346
JOAN OF ARC.
Their prayers aloud, and then he louder laughed:
For these were Hypocrites, on earth revered
As holy ones, who did in public tell
Their beads, and make long prayers, and cross themselves,
And call themselves most miserable sinners, 605
That so they might be deem'd most pious saints;
And go all filth, and never let a smile
Bend their stem muscles, gloomy sullen men!
Barren of all affection! and all this
To please their God, forsooth! and therefore Scorn 610
Grinn'd at his patients, making them repeat
Their solemn farce, with keenest raillery
Tormenting; but if earnest in their prayer,
They pour'd the silent sorrows of the soul
To Heaven, then did they not regard his mocks 615
Which then came painless, and Humility
Soon rescued them, and led to Penitence,
That She might lead to Heaven.
From thence they came,
Where, in the next Ward, a most wretched band
For these were Hypocrites, on earth revered
As holy ones, who did in public tell
Their beads, and make long prayers, and cross themselves,
And call themselves most miserable sinners, 605
That so they might be deem'd most pious saints;
And go all filth, and never let a smile
Bend their stem muscles, gloomy sullen men!
Barren of all affection! and all this
To please their God, forsooth! and therefore Scorn 610
Grinn'd at his patients, making them repeat
Their solemn farce, with keenest raillery
Tormenting; but if earnest in their prayer,
They pour'd the silent sorrows of the soul
To Heaven, then did they not regard his mocks 615
Which then came painless, and Humility
Soon rescued them, and led to Penitence,
That She might lead to Heaven.
From thence they came,
Where, in the next Ward, a most wretched band
Groan'd
