| |
| WHEN 1 Old Corruption first begun, | |
| Adorn’d in yellow vest, | |
| He committed on Flesh a whoredom— | |
| O, what a wicked beast! | |
| |
| From then a callow babe did spring, | 5 |
| And Old Corruption smil’d | |
| To think his race should never end, | |
| For now he had a child. | |
| |
| He call’d him Surgery and fed | |
| The babe with his own milk; | 10 |
| For Flesh and he could ne’er agree: | |
| She would not let him suck. | |
| |
| And this he always kept in mind; | |
| And form’d a crooked knife, | |
| And ran about with bloody hands | 15 |
| To seek his mother’s life. | |
| |
| And as he ran to seek his mother | |
| He met with a dead woman. | |
| He fell in love and married her— | |
| A deed which is not common! | 20 |
| |
| She soon grew pregnant, and brought forth | |
| Scurvy and Spotted Fever, | |
| The father grinn’d and skipt about, | |
| And said ‘I’m made for ever! | |
| |
| ‘For now I have procur’d these imps | 25 |
| I’ll try experiments.’ | |
| With that he tied poor Scurvy down, | |
| And stopt up all its vents. | |
| |
| And when the child began to swell | |
| He shouted out aloud— | 30 |
| ‘I’ve found the dropsy out, and soon | |
| Shall do the world more good.’ | |
| |
| He took up Fever by the neck, | |
| And cut out all its spots; | |
| And, thro’ the holes which he had made, | 35 |
| He first discover’d guts. | |
