This was a crime forbidden by the law;
And all the priesthood of his city wept.
For ruin and dismay they well foresaw.
If impious prince no bound or limit kept.
And faery Zendervester overstept;
They wept, he sinn’d, and still he would sin on,
They dreamt of sin, and he sinn’d while they slept;
In vain the pulpit thunder’d at the throne,
Caricature was vain, and vain the tart lampoon.