Mark 6:24, 25: How dire the ball, the feast

How dire the ball, the feast,
By its effects we find!
Passion it wakes in Herod's breast.
And strikes his judgment blind;
It stirs the vengeful rage
Of the adulterous brood,
And helps a damsel's tender age
To shed a prophet's blood.

The sacrilegious three
Become in murder one.
And all the silent guests agree
To make the crime their own:
And who approve their deed
May still with frantic zeal
For innocent diversions plead,
And dance, like, them, to hell.