In that sad month, whose name at first begun
From Rome’s Augustus, great Octauius son,
When heau’ns fierce dog, sterne Alhahor did rise
To bait the lion in th’Olympian skies;
Whose hot fier-breathing influence did cracke
Our thirstie grandame Terrae’s aged backe:
By wrathfull loue, thicke darted from the skie
The thunder shafts of pestilence did flie:
In top of heau’n he tooke his wreakfull stand
Ore that great towne vpon the northerne strand.