From The Island In The Moon

1

When old corruption first begun,
Adorn’d in yellow vest,
He committed on flesh a whoredom
O, what a wicked beast!

2

From then a callow babe did spring,
And old corruption smil’d
To think his race should never end,
For now h e had a child.

3

He call’d him Surgery fed
The babe with his own milk;
For flesh h e could ne’ er agree
She would not let him suck.

4

And this he always kept in mind;
And form’d a crooked knife,
And ran about with bloody hands
To seek his mother’s life.

5

And as he ran to seek his mother
He met with a dead woman.
He fell in love 8: married her
A deed which is not common!

6

She soon grew pregnant, brought forth
Scurvy & spott’d fever.
Th e father grinn’d skipt about,
And said I’m made forever!

7

‘For now I have procured these imps
I’ll try experiments.’
With that h e tied poor scurvy down,
stopt up all its vents.

8

And when the child began to swell
He shouted out aloud—
‘I’ve found the dropsy out, soon
Shall do the world more good.’

9

He took up fever by the neck,
And cut out all its spots;
And, thro’ the holes which he had made,
He first discover’d guts.