"[C]urst Suspitions" may haunt the "tortur'd Mind"
— Ames, Richard (bap. 1664?, d. 1692)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by Joseph Streater
Date
1688
Metaphor
"[C]urst Suspitions" may haunt the "tortur'd Mind"
Metaphor in Context
If Jealousy, that Maggot of the Pate,
Possess the Sot, how violent is his Hate?
What curst Suspitions haunt his tortur'd Mind,
And make him look, for what he would not find?
To'th' Looking-Glass he dares not cast an Eye,
For fear he should his-fine-brow antlers Spy.
Nothing but Females must i'th' house appear,
And not a Dog or Cat that's Male be there:
Nay least th'unhappy Wife should have her Longings,
He cuts out all the Men i'th' Tapstry-Hangings.
If but a harmless Letter to her's sent,
He'll make it own worse Sense than e're it meant,
And e're the Letter from his hands be cast,
He'll make it speak some deadly Crime at last.
In a curst Garret cloyster'd up for Life,
Lives Female-Innocence miscal'd a Wife.
Deny'd those Pleasures are to Virtue granted,
Yet by the Divel of a Husband haunted:
For a Release, she cannot hope nor pray,
Till milder Death take him, or her away:
If her she's happy--and if him she's blest;
Till to her Arms she take a second Guest:
But where's a Woman of all Sense so void?
Won't shun ------
That Gulph wherein she'd like t've been destroy'd.
Possess the Sot, how violent is his Hate?
What curst Suspitions haunt his tortur'd Mind,
And make him look, for what he would not find?
To'th' Looking-Glass he dares not cast an Eye,
For fear he should his-fine-brow antlers Spy.
Nothing but Females must i'th' house appear,
And not a Dog or Cat that's Male be there:
Nay least th'unhappy Wife should have her Longings,
He cuts out all the Men i'th' Tapstry-Hangings.
If but a harmless Letter to her's sent,
He'll make it own worse Sense than e're it meant,
And e're the Letter from his hands be cast,
He'll make it speak some deadly Crime at last.
In a curst Garret cloyster'd up for Life,
Lives Female-Innocence miscal'd a Wife.
Deny'd those Pleasures are to Virtue granted,
Yet by the Divel of a Husband haunted:
For a Release, she cannot hope nor pray,
Till milder Death take him, or her away:
If her she's happy--and if him she's blest;
Till to her Arms she take a second Guest:
But where's a Woman of all Sense so void?
Won't shun ------
That Gulph wherein she'd like t've been destroy'd.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "haunt" and "mind" in HDIS(Poetry)
Date of Entry
06/08/2004
