A Dead King

Guai a voi, anime prave.

Dante.

Soyez maudits, d'abord d'être ce que vous êtes,Et puis soyez maudits d'obséder les poëtes!

Victor Hugo.

Go down to hell. This end is good to see;The breath is lightened and the sense at easeBecause thou art not; sense nor breath there isIn what thy body was, whose soul shall beChief nerve of hell's pained heart eternally.Thou art abolished from the midst of theseThat are what thou wast: Pius from his kneesBlows off the dust that flecked them, bowed for thee.Yea, now the long-tongued slack-lipped litaniesFail, and the priest has no more prayer to sell—Now the last Jesuit found about thee isThe beast that made thy fouler flesh his cell—Time lays his finger on thee, saying, 'Cease;Here is no room for thee; go down to hell.'