not, Came hand in hand with the Daughters of Lot; Till the Devil was fairly sicken'd.

XIX

For the Devil himself, a dev'l as he is, Disapproves unequal matches.

"O Mother," he cried, "dispatch them hence!

No Spirit--I speak it without offence-- Shall have me in her hatches."

XX

With a wave of her wand they all were gone!

And now came out the slaughter: "'Tis none of these that can serve my turn; For a wife of flesh and blood I burn-- I'm in love with a Taylor's Daughter.

XXI

"'Tis she must heal the wounds that she made, 'Tis she must be my physician.

O parent mild, stand not my foe"-- For his mother had whisper'd something low About "matching beneath his condition."--

XXII

"And then we must get paternal consent, Or an unblest match may vex ye"-- "Her father is dead; I fetched him away.

In the midst of his goose, last Michaelmas day-- He died of an apoplexy.

XXIII

"His daughter is fair, and an only heir-- With her I long to tether-- He has left her his _h.e.l.l_, and all that he had; The estates are contiguous, and I shall be mad, 'Till we lay our two h.e.l.ls together."