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And with an iron mace laid flat

A breach, which straight all enter'd at;
And in the wooden dungeon found
Crowdero laid upon the ground.
Him they release from durance base,
Restor'd t'his fiddle and his case,
And liberty, his thirsty rage

With luscious vengeance to assuage:

For he no sooner was at large,

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But Trulla straight brought on the charge, 1000

And in the self-same limbo put

The knight and squire where he was shut.
Where leaving them in Hockley i'th' hole,
Their bangs and durance to condole,
Confin'd and conjur'd into narrow
Inchanted mansion to know sorrow;

In the same order and array

Which they advanc'd, they march'd away.

But Hudibras, who scorn'd to stoop

To fortune, or be said to droop;

Chear'd up himself with ends of verse,

And sayings of philosophers.

Quoth he, Th' one half of man, his mind,

Is, sui juris, unconfin'd,

And cannot be laid by the heels,

Whate'er the other moiety feels.

'Tis not restraint or liberty,

That makes men prisoners or free;

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But perturbations that possess
The mind, or equanimities.

But I shall take a fit occasion

T'evince thee by ratiocination,

Some other time in place more proper

Than this w' are in; therefore let's stop here,
And rest our weary'd bones a while,

Already tir'd with other toil,

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PART THE SECOND.

CANTO I.

THE ARGUMENT.

The knight, by damnable magician,
Being cast illegally in prison:

Love brings his action on the case,
And lays it upon Hudibras.
How he receives the lady's visit,
And cunningly solicits his suit,
Which she defers; yet, on parole,
Redeems him from th'inchanted hole.

But now, t' observe romantic method,
Let bloody steel a while be sheathed;
And all those harsh and rugged sounds
Of bastinadoes, cuts, and wounds,
Exchang'd to Love's more gentle style,
To let our reader breathe a while:

Have we forgot in what sad plight
We whilom left the captiv'd knight,
And pensive squire, both bruis'd in body,
And conjur'd into safe custody?

Tir'd with dispute, and speaking Latin,
As well as basting, and bear-baiting,

And desperate of any course,
To free himself by wit or force;

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His only solace was, that now
His dog-bolt fortune was so low,
That either it must quickly end,
Or turn about again, and mend;
In which he found th' event, no less.
Than other times, beside his guess.

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There is a tall long-sided dame, (But wondrous light,) ycleped Fame,

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46. Figure 25 gives a view of Fame, as she appears in

That like a thin cameleon boards
Herself on air, and eats her words:
Upon her shoulders wings she wears
Like hanging sleeves, lin' d through with ears, 50
And eyes, and tongues, as poets list,

Made good by deep mythologist.

With these she through the welkin flies,
And sometimes carries truth, oft lies;

Two trumpets she does sound at once,

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But both of clean contrary tones;

And therefore vulgar authors name
The one good, t' other evil fume.

This tattling gossip knew too well,
What mischief Hudibras befel;
And straight the spiteful tidings bears
Of all, to th' unkind widow's ears.
Democritus ne'er laugh'd so loud,

To see bauds carted through the croud,

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strong light, with her wings and trumpets, on the south side of the moon, but facing the north, and her head towards the right of the north. Her mythological character has a reference to the tides, the varied appearances of which are connected with the changes of the moon, the subject of the Poem; and are the bearers of news from all parts of the world.

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