And each the wasting of the figure felt;
The hag confess’d it when she came to die,
And no one living can the truth deny.
“But see a beauty in King William’s days,
With that long waist, and those enormous stays;
She had three lovers, and no creature knew
The one preferr’d, or the discarded two;
None could the secret of her bosom see;
Loving, poor maid, th’ attention of the three,
She kept such equal weight in either scale, 130