All who in their lives had been servants of sin--
Adulteress, Wench, Virago--
And Murd'resses old that had pointed the knife
Against a husband's or father's life,
Each one a She Iago.


XVI

First Jezebel came--no need of paint,
Or dressing, to make her charming;
For the blood of the old prophetical race
Had heighten'd the natural flush of her face
To a pitch 'bove rouge or carmine.


XVII

Semiramis there low tendered herself,
With all Babel for a dowry:
With Helen, the flower and the bane of Greece--
And bloody Medea next offer'd her fleece,
That was of Hell the Houri.


XVIII

Clytemnestra, with Joan of Naples, put in;
Cleopatra, by Anthony quicken'd;