I was inspired by
@montycrusto to try my own hand at poetry, inspired by the engraving of the two witches
:
By Zurich Lake, in olden day
Over the hills and far away,
Professor Zwingli, of blessed memory,
In death united two maids accused of novelty.
The pair, of common kin, and fair of skin,
Were sentenced to drown for heresy,
Having in baptism commited perjury
And rejoined the accursed sect,
That taught otherwordliness as precept.
"Ah", said the magistrate,
"Will ye thus renege our state ?
And rejoin those men of blood,
Who took Munster by flood ?"
Sensing in twain damsels uncommon resolve,
Would not the pair of their sins absolve,
And to castigate them for their deceit
Had them sent, bound hand and feet,
To the executioner for their ordeal,
The latter, despite their squeal,
Countenancing no mercy,
Stripped them of their modesty,
And cast twain creature, in state of nature,
Into the floods of yonder lake,
Therein amends to make.
When, to the horror of hitherto gleeful townsfolk,
Only one maid to Hades sunk in watery cloak.
The other, by some unnatural and hideous sorcery,
Simply rode the waves as if in ecstasy,
No wonder possessed by the devil in bigamy.
The startled band, inflamed by righteous zeal,
Resolved, to commit the wench to the wheel,
After having made her bosom the pliers to feel,
And to purge her sacrilegious privities with flame,
The latter done after having much added to her shame.
Having thus her spirit and flesh broken, and nothing else to maim,
Bound the poor wretch to the stake, for final penance,
Until engulfed in anguish the poor soul to heaven at last gained entrance.
