To see _that_ which all Hell 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 prick'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