Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

XXIV. THE MIRROUR FOR MAGISTRATES, 29547 But who had seene him, sobbing howe he stoodeVnto him-selfe, and howe he would bemoneHis youth forepast, as though it wrought hym goodTo talke of youth, al wer his youth foregone,He would haue mused, & meruayld muche whereonThis wretched age should life desyre so fayne,And knowes ful wel life doth but length his payne.48 Crookebackt he was, toothshaken, and blere-iyed.Went on three feete, and sometime crept on fower,With olde lame bones, that ratled by his syde,His skalpe all pilde, & he with elde forlore :His withered fist stil knocking at deathes dore,Fumbling and driueling as he drawes his breth,For briefe,the shape and messenger of death.49 And fast by him pale M^ladie was plaste,Sore sicke in bed, her colour al forgone,Bereft of stomake, sauor, and of taste,Ne could she brooke no meat but brothes alone.Her breath corrupt, her kepers euery oneAbhorring her, her sickenes past recure,Detesting phisicke and all phisickes cure.50 But oh ! the doleful sight that then we seeWe turnde our looke, and on the other sideA griesly shape of JEamine mought we see,With greedy lookes, and gaping mouth that cryed,And roard for meat as she should there haue dyed ;Her body thin and bare as any bone,Wherto was left nought but the case alone.