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1150

At th' outward wall, near which there stands
A Bastile, built t' imprison hands ;7
By strange enchantment made to fetter
The lesser parts, and free the greater:
For tho' the body may creep through,
The hands in grate are fast enow:
And when a circle 'bout the wrist
Is made by beadle exorcist,

The body feels the spur and switch,
As if 't were ridden post by witch,
At twenty miles an hour pace,3
And yet ne'er stirs out of the place.

On top of this there is a spire,

On which Sir Knight first bids the Squire
The fiddle, and its spoils, the case,'

In manner of a trophy, place.

That done, they ope the trap-door gate,
And let Crowdero down thereat.

Crowdero making doleful face,

Like hermit poor in pensive place,1

1155

1160

1165

To dungeon they the wretch commit,

And the survivor of his feet;

1170

A Bastile, built t' imprison hands;] A description of the whippingpost.

8 At twenty miles an hour pace,] Here half a foot seems to be wanting, but it may be supplied by the old way of spelling hour, hower; thus fower, for four, P. ii. c. i. v. 726.

• The fiddle, and its spoils, the case,] Suppose we read,

His spoils, the fiddle and the case.

1 Like hermit poor in pensive place,] This was the beginning of a love-song, in great vogue about the year 1650.

But th' other, that had broke the peace,
And head of knighthood, they release,
Tho' a delinquent false and forged,
Yet b'ing a stranger he's enlarged;"
While his comrade, that did no hurt,
Is clapp'd up fast in prison for't:
So justice, while she winks at crimes,
Stumbles on innocence sometimes.3

2 Tho' a delinquent false and forged,

1175

Yet b'ing a stranger he's enlarged;] Dr. Grey supposes very justly, that this may allude to the case of sir Bernard Gascoign, who was condemned at Colchester with sir Charles Lucas and sir George Lisle, but respited from execution on account of his being an Italian, and a person of some interest in his own country See lord Clarendon's History, vol. iii. p. 137. . .

So justice, while she winks at crimes,

Stumbles on innocence sometimes.]

Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas.

Juv. ii. 1. 63.

The plays and poems of this date commonly ended with a moral reflection.

PART I. CANTO III.

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THE ARGUMENT.'

The scatter'd rout return and rally,
Surround the place; the Knight does sally,
And is made pris'ner: then they seize
Th'enchanted fort by storm, release
Crowdero, and put the Squire in's place;

I should have first said Hudibras.

THE ARGUMENT.] The author follows the example of Spenser, and the Italian poets, in the division of his work into parts and cantos. Spenser contents himself with a short title to each division, as The Legend of Temperance," and the like. Butler more fully acquaints his readers what they are to expect, by an argument in the same style with the poem; and frequently convinces them, that he knew how to enliven so dry a thing as a summary. Neither Virgil, Ovid, nor Statius wrote arguments in verse to their respective poems; but critics and grammarians have taken the pains to do it for them.

HUDIBRAS.

CANTO III.

Ay me! what perils do environ

The man that meddles with cold iron!!
What plaguy mischiefs and mishaps
Do dog him still with after claps !

For tho' dame Fortune seem to smile,2
And leer upon him for a while,

1 Ay me! what perils do environ

5

The man that meddles with cold iron!] A parody on the verses in Spenser's Fairy Queen:

:

Ay me, how many perils do enfold

The virtuous man to make him daily fall.

These two lines are become a kind of proverbial expression, partly owing to the moral reflection, and partly to the jingle of the double rhyme they are applied sometimes to a man mortally wounded with a sword, and sometimes to a lady who pricks her finger with a needle. Butler, in his MS. Common Place-book, on this passage, observes: " Cold iron in Greenland burns as grievously as hot." Some editions read, “ Ah me,” from the Belgic or Teutonic. 2 For tho' dame Fortune seem to smile,

And leer upon him for a while,
She'll after shew him, in the nick

Of all his glories, a dog-trick.]

Οἷς μὲν δίδωσιν, οἷς δ ̓ ἀφαιρεῖται τύχη.
Τὸ τῆς τύχης τοι μεταβολὰς πολλὰς ἔχει.
Ως ποικίλον πρᾶγμ ̓ ἐτι καὶ πλάνον τύχη.

Brunck. Gnom. Poet. p. 242.

Fortuna sævo læta negotio, et
Ludum insolentem ludere pertinax,
Transmutat incertos honores,
Nunc mihi, nunc alii benigna.

Hor. Carm. lib. iii. 29. I. 49.

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