Lxvii. [58]

Earth’s dwellers all, both great and small,   have wrought iniquity, And suffer must (for it is just)   Eternal misery. Amongst the many there come not any,   before the Judge’s face. That able are themselves to clear,   of all this cursed Race.

Hypocrites plead for themselves.

LXVIII.

Nevertheless, they all express.   (Christ granting liberty,) What for their way they have to say,   how they have liv’d, and why. They all draw near and seek to clear   themselves by making pleas; There Hypocrites, false-hearted wights,   do make such pleas as these: