Hypochondriacus

By myself walking,

To myself talking,

When as I ruminate

On my untoward fate,

Scarcely seem I

Alone sufficiently,

Black thoughts continually

Crowding my privacy.

They come unbidden

Like foes at a wedding

Thrusting their faces

In better guests' places,

Peevish and malcontent,

Clownish, impertinent,

Dashing the merriment:

So in like fashions

Dim cogitations

Follow and haunt me,

Striving to daunt me,

In my heart festering,

In my ears whispering

"Thy friends are treacherous,

Thy foes are dangerous,

Thy dreams ominous."

Fierce Anthropophagi

Spectra, Diaboli,

What scared St Anthony,

Hobgoblins, lemures,

Dreams of Antipodes

Night-riding incubi

Troubling the fantasy,

All dire illusions

Causing confusions.

Figments heretical,

Scruples fantastical

Doubts diaboilical

Abandon vexeth me,

Mahu perplexeth me,

Lucifer teareth me -

Jesu, Maria

liberate nos ab his diris tentationibus

Inimici!