1Could this

fell1

catablepe2

lift up her head,

2Her poisonous eyes would look all creatures dead.

3She scorcheth up the flowers as she doth go,

4Yet the small weasel dares to be her foe.

5Their strange antipathy doth all excel:

6One kills by sight, the other by his

smell3

.

7Thus with their counter-poisons, when they meet,

8They conquered lie at one another’s feet.

9Thus though there be the greatest antipathy,

10Yet death doth turn it to a

sympathy4

.

11So the sly dragon, wriggling, winds about

12The elephant, till in his tender snout

13She thrusts her head, stopping his vital breath,

14Or sucks his blood; then when this

lump of earth5

,

15For want of blood and spirits,

’gins6

to fall,

16

He most triumphant kills his foe and all7

.

17So did those

Israels8

who rose up to play,

18With their own lives,

victorious9

end the fray10

.

19Even so,

the adder bit the horse’s heel11

;

20Three thousand, at last gasp, his strength did feel.

21Thus death doth make all

enmity12

to cease;

22When all is

dust13

, surely there will be peace.

23Then let none think of death with so much terror,

24For by this

emblem14

they may see their error.

25Then will I meet

it15

as my last best friend;

26For it my sins and sorrows all will end.