{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/mendax",
 "title": "Mendax",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "book_slug": "black-beetles-in-amber",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1892,
  "venue": "Black Beetles in Amber (1892)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4793",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12658",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12977",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15599",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof05bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof08bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/shapesofclay00bier",
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier",
   "https://archive.org/details/literarycalifor05mighgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/cali07webb"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 30,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 54,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "High Lord of Liars, Senex, unto thee",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let meaner mortals bend the subject knee!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thine is mendacity’s imperial crown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alike by genius, action and renown.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No man, since words could set a cheek aflame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "E’er lied so greatly with so little shame!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O bad old man, must thy remaining years",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be passed in leading idiots by their ears⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thine own (which Justice, if she ruled the roast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would fasten to the penitential post)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still wagging sympathetically⁠—hung",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the same rocking-bar that bears thy tongue?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou dog of darkness, dost thou hope to stay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Time’s dread advance till thou hast had thy day?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dost think the Strangler will release his hold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because, forsooth, some fibs remain untold?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No, no⁠—beneath thy multiplying load",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of years thou canst not tarry on the road",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To dabble in the blood thy leaden feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have pressed from bosoms that have ceased to beat.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Tell to thyself whatever lies thou wilt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Catch as thou canst at pennies got by guilt⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Straight down to death this blessed year thou’lt sink,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy life washed out as with a wave of ink.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But if this prophecy be not fulfilled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thou who killest patience be not killed;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If age assail in vain and vice attack",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only by folly to be beaten back;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet Nature can this consolation give:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The rogues who die not are condemned to live!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}