Penny Dreadfuls, 1812 · page 100 of 258
Psyche, and other poems — page 100: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Description This is a page of running verse poetry (page 82) from a Victorian penny dreadful. The text describes a heroic knight defending a helpless, misshapen woman from a creature called the Blatant Beast. The woman (apparently named Psyche) is vulnerable and unarmed, while the knight fights the monster with sword and javelin, deliberately avoiding protective armor to prevent accidentally wounding the woman. The verse employs archaic language and heroic couplets typical of sensation fiction melodrama, emphasizing the knight's chivalrous self-sacrifice and the monster's savage ferocity.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
B82 It was a heipless female who exclaimed, Whose blind and aged form an ass sustained: - Misshaped and timorous, of light ashamed, - In darksome woods her hard-earned food she gained, And her voracious appetite maintained, Though all devouring, yet unsatisfied ; Nor aught of hard digestion she disdained, Whate’er was offered greedily she tried, And meanly served, as slave, whoever food. supplied. — A cruel monster now her steps pursued? Well known of yore and named the Blatant Beast ; And soon he seized his prey with grasp so rude, — So fiercely on her feeble body prest, That had the courteous knight not soon rolénbedt Her unresisting limbs from violence, | She must have sunk by his rough jaws opprest : The spiteful beast, enraged at the defence, Now turned upon the knight with foaming vehemence. But, when his fury felt the couched spear, On Psyche’s unarmed form he bellowing flew ; *T was there alone the knight his rage could fear ; Swifter than thought his flaming sword he drew, And from his hand the doubtful javelin threw - Lest erring it might wound the trembling fair : Eager the cruel monster to subdue He scorned to use his shield’s protecting care, And rashly left his side in part exposed and bare. COnMIE KOO KS.COmn)