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A LOOKING-GLASS FOR LONDON AND ENGLAND: USURY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Groaning in conscience, burdened with / my crimes
Last Line: Die, reprobate, and hie thee hence to hell.'
Subject(s): Crime & Criminals; Grief; Repentance; Sin; Sorrow; Sadness; Penitence


Enter the Usurer solus with a halter in one hand, a dagger in the other.


Groaning in conscience, burdened with my crimes,
The hell of sorrow haunts me up and down;
Tread where I list, methinks the bleeding ghosts
Of those whom my corruption brought to nought,
Do serve for stumbling-blocks before my steps;
The fatherless and widow wronged by me,
The poor oppressèd by my usury;
Methinks I see their hands rear'd up to heaven,
To cry for vengeance of my covetousness.
Whereso I walk, all sigh and shun my way;
Thus I am made a monster of the world;
Hell gapes for me, heaven will not hold my soul.
You mountains, shroud me from the God of truth;
Methinks I see Him sit to judge the earth;
See how He blots me out of the book of life:
Oh burden more than Ætna, that I bear.
Cover me, hills, and shroud me from the Lord;
Swallow me, Lycus, shield me from the Lord.
In life no peace; each murmuring that I hear
Methinks the sentence of damnation sounds,
'Die, reprobate, and hie thee hence to hell.'





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