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

XXIV, THE MIRROUR FOR MAGISTRATES.. 3CI7 1 And furth we launch, ful fraughted to the brinke,Whan with the vnwonted weyght the rustye keeleBegan to cracke as if the same should sinke.We hoyse vp mast and sayle, that in a whyleWe set the shore, where scarcely we had whileFor to arryve, but that we heard anoneA thre-sound barke, confounded al in one.72 We had not long furth past, but that we saweBlacke Cerberus, the hydeous hound of hell,With bristles reard, and with a thre-mouthed lawe,Foredinning the ayer with his horrible yel,Out of the diepe darke cave where he did dwellThe Goddesse strayt he knewe, and by and byHe peaste and couched, while that we passed by.75 Thence cum we to the horrour and the hel,The large great kyngdomes, and the dreadful raygneOf Pluto, in his trone where he dyd dwell,The wyde waste places, and the hugye playne :The waylinges, shrykes, and sundry sortes of payne,The syghes, the sobbes, the diepe and deadly groane,Earth, ayer, and all resounding playnt and moane.74 Here pewled the babes, and here the maydes vnwedwith folded handes theyr sory chaunce bewayled,Here wept the gykles slayne, and louers dead.That slewe them-selues when nothyng els auayled :A thousand sortes of sorrowes here that wayledwith sighes and teares, sobs, shrykes, and all yfere,That (oh ! alas !) it was a hel to heare.