Calumny, good sir,
you don't know what it is?
It sufficeth, on its own,
to accomplish at all times many things.
Here, see! It glances the dust, and 
beginning very softly,
and from the hoi polloi's sweating masses
its strands all congregate and consolidate,
and strengthened, it alights from mouth to mouth,
and the devil sees in every ear
a doorway to every head.
The slander grows, meanwhile (see it?),
it arises, whistles, swells up,
flies about, becomes a whirlpool,
flashing, shrieks and thunders,
and becomes (it's still growing, by the way)
a deluge to rival the Great Flood,
as if everyone were now singing the refrain.
From this there is no comeback.