Semiramis there low tendered herself, With all Babel for a dowry: With Helen, the flower and the bane of Greece-- And bloody Medea next offer'd her fleece, That was of Hell the Houri. XVIII Clytemnestra, with Joan of Naples, put in; Cleopatra, by Anthony quicken'd; Jocasta, that married where she should not, Came hand in hand with the Daughters of Lot; Till the Devil was fairly sicken'd. XIX For the Devil himself, a dev'l as he is, Disapproves unequal matches. "O Mother," he cried, "dispatch them hence! No Spirit--I speak it without offence-- Shall have me in her hatches." XX With a wave of her wand they all were gone! And now came out the slaughter: "'Tis none of these that can serve my turn; For a wife of flesh and blood I burn-- I'm in love with a Taylor's Daughter. XXI "'Tis she must heal the wounds that she made, 'Tis she must be my physician. O parent mild, stand not my foe"-- For his mother had whisper'd something low About "matching beneath his condition."-- XXII "And then we must get paternal consent, Or an unblest match may vex ye"-- "Her father is dead; I fetched him away. In the midst of his goose, last Michaelmas day-- He died of an apoplexy. XXIII "His daughter is fair, and an only heir-- With her I long to tether-- He has left her his _hell_, and all that he had; The estates are contiguous, and I shall be mad, 'Till we lay our two Hells together." XXIV "But how do you know the fair maid's mind?"-- Quoth he, "Her loss was but recent; And I could not speak _my_ mind you know, Just when I was fetching her father below-- It would have been hardly decent. XXV "But a leer from her eye, where Cupids lie, Of love gave proof apparent; And, from something she dropp'd, I shrewdly ween'd, In her heart she judged, that a _living Fiend_ Was better than a _dead Parent_. XXVI "But the time is short; and suitors may come, While I stand here reporting; Then make your son a bit of a Beau, And give me your blessing, before I go To the other world a courting." XXVII "But what will you do with your horns, my son? And that tail--fair maids will mock it--" "My tail I will dock--and as for the horn, Like husbands above I think no scorn To carry it in my pocket."