The Curse

• Whoever guesses, thinks, or dreams, he knows
• Who is my mistress, wither by this curse;
• Him, only for his purse
• May some dull whore to love dispose,
• And then yield unto all that are his foes;
• May he be scorn'd by one, whom all else scorn,
• Forswear to others, what to her he hath sworn,
• With fear of missing, shame of getting, torn.
• Madness his sorrow, gout his cramps, may he
• Make, by but thinking who hath made him such;
• And may he feel no touch
• Of conscience, but of fame, and be
• Anguish'd, not that 'twas sin, but that 'twas she;
• Or may he for her virtue reverence
• One that hates him only for impotence,
• And equal traitors be she and his sense.
• May he dream treason, and believe that he
• Meant to perform it, and confesses, and die,
• And no record tell why;
• His sons, which none of his may be,
• Inherit nothing but his infamy;
• Or may he so long parasites have fed,
• That he would fain be theirs whom he hath bred,
• And at the last be circumcised for bread.
• The venom of all stepdames, gamesters' gall,
• What tyrants and their subjects interwish,
• What plants, mine, beasts, fowl, fish,
• Can contribute, all ill, which all
• Prophets or poets spake, and all which shall
• Be annex'd in schedules unto this by me,
• Fall on that man; For if it be a she
• Nature beforehand hath out-cursed me.