1Behold how many cobwebs doth

invest1

2This ugly spider in her nasty nest,

3Where, barricaded, she in ambush lies,

4

Domitian-like2

, to murder

sportive3

flies.

5Yet such a monstrous spider once I saw

6That would with ease flies, wasps and hornets draw

7Most cruelly into her dusty nest;

8Then, tyrant-like she on their blood would feast.

9Yet did I see a slender

azure4

fly

10Make this bloodsucking monster fall and die.

11So the most

impious5

tyrants in the world,

12Even in a moment, to the grave are

whirled6

.

13That

king of terrors7

doth by sentence just

14Grind even their very skeletons to

dust8

;

15When

he upon the pale horse9

doth appear,

16A

Julianus10

then begins to fear,

17Throwing his blood and spirits in the skies,

18Confessed, yet died, in his

apostasies11

.

19What by the wars was

Alexander’s12

gains

20When guilt his conscience, poison, stung his veins?

21So

he that hath three kingdoms in his power13

:

22What comfort will they yield that fatal hour

23

Whenas14

that sea of innocent blood shall roar

24To heaven for vengeance? Who can but

implore15

?

25But why do I blame spider’s tyranny

26Who, forced by hunger, kills a

silly16

fly,

27When man’s the greatest beast of prey of all?

28His house a

shamble17

is, or butcher’s stall.

29In all those books which I have read, I find

30There’s none but man doth kill and

eat his kind18

.

31The

antediluvian patriarchs19

happy were

32That lived by what the earth did freely bear.

33The

Pythagoreans20

no blood would spill;

34The

Banians21

now no animals do kill

35But such as murderers they do esteem

36

And oft will buy those creatures to redeem.22

37But stay my pen, write no more than is

meet23

,

38Lest I forget

Noah’s license, Peter’s sheet24

.