Penny Dreadfuls, 1602 · page 244 of 400
Penny Dreadful Cover — page 244: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Victorian Penny Dreadful Page Analysis This is a page of running prose poetry from what appears to be *Albions England* (Chapter 47), printed in an old blackletter typeface. The text is a first-person female monologue in verse recounting a youthful romance: the speaker describes losing her virginity to a lover who subsequently abandoned her and crossed the seas, leaving her unmarried but unburdened by scandal. She reflects nostalgically on past courtship customs compared to her present day, lamenting that men once approached love with genuine fellowship, whereas "now" they pursue it only sentimentously. The passage uses archaic language and spelling conventions typical of early modern English literature rather than Victorian penny dreadful sensationalism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Pe i” ry t “2 =) Se ‘ a’ |" -ALBIONS ENGL siibhong | Bayes feeming yeares, when I,Vn-wead,was fixteene winters olde, | And growing was the greene Difeafe, which men in Maides doe cure, & x 4 - 7 £ > ‘2 are 1 e F aT Te PIs 1c} ee p roe ane frailty ~ 2 & % yes AS ed a, ied ee 28 | When camea Louer,! (for-footh)becomming full demure. } Forearft I had obferu’d this Arte,Delay. giues men Defier: ( | Yeatlotheto hurt my hafte,and leaft the Hanfel fhould retyer, | Iwasnot ouer coye,nor he to warme him at ny Fier. s Ple blab(for why ? for it and more that I in youth did doe, f bong fince I pafled ghoftly thriftes,pennance,and pardons too) * * . a . ~~ - Such match we made,that Maide,nor Wife, nor Widowe left he me, | But with my Maiden-head he croft the Seas,and farewell he, | For from my fault could not,aschan’ft,the Sonmner prolea fee : * te | My belly did not blab,fo I was ftill a Mayde,and free. | Itcomfort thould in loffe to thinke we had not once to lofe, | And what we haueas euer to be hild fhould none fuppofe: ~ Butnot in me this fentence hild,more eagerly than earft | Lonthe brydell byte, as loath to faft that late did featte, | Swift gallops tier both man and horfe,foone-hot is foone-cold loue, - | No Man(I meane,Loue hotasmine)loues as the Turtell Doue, | Then,in good foothe, a Sott is fhe that cog’d-with cannot cogge, | Asreadily my Lone did gad,as did my Lover iogge. | Tuth,in thofe times weare no fuch toyesas Gagate {tones to trie, | By foyfting them in Potions, if a Maide had trode awrie: | Butthiswasrathercurrant,yeaeach holy Fatherslore, | Thattherefore Nature fweetneth Loue that it the world might ftore. | Which made me thinke itthena finne(fo tender hearted I,) - | Beloucdnotto Loue againe, indangring mento die, | For fo they fwore they would,nor then beleeu’d I men would lye, | Whom now [know Camelions whil'{t to pray on vs they plye.. , | Yeat better times were thofe than thefe for our auayle,for why ? | . Euen for good-fellowfhip at leaft then went they roundly to it, _ Noweare they loue(ifeuerloue)fententiontly they doe it: | ee ) | i Who ‘ , 7 a. * >