View source for ''The White Devil''

=='''''The White Devil''''' (1612) Act V, Scene IV==

'''By John Webster'''



Back to [["The Burial of the Dead" Annotations]]





“Call for the Robin-Red-rest and the wren,

Since o’er shady groves they hover,

And with leaves and flowers do cover

The friendless bodies of unburied men.

Call unto his funeral Dole

The ant, the field-mouse, and the mole

To rear him hillocks, that shall keep him warm,

And (when gay tombs are robbed) sustain no harm,

But keep the wolf far thence, that’s foe to men,

For with his nails he’ll dig them up again.

They would not bury him ‘cause he died in a quarrel

But I have an answer for them.

Let holy church receive him duly

Since hee paid the church tithes truly.

His wealth is summed, and this is all his store:

This poor men get; and great men no more.

Now the wares are gone, we may shut shop.

Bless you all, good people"




=='''''The White Devil''''' (1612) Act V, Scene VI, 154-158==

Back to [["What the Thunder Said" Annotations]]

::O men

That lie upon your death-beds, and are haunted

With howling wives, ne'er trust them: they'll re-marry

Ere the worm pierce your winding-sheet, ere the spider

Make a thin curtain for your epigraphs.