Penny Dreadfuls, 1812 · page 130 of 258
Psyche, and other poems — page 130: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 112 of a Victorian Penny Dreadful This is a page of running verse poetry (page 112 of a larger work). The text describes a miraculous trial of innocence involving a young woman who must pass through fire and water to prove her virtue. The passage references classical and mythological figures—Clusia, Vesta, Clelia, and Sulpicia—who supposedly survived divine ordeals unharmed, their innocence proven by supernatural protection. The verse celebrates virginal purity and divine intervention, suggesting the narrative involves a melodramatic test scene where an accused woman's chastity will be vindicated through miraculous means, a common plot device in Victorian sensation fiction.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
112 Still in that tuneful form to Dian dear She bids it injured innocence befriend ; ee Commands her train the sentence to revere, iy And in her grove the vocal reeds suspend Which Virtue may from calumny defend : Self-breathed, when virgin purity appears, — What notes melodious they spontaneous send! While the rash guilty nymph with horror hears Deep groans declare her shame to awe-struck. wonder- ‘ing ears. The spotless virgins shall unhurt approach The stream’s rude ordeal, and the sacred fire. See the pure maid, indignant of reproach, The dreadful test of innocence require Amid the holy priests and virgin choir ! | See her leap fearless on the blazing shrine! The lambent flames, bright-circling, all aspire _ Innoxious wreathes around her form to twine, . And crown with lustrous beams the virgin’s brow divine, Nor was the daring Clusia then unsung, Who plunged illustrious from the lofty tower ; The favouring winds around the virgin clung, And bore her harmless from the tyrant’s power: Nor those, whom Vesta in the trying hour _ Protects from slander, and restores to fame; Nor Clelia, shielded from the arrowy shower; © Nor thou! whose purest hands the Sibyls claim, And bid the modest fane revere Sulpicia’s name, _ —_ COnMIE XOOKSACOmnn)