Digital Renaissance Editions

About this text

  • Title: The Whore of Babylon (Quarto, 1607)
  • Editors: Frances E. Dolan, Anna Pruitt

  • Copyright Digital Renaissance Editions. This text may be freely used for educational, non-profit purposes; for all other uses contact the Editor.
    Author: Thomas Dekker
    Editors: Frances E. Dolan, Anna Pruitt
    Not Peer Reviewed

    The Whore of Babylon (Quarto, 1607)

    The Whore of Babylon.
    And with vnbinding Subiects fealties,
    And with large pattents to kill Kings and Queens
    645Driue roaring hither, that vpon their hornes
    This Empire may be to st.
    2. King. Shee shall bee torne,
    Euen ioynt from ioynt: to haue her baited wel,
    (If we cannot) wee will vn-kennell hell:
    650 1. King. Will not you home with vs?
    3. King. No: here Ile lurke,
    And in a Doue-like shape rauen vpon Doues:
    Ile suck allegiance from the common bre st,
    Poyson the Courtier with ambitious drugs,
    655Throw bane into the cups where learning drinkes,
    Ile be a Saint, a Furie, Angell, Deuill,
    Or'e Seas, on this side Seas; Deuils forreners,
    With Deuils within hel freedome, Deuils in Vaults.
    And with Church Deuil, be it your soules health,
    660To drinke downe Babylonian Stratagems.
    And to forge three-forkt thunderbolts at home,
    Whil st I melt Sulphure here: If the sweet bane
    I lay bee swallowed, oh! a Kingdome bur sts,
    But if the poysoned hooke be spied, then leuy
    665Eightie eight Legions, and take open armes,
    The Guidon shall be mine, Ile beare the standard.
    Omn. Twi'll be a glorious warre.
    1. King. Farewell.
    3. Kidg. Bee gon,
    670Who cleaues a Realmes head, needs more swordes then one.
    Exeunt.


    Fideli, Florimell, Parthenophill, Elfiron,

    Flory. These euill spirits are vext, & tho they vani sht
    Like hideous dreames, yet haue they left behind them,
    675Throbs, and heart akings, in the generall boosome,
    As omynous bodings. Fairy Lackeyes.---
    4. Footmen Here.
    Flory. Flie Sirra throug the Ayre and neuer re st
    (On