Classic Poem

P E ace, Vipers peace, let Crying blood nere cease
To haunt your bloody Souls , that love not Peace .
And curst be that Religion , that shall cry,
A Reformation with Phlebotomye ;
Your Impious Firebrands , whom the very Tears
Of Growning England , buried in their Fears ,
Cannot extinguish; whom the bleeding Veins
Of desperate Ireland , which even now remains
A very Golgotha , cannot asswage
Those Stripes , the earnest of Another Age
Taste of your salvage Piety , and ly
The Lamb-less Martyrs of your Cruelty ;
Whilst you lye softly emb'red, to encrease
The flames of Christendome , and cry no Peace ,
Let Sampsons coupled Messengers convey
Those Firebrands hence, and let them make their way
To their own Houses, consume and devaste ,
Burn down their Barnes , and lay their Graynards waste ,
Demolish all within doors , and without ,
Make havock there, destroy both Branch and Root .
Let all their Servants flee amaz'd ; and cry,
Fire, Fire , and let no helping hand be nigh;
Let their Wives live, but only live t' appear
Thornes in their Sides , and Thunder in their Ears ;
May all their Sons run mad into the Street,
And seeking Refuge there, there may they meet
Th' encountering Sword , and whom it spares to kill ,
May they be Slaves , and labour at the Mill ;
Let all their Daughters beg , and beg in vain ;
Let them be ravisht first, and then be slain ;
Let all their Kindred wander up and down,
Like Vagabonds be lasht, from Town , to Town :
Let basenesse be Entituled on their Names ,
Too firm for all recoveries: O let Shames ,
Reproach , and Lasting Infamy , remain
In deeper Characters than that of Cain ;
Let Caitiff P — — and that Bloody Plot ,
Be Sanctified now, or at least forgot;
And let those Vipers vindicate their Crimes
In every Almanack to after times;
Where may there Treason live among their sences,
More firm then Reigns of either Kings or Princes .
Thus may these Firebands thrive, and if this Curse
Succeed not, let it yield unto a worse:
For them, let them burn still, till Heaven thinks good,
To Quench them in their Generations Blood ;
So that the World may hear them hisse and cry,
Who lov'd not Peace , in Peace shall never dye.