DALILAH cometh in ragged, her face hid, or disfigured, halting on a staff.
Alas, wretched wretch that I am,
Most miserable caitiff that ever was born,
Full of pain and sorrow, crooked and lorn:
Stuff'd with diseases, in this world forlorn.
My sinews be shrunken, my flesh eaten with pox:
My bones full of ache and great pain:
My head is bald, that bare yellow locks;
Crooked I creep to the earth again.
Mine eyesight is dim, my hands tremble and shake:
My stomach abhorreth all kind of meat:
For lack of clothes great cold I take,
When appetite serveth, I can get no meat
Where I was fair and amiable of face,
Now am I foul and horrible to see;
All this I have deserved for lack of grace;
Justly for my sins God doth plague me.
My parents did tiddle[231] me: they were to blame;
Instead of correction, in ill did me maintain:
I fell to[232] naught, and shall die with shame;
Yet all this is not half of my grief and pain.
The worm of my conscience, that shall never die,
Accuseth me daily more and more:
So oft have I sinned wilfully,
That I fear to be damned evermore.
Enter BARNABAS.
BARNABAS. What woful wight art thou, tell me,
That here most grievously dost lament?
Confess the truth, and I will comfort thee,
By the word of God omnipotent:
Although your time ye have misspent,
Repent and amend, while ye have space,
And God will restore you to health and grace.
DALILAH. To tell you who I am, I dare not for shame;
But my filthy living hath brought me in this case,
Full oft for my wantonness you did me blame;
Yet to take your counsel I had not the grace.
To be restored to health, alas, it is past;
Disease hath brought me into such decay,
Help me with your alms, while my life doth last,
That, like a wretch as I am, I may go my way.
BARNABAS, Show me your name, sister, I you pray,
And I will help you now at your need;
Both body and soul will I feed.
DALILAH. You[233] have named me already, if I durst be so bold:
Your[234] sister Dalilah, that wretch I am;
My wanton nice toys ye knew of old.
Alas, brother, they have brought me to this shame.
When you went to school, my brother and I would play,
Swear, chide, and scold with man and woman;
To do shrewd turns our delight was alway,
Yet were we tiddled, and you beaten now and then.