I am disgraced, impeached, and baffled here; Pierced to the soul with slander's venomed spear, The which no balm can cure but his heart-blood Which breathed this poison.

I will be hanged if some eternal villain, Some busy and insinuating rogue, Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office, Have not devised this slander.

Done to death by slanderous tongues Was the Hero that here lies.

God knows I loved my niece, And she is dead, slandered to death by villains, That dare as well answer a man indeed As I dare take a serpent by the tongue. Boys, apes, braggarts, Jacks, milksops!

And truly, I'll devise some honest slanders To stain my cousin with. One doth not know How much an ill word may empoison liking.

. . . For slander lives upon succession, For ever housed where it gets possession.